Someone's in for a whole lot of surprise

"...?"

The touching moment was ruined by the commotion from the outside, with people shouting in anger, making Melinda furrow her brows and go through the motion of exchanging worried glances with someone else.

After a moment, the gold-haired girl walked to the door that opened for her on its own, and she walked out of the building.

"...IDEA WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE?! IF THERE WERE ANYONE ELSE TRYING TO TELEPORT HERE AT THE SAME TIME, THE MAGIC CONJUNCTION FEEDBACK WOULD BLOW UP HALF THE CITY!"

An elderly mage was screaming his lungs out at the group of dozen or so knights escorting some sort of official that pushed past the newly arrived group of bewildered travelers.

"Stay back. This is the business of the Dimondium Kingdom Embassy."

One of the knights stepped up to the elderly mage, trying to intimidate him into stepping back with a fierce expression.

"ARE YOU DEAF?! YOU ALMOST BLEW UP HALF OF THE JADE CITY! SEE?! IF YOU TELEPORTED HERE FIVE SECONDS EARLIER, THIS WHOLE PLACE WOULD BECOME A MANA FALLOUT WASTELAND!"

"Sir, please calm down. It must look completely irresponsible from your perspective, but I assure you that the timing of our arrival wasn't off by some miracle. The knight you're talking to possesses the ability called Mana Sight. Since all Teleportation Arrays are connected with each other to some degree while operational, he was able to determine the safe timing."

The one official moved to the front of his escort and spoke up to the elderly mage in a calming voice.

"..."

The elderly man glanced at him only to glare silently at the knight in front of him, measuring him up from head to toe while chewing on some rather unbecoming choice of words before looking back at the foreign official.

The man had hazelnut-brown shoulder-length hair slicked back in a rather thuggish manner, his eyes were barely visible through his barely opened eyes of his fox-like face, but they were definitely on the yellow-ish side.

His fox-like smirk wasn't helping his appearance either…

His face wasn't the only fox-like thing about him, as even his way of speech gave off the impression of a trickster one had to be constantly cautious about.

"...and who might you be, noble visitor…?"

In the end, the elderly mage breathed out and asked, although still in a voice brimming with fury.

"Marius Brylantenoss, the Ambassador of Diamondium Kingdom. I'm regretful that our meeting had to be like this, but the Embassy has received a direct royal order to retrieve our citizen, whose presence in Emeraldios Empire has been compromised."

The fox-like man put his right hand to his chest and bowed lightly to the elderly mage before raising his head lightly and glancing over at the gold-haired girl who just emerged from the building behind the teleportation array.

"..."

The elderly mage looked over his shoulder, furrowing his brows at the sight of the girl, only to face the ambassador again.

"...is the exact reason for her presence here becoming compromised public…?"

"No."

The mage asked, and the ambassador declared, turning serious and opening his eyes just a bit wider.

"I'll have you know that this incident will be investigated.

The elderly man continued to glare at the fox-like ambassador even while stepping to the side and letting him and his escort pass.

"I am well aware of that. The ability of my subordinate isn't a lie."

The ambassador of Diamondium Kingdom nodded his head as the smirk returned to his face as if it was his default expression.

"...haaaaa…"

Melinda let out a long sigh, crossing her arms while glaring at the approaching group.

"Youn Lady Fe…"

"Did His Majesty not realize what my words meant? You couldn't possibly be spurred into action by the Crown Prince, and there is only a small chance of Duke Fenrioette mistakenly assuming that I wouldn't put up any resistance if my opponents were human?"

The ambassador began to speak but was interrupted by the gold-haired girl's mocking scoff.

"...Young Lady Fenrioette, by His Majesty Herbert Diamondess's orders, you are to be immediately returned to the Dimondium Kingdom."

"That nice mage was on to something. You might have trouble with hearing."

The fox-like ambassador breathed out and simply finished what he had to say, but the reaction he received was simply another scoff.

"You might act tough, Young Lady, but despite anything you say, we know how things really are, so please, don't do anything that would embarrass yourself. Without your knowledge, you have been constantly monitored by…"

"Oh? Do you actually have more than the eleven people that we paid off to falsify the reports on that duty? Good job~! You're not here just for show~!"

"..."

Melinda raised her brows and clapped her hands twice, nodding her head with an amused smile, wiping Marius's smirk off his fox-like face and even causing him to open his eyes just a bit wider in silence.

"Ah. I see. Those eleven were all you sent. Well, you did your best."

The gold-haired girl said with a mockingly compassionate voice and nodded her head.

"..."

"Young Lady Fenrioette. We have been authorized to take you back to Diamondium kingdom by any means necessary. Do not resist as we will use force."

The ambassador remained silent as if considering his next move, but one of his knights spoke up and began walking over to Melinda.

"..."

The gold-haired girl's expression turned completely indifferent at the sight of the approaching knight, and she moved her hand, about to lift her index finger and…

*WHAM* *SLAM*

"EH!?"

"!?!?"

As the knight in full enhanced armor was reaching out his hand to grab her, his helmet caved in from the side and the knight was swatted off to the side, crushing into a building across the street from the Teleportation Array, shocking everyone including the gold-haired girl.

*THONK*

In complete silence that befell the area, the sound of the helmet dropping to the ground from up high rang out like a deafening explosion.

Even before it rolled pitifully to the side, the encounter between the group and Melinda already started.