October 25, 2025

That night, Niji didn’t have any dreams at all. She woke up in her room at the Hunt’s manor, and the moonlight shining through a window caught her eye. Her heart skipped a beat: a barely noticeable magical trace glittered in the black sky—a dark blue pollen-like wave. A summoned being could have left it; visible even to magicless people.

Niji put on her clothes rapidly and tucked her gun behind her belt. Should I call for help or try to deal with it on my own? This must have been someone’s spirit stalking for her. But if it were just her imagination, Dasnor would be the first to kill her for an unauthorized alert in the middle of the night.

The window cracked a bit when the mage girl moved it open. Leaning out carefully, the Elementalist tried to inspect the sloping roof. The energy was streaming up and dissipating in the air. No time to waste. She climbed onto the windowsill, concentrated and jumped out, trying to drag herself up onto the roof with the help of her elemental energy control.

She wasn’t too skillful with wind, though. At her finest, she could manipulate just a small stream to glide safely down to earth, but she was able to pull off a take-off maneuver only by pure luck, and the stillness of the October night didn’t favor the experiments. Although it wasn’t a complete failure, Niji managed to reach the eave and clung tightly to it with both hands.

Wonderful, she thought. Never again in my li—

“Hey, Flare, how is it… hanging?”

She heard Dammit’s chuckle while she hauled herself up the roof. The healer wasn’t in a hurry to give her a helping hand in any possible sense, as he seemed to be extremely occupied with hugging Hitomi on the ridge.

“Fine… I… guess,” Niji grunted, pulling herself up.

“Glad you’re okay. Hitomi says that the girl’s mind world was a helluva trip.”

“How much time has passed?”

“Still the very same day. Or should I say the next one? I’ve performed a Clearance Ritual, just in case you got enchanted or whatever. You slept all the way like a baby.”

“I am sorry if my kitsune bothered you with its reconnaissance.” The Eastern beauty was more benevolent to Niji than before.

“I… ugh… didn't mean to budge in.”

“Oh, come on, Flare, join us! The stars are magnificent tonight.”

Dammit nodded to a place next to him, so Niji sat down and stretched out her legs. Hitomi released her summoned fox, but magical energy was still in the air.

“I hadn’t thought that you are… well… those jokes…” the Crimson couldn’t quite formulate it to the healer.

“We are dead serious about it! People just pretend they don’t know, but they do. That’s why they joke around to show they don’t, but in fact—”

“You’re terrible at explaining.” Hitomi smiled.

“Terrible is Dasnor at briefing. Hey, Flare, don’t be shy. I told you, it’s fine.”

“Well, now I got it about Sensei’s ‘grudge’ thing.”

Just the simple flapping of Hitomi’s perfect eyelashes was breathtaking already. “That’s… quite a long story. In fact, Takeshi and I are not… compatible. He might act possessive, sometimes. And he’s slow at interpreting other people’s emotions.”

“A drawback of being that super intellectual.” Dammit shrugged. “For what it’s worth, me and Cutie Pie were destined to be together, and no one can tell me any different!”

“How come?” Niji giggled, finally allowing herself to relax a bit and enjoy the night chitchat.

“Whoa, you just have no idea how fascinating this story is! You know about Hitomi’s clan, the Sawashimas, right?”

“Sure thing! The onmyojis. The best Summoners of all times. A long time ago they tried to conquer this continent alongside the Murasaki samurai clan.”

“Whoa, that’s where your fancy surname comes from? Is that true that the samurai were of violet blood?”

“Nah, they weren’t mages at all. Guess this rumor is based on them being too powerful strength-wise. But that’s off topic.”

“Oh yeah. A few centuries back, there was a war between the Sawashimas and the Omnious who had fled to the New World from being executed by the mage-haters… well, you sure know that from your history classes. When they all grew sick of fighting, these two families signed a peace treaty… and a number of marriage contracts as well. Since those days taking a Sawashima as a spouse has been a great deal for the Omnious. Traditions, traditions.”

Niji giggled.

“Hitomi’s fate was pretty much predefined. She avoided any engagements as long as she could. There were… special circumstances.”

Dammit squeezed his beloved even more, as if asking permission to tell more. She continued herself: “I wanted to fulfill the wish of my deceased parents, but I was reluctant to marry a person I didn’t like. It happened that I joined the Academy and—”

“Oh my, I couldn’t take my eyes off Hitomi since the first time I saw her!” the Celestial interrupted. “But Takeshi-kun would pull out these very eyes for a single stray look at her. It was long after graduation when we stumbled upon each other on a battlefield and there was something… something between us…”

“A fireball, namely!” Hitomi laughed, and the mages joined her.

“Now I see the irony here.” Niji couldn’t help but smile. “You’ve been forced to marry an Omnious for so long, and somehow you ended up with one of them.”

“The worst one!” Dammit raised up his index finger. “Anyway, the stars are indeed freaking good tonight, aren’t they?”

Moving her head up to the sky, Niji fixed her gaze on the gate of the estate.

“Huh?”