"Ah, you've returned. As you're likely aware, I'd truly thought you dead when I saw—So it's funny to you, is it?"

"Didn't think you'd believe a living legend would get killed off by something so ordinary."

"I suppose it's slightly humorous if I view it from that perspective. Regardless, my thanks for before."

Volcatia continued chuckling as she grabbed her reclining chair from her Inventory, placing it on the floor of the darkened workshop's second level so she could sit. "Yeah, sure."

She'd needed some time to herself anyway.

Not for anything in particular.

All that time spent being with her friends…

It felt good.

Wasn't boring at all.

Tiring somehow though.

She'd been spending so much time with people lately.

It was a change from the years she'd spent mostly by herself.

Mina had wanted to spend some time alone with Carl, who was her father in the same way Aquila was Volcatia's aunt, and that was fine.

The girl sat in a chair of her own a short distance away with her legs curled beneath herself. "I believe I've collectively eaten enough that I might burst," she said after a minute, showing a sleepy smile. "Thank you for that as well." She sighed. "I've never been as content as I am at this moment, and it's due largely to your efforts. Thank you so much, Vol. I… I apologize if I've been rude in our previous encounters. You're truly…" She picked at something on her shirt. "You've become the best friend I've ever had, Vol. Thank you for that as well."

"Mm." Volcatia frowned.

She still wasn't used to being thanked for anything.

Was thanking someone for being a friend a thing that friends did?

She felt a little happy though.

That worried her a little.

Was she going to become dependent on her friends to be happy now?

Nah, there was no chance of that.

"Carl will return to his world tomorrow," Mina said in a soft voice as she looked down at her hands. "I've made him promise."

Carl was…

Huh?

"What?" Volcatia said. "His world?"

Mina looked up and gave her a confused look while tilting her head. "Surely you've realized it after spending so much time together? He's not of our world."

Volcatia's frown returned.

Carl wasn't from this world?

What the fuck did that mean?

Was…

Was there an entire world with people who were all like him?

Made sense though.

He was too fucking clueless about everything.

Yeah, it actually made more sense that he was from another world.

She couldn't imagine any normal person being as weirdly stupid about some things like he was.

"Okay," she said.

Mina blinked at her. "Okay? You've simply accepted it so easily?"

Volcatia shrugged. "Went to another world one time. Not that special."

Really wasn't.

The whole trip had been boring.

Mina's expression turned disgusted. "I'd forgotten to whom I was speaking for a moment."

Was this…

Volcatia had an idea.

She wasn't a father—or a dad, as Carl called it—but maybe…

"I'm Vol," she said.

She waited.

Mina stared at her.

Yeah, maybe—

"Right," Mina said, drawing the word out as she gave Volcatia a weird look. "Well, if we might change topics slightly, I'd welcome your assistance tonight, assuming you're of a mind to lend your aid?"

"Huh?"

Fine, maybe it was true and only fathers could make Dad Jokes.

Volcatia really thought she'd had it though.

"My…project?" Mina said. "With Ir'alith? We've a need to complete it tonight, and I'd wager your skills would prove quite useful."

Project?

So vague.

Eh.

Valgud would be there.

They could drink again.

That would be fun.

And Ir'alith…

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Would she look like a fake dragon again tonight?

Or…

Maybe she'd look more normal?

Volcatia hadn't spent the appropriate time examining her legs.

Did her Leg Sense not work on demons?

Couldn't be.

Could it?

Did Ir'alith count as a woman if she could change her form?

Volcatia usually appreciated the legs of women more, but she definitely gave fair chances to all legs.

Women just had better legs most of the time.

Her mind was drifting.

She moved back to the original question.

Would Ir'alith's legs have scales or not tonight?

It was an important question.

Maybe the most important question to be answered at that moment.

"Mm. Yeah, I'll go," Volcatia said while she continued to think about it.

Did blue legs feel different?

She'd wondered about it before, but it was still a question she didn't have an answer to.

It was something new.

She liked trying new things.

Mina smiled again. "Thank you."

Being friends with Mina now was weird.

They were hanging out, but it was different than hanging out with Carl.

They weren't doing anything.

They were just sitting in chairs together.

Volcatia sat in chairs together with Carl, but that was always before something happened.

Or after something happened.

It wasn't just sitting in chairs.

Now they were just sitting in chairs.

Waiting.

She started tapping her foot in the air.

Waiting was boring.

"If you don't mind, perhaps you'd like to explain to me the method by which you destroyed the top of that machine today?" Mina said, leaning forward in her chair.

Volcatia shrugged. "Okay, but I'm bad at explaining this magnet shit. Uh…" She shifted in her chair. "It's what I call an Electromagnetic Force Cannon."

"That's quite a fearsome name," Mina said.

"Eh. It's just a cannon that uses electromagnetic force."

"This electromagnetic force you speak of…"

"It's what Valgud's uh…"

"Scrap finder?"

"Yeah, that. All that copper filum around the iron. When you pass an electrical current through the copper, the part in the middle turns into a magnet. The iron makes it a stronger magnet. Called a magnetic core."

"And how exactly might this work?"

"No fucking idea."

"Perhaps you'd like to elaborate?"

"Too complicated. Probably nobody could ever understand this shit."

"I… No, perhaps we'd best return to my original query. You'd mentioned this cannon…"

"Yeah. Forget all that shit I just told you. It's sort of related, but I don't really know how."

"I…see…"

"Magnets attract metal due to all this complicated subatomic shit. So for the Electromagnetic Force Cannon, I make a really long group of negative ions on one side, a long group of positive ions on the other side—oh yeah, there's electrons and protons as part of this complicated subatomic shit that makes up electricity—I hold a piece of metal in the middle of that, and then I shoot a huge amount of electrons—negative electrical current—into the negative ions, through the metal, and down through the positive ions, and then I just keep making the current stronger until the metal starts to fly away, and—"

"Vol."

"Yeah?"

"Am I correct in assuming you've no knowledge of why this cannon functions as it does?"

"I just said I didn't."

"Then how were you even able to develop such a thing?!"

"Eh. Got back from killing this thing and saving the world again, and I was really bored, and I had all this Electricity Knowledge shit I hadn't ever really used, so I started thinking through it and trying to figure out something fun to do with it, and then I found all the electromagnet shit, and that was sort of fun for a little while since I could pull metal in from all over, but then I started thinking it would be fun if I could push metal away, and I learned how I could do this electromagnetic force shit from my skill, and—"

"My head is absolutely pounding. Oh my, this is deeply vexing."

"Yeah, believe me, I know. Way too complicated."

"No, I… Ooh, I'm not even capable of speaking with this amount of frustration."

"Imagine I have to live with all of that bouncing around in my mind. And I haven't even gotten to the quantum shit. If you wanna really make your head hurt, imagine—"

"No, no, please restrain yourself on this matter. I truly and deeply regret inquiring."

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that. Can't be anyone in any world who could understand any of it."

"I've a desperate need to shift the direction of my thoughts at the moment. Would you perhaps be interested in finishing the story you'd begun to tell me last night?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Where was I?"

"I believe…"

----------------------------------------

"That's quite remarkable, Vol," Mina said, now sitting up in her chair instead of laying across it.

Volcatia continued to lay across her chair. "Feels like ages ago."

"How strange that we possessed such a connection through my sister," Mina said. "I'd never have imagined it. And what happened after you'd left Onyxfell?"

"Eh, probably not gonna have time for that." Volcatia flipped herself into a sitting position. "It's a long story."

Mina pouted. "Surely—"

A magic portal opened to the side of their chairs.

Volcatia was ready.

She'd been waiting for this all night.

She was already on the other side of the portal.

Was she…

Yeah.

Ir'alith wasn't in her fake dragon form.

She had demon legs.

Blue.

Without scales.

Volcatia checked, but her Leg Sense definitely wasn't working.

Weird.

"Mina, I would have your aid if you would lend it," Ir'alith said as she looked through the portal.

Volcatia had already returned to her chair and was pretending to sit as if she'd been there the whole time.

She thought over her findings.

Were they great legs?

Maybe!

There was that armor in the way though, and it was hard to tell!

Urgh!

She'd thought briefly about using Foresight to check, but…

Nah, definitely not.

She might be the Strongest, and she might be the Fastest, but she'd never used her abilities for that.

She wasn't a fucking Char.

Also she enjoyed the chase.

Even if it took her many tries.

Also, she usually had her Leg Sense!

Why the fuck wasn't it working?!

She needed to know.

"Naturally, Ir'alith," Mina said. She stood up and began to put her boots back on. "I believe Vol would like to assis—"

"Yeah, I'm coming along," Volcatia said.

She'd said she would before, but now she had no choice.

It was such a mystery!

Were they great legs or weren't they?

She imagined they might even be the best legs.

It seemed unlikely, but she just didn't know!

For the first time, she'd encountered a new type of legs.

Mystery legs.

Calves that were wrapped by glowing greaves.

Were they great calves?

It was impossible to fucking know!

Above that, thighs covered by glowing metal plating.

Were they great thighs?

Urgh!

Then there was the fucking skirt from the lorica which fell to mid-thigh, preventing her from being able to figure out the general shape of anything.

Yeah, she hadn't spent her time effectively last night at all.

Why did Ir'alith stay in her fake dragon form anyway?

So much time wasted when her legs could have been…

Maybe it was better that she'd stayed in her fake dragon form.

Volcatia felt like maybe she was being too obvious about her interest.

Was she?

Ir'alith was looking directly at her.

Fuck.

She'd been—