“...You're too close.”
Mingyue finally found her voice, taking half a step back, her back hitting the tree trunk.
Lightweaver pulled the wet wipe back, but didn't immediately step away.
She studied her face for a moment under the moonlight, and after confirming all the dirt marks were wiped clean, she nodded.
“You look very cute.”
Mingyue froze on the spot.
She instinctively wanted to raise her hand to touch the cheek that had just been wiped, but her fingers stopped halfway, curling into a fist before dropping back down.
Looking at her like this, Lightweaver's lips curled up again for some inexplicable reason.
“Now that it's clean, are you afraid I'll look at you a bit longer?” She chuckled, folding the wet wipe in her hand and putting it back in her pocket, then turned to pick up the iron box leaning against the tree trunk.
Mingyue finally recovered from her brief stupor. She bent down to grab the handle of her scythe, the tip of the blade tapping against the ground with a dull thud.
“Next time—if we ever have to dig for something again, let me know in advance so I can bring a shovel.”
Her voice still sounded just as calm, but the heat on her ears had not yet receded.
Lightweaver put the cloth bag containing the time capsule into her inner coat pocket and zipped it up. Only after confirming it wouldn't fall out did she turn around.
She put the spare trowel into her bag too, and patted the dust off her hands.
“There won't be a next time~ Digging in the dirt in the middle of the night is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of job.”
She wasn't a puppy; digging dirt in the middle of the night was hardly proper business.
She stretched her wrists. “Apologize to Nuomi for me. I'm sorry for dragging you out so late.”
Shizuru hoisted her scythe onto her shoulder. After a moment of thought, she couldn't help but ask, “What you said earlier about being cute... did you mean I looked cute with dirt on my face, or that I'm cute now that it's wiped clean?”
Lightweaver was about to head out, but she stopped upon hearing this and glanced back at her.
Saying “very cute” had been intentional on Lightweaver's part, but it wasn't a lie either.
She really did look adorable, like a cat suddenly grabbed by the scruff of its neck.
“Both,” Lightweaver said, pulling up the collar of her coat to hide the smile on her face.
“You look pretty cute no matter what.”
From behind her came the sound of a scythe handle clattering against the tree trunk. Mingyue had probably tried to find something to lean on, only to miss.
Lightweaver didn't look back, simply raising her hand to wave casually.
“I'm off. Thanks for tonight.”
Lightweaver pushed open the fire door of the Wings of Freedom headquarters. The hands of the clock on the wall had already ticked past midnight.
She expected to see a pitch-black lounge, but the table lamp on the coffee table was still lit. Night Sakura sat cross-legged on the sofa, a laptop open on her lap.
Kohinata was slumped on the other end of the sofa, her face covered by a crumpled banner. The crookedly drawn bird on the banner happened to cover her nose perfectly.
Amamiya... was fast asleep.
Hearing footsteps, Night Sakura looked up. Her gaze drifted past her laptop screen to rest on Lightweaver. She blinked, as if checking to make sure she wasn't hallucinating from working overtime in her dreams.
“You're back—what time is it? I wanted to wait up for you, but these two passed out first.”
As she spoke, she nudged her laptop aside, pulled up the coat that had slipped off Kohinata, and pointed to a plate of cream puffs wrapped in plastic wrap on the coffee table. “Amamiya left those for you.”
Lightweaver crouched beside the coffee table, pulled the cloth bag—still smelling faintly of fresh earth—from the inside of her coat, and placed it on the table.
Night Sakura's sleepiness vanished in an instant.
She gently nudged Kohinata's shoulder, slipped the lyric sheet out of Amamiya's hands to place it somewhere safe, and whispered “wake up” several times.
Kohinata mumbled as she yanked the banner off her face. Amamiya opened her eyes, staring blankly at Lightweaver, her gaze not yet fully focused.
“The time capsule.”
Kohinata and Amamiya leaned in at the same time. Their three heads crowded over the coffee table, though none of them reached out to touch the iron box.
The three of them stared at the iron box for a long while, none of them speaking first.
Finally, Night Sakura reached out and gently tapped the most heavily rusted spot on the lid with her fingertip.
“It's more rusted than in the photo.”
She pulled her hand back and closed her laptop, setting it aside. “But the seal is intact; it hasn't been opened. Did you run into anything strange when you dug it up? Like leftover barriers, or some kind of magic trap?”
“No.”
The Store Owner couldn't even muster a scrap of mana anymore, so how could there be anything like that?
Ahem, dark humor is best avoided!
Kohinata leaned over from the other end of the sofa, resting her chin on the table, her eyes glued to the iron box.
“Then should we open it and take a look? Just a tiny peek, and then we'll close it back up. I'm dying of curiosity to know what's inside—”
As she spoke, she reached out, only to have the back of her hand lightly slapped by Amamiya.
“We can't open it.”
Amamiya withdrew her hand, her tone leaving no room for argument. “The Store Owner buried it, so she should be the one to open it. It's already bad enough that we dug it up without her knowing. If we open it without permission, the surprise will be ruined.”
Night Sakura nodded repeatedly beside her, finding herself on the same side as Amamiya for once.
She carefully placed the iron box back into the cloth bag, pulled the drawstring tight, and leaned against the armrest of the sofa while hugging the bag.
Kohinata hesitated for a moment before pulling her paws back too.
“Then where do we keep this before we give it to the Store Owner? The headquarters is safe, but what if an Erosion Body breaks in—”
She shook her head halfway through her own sentence, probably realizing that an Erosion Body wouldn't have any interest in a time capsule anyway.
Night Sakura held the cloth bag, her eyes scanning the four corners of the headquarters.
She thought back and forth, and finally, her gaze slowly drifted back to Lightweaver.
“Keep it with you.”
Night Sakura offered the cloth bag to Lightweaver, as if handing over some sacred mission.
“The three of us are in and out of the headquarters every day, and the Store Owner comes by often. We're worried she'll get suspicious no matter where we hide it. Your place is the safest. Besides, the Store Owner doesn't visit your home.”
After going in a full circle, the time capsule ended up back in Lightweaver's hands anyway.
“You guys are really that comfortable leaving this with me?”
Kohinata poked her head out from the other end of the sofa, still fighting the sleepiness in her eyes. “Of course we are!”
“Exactly. Leaving something this important with Lightweaver gives us the most peace of mind.”
Night Sakura yawned, leaning back against the sofa's armrest and pulling up her slipping blanket. “And if the Store Owner asks, we can honestly say it's not at the headquarters—because it really won't be here, so we won't even have to hide it.”
Amamiya didn't speak, merely giving Lightweaver a slight nod before closing her eyes again.
Well, since they put it that way, she would reluctantly accept this task.
It was her way of doing her part for the Store Owner's surprise, after all.
Next, they just had to wait for the school festival to see what kind of expression the Store Owner would make when she opened this box with her own hands.
“I'll bring it to school during the school festival. How is the stage preparation going on your end?”
“Just about done. We should finish drawing it tomorrow,” Night Sakura said, pointing to the stack of drafts on the table that were finally free of further revisions.
Rate on N.U.
