> Kira PoV <

“Uuuuuugh!”

My head! Why is it on the other side of the room!? Ah, this is not a good way to wake up.

Wake up? I went to sleep? I don’t recall much after we left the second bar last night. No, actually I don’t recall anything past that point. It's completely blank.

Well, this looks like our inn room so at least I got here okay. Also the room is intact, this is also important. And this warm fuzzy thing snuggling into my bosom is probably Ellie.

…

There’s a blue fuzzy tail peeking out of the covers, so it’s definitely Ellie. Safe! Ah, I missed her last night! Let’s hug her a bit tighter and enjoy her warmth.

Wait, I’m naked aren’t I? And according to the pointy things I feel poking into my body, so is Ellie. Let’s make sure I didn’t do anyt-

*KOTOKORORORORO*

I just bumped into something while moving my leg. The something fell off the bed and rolled across the wooden floor. I don’t need to look at it to guess what it is. Why did I even bring that thing?

Oh, my shuffling around is waking Ellie up!

“Good morning Ellie ~♡!”

“!!!”

Hmm? She’s staring a bit wide-eyed at me. I wonder why. Her eyes keep meeting mine then instantly looking to the sides. It’s kind of cute in its own way.

“... good morning... Kira…”

She’s being… bashful? It’s unlike her to be like this. No, actually, isn’t this the first time this happened outside of home? Maybe she’s actually embarrassed for once.

“... that… last night…”

She's redder than a tomato right now. I guess we went a bit wild as usual. I may not remember, but I should apologize.

“I’m sorry Ellie ~♡! I was drunk so I probably went a little overboard, please forgive me okay ~♡?”

“Okay! I didn’t really mind, I was just surprised…”

Her usual full-blown smile returns in an instant. I did say we would avoid doing these things during the trip, but drunk me doesn’t have much self-control and surprised her. She seems okay with it, but I still feel like I did a bad thing.

* * *

I walk down to the inn’s main floor with Ellie in tow. Kelly’s already there chowing down on her breakfast. The innkeeper gives me a difficult look when I order two servings. I do my best to ignore it and go to Kelly’s table.

“Morning Red, Ellie. How you girls doing?”

“Morning Kelly. I’m a bit hungover, but it should go away with a bit of breakfast.”

“Hah! Lightweight.”

I sit down and the innkeeper brings us our breakfast.

“Here you girls go."

"Thanks."

I reply with a small smile. For some reason his difficult face doesn't ease up. Looks like he has more to say.

"Look I know it’s none of my business what you do, but you can’t trouble my other guests like that.”

Ah, Ellie’s red up to her ears! I guess we were too wild and the whole inn heard us...

“I’m sorry, I got way too drunk and things got out of hand. It honestly wasn’t my intention to disturb your guests.”

“Well then that’s fine. Just… warn people next time. If it wasn’t for your dwarf friend there I would’ve barged in, it sounded like someone was getting stabbed.”

Well, he wasn’t completely wrong…

He walks back to the counter and I turn my attention to my breakfast. Lightly toasted white bread with eggs on it, sausages and tea. It looks really good, I grab a piece of toast and start eating.

“Hmm, Kelly something wrong with the sausages?”

I notice Kelly hasn’t even touched them. Maybe they’re not to her liking?

“Hmm? I they're probably fine. I just don’t like sausages that much.”

“That’s weird. Usually you love to eat meat.”

“Sure, I mean the taste is probably fine, but the shape is a bit off-putting.”

Huh, that’s a strange thing to say. The shape is perfectly fine isn’t it? A regular sausage, right? Come to think of it, she looked a bit put off when I asked her to hold my staff during the duel yesterday. Also that time with-

Wait, that can’t be right. Something like that is just my imagination, right?

“Umm Kelly? Do you by chance dislike long things?”

“Aye, they make me a bit uncomfortable so I try and avoid them.”

She confirmed my incredibly stupid idea with a nod of her head.

“Is it a dwarf thing? Is that why only dwarves complain about my name?”

She nods again.

“So… you dislike holding my staff? *Nod* Pencils? *Nod* Ladders? *Nod* The baker’s cat back in Runetap? *Nod*”

I had no idea. What sort of inferiority complex is this? And it applies to the whole race? That’s a bit ludicrous. 

Or is it? Humans tend to find unnaturally short things a bit cute, maybe it’s like that in reverse?

“What about the golem though? Isn't it much taller than it needs to be?”

“Hmm? It's just big. It's not needlessly long like arrows or poleaxes.”

I… see… it’s oddly specific…

“By the way, Ellie when are you going to eat your breakfast? Tea’s getting cold.”

Kelly pulls up the chair next to her while she says that. Now that I think about it, Ellie is still standing behind me.

“Something the matter Ellie?”

I turn around and ask her out of concern. She's been acting a  bit odd all morning. Her eyes dart between me and the chair several times.

“Well… after yesterday...”

She’s getting bashful again. It’s cute but also worrying. My memory is drawing a blank, but luckily we have our resident peep- I mean, guardian.

“Nano, what did I do last night?”

{You don’t remember? Oh boy.}

{Well, how can I put this? Remember that special tool from this morning?}

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“... Yeees?”

{Let’s just say it was slightly misused.}

* * *

We're approaching the third box. It took us 5 days to get here. Five, long, awkward days. Ellie already forgave me, but I haven’t forgiven myself. I am never getting that drunk again!

We find the box abandoned in plain sight by the side of the road. Whoever was dragging it around probably got tired of wasting their effort and cut their losses. 

“Nano, you keep calling them ‘boxes’ but I’ve not actually seen you open one.”

Kelly raises a fair point. I’ve not seen one opened either. It’s just a big metal cube no matter how much I look at it.

{Hmm, that’s right, you haven’t had the chance.}

{Well, go right ahead Ellie, show them how it’s done!}

Ellie walks up to and around the cube. She goes around it, looking for something. Kelly and I follow her out of curiosity. 

On the opposite side of where we came from was a pattern. It looked like a dozen or so tiny squares had been etched into the metal with green light. Each of these had a green rune-like symbol on them.

This must have been what Ellie was looking for. She stands next to it, bites the tip of her thumb hard enough to draw blood and smears some of it on the green pattern.

*Pzzt dzzzt* *Bing*

The green light flashes several times with some strange noises.

{There, it’s unlocked.}

“What did you do!?”

Kelly seems a bit creeped out. I have to say, I’m with her on this one.

{I carefully asked the lock to open itself.}

“So… you talked to the box… through Ellie’s blood...”

“Kelly. It’s your loss if you mind it.”

I try to remind her of this simple truth.

“But!”

“It’s your loss if you mind it.”

“No, Red, look there’s some things that I can accept and some things that I can’t. This is-”

“Look Kelly!”

I stomp my foot and scream in frustration. This woman will not understand until I spell it out for her, so just this once I’m going to go full force!

“I’m trying REAAAALLY hard to accept all this, okay? I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve been at this longer than you have, okay? If something important comes up, I’m sure Nano will mention it as necessary, okay?

Therefore, believe me when I say this.

You. Lose. If. You. Mind. It.”

Okay, rant over. Let’s hide the scary expression I have on and pull away from Kelly. I'm not aware at what point I was leaning in that close to her face.

Deep breaths, Kiressara. Come on, you can do this.

Fuuuuu. Fuuuuu. Fuuuuu.

Okay, I feel better. I flash my usual smile at the pale-faced Kelly.

“Any more questions?”

“... No… I’m good… thanks…”

-was the meek reply. 

I turn my head to Ellie, who’s looking at me with admiration in her eyes. No, however you think about it, what just happened was completely devoid of admirable actions.

Since that horrible accident of a detour is over, we get back to what we came here to do.

“Now then, shall we take a peek inside.”

Ellie makes an expression like she just remembered the actual reason we were out here.

“I’m opening it.”

She puts her hand on the green pattern and it gets brighter. The cube’s surface splits open like a set of double doors to the left and right. Inside seem to be… a bunch of golems? 

They look like the ones back home. White and slightly rounded exterior, clearly not living beings. Except these are human shaped. Probably. They’re folded up, but I can see knees, elbows and heads, so they’re probably human.

It’s hard to say how many are in there. Something like 30 or 40 by my guess.

{Ah, these things. I guess you could call them butler golems.}

{They’ll be useful, mostly as parts, but not until we get them back to the tower.}

{For now, bury this one in the ground with magic. We’ll pick it up on the way back.}

“Bury them? And what do you mean on the way back?”

I ask for clarification since something strange was said.

{Box number four has started moving at a steady pace.}

{It’s headed towards the place where the other three boxes are.}

That group of three has been bugging me ever since Nano mentioned them, but it was decided to leave them for last. It may have been a bad call. 

{I’d like us to take care of those right away. Dragging this box along is just going to slow us down.}

“So someone’s definitely collecting them. But they’re just dead weight unless they know how to open them. They don’t even look like boxes on the outside you know?”

“Red’s right, it doesn’t make sense. Maybe they found out how to open it by accident?”

Oh good, Kelly’s back to normal already. Looks like all those years as a mercenary aren’t just for show.

{Impossible. There’s a chance, but it’s so tiny it’s not even worth thinking about it.}

{If you try to force them open too much, they’ll explode you know?}

“What if it’s someone else that knows of [Star Magic]?”

It’s a thought that crossed my mind a few times. I only saw one [Fallen Star], but there’s no guarantee others didn’t show up elsewhere, or at a later date.

{It’s a possibility. I’ll need to confirm once we get close to the place.}