The evening of the next day.
The VIP room on the second floor of the Cider Hall.
Seven men and women had gathered there.
Well, to be precise, it was two men, five women, and one creature.
This was the departure party — held the day before setting out.
It was common practice for caravans and guard details, aimed at letting everyone meet each other and build rapport.
We ordered food and drinks, and then Mineha spoke up.
"Well, would you look at that — not a single stranger among us."
"That's right."
"Nah!"
"Well then, the fact that it's all acquaintances puts my mind at ease."
"Sure does."
"Witch, does everyone here actually know each other?"
"Hmm, seems like it, yep."
I spoke up, curious.
"Are you all acquainted?"
The assembled group numbered seven.
First, me — Wof. The witch. Mineha. Bid. Hoss.
And then Chardina and Anna Kreuzen.
It seemed like Chardina and the others were in charge of cleaning the hideout.
I could understand why the five witches knew each other.
It made sense that they'd gotten acquainted through using the witches' bath.
I already knew that Hoss, the witch, Mineha, and Bid were on familiar terms.
But there was no reason Chardina and Anna Kreuzen would have met before.
"Oh my, so Hoss and Chardina's group know each other, do they?"
The witch spoke up, voicing the question on my mind.
Come to think of it, Mineha and the others had been wondering the same thing.
"We do, yes. We originally came to know each other through Master's social circle, yes."
"Social circle?"
"According to Munieka, it is only natural for a maid to be aware of her master's social circle, yes."
"Is that... natural?"
I didn't really know much about maids in this world, so I couldn't say whether that was true or not.
Based on my past-life memories... ah, but I vaguely remembered a drama where "observing, learning, and using that knowledge" was part of the deal.
Bid shook her head.
"Don't know, ss."
Bid answered while shaking her Holland lop ears.
She was a beastkin of the rabbit-folk variety. Her tail was round and white.
Black hair, blue eyes. She was self-conscious about the freckles across the bridge of her nose.
She wore a leather bracer on her right arm, a blue jumper that Riv had given her, and a yellow shirt underneath.
She was wearing something like black spandex.
The witch opened her mouth.
"Hmm, hmm. Coming from Munieka, that makes sense."
"So it's obvious... what exactly?"
"Na?"
"..."
When our eyes met, Anna Kreuzen, sitting beside Shaldina, gave a small smile and a nod.
Is that so? Maybe it is.
Also, why is Shaldina holding Dagaa?
Lately, Minosdor and Dagaa have been getting along well. I guess that's fine.
"And through the working relationship at Riv's place — you know, Riv's sister. She came along with Juicy, and we've even taken quests together."
Hoss added.
"Juicy. She mentioned before that she sometimes does mercenary work for Thunder Fang, right?"
"Yeah. When she does, a maid or two always tags along."
"That's how I came to know her."
"Ah, that makes sense. Juicy's cute, isn't she? We team up with her every now and then too."
"Na!"
The ladies really do have a wide social network.
"Come to think of it, has Juicy become a delver?"
"I haven't heard anything about that. What about Bid?"
— "I already handed over the birthday present, though."
— "Haven't heard anything from Rel either, I think."
— "Hmm, hmm. Maybe she hasn't become one yet, ya know."
— "Huh?"
I wonder why. Maybe I should ask her in person once we get back.
— "Anyway, our mode of transport is a giant carriage, huh?"
— "Yep, yep. That's right. Kon's 'Skiar Coffin E,' ya know. It just got finished, so this trip doubles as a test run, ya know."
— "Skiar…"
— "Right, right. First of all—"
The witch launched into an enthusiastic pitch.
It left all five of us — myself included — stunned.
— "It's got not just private rooms, but a bath, a toilet, an observation lounge, a kitchen, and a dining area? What kind of aristocratic giant carriage is that?"
Mineha muttered, somewhat exasperated.
Right now, Mineha was in her fairial form, perched on Bid's shoulder.
There simply weren't enough seats for all seven of us.
Bid let out an awed sigh and spoke.
— "Even the caravan's giant carriage doesn't have a bath, you know."
True enough. But it did have a toilet. I know that much.
— "I'm interested in the observation lounge!"
— "…………"
Shardina and Anna Kreutzen both nodded with smiles.
"It's got a kitchen, right?"
Sure enough, Hoss zeroed in on that first.
"Yep, yep. It does — a state-of-the-art system kitchen, no less."
"State-of-the-art... huh."
"And all the seasonings are fully stocked, plus various ingredients are already stored in the pantry too."
Next to the kitchen was a long, narrow pantry that utilized parts of both the bow and the very bottom section.
It had quite a lot of space, so you could store a ton of stuff. It even came with refrigeration.
"Man, they really went all out..."
Hoss was so impressed he looked practically dreamy.
"So, so — I'd like to leave all the cooking to Hoss. Is that alright?"
"Course it is. Leave it to me!"
Hoss thumped his chest. It made a solid sound.
"Hoss. I'll help too."
Mineha said immediately.
"You, Mineha?"
"I've also, well... had things happen, so I ended up learning how to cook."
"I know. Well then, I'm counting on you."
"Y-yeah. Nice to work with you."
"......"
Anna Kreutzen raised her hand too.
"She likes cooking too, des."
"Well then, nice to work with you."
"Together."
Anna Kreutzen nodded with a beaming smile.
Her cooking... I'm curious what it's like.
Just then, the food we'd ordered arrived.
We ate and drank and talked and ate, talked and ate and ate.
Amid that convivial gathering, what got unexpectedly heated was the "room assignments."
The room assignments for Skia Coffin Elle.
First, my room — the witch initially wanted to put me right next to her own bedroom.
The room at the back of the second floor.
But Mineha stepped in and vetoed that, and I ended up in the middle of the six rooms.
This was forced on me, but I had no complaints.
Once that was settled, people started arguing over who would get the rooms on either side of mine.
So first, per my request, Hoss ended up on the right side.
Then who would be on the left? Times like these call for rock-paper-scissors.
The women's faction launched into an intensely heated game of rock-paper-scissors.
The winner was decided right away. Anna Kreutzen. A clean sweep.
After that, things cooled down and the rest were decided one by one in a calm, matter-of-fact manner.
"......"
Anna Kreutzen dipped her head toward me in a small bow.
She had a slightly bashful smile on her face.
My memory of her was the kiss on the cheek when I gave her the bracelet.
The braided version of her looked like the appearance model — or Munieka-san, I guess — but she still felt different somehow.
Always seemed more like a big sister, though.
And this is something I can't tell anyone, least of all her, but for some reason she's strangely perverted.
I'd asked Haiarn about the Minos Dolls once.
But even he didn't seem to fully understand them.
The data was pulled straight from the lab's database.
They used Munieka-san as the base model for the dolls.
Then they split her age into eight parts, and eight Minos Dolls were created.
That's what they are.
I'd read through the data too, but something about it just didn't click.
Haiarn found it puzzling as well.
Still, there was one entry in the data that was hard to overlook.
"A vessel of the soul and a physical body are formed by inducing a soul to possess from the great sea of souls."
It had been bugging me, but I never really got it.
But after hearing the goddess of the knife's words, I started to think maybe...
Maybe their appearances were modeled after Munieka-san, but their souls were brought from that sea.
So if you put a soul into a Minos Doll, a vessel for the soul is created and a body forms... what's that supposed to mean?
A body gets formed even though the Minos Doll already has a physical form?
Yeah. No idea.
Well, I wasn't a professional, so I just enjoyed thinking about all sorts of things on my own.
There were too many things in this world I didn't understand.
I didn't even understand myself. What even was the past life of my past life's memories?
It was convenient, but what was it, really?
Lately, though, there was something I'd been thinking about.
I used to think that Relics were a substitute for magic in this world.
And I believed that was all there was.
But there were things that explanation couldn't cover.
The power of the soul that Ens, Axe's father, had shown me.
And then the positive and negative energies from the ruins just recently.
The fact that there were multiple worlds as a result.
There were powers other than Relics.
No — maybe Relics themselves were just a part of that power too.
"Na?"
Dagaa suddenly climbed onto my shoulder. Come to think of it, what even was this thing?
A completely mysterious creature I couldn't figure out at all. But oh well.
Some of the group had been drinking and started a card game.
Dagaa joined in and went on a tear.
What even is this thing. Oh well.
And just like that, the fun, fun "departure party" came to an end.
The next day. Departure day.
Down for the count with a hangover.
Postponed to tomorrow.
The early morning of the day after that.
This was an open stretch a little ways from the witch's house.
The Skia Coffin Ele was sitting there.
It was way too big to put inside Hydrangea.
And above all, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I wanted to leave quietly.
We'd packed only what we needed, and were about to head out for the trading city of Hyzen — but first.
"Witch. How do we even move this?"
Looking up at the Skia Coffin Ele, Mineha said.
"We don't even have a beast of burden for a giant carriage, do we."
"No no, even a caravan team couldn't pull this thing."
"Right. What should we do, Witch."
"What're you gonna do, Witch."
"..."
"Hm?"
What should we do. All of us turned our eyes to the Witch.
The Witch pulled a canteen from her pouch.
A yellow circle was prominently drawn on the oval leather bag.
That was the Full Moon Vessel.
Part of the Moon Water series, if I remembered right.
A legendary Relic, on par with the Crescent Moon Vessel I carried and the Half Moon Vessel that someone else possessed.
The Witch approached the deeply concave section at the front and tilted the Full Moon Vessel.
A massive amount of something pitch-black poured out and seeped into the ground.
"Witch. What are you doing?"
"Hmm, you'll see soon enough. Come out, come out — Skia · Horse · Ele."
With that call, two massive black horses emerged from the blackened ground.
They had blue-black manes, blue eyes, and above all, they were enormous — big enough to crane your neck up at.
"Are they monsters?"
"Whoa, now these are something else."
"Pretty impressive, huh."
"They look very strong."
"Nice!"
The Witch embedded something into each of the two horses.
"Well then, shall we get going? Come on, in you go, in you go."
At the Witch's urging, we climbed on.
In the meantime, the Witch had gone upstairs. Curious, I followed her up.
The Witch was in the driver's cabin.
She was doing something to the pedestal where the primary communication stone floated.
"Witch?"
"Oh my, perfect timing. I'm done adjusting, so we're about to set off now."
The Witch smiled and turned toward the communication stone, and chanted.
"Come, come — Skia Horse Ele. Depart along the route as planned."
"Neighhhh."
"Prrrrrrrr."
The two Skia Horse Ele each let out their cry.
And then the Skia Coffin Ele began to move.
We're off.
A brief farewell. Hydrangea.