“Come to think of it, I have one more thing I’d like to ask.” Mornye spoke up after Lucilla had finished her summary.
“What is it?” Xiao Ling smiled, signaling that Mornye should feel free to ask.
“To be honest, about 2.5 hours ago, I heard a very intense commotion coming from the lower level of the mall.
It seemed to be some kind of disturbance, but I was in the middle of conducting research at an appliance store on the upper floor and couldn’t spare the time to investigate.” Mornye explained.
“Did something serious happen?”
Hearing her words, Denia’s face instantly went pale, as if she were once again recalling that powerless feeling from back then.
The other four also successively revealed expressions of lingering fear.
Mornye immediately sensed that this matter was deeply troubling.
Lucilla, seeing her beloved students react this way, felt her gaze sharpen.
“Mentor…!”
“It was an attempted knife assault.” Xiao Ling defined the convention crisis from that afternoon.
Then, he recounted the full sequence of events — the causes and consequences of the convention crisis — truthfully and in detail to the two “guardians” before him.
“…It was my fault.” Xiao Ling very naturally shouldered the primary responsibility for this incident.
“I should have stayed by Denia’s side at that time.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt a warm, smooth hand tightly grip his left hand — it was Aemeath.
And another slightly cool but soft little hand gently took hold of his right hand — it was Denia.
“Don’t take everything upon yourself!” Lucilla, her tone slightly stern, immediately stopped his self-blame.
“You’ve already done well enough.
At the very least, everyone is safe and sound right now.
That is the best outcome.”
“Professor Mornye, is there a way to use this land’s materials to craft some small self-defense tools for Sigrika and Denia?
Although there are things like pepper spray available online, if they truly encounter someone utterly vicious, I don’t think those kinds of things would be of much use.” Lucilla spoke decisively to the professor.
“At least until they regain their original powers, these items will become an important aid in protecting their personal safety.”
Mornye nodded with resolute determination, earnestly writing this request into the task list within her mind.
She cared about these diligent students just as much.
Even more, she didn’t want to see Xiao Ling fall into self-reproach again because she hadn’t been able to arrive in time.
It wasn’t just her — no one seated here wanted to see that.
That kind of excessive self-blame would only drive him toward self-destruction.
It was only right that they share Xiao Ling’s burdens.
“I was actually going to ask the professor if she could make some self-defense items too, but Chancellor, you stole my line.” Xiao Ling quickly adjusted his mood and teased Lucilla with a grin.
“This just shows we’re on the same wavelength, doesn’t it?” She replied with a quirked smile.
Seeing Xiao Ling pull himself out of that self-blaming state so quickly, the student crew collectively breathed a sigh of relief and once again revealed smiling faces.
Lucilla heard it very clearly.
Just now, there had been a “grumble~” sound.
The owner of that sound was among them.
She surveyed everyone present, and through each person’s subtle facial expressions, seized upon the one whose stomach had secretly sounded off.
“It seems the little glutton inside Denia is quite unhappy?
Making such a big ruckus.” Lucilla, brows and eyes smiling, teased Denia, whose cheeks had suddenly begun to flush light red.
“Awu~” Denia let out an adorable strange cry and immediately buried her head into the crook of her arms, leaving only a pair of wronged, glistening big eyes to look at everyone else.
Instantly, peals of doting laughter rang out all around.
Even the usually stoic Mornye now had a few more gentle arcs added to her face.
“Then let’s head home.
Chancellor, Professor, you should come along too, right?
Today’s Saturday, so you shouldn’t have any schedule arrangements.
If it’s alright, staying overnight at my place is fine too.” Xiao Ling proposed.
“Sure.
I’m very curious what kind of house can fit the six of you at once.” Lucilla indicated it was completely fine.
“Since Mentor is personally inviting me, I’m of course more than delighted.” Mornye smiled.
“Professor, you really shouldn’t call me Mentor anymore…
I’m really just a student now.”
Xiao Ling felt that in this world, it still made some sense for Sigrika to keep calling him Senior, but if Mornye kept calling him Mentor, he felt somewhat unworthy of it.
After all, he was the one seeking help here…
After settling the matter of Lucilla and Mornye staying over tonight, the group merrily exited the mall — and were promptly kissed on the tips of their noses by suddenly arriving raindrops.
“Ah!
It’s raining!” Linae was the first to call out.
“It really is!
And it had to start right when we came out — is the rain secretly in love with us or something?” Aemeath cracked an absurd joke.
The raindrops answered Aemeath’s question with action, shifting from kissing their noses drop by drop to pelting into their embrace with pitter-patter force, gradually soaking through their clothes.
“Get running, girls!
You’ll be drenched chickens in a bit!” Xiao Ling led the charge, loudly calling back to the girls behind him even as he sprinted toward the eaves on the other side of the traffic light.
“Wow, Xiao Ling, you’re so mean, sneaking a head start!
“A-Yu!
That’s really not very gentlemanly of you!
Who just ditches girls and runs off!”
“Senpai, that’s too much!”
“Senior, wait for us!
And Nia, hurry up, you’re gonna get soaked~!”
“You think I don’t want to hurry?!
This thing is so heavy!
Show some understanding, Siggy!!”
Lucilla and Mornye, having long guessed it might rain, each held an umbrella as they strolled through the rain…
but if the two of them had umbrellas, why weren’t they shielding their poor students?
“Isn’t this what youth is supposed to look like?” Lucilla watched the young men and women laughing and sprinting wildly through the rain, and spoke with feeling.
Mornye smiled, nodding in agreement.
“Yes.
For them, unexpectedly arriving in this world might actually be a very fortunate thing.”
Mornye suddenly thought of something.
She put away her umbrella and experienced this sudden early summer night shower with her whole body and heart.
“This feeling…
it’s truly been so long…
a gift from nature.” Drenched in the rain, she felt an unprecedented exhilaration inside.
Even those crimson eyes of hers sparkled with a glistening light.
Lucilla followed her lead and experienced the rain in the same way, letting out a similar sentiment.
“They say every kind of weather is a gift nature bestows upon humanity.
Looking at it now, that’s truly the case.
No matter how faithfully artificial weather can be simulated, it can never compare to the vigorous vitality contained within natural climates.”
It was precisely because this world was at peace and its people were content that they could quiet their hearts and feel the greeting gift this land’s early summer offered them.
No need to dwell on the past.
No need to worry about the future.
This peace that came from the present moment — that was the greatest joy within their hearts.
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