"And so I said, 'The Aristocrats'!"
"Damn, I can't believe the aristocrats did all that." Roko said as he sipped his tea.
"Yeah and that's why they're now all banned from the royal stables." Helena chewed on a bit of beef jerky, "Also sent a bulletin out to all the normal stables but what they did with that was up to them."
"I see."
"We tried to ween them out of their habits a few months later cause we felt sorry for them but uhh...that didn't work out."
"What did you do?"
"We showed them Corissa."
…
"And that didn't work?"
"Well it almost worked. But you know, it's like getting rid of one drug with another drug so we stopped."
"Damn. That's crazy."
"Roko, here's your lunch." Corissa arrived with chicken parmesan and beef miso soup.
"Thanks!" Roko grinned as he took the plate from Corissa and began eating eagerly.
"Damn, that looks so good." Helena said as Corissa took a seat next to them, "Can I have some?"
"No." Corissa said sternly, "Roko needs a proper balanced meal."
"Man, I've been eating the standard lunch meals for days now." Helena sighed, "I mean, it's not BAD per say but...I miss some good old Corissa cooking."
"Flattery will get you nowhere." Corissa said, munching on her standard lunch meal of chicken caesar salad, beef jerky and fish stew with a slight blush on her face.
"You're so lucky Roko." Helena smirked, "Getting to eat gourmet food like that."
"I'd be fine with the same meal as everyone else." Roko chuckled.
"Roko! You can't say that after Corissa cooked for you!"
"It's okay. I'm used to it." Corissa sighed as she began to drink her soup.
"I appreciate the special meal though!" Roko grinned.
"Not used to this though, huh?" Helena smirked as Corissa struggled to maintain her composure.
"Hey, I'm back with the milk tea."
"Oh nice!" Helena grinned as Roland placed down a mug of milk tea next to her before sitting down, "Man, I've been craving this after all that work we've been doing! Still miss Roko's brew but this'll do."
"Did Roland make it?" Corissa asked curiously.
"Nah, that was Kaguya's." Roland replied, "I don't know how to make milk tea."
"You're like the only one who doesn't at this point." Helena scoffed.
"Well sorry for not being hip with the trends." Roland scoffed back, "I'm more of a classic, if you can't tell." Roland sneered smugly as he tipped his hat and drank his darkly colored drink...without any problems.
"Uhh...what are you drinking, Roland?" Helena frowned.
Roland grinned an almost evil like grin as he replied, "Coffee."
…
"Bullshit." Helena said.
"It's true." Roland replied as he took another sip, "I've finally gotten used to the taste of coffee and can now drink it with ease. Pure black of course."
"Aight, then let me take a sip." Helena held out her hand.
"...No."
"Why?"
"Because this is MY drink!"
"Come on, it's just a sip."
"Absolutely not! This is no kid's drink."
"I ain't a kid! I'm the same age as you!"
"But are you the same age...mentally?" Roland said as he struck another pose with his hat.
"...Okay then, would you give Corissa a sip?"
"Huh?" Roland blinked.
"I'm sure Corissa is curious." Helena said in an almost devilishly alluring fashion, "And she'd really appreciate it. Isn't that right Corissa?"
Helena gave the princess a wink. Corissa laughed awkwardly in response but replied in a manner much too used to these kind of antics, "Yes, I would love to try it."
Roland looked away, face and palm sweating and Helena coiled an arm around Roland's shoulders and drew herself even closer to whisper in his ear, "You know you want to. It'd be like an indirect kiss between you two. Don't you want to get closer to Corissa and her banging body?"
Roland continued to struggle with his inner demons as he considered Helena's words. In the end he was grinding his teeth to a worrying degree as he replied through gritted teeth, "It's...hot chocolate."
"I KNEW IT!" Helena whooped as she stood up in victory, "I knew you weren't drinking coffee you absolute poser!"
"SHUT UP!" Roland snapped back, "The whole world doesn't need to know about it!"
"Hot chocolate..." Corissa mused, "Roko, didn't you used to drink hot chocolate?"
"Hm?" Roko looked up from his meal, "Oh yeah, I did used to drink hot chocolate and eat tiramisu to help concentrate. But well, all the troubles happened and I had to think on the spot and I just...kinda learned to not use it."
"Hahaha, looks like Roko's learned how to improve!" Helena said in a weirdly proud manner, "Which is more than I can say for some people."
"Hey, I've improved too." Roland sighed as she drank his hot chocolate, "It's just that no one's paying attention."
"Hey, I've been paying attention. You've done really well. I'm proud of you." Helena said as she pat Roland on the back.
"Thanks." Roland sighed.
"All thanks to Roko's guidance."
"Oh for the love of-"
After lunch, Roko and Corissa wandered the tunnel network, still a little bit lost in the expansive domain. If Roko hadn't insisted on going down certain corridors out of curiosity, they probably wouldn't have had a problem getting out. As it stood, they were still in the lit parts of the tunnel at least though it wasn't long until Roko spotted some shadows in the walls and went over to check it out.
"Oh! It's Eresh!"
Ereshkigal look up quickly as Roko and Corissa strolled into the room. Roko had a big wide smile on his face that unnerved her greatly.
"Whatcha doin?" Roko asked as he knelt down to speak with the dark elf child.
"Just...a bit of practice." Eresh replied nervously, "Just a few things that I learned from my dad's notes."
"Is that...a magic seal?" Corissa frowned at the intricate white circle that she had made, "You aren't supposed to actually be practicing the magic aren't you?"
"T-This is just to help me remember!" Eresh quickly blustered, "All those diagrams and drawings are hard to memorize without some actual practice, you know!"
"I dunno..." Corissa said almost suspiciously, "This is dangerous magic you're playing with..."
"Uhhhh..."
"Does your father know you're doing this?"
"Ummmmmm…"
Ereshkigal was sweating pretty bad now. She looked around guiltily, not able to look anyone in the eye, looking for some way out of the conversation.
"Eresh..." Corissa said, her stern adult voice coming into effect, "Have you been practicing dark magic?"
"It's not dark magic!" Ereshkigal protested, "It's just my father's research!"
"You know that magic is dangerous."
"You don't know that for certain!" Ereshkigal snapped back in response, "Dad used this magic for years and he hasn't been suffering any side effects!"
"Your dad's pretty outspoken about the paranoia he's suffered from using this magic. It's not harmless."
"You can't prove for certain that the two are connected!"
"Eresh..." Corissa sighed, "What do you even want to accomplish?"
"It's...it's just practice, I swear..." Ereshkigal looked down.
Corissa sighed, "Roko, why don't you speak to her?"
"I think it's fine."
"Huh?!" Corissa and Ereshkigal looked at the smiling human in shock.
"Reading theories all day is really boring." Roko explained, "You need practical experience to really understand what it is you're reading."
"But Roko, you yourself said this power could be dangerous." Corissa frowned.
"And it could be not dangerous." Roko replied cheerfully, "A little paranoia is pretty mild compared to everything else we've gone through. If whatever god exists behind this power wanted to do something, they'd surely have done something by now if it has heard that it's getting destroyed soon. Maybe it's reach is too distant. Maybe we can steal some of it's power for ourselves. I think it's worth seeing where this goes."
"But Roko...this is an unnecessary risk."
"Sometimes risks have to be taken to progress." Roko smiled, "And kids learn better through experimenting for themselves than just being told so I say let her try some things out."
"I'm older than you, you know." Ereshkigal frowned, "But...are you sure?"
"Yeah! I mean, I trust you can take care of yourself! Aida practically saved us all by destroying the grimoire so I'm sure you know when to draw the line. And if you do mess up, that's where we adults come in! So don't worry about it!"
Corissa sighed, "Alright. I'll let this slide. But in any case, you're going to be in bed, mister. You'll be doing no such helping, you hear me?"
"Aw come on." Roko said as Corissa pulled him up by the collar, "I can stay outside a little while longer can't I?"
"No arguing. Now go."
"Okay..." Roko said as Corissa gently pushed him away, "Bye Eresh!"
"Ah, please don't tell my dad what I'm doing here!" Eresh called.
"You got it!"
"Ah, feel that sunshine!" Roko stretched as they finally emerged from the caves, "It's another good day isn't it Corissa?"
"Umm...yeah..." Corissa replied absentmindedly, still unsure if letting Ereshkigal continue practicing was a good idea. Why DID she let it go? She knew it was dangerous. She knew Roko wasn't in his right mind right now. So why did she agree to letting Ereshkigal continue practicing? Was she just being stupid? Did she just trust Roko that much? Just how much did she just implicitly trust Roko? Well...Roko usually turns out to be right so this should be fine right? So what's so different this time? What's been nagging her?
Watching Roko walk around, Corissa came across the answer. Whenever Roko would take risks, he'd always take that risk upon himself whenever possible. He rarely risks someone elses' life if he can help it. Even if some of us were more prepared to take that risk, Roko would use himself more than use others, much to some of their frustrations. But this time...he's letting Ereshkigal take the risks in using that magic. It was very un-Roko-like. But...maybe that's what Roko was really like inside? Maybe Roko never really wanted to risk his life all the time. She wouldn't go so far to say that he was a coward, certainly not but...in that case what drove Roko to place himself in front of others to this degree? Was it some sense of duty? Did he just not want to put others in danger? Why would he do so if he actually didn't want to? What...would Roko be like now if he was more like this before? Which is it that Roko wanted to do? What is...the real Roko?
"Roko?" Corissa spoke up, catching the attention of her cheerful companion, "If...you could do anything you want right now, what would it be?"
"Anything?" Roko blinked then thought about it for a moment.
Corissa waited anxiously. It was a simple question she never actually asked as innocently as she did now. They always asked for Roko's idea on what to do next. Asked him his opinion on a great many of things. But...never what it was he wanted to do with all the freedom in the world. She was curious but she did feel like she owed it to him. A moment to do something fulfilling for himself. She waited anxiously but Roko didn't seem to be finding much of an answer.
"Dunno!" Roko eventually replied with a clueless grin.
"...Really?" Corissa blinked.
"Yeah!" Roko chuckled as he reached up and pat her on the head again, "Don't worry about me. You've done enough for me already."
Corissa sighed but with a slight smile on her face. Giving Roko a blank check was, in retrospect, kind of scary, especially given his condition right now. But hearing that he doesn't have any idea was both disappointing and relieving. But...how accurate was this? Was this just the Roko of no restrictions that has no idea or is Roko...really that easy going? Did Roko not want to do anything? Does nothing interest him other than helping people? Even Corissa couldn't believe he was that selfless. Maybe he just didn't have an immediate inclination to do anything specific? It was kind of a sudden question and-
"Wait, Roko?" Corissa looked up as she realized that Roko had disappeared from her distracted view. Looking around in panic, she spotted Roko climbing up the mountainside again.
"Roko!" Corissa cried, running over as quick as possible, "Get down from there!"
"Hm? I just want to to see the lake again." Roko said as he glanced down at Corissa nonchalantly.
"It's dangerous to climb so high! Your body is still recovering!"
"But I've made the journey before." Roko blinked, "Besides, you asked me what I wanted to do right now if I could do anything and this is what I want to do."
"That was purely hypothetical." Corissa sighed, "Never mind. Fine. We'll go take a look again."
Following Roko back up to the top of the short mountain, the two glanced down at the still incomplete lake, this time in the day where they can see through the glass bottom more clearly.
"Aw man, I was kind of hoping I could see someone through the lake this time." Roko said as he crouched down to touch the water, "Hey, there's a lot more stuff around here this time. What's all these things doing here?"
"Oh, this?" Corissa said as she looked around at the crates and large bottles of various liquids, "We took a retest of the water balance before we're about to introduce the fish and plants and...well there were some slight imbalances. Probably because of the rain. So to make sure everything is perfect for all the plants and animals we made some slight adjustments again before they arrived. This is just the stuff leftover."
"Can I pour some of these?"
"What? No!"
"Aw come on, please?"
"Roko, it's a delicate balance."
"I'll pour one of everything so it's all balanced!"
"That's not how that works..." Corissa moaned.
"But you said that I could do anything!"
"I said IF you could do anything..." Corissa muttered, "Whatever. Fine, you can pour...just a little bit of a few of them."
"Yay!"
Corissa sighed as Roko began uncorking some of the bottles. It was becoming concerningly clear that she might not have the ability to refuse Roko. It was a shocking mix of the image of the dependable Roko she always knew and trusted and the new child-like wonder that she was weak against while playing with kids. She always thought she was good with kids but perhaps she wasn't...stern enough with them. But she didn't want to make the kids hate her, she liked having fun with the kids. Not that Roko is a kid, he's just...really willful right now. Without Roko there to be all responsible for her, Corissa was really feeling the need to moderate herself. Not that responsibility was a foreign concept to her. She was a princess of a country after all. But Roko being wound up really let everyone else unwind. Perhaps Corissa could get someone else to be the responsible one for her? Helena was certainly capable of it, but she probably wouldn't enjoy the task...if anything, she might let her do the worst things at the worst time for nothing more than a laugh. Momo was equally capable but...she seemed to be more comfortable enjoying life than making sure everything's in order. Kaguya was the obvious candidate being part of the student council and all but...something about her kind of scared Corissa. She was sure she'd be a perfectly fair and reasonable person but...Corissa might just end up listening to everything she said out of fear which...didn't seem ideal. Mikado was an equally capable person who would often help Kaguya with her work but...he didn't seem like the person to interrupt much. Varis couldn't speak so…
"I guess that leaves Roland?" Corissa muttered, "Maybe I should speak to him more..."
A splash suddenly alerted Corissa back to Roko who had collapsed on the edge of the water, face half in the water and gasping heavily, trying not to drown as he clutched his chest.
"ROKO?!" Corissa quickly ran over and pulled him out of the water, cradling him as she tried to make sense of his condition, "What's wrong?! F-For now, we need to get you to bed."
Corissa shifted Roko over her shoulder to try and guide him away but struggled with his weight and she quickly realized she wouldn't be able to carry him down the steep mountain.
"Ah, that's right! Varis! Varis, please carry Roko back to the hut!"
Varis emerged from the shadows the second she called his name and quickly took Roko from her, the two rushing their struggling friend to safety.