Wrong place.
Wrong time.
And the blond girl had barged into their conversation in exactly the wrong way.
"Ais?"
Shiro turned his neck like a rusty gear until Ais's face fully entered his view.
"Long time no see. What are you doing here...?"
The instant the words left his mouth, he regretted them.
What he should have done was divert Ais's attention away from what was happening here, not ask why she had come.
There was no need to think about it. She had obviously rushed over because of the spell Alfia had just unleashed.
"There was an explosion, so I came to check..."
Ais still wore that eternally unchanged, doll-like expression, making it almost impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Her lips parted slightly.
"You just said... Alfia?"
Ais had heard that name before as well.
She had participated in that battle several years ago.
At only nine years old, she had barely managed to convince Finn to let her join the fighting. Ais had still been Level 3 at the time, and under Riveria's instructions, she defeated Evilus members without killing any of them.
Then...
Because she had refused to stop midway when Riveria told her to, Riveria had scolded her afterward.
Remembering that, Ais pressed her lips together and visibly deflated.
Shiro, however, found her sudden change in expression baffling.
'What does that mean? Why does she suddenly look so wronged?'
He glanced at Alfia.
There was no trace of Ais in Alfia's memories either. Could Ais somehow have had some connection with her without Alfia even knowing?
Still, that was not the urgent issue.
"Ais, can you keep Alfia a secret for me for now?"
Shiro gave Alfia a look, silently telling her not to reveal herself yet.
Understanding immediately, Alfia nodded. Before anyone else could arrive, her body dissolved into particles of light and vanished into the air.
Ais also recovered from her gloomy mood and looked at Shiro with her usual slightly absent-minded gaze.
"Not even Riveria?"
Shiro hesitated.
Even within Loki Familia, Riveria occupied an exceptionally special place in Ais's heart.
If Loki Familia were compared to one enormous family, most of the Familia members were more like Ais's brothers and sisters.
Riveria, meanwhile, was the "mother" who took care of everyone in place of Loki, their hopelessly unreliable parent.
Riveria might still be considered relatively young by elven standards, but many members of Loki Familia, Ais included, had practically grown up under her watch.
Combined with Loki's usual lack of responsibility, many Familia members treated Finn, Riveria, and Gareth as the true leaders who kept everything functioning.
Aside from the embarrassing incident known only to a few executives involving "Sweet Nun Alf-chan," Riveria was one of the most respected people in the entire Familia.
More importantly, despite having so many people to look after, she had still devoted an enormous amount of attention to Ais, who had grown up without parents.
That alone showed just how important Riveria was to her.
Asking Ais to hide something from Riveria was practically the same as asking a child in a blended family to help her new siblings hide some disaster from her own mother.
After hesitating for a while, Shiro decided to offer the girl a little compensation.
"If you can keep anyone else in the Familia from finding out, I can have Alfia set aside some time to give you special training."
After communicating with Alfia mentally for a moment, Shiro made the offer.
A large part of why Riveria still constantly worried about Ais was that the girl often threw herself into groups of monsters without regard for her own safety simply because she wanted to become stronger.
Having Alfia train her for a while might calm that tendency down a little.
If Riveria found out later, she probably would not lecture him too badly...
Probably.
"Become stronger..."
Visible hesitation appeared on Ais's face.
What titles had Alfia possessed in Orario?
[Incarnation of Talent].
[Witch of Silence].
Former executive of Hera Familia.
The first two titles had been earned through Alfia's own strength.
Even the least impressive one, merely being an executive of Hera Familia, represented a position that almost no adventurer in present-day Orario could hope to qualify for.
Back then, even Level 5 adventurers in Hera Familia were only good enough to serve as supporters during expeditions.
That alone showed just how absurdly powerful the Familia had been.
Take Loki Familia, one of Orario's current twin rulers, as an example.
Before Ais and the others advanced in level, only three members of Loki Familia would even have qualified to join one of Hera Familia's expeditions.
And even those three would have ranked near the bottom, with a position not much higher than Anakitty's current standing within Loki Familia.
Yet even among the monsters gathered in Hera Familia, Alfia had still belonged to the absolute strongest handful.
According to legend, even while she was only Level 7, she could fight Hera Familia's Level 9 captain, [Empress], one-on-one and guarantee that she would never lose.
Even now, some gods still wondered whether Alfia, had she survived the Evilus incident and lived until the present day, might have eventually become capable of challenging the One-Eyed Black Dragon alone.
'If someone like that trains me...'
'Can I become stronger?'
Seeing that Ais was clearly tempted, Shiro immediately pressed his advantage.
"Only ten days."
"After ten days, you can tell anyone you want."
"Ten days... I understand."
Determination appeared on Ais's face.
She nodded solemnly, as though she had just made one of the most important decisions of her life.
At that exact moment...
"Ais! Huh? Shiro's back too!"
Tiona and the others, who had been chasing after Ais, finally arrived.
The moment Tiona reached them, she immediately circled Ais from head to toe without even stopping, checking whether anything had been damaged.
"You're not hurt, right? Did you find whatever exploded?"
Riveria's emerald eyes met Ais's golden ones as she asked with obvious concern.
Under normal circumstances, if Riveria looked at her like that, Ais would have obediently confessed everything she had seen without hesitation.
Fortunately, Shiro and Ais had already coordinated their story before the others arrived.
Even in a situation like this, all Ais had to do was follow Shiro's lead and make up some simple explanation.
Then they could bring Loki over to confirm the story.
Keeping the truth hidden for ten days should have been easy.
However...
"Ah... Um... I'm fine... and I found what caused it... It's just..."
The instant Riveria looked at her, the famous doll-like Sword Princess transformed into an obedient kitten.
Ais began stumbling over her words, completely unable to continue.
It was honestly rather adorable.
Unfortunately, with everyone watching, it was considerably less adorable for Shiro when Ais turned pleading eyes toward him for help.
"..."
As every gaze followed Ais and landed directly on his face, Shiro silently covered his forehead with one hand.
He swore to himself.
He would never ask Ais to help him lie again.
Never.
…