◇

"Satou, taste strange?"

Mia eats the hamburg steak with a puzzled look.

"It"s delicious~you know?" "You"re being rude to hamburg-sensei nanodesu!"

Tama and Pochi are covering for the hamburg steak. Their use of forks, and tongues to wipe the sauce might be the result of Lulu"s and Liza"s educations.

Mia"s hamburg steak today is just plain tofu hamburg. Lulu and I are also eating one, but I don"t think there"s anything wrong with it, it"s quite satisfactory.

"Does it not suit your taste? Try to eat the one on this plate."

I take out the hamburg steak on the plate I"ve made for second helpings left on the warming magic tool, and exchange it with Mia"s. I"ve made the plate color different to easily identify them.

"Nn, delicious."

Mia slices one small bit and puts it on her mouth, then she nods satisfyingly and begins to nibble on it. The tofu hamburg that Mia"s left behind is shared and eaten by Pochi and Tama. They push vegetable garnish beside the potatoes to Mia.

I guess I should announce it soon.
I wait for Mia to finish her hamburg steak before telling her the truth.

"Mia, I have something I need to tell you."
"Nn."

I talk to Mia with serious face, but for some reason, she"s closed her eyes and pushed out her lips. I think she"s been too poisoned by Arisa. I put the preface, "It"s about the hamburg steak" to dispel her misunderstanding and continue the talk. She looks really dissatisfied for some reason.

"Mia, the hamburg steak that you just ate earlier had meat in it."

Rather, more than half of it was red meat with the fat taken out.
As I thought, she looks like Pochi when she ate the fish hamburg back then, as though she"s been betrayed exaggeratedly.

"Guilty."
"Un, I"m sorry. Furthermore, the first hamburg steak that Mia ate didn"t contain meat."
"Mwuu."

Mia looks like she"s conflicted about something, let"s do the last push.

"Mia, which hamburg steak you"re going to pick for the second helping?"
"Mumwu, this."

Mia points at the hamburg steak with meat inside.
Looks like she still can"t eat normal meat-only hamburg steak, but I"d like to think that her aversion has been decreased for a bit.

While looking like she relaly doesn"t like it, she pushed back the hamburg steak full of meat soup that Pochi had presented.

I guess it"s impossible to be so sudden huh.

◇

The Scarecrows are taking off into the void sky from the light s.h.i.+p that"s hanging on the observatory.
The Scarecrows that have been rolled-out now are only half of the intended number. Since Beriunan and Burainan clans, whom we have sent the Scarecrow blueprint, have improved it, the later half of the Scarecrows are going to have improved enemy search ability. I entrust Sotorineysan and her workshop to create the remaining Scarecrows.

During these 10 days, the jellyfish have been successfully eliminated from five wold trees.

Beriunan, the clan which had done the jellyfish extermination first, did so in order to be ahead of their rival, Burainan clan. Sure enough, the jellyfish eggs seemed to have remained in the world tree of Beriunan clan. They could prevent the second damage due to our information that were conveyed later, they expressed their grat.i.tude for that.
It seems that there were also eggs that remained in the world tree of Biroanan clan which was destroyed by fire before.

As thanks for the achievement this time, the clans of Bareonan, Zantanan, and Dawosanan have decided to bestow one light s.h.i.+p to Boreanan clan. The elder asked me if I want one, but since it seemed too much for me, I declined after thoroughly hesitating. Let"s come and borrow it if I ever need it.

"Hey, Satou. Are you leaving the forest after Arisa and the others finish the Spriggan"s training ground today?"
"Yes, that"s the plan."

In a rare occasion, Lusan isn"t here today.
Aialize-san, who"s sitting on the chair beside me, asked while putting her face on her knee that she"s grasped, I answered her clearly.

"Won"t you go with me, Aze."

I invite her to the journey with slightly trembling voice. Even though there"s 100% chance of defeat, I cannot pull back here. I see Aialize-san"s face brightly gleaming for an instant, I"d like to think it"s not my imagination.

"I"m sorry."

Aialize-san muttered so, and buried her face on her knees, so I couldn"t see her expression.

◇

I perform the last check on the airs.h.i.+p in order to deceive my broken heart. This s.h.i.+p looks exactly like the light s.h.i.+p. It seems that there was a movement to create their own light s.h.i.+p among the elves 300 hundreds years ago, the frame that was made at that time was given to me. There are a large quant.i.ty of frames stored in the storage block inside the world tree.

It"s a small 30 meters cla.s.s s.h.i.+p, but the loading capacity is abnormally big. Which isn"t surprising as the quarter and the cargo areas are expanded with s.p.a.ce magic. It seems that the philosopher"s stone is used to maintain these expansions.
It"s also been equipped with eight double inversion disks type aerodynamic engines. Four cylinders are loaded as propellers. They"re simple devices that only compress air and blow it behind. All the installed machineries are optimized for low noise.

As expected, it doesn"t have the function to hide in dimensions.

In order for it to not be conspicuous at night, it"s been coated it with jet black coating, unlike the hero"s Jules Verne. To increase its stealthiness, the radio wave absorption, no, the magic power absorption coating has been used. I"m slightly interested as to why they past elves need to develop this technology.

It has one power reactor for power, like the living doll. Of course it"s not only for starting the aerodynamic engine. It can finally fly after I put 30 batteries that are made from crystallized world tree saps, charged with magic power to their most.

It goes without saying, the power that actually moves the s.h.i.+p is me. The power engine is reserved for illumination inside the s.h.i.+p, searching for enemies, and emergency landing if anything happens to me.

I was going to name the s.h.i.+p, False Light s.h.i.+p Mk.I, but since the people on the surrounding objected it, the s.h.i.+p is still nameless.

There are two more vehicles.

A wooden sailing boat with a lower powered aerodynamic engine, and a small box-shaped carriage with a self-propulsion engine. Either one looks like a normal sailing boat, and a box-shaped carriage. The sailing boat has feet equipped for landing on land. It"s also been made to not sink the s.h.i.+p when it fails on the water.

I"ve decided to leave the two old horses that I"ve bought in Seryuu city, and the hornless beast at Boruenan forest. The hornless beast is pregnant, congratulation. I"m surprised that the unicorns work fast.

◇

"Then, Mia, get along well with your parents okay."
"Nn, Satou."

Mia unwraps the hair that hides her forehead with both hear hands, and presses me to kiss there. Kissing the forehead as a farewell for her is alright, I guess.

I lightly kiss it like it"s touching or not.
Everyone must be going to make me kiss them later.

"My, you"ve done it Mia. Quite the schemer."
"Mumu, agreed."

She triumphantly shows a victory sign toward her parents behind.

"Going together."

Yes?

"Going together."

After repeating it twice, Mia talks in long sentences that she rarely ever does.

"Satou of s.h.i.+ga Kingdom, I am happy that you"ve accepted the engagement ceremony. Misa.n.a.lia Borueanan vows that she will become one of your wing until death do us apart."

Did I perhaps, have been had?

"My, how wonderful. Satou-san, please make Mia happy okay."
"Protect her."

Looks like I"ve been had. According to Mia"s mother, from the elves" perspective, kissing forehead means proposing for marriage, and if the receiver kisses the other"s forehead, it means that the proposal is accepted. That explains why she"s always said [Fiance].

I tried to tell Mia"s parents that I didn"t know such custom, but since they were Mia"s accomplices, they plugged their ears, and went, no no.

Huh? Does that mean that I had proposed to Aialize-san during our first meeting?　I might understand why she reacted until she became emotionally unstable.

Aialize-san who"s come to see us off behind Mia"s parent is pouting like it"s not amusing. If you show me that face, I"ll visit often until we reach the labyrinth city you know?

◇

The Dryad that Mia"s father has called opens the Alf Road that connects to near the hidden village of the mermaids on the southern tip of Boruenan forest.

It"s a bit hot there.
I can see the sailing boat that has been put in the inlet beforehand.

"Now, then, this is a farewell. I"ll drop by again later."
"Come back anytime. Boruenan family will always welcome you everytime."

I take the opportunity to shake hand with Aialize-san during the confusion, but there"s no "guilty" reactions for just this occasion.

With the elders permission, I have left the carved plank as a landmark for [Return] magic in the tree house of Boruenan forest. I"m not sure if the distance is reachable, but if it"s not, I can just use Flash Drive and acceleration magic to fly here.

"There"s something strange nanodesu."
"Strange smell~?"

It"s probably the first time they"ve smelled the seash.o.r.e. Pochi and Tama are pinning their noses. Arisa teaches the two that it"s the smell of salt. Looks like the temperature is high around there, let"s swim in the sea once.

I carry everyone and the horses with [Magic Hand] to the sailing boat.

When I was going to carry Mia, I confirmed with her again if she wanted to remain with her parents, but she said [I"m going] and forced me to hug her. I carry Mia with Sky Drive to the deck of the sailing boat.
Everyone whom I have put to the deck with [Magic Hand] earlier are all booing, looks like the follow-up later will be difficult.

While waving our hands to the people who see us off, I open the folded sail with [Magic Hand]. I invoke [Air Control] to blow wind on the boat"s sail, and the boat is departing.

The side trip is over.

We"re going to advance along the west coast, disembark at the trade city, Tartumina, southwest of the royal capital, and head toward the labyrinth city.