The work to restore the soul of the witch Orin proceeded smoothly.

Using the formula provided by Algind, which Dorothea and Gale checked, and using Sophia’s blood as a material, they began the healing process, resulting in a dramatic healing effect unlike before.

Although she hadn’t yet reached the level of regaining consciousness, both Dorothea and Gale judged that this too would improve with some time.

Since revealing the deal with Algind would also expose Sophia’s identity, they glossed over the detailed treatment process as “the witch’s secret technique”, and the Tower of Protection didn’t particularly raise objections to this explanation.

It was natural for a mage to conceal their arcane knowledge, and there was no one who would insist on verifying it when one of the key contributors to this war wanted to hide some techniques, especially when it wasn’t just any other party.

Well, there were some, but they were silenced after being beaten by their colleagues for not reading the room.

It was now up to the Tower of Protection to decide whether to put the healed soul into a magic doll or preserve it in its soul state, and Dorothea didn’t involve herself in that part.

What remained was the discussion of rewards.

The first proposal from the Tower of Protection side was the position of a 4th rank mage.

Moreover, it was in the form of an honorary position where they could receive the benefits of the tower’s authority and support funds without having to bear the usual obligations.

It was a position that would make even wandering mages or those employed by some domain swallow their saliva in envy. The basic value itself would be different.

But Dorothea lightly refused this.

“Even if it’s an honorary position, it’s still an affiliation. I don’t like it because it seems like it’ll get politically entangled later.”

The Protection side mages who heard this felt like saying, “Really, at this point?” but anyway, they couldn’t force it if she didn’t want it.

Instead, what Dorothea requested was the enhancement of the Tin Knight.

More specifically, she asked for the ability to supply mana from a distance, or if that was impossible, at least to greatly increase the mana tank. She also added a request that those participating in the work should be limited to those who could keep their mouths shut.

In some sense, it could be said to be the most appropriate request.

There were already more than enough people who wanted to understand the structure of the Tin Knight after seeing its extraordinary strength.

At first, they tried to proceed with the work by only accepting volunteers from among 4th rank mages or those specialized in magic dolls even if their rank was lower, but even with the restriction of having to sign a blood oath to prevent information leakage, there were so many applicants that they had to cut it off on a first-come, first-served basis.

The magic engineers who couldn’t make it into the group shed tears of anger and, as if to say they’d at least play with this, they started working on modifying the carriage of Dorothea’s party.

The modification took about a week, and the result was as follows:

“—First, we somehow implemented the remote supply function you wanted. However, it will be quite slower than directly pouring in mana through contact.”

“How slow is it?”

“If you fight like a normal knight, you won’t have to worry about consumption. But if you use big techniques consecutively, the supply speed won’t keep up with the consumption rate.”

“What’s the effective range?”

“If there’s no external interference, mana should reach as long as you’re in the same city. Since we gave relay devices to Adelaide and Sophia, if the two of them are between the Tin Knight and Dorothea, the effective range will increase that much more. Oh, we also increased the basic mana capacity itself by about 4 times.”

As expected of a tower.

While it might not be a perfect score, it was an achievement worthy of a high score.

It was enough to say that beating the witch was worth it just for this.

It was a bit bewildering that the carriage, which they had only heard would have amphibious functions added, somehow turned into something like a mobile weapon with remote attack capabilities, but anyway, this too was not a bad compensation for something received as a bonus.

Other collaborators besides the Tin Knight’s party also received appropriate rewards: Trot officially became a member of the Tower of Protection, and Bill’s pirate crew was also employed by the Tower of Protection. This time it was a workplace where, apart from the hope of returning to human form, they would also receive a steady salary, so they likely had no major complaints either.

The problem was what came next.

Usually, once they had done everything they needed to do at a destination and received all the rewards, they would immediately head to the next destination, but this time there was a separate reservation.

Moreover, it was quite a tricky type of reservation where they had to arrive at the exact timing, without arriving early or late.

Dorothea argued, “There’s no need to waste time waiting, we can just look for other sacred treasures and return at the set time,” but she couldn’t refute the Tin Knight’s point that “wherever we go around, we’ll probably get tangled up in another incident anyway, so how could it match up exactly according to plan?”

Their track record so far was too spectacular to refute.

It was then that Algind, the protégé of the Witch of the South, brought up the story saying, “There’s a place where you can kill time appropriately.”

She said that since fierce battles would come again next time, it was important to rest sometimes.

At first, Dorothea looked at her with suspicious eyes, but she was gradually persuaded by Algind’s logical words.

It wasn’t such a surprising thing.

After all, the reason she started on this long journey in the first place was because she momentarily forgot how terrifying her teacher was and fell for what seemed like a “benevolent proposal.”

To put it in vulgar terms.

Even among witches, the level of experience was different.

***

“Wow, the sea color is so clear and pretty!”

“The trees are quite large. Is it due to the mild climate?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ burns with enthusiasm, saying he’ll go pick coconuts!]

“Hmm, well, it’s not bad.”

When they first arrived on the island by crossing the sea in their carriage, the party’s reaction wasn’t bad at all.

The sandy beach was snow-white, the sea was clear and transparent, and no shadows of other people were visible.

It was an environment practically equivalent to having an entire beach to themselves.

There were no resorts or camping tents for travelers, but the party had their multi-purpose all-in-one carriage, anyway.

There was no need to go through the trouble of securing space here and there, so the party immediately entered play mode.

After all, it was true that quite a bit of physical and mental fatigue had accumulated from rolling through the civil war and its aftermath.

Especially in Adelaide’s case, she had been unconsciously dazed frequently recently, but now the light visibly returned to her eyes for the first time in a while.

They were about to change into swimsuits since swimming in clothes didn’t seem right, prepare barbecue with the Tower of Protection’s special camping equipment, and leisurely spend time drinking coconuts picked by the Tin Knight.

Suddenly, something seemed to slither out from one side of the sea, and a fish-person, whether a turtle or a soft-shelled turtle, started spouting nonsense towards Sophia, “Aaargh! I’m dying! I’m dying!!”

Looking at the fish-person dangling from a long stick with both hands and feet tied, struggling to avoid the heat rising from the bonfire below, Dorothea heaved a deep sigh, “Peaceful resort, my foot. Something like that pops up before we’ve even been here an hour.”

“The legend of half-human, half-fish isn’t that rare, but… Dragon King’s country. Does that mean there’s a separate country of magic beasts under the sea? Or is it on another island, not here?”

“Sophia, are you curious about such things when dealing with someone who said they’d take your liver?”

“Haha, isn’t information about the enemy necessary even to protect oneself?”

Dorothea grumbled as if displeased, but in fact, Sophia’s words weren’t wrong.

She approached the fish-person hanging upside down and asked, “Hey, turtle head.”

“W-what? Turtle head? You wench! How dare you utter such nonsense—“

“Seems like he hasn’t come to his senses yet. Tin Can, turn up the heat.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ burns with enthusiasm, saying he’ll show a spectacular fireworks show!]

The Tin Knight pointed his sword towards the bonfire below the fish-person.

Sword energy grew like wings around the sword, then began to spin around the blade axis.

As if responding to that rotation, the surrounding air rushed towards the bonfire, and soon the heat of the bonfire visibly intensified.

The tip of the flame, flickering like a tongue, was close enough to directly touch the fish-person’s shell.

“Ack! Aaargh!”

“Answer well to the questions I ask from now on.”

“A-alright! No, I understand! I understand, so please stop this fire!”

The fish-person pleaded with a noticeably more polite attitude, but Dorothea just tilted her head.

“What are you talking about? The fire stops when the questioning ends. So answer well before you burn to death.”

“…”

The fish-person quickly turned his head around with eyes wide open, but the iron lump was silently bringing new firewood from somewhere, the green-haired human just smiled inscrutably, and the golden-haired human was quietly praying with hands clasped.

There wasn’t a single human trying to stop the black-haired witch.

Only then did the fish-person realize that he had messed with not ordinary humans but a bunch of monsters. Unfortunately, regret always came late.

Realizing that only his tongue could save him from the heat that was beyond warming his back and about to burn him, the turtle fish-person’s eloquence rapidly improved.

“…So, there’s a country where fish-people like you live together under the sea, and it’s ruled by the Dragon King. But the Dragon King’s physical condition is getting worse day by day, and to treat that, he needs a vampire’s liver. So you tried to take Sophia?”

“That’s right! That’s right! So please, this fire! Ack!”

Ignoring the fish-person’s screams, Dorothea crossed her arms and covered her mouth, falling into thought.

Then she said to her companions, “Isn’t something strange?”

Adelaide asked, “Hmm, if you say it’s strange, certainly the ‘underwater country’ itself is strange, but is that what you mean?”

“No, not that. Why are guys looking for a vampire to cure their boss’ disease poking around an island like this?”

“Because Sophia is here… Oh, that’s right.”

Adelaide blinked as if she had noticed too.

It hadn’t been long since the party arrived on this island.

In terms of time, it would have been at most half of half a day.

But when and where did this fish-person get information and come looking for Sophia?

Could it be a trap? Algind Goodwitch. Did that guy pull something?

Just as Dorothea’s eyes were about to turn grim, Sophia asked the fish-person, “By the way, Mr. Fish-person. How did you recognize that I was a vampire?”

“What do you mean how!? You can tell just by looking at such things! T-the soul! By looking at the color of the soul! Ack! Ack!”

“Hmm, is that so? Then let me change the question. Have you seen other vampires besides me, Mr. Fish-person?”

“I have! That’s why I was chosen for the role of vampire explorer in the first place! Ouch! Ouch ouch ouch!”

“Where did you see this vampire?”

At Sophia’s words, the turtle fish-person finally seemed to reach his limit and shouted as if squeezing his throat, “This vampire island, where else!? Where else would there be vampires besides here!? Are you guys messing with me now!?”

After a very brief silence, as the Tin Knight lightly swung his sword, the turtle fish-person’s body fell next to the bonfire.

The turtle fish-person painted as if he had barely survived.

Dorothea looked at the island scenery again.

White sand, blue sea, tall trees.

A sparkling vacation spot full of solar energy no matter where one looked.

But.

“…There are vampires here?”

***

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