Zoemi asked curiously as he and Miriette walked down yet another flight of stairs, searching for their way out.

”It is, actually. I am not erasing or creating anything new, just pushing aside or bringing back what is already there. That said… how in the world are we not outside yet…?”

The helmet-wearing girl answered confidently, before groaning and waving her hand in an unspecified direction.

The building they were in should not be that hard to navigate through.

Basically, the other day they were shown through one of the outposts and assured that every single one has been built in the same exact way.

”This here should be the exit, right?”

*knock* *knock*

The girl asked tapping her knuckles against a solid rock wall at yet another dead end.

”It really should…”

Zoemi nodded and touched the wall with a concerned expression.

He wasn’t just being nice or considerate to Miriette who had a poor sense of direction.

…mainly because she had no trouble navigating every space she was thanks to her magic…

”…”

Zoemi furrowed his brows and looked through the barred window

The outside was silent, Miriette’s spell must have already put everyone else to a forced sleep…

There really was nothing out of the ordinary to see there…

”Why do they have to build every hallway and staircase to be the same?”

*crack*

The helmet-wearing girl scoffed in annoyance and stabbed into the wall with her magically enchanted finger, leaving a hole in the stone.

”Tsk.”

She clicked her tongue and walked off without adding anything.

”…”

The black-haired boy frowned and followed her.

”(Master, why is she angry? You can be lovey-dovey now to kill time!)”

The first sentinel called out in a slightly confused voice.

|Not at all, little one. Miri wants to be lovey-dovey with me after we retake the outpost. She told Devios and all of those troops that we will retake the outpost, but we ended up getting lost on our way out.|

Zoemi smiled patiently and explained the misunderstanding that his sentinel seemed to have about their situation.

”(Can’t we blow the wall or something?)”

The first sentinel asked taken aback.

”We don’t want to destroy the outpost…”

Zoemi shook his head behind Miriette’s back and thought, but as he did, he already realized the simple mistake he fell for.

”(Eh…? But we can destroy the wall and then fix it, though…? Can’t we…?)”

”(We can!)”

The first sentinel wondered with hesitation and got a quick and cheerful answer from the second one.

”Miri. My sentinels can create an exit for us at any point.”

”…!”

Zoemi, slightly red from the embarrassment that he didn’t realize such an obvious thing sooner, spoke up to the girl in front of him, making her stop in place.

”…”

Miriette said nothing and only lowered her head as if she was upset about something.

”Miri…?”

The black-haired boy asked, but that only made the girl sigh.

”…I stabbed that wall to make a mark to confirm whether we were looping or not… I read it in a book and all…”

Miriette ended up revealing, sighing so heavily that her shoulders dropped.

”Wait. Hold on! What do you mean to check whether we were looping – we were walking down the stairs! This is a building and not some optical illusion drawing.”

Zoemi shook his head and backed off in surprise.

”We probably took some wrong turn and…”

He said, trying to not sound too harsh, and walked to the barred window – and his jaw dropped.

From his perspective, most things looked just fine.

The other building, the well, the outer wall of the outpost…

But.

A ray of sunshine decided to shine through the thick veil of clouds at that exact moment.

And it was horizontal as if someone had tilted the sky.

After a closer look, it became clear that the clouds were moving diagonally and not horizontally as they should.

”I know it’s stupid but I couldn’t help myself from trying it out. I mean, our current circumstances are just like in that one novel and… Zoemi?”

Miriette shook her head and admitted in an embarrassed voice, but as she turned around and saw the frozen boy she gasped and walked toward him.

”What are you looking a… EH?!”

She asked in a worried voice after not seeing anything particularly odd at the first glance, but then she noticed the particular way the clouds moved and also gasped.

|Little ones, create an exit for us.|

”(At once~!)”

The black-haired boy thought and his first sentinel cheered out.

*rumble*

*crumble*

The next moment the wall trembled and broke apart, creating an arch through which Zoemi and Miriette could finally get out.

*thump*

”Whoa…?!”

The black-haired boy jumped out first, and as soon as his feet touched the ground he almost lost his balance.

When he turned around to look at the building he understood why was that the case.

Everything was bent out of shape.

The building he just left looked like some culinary reject, with wobbly walls and wave-like, almost circular structure.

Similarly, the ground that the boy stood on, as well as the well, the other building, and the outer wall that he saw through the window was comically deformed and bent at an angle.

”Oh my…! What in the world is going on here…?”

Miriette leaned through the hole and commented on the world outside.

”A very strong magician who can melt things… what’s worse, since this was clearly done on purpose, she must have expected us to show up.”

Zoemi said out loud, repeating what the apologetic sentinel had told him before transporting them to the outpost.

”Aww~ hearing that form you would make me cry tears of joy ten months ago… but now it makes me want to vomit.”

Then someone responded to the black-haired boy – but it was neither Miriette nor any of his sentinels or puppets.

”!!!”

Zoemi turned around and looked up.

On the very top of the building melted out of shape stood a person wearing a set of black and gray clothes that could be described only as a form-fitting hazmat suit.

They even had a gasmask on – but instead of the filters, the accessory had shining mana crystals attached to it.

Actually, the mana crystals were embedded in the suit the person was wearing too, in at least twelve spots – the middle of the chest, stomach, hands, forearms, shoulders, knees, and ankles.

|Sent a boulder her way, and freeze her while she defends.|

”Is that so? What happened in such a short amount of time? Not to mention that it would be proper to start with an introduction. You know, since you’ve ruined your own element of surprise and all.”

Zoemi thought to his resident sentinels while speaking out loud something completely different.

”Pffft…! Sure, why not? Mirienne Etwistrall, the daughter of the fallen Etwistrall family. At your service.”

”…wha…!?”

The girl at the top of the melted building laughed and shrugged before performing a mockery of a curtsy towards the extremely shocked black-haired boy.

Zoemi’s eyes widened and he glanced at equally shocked Miriette who was staring up at the girl whose identity she borrowed…

”That’s right. It’s me~ but I’ve heard there is someone shamelessly using that name of mine… isn’t that right…?”

The real Mirienne stared straight down at Miriette and snickered.

But since she wasn’t looking…

*RUMBLE*

*WHOOOSH*

A massive boulder tore itself from the ground right beside Zoemi and shot at the magic-hazmat-suit-wearing girl.

*WHOOOO*

At the same time, a torrent of ice-cold air descended upon her from above.

*KSHHHHHH*

But both of those attacks never met their target as the mana keeping them together with melted away long before they reached the real Mirienne.

Since the boulder was made out of actual stone and mana only gave it momentum, it lasted a bit longer, but not by much.

The vibrant, neon pink flames covered the projectile and turned it into a dirty vapor that simply splattered below the girl’s feet and began dripping down the wall of the building.

”Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Weren’t you supposed to be a patient man, mister former perfect attendant? I wasn’t even done with my introduction.”

Mirienne clicked her tongue and shook her head at the tense boy, and wagged her finger at him playfully.

”As I said. My name is Mirienne Etwistrall, daughter of the fallen Etwistrall family. A former wind magician who underwent an attribute changing experiment that went wrong… You see I was supposed to become a darkness magician or at least a shadow magician. What I got instead turned out to be… pure acid attribute~”

The girl cleared her throat and revealed herself pompously, straightening her back and taking a stance that suggested she waited for the applause…

…that never came…