"Yukito-sama, you've heard about summoning magic before, right?" Yuu-chan asked.
I nodded, meaning that I had indeed heard that term before.
As far as I could remember, I had once read a book that talked about summoning magic, but I didn't understand at all how that magic was supposed to work.
Because of that, I didn't read it for very long, since I thought it wouldn't be useful to me anyway.
"I have, but I don't really understand how it works," I replied.
"Listen carefully. The main requirement for summoning magic to succeed is that we have to be able to create a pattern on the ground, or on the place where we're standing right now," she explained.
"The pattern can't be made up randomly either. It has to follow the arrangement of patterns that were created by mages in the past," she continued.
So that's how it is. I feel like I'm starting to understand the concept of magic circles now.
"So that pattern is called a magic circle, right?" I asked.
"Yes. Do you understand now?" Yuu-chan asked back.
"If you see a magic circle in this forest, does that mean there's a possibility that someone summoned a monster here?" I said.
"That is the most reasonable possibility, but it doesn't necessarily mean that only monsters can be summoned. That magic can summon anything, depending on what the caster wants," she replied.
"But before reaching that point, you'd have to truly master and study that magic for a very long time, right?" I said.
"Exactly. That's why the person who created that magic circle definitely isn't an ordinary person. They could be a mage or something similar, someone with bad intentions that they want to spread into this world," she said.
——
"In short, a magic circle is definitely a bad sign, but as long as we're fine, we're safe, right?" I asked.
"You're right, Yukito-sama. I might talk about this with Hime as well. She might know more about magic circles like this," she said.
Suddenly, Yuu-chan stepped closer to me and rested her head against my chest, slightly lowering her face.
"Y-Yuu-chan? What are you doing?" I asked.
"I just want to be a little closer to you. Besides, I'm your status screen, right? So it's not a problem," she said.
All I could do was let out a small sigh at what she was doing.
"If you had done this before, I probably would've been embarrassed and my face would've turned red," I said.
"But… after being together for so long, I've gotten used to all of your behavior," I continued.
"Honestly~ Your personality hasn't changed at all since the beginning, has it, Yukito-sama? Well, I'm the same too," she muttered.
I let out a small laugh at her words, and Yuu-chan also chuckled softly.
"Who would've thought that a pervert like you, who used to freeze up just from being kissed by Hime, would turn out like this? Hah… If you were still the same as back then, I could tease you every chance I got," Yuu-chan said.
Ah, she's bringing that up again. Honestly, I didn't really want to talk about it anymore.
"I'm not a pervert! If I really were like that, I could make you submit just by ordering you around right now, you know, Yuu-chan," I said.
"You want to try it? Before that happens, I'll be the one making you submit to me," she shot back.
——
Some time ago, I had been thinking a little about Yuu-chan and her recent behavior.
But if she still had the intention to tease me, and she still called me a pervert or a lecher, then that meant everything was fine.
Yuu-chan moved slightly away from me, lifting her head off my chest.
Well, there was no way she'd stay like that until we got back, right?
Oh, the other groups were already walking over here as well. There were quite a lot of them—does that mean they're the remaining four groups?
That's good. Lancer-san can give us instructions on what we should do next.
——
Before that, Lancer-san asked for a representative from each group to come forward and report the information they had gathered.
I had already asked Luke and Hime as well, and the two of them hadn't found anything during their inspection with their group.
After all the groups finished giving their reports, once again, we were told to line up.
Come on, why do we have to line up neatly first?
"Alright, based on what you've all reported, it seems that there was nothing suspicious in the forest," Lancer-san said.
"I know, you might be confused or puzzled—I feel the same way. In that case, you're free to do whatever you want after this. If there are any new instructions from Marcen-sama, I'll relay them at the guild," he continued.
We all immediately dispersed from the formation and regrouped with our respective companions, just like my party did.
"Should we head back right away?" I asked.
"We don't have anything else to do, so why wouldn't we go back?" Hime replied.
"That's true. I don't mind," Luke said.
——
That night, I went to the bathroom and found Luke already inside. He was soaking in a bathtub filled with water.
"Come in," he said.
Well, we're both men, so there's no problem with bathing like this.
For some reason, I and the others always preferred bathing at night rather than in the afternoon, which would make more sense if you think about it.
But everyone's different, right? Maybe it's just that we're more comfortable bathing at night.
I started taking off all my clothes, then wrapped a towel around myself, tying it below my stomach so it covered the upper part of my thighs.
Actually, I just wanted to wash my hair—I didn't plan on washing my whole body at all.
I sat down on a small wooden stool in front of a mirror and took some soap, rubbing it into my hair.
Even though I called it soap, this item could be used to clean anything on the body.
Whether it was washing your body or your hair, everything could be done with this soap.
"Luke, don't you feel like there was something strange about what we did today?" I asked.
"Yeah. There was a report about missing people, but we didn't find anything in the forest. I can't really guess what actually happened either," he replied.
"Yuu-chan said she found something, you know. But she wants to keep it a secret from the people at the guild," I said.
I heard the sound of water moving inside the bathtub—he was probably changing his sitting position.
"Really? Geh, so you're the only one she told?" Luke said.
"W-well, what can I say… I was the one who approached her first," I replied.
"So, what did Yuu-chan see?" Luke asked.
I told him about the magic circle. He didn't seem all that surprised by it.
"That could be it. A magic circle could be the main sign in this case," he said.
"If what she saw was that important, why don't we just report it to the guild?" Luke asked.
"I don't know. Ask her. I actually planned to report it to the guild myself, but Yuu-chan said it was a secret," I replied.
"I'll leave it to them tomorrow morning. By the way, how long are you planning to keep scrubbing your hair?" he asked.
"Huh?" I muttered, confused by what he meant.
I looked up to check my hair, and the foam from the soap had piled up so thick that I couldn't even see my hair anymore.
Because I was too focused on talking, my hand hadn't stopped rubbing in the soap.
"Pfft. Try to focus a little more," he said.
"Yeah, yeah," I replied.
I also agreed with Luke's thoughts. He must have been wondering too why Yuu-chan was keeping this from the guild.
Maybe she had her own reasons, but I wanted to know what those reasons were.