My stomach churned.

Why do I have to feel bad about this? He was the one who attacked me! My body couldn’t stop shivering. I looked down to see myself. No blood spilt on my outfit and one of my hands were still in fierce flames.

I closed my eyes and tried to relax my breathing before freeing my hand. Wait, how long did I leave Emil and Marie together for?

Urgh!

I sprint out of the alleyway slums as fast as possible. Wait what about the body? I’ll just leave it to someone else! No way a fragile “mana-less” lady like me can cause such gore!

Haha…  I'll just pretend today never happened! Until I do it again!

“Wah, uh”

I pant a bit from the brief exercise. Ah, really needed to get the physical reinforcement magic to cut my pain in half. As I wept inside my head, I tried to scout out where Marie and Emil could have possibly gone. How long was I out for? I can only pray that Marie doesn’t make me regret leaving.

Before too long, I found them sitting together, nibbling on a skewer. Could they develop a friendship? Maybe she became a more agreeable person? I approached them and gave a wave – if  I used this opportunity to run away, I wouldn’t be able to get the body reinforcement magic gem at home. Well, temporary home to be more accurate. But that’s beside the point!

“Alice! Where were you?”

Oh yeah, what should I say in this situation. While Marie won’t buy anything I say, other than the truth, I can protect Emil’s innocence.

“I just went to get a snack myself,”

It was honestly difficult to force myself to smile like this, but I think it worked.

“Unfair! Take me next time!”

“Haha, sure”

I faced Marie after to see her reaction but all she showed was pent-up contempt that I’d have to face later. Can’t wait to go back…