Cheiles Headquarters.

Days of rain and sunshine continued in turn, and before long midsummer had arrived with a thud.

Rodi’s clothes had become a little cooler and thinner.

Padrid, who had briefly been in a precarious state, was back to his usual self, and the Magic Tower, which had made that suspicious proposal, had gone silent since that day.

But lately, strange things kept happening one after another.

“It’s Gordon. May I come in?”

Gordon was the employee who delivered the letters and parcels that arrived at headquarters each morning.

Gordon’s hair was a truly summer-grass shade of green, so vivid he stood out even from a distance.

“Come in.”

At Padrid’s word, the door opened.

Gordon was carrying a large box and a bundle of letters.

He handed the bundle of letters to Padrid and brought the large box over to Rodi.

“Brodi. Another delivery for the new recruit.”

“Again today?”

“Here you go. Have a good day, then.”

He handed the gift box to Rodi, gave a polite bow, and left.

“That feels like the third time already, doesn’t it?”

“It’s the fourth!”

This.

A gift kept arriving every few days.

Horas, who had been lounging against the sofa armrest, turned in Rodi’s direction.

The gift boxes were always large.

And the color was different each time; today it was a rainbow-colored box wrapped with a big red ribbon.

“Oh? Let’s see what’s inside this time. Open it.”

“Okay.”

Rodi immediately tore off the ribbon.

“What came the first time?”

“A three-tier cake.”

Nobody knew who was sending them.

Gifts simply kept arriving for Rodi alone.

Nor were they dangerous items.

“And after that?”

“A jelly mobile and hot cocoa with white things floating in it!”

They all had one thing in common: they were food.

“Oh, marshmallows?”

“Ah, right! That… huh? What’s this?”

Rodi’s hand closed around a wrapped stick.

Each one was delicately wrapped individually, making a crinkle-crinkle sound.

She unwrapped one stick to find a small, cherry-red fruit coated in something that looked like a transparent glass film.

“What is this?”

It was clearly something to eat; anyone could see that.

But no matter how she looked at it, it was a snack she couldn’t quite identify.

It simply gave off a sweet scent and a fresh fruity fragrance.

“Looks unusual. Do you just eat it?”

“It’s called a Raret. It’s a specialty of Solden.”

While Rodi and Horas were wrestling with a single stick, Padrid, who had been attending to his work, spoke without even glancing over.

“Solden?”

Where’s that?

“Isn’t Solden your hometown?”

Horas recognized it immediately and said so, and Padrid gave a nod.

“Wait, so. The gifts up until now…”

They were sent from Solden, and if it’s someone Padrid knows well…

Rodi’s eyes went wide.

“Darka!”

“Right? What, new recruit, you two got that close?”

Rodi shook her head.

All she could remember was getting angry at him.

The day she had been listening to Darka, got angry midway, and ended up bursting into tears.

That day, when the general affairs office saw Rodi’s tear-streaked face, the place had erupted.

Ekision and Hailo had gone into an uproar, demanding to know which wretch had made the new recruit cry.

On top of that, Horas and Gemvil had each come back carrying enormous weapons, and the startled Rodi had hiccuped for a good long while.

Even Jin had threatened to come over right then and there, making it an absolute chaos.

It wasn’t until Rodi said she was fine that things fully settled down.

“Well then, I suppose it’s safe to eat.”

She had been unable to resist the sweet-and-sour smell since a while ago.

A little lick of her tongue.

Oh?

Her tongue had just tingled.

The moment she bit into the top one, there was a crisp crack, and Rodi’s eyes went even wider.

Pop! Pop pop! Crackle pop pop!

Stars exploded on her tongue.

How could this be? She had thought it was a sugar-coated shell with a sweet flavor, but it wasn’t that at all.

There was something that created a sweet taste while making her tongue tingle and buzz.

And inside, a tart cherry juice burst out, and it was nothing short of a party in her mouth.

“Th, there’s star powder in it!”

Rodi held out another wrapped Raret to Horas.

With a face more serious than anyone else’s, she nodded urgently, as if to say eat it right now.

The look on her face suggested disaster would strike if he didn’t eat it immediately, so Horas reluctantly unwrapped it.

And the moment he bit into one, Horas’s eyebrows shot upward.

“Hm? This is pretty good? Not too sweet either.”

Munch munch, Horas polished off a Raret in no time.

“It sparkles and everything. Right!”

“Interesting. Padrid, what is this?”

While Horas was asking, Rodi unwrapped another one and brought it straight to Padrid.

“Padrid, this is delicious.”

Handing it to him out of nowhere, Padrid paused, then accepted the Raret.

“There’s a conifer tree found only in Solden, and when you pick its leaves, dry them, and grind them into powder, it produces an intense sweet scent and a unique texture.”

Crack.

The fruit burst in Padrid’s mouth.

“Originally, it’s effective against colds, so in winter it’s brewed as a tea, but to prevent children from getting sick, it’s made into a snack like this by mixing in sugar. That way they’ll actually eat it, even if you call it medicine.”

Padrid had eaten a lot of this snack as a child.

Having been a late learner with a weak constitution and frequent illnesses, it was a snack Darka had always brought whenever he fell ill.

He didn’t think he’d still remember this.

It had also been one of the few moments of happiness he had felt amid all that suffering.

“So if you eat a lot of this, you get healthier? Does that mean you don’t have to eat vegetables?”

Rodi was about to eat a second Raret when Horas let out a quiet laugh.

“That’s not the same thing, new recruit. You have to eat vegetables every day.”

“Horas is correct on that, new recruit.”

Even Padrid, who had already finished his Raret, took Horas’s side.

“Ugh.”

Darn, plan failed.

Rodi, who had been watching for every chance to avoid vegetables, stuck out her lip.

“What’s everyone up to?”

Hailo opened the door and walked in.

Padrid’s face instantly showed a look of dismay.

“Don’t you have outside business today?”

“What, you have my whole schedule memorized? So you actually have enormous affection for me, Padrid…”

“…I’ll just keep my mouth shut. That was a mistake.”

“I like a quiet general affairs manager too.”

Hailo was carrying a few small boxes in his hands.

“Hailo, what’s that?”

Rodi held out a stick snack as she asked.

Even after sharing this much, more than ten were still left.

“Who knows. A guild member gave it to me on the way.”

“He got that from a woman again, I bet.”

Horas, peering over from behind Rodi, helped himself to another Raret from the box.

“Horas, you pig.”

“Oink oink. But new recruit, come to think of it, why are you alone today?”

“Lexiard went to take lessons.”

“Lessons?”

“Yeah. He made a promise with Boss and went to attend classes. Otherwise, Boss said he’d kick him out and not let him stay here.”

“Fair enough, he’s not an easy man.”

“And he said he was going to check on his grandfather’s movements.”

Lexiard seemed to want to protect Boss from danger more than anyone.

Lexiard’s grandfather was family to him too, after all.

If only Lexiard’s grandfather didn’t dislike Boss so much, couldn’t they be a happy family?

It was a mystery why he disliked him so much.

“Ugh.”

“What’s wrong, new recruit?”

My arm hurts.

Rodi gave up halfway through trying to tie her hair on her own.

Bender had tied it neatly with a hair tie that morning, but suddenly there was a snap and it broke clean off.

Going to ask her to redo it felt like she’d be too busy, so she was trying to do it herself, but her hair, which had grown quite long by now, was too flowing and wouldn’t tie properly.

“My hair won’t tie.”

“Did the tie come undone?”

“Yeah, this.”

Horas raised an eyebrow and held out a hand like a pot lid.

“Hand it over.”

“The hair tie?”

Horas nodded.

“Why?”

Rodi handed over the broken hair tie along with a new one from her pocket.

“Turn around.”

Why? Could it be?

“Is Horas going to tie my hair?”

“Can’t I just tie it? It’s not that hard.”

“Then tie it!”

Rodi promptly turned around and waited for her hair to be tied.

Swish swish, thick fingers combed through her hair and gathered it together.

But even after quite some time, Horas’s hands kept moving.

The first attempt ended up too loose and slipped out, and the second time it was so tight the tie snapped again.

“This is actually pretty hard.”

“Hand it over.”

Hailo, who had been watching from the side, held out his hand.

But by now both ties were broken.

“This should work too.”

Hailo took the ribbon that had been wrapped around the box and began tying Rodi’s hair.

“Into one?”

“Yeah! Like a ponytail, like this!”

“Yes, yes.”

He looped the ribbon over his hand a few times and in no time the hair was tied.

“How is it, new recruit?”

Hailo walked her over to a mirror to show her, and satisfaction spread across Rodi’s face.

“I love it!”

Glancing at the time, Hailo murmured, “It’s already time to head out,” and grinned at Rodi.

“New recruit, want to go on a date with me today?”