Temporary Peace

Alice Kuonji was reading in her room when she suddenly heard a faint "tweet-tweet" from outside the window.

She closed her book and looked outside. A little blue bird was lightly pecking at the glass with its beak.

Alice walked over to the window and opened it, letting the little bird fly into the room.

The bird chirped as it flew circles around Alice, then landed on a piece of furniture and tilted its head at her.

She raised her wrist, allowing the blue bird to land on her fingertip as though granting someone permission to kiss her hand.

The blue robin puffed out its plump, fluffy chest and proudly communicated in the language that belonged only to it and Alice.

"Is that so?" Alice said. "Aoko has already dealt with the trouble."

Though Alice Kuonji appeared indifferent, she had still sent out the robin without Aoko Aozaki knowing.

Perhaps even Alice herself had not noticed that, upon learning Aoko had successfully driven back the enemy and repaired the leyline node, her expression relaxed slightly.

The robin looked at its master in confusion, unable to understand what she was thinking, before flying away on its own.

Click, click. The sound of a key unlocking the door came from the first floor.

Judging the time, Alice figured Aoko had returned.

She set her book aside, rose to her feet, and headed downstairs.

"I'm home~" Aoko opened the door to the Kuonji residence with her key, calling out as she changed into fluffy indoor slippers.

Alice did not seem to be on the first floor.

Aoko blinked, but received no response from her housemate. She hung up her jacket and motorcycle helmet, rubbed her hands together, and walked toward the first-floor hall.

"Did you settle everything?"

A cool female voice came from the staircase. Looking up, Aoko realized Alice had been on the second floor.

"Yep." Aoko smiled. "That Touko sent a whole batch of dolls to ambush me this time."

"What about the barrier stone at the leyline node?" Alice asked, sitting on the sofa and lifting a cup of black tea.

"I replaced it with a new one and repaired the barrier." Aoko leaned back against the sofa. "But I think Touko might be short on money. This batch of dolls she sent was much shoddier than the ones you ran into before. Even the gems used as their cores were replaced with cheaper ones."

Alice said nothing, because she was in the same broke camp herself. If her housemate Aoko had not taken care of her three meals a day, even the quality of her food might have declined, never mind enjoying premium black tea and conducting magecraft research.

Come to think of it, why was Aoko so good at making money? She and Touko clearly came from the same family.

"Touko probably won't show herself to challenge me until she has made every possible preparation," Aoko said. "We haven't seen each other in two years, but she still knows some of my previous strength. After all, we trained under Grandfather together for a long time."

"Then solve this quickly." Alice closed her eyes. "You two sisters quarrel, yet you always drag me into it. That is not good."

"Alice, you're our good friend~" Aoko cozied up beside her, wrapping her right arm around Alice's slender shoulders. "Since this is a conflict between sisters, as a friend to both of us, naturally you need to lend us a hand, right?"

Alice cast a disdainful glance at Aoko's wandering hand on her shoulder, but did not slap it away.

"If you want my help, there will be a price." Alice spoke in a haughty tone. "And my rates are not low."

"I know, I know!" Aoko quickly said. "What desserts have you been craving lately? I'll make them myself!"

"Don't think you can fob me off with a few desserts!" Alice retorted, blushing slightly. "...I've run out of scones lately."

"Sweet or savory?"

"...Sweet."

Although Aoko was confident she could deal with Touko and her dog head-on, a saying from the western continent went, "Even a lion uses all its strength when hunting a rabbit." Only by swiftly and thoroughly crushing her sister's pride would Touko finally return wholeheartedly to the Aozaki family.

Based on her memories of her "past life," Aoko naturally knew that Touko would establish a magecraft base around the old school building at about this time. However, she decided to wait until Touko had nearly finished her preparations before going to find her.

This time, Aoko intended to seize complete control over the initiative. Just as Touko finished all her preparations and smugly prepared to strike, Aoko would launch a surprise attack and shatter her pride head-on.

Hehe, seeing Sister Touko's pathetic pride completely crushed before my eyes... I love it so much!

While indulging in wild thoughts, Aoko used precious materials to make scrolls for herself.

A mage's stockpile of scrolls was an important part of their combat strength. After all, when one's level was not high enough, spell slots were quite limited. Stockpiling spell scrolls was the best way to overcome that restriction.

Against Beo Rug, that foul dog whose soul had materialized, it was usually impossible to settle things with one or two spells. And while Aoko could use the Fifth Magic to achieve defensive measures comparable to Uchiha Kenji's, defeating that dog would require stockpiling plenty of Weave scrolls unaffected by the return of the Age of Gods.

After all, she was eagerly looking forward to the "experience points" that dead dog could provide~

Aoko could already see the metamagic spellcaster beckoning to her.

Perhaps Touko had been frightened by Aoko's direct assault on the leyline node and the way she had crushed the ambush trap, or perhaps she simply felt that this was enough, but in the week following that battle, Touko made no major moves in Misaki Town.

Aoko sent Da Zhuang out, and he occasionally encountered several familiars Touko had dispatched for reconnaissance. However, Da Zhuang, who could share Aoko's spellcasting abilities, easily dealt with them all. Neither Touko herself nor Beo, that old yellow dog, showed up.

After spending two days at home preparing scrolls, Aoko returned to Misaki High School to continue attending classes.

The students had long grown accustomed to their student council president disappearing every few days, so no one gossiped behind her back about it.

Besides, judging from the results of this month's exams, Aoko Aozaki still held first place in the entire school by a huge margin. She had created such a gap between herself and the student in second place that no foolish faculty member would dare criticize her.

On Thursday afternoon, Aoko made a rare appearance in her loyal student council office.

The moment she pushed open the door, she saw Shizuki Soujuurou diligently cleaning the spacious student council office, while Kumari Kojika stood nearby directing his work.

...And Tsukiji Tobimaru, with heavy dark circles beneath his eyes, still working hard to process student council documents.