A week after the theft of the Book of Abilities, things had long settled down again, though publicly, there was never any commotion to begin with. Yuki strolled through the first underground floor of the Absolute Citadel, where she stumbled upon Charlie, working to her heart's content.
"Oh, hey, boss! What brings you here?"
"Nothing in particular, just checking in. What are you working on?"
"The project you mentioned to me, of course! Your insights were truly brilliant! I never even considered mana as component in a mixture! Thsi opens quite literally millions of possibilities to me!"
"Great, great, and that project specifically?"
"Well… I wasn't able to create quite the result you were looking for yet… So portable spells in a bottle are still just a theory. But I was however able to achieve singular properties of spells to appear!"
"Sounds like progress! You keep going and report to me if anything comes up!"
"On it, boss!"
"All in all, it's not so bad… Actually, it's great! It's exactly as I imagined it! Horrible as that day may have been, I guess we were the criminals in that encounter… So I guess I'm glad we aren't behind bars. Regarding Clara and Fred… Sure, I'm sad, and will think back to them for my whole life probably. But that's about as much as I can do for them. Be remembered, and may you rest in peace."
On her way to Boyle and Cindy, on the second underground floor of the Absolute Citadel, Yuki remembered that she should probably make a quick visit before that, since it had been a while. All the way down in underground floor eleven, everything was a bit darker and there was only personnel at the entrance. A heavy, reinforced divinium door with no handle opened at her touch, revealing a long hallway of prison cells. Though all but one were empty at the moment.
"Kill me…"
"Yeah, I know, you really aren't as useful now that Natsumi's a bit better under control. My boo is truly amazing~ To be honest, I only wanted you for leverage. And I guess kind of as pay back because she pulled a similar move on me once… But now I find out she probably doesn't even care about you all that much. Not more than about the average guy at least. So I guess with her I could always use just any human shield as hostage… I'm really uncertain what to do with you now…"
"…Kill me…"
"Yeah, that's certainly one option… Is it my best though? I mean you are still associates or friends at least, right? That does seem better than some rando if she ever acts out… But I can just beat or kill her myself if that happens anyway… Urgh, what a pain… I guess we will just flip a coin."
She flipped a gold coin through the bars into his cell, where Leo was chained to the wall. The cain bounced of the ground twice, before spinning in place and eventually falling over onto heads.
"Oops, we didn't even decide which is which… Let's just say heads means you lose yours then, since it's what you want anyway. Or should it be you keep it? Argh, I'm so torn! Torturing you like this isn't even my style. I don't even care about you! If only you'd enjoy this a bit more, I could feel better keeping you around… You are so selfish… But whatever. I guess I will come back another time. See you around, Leon!"
As she walked out, she remembered his name was Leo, but whatever, she thought. Now arriving at Cindy and Boyle's workspace at the second underground floor, she found them very motivated and working with the new equipment she provided, allowing them to work far more precisely than before.
"You guys doing alright?"
"Of course, boss!"
"Nothing wrong with us! Please don't kill us for underperforming…", Boyle said, earning a kick from Cindy.
"Boss! Look what we did the other day! We were able to design a mashine that builds the parts you were looking for! Pretty easy thanks to the simplicity of the parts, but building it in here is…"
"Don't worry. You only needed to design it. If you do want to help build it, there's another place for that. I'll show you another time. You just keep on doing great like that, I will be back!"
"Have a nice day, boss!"
"See'ya, boss!"
Having been so productive already today, Yuki quickly teleported up to the Sphere, into the relaxation half where she dropped on the bed. Though not physically but mentally exhausted from having to talk to so many people and manage so many areas at once. If she had not given Carina most of the church work a while ago, it would be even worse. But now, at 9:30 a.m, she had deserved her first break. That meaning she yelled out through the wall to Yamato working while lying flat on the bed with her head buried in pillows that smelled like them.
"Boo, come quick, it's an emergency!"
The wall turned almost routine like as Yamato stepped in. She just patted the space next to her without looking up and kicking her legs slowly up and down. As Yamato layed down next to her, she rolled up against him, immediately throwing her arms and legs around him like a Venus flytrap.
"Boo, we both have work to do…"
"Nuh uh. For every time of work mentioned, I will take one hour!"
"Okay… No work then…"
"That counts! Two hours already! Two hours of whatever I want!"
"Sure, boo."
"Starting with head pats!"
Yuki emerged victorious as she felt her head slowly being stroked, nuzzling into his neck and leaving small bites alongside it as she moved up and down. She was content doing only this for the whole two hours, but she very well might move onto more right away, she would spontaneously decide. Suddenly, Yuki's eyes flew open and she abruptly lifted her head and turned back at the passage connecting the two halfs.
"Ahem… Genuinely hate to interrupt, but…"
"Natsumi, ever heard of knocking!? And you aren't allowed on this side of the Sphere no matter what in the first place! How long have you been standing there, get lost!"
"Door was open… Or, wall, I guess. Besides, he called me."
"I said get lost!"
Yuki threw her shoe, which she had planned on taking off right about now, along with maybe more, anyway, at Natsumi standing in between the two sections of the Sphere. But she effortlessly dodged, and remained annoyingly insistent.
After giving her a glare, Yuki yielded to the reckoning force of responsibility which sadly for some reason favored Natsumi instead of her diligent self.
"Fine! Give us a minute!"
"…Okay."
Natsumi stared at them, as if zoning out and waiting for the time to pass with no idea what Yuki actually meant.
"Get on the other side and close the foor behind you!"
"Oh… Right."
Embarrassment was written all over her face. It seemed it took much of her to come in and interrupt them in the first place, which already seemed uncharacteristic for her. Finally alone again, Yuki did not make the movd he expected her to make.
"It's all wrong now! Stupid Natsumi…"
"We can cuddle a little longer if you want. I'm sure she will wait."
"I didn't wanna just cuddle!"
As she pouted that out, she turned on her side and facing her back to him, which usually meant she wanted to he spooned. So he did, going back to stroking her head while hugging her from behind, one arm wrapped below her around her waist and remaining on her belly.
"Press us tighter together. And move your hand up."
"You only make it harder for yourself when we have to stop."
"I said I wanna! I wanna, I wanna, I wanna!"
"There… Hand's further up and we are super close..."
"Mhm~… Boo, I had a very stressful day. Stupid task which I could do in my sleep, which became unbearable because of how eaely they were. I couldn't even watch you wake up, feed you, or kiss you awake."
"I can get up earlier, if thst helps."
"You're cute. But I will drug you back to sleep if you do that."
"I thought I was immune to poisons?"
"My soothing, whispering voice is known to be the strongest sedative there is~"
"Aww… You can drug me all you want then."
"Careful what you wish for…"
As she turned her head over her shoulder to give him a smooching kiss, Natsumi came back in with one hand covering her eyes, though she peeked past through her fingers, despite clearly trying not to.
"You guys are imposs-iaaaah! What are you doing!? You can't husg have your hand there! It's worse than I imagined…!"
"What kind of lame imagination do you have for this to blow your mind…"
"Leave my imagination alone! And it's been way more than a minute! If you don't come out, I will leave!"
"Please do…"
"Don't worry, Natsumi, we will be out right away."
She stuck her tongue out at Natsumi, before reluctantly rolling over and jumping out of bed. Immediately walking out pushing Natsumi with her.
"Hush, hush, out with you!"
"You're a shut in, y'know that!?"
"I'm gonna shut you into something if you keep this up…"
"Okay, you both calm down a bit… But mostly you, Yuki… Natsumi, I assume you have what I asked?"
"Yes… I even has to perform deception for it, as expected when working for you!"
"Yeah, yeah, get to the point."
"Rude! But fine! The elf you described is in the capital, as one would expect. Pretty chaotic there, if I weren't pretty enough to pass as an elf who's ears are covered beneath my long hair, it would have gotten really ugly. They systematically oppress any species other then elves… Truly despicable! Even you haven't descended into such barbaric cruelty… And that says something!"
"Yeah, that was to be expected…"
"Don't you have that woman here? Satomi was it, no? I reckon she will be helpful one way or the other! We should call her up here for a meeting and—"
"It's very important you don't interact with her…"
"W-what? But she seems so nice!"
"You can't keep secrets. And I need to keep Satomi in the dark for now."
"Cruel and heartless as expected!"
Yuki threw herself on the couch, listening but not wanting to be an active part in the conversation if Natsumi had useful things to say, because it meant she could not really make fun of her. And something told her the less she engaged, the sooner it would be over and Natsumi would leave, giving her the chance to pull Yamato back into bed immediately afterwards.