"Wait a moment, Alice!"
Aoko suddenly cut Alice off mid-question and turned her gaze toward the terrace outside the room.
The "first Aoko" had been placed in the same room as Alice, and as the "second," the current Aoko naturally followed that arrangement as well.
"Aoko?"
Alice looked slightly surprised and followed Aoko's line of sight out the window. Outside the new wing of the hot spring inn, a bird was circling in the air. Its entire body was emerald green, as if carved from jade, and it slowly descended, coming to rest on the railing of their vacation terrace.
At first glance, it perched there just like any ordinary wild bird, turning its head to preen its feathers. Even so, there was one undeniable truth it could not conceal.
"Oh my, this is definitely no ordinary bird! Even among us birds, it would count as upper-class! It's just a raven, yet it has such bizarre plumage! A rival! Yes, it must be my rival!"
Robin, the robin familiar who constantly accompanied Alice, started shouting at the top of his lungs, speaking human words now that there were no outsiders around.
Then, with a light flick, Alice casually knocked him to the floor. His vitality vanished instantly.
He was dead.
A few seconds later, he revived as if nothing had happened.
"…Putting aside the fact that Robin is a bit loud," Aoko said, unfazed by a death she had long grown used to, as she stepped closer to the terrace and observed the emerald-green raven just an arm's length away, "that really is a raven, isn't it? And it's a familiar…"
Alice studied the raven carefully. "This isn't a tamed or contracted familiar. It's something someone created through Magecraft, a construct made entirely of pure magical energy."
"Making familiars out of nothing but magic is pretty common for Magi, isn't it?" Aoko asked.
"Generally speaking, yes." Alice stepped out onto the balcony and caught the raven without any difficulty, holding it in her hands as she examined it. "But the magical energy in this familiar is exceptionally pure. If someone were to attack it carelessly, the resulting explosion would be enough to destroy this room. Anyone inside would have little chance of surviving."
Aoko's expression tightened with caution. "So it's a bomb someone sent us?"
"It won't do anything as long as we don't attack it," Alice replied, lifting her eyes to look around the area surrounding the new building. There were several more identical ravens in sight. "It seems whoever made these familiars intends to use them to survey the surroundings."
"That's even worse. It feels like we're being watched," Aoko muttered after a moment's thought. "It has to be my sister's… you know. That guy. It's definitely him."
"Running away from reality like this doesn't really suit you, Aoko," Alice remarked calmly.
"Don't you think this is ridiculous?" Aoko grabbed her head and let out a wail. "That sister of mine suddenly has a fiancé, and she's even saying she'll give up the Aozaki name! Of all things, this is the one thing I refuse to fall behind her on!"
Alice nodded in understanding. "So, you're still single?"
"...Ahaha, more or less…" Aoko laughed awkwardly, clearly unwilling to admit it outright.
"So that's how it is." Alice thought for a moment. "Miss Touko was just teasing you. She lied because she knew you didn't have the information that 'the first Aoko' has."
"Huh? Then that means my big sister is actually—" Aoko's face lit up with joy.
"Just a boyfriend," Alice added calmly. "That's what Miss Touko said. She probably isn't engaged yet."
The words landed like another heavy blow to her old friend.
Aoko sagged against the railing, swaying weakly. "That doesn't really make a difference… damn it…"
"At least I don't think they'll get married," Alice continued. "Mr. Shiomi already has a family. You should've heard about that too."
"...Oh. Right." Aoko's eyes widened, then she suddenly sprang upright. "Wait, no. If that's true, doesn't that mean my sister is involved with a married man, and they even came on a hot spring trip together?"
As that realization sank in, the direction of Aoko's worries shifted entirely.
"…I knew my sister lived pretty freely, but this freely… I really don't want to admit it…" she muttered darkly.
"Please pull yourself together, Miss Aoko!" Robin chimed in again, chattering away. "I don't know what era you're from, but you're definitely not young anymore. Still, Miss Touko is a few years older than you and managed to find a lover, so you can definitely do it too! No, from my perspective, you absolutely can! You're not at the age where you should be calling yourself old yet!"
"Hey. Do you want to die again?" Aoko snapped, her face darkening.
This overly talkative robin was far too good at "encouraging" people. Aoko, who was already used to watching Alice take care of him, suddenly felt the urge to do it herself.
But this time as well, Alice handled it.
The robin met his second death.
"Anyway, putting Miss Touko's personal affairs aside," Alice said, "what exactly is that man trying to accomplish by releasing familiars like this?"
She felt no hostility from the familiar, nor any discomfort from being watched.
More than that, when she tried to interfere with it using her Mana, attempting to harmlessly dismantle it, she discovered that despite appearing to be a pure mass of magical energy, the spellwork sustaining its existence was refined and remarkably complex.
Faced with Alice's Mana, it simply moved about in her palm like a wild bird that sensed no danger, calmly preening its feathers.
Utterly docile.
"This bird…" Alice mused. "Maybe I should take it. It doesn't talk and it's not noisy. Next time I go out, I could leave Robin at home to watch the place."
She was seriously beginning to consider the familiar's value.
"Think carefully, Miss Alice!" Robin immediately protested, sensing his position under threat. "A familiar made entirely of pure Mana like this can't be maintained, even if you buy it! Once the original owner cancels the spell, wouldn't that just mean you wasted your money?!"
"That just makes Alice think her earlier idea was even more correct, doesn't it?" Aoko said flatly, watching Robin flap his wings in agitation with a look of pity.
The blue robin knew perfectly well how dangerous this raven was and hadn't dared to attack it at all.
Then, as if answering Robin's unspoken wish, the emerald raven suddenly spread its wings, spanning a full fifty centimeters from tip to tip.
It slipped free from Alice's hands and shot straight into the sky. A few seconds later, it flew back and landed on a section of railing a short distance away from the two girls and the bird, turning its head left and right as if aimlessly surveying its surroundings.
"I thought it was going to fly away," Alice said, faintly puzzled.
Just then, a voice called out from above. Aoko and Alice looked up toward the eighth floor.
Tenkei Shiomi had an arm around Skadi as he waved down at them, his bright, clear voice carrying easily through the air.
"Sorry about that! One of the ravens had a weak Mana signal earlier, so I issued a forced takeoff command! You didn't hear it, did you?"
"No—way—!"
Aoko thought, just as I expected, and shouted back at the top of her lungs.