Then I decided to leave Ulysses' opponent to Mark and go home with Garnett, who's back.

The time is already at dusk and the sun is setting across the mountain, with long shadows stretching down the ramp like remnants of the day.

"So, how was your day?

Walking next to each other on a short road from headquarters to home, I threw a casual question at Garnett.

"You mean Sakura's new gear? It was even more amazing than I thought. The performance was exactly as complaining about the sale, and the appearance was well finished. Then Miranda's sewing shop must have taken it seriously."

"Heh, was the design that great too? I'd like to see it soon."

"Am I right? I made it a prototype of new equipment for the third tier, so who were you looking at earlier?"

"It was delivered to us as a prototype before we repaired our appearance. The process of beautifying the appearance followed."

The other day, presenting to the Adventurers Guild and the Golden Tooth Knights, the new gear is based on gear specially ordered from Sakura, as Garnett put it.

In order, however, reference was made to "the state in which only the functionality was implemented without regard to appearance" before delivery to Sakura, and it remained unclear how the appearance was finished since then.

"Well, it sounds like you should enjoy watching it."

"Mm... I'm extra worried when you say that. What was it like?"

"Let's just say it was oriental. If I stood around in that outfit, it would be tear-free and flashy. I'm sure you'll catch my eye."

Garnett laughed like a bad boy showing her white teeth as she stepped forward about half a step and looked back over her shoulder.

I'm pretty concerned about the look of Sakura's specials, but I wasn't going to be able to get any more information out of them, so for one thing, I'm going to have to say 'Enjoy watching' as Garnett put it.

"So, how was yours? You were talking to Mark's guy about something. Weren't we talking about something funny?

"I don't think there was anything funny about that."

The earlier interaction with Mark was an extremely private chat.

It's not the kind of topic that others would enjoy hearing about, but I'm sure Garnett would have liked to hear (...) or (...) et al. (...) Ko (...).

"Well...... for example, my way of fighting is healing with [repair] skills. They're throwing away the premise, or they're saying I can't argue with the dislike."

"Ha! Don't be a prick to me. If it wasn't for you, I'd be gone for the rest of my life."

Sure, that's true, but every time you get hurt badly, you're always in a hurry - what a rush past the back of your brain, but I reconsider that I'm the same for Mark, swallowing words all the time.

What do you do when you look at people?

Even if it's hard to feel when it comes to myself, I'd be convinced if I replaced it with something about Garnett.

"Something else, yeah. When are you going to return home?"

"How did you answer that?

"Since my right arm only makes me worry in this condition, I can get my arm back on track. And then Mark said he'd go with me."

"... when I say arm back, I mean..."

Garnett says things like he explores, so I gave him a straight answer.

"When the battle with Agate Lamb is over. Of course I'm hoping to take you with me, okay?

He sensed what I was going to say, and Garnett's cheek, which carried the sunset, blushes pale.

"That's in short... that's what this is about, isn't it?

"Oh, that's the thing. I want to go home again after I've fulfilled your life goals and been able to uncover everything without any worries. Of course, if you think you can do that..."

Though I thought an added or subtracted kick would fly, as usual, Garnett replied with a pompous, small voice as she let her cheek illuminate and her gaze swim left or right in a leaning mood at sunset.

"... right. Let's do that. Now without any delusion..."

I get more reactions than I expected, and I get stuck in words until I do.

At some point, I'm treading a short journey from headquarters to my home, and if I stay like this, I'm going to go home with a strange vibe.

So I decided to cut out another topic before then and change the air.

"... yes! I was just given a letter from Wang Du when I left HQ! I'll just check it out when I get home!

"Oh... right! Let's do that!

We move forcefully into the house in a way that is too blatant for each other to talk about.

Neither did the high officials of the Royal Palace who sent me this letter expect me to be dashed in this way.

Only then did I decide to apologize in my heart.