Chapter 17 – Arriving at…

"Well, that was fun!" Maria swirled her staff in the sand of the beach. "I didn't think we'd see monsters like this out here. Maybe we'll find more of them further inland!"

"Maybe we'll never discuss this again." Reina retorted, her will to fight drained after what they just encountered.

Pirate Doll Totem
(abilities locked) Equip Bonus: naval combat skill 1

Dolls with eyepatches and hooks on one hand and peg legs and scimitars…These concepts made it hard for Reina to take things seriously. They weren't weak dolls, stronger than every other type she encountered aside from the thunderstruck doll. If they fought these dolls before the Wave, it might have been difficult.

"Anyway," Reina looked around, "where's the spirit supposed to be?"

"This way." Vyrdrun said, leading them on.

Traveling by ship was a nice change of pace. They'd be making port in Gathana tomorrow and then only a day of travel until they reached the city with the Adamantine Gate. Any villages on the way would be avoided, mostly to not cause a panic or incur any difficulties traveling with a Gromnar might bring in former imperial territories.

And, of course, "making port" would happen in a less-traveled village with a pier long enough for their ship to dock at.

In the meantime, a stop at a spirit's location was warranted. Crescent had given them directions and Vyrdrun was able to guide them once they were close enough. Part of Reina wanted to ignore it completely, given the person who told them about the spirit, but that would have been too petty.

A few more encounters with the unmentionable dolls later, they came across a pool of water surrounded by what looked like palm trees. What they actually were was something a bit more to Reina's liking.

"Terricot trees." Vyrdrun remarked.

"Oh, wow." Maria gazed up at the tall trees. "I hear their fruits are pretty tasty~."

"Terricot…" Reina mumbled. "Those are the trees you used to make that medicine, right?"

"Hm, yes. The one to help with mystic rain sickness." Vyrdrun confirmed.

Reina smiled. These could be very profitable. The sudden influx of simoleons was good, but hearing the price of her armor made her realize how much more they would need. Not only would people likely pay an arm and a leg for something to help against the violet rain, but she remembered how the potion itself tasted like chocolate. All she needed was some sort of sweetener and she'd be set.

It'd been too long since she had her favorite treat.

"Well, I know what we'll be doing before we leave." Reina told her party her plan.

First was contracting with the spirit.

Contract: Levitation
Restriction: muscle inhibition
Accept?

Reina accepted and gave the specifics to Maria. She flexed her arms a few times, checking them out.

"I don't feel any different." She commented.

"Maybe it's harder to gain muscle?" Maria offered.

"Maybe." Reina shrugged. She knew what to look out for, so she'd figure it out soon enough. Moving her legs about, Reina pushed herself up off the ground…and then proceeded to fall face first onto it.

"You okay?" Maria asked, glancing over at the hero.

"…I figured it out." Reina said after turning her face away from the ground.

Leg muscle inhibition. She could move them without too much issue, but it was laughable to think they could support even her weight now.

"Levitation!" Reina cast her spell, allowing her body to lift off the ground.

After righting herself, she gave a few practice movements through the air. Up, down, side-to-side, even a few flips. The result? Slow. Leisurely walk slow. It was no wonder Crescent sat on Alister's shoulder to get around, though she was much faster than Reina.

"I'm going to collect some tree bark while I wait." Reina informed her companions. Vyrdrun would join once he was done meditating for his own purposes, and she didn't know how long Maria would take to get the spell.

Plus, it wasn't as if the spirit would care. Most didn't have much of an opinion on their surroundings, as far as mages could tell. So long as the area itself was still intact, it would be fine.

Slowly floating over to the nearest palm tree, Reina changed to an athame and got to work. Or, she tried to.

"Come on…" She tried gripping the tree with one hand while she carved into it with her athame, but she kept pushing herself away. "Okay, no."

Contract terminated!

Reina let herself drop the short distance to the ground and continued her work. It wasn't a hard decision.

Maybe when she got better at magic and could really improve her spells, she'd come back and get the contract again. As it stood, the spell and restriction were more a liability than an asset. She needed to be able to move around quickly. Being a wizard, Maria could afford the restriction, and she could probably improve the spell to go faster and keep her body steady.

Before collecting any in a sack to work on later, Reina deposited bark into her weapon's gem until she got the notification.

Terricot Tree Rod
(abilities locked) Equip Bonus: potion compounding bonus (medium)

"Nice!" That was two bonuses to making potions she had now. Though, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Reina pieced together a few things from the HP potions she made using the blue caps with her weapon's auto-crafting feature. It didn't matter what the quality of the ingredients were. Both the poor quality mushrooms after getting rained on and the good quality ones she picked later on, the end result would always be average quality potions. Only when she made the potions by hand did her weapon increase their quality.

"Well, I can work on that at some point." Reina reasoned. Auto-crafting somehow also made the potion bottles they were stored in, but she couldn't reuse them on account of the bottles breaking apart afterward.

After Maria and Vyrdrun were done, the three collected a more than reasonable amount of terricot tree bark. A good chunk was stored in Reina's weapon. She could pull it out at the next Dragon Hourglass if they needed some.

"Ready to go?" Maria asked, levitating herself down onto Vyrdrun's shoulder.

"Yeah." Reina gave her a look. The woman returned it with a smile.

The three of them went back to the ship, using a rowboat in the shallow water. Once back on, they got on their way. This little detour only delayed their travel by a couple hours, not long for a multi-day voyage.

Reina looked through her status once she took a seat on the ship. It never hurt to review what she knew and what she may have forgotten.

"Having fun there, Boss?" Maria asked as she floated over. It seemed Levitation maintained momentum, since she had no problem on the moving ship.

"Yeah…" Reina absentmindedly replied.

"What's up?" Maria asked, sitting next to her.

"My stats are off." Reina said.

More specifically, it was the stats on her forged spirit. In fact, they were slightly higher than they were before. The pirate dolls were enough to gain a level, but she hadn't reforged her spirit yet. She didn't unlock any weapon forms recently or receive any other notifications. Looking for answers, Reina opened up the section giving her the stat bonuses from different sources.

The bonus from one of her power up methods increased slightly. Given that there was only one thing she did involving that, she understood completely.

"…Just making a contract with a spirit increased the power of my spells and skills." She said her findings.

"Ooh, that's nice~." Maria cooed.

Maria didn't seem to understand how big a deal it was. Reina was under the impression she would need to maintain contracts to give herself power, but that was no longer the case. Sure, having a contract was much better, about five times the amount if she wasn't mistaken. However, there were supposedly hundreds of spirits all over the world. If she could get around to even a fraction of them, her forged spirit would be that much more powerful, to say nothing of any spells and contracts she ended up keeping.

"You know where a bunch of spirits are, right?" Reina asked, to which Maria responded with a smile and a nod. "Then after I register to the other two Dragon Hourglasses, we're going to go around to them all."

"Sounds exciting!" Maria pulled her close, arm wrapped around the smaller girl's side. "We'll get to see the world together!"

"Why do you have to make everything sound so suggestive?" Reina quickly asked, her face turning red.

"Hm? But I wasn't." Maria's smile widened as she leaned closer. "Maybe that's just how you wanted to hear it~."

"Your hand is on my hip!" Reina yelled.

"Oh~. Then…" Ever so slowly, Maria's had slid over. Her fingers glided across Reina's stomach—

The Totem Hero, discerning the situation to be unsafe, immediately retreated to a more favorable position. That being, not sitting next to the wizard.

"Aw, so mean~." Maria complained with the fakest whine Reina had ever heard. "It's so cold on the open sea~."

"Then wear a cloak! You own one!" Reina continued on with her retreat, designating her current location as also unsafe.

~Forging Legends~

Gathana.

Since the fall of empire, the country fell into decline. It couldn't boast as strong of a navy as the empire without good trade. As a result, some ship captains turned to piracy, though Reina's group thankfully didn't have to deal with that. Battles and short wars killing people and others just leaving to return or migrate to the homeland, if they could afford it, reduced the population.

These and other, smaller reasons were explained to Reina by both Maria and some of the sailors on the ship. What it did not explain, however, was the current condition of the city that held the Adamantine Gate.

"This place is a ghost town." Reina remarked as they entered the city. The main gates were left open, inviting them in. There wasn't anyone to welcome them. No one alive, that was.

Bodies of the dead didn't quite litter the street, but there were more than enough in plain view as they went along. The ones close enough to be seen through the light mist, of course.

"There's poison in the air." Vyrdrun said, waving his arm forward.

"How dangerous is it?" Reina asked.

Vyrdrun hummed. "Deadly, but slow. I can purge it from our bodies every couple of hours, but we shouldn't rest here. Beyond that, I can't say what it does."

"I'll check some of the bodies and see what I can find out." Maria said, floating from her position on the cart.

Reina realized it may have helped to stop in some village on the way, or even in the one they made port in. Hindsight was 20-20 and there was nothing to do about that now. More urgent was what to do about using the gate. It needed to be operated on both sides, and this side clearly couldn't be.

She wasn't unsympathetic to the people here that died. A slow death from poisoning sounded horrible, a fate she narrowly escaped herself. Nor was she numb to the idea of seeing so many dead people. The whole situation…she merely tried pushing it to the side in her mind.

"There's nothing I can do for them." She told herself. It was true. They were dead. It didn't make her feel any better about any of this.

Reina parked the cart on the side of the road, not that it would matter. "I'm going to take a look around." She told Vyrdrun, who nodded and headed off on his own.

She already had an idea of what he'd say about the situation. "We should take any supplies we need. No one here will need them." It was cold, but true.

As she walked down the road, Reina let her mind wander to distract herself from the death around her.

"What could have caused all of this? I see purple marks like bruises creeping up their necks. If it was from violet rain, Vyrdrun would have said so. Could it have been the Demon Lord? Maybe. The bodies don't look particularly decayed, so it probably wasn't long ago this happened, especially if word didn't get around to Lespax. Even if they don't really communicate, I can't imagine news not spreading. Then again, if it was poison, scavenging monsters and animals probably wouldn't want to…"

Reina let out a sigh. Clearly, she wasn't going to be able to not think about all the dead bodies she was passing. Rounding a corner, she let her thoughts drift to something else unpleasant.

"I really should be more bothered by all this. Maybe the Wave a week ago numbed me more than I realized. I mean, undead were falling from the sky and screaming at me. Hell, I was pretty calm during that too, even with a new Demon Lord attacking us. I might be going crazy."

The buildings had little damage to them. If this was an attack of some sort, it didn't do a lot of collateral damage, assuming the people were the target.

"I only have two Demon Lords to take examples from, but neither one strikes me as particularly subtle. Sure, announcing yourself like Karth did wasn't smart, but Derdir launched an attack on a capital city. I think Maria mentioned Gathana's capital is a bit west of here and this was just the place the empire put the gate after they conquered the country, but the point remains. And the point…I don't know."

There wasn't any real point to her musings. Reina didn't want to look at the dead bodies. She just wanted to get out of there. They'd get to Keston, and then…deal with whatever they have to when they arrive. Vyrdrun didn't sound concerned and he would know better than her how he'd be received, but that didn't mean she couldn't worry.

A loud crash knocked Reina from her disjointed thoughts. Looking at the source, she saw Vyrdrun rummaging through something at a blacksmith's forge.

"Oh, wow, I went in a circle? This really isn't the place to be getting distracted, but…I really don't want to think about all this."

She walked over to where he was, looking at the buildings in this part of the city. There was actually a bit of damage, some of the walls being knocked out and broken down. Reina wondered if Vyrdrun had done that too.

"Find anything?" Reina asked, approaching him from behind. The moment she spoke, she realized she made a mistake.

Three things were immediately apparent to Reina. The first was that Vyrdrun was wearing different armor than before, these pelts appearing rougher and thicker. The second was that Vyrdrun didn't have a horned monster skull to act as a helmet, or anything for that matter. The third and final difference was that Vyrdrun was two times her height, not two and a half times.

"That's not Vyrdrun." Reina quickly concluded.

"A human!" The Gromnar roared, raising the now-visible massive club in the air.

"Wait!" Reina cried out, dodging to the side as the weapon came down.

She backed up a bit as the giant lifted his weapon again. The impact on the ground told her she did not want to get hit by that.

"Wait, stop, I'm not here to—" She didn't get the chance to talk, the Gromnar swinging at her again.

Another bang echoed all around as the club slammed into the ground. Wisely, Reina chose not to engage with someone who could likely crush all her bones. Instead, she spun around and ran back the way she came.

"Vyrdrun! Maria!" She yelled as she ran. "We've got trouble!"

"There are humans here! Come!" The giant gave a yell of his own as he started chasing after her.

Reina rounded a corner, the giant hot on her trail. Within a few strides, he'd be on her again.

"Web!" She shot out her snare skill to slow him down. It did do that, but only for a couple seconds.

"Forge Spirit!" Reina turned to her primary skill, conjuring her spirit.

Flames erupted from behind her as it took form. Translucent, decaying flesh wrapped in fire protected her from behind. The Zombie Template did exactly as advertised, making her forged spirit take the size and form of a man—presumably—that had long since passed. If that wasn't enough, the Spider Bite ability gave its face a set of mandibles. Combined with the Immolation ability, it truly looked like something fresh out of hell.

"Hero!" Unfortunately, the appearance of the forged spirit didn't have the effect Reina desired. If anything, it only spurred the giant on further.

She sent the spirit at him as she continued to run, delivering a Spider Bite empowered by Charge. It sunk its mandibles into the Gromnar's chest, causing him to roar in pain. He slowed his run slightly, the poison hopefully affecting him some.

With his free hand, the Gromnar pulled the forged spirit off him and swung his club at it. With decaying arms raised, her spirit took the attack. Luckily, the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. The defense bonus from the template was nothing to scoff at, nor was the HP bonus. Reina's armor also helped divert some the damage back onto the giant, increased due to her pouring her MP into it. The Static Field from her equipped Thunderstruck Doll Totem also went off, shocking the Gromnar.

As an aside, she was glad Immolation didn't harm the fire-vulnerable spirit.

"Brother!" The call from another road did not inspire confidence in Reina. With a look, she saw another similarly dressed and slightly younger Gromnar running toward her. This one had a spear in each hand, as well as two more positioned on his back.

Reina opted to continue running, forcing her legs to go faster. The second Gromnar fell in behind her, not quite able to cut her off. She was able to direct her forged spirit to that one before he could reach her, inflicting another paralytic Spider Bite and slowing him as well.

This Gromnar was a bit more agile, able to pry off her forged spirit with a spear. He slowed down and pulled back his other arm before launching the other spear at her. Reina could see over her shoulder, but she wasn't able to fully dodge. The spear was able to penetrate her armor's deflection, cutting into her side.

With a hiss of pain, Reina put pressure on the wound and kept up her pace. Both Gromnar continued behind her, matching her speed.

"If they corner me before I find Vyrdrun and Maria, will the Demon Lord or one of his kids pop out to kill them? Or will they let the Gromnar kill me? Crescent did specify keeping me safe during the Wave, so…" Imminent death turned her thoughts morbid. Whatever the case, she didn't want to find out.

"Boss!" Thankfully, she wouldn't need to. Reina spotted Maria close to where she was before after rounding another corner. "Move over! Twin Fireball!"

Swiftly moving to the side with her spirit, a pair of red beads flew through the air, each one impacting against one of the Gromnar and exploding. The pair stumbled back but quickly resumed their run.

"Wall of Fire!" Flames sprung up between Reina and the two Gromnar, separating them with Maria's spell. "Over here, quick!"

Not needing to be told twice, Reina ran over to Maria just as the two Gromnar made their way around the fire. Maria dismissed the spell soon after.

"You sure do keep things interesting, Boss! Twin Fireball!" Maria commented as she let out her spell once again.

The Gromnar clearly learned their lesson, avoiding the spell and only letting the resulting explosions singe their backs.

As they continued their charge, Reina sent her forged spirit after the club-wielding one. It wasn't able to latch on, getting struck on the head with the Gromnar's club. The duo attacked it together, suffering minor burns and electric shocks, plus reflected damage thanks to Reina's armor. Despite it being on fire, the forged spirit didn't gain any resistance to outside fire attacks, so Maria couldn't send any of her powerful spells its way. It would've been bad to be the one landing the finishing blow. Instead, she cast Healing Hands on Reina.

One Gromnar skewered the spirit with his spear, slamming it onto the ground. The other one beat on it with his massive club until it dissolved. The moment it did, blood burst from the Gromnar's chest.

"Brother!" The spear-wielder cried out as the other one took a knee. Maria was already healing the damage done to Reina from her spirit being destroyed.

With his obstacle out of the way, the younger Gromnar charged once more.

"Forge Spirit!" Only, it still had an enemy to fight.

Reina's spirit came into being, its segmented, burning insect-like body blocking the giant's path. With the Spirit Slot granted from the Wave boss, Reina had another spirit ready to go. She could still only have one out at a time and it would take a few seconds to dismiss one before bringing out the other, but having the first violently destroyed bypassed the second issue.

Unlike the first one, Reina didn't give this forged spirit Death Pact. Instead, it had the two healing abilities. The way she saw it, if the first one got destroyed, they'd probably need some immediate healing anyway. She wasn't far off.

The forged spirit tangled itself up around the Gromnar, halting his movement. It bit at him with its two different bite abilities, but the Gromnar was showing his agility in avoiding its maw. He already began prying it off with his free spear.

In a few movements, he was able to completely dislodge the forged spirit.

The older Gromnar started to stand. It wouldn't be long before the pair pinned Reina's spirit down and destroyed it like the first one. After that, Reina and Maria would need to think a bit more creatively. Maria could float up, but she wouldn't be able to carry Reina. The fact that one of the Gromnar had spears also put another strain on any plans of escape.

"Cease this at once!" A voice called out.

The younger Gromnar stopped in place immediately. The older one lowered the end of his club to the ground.

Reina looked over to see three Gromnar approaching, one of them familiar. Vyrdrun and another skull-helmeted Gromnar—this one with a beard—walked slightly behind the first female Gromnar Reina saw. Like Maria once described to her, she was a bit taller than her companion, about half a foot, and her face was thinner too. Reina didn't doubt her body was similar, though the long pelted garb hid that.

"Druid, this one's a hero! The Totem Hero!" The younger Gromnar pointed his spear at Reina.

"I am aware, young one. This shaman has told me as much. Cease your fight." The druid replied, her voice loud and commanding.

Despite looking like he wanted to complain, the younger Gromnar didn't move to attack.

Reina let her spirit dissipate and return, seeing as the fighting looked to be done. While the other Gromnar with the druid went over to his two companions, the druid continued to approach with Vyrdrun. Reina couldn't help but compare the expressions on their faces. Vyrdrun didn't smile often, usually keeping a stern or somewhat neutral look on his face. This druid, on the other hand, looked to be all business. It wasn't quite a scowl, but it felt close.

Once in front of the two women, the druid seemed to glare down at them. It was all Reina could do to not step back from the towering Gromnar.

"I'm told you serve an important role, Hero." The druid practically spat out the word. "And to do this, you need to make use of the humans' contraption near the center of their city. Is this correct?"

"Y-Yes." Reina hesitantly responded. She actually did take a step back from the intimidating woman.

"And after using this device, you will leave these lands?" The druid questioned further.

"That's right." Reina spoke more quickly.

"Hm." The druid cast her gaze at her companions for a moment before turning back. "Very well. Come with us to our village. The chief will make the decision."

~Forging Legends~

"Isn't this exciting, Boss? Your first visit to a Gromnar village!" It amazed Reina how easily Maria adapted to their current situation.

Within a few minutes, they would enter the village that just came into view. This was after about an hour of travel into the hills surrounding the city. The pair sat on the cart pulled by the nipeigh while four Gromnar traveled alongside them. Of course, three of them didn't seem all that pleased about it. One had gone ahead to inform the village of their arrival.

Despite their battle being stopped, the two Gromnar they fought didn't want any treatment from Reina or Maria. The druid quickly put an end to their complaining and told them to "let the littling witch heal them." Reina got the distinct impression she didn't mean that in an endearing way, but the two warriors did what she said.

For the entire ride through the hills, those two followed behind the cart and kept their eyes on the humans, specifically Reina. It wasn't hard to figure out why, her being the Totem Hero and all. Ironically, the bearded Gromnar—who hadn't spoken a word since they saw him—treated her the best before going ahead; meaning, of course, he didn't interact with her at all.

Once they got closer to the village, Reina noted how the homes were made similar to the temporary ones Vyrdrun constructed. They had more decorations on them, some with plants growing across while others were adorned with monster skulls. They were all quite large, one near the other end being larger and having some of the largest skulls. Reina could only assume it was the chief's home, or that of someone else important.

"Humans?"

"They're so small."

"They aren't kids?"

Reina heard the voices of the villagers as they passed them by. It was a bit of a shock, but Reina remembered something Maria told her when they first met. About half of the women didn't have anything covering their chests. She couldn't really tell any difference between the ones who did and the ones who didn't, though the underdressed ones seemed fairly fit.

Some of the villagers they saw were children, which was strange to see. Annoying, actually, since some of them looked to be around the age of late grade schoolers yet were taller than her. Thankfully for her own peace of mind, they were fully clothed. Reina guessed the kids weren't as resistant to the cold as the adults. She was just glad she had a cloak on. The temperature dropped a bit as they climbed higher.

"You like kids, Boss?" Maria casually asked.

"I'm…confused." Reina admitted, pointing at the children they passed. "They look like large humans. No head nodules or thin faces."

Maria smirked. "They don't have beards or breasts either."

Reina understood what she meant. Those characteristics came later, more apparent in adults. Her response, however, didn't show that. "Why are you making these remarks at a time like this?"

"Relax~." With her easygoing smile, Maria placed a hand on Reina's shoulder. "A shaman is speaking for us. Even if something isn't worked out, we'll leave the same way we entered: in peace."

"I hope you're right." Just in case she wasn't, Reina already reforged her destroyed spirit. Obviously, she didn't want to use it in a place filled with kids, but…

Well, she really hoped Maria was right.

They approached the largest home, bringing the nipeigh to a stop.

"Wait here." Vyrdrun told them. "I'll see what the chief has to say."

With any luck, the Gromnar might be able to help them.

"You two, return to your home." The druid instructed the ones with her.

"But, Druid…" The youngest one protested, earning an elbow from his brother.

"Go." The druid commanded. "The shaman's humans will behave and stay where they are."

There was no argument to be had from any of them. The two warrior Gromnar left the cart while Vyrdrun and the druid entered the home. Now all there was left to do was…

"You aren't thinking he'll try to seduce her, are you~?" Maria whispered into Reina's ear.

"Would you take this seriously!?" Reina barked out.

"What~?" Maria casually floated up a foot, only to reposition her legs over Reina's lap. The way her dress fell completely revealed one of her legs. "Like I said, everything'll be fine~."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I walked through a city full of poison and dead people and got chased by two Gromnar. I'm still a little on edge about the whole thing!"

And, of course, the fact that they were probably being watched by the Demon Lord even as they spoke. Reina could understand him losing track of her when she was teleported to the Wave, but that was over a week ago. There was plenty of time for his spy—or spies—to get back on their trail, considering they returned to Lespax's capital before going north and their plans were openly discussed. Add the fact that invisibility magic was a thing, not to mention scrying—viewing things from a distance with magic—Reina had little doubt they were being monitored.

Hopefully, passing through the Adamantine Gate would give them a little breathing room.

Vyrdrun and Maria both knew her thoughts on the matter. Vyrdrun said he would be able to sense any invisible spies if they got close enough, which they apparently did not, even on the ship. Either the spy was very good at avoiding Vyrdrun or he/she/it followed along on land, but Vyrdrun kept a lookout regardless. Maria, on the other hand…

"Relax, Boss~." Maria wrapped her arms around Reina's neck. "Besides, the place wasn't full of dead people."

"That's what you took away from what I said?" Reina could feel her eye twitching. That hadn't happened nearly as much before she met this wizard. Her complete and utter ease for their situation was aggravating, to say the least.

"You know what you need~?" Maria cooed. "A nice nap. Why don't you lay down with me~?"

Maria quickly found herself on her back, her hat displaced on her head. Reina was over her, hands placed next to either side of Maria's head on the seat. She stared down at the wizard, mere inches from her face. Maria gave a slight laugh.

"O-Oh! I see you're taking me up on my offer." She let out, her voice getting quieter as she spoke.

"If I do this, will you take things seriously?" Reina asked her, unblinking.

"Hm? And…what are you going to do?" Maria asked.

Reina didn't vocalize an answer. Instead, she closed the distance between them and placed her lips on Maria's. The wizard's eyes widened, the red orbs becoming that much more visible.

When Reina pulled back, Maria sucked in a breath.

"Now, will you finally stop all that?" Reina asked her, her voice fully serious.

Maria clamped her mouth shut and gave a quick nod.

"Good." Reina leaned back up.

Maria drew her legs away from Reina and sat up straight in her seat. She reached around for her hat and placed it back on her head before folding her hands in her lap.

Reina watched her out of the corner of her eye, elbow propped on the side of the seat area. There was small smirk on Reina's face, as well as a light blush.

"Finally. I got her to stop that." Reina thought to herself. "This'll probably come back to bite me later, but at least she's calmed down."

For now, Reina clenched her fist in victory.

Author's Notes:

I contemplated moving the scene entering the village to the next chapter and replacing it with another look at the Demon Lord family, but I think this works better. That scene can be summarized to the same effect anyway. Besides, I'd have to shift around things I have planned for next chapter if I did.

Reina's fighting back against her clingy wizard and it appears her tactic was quite effective. Surely this hack author isn't going to do anything with it, of course~.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. And for those of you who don't live in the USA, I hope your normal week was normal.