Chapter : 68

Three Days’ Wait

“Where are you going at this hour?”
“Just running an errand. I’m heading out first.”
“Then what about dinner?! It’s Seraphine-san’s turn today!”
“Sorry, I’ll leave it to you today! I’ll make it up to you when I get back!”

The last conversation Mioe remembered with Misty was from two nights ago, just before she left.

As usual, the school day began with the morning chime. Classes were the same, notes lined up with familiar entries, and the days passed repeating the same patterns. Yet, a sense of something missing never faded.

During third period, English with Amemiya-sensei, Mioe couldn’t hide her feelings. Her gaze kept drifting to the empty seat beside her—Misty’s seat.

(She’s not here today either… what’s going on?)

Out of habit, Mioe held up her textbook to hide her face and rested her cheek on the desk. Her right hand idly fiddled with the badge she always carried. A weary aura leaked from her entire body, while heavy anxiety coiled around the small seeds of doubt.

The warmth of home she had finally begun to reclaim seemed to slowly escape. The guest room—the space assigned to Misty—remained frozen in the state it had been the night she left. Clothes lay scattered across the floor, and white knee-highs meant to go with her combat outfit draped over the back of a chair.
It wasn’t exactly tidy, but compared to Mioe’s own “junk room,” it was a hundred times better.

Still, Mioe knew this was unusual for Misty. She didn’t know everything about her, but this she could say with certainty:
A girl who was always meticulous and clean forgetting to tidy up meant she must have dashed out in a hurry.

But since the museum incident, Misty had supposedly been under “mission suspension.” What could have been so urgent that a meticulous person would disappear for three days?

“What do you think, Mina?”
“Who knows. Vacation? Trip?”
“If that were the case, she’d at least leave a note, right?”

Speculation about Misty’s whereabouts lingered until noon. On the deserted rooftop, the two of them—one human, one spirit—sat on the edge of the fence eating lunch, exchanging their guesses.

“Still, this bread isn’t as good as I imagined.”

Tearing into Mioe’s yakisoba sandwich, Mina chewed and made a face mixed with disgust and confusion.

Dry, burnt texture, with the triumvirate of salt, sweetness, and oil—this combination was hardly welcome to a spirit’s palate. She hastily grabbed an energy jelly for a palate cleanse—but it didn’t last a second before she collapsed right there.

“Ugh, so sweet! My master, how can you calmly eat this… I respect you, in a different way.”
“Don’t mock me! These two are a fine gourmet meal! How many all-night gaming sessions have been saved by this combo? You just wouldn’t understand the secret technique, Mina.”

Mioe devoured the carb- and sugar-laden lunch and flopped down beside the spirit girl with a satisfied “Phew, perfect!”

“…But, it’s strange. I find myself missing Seraphine-san’s cooking a little. Even though she uses such bizarre ingredients.”
“Me too. Not just her combat skills, but she manages everything perfectly—even cooking. Hey, why don’t you learn a bit too?”
“Don’t joke. I already know the bare minimum. That’s enough… but…”

Mioe reached toward the clear sky as if grasping something, clenching her hand and changing her words.

“I’m going to start practicing magic.”
“Surprising! Never thought I’d hear that from you! What brought this on?”
“I’ve always been on the side being protected. I’m tired of that. I don’t want to hold Seraphine-san back anymore.”

After the surprise fight at the sports festival, Mioe realized that future confrontations with SMP would be even harsher. She had been helped by Mina, saved by candies, and above all, rescued by Misty countless times. If she continued like this, there would be no end. How could she face her own choices otherwise?

The answer was simple: she had to become stronger.
As this thought rooted itself in her chest, her resolve to practice became firmer.

“Hehe, I’m looking forward to that.”

Mina, who could read her master’s heart, knew better than anyone that this was not a passing whim. She gave a faint smile and a soft voice:

“Hope you can keep going, like in a game.”
“Yeah… I hope so.”

Mioe chuckled wryly and took out her phone, trying to call Misty. Since the day she bought her phone, she had taught Misty basic communication: calls, messages, emails. Misty always avoided button input strongly, but she would respond in some form—short words, two characters, even symbols.

—but this time, there was no answer.

To be precise, she had been completely silent for three days. Despite repeated calls and messages, there was nothing.
When the automated voice whispered again in her ear—“The phone you dialed is either turned off or unreachable…”—Mioe knew it, but it was the reality she least wanted to hear.

“Can’t get through at all… and even read receipts…”

Half-resigned, she opened the thread with Misty.

From the first day: “Do you want dinner?”
To the second day: “At least reply!”
And now, on the third day: “Where are you, Seraphine-san…?” She hit send.

The chain of unread, unanswered messages turned irritation into anxiety, and anxiety into faint restlessness.

“Ha… Mina, I wonder if Seraphine-san’s caught up in some strange incident.”

Staring at her contact’s icon, Mioe let out a small sigh.

“If that were the case, Phoenix would notice first.”
“But the other day, Karina said he was away on a reconnaissance mission.”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about. Seraphine-san went to assist in the investigation. After all, that’s why she stayed here—to find Samela and get revenge, right?”
“…When you put it like that, it makes sense.”

Mioe straightened up and squinted toward the distant horizon. The breeze tousled her bangs, and the cheerful weather softened the rooftop. But that comfort could not compete with the swelling anxiety in her chest. The shadow of a young man stretched long.

“…She’s fine. Seraphine-san is safe.”

Reading the wrinkles in Mioe’s heart, Mina chose words of reassurance immediately. She fluttered to Mioe’s right shoulder and offered a smile that conveyed relief.

“She’s moving to fulfill a long-held wish. And she’s not reckless, right?”

Mioe gave a small, convinced nod, calming herself a little. A thin light touched her dark eyes, and she answered softly:

“Yeah… I hope that’s true.”

“I’m home! Karina!”

In the afternoon, a lively voice echoed through Kirito Bookstore for the first time in three days.
The bell chimed as a broad-shouldered red-haired man—Phoenix—appeared, fresh from a mission. Honestly, he had been hungry on his way to scout SMP’s secret base candidates and returned early to grab a snack. Still, there was no rush—he had already ruled out two of the four target facilities.

“Got coffee? I’ve been walking around these past two days and I’m exhausted! Oh, cake!”

Spotting cake on the counter, he stuffed a piece into his mouth without hesitation.

—but then he noticed something. Karina, who usually came from the back to greet him, wasn’t there.

“Karina…?”

Sensing something wrong, he called again. The store was unusually quiet. In fact, the air felt heavy after a few days of absence.

“Strange. Misty should be at school… where did Karina go?”

Still munching the remaining cake, he moved toward the private room. He knocked and called, “Are you there?” Pushing open the door, he found Karina spinning the in extreme distress. Her nostrils, ears, and mouth bore raw traces of blood from overusing magic.

“Hey! What happened?”

A moment of stunned silence. Phoenix then lifted the nearly depleted magic user from her chair. It wasn’t just her magic levels—her youthful face was worn down, clearly sleep-deprived.

“…Phoenix. You’re… back…”

Despite her limits, the small mage collapsed against him as if finding someone to cling to.

“Tell me. What happened?”
“Misty… went missing. Sorry, it’s my fault…”
“Calm down. Just the situation.”
“Three days ago, she asked me to locate someone in the for a friend. But after that, Misty completely disappeared. I’ve been trying to re-lock on her magic, but it vanished. The location is… Enigma Pharmaceutical Factory…”
“What?!”

Phoenix’s normally calm eyes widened.

He knew the Enigma Pharmaceutical Factory well. It was one of four locations the royal family had ordered him to investigate, a place he had not yet explored. If this connected to Misty’s disappearance, the conclusion was clear: she had discovered the correct SMP secret base and once again gone alone, without reporting.

“…This is really bad, really bad.”

The usually cheerful redhead lost all color, gritting his teeth. The forces there were not something Misty could handle alone. And three days of silence meant only one of two outcomes—death or captivity.

Why Misty knew the base, why she broke suspension to act alone—it didn’t make sense.

But now was not the time to ponder that. Phoenix did not hesitate in action.

“Sorry, Phoenix… I really…”
“Enough. You don’t need to continue. Rest here.”

He carried the trembling, exhausted Karina to a bed and inhaled deeply. Then he went to the bookshelf, retrieving a crystal glowing with faint ultramarine light.

“What are you doing?”
“SMP’s base isn’t something you can break into by force. So I’ll go to the kingdom for reinforcements.”

The magical crystal—‘Aqualis Crystal’—contained the power to open a transfer gate linking ‘Genshase Sylphas’ and ‘Magical Village Bersou’.
He threw it into the air. The atmosphere shivered; the surrounding temperature dropped. Light particles drifted from the crystal, drawn together as if pulled by invisible threads, forming a spinning water ring.

A roar erupted.

Sea water formed a frame, creating a transparent ring. Water flickered at the edges, and a pale blue rift opened at the center. A long, stone-paved road stretched out, leading to 16th-century-style buildings, culminating in a grand castle—the largest and most prosperous in Magical Village: the Kingdom of Nokran.

“Wait, Misty. I’ll come save you soon.”

With that vow, wasting no moment, Phoenix leapt into the transfer gate without hesitation.