Chapter Formal Visit
"..." Elysia was walking down a relatively quiet street with Evelyn beside her. She occasionally checks the surroundings thoroughly with her advanced perception just to be sure.
"Phew…" Elysia heaved a subtle sigh of relief as no threat, or ominous aura was detected.
"Ely, relax a bit and calm down. You are guarded by five teams in a star formation. The evil partic.i.p.ants who came because of your prey marker for that stupid bounty may be dealt with before they can approach you." Elena was pretty surprised by Elysia"s extra vigilance.
"Being more careful won"t hurt. The previous one had a scenario for killing the target, which was not to be taken lightly. There are too many people here. Let"s take this path." Elysia turned at a crossroads and checked the map on her smartphone.
"Hum-mm~ Now it"s just you and me, Ely. It reminds me of how we spent time together at the academy. Is it possible that time like that can return at that moment again?" Evelyn hummed and put her hand on Elysia"s arm.
"Mm, that"s possible. However, I"m afraid the academy no longer has anything to teach us, fufu." Elysia chuckled lightly.
"Hehe, you"re right. What kind of things will await us in the future, hmm? Lynn told us our future is bright because of you, Ely." Evelyn looked up at the blue sky with a bright smile.
"???" Evelyn suddenly felt someone staring at her intensely. She looked back, but no one was there.
"Is there something wrong?" Elysia stopped in her tracks and looked back.
"No, it"s just that I felt someone was watching us intensely just now. Maybe, it"s just me?" Evelyn rubbed her nape reflexively.
"Is it like that?" Elysia checked her surroundings once more, but she couldn"t find any suspicious group. She could only see her guardian teams within the scope of surveillance.
"Ely, it"s the Ai in your shadow. She doesn"t seem to get along with Eve for some reason." Elena pointed to an overlooked spot.
"???" Elysia looked at her shadow with wonder. She then just asked directly. "Ai, have you been at odds with someone recently?"
"No, I"m not at odds with anyone. Why do you ask that so suddenly, Ely?" Ai felt a bit confused.
"Hmm, how should I put it? I heard you couldn"t get along with Eve. Is that true?" Elysia didn"t beat around the bush.
Ai was silent for a moment to sort out suitable words before answering. "Rather than not being able to get along, it"s more that I"m not fond of her. She is sometimes so airheaded and a bit naive. Even so, I don"t hate her."
"I see... Eve is a good friend. Please be nice to her." Elysia resumed her walk through the alternative path.
"Yeah, I"ve been nice to everyone close to you because of you. However, it"s only your master that worries me. Is she your owner or something? She is such a pain when matters concerning you come." Ai complained a little.
"Hehe, my master is my guardian angel and my G.o.ddess. She can be my mentor, guardian, and sister. She will always give goodwill as long as the other party is nice and polite to her." Elysia smiled in amus.e.m.e.nt. She was sure that Ai was quite intimidated by Elena"s dominance.
"She is sometimes oppressive and pushy, but not too bad. I will tolerate her because of you." Ai heaved a subtle sigh.
"Ely, where are we going now? Shall we walk all the way?" Evelyn knew they would head to the Minamoto Clan"s mansion and the Alchemy a.s.sociation. Still, it was quite a distance to walk and would take some time to reach their destination.
"Of course not, silly. We"re heading to a rental car. What just happened a few hours ago made me hesitate to take a taxi." Elysia shook her head.
"Why not go straight to the destination?" Evelyn asked in wonder.
"We are the bait~" Elysia spoke in a whisper-like voice and winked.
A few moments later, they arrived at a well-known car rental shop. Elysia fulfilled all requirements with a little tweak in her legal doc.u.ment as she didn"t have any.
"All right, Elysia-san. So, here are your doc.u.ments. Which car do you want to rent again?" The middle-aged man returned the doc.u.ments and adjusted his gla.s.ses.
Elysia breathed a sigh of relief inwardly because this senior rental employee only checked the authenticity of her doc.u.ments, not confirmed their validity online. She then pointed her palm to the nearby car on display. It was a white hatchback car. "You said every car is under insurance, right? Then I"d like this one."
"Honda City Hatchback type R? It"s a car that just arrived, and the price is a bit high to rent. Is that all right on your side?" The middle-aged man put his hand on the car of the customer"s choice.
"That"s fine. I"ll take a three-day leisure tour package for that." Elysia pointed to a promo package banner displayed on the bulletin board.
"All right, please wait a moment." The middle-aged man took care of some notes and doc.u.ments quickly. After that, he returned with a key and several papers in hand.
"Thank you." Elysia received the key and doc.u.ments and then completed the payment. After that, she went with Evelyn by car.
"Sigh, two young tourist girls who are on an overseas tour. I hope she"s driving well, or insurance matters are troublesome." The middle-aged man wiped his sweat and sat relaxed at his desk.
"Woah~ So, this is your homeworld, Ely? It"s such a beautiful and bustling city. Luckily, the chaos hasn"t arrived yet." Evelyn looked out the window with sparkling eyes.
"Yeah, Southeast Asia and East Asia haven"t had any significant chaos, but that doesn"t mean it doesn"t exist." Sora emerged on Elysia"s shoulder.
"Oh~ Nee, Ely, may I know where is your hometown?" Evelyn asked curiously.
"Not anymore, Eve. There"s no one waiting for my return." Elysia responded with a flat expression as if nothing else mattered.
"I-I"m sorry." Evelyn immediately apologized. She accidentally brought up an old wound even though she already knew some stories about Elysia on Earth from Sylvia.
"You don"t need to apologize, Eve. Right now, I still have someone who cares about me as much as you do." Elysia gave Evelyn a head pat.
"Hehe, thank you." Evelyn was somehow happy and relieved to hear that.
"???" Sora had many questions regarding the recent conversation but didn"t want to ask.
When Elysia arrived near the Minamoto Clan"s mansion, she parked the car on the side of the road. She looked around again because she sensed that a suspicious group was monitoring her on the way here, but they had disappeared somewhere.
"What"s wrong? The bad guys are approaching?" Evelyn is ready to spring into action if needed.
"Master Elysia, you can continue your journey. We just eliminated four partic.i.p.ants from the game. We conducted a bit of mind reading, and they turned out to have a navigation feature to the prey marker because of the chess piece"s mechanism." Rhea reported what had just happened on her side.
"All right, thanks for the report." Elysia nodded in understanding. She then raised her palm to Evelyn. "It"s okay. They have been handled by our guardian teams."
After saying that, she took out her smartphone to contact Erina.
"Hi, Ellie~ I"m glad to receive a call from you. Have you missed me, and will you visit me soon?" Erina"s cheerful voice sounded sweet and pleasant.
"The pleasure is mine, Erina. I see. You"ve got your phone replacement." Elysia answered with pleasantries.
"Mm, although it"s a bit hard to get, I got a spare limited edition model, the same version as the previous one. I have to be more careful, so my smartphone doesn"t get damaged again, hehe..." Erina breathed a sigh of relief at the memory.
Her old smartphone was thrown away by criminals once and damaged once. This was the third one, and she should be more vigilant.
"Being careful is good, but what happens is beyond your control. Anyway, I"m going to your mansion for a formal visit." Elysia immediately told the purpose of this call.
"E-Eh? Ah, yes, of course! I"ll be waiting for you at the front door, Ellie!" Erina was stunned for a moment but immediately responded with full enthusiasm. She didn"t expect Elysia to visit her so soon.
"I"ll end the call. I"m on the road now, but I"m almost there." Elysia ended the conversation.
"Yes, please be careful on the road." Erina felt a little confused because Elysia used to come and go mysteriously.
*Beep*
Elysia kept her smartphone back after ending the call.
"Is that Erina, your friend on Earth? She sounds like a good-spirited girl." Evelyn asked with a faint smile.
"Yes, she is a famous diva who is loved by the public and comes from one of the most important clans in j.a.pan. Despite her popularity, she is just a girl who longs for genuine friendship. That"s why we can make friends quickly even though our encounter is a bit silly." Elysia smiled in amus.e.m.e.nt and drove her car again.
"Ah, um..." Evelyn felt it referred to her too, and it was funny when she thought about it again. So, she might get to know Erina better soon.
Arriving at the Minamoto Clan"s mansion gates, an extra tight guard could be seen with just a glance. However, the guards opened the gates as soon as they saw who had come to visit.
"Please come in. Ojou-sama is waiting for you inside, Elysia-sama." One of the guards approached the car and gestured to enter.
"Why, thank you." Elysia hadn"t even said anything, but it seemed these guards already knew about her arrival.