The morning sun rose, shining all over the kingdom of Saku Ajisai. Although it was already morning — Sylvia remained unmoving atop her bed, sleeping soundly, ignorant of how bright the sun’s rays are. Serene couldn’t wait any longer, she wanted to get her legs moving — so she chose to wake Sylvia up from her sleep.

  “Hey sleepyhead, wake up.”

  “Eughhh, 5 more minutes…”

  “If you don’t wake up now, I’ll have to forcefully wake you up.” said Serene as she lifted her right hand up and hovered it above Sylvia’s face, spreading it out.

  “...”

  *sigh* — “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Memoria channeled through Serene’s veins as a shadowy ball manifested above her palms. She inserted the shadowy ball into Sylvia’s head and stood back.

  “Let’s see how long this’ll take.”

  ~ Within Sylvia’s dream ~

  …

  boing

  …

  boing

  “Who would’ve thought that using slimes as a trampoline would be this much fun?”

  Sylvia is currently in a dreamscape, dreaming about jumping across slimes — using them like a trampoline. During her ecstasy, she didn’t notice the impending doom that was about to occur. She looked back and saw something strange.

  “...were there this few slimes before? I could’ve sworn there were more slimes a few minutes ago.”

  Sylvia tilted her head in confusion, something didn’t add up about this situation. However, in a blink of an eye — the once pink dreamscape turned grim and deceased.

  “...what?”

  She looked back again and saw what looked to be green liquid spttered all over the ground. The slimes were nowhere to be found, only Sylvia remained in the barren ndscape.

  “Something’s wro–”

  “Hahahahahaha.”

  Before Sylvia could finish her sentence, a loud ughter could be heard. It was clear that whatever entity was there – it was out to get her. Sylvia tried to put up her barrier spell that she’d used numerous times before, but something felt different this time.

  “My barrier spell — It’s not working?!?!?”

  “Oh yes my dear. No one’s here to save you now.”“That voice—”

  Sylvia recognized that voice, the voice belonged to the demon that Sylvia thought she had killed a few days earlier.

  “We meet again, but now — I’m here to show you no mercy.”

  The demon lunged forward towards Sylvia. Their distance wasn’t far – so before Sylvia could react, the demon was already in front of Sylvia.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—”

  Sylvia’s scream screeched throughout the entire room—

  — and then she woke up.

  The scream startled Serene, who was leaning towards the wall with her arms crossed.

  “God, your scream is loud – now that you’re awake, let’s get moving.”

  “WAIT WAIT WAIT— WHERE’S THAT DEMON???”

  Sylvia’s still on alert after an attempted assassination from the demon. However – she hasn’t realized that the entire sequence was a nightmare that she had.

  *sigh* “You needn’t worry about that, it was all just a nigh–”

  Serene looked back and saw that multiple fireballs were constructed around Sylvia, circling her while the color turned from orange to blue.

  “DID HE GO INVISIBLE???”

  “WAIT – STOP SYLVIA!”

  “OR COULD YOU BE THE DEMON???”

  “IT WAS JUST A NIGHTMARE, NOW PLEASE DISPEL YOUR FIREBALL SPELL.”

  “What –– a nightmare?”

  “Yes.”

  After observing her surroundings, she noticed that there were no demons in sight. She proceeded to dispel her fireball spells after confirming both her and Serene’s safety.

  “I guess it was all a nightmare after all…”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you from the start.”

  “I’ve never seen you so panicked though, Serene. You’re normally calm and collected even in dangerous situations.”

  “That’s because you’ve fought that demon before, if you were to go all out – burning the entire inn down would be the least of our worries.”

  “Ah — wait, how did you know what my nightmare was?”

  “...”

  “You caused my nightmare – didn’t you?”

  “Look, I had no choice. You were sound asleep, I tried waking you up – but you completely ignored my remarks.”

  “That does sound like me. Oh well let’s go get something to eat! I’m starving.”

  “...I’ll never understand how this girl’s mind works.”

  The party left the building and proceeded to go exploring in the wild towards a direction they’ve never gone before.

  “We still have some money leftover, but why are we going out?”

  “I wanted to explore – simple enough, right?

  “I guess.”

  “By the way, Serene — I’m thinking of leaving this kingdom today. Are you on board with that idea or do you want to stay in the castle a bit longer?”

  Serene was surprised by Sylvia’s question. She thought that Sylvia would’ve wanted to stay in the kingdom until she was prepared to go to the next kingdom.

  “That’s sudden.”

  “It is! I’ve already grown bored of the kingdom — I really want to explore something new.”

  “Like I said before – whatever you do, I’ll follow it.”

  “Really? You don’t want to say goodbye to anyone bef— nevermind. That’s a dumb question for me to ask towards someone who’s socially awkward.”

  “There’s a small ke there. Do you wanna stock up on food before we move forwards?”

  “Great idea! I’ve been longing for fish since I started – I still haven’t had breakfast yet so it’ll be a good way to start the day.”

  The party proceeded to go camping in a nearby ke. On the way over – Sylvia opened her Chronicles of the Path to see what spells she can use.

  — Chronicle of the Path —Learned Spells:- Fireball- Fming Daggers- Protective Barrier- Light Ball- Light Sshes- Agility Enhancement- Wind- Cold Touch- Freezing Touch- Ice BallCommissions Completed: 3–––––––––––––––––––––––

  These names are horrible. I really should change them soon – but I don’t know how! Maybe I’ll ask Serene ter. I mean come on, who on earth names their wind spell “Wind”?

  While Sylvia was seeing her Chronicle of the Path, the party reached their destination.

  “We’re here, Sylvia.”

  “Oh – alright then let’s go fishing!”

  “You do know that we don’t have a fishing rod, right?”

  “Who said that we needed a fishing rod?”

  Before Serene could stop her, Sylvia already dove straight into the water and looked for fish.

  “This girl never ceases to confuse me with her actions…”

  Serene was watching Sylvia’s attempt to catch fish — all of which went horribly. No matter how hard Sylvia tried, she couldn’t snatch a single fish.

  “What a spectacle – I might as well do something productive while she has fun.”

  Serene went into the woods in search of logs and boars. She left Sylvia alone because if she were to interrupt Sylvia again, a disaster could happen. As Serene went deep into the woods, Sylvia was still trying her best to catch at least one fish.

  Who would’ve thought that catching fish with hands would be hard! I’ve had enough — I want to eat fish, and I will do whatever means necessary to do it!

  Sylvia swam to the ke’s shore and got up. She soon put her hand below the waters and imagined the freezing temperatures that are located in mountain peaks. She channeled her memoria through her veins and used the memory as a base to lower the water’s temperature. Gradually — the water’s temperature lowered and became freezing in 5 minutes.

  This should be enough, but I’ve yet to see any fish floating up to the surface. Looks like I’ll have to ramp this up!

  Sylvia channeled even more memoria through her veins — and in a matter of seconds, the water reached subzero temperatures. Many fish were floating above the ke’s surface after the sudden temperature change, all of which remained lifeless.

  “Sweet! Now let’s collect these fish, Serene—”

  She looked back to see that Serene was nowhere to be found.

  “Where on earth did she go… Oh well – I’m gonna go set a campfire up before she gets back.”

  Sylvia picked up the necessary materials to create a campfire and used the tree branches as skewers for the fish. As she looked over the ke — she could see potentially thousands of fish floating above the ke’s surface.

  “I may have gone a bit overboard…”

  ~ A few moments ter ~

  I think 2 boars and a few logs are enough. I wonder what Sylvia did when I was gone — I gave her a ton of time to mess around there so I hope she didn’t do anything crazy…

  Serene came back from her search and found Sylvia sitting down with a campfire lit up. She could see Sylvia holding a tree branch with a fish skewered to it.

  “Hey Serene! I didn’t know where you had gone, so I decided to start the party early – I hope you don’t mind. You’re hungry right? Go ahead – pick up a tree branch and skewer whichever fish you want~ I promise that they’re all fresh.”

  “What do you mean—”

  Serene put down the dead boars and logs and looked over to see what happened to the ke. Her eyes widened, as she saw the ke’s surface covered by dead fish.

  “What the hell did you do, Sylvia?”

  “I may have lowered the water’s temperature…”

  “By how much?”

  “I have no idea, but cold enough to kill off the entire fish popution.”

  “You say it so casually…”

  “Besides, what were you doing while I was committing genocide to the fish popution?”

  “I figured that it’d take you forever to seize one fish, so it’d be more efficient if I went ahead and got us something reliable to eat. I took my time so that you could have fun doing THAT. Never in a million years did I expect for you to commit genocide.”

  “...” Sylvia noticed something strange about Serene.

  “What?”

  “When did you become so talkative?”

  “I–”

  “You normally talk in short, one sentence — but that was definitely more than one sentence.”

  “Enough! If you don’t mind, I’ll grab two of these fish now.”

  “Are you sure that’s enough? I’ve already had six fish by now and I can still go for more!”

  “Unlike you, I’ve got a small appetite.”

  “Let’s see how long that sts when your favorite foods are handed to you by the thousands.”

  “That won’t happen.”

  “Oh it will! I will do everything in my power for that to happen~”

  “Please don’t do something crazy — I left you alone for 30 minutes and you wiped out an entire popution of fish. The world’s ecosystem would appreciate it if this was a one time occurrence.”

  “See? You’re talking more than usual!”

  “Oh shut it!”

  “I’m gonna store a few of these fish in our freezer bag, this should be enough for one meal.”

  “ONE MEAL??? At least try to preserve it for as long as possible.”

  “I can’t – I love fish!”

  “God, we should’ve bought more bags if I had known this would happen.”

  “Okay I promise I won’t do this again – I’ll try to learn a more sustainable spell in the future.”

  The chatter went on until afternoon. Sylvia cooked and ate ten more fish while Serene kept her words and ate a total of only 2 fish. As they were resting, Sylvia felt a sharp pain coursing through her head — which caught her off guard.

  “ACK–”

  *sigh* “This is why you shouldn’t eat 16 fish without stopping.”

  “I couldn’t help it… okay?”

  “Take a rest – I’ll go observe the surrounding area to see if there’s anything interesting.”

  “Alright.”

  Sylvia id down on the grass and closed her eyes. After confirming that Sylvia had gone to sleep, Serene left her alone and accelerated her movements to see if there’s anything interesting nearby. Although that was her main goal – her mind was focused on another thing.

  That felt so… natural. I’m not used to talking that much — but for some reason, when we had that bicker earlier, I couldn’t stop talking. I had to stop myself multiple times so that she wouldn’t tease me. I’d normally be the most unsocial person around, but whenever I’m with her – everything releases.

  Serene shook her head and focused on her current objective, which was to find something interesting. Soon enough – she found an abandoned vilge, filled with undead monsters.

  This looks perfect. If Sylvia were in better condition – I’d bring her here and explore around.

  Serene stopped running and thought about Sylvia’s current condition.

  However, now that I think about it more rationally, I don’t think her headache was because of eating too many fish. She channeled enough memoria to massacre multiple generations of fish – which would no doubt use a ton of memoria. She’s no stranger to accidentally using extreme amounts of memoria. When I tried cooking the fish I picked up, they were also frozen. It might be a bit of a stretch to say this – but she might’ve accidentally lowered the water’s temperatures into subzero territory.

  After thinking about it, she decided to go back to the camp while remembering the directions that lead to the abandoned vilge.

  She IS a heavy sleeper though – so I doubt she’d be awake right now. I’d be more surprised if she’s currently awake.

  Serene arrived at the camp and saw that Sylvia was still sleeping, which quelled a few of her worries. Serene decided to wait until Sylvia’s awake.

  …

  “Ah, now that was a good nap.” said Sylvia as she stood up and spreaded her arms.

  “Good evening sleepyhead.”

  “AH– Oh it’s just you.”

  “You sure took your time with that nap.”

  “Of course! My morning sleep got interrupted by a certain someone – so it makes sense that I got a painful headache.”

  “Oh.” Serene hadn’t thought about how she forcefully woke Sylvia up during the morning.

  “I’m all good now! Anyways – before I took my nap, you said that you wanted to search around and see if there was anything interesting nearby – right?”

  “Yes. Good news is that I found an interesting pce – Bad news is that we’re going there tomorrow.”

  “What– why?”

  “You overexerted yourself today – which was what caused that headache. You’d be dead weight if you were to pass out.”

  “Come on! You can’t just say that you found something interesting while also saying we can’t go there today.”

  “This is for the sake of both of us, I hope you understand.”

  “Hmph—” Sylvia proceeded to walk towards Serene and kneel down, looking at Serene with puppy dog eyes. “—can we please go to that interesting pce today?”

  “...”

  “...”

  I should have never told her about that pce, I want to decline her – but how the hell do I decline her request while she’s looking at me with those eyes?

  “...please, Serene?”

  *sigh* “Fine.”

  “Yay! Let’s go there—”

  “You’ll have to promise me one thing though.”

  “Huh?” Sylvia was puzzled by this change.

  “Don’t do anything reckless, if you’re exhausted – stay close to me.”

  “I can do that!”

  “Good – I’ll take us to the location now.”

  Serene took Sylvia’s hand and accelerated their movements. The wind flowed through both of them at high speeds – a speed that Sylvia has yet to adapt to. At this point, Sylvia would normally compin. However – Sylvia was thinking about something important throughout the journey.

  I may not be the most adept at memoria right now, and I know that I push through my limits many times – but what’s different now is that I have you, Serene. Whatever reckless things I do, I know you’ll be there to remind me and make sure I don’t overexert myself.

  Cause afterall…

  That’s what friends do, right?

  Shingyuuni