"It really does look quite dangerous from a structural standpoint."
After hearing the words of the Queen of Destruction, Flandre Scarlet, Patchouli Knowledge spoke up from her seat after carefully observing their tightly packed surroundings through the small window curtains.
"Just looking at it from an engineering perspective, the overall fire safety measures around here are severely lacking. If a major fire were to break out in one of these lower districts, with wooden residential buildings this densely packed together, it would burn through a massive geographic area in minutes. Potentially, it could even consume the entire mobile city before the central water valves could even be fully pressurized."
But everyone present inside the carriage cabin knew that this systemic vulnerability was completely unavoidable on Terra. After all, when a society chooses to permanently fix the entire structural size of a city onto a set of rigid mobile platforms, this compressed architectural situation is bound to occur. Honestly, if the municipal planners didn't absolutely need to leave open, designated parking spaces and thoroughfares for incoming and outgoing heavy industrial cargo trucks, they probably wouldn't even bother building main roads inside the mobile plates at all.
After entering the bustling city checkpoints, the traveling group first set about finding a proper place to stay for the night. For the exact same price as the premium ground-based suites they had enjoyed the previous evening, the rooms here felt an entire grade lower, and the overall layouts were much narrower and more cramped. Fortunately, the companions were primarily here to observe and experience the local cultures, and they had fully expected this exact brand of spatial limitation on a mobile town, so absolutely no one was upset or displeased by the drop in luxury.
Because they possessed much more free time today compared to their late arrival yesterday, after successfully booking their rooms and storing their traveling gear, the six of them headed back out into the open streets for a leisurely evening stroll. Out on the main cobblestone paths, the moving crowds in this mobile city were even denser and more packed than the public roads outside the walls. Luckily, the six travelers collectively exuded an extraordinary, majestic aura; as they walked down the narrow street, the busy local citizens subconsciously kept a safe, respectful distance from them. This natural deference completely spared the mansion residents from having to physically squeeze through the dusty crowd. After a brief, observant walk around the industrial blocks, they returned to their lodgings to rest.
The next morning, the very instant Flandre woke up and stretched her arms, her sharp senses suddenly caught the distinct, metallic scent of fresh blood wafting through the floorboards. She immediately looked over at Remilia lying beside her; Remilia offered a slight nod of her head, her crimson eyes narrowing as she clearly picked up the exact same unmistakable scent.
Was Sakuya Izayoi currently preparing some specialized food for them in the kitchen? Or had a violent murder occurred somewhere within the establishment while they slept?
The two vampire sisters quietly slid out from beneath the blankets, slipped on their shoes, and walked down the creaking wooden stairs toward the lobby. Upon reaching the ground floor, they noticed there was absolutely no one stationed at the front desk. This was highly strange for a commercial inn. Unlike other establishments where the staff might be absent during off-hours, travelers in a mobile city might theoretically arrive to book a room or check out at any given hour of the day or night, so there should usually be a dedicated clerk stationed at the front counter at all hours.
It's coming from the backyard!
Flandre glanced toward the tightly closed rear service door and immediately followed Remilia down the narrow back passage. The heavy scent of fresh blood was distinctly radiating from the exterior stone clearing, and they didn't yet know what exactly had transpired in the shadows.
Upon stepping out into the crisp morning air of the backyard, their eyes fell upon a gruesome scene. The receptionist from the front desk and several rough-looking strangers were lying motionless across the cobblestones in wide pools of dark blood, their lifeless faces entirely filled with an expression of utter, paralyzing disbelief. Not far away from the bodies, a solitary, graceful figure was calmly setting up a portable stove and cooking utensils, appearing completely unaffected by the carnage surrounding her.
"Sakuya!"
Sensing the familiar presence of her masters arriving behind her, Sakuya Izayoi turned around smoothly, her expression softening into a serene smile as she saw the Scarlet Sisters walking out of the dark passage.
"Eldest Mistress, Second Mistress!" Sakuya quickly dropped into a flawless, graceful bow before the two of them.
"What exactly happened here?" Remilia asked, her gaze sweeping over the various fresh corpses with complete composure. She didn't believe for a single second that her loyal Head Maid was someone who would ever kill innocent people indiscriminately. But since a violent event had occurred right outside their rooms, she naturally needed to know the underlying reason.
Sakuya Izayoi calmly recounted the sequence of events. It turned out that not long ago, while she was awake preparing for the day's travel, she had sensed an unnatural, suspicious noise echoing from the rear courtyard and went out to investigate. She then saw these armed men preparing to covertly drive their newly purchased carriage away through the back gate. The inn's receptionist was actively among them, whispering and beckoning the thieves to hurry up as they unlocked the iron barricade.
Sakuya didn't need to waste a single ounce of brainpower to deduce exactly what was going on. The greedy receptionist must have seen that their traveling party was comprised entirely of seemingly wealthy women and girls, and he had conspired with local thugs to steal their expensive carriage and Camel-beast the moment they fell asleep. Seeing this blatant treachery unfold, Sakuya Izayoi had proactively taken physical action, utilizing her daggers to instantly execute every single one of them before they could even scream.
After completing the slaughter, based entirely on her unyielding domestic principle of never letting any practical resource go to waste, she prepared to use their vital essence and fresh blood to brew a specialized morning beverage for the Scarlet Sisters. The iron steamer had just been fully set up over the fire when Flandre and Remilia walked out into the courtyard.
Regarding Sakuya Izayoi's swift, lethal execution of these thieves, both Flandre and Remilia's collective assessment was that the criminals completely deserved their gruesome fate. To dare covet the personal property of the majestic Scarlet family—dying this swiftly and painlessly at the hands of the Head Maid was already considered an act of immense, aristocratic mercy.
Remilia pointed her slender finger at the pile of corpses and then turned her gaze directly toward Flandre. "Flandre, the task of cleanly disposing of these bodies is entirely yours."
Flandre nodded her head happily. With a simple, casual hook of her small hand, the heavy human corpses floated up into the air under her telekinetic grip and fell one by one into a nearby large brick incinerator stove. Then, Flandre reached out her hand, casually grabbed a dense handful of concentrated magical fire from the air, and threw it straight into the iron grate.
Soon, the heavy smell of intense burning wafted up from the stove chimney. Ten minutes later, under the crushing heat of her unique magic, only a pile of glowing black charcoal remained at the bottom. Flandre picked up a nearby wooden stick, leaning over to poke the pile of completely carbonized bones, easily shattering the fragile structures into microscopic fragments before throwing in another concentrated ball of crimson flame.
This second time, the mystical fire burned intensely for over half an hour. Once the magic finally subsided, absolutely no one on Terra would ever be capable of recognizing that this pile of ash had once been several human beings.
"Well done. Flandre, your fundamental Fire Control Magic is visibly much more practiced and stable than it was before we left," Remilia noted, watching the entire process silently with her arms crossed. She nodded her head with a deep look of sisterly gratification.
Part of her younger sister's destructive methods came from raw, unmatched natural talent, but the other half came from Patchy's long-term, structured teaching inside the library. Remilia had closely noticed since they were young children that this child particularly loved playing with fire and kinetic force. But her hyperactive mind was always naturally unsettled; although she was immensely talented, her academic progress back home hadn't been very significant or controlled.
However, since arriving in this foreign world called Terra, Flandre's precision Magic level could be said to have advanced by leaps and bounds. In the past, while Flandre's level of playing with fire was undeniably high, she could never have achieved such minute precision, stability, and control over her heat output without accidentally blowing up the surrounding architecture. Remilia had been fully prepared to step in and help if Flandre couldn't handle the cleanup cleanly, but she hadn't expected her sister to handle the disposal so beautifully and independently.
By this time, the other members of the mansion had also come downstairs into the yard. Upon learning the exact details of what had occurred, they felt absolutely zero sympathy or pity for the deaths of those greedy thieves. After all, if you dare to steal from powerful entities, you must be fully prepared to forfeit your life.
As for what kind of chaotic social reaction the sudden disappearance of the receptionist and the local thugs might cause within the mobile town, it wasn't a problem for Remilia and the others to worry about in the slightest. For instance, just now, Patchouli, having analyzed the situation, smoothly utilized her advanced Shape-shifting Magic and a high-level Confusion Spell to create a temporary, perfectly functioning illusionary duplicate of the receptionist at the front desk. Anyone who walked into the lobby today would completely believe the fake clerk was real. This lingering magical construct would only naturally dissipate at noon. By that exact hour, their carriage would have already traveled miles away from the city boundaries. Even if the local city guards eventually investigated the disappearances, the mansion would possess a "perfect" chronological alibi.
After calmly eating their breakfast, the group unhurriedly boarded their carriage, and the heavy wheels wobbled out of the inn's driveway. After waiting in the standard line to formally exit the mobile city gates, Flandre looked back at the closing iron ramparts with a distinct expression of deep regret on her face.
"What's wrong, little Flandre?" Remilia asked gently, reaching out to take her younger sister's hand.
"Why didn't anyone else try to chase after us or launch a surprise attack today?!" Flandre said, her tone thoroughly disappointed as she pouted.
"You silly girl, don't always keep your mind focused on nothing but fighting, chaos, and killing," Remilia lectured with a smirk, turning her head toward the interior seat. "Patchy, give her some academic homework to complete. A child having wild thoughts like that must simply be because you have given her far too little schoolwork to occupy her mind lately."
The exact second Remilia spoke those words, Flandre's ruby eyes widened in absolute betrayal. Her very own older sister was actually utilizing such a sinister, treacherous, despicable, and utterly wicked method to "control" her developing brain!
Patchouli looked at Flandre with a warm, knowing smile and then gently beckoned the girl over to her side of the carriage seat. "Flandre has indeed been making incredibly fast progress with her elemental studies lately. Come sit over here beside me, let me properly test your magical knowledge."
Flandre could only slump her shoulders, sitting over across the cushion with complete reluctance as she looked down at her shoes. Patchouli placed her hand gently over Flandre's, using a soft channel of magical energy to steady the girl's chaotic aura as she began to methodically question her on several advanced theories of Magic.