Going Deeper

"By the way, Scarlet Snow."

"What?"

"Where have you traveled in all the years since you retired? Would you be interested in telling me about it?"

"You suddenly asked that..."

Scarlet Snow sat in the middle of the backseat, with Little Jack and Alice on either side of her. The three of them sat in the back of the car without feeling crowded at all; if anything, it felt quite spacious.

Setting aside the possibility that the sedan simply had an unusually roomy interior, only one explanation remained.

"I'm so jealous of you guys. Even sitting in the passenger seat, I have to hold my tail, or it feels cramped," Su Tianqing said after carefully eyeing the spacious backseat.

"Are you picking a fight on purpose?" Scarlet Snow shot her a blank look.

"Honestly, Fox Fox usually loves picking fights with Hyacinth and the others," Fenrir teased from the driver's seat, lifting a drink from beside her and taking a gulp.

"I used to summon monsters to make Hyacinth come out and fight. Recently, though, there's been a lot going on, so I haven't fought those girls much. Besides, everyone's gotten a lot stronger, and the damage we'd do to the surrounding area is much worse than before, so I've been picking fights far less often."

"...Then I suppose you're all being rather considerate of the bigger picture." Scarlet Snow no longer had the energy to complain, so she could only follow Fenrir's words and voice her agreement.

Still, that counted as a good thing. Rongcheng currently had five resident Shadows of the Stars at full count, and with Heartmoon Fox's unfathomable magical power and witch Monster Reserve, if both sides truly fought, half of Rongcheng might well be razed by the aftermath.

Since Heartmoon Fox and the others intended