Back at the inn, Mitsuna chose not to tinker with the gun she received just yet since if she did, she was quite certain another 'scene' might blossom from such a basic activity.
Instead, she completely rewrote and redesigned the bullets she received, each and every one of them were now bullets specially engraved by her.
After that simple activity was done and she ran out of things to do, she simply headed to bed where she slept through all of her remaining free time.
...
Waking up to knocking at her door, Mitsuna looked out of her window to see that daybreak wasn't far off.
'Is daybreak coming early?'
The knocking at her door continued.
Without a care in the world, she got up from bed with a light stretch and yawn before putting on her entire outfit.
Walking lazily to the door, she opened it up and peeked outside.
"Oh, hey Cassian. What brings you here?"
"Valued customer Mitsuna, good morning."
Cassian the receptionist said with a wave and no visible expression, as usual.
"I am here to remind you that you must head out and meet up with your 'squadron'."
"Oh, you know of that?"
"Yes, I do. Soldiers directly under the General visited us yesterday evening with a letter detailing that you must leave before dawn to meet up with your 'squadron'."
Cassian said, using his hands to physically put the word squadron in quotation marks.
"Thanks Cassian. Almost slept through it."
Mitsuna thanked him before suddenly receiving a small bag of money.
"Here is the remainder of the money you used in order to stay with us as well."
"Thank you again."
Mitsuna said with a smile before continuing.
"I'll pack up and come say goodbye in a short while before heading out."
"All right. Enjoy your packing."
Cassian gave a thumbs up before leaving.
Amused by his unchanging antics, Mitsuna closed the door and turned around.
Placing every gizmo and curio lying around her room into her inventory, she jumped onto her bed and stared at the ceiling for a short while.
After a deep breath, she stood back up and took a final look at the place.
'... I should check in on Horse. He should still be in the capital somewhere. I have enough time.'
And so she left her room, closing the door behind her and leaving towards the reception.
Walking to the reception, Mitsuna said her goodbyes to Cassian as well as the stealthy musician who was always playing the violin in the corner of the lobby.
Leaving Lemon's Mace and waltzing through the streets of Lemon while passing by some soldiers that were heading to the meeting, Mitsuna was wondering where exactly the army would dispatch her to. Though she couldn't ponder on it for long as she neared the gate to the city, turning the corner and ending up at the stable where she had left horse.
Walking up, she glanced around to spot him.
"Hey, Horse!"
She yelled with a wave as she saw him lying down with a few other horses between two piles of hay.
"The one on the right, sorry," she said as all the horses there turned towards her, "hey come on, don't ignore your favorite rider!"
Horse woke due to the familiar voice and stood up, looking in her direction.
Jumping over the fence between them, she walked up to him.
"Were you sleeping? At this time of day? I would apologize for waking you, but come on."
Walking up to him, she received a light headbutt to her cheek.
"Yeah, yeah. I didn't visit because I had stuff to do, you see."
Petting his mane, she continued talking to him.
"I'm guessing you're going to stay in this city then. I'll be on my way to fight in a little war so I won't be able to visit often," she stepped away and gave horse a small wave, "so I came to say goodbye. Also to thank you for the ride to this city. The company wasn't bad."
Horse layed back down dejectedly as Mitsuna walked off.
"Enjoy yourself, and don't follow along. I doubt they have satisfactory horse armor or weapons to give you."
She waved as she jumped back over the fence and started making her way to the gathering spot of her squadron.
'I have my weapons, ammo, tech and money. Nothing else to do besides show up at an acceptable time, I guess.'
Walking back through the streets again, Mitsuna found herself following a group of unfamiliar soldiers as they excitedly yammered and moved in the direction of the meeting spot.
'At least I won't be late.'
A short while later, she, along with the armed strangers, saw the figures of a few old men and a small group of soldiers already waiting.
The General, who was among them, spoke up as they approached.
"I can't say you're early, but at least you aren't late."
The soldiers who Mitsuna was following stopped and gave a salute to the General, greeting him. Mitsuna walked past them as they were now blocking her way and stood nearby without acknowledging the General's usual frown.
'So these people are going to be stuck to me from now on, huh.'
Mitsuna thought as she looked over the common soldiers standing around the area, before her eyes glanced over a familiar head of red hair.
Mitsuna let out a hefty sigh as she sat down on some nearby stairs that lead to someone's front door and rested her head against the wall.
A few minutes later, with nothing interesting going on besides the General's usual rambling and an unsurprising glare from the red haired girl, Mitsuna with her eyes closed felt a strong gust of wind.
Opening her eyes and looking up to the sky, she saw a metal flying contraption. Not quite plane, not quite helicopter but something mecha-magical in between the two concepts. It floated in the sky, nearly motionless, that Iron Thing.
And then, finally, Mitsuna was interested.
She stood up and as she looked at the metal thing in the sky and walked towards the General.
Completely ignoring the soldiers who stood in proper rows, ready to start boarding at any moment, she spoke.
"Since when did you have technology like this? I haven't seen anything similar across the land, basically ever."
Mitsuna now stood next to the General as she didn't remove her eyes from the machine that had now landed outside the city. She couldn't get a full view anymore so she started to slowly stride in it's direction.
The General, with a small sigh, also started walking, walking a few steps ahead of her so that Mitsuna wouldn't be seen as the one dragging him along.
"The recent years have been a Technological Arms Race. The North has been developing all sorts of magical machinations in their cold, rotating cities. With the unknown magic and items that our enemies possess, we, of course, need to respond in kind with our own creations."
"Hmm," Mitsuna mused as she reached outside the walls of Lemon and looked at the machine as a whole, "okay, I get that part. But where? I haven't seen or noticed any locations where these sorts of things are built. No factories and no... laboratories either. Where are these developed?"
Mitsuna asked as she looked at the General who stood beside her, the look she gave was serious as she held eye contact with him for a moment.
The General responded after a pause.
"It's classified."
The General looked back at the rows of soldiers that were approaching the aircraft.
"Time to board. You'll reach your destination in four hours and receive your orders after landing."
He spoke loudly so that the approaching soldiers could hear him.
Mitsuna looked back at the aircraft.
"I hope this country of your's doesn't disappoint me."
She muttered for the General to hear as she gave him a glance before walking up to and boarding the machine first.
Finding the most comfortable seat, she took out the blanket that she borrowed from Lemon's Mace and closed her eyes, thinking to herself.
'I really want to find out how this thing works later. Maybe after we land I'll ditch and start messing around with it a little?'
Thinking about situations such as those, it didn't take long for Mitsuna to fall asleep.
As she did so, she was awoken in her dream by someone very familiar yet someone she barely knew at all.
"What are you doing?"
Mitsuna 'opened' her eyes as her legs touched reached a grassland, she was face to face with a flying reflection.
"Oh... It's you. What do you want? Better question first, actually: Why are you still even here, Mizuki?"
___
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