When the airship reached the highest point it could attain, the attendants brought out the dinner dishes from the kitchen, and the gathering officially entered its second half.
Perhaps because the topics everyone had discussed earlier had been too explosive, the conversation afterward became much more subdued. Of course, it might also have been because everyone could sense that Larkspur herself—the guest of honor—was in low spirits.
None of the Magic Affairs Institute employees seated here lacked social awareness. Even the few who were slow on the uptake obediently followed the mood and did not stir up trouble. After that, the gathering instead took on something of the atmosphere of a Material Realm social function.
The Magic Affairs Institute subordinates kept approaching Larkspur with glasses of red wine, making conversation, showing goodwill, and even flattering her. Larkspur responded with the social pleasantries that had nearly become muscle memory. Before long, amid the clinking of glasses, the previously chilly atmosphere eased considerably.
Aside from the operational details brought up from time to time, no one spoke again of profit distribution, schemes against one another, or anything of the sort. They chatted about gossip within the Magic Affairs Institute and rumors circulating through high society. To an uninformed observer, it might have looked like nothing more than a harmonious, friendly exchange among magical girls.
In the end, the gathering came to a close amid cheerful laughter, with both guests and hosts thoroughly pleased.
Until the very end, no one asked Larkspur again what she thought of the operation or whether she had any instructions. Even Emerald merely made idle jokes, as though she had not been the one who had dangled a quarter of Luen Nore as bait earlier.
But Larkspur knew very well that it was not because they did not