“…You really did blow up the mansion.”

“…Technically, I did not blow up the mansion,” Alnea said sheepishly, trying to avoid Yuri’s eyes, only to end up looking at Karl’s aggrieved eyes. Even Vestia seemed to have a lot of complaints against him. He did not blame them though. Anyone would have complaints when disturbed in the midst of their training by an explosion.

Fortunately, the explosion did not hurt anyone. No thanks to him, of course. Surprisingly, the mansion proved to be sturdier than he had thought. Despite the explosion his failure had caused, most of the aftermath was contained within his room. The only thing that managed to escape his room was the light, and…

“At best, I just shook it up a little.”

“…You call that a little?” Karl said, and pointed to the dust scattered around them in the main hall of the mansion. “This is what a little shake can do?”

“This is nothing. If you look at the mess in my room…” Vestia trailed off with a pout, before turning towards Yuri. “I thought he was the most stable one among the three of you.”

“…You were gravely mistaken then. Though, even by his standard, this is by far the most outrageous thing he has ever done.”

“…I joined the team to increase my chances of survival, not to be greeted by explosions in the middle of night,” Karl mumbled to himself. “Did I make a mistake?”

“…It was not that bad…”

“…For a moment, I thought that the mansion was going to collapse on top of me.”

“At least you had the chance to think. I was hit by the shockwaves while tempering my Spirit. Even now, I am still suffering from the headache of interrupting my Arcana halfway through. If the defences of the mansion had been any weaker…”

“As far as I know, a type D mansion can easily nullify the attacks of average Peak Stage False Wanderers. To cause the mansion to shake so much… What exactly were you doing?”

“…Inscribing a Glyph,” Alnea mumbled, tearing his eyes away from his two aggrieved teammates. And while he was at it, he did not forget to glance at Cecilia. She had been unusually quiet after learning that the quake she had suffered was his fault. If she was her normal self, she would have long pounced on him, just like cat growling at him by her side. She did not hurt her head in the aftermath of the explosion, did she?

“What did I tell you before you began preparing to inscribe a Glyph?”

“…It was not my fault,” Alnea said, trying to defend himself. In vain. Even he did not believe what he was saying. It was definitely his fault. Maybe the spontaneous combustion of the Fire Eating Rat’s skin was indeed not his fault—at least he had yet to find anything wrong with how he had handled the materials— but he could not say the same about the explosion that had happened later.

“Are you trying to say that the explosion happened on its own?”

“…I just followed the instructions…”

Though the gap between the eruption of fire, and explosion of the Red Oak Tree’s fragments was only a few moments, it was enough for him to quickly deal with the fire and prevent the explosion. If only he had been attentive enough… If only he had had not been lost in his thoughts. Like he was at the moment. But he could not let the girls know the truth, or they would not let him experiment on his own the next time.

“…You are not thinking about changing the materials and trying again, are you?”

“…Absolutely not! What do you take me as?”

“Alnea Reckless.”

“…Once again, you have proven yourself worthy of that name,” Vestia said. “Are you really not going to think about changing your name?”

“…I may be a bit reckless, but I am not suicidal.”

“Say that after you can back up your reckless decisions without relying on the defences of your robe.”

“…It is exactly because of my robe that I can be a little liberal with my decisions.”

“…Maybe I should ask big sis Nyssa to prepare a normal robe for you once we meet up with her.”

“…Alright. It was my fault. I will not do it again.”

“You still do not get the point,” Yuri said, shaking her head. “You have already mastered the basic use of your Glyph, and can use it with your Glyph Disc. Inscribing it with other materials is naturally the step that comes next. It is both your right, and your privilege. No one can take it away from you. But that does not mean you play with your life. No matter how many preventive measures big sis Nyssa, or anyone for that matter, takes for you, if you continue with your recklessness, I dare not imagine what might happen to you…”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“…I will be careful.”

“…I have a feeling that your ‘careful’ is not the same as ours.”

Alnea glanced at Vestia, wondering how he should take revenge on her, only to give up the thought after a few moments. He was indeed in the fault this time. More importantly, from the curve at the end of her lips, she did not seem to be grumpy anymore. Or maybe she never was. He could never tell what the blue robed girl was thinking.

Of the three, the only girl he could ever read with some accuracy was Cecilia. And from what he knew of her, she should have been berating him. Or arguing with Vestia. At the very least, she should not have been silent. She was never silent. He did not really hurt her, did he?

“…I will really be careful this time.”

“…I did not want to do this,” Yuri said with a sigh, before taking on a more solemn tone. “You were planning to change the materials, and try again, right?”

“…Maybe.”

“You are not allowed to change the materials. The next time you try to inscribe your Glyph, you must use the same materials.”

“But there is something wrong with the materials. If I use the same materials, I am bound to fail.”

“Then you just have to find out what caused you to fail before you can try inscribing a Glyph once again.”

“…I followed everything according to the experience recorded in the scroll that master gave me…”

“Are you saying there is something wrong with scroll?”

“No, but…”

“Are you looking for an excuse, Alnea Oathkeeper?”

“…I understand. I will not try inscribing a Glyph until I find out what went wrong with my first attempt.”

“Good,” Yuri said, finally dropping her solemn face for a slight smile. “Since you are so confident, you should not mind if I accompany you when you make you second attempt, right?”

“But—

“Just to remind you, I will be in a normal robe, not one enforced with Glyph Arrays.”

“…It will be dangerous.”

“I know. That is why I will accompany you. Oh, and do not think about trying to inscribe a Glyph in secret. Trust me when I say that no matter how much you try to hide it from me, I will know. And once I find out you are trying to break our agreement…”

“…This is not fair.”

“Life is never fair. Besides, this is the only way you will learn.”

“…Fine. You can accompany me when I try inscribing a Glyph again.”

“…About that,” Vestia said, drawing everyone’s attention to herself. “I would also like witness you inscribe your first Glyph…”

“You have not earned that privilege yet,” Yuri said, answering for Alnea.

“As I thought, you still do not trust me…”

“We have known each other for less than a month. What trust can there be between us?”

“…I thought that we were teammates…”

“If you really want us to trust you, then show it with your actions,” Yuri said, not bothering to get entangled with Vestia’s tricks. “The day we can let you have our back will be the day—

“I get my wish?”

“…you become one of us.”

“…Why are you looking at me like that? Alright, fine. I will try not to play any tricks, and earn your trust in an aboveboard manner. By the way, about the arrangement you made earlier—

“I have already told you—

“I know, I know. I do not have that privilege yet. But what about Cecilia? Does she have that right? Will she be joining you two? Or—

“No,” Cecilia said, finally breaking out of her daze. Or maybe she had not really been in a daze. She did respond to her name promptly. And it did not seem as if she had not been paying attention to what they were talking. Most probably, she had just been thinking about something. Though she seemed more worried than thoughtful…

Why did she not share her thoughts with him? She did promise to talk to him whenever something would bother her. Yet, once again, she was keeping everything to herself. Just like how she had tried to keep her worries to herself in the canyons. Though he could not really point his finger at her in that regard. Still, unlike her, he did not become irritated when bothered by problems. And neither did he have any suicidal thoughts.

Then again, for those who did not know that his master would save him from any and all troubles, most of his actions would seem suicidal. And from an angle, most of his Oaths were akin to him courting death. But Alnea never liked to be reasonable. He had always considered himself to be a selfish man. And as a selfish man, he could not see Cecilia worried. Neither could he accept her not sharing her worries with him. Should he have a talk with her?

Before Alnea could come to a decision, Cecilia, after glancing at him, turned back towards Vestia with a determined gaze.

“I will be focussing on my own Glyph during this time,” Cecilia said. “And just to be clear… I was fine on my own. Sure, I was a little distracted, but I have not fallen to the point where I would need a vixen’s sympathy.”

“…Wait. You were not thinking that I was worried about you, right?” Vestia said, with the edge of her lips curving upwards in a smirk. “My apologies for the misunderstanding. I was just trying to rub salt on your wound.”

“…I stand corrected,” Cecilia mumbled, before letting out a snort. “Once a vixen, always a vixen.”

“…Anyways, I apologise once again,” Alnea said, using himself to diffuse the fire between Cecilia and Vestia. Or at least postpone it for a while Besides, he did have to apologise. “The explosion may have been an accident, but it was also partly my fault. Thanks to Ilea’s grace, none of us were injured, or I do not know how I would have faced you. Still, after what happened tonight, I do not think that I am worthy of continuing to be your Captain. I—