"So once the light revealed the cracks, it was easy to figure out our next move," Konrad summarised. He told almost everything to his haremettes by now.
To the 'inner circle', that is.
They left poor Eyna behind to sort out the mess around the tournament.
And, well, Stella was unstable enough without any transdimensional drama.
By now, Helena must have gotten her own debrief from the Silver Mage, too. Which wasn't to say he considered the princess—queen or regent—his haremette. But anyway.
They all sat in one of the many carriages of the Schwertburg estate, speeding towards Halaima.
A reminder that Konrad should have gotten one of these soon, too.
And horses. Lots of horses.
"So this time bubble wasn't like mine?" Gabrielle asked, her tone sceptical. "A grey void where you could move, but couldn't actually move?"
Down to business, as always.
Meanwhile, Konrad couldn't even keep his eyes open.
"Uh, more or less," he nodded. "Later I also figured out why it was grey—"
"The time loop was so fast, light couldn't catch up," Maple spoiled his explanation. "That's how it was for me, too. But I couldn't cast magic—like the others in your bubble. So how could you?"
"Lucifer's machinations might've saved you this once," the angel muttered, more to herself.
Maple's eyes lit up, but Gabby shut her down before she could ask.
"It's none of your business, dragon. Stick to this world's affairs."
Telling off the most powerful creature in the world like that—Konrad knew he didn't want to anger her. Maple could pout all she wanted; the angel and demon far outclassed them both.
Cutting her losses, she changed the topic to expand on what he shared so far.
"So I guess, he only tied me to that thing with the strands you overloaded. I was never inside it."
Lily made a humming sound, her fingers drumming on her cheekbones.
"The Green Mage must've improved his sealing techniques since," she theorised. "It's lucky Lu messed things up—you could slip through the cracks somehow."
And Konrad thought he'd drop a bombshell on his girls and blow their minds.
Instead, they analysed his story with the greatest calm.
They delved into the metaphysical as if they did that for a living. And, well—a demon, an angel and a dragon—they might've actually done that. He needed a lot more to impress them.
"It had nothing to do with luck," Konrad tried again. "I burned through like five thousand mana."
"Five thousand?" Maple repeated.
Right. The numbers only made sense to him.
"Five times more than what I have when I'm full. Good thing I had the Silver Mage's and Zoltan's to borrow. I still needed that magic staff to amplify the runes—"
"About that," Gabrielle interjected. "You say you couldn't move, but you got his staff?"
Konrad smirked—with his eyes closed.
"The Silver Mage taught me portal magic," he noted with pride. "From his explanation alone, I managed to pull it off on the first try. Inside a time-space anomaly, no less."
It wasn't easy, and as he had guessed, that spell had some serious limitations.
First off, it was anything but cheap. There was a tight range limit, too, but he was lucky. Then, once a weight—that time the Mage's staff—passed through the portal, it collapsed right away.
But well, if this didn't earn their praise, nothing could.
In the end, all he got was a pat on the head from Lily.
"It's a rather crude method, but not bad for this world," she said. Greater demons must have had it easy. "Still, one thing keeps bugging me."
"What is it?" Konrad groaned, but leaned into her touch.
"You say you saw cracks—in time," she said. "Why didn't you try to travel back and see what happens? Or rather, how did you even know which crack would lead you back to the present?"
"Hah, compared to the others, that was the size of a canyon," he noted. "And, well, I did try. The rebound almost broke me. And I was only trying to probe a little."
"Good, then Michael's seal is working as intended," Gabrielle stated.
"Who's what?" Konrad raised an eyebrow, but his eyelids were too heavy to open as well.
"Her big brother," Lily offered, her fingers running through his hair. "The big, powerful first archangel. And also the first one to fall victim to Meow Midori's banishment magic."
Her voice couldn't have been any more sarcastic.
"I don't know who that is, but I'm pretty sure I was the first," Maple protested.
Konrad couldn't see, but he imagined her pouting.
"You weren't banished," Gabrielle corrected her with a tone of annoyance. "He sealed you away."
"Yep, not the same," Lily agreed, her voice feeling distant for someone so close. "You can break a seal—or have my Konny do it for ya, but there's no coming back from banishment."
Which was exactly what happened.
It made sense now why they couldn't fight the Green Mage themselves.
But now that he thought about it—and the others used those two names in parallel, too—
"One thing still won't give me a rest," Konrad noted, forcing his heavy eyelids open.
Three pairs of curious eyes looked back, and for a moment, he even forgot what he wanted to say. There he was, sitting in a carriage with three stunning women. What else could he need?
"Go on, sweetheart, flattery won't get you anywhere," the demoness purred.
Damned mind-readers.
"H-his name change," he stuttered, straightening up on the cushions. They were way too comfortable to stay awake on them. "From Green Mage to Maou Midori—a simple translation."
"So what?" Gabrielle asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's in Japanese," Konrad pointed out. Now that had her eyes widen, too.
"Japa-what?" Maple repeated. Deja Vu.
"I never would have thought," Lily said, her voice dropping low. She grabbed his face to look straight into his eyes. "You were actually an anime fan in your previous life?!"
That caught him off guard.
"Wha—no? I only know the words because I dealt with clients from abroad," he claimed.
"The green I can believe, but the word for mage?" she pointed out with a giggle.
And when he thought about where he could have heard that, he remembered a show he watched as an adult. At that point, he already knew he had given himself away.
Damned mind-readers again.
"Focus," Gabrielle snapped her fingers. "This is a serious claim."
And that it was. By now, even the dragoness put the pieces together.
"So you're implying that this Green guy already succeeded in his plans and visited your world?"
"That's the only thing I can think of," Konrad nodded, his mouth dry. "And then he returned to conquer this world by force, or I don't know."
"That would make little sense," Lily said, shaking her head. "The angels would know."
Gabrielle closed her eyes for a moment, and if he had to guess, she used telepathy.
Calling home to the heavens?
"No, the Maou Midori leading those armies never left this plane of existence," she claimed in the end. "If he had already beaten us, he'd have no reason to come back."
Konrad didn't like the way she worded it.
"The one leading the armies?" he noted. "You say it like there is more than one of him."
"One from a different time, I guess," Lily offered.
Gabrielle sighed.
"And this is why I hate time travellers."