Chapter 481: Preparations

Afterwards, the only thing weighing on the minds of Jin and the others was what they were going to do about Vivian.

The magistrate was aware that Stearleana had come to Coupu to pay her a visit.

Eventually, word about Stearleana’s defection would reach this town, and when that happened, it could cause quite a bit of trouble for Vivian.

“I have to discuss this with the others.”

With that, Jin asked Reiko and Noir to call on the rest of the girls, and they all started to discuss what to do with Vivian.

“Why don’t we ask her to leave the country with me?”

Stearleana shared her idea.

“That doesn’t sound half bad…”

They had already shown to Vivian that day that Jin and the others weren’t just ordinary people.

However, it would still be too early to talk to her about Hourai Island.

Sensing Jin’s worries about the matter, Reiko offered him a word of advice.

(Laojun says that since she’s a storyteller, she knows a lot about the past, so it’s okay to tell her as much as about Warp Gates.)

(I see…)

There were a few people outside of Hourai Island’s “Family” who knew about Warp Gates. Vivina seemed to be as trustworthy as those people.

(So it should be okay to treat Warp Gates as artifacts when talking to Vivian about them…)

On that line, Jin thought about having Vivian escape to the Shouro Empire, just like Stearleana, and concluded this topic with an open remark.

“In that case, come with us tomorrow.”

“Ok, sure.”

“I’ll take care of getting you a place to live.”

Reinhardt beat on his own chest as he declared that.

“Welcome on board, Vivian.”

Berthie cheerfully followed up on her husband’s words.

“By the way…”

Unable to hold it any longer, Reinhardt opened his mouth.

“What is it?”

Elsa, Saki, Berthie, Stearleana, and even Vivian. Each of them had a small animal either in their arms, on their laps, or snuggled up to their feet.

“Huh? These are cats, you know?”

Berthie replied nonchalantly.

“No, I know they’re cats. But why are there so many of them?”

There was literally one cat for each of the girls.

“While you two were gone, Mr. Techres had one of his maids take us to the room where he had all of his cats.”

“There were dozens of cats in there. We all grew attached so much to these little ones, that we ended up bringing them here with us.”

Elsa and Saki offered their explanations.

The white cat from that morning, Aqua, was on Elsa’s lap. Saki had an orange tabby. Berthie had a black cat, and Stearleana and Vivian had made friends with a white cat each.

“…They seem to be enjoying themselves as well.”

“Yeah.”

With a blissful expression on her face, Elsa nodded while stroking Aqua’s soft back.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

The next morning, after being treated to a nice breakfast, Jin and the others thanked Eckert before leaving.

“Well… We’ve more or less fulfilled our goal here, and we’ve seen some interesting things.”

Reinhardt nodded at Jin’s words.

“That’s right. We’ve seen a ship, and we’ve seen some cats. We’ve also enjoyed some nice miso.”

Jin asked to take a little bit of the leftover miso with him. By using this, it may be possible to get some proper koji mold from it.

And that mold could then be used as a starter to make even more miso. After that, to be able to produce soy sauce was a matter of time.

Sadly enough, he wasn’t able to take one of Eckert’s cats back with him.

“Please come visit me again some other time.”

Eckert seemed to have taken a liking to Jin and the others, as he had a reluctant expression on his face as he saw them off.

The first thing they did after that was to go back to Vivian’s house.

The invitation to leave the country together with Stearleana was still standing, and Jin and the others were in full support of it.

Splitting into groups, they quickly took care of packing everything up. Since Reiko, Noir, Neon, and Ehr were there, it wasn’t much of a big deal.

Still, going out the front door with all that luggage was definitely going to draw a lot of unwanted attention.

“…Should we bring a Warp Gate here?”

There were still a few hours of daylight until they could go out unnoticed. Because of that, Jin was trying to think of a way to bring a Warp Gate to their current location.

The idea was to simply have Reiko receive it outside Vivian’s house. The parts were sent immediately, and she retrieved them while being careful not to let anyone see her doing so.

It would be a piece of cake for Reiko to reassemble the Warp Gate. She borrowed one of Vivian’s rooms and was finished in about five minutes.

“Father, everything’s ready.”

“Oh, good job.”

While Reiko was working, Jin talked to Vivian about Warp Gates.

According to his explanation, Warp Gates were ancient artifacts.

He happened to have a large number of them under his possession, and was freely able to use them.

And as long as Jin was with them, others could use the Warp Gates as well.

“You said they’re called ‘Warp Gates’? I’ve heard old tales about them! That’s amazing!”

Vivian seemed to be very excited to see the magic tool of legend. Stearleana was smiling silently.

First Berthie disappeared through the Warp Gate, then Reinhardt followed behind her.

“Well, let’s go.”

Stearleana grabbed Vivian by the hand and took her through the Warp Gate.

This time around, the Warp Gate was set to take them directly to Reinhardt’s house instead of going through “Shinkai” first.

Then followed Edgar, Ehr, Noir, and Neon, all of them taking Vivian’s luggage with them. Elsa and Saki entered the Warp Gate after them.

Before going in himself, Jin left some instructions behind.

“Covert Units Elm and Ash, you stay here. After Reiko walks through the Warp Gate, take it apart and wait here, then use the Falcon to return home.”

“Yes, chief!”

Jin then entered the Warp Gate, leaving the invisible Covert Units behind with their instructions. Finally, Reiko took her leave.

The destination Warp Gate was currently installed in the basement of “Ranken Haus”, Reinhardt’s manor.

The party headed to the first floor as soon as they left the Warp Gate. They soon appeared at the entrance hall.

“Make yourself at home, Vivian.”

“Thank you.”

The only other person who was currently in Reinhardt’s house was his private secretary, Adberg. He hadn’t still been able to bring himself to employ people from the village.

Even then, since Reinhardt had plans to reactivate the village’s economy, they would eventually have to find capable people from within the village as well.

“We’ve only recently finished conducting a census here.”

Reinhardt admitted to that with a hint of embarrassment on his face.

“Welcome home, Lord Reinhardt.”

A maid automata had come to meet the party, attracted by the ruckus made by their arrival.

“This is an automata I’ve built recently. Her name is “Vera”.

Reinhardt did the introductions.

He then explained that since there was a Warp Gate in his house, automata were more reliable than strangers when it came to coming and going around the house.

The maid’s purple hair could make the fact that she wasn’t human stand out all the more. She had black eyes, and was wearing a standard maid’s outfit.

“I’m Vera. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Despite his busy schedule, Reinhardt was still an engineering enthusiast, and seemed to have been making automata of his own right under everyone’s noses.

The time difference with Coupu was about 2 hours, so the current time was 7 AM.

“I’m sorry, but… Vivian, Stearleana, could you both accompany me to the capital? I’d like to report your arrival before the day is over.”

“Yes, of course.”

The two readily consented to Reinhardt’s request.

“In that case, Reinhardt, I’ll be going home for now. Can you please announce at the capital that I might go visit Her Majesty tomorrow?”

Reinhardt nodded as soon as he realized Jin seemed to have something in mind.

“Got it. I’ll sign you up for an audience at 1 PM tomorrow. That’s okay with you, right?”

“Thank you.”

＊　　　＊　　　＊

Reinhardt, Stearleana, and Vivian headed for Roizart, and Jin, Elsa, and Saki went to Hourai Island.

Saki would then go back home from Hourai Island.

“Well, Jin, I’ll be going back home now.”

Now that they were alone, Elsa asked Jin.

“Brother Jin, you said you would be travelling to Roizart tomorrow, but… What for?”

“Ah, I’ve been thinking about going to explain all that we’ve found about demons. Then I had another idea.”

“Another idea?”

“Yeah. But in order to realize that idea, I need to do some preparations. Perhaps you could help me, Elsa?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I’m counting on you too, Reiko.”

“Yes, of course.”

With the help of Reiko and Elsa, Jin started making some kind of magical tool.

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