*Knock* *Knock*

  “Who is it?” Setsuna's slightly muffled voice called out.

  “It's me, Mira,” I replied.

  I was sent to bring her upstairs to talk to Luci's parents, so that's what I was doing here.

  “Ah! Coming!” I heard her shuffling around in there for a moment before she opened the door, a slight blush on her face.

  “...Do I even want to know?”

  “N-No!” she excimed, making me raise an eyebrow in curiosity of what she was hiding. “What's that look s’posed to mean…?” she seemed to have noticed the hole she dug herself into, her eyes wide momentarily widening before narrowing. “W-What the fuck?! Why hell would I be doing that! Hah… What do you want?”

  “Right. Lana told me to get you. She said she wanted to get to know you.”

  “Lana? Whose that?” she tilted her head to the side.

  “Ah, she's the queen.”

  “And you call her Lana?”

  “She wouldn't have it otherwise,” I said, shaking my head. “Probably shouldn't keep them waiting.”

  “Kay,” she fully left her room, closing the door behind her as she mumbled something. “What is it with these Elves wanting to ‘get to know me’...”

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing, just talking to myself.”

  I nodded, and we left to go back upstairs. When we were back in the throne room, I noticed the same group of silver-haired girls again. This time, they seemed to have been talking to Luci's parents, but they had turned around to leave with Isaac before I could get there.

  “Welcome back, Mira,” Lana said, noticing our arrival. “Setsuna, I presume? I didn't formally introduce myself to you yet. I am Lanadri Roushi Regali-Pristel, although like the names of many Elves, I understand that it can be a handful, so you may call me Lana.”

  “As you said, I am Setsuna, Chief of the United Kitsune Tribes. It's a pleasure to meet you, your Majesty,” she said, showing a much more formal side of herself than I usually see.

  “‘Your Majesty’? I do believe I told you to call me Lana, correct?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Er, yes. Lana,” Setsuna was shaking, presumably feeling a simir amount of fear as I did earlier.

  “That's better. You may be an allied leader, but as of now you are no older than my own daughter, so while it may just be me stroking my ego when I say this, I'd like it if you respected my wishes, so that can remain the case. That is for now, I mostly wanted to introduce myself. We have some business to get to with the Revierres soon, so the three of you are free to go.”

  “We'll see you again ter, Mother,” Luci said, bowing before we left to the stairs. “You two wanna visit the bath?”

  “Sure, haven't done that in a while.” I had almost forgotten that Luci and her family practically had an entire hot spring to themselves.

  “Huh? A bath…?” Setsuna tilted her head. I wonder if doing that actually makes it easier to think or something… “I've heard some people like to bathe together, but I'm not sure I wanna do that…”

  “No, not that kind of bath,” Luci shook her head. “It's basically just a hot spring at the bottom floor. More specifically, it's a big pool heating by a few enchanted items supplied from our partnership with the Dwarves.”

  “Oh, that's what you meant. Hm… I wonder if I should get my own deal going with the Dwarves. With the traditional Japanese style my vilge seems to be going for it wouldn't really be complete without hot springs. If it’s fine, I'd like for Ina and Shimo to join us so I can get their opinion.”

  “Good idea, I'd love for them to join us!”

  “Kay. I'll get them when we pass by the guest floor.”

  The previous topic being resolved, I decided to bring up something else that's been on my mind.

  “So, do either of you know who those girls with the silver hair were earlier?” I asked.

  “Ah, you must mean the Pleiades. They came with the Revierres. Usually they serve as royal guards in Osakara once they're old enough, but this generation hasn't quite there yet, so they were sent to make sure nothing goes wrong during the wedding,” Luci answered.

  “Pleiades? Like the stars?” If I remember correctly, my old world had a cluster of stats with that name, also called the Seven Sisters. I also do believe that there were seven of them when I passed them earlier…

  “Ooh! I know this one!” Setsuna excimed. “My grandpa told me about them a couple times. After they finished their journey and Arnagir formed the Osakara Kingdom, the Goddess wanted to reward Arnagir for his efforts, so she granted seven families unique magic, widely refered to as Star magic. The firstborn daughter of every generation from these families will always inherit this magic, and they always serve as the king's personal guard. As you can guess, these families all share the names of each of the stars from your world.”

  “Wait a minute!” Luci had us all stop walking for a moment. “I understand from after the incident with the Shadow Dragon that the Kitsune seem to know a history that hasn't been shared with the rest of the world, and that The Legend of Arnagir isn't entirely fiction, but why are you talking like your grandpa personally knew Arnagir?”

  “Because he did?” She tilted her head again, this time with the added bonus of scratching her chin with a finger. “Right. I should probably tell you who he was. Zuka, the first Kistune born from the Goddess. You probably know of him as Zuka, the Beastkin Fire mage who was one of the three members of Arnagir's party, alongside the Holy Dragon, whose name I can't seem to remember. I do know that he did die though, so you don't have to worry about him appearing like the other two. Although, he would be pretty friendly, seeing as I'm his former party member's granddaughter.”

  “That's… I'm sorry, that's a little much to take in. Let's just get to that bath. Maybe it'll settle then,” Luci said as we resumed walking.

  “I guess it's my fault for dropping a bombshell on the two of you like that. I'll go get the others now, you two can go ahead.”

  “Alright. Well see you down there.”

  As we split up, I couldn't help but feel that what Setsuna said was supposed to be really important, but… I really need to study more about this world's history at some point.

  Alpy376