Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 3===

--Meanwhile.

In a dark underground maze that stretched to who knows where, a young lady was walking with a white wolf.

"Sniff sniff, I can't find my way to the surface..."

Rinslet's eyes were full of tears.

...After the Leap took her to this underground maze, she had been spending hours walking in circles in the same place.

As if trying to encourage its master, Fenrir licked her hand.

Rinslet rubbed the white wolf's head as she illuminated the surroundings with a spirit crystal.

"By the way, where on earth is this place?"

The faint light shone on the stone wall.

Its surface was carved with spirit language script. Given enough time, Rinslet had sufficient knowledge to decipher them but her current priority was getting back out onto the surface.

...Rumble, her stomach growled.

Sighing lightly, Rinslet sat down on the floor.

"So tired. My feet hurt. I'm hungry too."

In any case, she had already walked for several hours.

Even though she was a trained elementalist, her stamina was reaching a limit.

Fenrir caressed its master's feet with its furry tail.

Using ice-cold air, Fenrir soothed the pain in Rinslet's red and swollen feet.

"Let's rest here. Walking around randomly isn't the best choice."

Shrugging, Rinslet leaned her back against the wall.

"--Fenrir, take out the luggage."

Fenrir opened its jaws with a roar and spat out the luggage bag.

The demon ice spirit's stomach was connected to an alternate dimension.

"I originally hoped to make this for Kamito-san..."

Readying chilled eggs and a bottle of milk, she used her familiar frying pan to make splendid pancakes with a fire spirit crystal placed on the ground.

Then she laid out napkins on the floor and prepared teaware.

Always maintaining the composure to enjoy a good cup of tea under any circumstance -- this could be considered one of the Laurenfrost family's precepts.

...Several minutes later, the fragrance of tea wafted through the dark underground maze.

"...Phew."

Finishing her after-meal tea, Rinslet breathed out a sigh.

Beside her, Fenrir remained in proper sitting posture, having already finished eating the pancakes.

"...Somehow it doesn't taste too delicious when eaten alone."

...Then she sighed again.

Her past self never considered matters of this sort before--

Only recently did she come to realize the joys of having meals together with teammates.

...Furthermore, cooking for Kamito was also a joy.

"Oooh..."

As soon as she recalled his face, she could not help but smile.

"Woof?"

The surprised demon ice spirit tilted its head in puzzlement.

Seeing that, Rinslet coughed lightly.

"N-No, it's not like I'm thinking about Kamito-san!"

Frantically, she shook her head.

"...Eh?"

At this moment, Rinslet's gaze stopped upon a certain location on the stone wall.

On it was one of those carvings in spirit language that one could find all over the maze.

--There, she found a familiar name.

"...Terminus Est? Ah, that's Est-san's name!"

Frowning slightly, Rinslet brought the glowing spirit crystal closer to the stone wall.

Even though the words on the stone wall differed from contemporary script, it was still readable.

Were it written in High Ancient that was taught only to high ranking princess maidens, it would have been a completely different matter. But this degree of difficulty was still within Rinslet's ability to manage.

"Fenrir, take out the spirit language dictionary."

Fenrir opened its jaws wide and instantly spat out a dictionary. Spirit language dictionaries were essential for analyzing the spirit magic and barriers of enemy teams.

Flipping through the dictionary, Rinslet deciphered the words on the stone wall.

"Tiamat, Jormungandr... And also, Valaraukar. All the ones recorded here seem to be very famous spirits."

Anyone who had attended lectures in spirit studies at the Academy would find the names of these spirits familiar.

Next, Rinslet's finger stopped at a certain spot.

She found a name on the stone wall that intrigued her.

"Scarlet Valkyrie... That's quite similar to the name of Claire's hell cat spirit."

The inscription of the true name was in High Ancient and therefore undecipherable to Rinslet. But given that Scarlet was the renowned contracted spirit belonging to the Elstein family, it was not inconceivable for its name to be inscribed here--

"--Carved on there are the names of ancient war princesses who once exhibited splendorous might here."

Suddenly, a girl's voice was heard.

"...Who approaches!?"

Rinslet swiftly released her elemental waffe and aimed towards the darkness.

...No one's presence could be sensed. If the other person was an elementalist, she was definitely quite accomplished.

Is it an elementalist from the Sacred Spirit Knights or the Knights of the Dragon Emperor--?

"Please show yourself. I, Rinslet the Ice Demon, shall be your opponent."

Readying an ice arrow, Rinslet declared with awe-inspiring sternness.

"--Wait. I am not an enemy."

Out from the darkness appeared--

A girl in a mysterious princess maiden outfit with hair like a watery mirror.

Her bangs were cut to uniform length. With eyes resembling the surfaces of lakes, she gazed at Rinslet.

Based on her rather petite stature, her age was probably about the same as Rinslet's little sister Mireille.

"...?"

Rinslet tilted her head in puzzlement.

Was there any girl this young amongst the participants of the Blade Dance?

...Though given the precedent of the imperial princess Linfa of the Four Gods, it was impossible to be certain.

(...However, this uniform does not belong to any of the participating countries.)

Rinslet pondered in amazement with her brow furrowed.

"That..."

At this moment, the young princess maiden pointed near Rinslet's feet.

"That?"

"...That, I wanna eat."

"Huh?"

Lying by Rinslet's feet was the frying pan used for preparing pancakes just earlier.