Aozaki Aoko Case File - [15]

Since Alice was already awake, there was no need to take her back to the bedroom. The two returned to the living room, intending to sit on the sofa and chat for a bit.

They sat in silence for a moment. Alice deliberately placed herself a little farther away from Aoko, still feeling awkward from Aoko’s earlier actions, while Aoko, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind.

“Let’s hear it,” Alice said, steadying herself.

“You’ve fully mastered the Fifth Magic now?”

“More or less,” Aoko replied as she stood up to pour them both some red tea.

“The old man disappeared after I opened that door, and when I returned, the cave was gone as well.”

Aoko noticed the tea in the pot was a bit cold, so she quietly used magic to warm it up.

“…Did your grandfather die?”

Alice paused as she took the teacup, feeling its warmth before sipping. “Or is it like when he was ‘killed’ by that priest last time?”

“I don’t know,” Aoko said, sitting back down and glancing up at the ornate chandelier.

“But I doubt the old man would die that easily. He’s probably hiding somewhere, watching me deal with the aftermath with glee.”

“What about the situation in the cave?”

Alice asked, savoring her tea.

“Did you encounter any obstacles?”

“I ran into a stinking white dog,” Aoko said fiercely.

“It broke my spine, and I was this close to being gutted.”

Aoko rubbed her waist, gesturing to her chest to show where she’d nearly been injured.

“Well, you seem to have a strong vitality,” Alice remarked.

“Did you use magic to reverse your condition?”

“Nope,” Aoko replied nonchalantly.

“I entered ‘there,’ thinking, ‘I shouldn’t be injured,’ and when I came back, the wounds were gone.”

“…Huh?”

Alice looked surprised. She turned to examine the now red-haired Aoko from head to toe as if searching for an answer in her appearance.

“…Is there a problem?”

Aoko asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable under her gaze.

“Problem?”

Alice, whose usual cold expression softened, gave a rare, slightly sarcastic smile.

“You’ve got quite the problem, Miss Fourth Magician. No one comes back alive from the Root—not even a magician.”

“Didn’t the First Magician, Yumina, manage to do it?”

Aoko asked, puzzled.

“She didn’t,” Alice replied firmly.

“Precisely because she didn’t, I exist as the One Fragment bearer.”

Aoko fell silent. She had assumed that Yumina, like her, had obtained the First Magic from the Root and returned, laying the foundation for subsequent magic with the Denial of Nothingness. But it seemed Yumina’s fate was more like her grandfather’s. She had gained the First Magic before reaching the [Root], left behind her bloodline, and entered the [Root], never to return.

“My situation at the time was rather urgent,” Aoko explained carefully.

“If I hadn’t entered, I probably wouldn’t have survived another five seconds, so I chose to go in.”

“That place…”

Aoko struggled to describe her experience within the Root. It seemed that all her words now felt inadequate, too pale to convey it accurately. “…I’m sure a part of me ‘melted,’ while another part rejected the Root, so I came back.”

“Is that all?”

Alice asked thoughtfully.

Aoko thought for a moment, then began to remove her outer coat. She took off her sweater, leaving only a simple white bra, exposing her well-proportioned figure to her roommate.

“…”

Alice stopped talking, turning her face away, looking embarrassed.

“What’s the big deal? We’re both girls, after all,” Aoko said mischievously, sitting closer.

“This is what I got from the Root. Want to see?”

Alice hesitated, then turned to look at her roommate, now boldly revealing her skin.

Her figure was so striking that Alice couldn’t help a touch of jealousy. Even when dressed, her fullness was apparent, and her skin was so white and smooth it seemed almost unreal. Now, seeing her like this, Alice felt an unusual pressure—

A faint blue glow appeared on Aoko’s body. Alice was astonished to see intricate and mysterious patterns covering Aoko’s arms, hands, much of her back, and parts of her face. They were undoubtedly some kind of markings.

Alice was no stranger to magic crests; her own body was covered in them, passed down through generations of witches. But she had seen Aoko’s magic crests before, only on her right arm, and they didn’t match these patterns. And the scale of them now…

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Aoko said, raising her left hand to examine the glowing crests linked to her magic.

“When I first got them, they didn’t look like this. But I’ve noticed they keep growing. It was most obvious after I encountered that red shadow on the mountain road—they grew significantly then.”

Alice remained silent. The magic crests on Aoko’s body were unlike any she knew and certainly different from her own. She had never heard of any crest that could grow on its own. Normally, magus crests were hard-won, created through years of crystallizing knowledge and passing it down, generation after generation.

The crests on Aoko’s body were an anomaly. Thinking this, Alice couldn’t help but reach out to touch the glowing markings.

“Haha, that tickles,” Aoko laughed, masking her embarrassment with a chuckle. She quickly grabbed Alice’s hand, saying, “Your hand’s cold, huh? Let’s warm up with some tea first.”

Alice, realizing her actions, quickly pulled her hand back and resumed drinking her half-finished tea.

“Tomorrow, I need to go back to my grandfather’s workshop and bring out all of the old man’s inheritance,” Aoko said, putting her clothes back on. “Will you be home tomorrow? I might bring some of it to the Kuonji residence. It’d be great if you could help me out.”

“…I don’t have any plans tomorrow.”