One-way traffic

"Could it be that the recent absence of strange occurrences has caused your power to decline? That won't do! In that case, it's also my duty, Marisa, to help you, the priestess, to regain your strength! That's it, DaZe!"

The tone was full of energy, and even the Japanese verbal tic used at the end was so cheerful.

A lively atmosphere permeated the girl's entire being.

That energetic posture, compared to Reimu lying on the ground, formed a stark and extreme contrast.

However, even Reimu couldn't maintain her original splendor after enduring this level of absurdity.

"Mari...sa—!!!"

Boom!! A massive amount of spiritual energy roared out from the pit.

“Uwaa ...

"Look what you've done! Your clothes are all dirty!!"

"No, it's nothing, right? As a shrine maiden who exorcises demons, a little damage to my clothes is nothing..."

"You still dare to say that? This outfit was just washed yesterday. As punishment, you have to wash it clean before you get there today, or you'll see!"

"I, I admit it was my fault! I'll wash properly, so could you please stop aiming those concentrated spirit energy bullets at me, DaZe—!"

Despite the series of events that have occurred between the two, in reality, neither of them intends to blame the other.

This alone shows that the two girls know each other very well, and even have a very harmonious relationship.

After threatening her like this for a few seconds, Reimu could only sigh helplessly.

"Forget it, I don't have time to play around with you right now."

"Huh...? I was just saying it casually, could there really be some unexpected change?"

"What do you think I came here for?"

Reimu dissipated the spiritual energy blast she had casually created into the atmosphere, then turned around and looked around at her surroundings once more.

Ah... Marisa's sudden antics have made a complete mess of the place...

"So you really came here because of the incident. I thought you were just here to attend the banquet, Reimu."

"Exterminating mutations is a priestess's duty. Do you see me as such an irresponsible person...?"

"It's hard to say (whispering)..."

"I heard."

"Eeee—?!"

Marisa Kirisame, a human mage, is different from the girl named Alice. Marisa is still human, but she has learned powerful magic and magical abilities that are difficult for ordinary humans to obtain.

Of course, in terms of mentality, this guy is probably still only a half-baked one... but in terms of pure destructive power, he is indeed very strong.

But there's no time to deal with such an idiot right now.

"Sigh... let's stop here."

Reimu put away the gohei and sighed softly.

She then turned around, as if she was about to leave immediately.

"Hey, Reimu, I just got here! Are you already planning to leave?"

"Staying here won't yield any useful information; I've already investigated everything I could."

The biggest problem is probably about that monster.

Where did those monsters, neither human nor demon, come from, and when did they appear? All of this remains a complete mystery.

Moreover, the mysterious person who fought against this monster, according to information from the villagers, is also a mystery.

There are just too many problems to solve... We also saw that blonde doll magician appear in the human village, which is a very rare sight.

"It's unrealistic to deal with everything now, so let's leave it for tomorrow."

"Huh? Is this what people mean when they say, 'Putting things off until tomorrow, and then putting them off until the day after tomorrow'?"

"No, I won't forget. And... you better remember to wash my clothes, don't even think about running away."

"Eh? This, this... Ahaha... You haven't forgotten about this, Miss Shrine Maiden..."

In short, according to Reimu's opinion, it's basically impossible to finish dealing with all of this today.

If there's no other way, we'll just have to postpone it until tomorrow.

The two girls then stood up and defied gravity in a realm inaccessible to humans.

flight.

On one hand, she relied on the shrine maiden's own spiritual power to do it, while on the other hand, she directly used magic to fly into the sky along with the broom beneath her.

And so, the girls disappeared into the horizon at high speed.

however.

No one noticed that point.

Hidden near the village of the living is not just the dense forest shrouded in darkness.

Shasha—

The shadows among the trees swayed.

Several squirrels that were passing by tried to escape, but were swallowed up by something.

hum.

Then, a crimson light flashed.

The number of levels can even reach dozens or more.

They emerged from the bushes step by step in an eerie manner.

"...A".

The voice that came from his mouth was an indistinguishable magnetic voice.

However, if you listen carefully, you can still hear it to some extent.

These monsters watched as the priestess and sorcerer departed from the sky.

He began to mutter incantations to himself.

“…Acc…eler…ator…”

Words that no one could understand then fell.

Under the moonlight, the scarlet glow gradually dissipated into the darkness.

Chapter 412 Harmony in Silence

The night continued.

Nearly an hour has passed since the banquet began. Even though that incident has already occurred, if the banquet had not ended, the villagers of those villages would probably still be enjoying the feast and festival.

However, none of this has anything to do with Accelerator.

Returning to the dense forest known as the Magic Forest means completely severing ties with people.

This is not an area that ordinary humans can enter; they cannot even breathe the air here.

That means he won't be able to meet anyone here.

But the reality may not be like that.

Click.

With a soft sound, a white figure opened the door from the outside and went directly into the room.

Although this mansion-like house looks luxurious on the outside, its interior is actually not suitable for ordinary people to live in.

Aside from a few simple bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom, there's basically nothing left in the entire house that reflects any sense of life.

The space that occupies most of the area is a warehouse that resembles an exhibition area.

What is presented there, apart from the dolls, is basically just the materials used to make the dolls.

Even the living room has been transformed into a large studio dedicated to making dolls.

'This is less a place to live and more like a place for conducting shady experiments.'

As for himself, he wouldn't have high requirements for accommodation; he wouldn't mind sleeping on the street.

Moreover, this place originally belonged to someone else, not him.

But even after actually witnessing such a bizarre scene, I still couldn't help but feel compelled to complain.

Although I had spent a whole day here before, I was in a state of complete unconsciousness and naturally had no idea about the layout of the room.

"what happened?"

In this eerie mansion, a sudden call came from behind.

"Aren't you going to find a place to sit down?"

An extremely eerie atmosphere spread almost instantly.

however.

"I've been wanting to ask this for a while now. Don't tell me you've been living in a place like this all this time?"

"Is there any problem? Whether it's making or researching dolls, or collecting doll materials nearby, this is the best place for it. It's very convenient."

"...Never mind what I said."

The person who appeared before them was not anyone else.

It was that beautiful doll wielder, surrounded by dolls, with exquisite colors.

Alice Margot Royd.

He had at least some understanding of why the other party's identity was classified as non-human.

Although, in terms of whether or not they resemble humans, a monster like myself doesn't really have much right to comment on the other party.

"Even if we want to find a chair, this is probably the only one available here."

It appears that there is only one chair in the entire huge room, which is the seat in front of the doll workbench, probably where Alice usually sits when she is researching dolls.

When the blonde doll wielder turned his gaze to the girl, he didn't say much.

She walked silently toward a nearby room.

All Accelerator could feel about this was utter bewilderment.

But no matter what, we still have to go back to the past in the end.

This room is much smaller than the huge studio we just saw, even smaller than a bedroom.

The room was very simply furnished: a simple table, a few chairs, a few windows and flower pots around the room, and nothing else.

It's as if to say, "This is already the living room."

"Ah, now that I think about it, it seems that no one ate much at the banquet just now."

"There's simply no time, isn't there? After all, something like that happened."

Accelerator and Alice definitely didn't eat anything at the banquet; at most, they only drank some beverages.

The banquet was quickly interrupted by the sudden appearance of those monsters, let alone continuing to eat the food served at the feast.

and so.

"I have a few wild mushrooms from the mountains, then some from near the stream, and this one is from under the waterfall at Monster Mountain... um, that's about it."

"Huh? What's going on?"

Alice suddenly went to another storage room and rummaged through things, and a series of sounds immediately attracted Accelerator's attention.

She came out again after a short while.

However, the girl was still holding something in her arms.

It was a bamboo basket.

"...What are you planning to do?"

"It's a mushroom."