“This is great! You foiled Spade Echo!” Noel cheered when Amelia gave the Red Rose back.

“Yeah. If she didn’t save Mikage, I wouldn’t have let her go”, Amelia said.

“What you did was honorable. Besides, you will have a clear conscience when you try to catch her next time since you cleared your debts”, Temma told her.

After that, we returned to the inn. Pekora said she was already tired and headed off to bed with Moona following her. I decided it was a good time to take a bath. For some reason, I really like taking baths. A day without having one made me uncomfortable.

I dipped in the huge bathtub. The warm water relaxed my muscles. Inns didn’t have private baths in each room. Instead, there were two huge baths for the inn patrons that were separated by gender. There were no other people in the bath since it was currently 1 in the morning.

This was bliss. Having the entire bath all for myself was great. I could even fall asleep here.

For some reason, I felt that I was forgetting something. It couldn’t be helped since I was involved in many things today. Besides, if I forgot, then it wasn’t important.

Turns out it was important.

I was immediately reminded that I had to share a bed with Amelia tonight. This was awkward. Amelia was sitting on the bed after taking a bath... She must have felt conscious about herself.

“Maybe I should just sleep on the floor”, I said.

“And what? Get a cold? No way. You’re sleeping next to me”, Amelia immediately shot down my suggestion.

We turned off the lights and lay down on the bed... It wasn’t that big of a bed so I could feel Amelia’s shoulders touching mine. We were too close to each other.

I was not sure whether I move around too much in my sleep since I never thought about it. Even if I took a bath, I still felt conscious of how I smelled. I used the free soap that the inn gave out earlier so I didn’t know whether I smelled good or not.

Not good. I just have to close my eyes and sleep tight... At least I tried. My heart was beating too fast for me to relax and doze off to dreamland. Amelia was probably really mature since she had no problem sleeping next to me... Was I overthinking things?

“Hey Mikage... Are you still awake?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah... What’s wrong?”

“Nothing... I’m sorry for not being helpful.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I couldn’t solve the riddle for the Hall of Memories. And now we got sidetracked in chasing after Spade Echo.”

“Now now... We just have to look harder for information related to the riddle. And besides, our side quest did not take long. It might have gotten a bit too dangerous but I was saved thanks to Spade Echo.”

“What do you mean?”

“When the dark ball swallowed both of us, we were supposed to be teleported to another place. But thanks to Spade Echo’s artifact, the location was changed. If it wasn’t for her, I would’ve been in a place where the Unkindness wants me.”

“I see.”

“What happened after I was gone anyway?”

“The bandaged man teleported away after you two disappeared. No one was seriously injured which was great. But we were worried about you. Noel would’ve launched a search party if Moona didn’t find you using her abilities as a vessel for the Primordial Moon.”

I was silent for a while as I thought... This was probably a good time to tell her.

“You know, I found out that I’m not exactly a normal human”, I said.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Moona said that I might be a vessel for the Primordial Dark. Remember how I made the bandit’s own shadow attack him back when we attacked the bandits’ hideout? She said it’s impossible for a mage to control another person’s shadow since Dark Magic only allows you to use your own darkness.”

“I see... And you believe her?”

“It makes sense. I mean, some questions about myself have been answered thanks to that.”

“What questions?”

“You see... The bandaged man I encountered back in Pekoria told me many things. Like how my summoner who was in charge of their greatest ambition disappeared and left me behind. It makes sense since his mission was to summon the Primordial Dark and I got summoned as its vessel.”

“But why you? Can’t they just make anyone a vessel?”

“That’s the remaining question I have. Why was I summoned? From how Moona was the vessel for the Primordial Moon, they could make citizens of this world as vessels. They could have turned a member of their organization into a vessel for the Primordial Dark... So why was there a need to summon me?”

“We won’t know anything unless we find your summoner. There might be a hint in his coded message. When we get back your memories, we could have you translate it.”

I tried to fall asleep but it was still no use.

“Can’t sleep?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah”, I answered.

“Same for me. Then let’s talk until we’re tired.”

“What should we talk about?”

“I don’t know... Do you want to know something?”

I thought for a while. Amelia once said she underwent difficulties while she was trying to make a name for herself in Westa. Oh yeah... I don’t think I have heard about this...

“What were you doing before you moved to Westa? Were you still a detective?”’ I asked.

“Well, I was trained by a great detective who was active in the east. His name was Ranpo Doyle. He found me passed out in front of his office because of hunger and took me in. Ranpo was like my second father. He taught me everything I know about detective work”, she answered.

“And what were you doing before he found you? Why were you found passed out in front of his office?”

Amelia was silent.

“I was considered a genius. I even finished school before I became a teenager and became a licensed doctor at 15”, she answered.

“Really? That’s amazing. It also explains a lot since you’re really smart.”

“But my home country got involved in a war. I became a medic in the military and tended to wounded soldiers all day.”

“What happened next?”

“Let’s just say I managed to survive thanks to external interference. I also gained an incredible ability.”

“An ability?”

“Yeah.. But I wasn’t responsible with it and I got punished. I learned how to be responsible the hard way.”

I could hear the sadness and regret in her voice. She must have been punished really hard.

Amelia’s soft snoring then rang across the room. I guess I should try and go to sleep.

There weren’t any incidents when we slept together. Except that one time I woke up because her arms were hugging me tightly and found out that her face was too close to mine. I couldn’t move away since I might wake her up so I endured it.

Morning came and luckily, I was no longer embraced by her. Or maybe she woke up and found herself hugging me since she didn’t look at me in my eyes.

There was an awkward silence between the two of us which was destroyed by the sound of someone knocking on our room.

I opened the door and saw a Peafowl Knight.

“Good day! Is this where Amelia Watson and Mikage Kamishiro are staying?” he asked.

“That’s right”, I answered.

“Lady Reine is inviting you two along with Pekora Usada and Moona Hoshinova to a tea party”, he said.

“A tea party? Even if there was going to be a grand celebration tonight because of the Peafowl Kingdom’s founding anniversary?” Amelia asked.

“Hey don’t ask me. I’m just a messenger. Here’s your invitation”, he handed me a blue envelope and left.

“What should we do?” I asked.

“It couldn’t hurt to attend her tea party. And it’s dumb to turn down a royalty’s invitation. Besides, we can ask her about the riddle”, Amelia answered.

“I see. She might know something.”

And so we agreed to go to the tea party in the afternoon. I hope Reine has some clues.