The bamboo forest was difficult enough to navigate during the daytime, much less at night. But this wasn’t an ordinary night; Keine could
As such, she barely noticed when she tumbled down a rather precarious decline, rolling down and coming to a rather ungraceful stop when she collided with a pair of legs.
The blow was enough to knock the apparently demure person over, and Keine, for the first time, had a reason to be grateful her horns were not extended this evening.
“Really now, I didn’t think you were
“What?” said Keine.
“...Nothing. I thought you were someone else.”
Keine sat up, and saw a petite short-haired girl with a headband. “I’ve seen you before,” said Keine.
The other girl nodded. “And I you. You live in the human village.”
“You’re a ways from home as well. What bring you out here at a...time like this?” Keine asked, guardedly.
“I’ve investigating the moon disappearance,” said the short-haired girl, putting her hand to her chin. “Hmm...I believe the incident as such should exonerate you without asking where you’ve been.”
“How’s that?” Keine asked, mostly out of curiosity.
“You seem...quite out of your element tonight. It seems foolish to self-inflict such a state.”
Keine nodded. “What do you plan to do, then? Put an end to this?”
The sorceress shrugged. “That depends on their objective. I wish to ask them how they did it, so--”
“What?!”
“...Please, let me finish. So that if there comes a time to do such a thing, or something similar, for the right reasons, I may be prepared to act.”
“So you’re just...what, hoarding knowledge?”
The other girl got to her feet and brushed her dress off. “I suppose you could look at it like that. However, due to the state you’re in, I promise to take that into account when I decide whether or not I should act against them. Shall we move on, Keine?”
Keine decided she did not very much like this calculating magician who knew more about Keine than Keine about her, but she had little choice.
“Fine,” she growled. “You never gave your name.”
The other girl fixed her with a saccharine smile and extended her hand to Keine in both greeting and assistance. “But I assumed you knew. How rude of me. Alice Margatroid, sorceress and puppeteer. Now then, the night is young, no?”
Keine groaned.