Temporary Peace

Alice Kuonji, who was reading in her room, suddenly heard a faint "beep beep" sound from outside the window.

She closed her book and looked out the window. A small blue bird was pecking at the glass pane with its beak.

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

The bird chirped and fluttered around Alice, then landed on a piece of furniture, tilting its head as it looked at her.

She raised her wrist, as if granting permission for a kiss, and the blue bird landed on her fingertip.

The blue robin puffed out its plump, fluffy chest and proudly communicated in a language understood only by it and Alice.

"Is that so," Alice said, "Aoko has resolved the trouble."

Seemingly indifferent, Alice Kuonji had still dispatched Robin without Aoko Aozaki knowing.

Perhaps even she herself hadn't noticed, but when she learned that Aoko had successfully repelled the enemy and repaired the spiritual vein node, Alice's expression had relaxed slightly.

Robin looked at its master with confusion, unsure of what she was thinking, and flew away on its own.

Crunch, crunch. The sound of a key unlocking the door came from the first floor.

Alice estimated the time; it was about when Aoko would be back.

So she set her book aside, stood up, and walked downstairs.

"I'm back~" Aoko unlocked the door to the Kuonji Residence with her own key, calling out as she changed into fluffy indoor slippers.

Alice didn't 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, and headed towards the first-floor hall.

"Was everything resolved?"

A clear, cold maiden's voice came from the direction of the stairs. Aoko looked up and saw that Alice had been on the second floor.

"Yeah," Aoko said with a smile, "Touko sent a whole bunch of dolls to ambush me this time."

"And the barrier stone on the spiritual vein node?" Alice asked, sitting on the sofa and picking up a cup of red tea.

"I replaced it with a new one and fixed the barrier," Aoko replied, leaning back on the sofa. "But I feel like Touko might be out of money. The dolls she sent this time were much more crudely made than the ones you encountered before, even the gems used as cores were cheaper."

Alice remained silent, as she herself was also in a tight financial situation. If it weren't for Aoko solving her daily meals, her dining quality might have declined, let alone enjoying high-quality red tea and Magecraft research.

Speaking of which, why was Aoko so good at making money? They both came from the same family, didn't they?

"Touko probably won't personally challenge me until she's made all her preparations," Aoko said. "Even though we haven't seen each other for two years, she still has some understanding of my previous strength. We did train together at Grandfather's for a long time, after all?"

"Then resolve the issue quickly," Alice said, closing her eyes. "Your sisterly disputes always drag me into them, and that's not good."

"Alice, you're our good friend~" Aoko said affectionately, sitting closer and putting her right arm around Alice's slender shoulders. "Since it's a conflict between sisters, you, as their good friend, naturally need to help out, right?"

Alice glanced disdainfully at Aoko's "pig's paw" on her shoulder but didn't push it away.

"If you want my help, it comes with a price," Alice said in a proud tone. "And my price is not low."

"I understand, I understand!" Aoko quickly replied. "What desserts do you like recently? I'll make them for you myself!"

"Don't think you can dismiss me with just a few desserts!" Alice retorted, blushing slightly. "...We're out of scones recently."

"Sweet ones? Or savory?"

"...Sweet."

Although Aoko was confident she could defeat Touko and her "dogs" head-on, there was a saying in the countries of the western continent: "Even a lion uses its full strength to catch a rabbit." To quickly and thoroughly defeat her sister's pride, only then would Touko wholeheartedly return to the Aozaki family.

Based on her "past life" memories, Aoko knew that Touko would likely set up a Magecraft formation at the old school building around this time. However, she decided to wait until Touko had finished her pre-battle preparations before going to find her.

This time, Aoko wanted to take complete control of the initiative. She planned to launch a surprise attack just as Touko was about to complete all her preparations and was smugly getting ready to strike, shattering her pride head-on.

Hehe, seeing her sister Touko's pathetic pride completely crushed before her eyes was something she absolutely loved!

Aoko mused to herself while crafting scrolls with precious materials.

In a wizard's combat power composition, the reserve of scrolls was a very important part. After all, when one's level wasn't high enough, Spell Slots were quite limited, and stocking up on spell scrolls was the best way to break through this limitation.

Facing Beo Ruge, that soul-materialized "stinky dog," it was usually impossible to finish it off with just one or two spells. Furthermore, although Aoko could achieve defensive means similar to Uchiha Kenji through the Fifth Magic, to defeat this dog, she needed to stockpile more Weave scrolls that were unaffected by the return of the Age of Gods.

After all, she was really looking forward to the "experience points" this dead dog could provide her~

Aoko could already see the Archmage beckoning to her.

Perhaps Touko was intimidated by Aoko's direct assault on the spiritual vein node and her dismantling of the ambush trap, or perhaps she just felt that this was enough. However, within a week after that battle, Touko didn't cause any major disturbances in Misaki Town.

Aoko let Dazhuang out, and occasionally they would encounter a few of Touko's reconnaissance Familiars, but they were easily dealt with by Dazhuang, who could share Aoko's spellcasting abilities. Neither Touko herself nor the old dog Beo showed themselves.

After preparing scrolls at home for two days, Aoko returned to Misaki High School to continue her studies.

Her classmates at school were already accustomed to their student council president disappearing from time to time, and they didn't gossip about her actions.

Moreover, judging by the results of the recent monthly exam, Aoko Aozaki was still far ahead on the list, holding the first position in the entire school. She had created such a gap with the student ranked second that no ignorant school staff would dare to criticize her.

On Thursday afternoon, Aoko, in a rare move, came to her loyal student council office.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she saw Soujuurou Shizuki diligently cleaning the expansive student council office, and Kumari Kanroku directing his work from the side.

...And Tsukashi Tsurumaru, with heavy dark circles under her eyes, still diligently working on processing student council documents.