Chapter 66

(What can I do? Do I even have a sense of humor? No, I don’t! What should I do? I have to meet Magilka’s expectations. I need to think, Mary.)

I racked my brain, trying to come up with a surprising surprise, and followed Magilka’s instructions to move around to her back. Unaware of Magilka’s consideration that I might do something if I touched the target, I silently worked on the task, thinking of a good idea.

"Then, I’ll pull, so Lady Mary, please support me from behind. Got it? Just support, don’t do anything extra."

Magilka once again "rejected" me.

"Y-Yes... I understand."

(I just have to hold her from behind... Is there anything, anything I can do? Pull? Lift...?)

Just as I firmly grabbed Magilka’s side from behind, a sudden idea came to me.

(Ah! Right, Magilka is afraid of heights. Okay, I’ll lift Mandrake and Magilka together! You know, the "high, high" thing! Mwahaha, Magilka will be surprised!)

I smiled inside my helmet and loosened my grip. Normally, when lifting someone, you’d use more force, but my strength is abnormal, and I might accidentally hurt her. So, out of fear, I loosened my grip and used a gentle hold instead.

"Then, let’s go!"

"Yes, I’m ready."

I responded to Magilka’s voice.

"Seee~n! Fo!"

In sync with Magilka’s call, I used a bit of force to lift her body all at once.

(Huh? Her voice sounded a bit off?)

I raised my upper body, lifted my arms high, and felt something was wrong with Magilka’s voice. I squinted against the bright sunlight.

(Huh? Why can I see the sunlight? Normally, Magilka should be blocking it, right?)

Thinking this, I looked at my arms, and there...

Magilka was gone.

"Huh?"

Unable to grasp the situation, I lowered my hands and continued to look at them. The worst-case scenario flashed through my mind, and I quickly looked up.

"Yaaaaaaah!"

"Booooooo!"

A dot flying high in the sky.

The sound of a girl’s scream and Mandrake’s cry mixed together.

"Magilkaaaaaa!"

I screamed, focused on the target, and moved backward with incredible speed to catch her.

Yes, it was a slip-up.

Because I used a gentle hold to lift her, I ended up lifting both her and Mandrake and accidentally threw them.

"Wind!"

With a worried expression, Professor Fried’s powerful words accompanied a whirlwind that rose from below Magilka, who was falling in a beautiful arc, slowing her descent. I managed to catch the decelerated Magilka.

"Catch! Welcome back, Magilka."

"～～～～～～～～!"

Inside the full-body armor, I peeked at Magilka, who was being carried princess-style. She was blushing, with teary eyes, and pouting, unable to speak from fear.

(Ah, she’s angry. Really, really angry.)

"How was your sky journey?"

"～～～～～～～～!"

"...Sorry, hehe♪"

"～～～～～～～～!"

Usually, Magilka would fall for my smile, but since I was wearing a helmet, my smile didn’t reach her, and her protesting gaze continued to pierce me.

"It’s because you told me to do something, Magilka!"

"Who said that? I told you not to do anything unnecessary!"

Finally able to speak, Magilka screamed and started hitting my helmet. It didn’t hurt or tickle through the helmet, but I accepted it.

(While being carried, she’s blushing, teary-eyed, and pouting, hitting me... somehow, it’s cute...)

I had a warm expression inside my helmet while thinking such impolite thoughts.

(Well, I’ll blame the armor for being able to throw her so far. I didn’t expect I could do that. Ah, the armor... what a sweet sound.)

"Um, by the way, where’s the Mandrake?"

As we were playfully bickering, Safina, who had run over, looked at Magilka’s hands and asked curiously.

"‘Huh?’"

Realizing the gravity of the situation, we put Magilka down and stared at our hands. Indeed, the Mandrake root was not there. But it was definitely with her when she was in the air.

"Ah, isn’t that the root over there?"

Feynul, thinking it had been dropped, started searching and pointed to an object that had fallen behind us.

"Well, that’s a relief. After all that, we got the root..."

I sighed in relief and started walking toward the fallen root, but stopped. The scene didn’t make sense, and my thoughts froze. Everyone else was also frozen in place.

Indeed, the Mandrake root in front of us...

had stood up.

(Yay, it’s standing, it’s standing... No, that’s not right!)

I did a mental facepalm and regained some composure, looking at the scene again. Indeed, no matter how many times I looked, the Mandrake was standing. The root had a shape resembling a head, body, and limbs, and it was standing firmly.

"Huh? How... Huh?"

I turned to look at Magilka, who was frozen behind me. She also didn’t understand and was pointing at the strange phenomenon, shaking her head.

After a while, the Mandrake broke the frozen moment and, surprisingly, started running.

We watched in shock as the Mandrake root ran away at a considerable speed.

"Did it... escape?"

Prince’s whispered words finally brought me back to reality.

"No way, I won’t let it escape!"

Without hesitation, I ran after the escaping root, clanking in my armor.

The root and the fully armored me sprinted down the paved road leading to the school building. To passersby, it must have looked quite strange. I didn’t have time to care about their reactions and focused on chasing the Mandrake through the narrow field of vision provided by my helmet. The Mandrake, moving erratically, was faster than I expected, and I almost lost sight of it.

(Darn, the view is too narrow and hard to see!)

Anxious, I pushed my current situation to the back of my mind and reached for my helmet while running.

"No, no! Miss!"

I faintly heard Tütte’s voice from behind, but I didn’t register it and took off my helmet. My silver hair billowed out with the momentum of my run, drawing the attention of everyone around.

This was the beginning of the chaos to come.

Thank you for reading this far.