"N-no, it's nothing."
Monday morning.
Audrey had just finished breakfast when she received a telegram from her second brother, Alfred Hall, sent from the East Coast of the Balam Empire on the Southern Continent:
"I have found the Rainbow Lizard Dragons you wanted, two in total. Please await delivery."
Yes!
Audrey's heart leaped with joy, and she could not help pumping her fist. She had not expected Alfred to find the Rainbow Lizard Dragons so quickly.
With that, she had all the ingredients for Telepathist and could take the potion to undergo Advancement to Sequence 8 at any time.
"Are you happy, Audrey?"
Susie raised her head and asked in puzzlement, "What happened?"
Audrey showed her the telegram and said with a smile, "I've got the final ingredient for Telepathist, a Rainbow Lizard Dragon's pituitary gland. Two of them, in fact. I believe I'll be able to undergo Advancement to Sequence 8 before long."
Susie grew happy as well. "Two? Then I can undergo Advancement too?"
"Uh."
Audrey froze, then asked somewhat uncertainly, "Are you sure you've finished digesting your potion, Susie?"
She blinked, her face full of humanlike expression. "Hmm, I think I finished digesting it even earlier than you did."
"..."
In Audrey's vision of the future, Miss Audrey, a great detective or famous psychiatrist, was supposed to have a large dog named Susie as her assistant. But if it became Susie the great dog detective with Miss Audrey as her assistant, that would be a little, a little...
No, not a little. That would be very strange, utterly bewildering!
Audrey felt a wave of dejection. Puffing out her cheeks, she said, "Susie, you should be a little more modest."
"But I'm telling the truth."
"...A little dishonesty can also be a virtue born of modesty."
Susie