We’re currently having breakfast leisurely at the cafe.

Its still early in the morning and the cafe opens at noon so we had the whole place to ourselves.

“Mmmmm! Pia’s cooking really is delicious.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I’m going out to the market so watch the place for me okay?”

“Yes. Have a safe trip.”

Now we truly have the whole place to ourselves.

“So what is our plan after Pia returns?”

“To the guild!”

Ru said really energetically.

“Haaahhhh, I figured you would say that.”

“You don’t mind right Misa?”

“And you’re not even going to ask me about my opinion.”

“Well, piyopiyo would definitely agree anyway.”

“That’s not the point.”

A chop flew to Ru’s head.

“Yeah, I do not particularly mind.”

“Great! I really want to meet them again, what was it......Ahhh, that’s right! Onion of the West!”

“Union of the crest. At least remember their name properly.”

“Yes, that’s it! I want to learn from them if possible.”

“Do I dare ask how you’re going to do so?”

“A spar, what else?”

Hiyori was only able to let out a sigh to Ru’s response.

“You sure don’t hold back, Ru.”

“Of course! We’re going to have to return back to earth soon after all.”

“Ohhh yea.....”

I completely forgot about that, this exchange program was only meant for 3 months.

I won’t be going back with everyone else since I’m now a part of Selesia family, so that thought completely left my mind.

“Geez, did you forgot? Its 1 week after the expedition.”

“Haaahhh, I sometimes forgot that you only joined our class a little bit more than 2 months ago. Its going to be a lot quiter once you’re gone.”

Hiyori said with a slightly sad tone.

I feel like its not the right mood to tell about my plan to stay here but if I were to delay it, I’m afraid I’ll end up forgetting or not finding the chance to say it in time.

“Ummm, actually Ru....”

“Hmmm? What is it?”

“I won’t be returning to earth after our exchange program is over.”

“Ehhhhh, What!?”

Ru looked absolutely surprised, Hiyori wasn’t any better.

“There are circumstances surrounding it but I will be living in this world permanently soon. Ahhh, that doesn’t mean I won’t be able to visit back earth! Though I guess it might be hard to find the time to do so.”

After all, once I make my social debut I doubt I’ll have that much freedom to move around.

Its one of the downside of being adopted to the Selesia family but I’d already made peace with it.

“.....Are you being forced into this?”

Ru looked like she would dash madly to the school to beat up whover was forcing me to stay here.

Well, that said person doesn’t exist though.

“No, it is something me and El have decided together. After all, you do understand right? Back on earth, none of us.....”

I ended up not finishing the sentence, though it was clear that Ru got what I was implying.

“I guess so.....Its not like any of us have home back on earth anymore, unless you consider the academy as your home.”

“Which I do not. That is why I arrived at this decision.”

“Muuuu, can you at least tell me the full story?”

“Sure.....Though there’s one thing I have to make sure.”

This time I faced Hiyori directly.

Firana-oneesama did say I shouldn’t really talk about Rosa but its hard to progress the story without talking about her.

Not to mention, the fact that El can use teleportation magic was not that well known.

Only the student council members, Ru, Firana-oneesama, the king and whoever the king told knew about El’s teleportation magic.

Its really something that I shouldn’t talked about to anyone, after all it could bring danger to El herself.

“Can you promise to never tell the stuffs I am about to say here to anyone else? If not then I do have to ask you to leave us alone for a bit.”

Hiori started to go deep into thoughts, then gave a reaffirming nod.

“Yes. I’m a bit afraid about getting roped into something I shouldn’t stick my nose into, but I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Of course, its just a verbal promise, there’s nothing actually restricting her from telling anyone else.

Still, I believe in Ru who believes deeply in Hiyori.

If Firana-oneesama heard about this though......

Yeah, lets not think about it.

I didn’t know where to start, so I started from the first time I met Firana-oneesama and all the things I’d experienced while living with Firana-oneesama as well as various other things.

El’s job as the princess’ maid, my conversation with Rosa, and various other factors that lead me to this decision.

Both of them went silent to digest what I had just told them.

Ru was the first to break the silence.

“I see. If you’ve thought about it that much, then I don’t have any reason to stop you.”

Ru gave an understanding nod.

“Haaahhhh. Teleportation magic, plant magic, spirit contract, it feels like I just heard some children making up stories.”

“Its the truth though.”

“Yeah, I know. Well, its a lot to digest in.”

When I looked back at Ru, she was looking down so I couldn’t see her expresssion.

Seconds after though, She exploded.

“AAAAHHHHHH, not fair! I also want to stay here! I’ll definitely talk about this with Frillia and Cure!”

“You should go after Pia comes back then.”

It might’ve just been my imagination, but I saw a little smirk on Hiyori in the corner of my eyes.

“Humu, you’re right piyopiyo. The three of us shall go and persuade them directly. I’ll go send a message to Frillia!”

“Why are you dragging me into this too? In the first place, I live here.”

“Ohhh don’t be like that piyopiyo. You know I won’t leave you alone and lonely like that. Besides, Frillia wouldn’t mind.”

“Quite the vivid imagination you have there.”

Guess its decided that we’ll be going to Frillia after this.

No wait, but didn’t Ru said she wanted to.....

Ahhh, I guess that’s what the smirk I saw from Hiyori was about.

Well, I have to go see Frillia anyway so it ended up working out for the best.

I haven’t actually told Frillia about my staying here after all, in the first place I haven’t met Frillia ever since I came here.

Well, there’s basically no opportunity to so it can’t be helped.

Lunch took us, or rather Ru quite long to finish.

She was doing less of eating and more of talking.

Ru finished right as Pia came back to the store.

“Thanks for waiting, you can go now if you want.”

“It feels like you’re driving us away when you said it like that.”

“Well, I don’t mind if you would rather stay around and work again today. In fact I’ll be delighted, please do.”

“We won’t. We should go now before Pia dragges us to work. Ru, lead the way.”

“Okay, onwards!”

We said our goodbye to Pia then headed out.

“Did Frillia reply on where we would meet her?”

“Yup, she said to go to her mansion.”

Hmmm, I can’t remember where her mansion is.

In the first place, I’d only ever visited it once, and we kinda just teleported straight into it.

There’s no landmark I could use to determine where it actually is from the time we went out for a picnic from her mansion, not that I knew the city well enough anyway.

“Wait, this Frillia fellow you two are talking about, she’s a noble?”

“Dunno.”

Ru answered nonchalantly.

“Haaahhhh, why am I not surprised.”

“Ummm, rather than an actual noble of this kingdom, you could say she’s an ambassador from earth that has residence here?”

“I see. Thanks for the explanation Misa.”

“No problem.”

Turned out Frillia’s mansion wasn’t that far from the cafe.

There’s no guards in fron of the mansion or anything, though there’s an imposingly large gate.

Frillia took out her ID card and probably sent a message to Frillia notifying that we’ve arrived.

Not long after, a familliar face came out of the mansion, though one that I do not have fond memories of.

“Welcome. Frillia-sama has notified me of your arrival, I shall guide you to her.”

It was Anna.

I had completely forgotten about Anna, though thankfully it didn’t seem like she would drag me apart to partake on her lessons.

She lead us to Frillia’s office, and it might’ve been my imagination but I saw a dangerous glint on her eyes as she left the room.

“Long time no see you two, and I believe this is the first time we’ve met right? I’m Frillia.”

“Y-Yes, I’m Hiyori.”

Hiyori looked quite nervous in front of Frillia, she was fidgeting non-stop.

She didn’t act like that to me and Vora before.....though I guess that was at school.

Being in a mansion like this was probably quite intimidating for her.

Frillia was also acting differently, maybe she's trying to give a good first impression to Hiyori?

“I assume you didn’t come here just to talk about your fun experience at school. I can already guess what you wanted to talk about though.”

Frillia took out a letter from her desk.

“This letter recently came to me from the Selesia family. I’m assuming this is what you wanted to talk about?”

I guess Firana-oneesama was already one step ahead.

“Yes, I will be staying here even after our exchange program is over.”

“Haaahhhh, I rather you not but I can’t exactly do anything about it now, considering your adoption has already been approved by the king.”

“Ummm, sorry.”

“No, there’s nothing to apologize for. Part of the point of Cross World Project is to eventually let people live in Anaria after all. Its just a bit sad that you’ll be leaving so soon. Well, its not like we can never meet each other again.”

“Yes, thank you for everything.”

In a way, Frillia was the trigger that caused all the chains of events leading up to this.

I’m deeply grateful for all that she had done.

“Well, if that’s all then....”

“”Wait a minute!”

Ru interjected Frillia from finishing.

“Frillia, let me stay here too after the exchange program ends.”

“I see. The answer is no.”

Frillia denied her request without a second thought.

“Ehhhh!? But why?”

“Its simple. Unlike Misa who has the Selesia family to back up her life here in this world, you’ll be all alone in comparison. I’m not sending people here to die.”

“But I can....”

“You’ll need a place to live and make a living here. In the first place, you attending the school is funded by Amadeus academy, if you were to stay any longer then you’ll have to pay your own tuition, and as your friend there can confirm, its not exactly a cheap amount is it, Hiyori.”

“Ehhhh!? Y-Yes.”

Hiyori was startled when Frillia called her out of nowhere.

“There you have it. Like I said, I don’t plan on sending people to die here. We’ll cover the basic neccesities and knowledge needed to live here on earth so.....”

“Muuu, I can live here no problem!”

“Haaahhhh....”

Frillia let out a long sigh, before taking out a piece of paper from her desk.

“Here, take this.”

She handed Ru the paper.

“That’s all the living expenses we provided during your 3 months of staying here. If you can make double that amount before the exchange program is over, then I’ll let you live here.”

I took a glance at it and it was quite a ridiculous amount, at least to my knowledge.

“Fine, I’ll do it!”

“Ahhh, I forgot to mention but you cannot leave the town for this. It would be pointless if you ended up dying while trying to make the money after all. Of course skipping class is also not allowed.”

“Ehhhh!? That’s not fair!”

“5%. If you can hold out for 5 minutes againts Cure at 5% of her power, then I’ll permit you to go out.”

“Grrrr, fine!”

Ru then left with heavy steps, Hiyori followed her from behind.

“Haaahhhh, I guess it was my mistake in the first place that I picked Rurune for this exchange program.”

“Frillia, why did you do that?”

“As I’ve said, I don’t want to send people to their death. Ru just have to give up on this.”

“I don’t think she will though.”

She looked quite determined to take up Frillia’s challenge.

“She’s an honest girl so there’s no way she would ask for money from someone else, not to mention she knows that having to borrow money in this situation would just prove that what I said was correct. Thre’s no way for her to make that much money in 2 weeks in town, even more so since you guys have an expedition next week right?”

“But she can.....”

“Impossible. Its Cure we’re talking about after all. Even when that dragon came to attack town a few months ago, Cure was using less than 10% of her power to take care of it.”

So Frillia basically set up an impossible challenge for Ru.

It didn’t sit well with me.

I knew Frillia was only doing this because she cared for Ru’s safety, but this was just not fair.

I said my goodbye to Frillia and went out to chase Ru.