Since Alice was already awake, there was no need to send her back to her bedroom. The two returned to the living room and planned to sit on the sofa and talk.
They sat on the sofa in silence for a while. Alice deliberately sat a little farther away from Aoko, still somewhat embarrassed by Aoko's earlier actions, while Aoko did not seem to care much.
"Tell me," Alice said after calming herself down, "have you completely mastered the Fifth Magic now?"
"More or less." Aoko stood and poured a cup of black tea for both Alice and herself. "The old man disappeared after I opened that door. When I came back from there, the cave had disappeared too."
Aoko noticed that the tea in the pot had gone a little cold, so she quietly heated it with magic.
"...Is your grandfather dead?" Alice paused after accepting the teacup, seemingly feeling its temperature. Then she took a sip and asked, "Or was it like the last time he was 'killed' by that priest?"
"I don't know." Aoko sat back down on the sofa and looked at the ornate chandelier overhead. "But I don't believe that old man would die so easily. He's probably hiding somewhere, happily watching me deal with all these troublesome loose ends."
"What was it like in the cave?" Alice continued asking as she savored her tea. "Did you encounter any obstacles?"
"I ran into a stinking white dog," Aoko said viciously. "It even broke my spine, and I was nearly disemboweled."
As Aoko rubbed her waist, she gestured toward her chest.
"Then your vitality seems quite impressive," Alice remarked. "Did you use magic to reverse your condition?"
"No?" Aoko answered in an unconcerned tone. "I entered 'that place,' thought, I shouldn't be hurt, and when I came back, the wounds were gone."
"...What?" Alice turned her head in surprise, carefully looking Aoko up and down with her beautiful black eyes. Aoko now had long red hair, and Alice seemed to be trying to find an answer in her current appearance.
"...Is something wrong?" Aoko felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze.
"Something wrong?" Alice's usual cold expression broke, and an unusually sarcastic smile appeared on her face. "There is a very serious problem with you, Miss Fourth Magician. No one can return alive from the Root, not even a Magician."
"Didn't the First Magician, Yumina, do it?" Aoko asked in confusion.
"She did not," Alice said decisively. "It is precisely because she did not that I, who possess a 'Fragment of One,' exist."
Aoko fell silent. She had thought Yumina, like herself, had obtained the First Magic from the Root and returned to the present world, using the "Negation of Nothingness" to lay the foundation for the magic that followed.
Now, it seemed Yumina's situation might have been similar to her grandfather's. She had obtained the First Magic before the gate, then entered after leaving behind her bloodline, and never returned.
"My situation was rather critical at the time," Aoko said carefully. "If I had not entered that place, I might not have survived five seconds, so I chose to go in."
"That place..." Aoko tried hard to recall what she had experienced within the Root. It seemed every word she knew had become pale and inadequate, making it difficult to find an accurate description. "...I don't know how to describe it, but I'm sure that part of me 'melted,' while another part kept refusing, so I came back."
"That was all?" Alice asked thoughtfully.
Aoko thought for a moment, then began taking off her jacket. Next, she removed the sweater she wore underneath. All that remained on her upper body was plain white underwear, her lovely figure completely exposed before her housemate.
"..." Alice suddenly stopped speaking. She turned her face away, looking a little shy.
"What's the big deal? We're both girls anyway." Aoko mischievously sat beside Alice and continued, "This is what I got from there. Want to see?"
Alice hesitated, but she still turned back to look at her housemate, who was openly displaying her skin before her.
Aoko's figure was so good that even Alice felt a little jealous. Her fullness was obvious even beneath her clothes, while her skin was so pale and delicate it seemed unreal. In her current state, she gave Alice an even stronger sense of pressure—
A faint azure radiance lit up across Aoko's body. Alice discovered in astonishment that her housemate's arms, hands, most of her back, and even her face were covered in gorgeous, mysterious patterns. They were undoubtedly some kind of crest.
But do not misunderstand. Of course, Alice had seen Magic Crests before, because her entire body was covered in Magic Crests inherited from witches. But she had seen Aoko's Magic Crest before. Back then, it had existed only on her right arm, and its form had not quite matched what it was now.
And now, this scale...
"Impressive, right?" Aoko raised her left hand and examined the glowing crest as it connected to her magical energy. "When I first got them, they didn't look like this. But I realized that this thing keeps growing. It was most obvious when I encountered that red shadow on the mountain path. It must have grown quite a lot then."
Alice remained silent. The "Magic Crest" on Aoko's body differed from every Magic Crest she knew, and it was unlike her own witch's crest as well. She had never heard of a Magic Crest that could "grow on its own." Magi's crests were generally artificial crystallizations of mysteries, things formed through their holders continuously crystallizing the results of their research and passing them down through generations.
The "crest" on Aoko's body was clearly an anomaly among anomalies—or rather, something entirely alien—
Thinking of this, Alice could not help reaching out her slender fingers and touching the glowing crest on Aoko's body.
"Hahaha, that tickles." Aoko covered her embarrassment with laughter and hurriedly caught Alice's wandering hand. "Your hand is cold, isn't it? Let's drink some tea first and warm up, okay?"
Alice Kuonji also realized that her actions had been inappropriate, so she quickly pulled her hand free from Aoko's grasp and picked up her half-finished black tea to continue savoring it.
"Tomorrow, I need to visit my grandfather's workshop again and move out all of that old man's 'inheritance,'" Aoko said as she put her clothes back on. "Will you be home tomorrow? I might put some of it in the Kuonji Mansion. It would be best if you could help receive it."
"...I have nothing to do tomorrow."
Before you continue