Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume13 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 7===

Academy Town. In a sickroom at Saint Seraelle Hospital...

"Miss Ellis Fahrengart, you may leave the hospital today. Congratulations."

The princess maiden healer came to inform Ellis of this news.

"But speaking of which, I was really surprised. Although elementalists have much stronger recovery abilities than ordinary people, I never expected you to be fully healed so soon&mdash;"

"...Yes, I surprised myself as well."

Ellis nodded with a solemn expression.

She originally thought she was several days away from being discharged from the hospital.

"Do you have any idea regarding the reason?"

The healer in charge of Ellis asked incredulously.

A contract with a holy spirit or water spirit would be slightly understandable, but Ellis was contracted to a wind spirit, which could not possibly confer such massive recovery ability.

"Hmm, well, even if you ask, I have no idea either..."

Ellis avoided eye contact with the healer.

"...Hmm, really?'

"O-Of course!"

Ellis answered guiltily under the healer's skeptical gaze.

...Of course, she did not have no idea at all.

Ellis had started recovering rapidly during this time yesterday.

(...At the time, I felt some kind of invisible power flowing into my body, that was the feeling.)

Ellis touched her lips lightly with her hand, her face instantly growing hot.

(...I cannot believe I did something so shameless!)

As the Captain of the Knights, Ellis was supposed to serve as the students' role model, upholding public morals by example. However&mdash;

The sensation of lips was so concrete. In the depths of her mind, she recalled the feeling that was numbingly sweet.

"Miss Ellis, what's with you?"

"Nothing is wrong!"

Face bright red, Ellis shook her head forcefully.

Already out of the hospital, Ellis made her way to the school building to find out about resuming the Knights' work.

(...Even so, it really is quite unbelievable.)

Along the main street in town, Ellis thought while walking.

(Could it be that Kamito's power flowed in reverse to my body? That kind of thing should not happen&mdash;)

For example, when Fianna applied healing magic to Kamito through direct contact, she never said anything about power flowing in reverse.

(...L-Looks like I must test it out again.)

I must test it out again thoroughly&mdash;Ellis made the decision on her own accord.

&mdash;Just at that moment, there was a commotion on the side of the road.

"...Hmm, what is happening?"

Rapidly switching back to serious knight mode, Ellis looked over there.

In the plaza direction, flames were currently burning intensely.

...No ordinary fire, this was the work of spirits.

"Summoning spirits in the Academy Town is against the rules...!"

Ellis frantically hurried over to the commotion.

But just as she arrived, over there was&mdash;

"Wha... Claire!?"

Rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble...!

A girl carrying a large amount of luggage on her back. It was Claire.

Enveloped in flames, her red twintails were billowing in the wind.

Depending on a spirit's attributes, various effects could manifest on the elementalist's body.

Claire was apparently the true source of the flames seen from afar.

"C-Claire, what exactly is going on?"

Hearing Ellis's voice, Claire looked at her.

"Not here, not there, not anywhere!"

Intimidated by her forcefulness, Ellis halted in her tracks.

...She looked extremely angry.

"Kamito, Kamito, he abandoned me all alone... S-Sob sob~..."

Claire burst into tears, her intimidating twintails also fell back down.

"...W-Wait. I totally fail to understand what you are talking about. First tell me the whole story."

"O-Okay... Sob..."

&mdash;Claire told everything from the start, leading to the commotion at the plaza.

"...What? Going with Rinslet, just the two of them!?"

Yesterday when visiting Ellis, Kamito had definitely said he was going to Laurenfrost.

However&mdash;

"J-Just the two of them going... I never heard about that!"

Ellis yelled angrily. This was a major incident!

Because speaking of two people on a trip&mdash;

(...That means spending nights outside together!)

Just imagining it slightly made Ellis's face go bright red.

...No good, I must believe in Kamito. Even though it was just the two of them traveling together, Kamito was surely not going to do something dastardly, right? But trips offered excellent opportunities for improving male-female relationships. In that case, it would not be surprising if anything happened.

Also, Claire looked like she was not going to give up until she chased down Kamito.

"...I-I am going too!"

Ellis declared.

"...Eh?"

Eyes red and swollen from crying, Claire tilted her head in puzzlement after hearing Ellis.

"...It's fine if you don't come along. Also, you have the Knights' work, right?"

"How could I ignore something as shameless as a boy and a girl traveling alone together? Correcting these morally deficient practices is precisely part of the Knights' work!"

"Th-That's just making excuses, right? You don't have to go out of your way to come along."

"Hmm, are you really sure this is fine?"

"...What do you mean?"

Ellis raised an index finger and explained.

"Listen carefully. The two of them set off from the Academy yesterday during the daytime. If you start chasing now, it is quite unrealistic in terms of time."

"True, you have a point, but..."

"However, with the assistance of a demon wind spirit with flying and tracking abilities, chasing them down in one or two days is not impossible."

"Guh..."

Claire could not find any reason to object.

...Just as Ellis pointed out, without a demon wind spirit's assistance, there was no way to catch up to Kamito and Rinslet.

"How now? Have you made your decision?"

"Uh~huh."

&mdash;So that was that.

In the end, the situation became Claire and Ellis chasing after Kamito together.