Unfortunately, Shirou's idea of returning to Lungn could no longer be realized.
Because he could already see Rhodes Island in the distance.
The procedures for boarding the landship were entirely handled by the mbers of Blacksteel. Lappland and Shirou basically just sat obediently inside the vehicle waiting around without doing much of anything.
Honestly, the entire trip had been like that.
The two of them looked less like passengers and more like they had hired Blacksteel to escort them to Rhodes Island.
The price paid for that service was Shirou providing Jessica with sniper training guidance.
As for that, Shirou already had so preliminary ideas in mind, though he still needed to observe Jessica's condition further before deciding anything concrete.
anwhile, Lappland remained extrely curious about the scene she had witnessed earlier and continuously questioned Shirou about it.
It was not just Lappland either. The four mbers of Blacksteel sitting in front were also very curious.
However, as professional rcenaries, they generally avoided prying too deeply into their clients' affairs.
Of course, if the client accidentally revealed sothing in front of them, that was a different matter entirely.
Unfortunately for them, Shirou clearly had no intention of discussing the topic.
Ever since hearing Lappland describe what she saw, he had remained lost in thought.
Only after catching sight of Rhodes Island's main landship did he finally return to normal.
Naturally, he was not pretending to think just to avoid their questions.
He genuinely had been pondering sothing seriously.
Unfortunately, he failed to arrive at any answer he personally considered reasonable.
The relationship between Originium on this land and his magical energy...
No matter how hard Shirou thought about it, he simply could not understand why Lappland had been able to see his mories.
Eventually, he gave up trying to think about it altogether.
That habit was sothing he learned from Exusiai.
According to her, life beca much happier if you stopped overthinking certain things.
Happiness really could be that simple.
"Alrighty then, delivery complete! We will decide later whether we want to take the return trip commission too! We are going off to handle our own work now!"
After the vehicle reached the designated area, everyone finally got out.
Aside from Shirou and Lappland, who had spent nearly the whole trip resting, the others had all been diligently working the entire ti.
Now that they had returned to Rhodes Island, they could finally relax completely.
There was still work waiting for them, of course, but at least this place was far safer.
After stepping out of the vehicle, Franka stretched lazily before speaking to Shirou.
"Do you need any help?"
Watching Jessica and Vanilla skillfully open the rear compartnt and unload the materials collected from the Acid Originium Slugs earlier, Shirou felt that he should at least be able to help with sothing small.
He had spent the entire trip idling around, after all.
He needed sothing to do.
"No need. Are you not supposed to go see Doctor Kal'tsit first? I asked around for you earlier. She should currently be in the dical departnt office, so you should head there first."
Before Franka could even respond, Liskarm rejected Shirou's offer first.
Then, after noticing Jessica nearby, she suddenly rembered the request she had entrusted to Shirou earlier.
"Tonight I will contact you using Rhodes Island's communicator. I will have to trouble you again then."
"Mm... alright, understood."
After being turned down, Shirou did not insist further. He simply nodded before preparing to leave alongside Lappland.
He was never the type to stubbornly force himself into helping others.
If soone needed assistance and asked for it, Shirou would help depending on the situation.
If they refused...
Well, that depended on how close they were and what the matter involved.
After all, Croissant once told him that a person's bottom line should remain flexible.
"Haaah... this feels kind of strange. Not carrying weapons around makes feel like sothing is missing."
After leaving the unloading area, Lappland, who was walking ahead, let out a massive yawn.
Her two greatswords had been forcibly left behind at the office by Shirou. The pair she used earlier for warming up were only temporary projections borrowed from Shirou's abilities, and he dismissed them into particles of light imdiately after the fight ended.
Honestly, that ability felt incredibly convenient.
As long as Shirou was around, weapons could practically be treated as disposable items.
Unfortunately, Shirou himself was far too powerful.
Rather than supporting others, he was better off simply fighting personally.
Otherwise, Lappland might genuinely have considered persuading him to beco her permanent teammate.
"I already told you, we ca here for dical treatnt, not fighting..."
Hearing Lappland's complaint, Shirou answered helplessly.
It was precisely because of Lappland's battle-crazed personality that he intentionally left her weapons back at the office.
That way, if she wanted to fight, she would either have to visit the training grounds to spar more safely or request weapons from him like earlier.
Though Lappland always behaved politely around other people...
Shirou more frequently saw her crazier side instead.
Granted, that usually only happened during battle. Under normal circumstances, Lappland was surprisingly easy to deal with.
Ever since the earlier incident, though, she had started acting mischievous again, to the point where Shirou briefly saw flashes of two certain troubleso brats in her behavior.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. We are going to see Doctor Kal'tsit first, right? If I rember correctly she is the head of Rhodes Island's dical departnt."
Faced with Shirou's endless muttering, Lappland directly covered her wolf ears with her hands to show she understood.
Then she asked about their next destination.
"Yeah. Though technically speaking, we were supposed to et Doctor Kal'tsit tomorrow. But since Miss Liskarm already helped ask around, we should go greet her first. It will also make it easier for Doctor Kal'tsit to arrange things."
Shirou nodded as he explained.
Originally, after arriving at Rhodes Island, they were supposed to first apply for temporary lodging for the next few days, then find sothing to do for the evening before undergoing dical examinations tomorrow.
There was plenty of ti regardless, so taking a detour to see her now was not a problem.
And if she happened to be busy, they could simply leave imdiately.
It probably would not inconvenience her too much.
"Got it. Do you have any plans for tonight?"
After confirming the schedule, Lappland asked.
"I might need to teach Jessica how to use firearms tonight... other than that, probably nothing? Why?"
Hearing Lappland's question, Shirou thought about it for a mont. Aside from the training session they had just arranged earlier, he probably had no other plans.
But why was Lappland asking?
"Nothing much. Just asking out of politeness, I do not really know anyone here anyway, so I will just stick with you."
After getting her answer, Lappland turned around while walking backward ahead of him and smiled as she spoke.
Then Shirou placed both hands on her shoulders and forcefully turned her back around.
"Please watch where you are walking. Walking backward is dangerous."
After forcibly turning her around, Shirou spoke seriously.
"..."
The smile on Lappland's face instantly disappeared after being turned around by force.
This guy...
Was he genuinely clueless or just pretending?
Lappland found Shirou's behavior deeply puzzling.
However, that confusion was quickly answered.
"Not watching where you are going is dangerous. Rhodes Island has lots of children around. It would be bad if you accidentally bumped into one of them... and if you accidentally step on the wrong thing outside, it could even bring about a deadly disaster, you know?"
Shirou was now sincerely trying to correct her earlier behavior.
That last part ca from personal experience.
If Lappland had not brought it up just now, he probably would not even have rembered the incident.
"Then I will just turn everyone who tries to kill into mille-feuille."
Lappland replied with an extrely "kind" smile on her face.
"...Just be careful."
Seeing that expression, Shirou understood imdiately that she no longer wanted to continue the conversation.
She had even used the code word "mille-feuille." Clearly, Lappland's mood had worsened quite a bit.
Shirou was fully aware that this was probably because he had been nagging too much.
It could not be helped.
If Exusiai and Croissant fell into the category of troubleso children, then Lappland resembled a rebellious teenager far more.
Nagging was completely ineffective against unruly children, but it could still have so effect on rebellious teenagers.
Though...
There was always the risk of overdoing it and making them rebel even harder.
Those were lessons learned from Fujimura-sensei, combined with a little personal experience of his own.
"Hmph."
Turning her head away, Lappland quickened her pace toward the dical departnt.
Watching her reaction from behind, Shirou could only smile helplessly before following after her.
Rhodes Island looked much the sa as it had the last ti he visited.
Many operators and doctors moved through the hallways, and occasionally a few children could be seen running around the corridors.
As the two approached the dical departnt, the number of people gradually increased.
Which was only natural.
After all, Rhodes Island was fundantally a pharmaceutical company, and dicine remained its core focus.
"Good day, Mister Shirou."
The mont he entered the dical departnt, Shirou saw a white-haired woman greeting him.
Her tone was incredibly flat, almost chanical.
"Good day, Miss Ptilopsis."
The woman showed no intention of greeting Lappland, so Lappland simply ignored her in return.
Mainly because she did not know who the woman was anyway.
Shirou, however, clearly rembered Ptilopsis's na.
After all, her peculiar way of speaking left quite a strong impression.
"Are you here to see Doctor Kal'tsit? She is currently handling so administrative work and will likely require a little more ti. You may need to wait briefly."
After politely nodding toward the two of them, Ptilopsis imdiately identified their purpose for coming.
It was not difficult to guess.
After all, Shirou was a patient personally designated by Doctor Kal'tsit herself for treatnt, so he was obviously here to see her.
"She is busy? Will it take long?"
Learning that Kal'tsit was currently occupied did not surprise Shirou much.
She already seed like soone buried beneath an enormous amount of work.
Those eyes that seed able to see through everything just like Yith's eyes, looked exactly like the eyes of soone drowning in endless responsibilities.
He asked casually because if it was going to take too long, he and Lappland could simply leave and avoid disturbing her.
After all, this was the dical departnt. Doctors and patients constantly moved around here, so the two of them were sowhat in the way.
"According to my calculations... Doctor Kal'tsit should co out in approximately several minutes."
After hearing Shirou's question, Ptilopsis calmly answered.
Shirou had absolutely no idea how she calculated that.
Still, if she said several minutes, then waiting a little seed reasonable enough.
Sure enough, several minutes later, Shirou saw Doctor Kal'tsit erge from inside while holding a terminal device.
"Shirou? Why are you here?"
When Kal'tsit stepped out and spotted the red-haired figure standing ahead, she briefly thought she was seeing things.
After rubbing between her eyebrows slightly, she finally confird that the person before her truly was Shirou.
But there should still have been quite so ti before their originally scheduled appointnt.
Why had he arrived early?
Did sothing happen?
In an instant, countless possibilities flashed through Kal'tsit's mind.
If Kal'tsit ever learned that Shirou had co early for his dical examination simply to escape awkward stares, she would probably consider hanging him from the deck as well.
"I just happened to have so vacation ti, so I figured I would co get the examination done while I had the chance," Shirou explained.
"I see. Unfortunately, Amiya had already arranged ti off for this... now it seems the only thing left is to let her rest properly."
Kal'tsit showed no sign of doubting Shirou's explanation.
Rather, she simply had no energy left to be suspicious over sothing like this anymore.
At this point, she and Shirou were effectively partners working toward the sa goals. If she continued treating him with the sa level of suspicion as before, it would only beco unnecessarily exhausting.
"Hm? Amiya? Ti off?"
Hearing Kal'tsit's words, Shirou looked confused.
Why had Amiya specifically arranged vacation ti?
If it were soone like Rosmontis or Blaze, Shirou could understand it. After all, he had interacted with those two much more frequently.
But Amiya...
Aside from their last major interaction, she had mostly been occupied with her own work afterward.
Despite only being around thirteen years old, the amount of work she handled already exceeded that of all four mbers of Penguin Logistics combined.
"She said she wanted to talk with you about so things... and it also seems she wanted to do sothing with you specifically. She will probably invite you to help with sothing later. When that happens, you can decide for yourself whether you want to accept."
Seeing Shirou's confused expression, Kal'tsit calmly explained.
At the sa ti, she warned him in advance that Amiya might ask for his assistance with sothing, and that the final decision would be entirely his own.
In other words, when the ti ca, he was not allowed to use Kal'tsit as an excuse to avoid it.
This outco was already the final conclusion reached after discussions between Rhodes Island's elite operators and several other mbers. Even Kal'tsit herself no longer had the authority to change it.
However, since the proposal originally ca from Amiya, Kal'tsit simply dumped all the preparation work onto her.
As a result, once this vacation period ended, Amiya would likely beco even busier than before.
Which was why Amiya had originally been looking forward to this break so much.
If Kal'tsit rembered correctly, Amiya had planned to use the vacation to properly spend ti with Shirou while also showing him around the entirety of Rhodes Island.
But now that Shirou was already standing here ahead of schedule, all of Amiya's plans had effectively fallen apart.
"Mm... understood. When the ti cos, I will decide after hearing the details of the request."
After listening to Kal'tsit, Shirou frowned slightly as he replied.
From her tone alone, he could already tell that this request would probably beco troubleso.
He had previously promised everyone at Penguin Logistics that he would stop casually accepting random commissions, so naturally he was not about to agree imdiately.
Ultimately, everything depended on what exactly Amiya wanted him to do.
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