While Sette waited for Yuuno to finish with his calls, she found herself roaming about the Alpine household. It was rather light on technology, with only the essential machinery taking up space among the hallways. Perhaps Lady Lutecia wanted to live in such a simple manner after living and working in the Doctor's laboratory during the early years of her life.
She soon found herself near the kitchen where she could hear some activity from the inside. Her sense of smell was picking up some light aromas which meant Miss Megane must have already started her dinner preparations. The Combat Cyborg was able to recognize a few of those aromas due to her previous experience working in the prison kitchens while serving her sentence.
"Who's there?"
'That woman has sharp senses… I barely made a sound walking on those tiles.' Sette came out into the open so the elder Alpine could see her.
"Ah, it's just you. Is there something you need? I'm rather busy getting dinner started." She moved about the area, gathering dishes and ingredients.
"I'm just waiting for Yuuno to finish his calls so we can investigate something I found of interest. In the meantime, I can offer some assistance," replied Sette.
This got Megane's attention. "You can cook?"
"I am competent in terms of food preparation. One of my supervisors did wish at times that I added a bit more 'soul' into the ingredients. I was rather puzzled by that remark."
The other woman laughed gently. "Don't worry about it. Since you volunteered, would you mind helping prepare the paste? I'll need it for later when I start grilling the chicken."
"Chicken?"
"Well, he suggested a bit earlier that one of your friends liked chicken so I thought that I should have this on tonight's menu."
"I see. In that case, mission accepted." Sette moved to the sink to wash her hands.
Megane laughed again. "It's not a mission."
The Combat Cyborg opted not to reply as she finished her hand washing and headed towards the stack of garlic, ginger and other herbs. With a borrowed kitchen knife in hand, she began dicing the items while the other woman worked behind her. They worked in silence until the purple haired woman asked another question.
"Were you glad to see Lu-chan again, Sette?"
The chopping noises coming from Sette's end stopped for a moment. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, you two were old acquaintances as you put it," said Megane as she continued slicing up the chicken into smaller pieces for grilling.
"We were not closely associated if that is what you were wondering. I believe we have only interacted once when I checked on her to ensure that she would be in optimal condition to execute our mission," said the pink haired woman as she resumed chopping.
"She did tell me that you were rather up front about that. That just means you're honest. I'm glad that I was able to confirm that."
"Please explain." Sette paused again, this time to reach for an electronic blender.
"I was hoping to hear your perspective on our guests. They seem rather… different compared to their media portrayal."
"The Materials? What information are you seeking about them?"
Megane put away the chicken before she got out some mixing bowls to prepare her pasta dough. "I'm uncertain. The impression given by the mass media proclaims them as dangerous criminal mages. However, my instincts are telling me that things are not what they seem to be when it comes to those girls."
Sette slowly poured in the diced ingredients into the blender. "You are correct in that regard. My own experiences with the Materials are somewhat limited as I have only been in their company for a few days but I have no reason to believe that they are criminals by nature."
"Is that so? Do you have any evidence to support your view?"
The taller woman didn't get a chance to answer as Yuuno popped into the kitchen. "Sette, I've finished up with my calls."
"Thank you. Just give me a moment to finish up here and then I will take you to where the reaction occurred." The paste was now ready to be made with just a push of a button now that all the contents were inside the blender's container. Satisfied that the mission of preparing the paste had been completed, Sette turned to the other purple haired woman. "I must take my leave but when I return from my survey, we can resume our conversation."
Megane smiled. "That would be lovely. Take care you two! And be back by seven!"
"I assure you that we should be back by the designated time," said the Combat Cyborg before she departed the kitchen with Yuuno.
Friedrich woke up to the sound of his two closest human companions… acting a bit oddly. Sure, he had seen them act weird around each other before and get all red and fidgety and nervous. But something else was causing this type of nervousness.
His pink haired mistress seemed most distressed. "Is this for real, Erio-kun?"
"These came over an encrypted channel and straight from Admiral Harlaown himself," replied the red haired male as his watch displayed a message just freshly received only five minutes ago. "He just got called by Yuuno not too long ago and got the information direct."
"Then Lu-chan…!"
"She's okay for now, Caro. At the moment, those Materials think that she's the simple daughter of the inn's owner so as long as she doesn't tip herself off, she should be fine. The tough part is extracting Yuuno safely away from them without tipping off our presence." The young man frowned. "The Admiral also mentioned something about possible brainwashing and advised us to knock him out so that he doesn't risk blowing our cover if he encounters us."
"Knock him out? With what?"
Erio saw an extra note at the bottom of the set of orders. "The Admiral suggested using ferret tranquilizer."
"… … what?" Honestly, she didn't understand that Admiral at times.
"So where did that peon go?" asked Material-D while she cooled herself down with her fan.
"Yuuno-san said that Sette requested his assistance in investigating some sensor distortion outside," said Material-S, recalling the brief telepathic conversation they had after she had exited the bath with her sisters twenty minutes ago. "They should be able to return by dinner time."
"Oi, we should be paying attention to Ms. Tour Guide over here. If we can't answer the end of tour quiz, we won't get extra dessert!" exclaimed Material-L.
"Extra dessert? Did my mom promise you that?" Lutecia had to fight the urge to moan at the unfairness of that arrangement. She had to pull a lot of weight around the house just to earn her extra dessert!
"Oh yeah! Peanut buster parfait, here I come!"
She merely sighed once before resuming the tour of her resort. "Over here is a training stage and obstacle course for anyone who wants a physical or magical workout. There's a lot of space to move around so you can have a good solid practice session."
While Lutecia continued to lead them around, she started taking note of her current situation. Right now, Garyu was back at the springs doing another quick cleaning so that meant that she was more or less alone with the trio. Of course, he would be able to arrive at her side within seconds if she willed it and she figured that she should be able to do okay by herself long enough for him to get here. And her mother is still quick on her feet for a woman of her age. If things start heating up, she would be able to get out of the danger zone quickly.
Seikou raised an eyebrow in mild fascination. "You built this yourself?"
"Of course! It took a lot of work but this obstacle course is guaranteed to get your heart pounding and your sweat glands to go into overdrive! Bwahaha-" Lutecia suddenly stopped upon noticing Yami's glare and switched up her laugh to the other one that she recently learned courtesy of the Lord of Darkness. "Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"
"It's like a big jungle gym! Hehehehe!"
"Eh?" A quick glance showed that Rai was bouncing around the area without even feeling any sort of strain. She was wearing that tight leather purple bodysuit which wasn't ideal workout attire and yet, she was moving around the course with ease. "I… wha…? I mean… wow?"
"You don't sound too happy," noted the Starlight Destroyer.
"Well, it stings a bit when you see someone easily master an obstacle course the first time around. Especially one that I built," grumbled Lutecia.
The Fate replica paused for a moment while balancing her feet on a thin rail. "Hey! Why don't I let Kero-chan out here to play?"
Seikou thought about it before shaking her head. "I don't think that's a good idea. Our hosts probably wouldn't appreciate Cerberus running around unchecked. Plus Cerberus is the type of summon who would prefer to be doing something useful. He didn't look too happy when you called him just to learn how to roll over."
"My lesson plan didn't include just rolling over! There was also the fetching lessons and how to look like a realistic corpse to play dead!" shouted back Rai.
"Is the reason why you want to summon Cerberus right now is so you can have a playmate?"
"I guess so. I mean, it's gonna be boring until dinner time comes," said Material-L as she flipped over to another railing in a carefree fashion.
"If that's the case, how about I play tag with you instead?" asked the Nanoha replica.
"Yay! Oh, wait…" The blue haired woman frowned. "You're normally a slow poke compared to me so how are you gonna catch me when you're the oni?"
"Just let me worry about that," replied Seikou.
"You don't mind keeping her occupied?" asked Yami from behind that fan of hers.
The red clad Material-S looked at her friend. "Someone has to make sure she doesn't wind up in trouble. Besides, I can use this opportunity to practice some other skills I had not used in some time."
This earned a slight shrug from the Hayate replica. "Do as you like then."
"So that means you two will stay here for the time being? If that's the case, I'll swing by to escort you to the dining room later when dinner's ready."
"I would appreciate that very much, Ms. Lutecia," said the Starlight Destroyer as she bowed politely.
"Since that's settled, I guess you're sticking with me." The younger Alpine did send a mental note to Garyu to stay within the vicinity of the training area to keep an eye on the two of them. While Lutecia took her leave with Yami, Seikou activated her device and her Barrier Jacket and turned to the Fate replica.
"Let's go all out and work up a good appetite. What do you say to that, Rai-chan?"
Alrighty then…!" After calling forth Vulnificus and her own Barrier Jacket, she started moving back quickly. "Catch me if you can, you Red Oni!"
Seikou merely channelled magical energy into her feet, causing red particles to glow around the boots. "Accel Turn!"
It has been some time since she worked with that type of support magic. Hopefully, this session would allow her to feel more comfortable working with her speed spells again.
"This is my library. It's well stocked with all sorts of books of interest."
Material-D snorted while her eyes darted from bookshelf to bookshelf. "Books of interest? You mean full of romance trash that has no bearing in reality?"
Lutecia raised an eyebrow. "What would you define as romance trash?"
"Like how a red string of fate binds two people who previously never met or had any sort of interpersonal connection. Then boom, they're declaring each other as soul mates or some trash like that," said Yami.
"If that's the case, then you can rest easy. That type of literature has no place on my bookshelves as I have more sophisticated reading preferences."
"So you don't find any interest in a story that features a pairing which has one member of the couple being aware of emotion beyond friendship in her significant other even at the age of six years old?"
The younger Alpine merely twitched. "I really have no idea what you're trying to find but I assure you that I would just find that concept implausible, as well as disturbing. Now will you need any help finding what you want to read here? Because I have other matters to attend to since this place won't maintain itself."
"Fair enough. You're dismissed." While Lutecia slipped away (not before leaving a few insect summons to act as surveillance), the Hayate replica shuffled off to the nearest bookshelf to explore what her host did place on the shelves. She noted that a number of titles were history books which covered different eras of Ancient Belka. For a moment, she wasn't sure where to begin until she saw a particular object that seemed to be out of place.
It was some sort of electronic data storage module. Small, rectangular… and labelled as 'Land Combat Exhibition MC 0078: Team Blue (Yagami family) vs. Team Red (Takamachi family and friends).'
At that moment, all thoughts of passing the time by reading vanished from her mind. She had something more interesting to look into.
It had been a rather quiet stroll for Yuuno and Sette when they went back along the route they originally took to reach the Alpine residence. For the Librarian, he was uncertain what the Combat Cyborg had detected earlier but it must be of high importance. In fact, all this time, she had been holding out a small microchip in the open in order to try and retrace the incident.
It finally started beeping faintly after they reached a certain distance. "Over here."
"So what am I looking for?" asked Yuuno as he took out some of his gear to help get more precise scans of the area.
"The chip I have here was given to me by Uno prior to my abrupt departure from the Orbit Prison. She claimed that it would be triggered when close to the Doctor's backup laboratory on Mid-Childa however it has responded to something else in the area. My conclusion is that there is something else of the Doctor's that is located in the vicinity," replied Sette.
Yuuno had to admit that it was plausible that Scaglietti had been here before to set up contingency resources. This world had been uninhabited and was within somewhat close distance of Mid-Childa. "Do you have any idea what he could have stashed here?"
She shook her head. "Negative. I most likely didn't have the proper clearance to authorize such information. If anyone would know, it would be my older sisters."
"Well, let's see what I can pick up. After all, it's the reason why you asked me to come out here." Years of working on archaeological sites have helped him develop a keen eye.
"It's one reason, yes."
He easily picked up the hint that she had called him out here for something else. "Then what's your other reason?"
"I had wanted to discuss some things with you in private. In particular, the type of behaviour exhibited by Vulnificus earlier."
He blinked in surprise. "Rai's device? How did you know it was acting oddly?"
"You were speaking with Material-L earlier and her device had commented on killing over sixty five million mages to 'level her up'. I was able to listen in on the conversation even when in my training state," said the pink haired woman while staying close to Yuuno so that she could see his scanning progress.
"I see." It was something that Nanoha did frequently when she first got Raising Heart all those years ago so Yuuno could understand.
"In a sense, Vulnificus may very well be something like a…" Sette paused for a second.
"What is it?"
"… … Nox Nyctores. Perhaps you may know something about what it means."
There was something exotic and foreboding about the term that Yuuno couldn't put his finger on. "I can't really recall if I heard something like that before when working in the Library. Where did you hear it from?"
"It's a foreign term that my device has used to describe a different class of device in the Arc System."
"I never heard of such a place," admitted the Librarian. "Was this another lost realm like Al-Hazard?"
She paused for a moment along the muddy path. "It was apparently a galaxy far, far away that existed eons ago. My own device has limited memories of that particular sector of space but he clearly remembers the type of weapons that were used in that era. Those devices were apparently able to manipulate cause and effect for combat purposes. In addition, they have displayed similar attributes of influencing their user although to what extent, I cannot tell."
'Is that the reason behind the gap in power between the Materials and the others? And not just that… if their devices have been doing that from the start, it's no wonder that the three of them don't exactly have a normal state of mind.' He tried to get his concentration back on track but his head was trying to wrap around the concept of devices that could use causality as a form of weapon. How were they constructed? What type of damage were they capable of?
"Ah, it seems you picked up something," said Sette in that neutral tone of hers as his attention turned back to his instrument. Sure enough, there were faint traces of foreign materials that didn't belong in this eco-system up ahead by four hundred metres. But his eyes weren't seeing anything out of the ordinary. Just a natural looking pond along in a grassy field.
"I don't see anything here." He paused for a moment. "Unless it's under some sort of invisibility cloak…"
"That's highly probable. The Doctor has some expertise in camouflage technology since he created the Silver Cape for Quattro's use."
"Then we're at a dead end if we can't see it."
"That won't be a problem." For a brief second, the colour of Sette's eyes changed several times as she went through the electromagnetic spectrum. "Location has been confirmed."
She took a few steps forward towards the pond and carefully examined one of the rocks before finding what she was looking for and inserting the microchip into the opening. Within moments, the water in the pond was drained away, revealing an access hatch and a keypad entry terminal.
Yuuno gave a gasp of surprise. "This is…"
Sette's expression didn't change although her mind was now pondering just what exactly the Doctor could have set up on this quiet world.