Flandre carefully tiptoed over to the edge of the vibrant flowerbed and took a deep, lingering sniff.
"Wow, it smells so fresh and sweet! Can Koishi and I play around here?" Flandre asked, turning her crimson eyes toward Kazami Yuuka.
Kazami Yuuka surveyed the lush, blooming sea of petals surrounding them, a gentle, fond curve softening the corners of her lips.
"This is your home," Yuuka replied, her voice smooth and warm. "You don't need to ask for my permission to play however you like."
Flandre scratched her cap in delight. "Really? Yay!"
Without missing a beat, she grabbed Komeiji Koishi by the hand, and the two little girls floated lightly into the heart of the garden like a pair of colorful butterflies fluttering among the blossoms.
Watching Flandre's carefree movements, Kazami Yuuka narrowed her eyes slightly, her smile growing distinctly softer.
"Let me host everyone inside," Remilia said, gesturing toward the warm parlor. "It's still quite chilly out here in the courtyard."
"You all go ahead inside," Patchouli offered, stepping forward and adjusting her spectacles. "I'll set up a protective Arts barrier around the garden perimeter. It would be a terrible shame if such a stunning floral display were battered and wilted by the winter winds."
"Then I shall leave it in your capable hands," Kazami Yuuka said graciously.
With little inclination to remain standing in the cold, the adults retired into the villa to rest, leaving Flandre and Koishi to weave through the petals in peaceful delight.
As twilight began to settle over the city, two polished black executive off-road vehicles pulled smoothly to a halt right outside the estate gates.
A uniformed driver stepped out of the lead vehicle and pressed the main doorbell.
Sakuya Izayoi glided down the paved walkway to the gate, inspecting the visitor with a calm, discerning gaze. "Who are you? What is your business here?"
"Good evening, miss," the driver bowed with deep humility. "We are private chauffeurs dispatched by the Swire Family. Miss Swire instructed us to pick up the young lady and her distinguished guests for dinner."
Living in Lungmen, everyone was well aware of the Swire Family's colossal influence, and knowing that their eldest miss frequented this estate meant the inhabitants were far from ordinary. Naturally, the staff maintained absolute politeness.
Sakuya nodded curtly. "Please wait here a moment."
She returned inside to inform the gathering.
"Call Flandre back inside; it's time for us to head out," Remilia instructed her maid, straightening her lace collar.
Sakuya walked out to the rear garden, scanning the sea of flowers—only to freeze in place.
Flandre and Koishi were completely gone.
Sakuya was genuinely taken aback; just a couple of minutes prior, her temporal awareness had clearly tracked both girls playing right in the center of the lawn.
"Are you looking for us?"
A cheerful voice chirped from right beside her hip.
Sakuya glanced down, only to discover Flandre and Koishi standing mere inches away from her apron.
What truly shocked the Head Maid was that, despite confirming their physical presence directly with her eyes, her refined spatial senses could not detect even a single shred of life aura, spirit energy, or displaced air from either of them!
"Hee-hee! Koishi, see? I told you this trick is super fun!" Flandre giggled, nudging Koishi's shoulder as she noticed Sakuya's subtle expression of utter bewilderment.
Koishi grinned innocently back.
The powerful youkai of Gensokyo never relied solely on visual perception to track their surroundings, as countless entities possessed magical glamour to trick the eyes. They invariably cross-referenced visual input with spiritual, thermal, and spatial presence.
Because Sakuya relied heavily on her sensory field to command time and space, facing two individuals who were clearly visible yet utterly undetectable to her spiritual radar caused her composure to twitch with profound dissonance.
When the group assembled in the foyer, the others immediately noticed the strange phenomenon surrounding the two little ones.
Junko even leaned down, examining the pair with sharp, intrigued eyes. "Fascinating... visible to the naked eye, yet completely erased from sensory perception. For ordinary mortals who rely strictly on sight, this changes nothing, but for high-tier youkai, the stronger their senses, the more completely they get fooled! This stems from your sister's innate domain, doesn't it?"
Junko turned her head toward Komeiji Satori.
Satori offered a soft nod. While her younger sister's unconscious manipulation of perception offered little in terms of raw offensive output, it was absolute and matchless when applied to stealth and self-preservation. If Koishi truly wished to stay hidden, not even Satori could locate her—and in fact, ordinary minds would naturally forget she existed at all.
Fortunately, Koishi had never once wiped her sister's memory of her.
"Let's get into the cars first; we shouldn't keep our hosts waiting out in the cold," Hoshiguma Yuugi chimed in, stepping toward the door. While she found the girls' stealth game entertaining, punctuality for a banquet came first.
"Let's go, let's go!"
Remembering the private drivers waiting outside, the Gensokyo delegation marched out in a grand, impressive procession.
"Hey! Don't leave me behind!"
Still dangling from the oak branch near the driveway, Hong Meiling thrashed about in desperation.
Swish!
A silver flash cut through the air. Sakuya's throwing knife sliced clean through the binding rope, sending Meiling crashing to the turf with a loud "Ouch!"
Scrambling to her feet, Meiling—her upper torso still wrapped tightly in ropes like a heavy chrysalis—began shuffling rapidly behind the group, her long legs taking awkward, energetic strides to keep pace.
Seeing her state, Flandre giggled happily and wrapped her arms around Koishi. "Look, Koishi! Our gatekeeper turned into a giant silkworm spirit!"
"Gah! Where in the world would you find a silkworm with legs as long as mine?!" Meiling protested instantly.
Pah!
Sakuya promptly chopped her on her head with a crisp palm.
"Aiya, Sister Sakuya, stop picking on Sister Meiling!" Flandre chimed in, taking pity on the gatekeeper. "While you were away back home, Sister Meiling took really great care of me and protected me super well!"
"Protected you?" Sakuya looked down at Meiling with an expression that plainly read: Don't you feel the slightest bit of shame hearing the Second Miss say that?
Meiling instantly turned her head away, her eyes darting nervously toward the sky. After all, she knew full well that the scrying mirror in Gensokyo had kept a constant view of Flandre's side—meaning Sakuya knew exactly how much napping she had done. She didn't dare utter a single word in her own defense.
Flandre blinked her crimson eyes in utter confusion.
In her mind, Meiling could have easily used her compliment as a smooth excuse to escape Sakuya's punishment, since Sakuya obviously couldn't know what happened while she was away... right?
"Ahem! Flandre, tell me—how many friends have you made since coming to Terra?"
Realizing that their secret scrying mirror was on the absolute verge of being blurted out, Remilia hastily raised her voice to derail Flandre's train of thought.
"Lots!" Flandre replied brightly, completely taking the bait. "For example, Sister Alina, whom you've already met! Speaking of which, I haven't checked in with Sister Alina in a while; I should ask how things are going with the Reunion Movement later. And here in Lungmen, there are tons! Emperor from Penguin Logistics, Sister Exusiai, Sister Texas, Sister Rope from the lower district, the carp-headed manager at the detective agency, Big Brother Hung, Sister Waai Fu, plus Sister Beatrice whom everyone knows..."
Flandre counted them off on her small fingers one by one.
"That's not very many at all," Remilia teased deliberately, folding her arms.
"That's only because you asked about friends, Big Sister! If we're talking about people I know, the list is huge! Almost everyone in the Lungmen Guard Department knows Flandre, and Flandre knows them too!"
Flandre puffed out her chest with immense pride. If it was just acquaintances, the count was endless—like the shopkeepers along the commercial avenue whom she greeted every morning during her strolls, or the officers in the LGD Major Crimes Division!
Remilia smiled, asking with calculated interest, "Then what about the lady treating us to dinner tonight... Sister Hoshiguma? What's your relationship with her like?"
"It's super great, of course! Otherwise why would she invite me to a big feast?"
Flandre had completely forgotten her earlier confusion about Meiling, answering Remilia's question with absolute, beaming confidence.
Before long, the executive vehicles glided to a halt in front of a brightly lit, bustling restaurant situated in a premier district of Lungmen.
From through the tinted windows, Flandre spotted the familiar, tall figures of Hoshiguma and Ch'en standing near the entrance. She happily leaned half her body out of the window, waving her arms wildly to greet them.