And so, after dinner, a lottery was held.

It was to select personnel in advance to pave the way for the Magic Federation’s investigation team that would eventually arrive—that is, to once again reach the base of that Tenchi Jizai and install the Labyrinth External Teleportation Magic Formation developed by Eunice.

Everyone couldn’t go.

At the very least, to connect the Labyrinth External Transfer Formation, there had to be skilled magic users at both locations.

So, the first to be chosen would be those magic users.

Either Eunice alone—or the pair of Wilae and Lililia.

Next, and already the last to be chosen, was the guide role.

Just in case… that is, in the event that those who headed toward Tenchi Jizai became unable to return for some reason, it was preferable for at least one person to remain at the research institute.

Roylen, experienced in exploration in the southern jungle.

Or Klaha, whose adventurer-like map-making and terrain recognition skills were highly regarded.

This time, since exploration wasn’t the main purpose, technician Dewey and exploration assistant Ney would stay behind.

Instead, Ziel was confirmed to accompany the party, doubling as both guard and physical muscle for transport.

The lottery was fair if you wanted to call it that, and not so fair if you didn’t.

Dewey randomly tore up some grass he picked up nearby. Ney then painted the tips of the grass with pigment.

Finally, from Ziel’s tightly clenched hand holding those grass pieces, each candidate drew their lot.

The one chosen was—

The evening breeze blew gently and coolly.

After finishing dinner, Ziel stood alone, gazing at the dim sky slowly melting into night.

The sound of insects and birds, which had echoed so loudly during the day, now felt somehow like an illusion when standing here in this moment.

Summer is ending, he thought to himself—such an obvious notion.

"Ziel-san. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Oh."

At the sound of the voice, he turned to see Klaha standing there, having just retrieved her sword from the room.

It was time for training.

"Would it be okay if we went a little harder today?"

"I’m fine with it. But since you're leaving the day after tomorrow…"

"That’s why I was hoping to take a break tomorrow instead."

"Yes, that’s totally fine! Of course. Please prioritize that."

"Appreciate it," Ziel said, standing up.

Then began a bout of striking practice. Light for Ziel—but probably quite intense for Klaha.

‘A little harder’ generally referred to the level of striking that left Klaha’s arms completely immobile. ‘Harder’ meant she couldn’t move her legs and couldn’t stand up. ‘To the limit’ meant she had not even a drop of magic left for stamina recovery.

When Eunice had come to observe their training once before, he’d been horrified.

He had said, "She’s going to die..."

However—

"Your sword line is getting sloppy."

"Yes!"

"There’s no wind behind it. Even if it hits, it won’t mean anything."

"——!"

"Good, that’s it. Save the desperation for when you're really cornered."

"Yes!!"

In the end, Ziel thought, maybe this was the best approach after all.

He had already taught Klaha all the basic training methods. She could now perform them on her own. Whether it was because of her excellent grasp of technique, or the results of her daily reviewing and studying, from Ziel’s perspective, she had already mastered many immediately effective skills during their time in the eastern country—or perhaps, it was thanks to the group of idle sword masters who kept butting in with their unsolicited advice.

Therefore, what she needed now was time. Time to internalize those basics and techniques into her body.

And the most effective way to shorten that time was to repeatedly face an opponent who was just slightly stronger than her and who relentlessly pushed her to her limits—he was convinced of that.

"Foot."

"—!"

"Shoulder."

"——!"

"Core."

"Y-yes!"

"You’re not watching. Position. Timing. Grip. Jaw. Blade tip. Toes. Breathing. Too slow. Too fast. Shoulder. Your head's exposed. Center of gravity. Height. That leaves your torso open. Too light. If you run out of strength—yes, that’s it. Perfect. Good, your strength is relaxed. Keep going—don’t lag. I’m pressing in. Thirty more seconds. Twenty. Adding two minutes. One more minute. Forty. Ten. Five, four, three..."

"...!"

At the very end, Klaha’s sword flashed sharper than ever before.

Drawn cleanly as if pulled by gravity itself—relaxed, beautiful movement.

"Zero."

Ziel effortlessly dodged it.

"That’s it for live combat. Oh, finally stopped letting go of your sword."

"...ha…ha…"

"Catch your breath, drink some water, and let’s move on to the review. You’re lasting a lot longer than before. As expected, with a solid foundation, growth is fast. The results of your training are showing directly."

Then they went through each movement one by one in detail.

They reenacted their earlier exchanges, and Ziel gave commentary at each key point like, “You should’ve followed through fully here instead of faking with your hands,” or “That’d work for me, but since you don’t have the upper body strength to deflect the opponent’s weapon from below, it’s better to…”

Klaha, in turn, reported her own thoughts: “I thought pushing forward here might work, but I couldn’t sync my magic properly,” and asked many questions like, “With that position of yours, I imagined getting circled around from behind with a one-two-three step... Is there another way to counter that?”

And she wrote down almost all of it in her notebook.

The evening light was just barely enough to illuminate her handwriting.

"...Yes. I’ll review this thoroughly and apply it next time. Thank you again for today, Ziel-san."

"Yeah. I’ll still be around tomorrow, so I can give feedback on anything I notice. If something’s bothering you, say the word. Let’s clear up any doubts before I head out."

“Yes,” Klaha nodded.

As if trying to find those very doubts now, she immediately returned her eyes to her notebook once their conversation ended. Time seemed likely to continue on just a bit longer, with her leaning against the wall of the research institute.

That’s why Ziel hesitated a bit about whether to say it—and in the end, he did.

“Too bad. You lost the lottery.”

It had just happened a moment ago.

The ones who drew the winning lots were Roylen and Eunice.

Including the guaranteed spot for Ziel, it was decided that the three of them would once again aim for Tenchi Jizai.

“Ah, no—”

Klaha lifted her face.

“Of course, it's disappointing, but with Ziel-san’s group’s pace, I think they’ll reach Tenchi Jizai soon enough and set up the Teleportation Formation. Lililia-san also said she would teach me holy magic during her free time, so I think this will work out.”

“I see. Then maybe even that thing from earlier will be doable by the time I get back.”

“I’ll give it my best. …Um.”

“Yeah?”

“Did I… seem like I was down?”

He hesitated, unsure whether to nod or not.

He had thought maybe she was feeling down, but whether she actually looked that way—it was hard to say, a bit ambiguous—

“Sorry. I made you worry.”

“No, that’s not it… It’s just, after the lottery ended—”

But Ziel had started to learn that always holding back and softening his words wasn’t necessarily a good thing either.

“You were staring at the losing lot. So I thought maybe you were thinking about it. Just a little.”

“Ah, that’s…”

“It’s not like that,” she said, gently.

“It’s just… maybe it’s presumptuous of me, but I started thinking. At that moment, it came down to Roylen-san and me, right?”

“Even that was a great honor,” she added quietly.

“If I had become stronger and could also serve as a guard, then maybe I could’ve been in the lottery with Ziel-san too… I’m sorry. I know it’s really presumptuous.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“I was just wondering if that might’ve given us two chances. That’s what I was thinking. But after receiving such overwhelmingly good instruction earlier, I realized that thought was maybe a bit too grand—”

“Not at all.”

Ziel cut her off in advance with his answer.

“It’s not too grand at all. Imagining who you want to become—that’s not a bad thing in the slightest. You’ll become strong soon. You’re way more skilled than I am, Klaha.”

“Still, when that time comes,” he said with a deliberate smile.

“Since I won’t be there, Eunice will be the transport officer. That might be tough in its own way.”

“…Yes.”

Maybe his words had gotten through, because Klaha didn’t downplay herself any further, nor did she belittle her own efforts.

Instead, she spoke with a shy smile.

“I heard something from Chikano-san once.”

“Oh yeah? What about?”

“She said, if someone could block just one of Ziel-san’s serious sword strikes, then their combat skills would be undeniably first-class.”

“…I’m being praised way too much behind my back, huh.”

A wave of embarrassment welled up in him.

But he also quickly understood what Chikano had meant.

“My strengths are power and speed… When facing magical beasts, it’s more about the eyes, but in one-on-one fights, that raw speed and strength are what matter. There’s no room to fake anything. Honestly, if someone dodged my first strike, I’d be on high alert.”

“Ah, I get that. I always notice during training—Ziel-san watches movements very carefully, doesn’t he? You’ve helped me realize a lot of bad habits I wasn’t even aware I had.”

“It’s easier to notice from the outside, really. But in my case, when the magical beast is too high-level, I sometimes can’t detect traps powered by magic and end up overextending myself and getting into trouble—whoops,”

He noticed the conversation had gone off track.

When he motioned with his hand to let her continue, Klaha straightened her posture a bit and said,

“Someday, I’d like to be able to do that. Honestly, I can’t even imagine beating Ziel-san. But if I could just block one blow… That’s what I’m aiming for, for now.”

“…I see.”

“Yes,” Klaha said with a smile.

“So it’s not like I’m depressed or anything. On the contrary, I feel more motivated than ever. Um, while you’re off in the forest, I’ll keep up with training, every single day!”

Ziel nodded.

That’s good, he thought. Relieved, he stood up.

“Yeah. I’m looking forward to it. …But, also—”

“What is it?”

As she looked at him, curious—

“If we get lost over there, we’ll need you to come rescue us. So I’ve got to ask you to handle that, too.”

He tried to say it in a way that wouldn’t feel too heavy.

But maybe she noticed the emotion beneath it, because Klaha’s eyes opened wide for just a moment.

Perhaps, Ziel thought,

She had come this far—so maybe now, it was okay to say things like that. Maybe even words that reminded them of the past were okay to say now, if it was like this.

And sure enough, she—

“——Yes.”

She stood up and smiled.

“When that time comes, I’ll come get you. …Though saying it like that sounds a bit awkward. But this time, Lililia-san and Wilae-san will be with me. Together.”

“…Yeah, I’ll be counting on you.”

Once they said what they needed to, the rest of the day quietly came to a close.

The two of them walked side by side toward the research lab’s front door.

“Still, even if we do get lost, you probably won’t realize it right away. We’ll be diving pretty deep, like usual.”

“Ah, but this time we’re not planning to stay that long, so I think I’ll notice pretty quickly. Plus, both Eunice-san and Roylen-san are with you, so I’m sure you can signal something with magic.”

“Right, there’s that. Honestly, the only signal I could come up with was sending up a smoke signal, but that’d probably start a fire, huh. What do adventurers usually do in situations like that?”

“…Um, Ziel-san. A smoke signal doesn’t mean you light a fire directly in the forest…”

“Eh?”

“I’ll teach you before you go,” Klaha said.

“I hope I can remember it,” Ziel replied, a little uneasy.

As he reached for the door handle, its strange coldness made a shiver run down his spine.

It was the feeling of nightfall, and the end of summer.