Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume17 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

As soon as they entered the conference room, Kamito saw the princess lying face down on the table.

"...Oh, Kamito-kun, good morning."

Noticing Kamito, Fianna raised her head and greeted him in a sleepy voice.

"...Yeah, 'morning... By the way, you look very tired."

Fianna was showing faint dark circles under her eyes. Her black hair, usually gorgeous and shining, was messy and filled with split ends as though she did not even have time to brush it. 

In front of her was a mountain of open scrolls.

"I have spent the whole night investigating the Demon King Cult's records that were found in Scorpia."

"...You did? It must've been tough."

Kamito praised her. The Demon King Cult's scrolls were not written in the Empire's common language. Instead, they recorded using the Theocracy's Alphaglyphs. It would have been hard to decipher them without Fianna, who had been educated at the Divine Ritual Institute.

"Diving all in seems like a bad idea. Look, aren't you getting dark circles now?"

"...Huh?"

Upon hearing Claire pointing out from the side, Fianna quickly took out a hand mirror. Seeing her own haggard look, she instantly blushed.

"...! I-I allowed Kamito-kun... t-to see me like this...!"

Unlike her days as the scorned Lost Queen, Fianna was currently the monarch of Legitimate Ordesia, raising a banner of rebellion against the Empire. Without knowing it, she must have been pushing herself again and again.

Kamito sat down next to Claire, only to see some fatigue on Claire's face too. Apparently, she had been doing special training with Scarlet till late last night.

Scarlet was a powerful spirit to begin with. After the training at Dragon's Peak, Claire finally unlocked her true form as Ortlinde the Scarlet Valkyrie. As a spirit weapon, whose formidable powers made Restia acknowledge her as a rival, during the battle of Zohar she was even capable of incinerating multiple Nepthenthes Lores instantaneously, an enemy of which a single specimen had given Team Scarlet great trouble during the Blade Dance.

With Ortlinde so powerful, naturally it was a great burden to Claire as the contractor. At the current stage, Claire still had not fully mastered the power. However, once Claire could fully bring out Ortlinde's power and use her elemental waffe with perfect control&mdash;

(...Perhaps in the near future, she might surpass me in strength.)

Recalling a memory of Claire brandishing her whip at upperclassmen at the Academy, Kamito felt strangely emotional.

At that moment&mdash;

"Excuse my tardiness. The fortress passages are too complicated and I got lost again."

Dressed in the Sylphid Knights' armor, Ellis arrived with Velsaria. Ellis' face was slightly flushed, probably because she had received notice of the meeting while in the middle of her customary morning training.

The Fahrengart sisters sat down next to each other, opposite to Kamito and others.

"You two were training together today?"

"Yes, I lost two rounds out of three today."

Velsaria nodded.

"Winning twice against Velsaria with a spear?"

Even though Velsaria had few opportunities to exhibit her martial arts, due to using spirits like Silent Fortress that specialized in wide-area damage, Kamito expected her to be Ellis' superior in spear skills.

"Th-That is because my esteemed sister held back&mdash;"

"The one who held back would be you. You are now stronger than I am. Be confident in yourself."

"My esteemed sister..."

Ellis looked awestruck. Overjoyed at receiving recognition from the adopted elder sister she had idolized as her goal since childhood, she also felt a little confused.

Indeed, compared to her time at the Academy, Ellis' new strength was on a whole different level.

Growing in leaps and bounds after the training at Dracunia, she had taken out Glasya-Labolas, a strategic-class militarized spirit, with a single strike of her magic spear when they ventured into Zohar.

"I relied on the power of cursed armament seals, but you have surpassed yourself through your own willpower. Be proud of yourself."

Velsaria's expression turned into a smile. Kamito could not help but feel his heart pounding faster, not used to seeing her out of her usual cold expression.

"...Ah, something smells good."

Claire sniffed the air.

"This aroma... Stew?"

Hearing Claire, Ellis turned to the door.

"Good morning, everyone. I bring breakfast that I made."

Dressed in an apron, Rinslet entered pushing a trolley.

The trolley carried deep-fried fish, bacon vegetable soup, fresh perfectly baked bread, butter, and fruit yogurt.

"I can't believe you made so much in such short time..."

Claire could not help but exclaim.

"Our meeting is about to start. Save the meal for later."

Rubia spoke icily at this moment.

"No, Lady Rubia. Our minds will not think properly on an empty stomach."

"..."

Rubia fell silent, unable to refute Rinslet.

Possibly because Rinslet also knew Rubia from the past, Rinslet was apparently someone capable of disrupting her rhythm.

"Is this some kind of fish?"

Seeing fish with a hard shell, Fianna asked with curiosity.
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"This is steamed sandfish. I bought it at the market this morning."

It was hard to obtain fresh fish in the Alphas Theocracy which had no sea coast. Despite the "fish" part of the name, sandfish was actually a type of crustacean living in the sand and not real fish.

"...I-Is it really edible?"

Claire frowned with skeptical expression.

"Despite the mild flavor, it is still quite delicious."

"Lemme try..."

Kamito took a bite. ''I see, it tastes like whitefish but with the texture of chicken, quite good''.