"Young Lady Diana Vars, please, let us handle this"
"Young Lady, please, take a rest"
"Young Lady Diana, I missed my chance to give you this sweet I baked last time, so please eat it to your heart's content"
"Young Lady Diana Vars, may I call my soon to be born daughter Divana? Obviously I can't call her Diana Vars, so I'll put the initial of Vars in your own name".
"Young Lady Diana Vars, if you have the chance, please, do come to our tavern. I would like to give you our best dishes as a thank for all you had done for us"
"Lady Dana, please, can you sign my spear?
"Lady Dana, your clothing style is absolutely breathtaking! Please give me a tip, from one adventurer to another!"
"Adventurers Kat and Linda too! You are both equally beautiful!"
"Sir Wandering Sage, it's an honor to finally meet you! Please bless my child to grow up to be someone like you"
"Young Lady Diana Vars, Lady Dana, thank you for everything you have done!"
"Wow! You really are kindhearted and generous! Thank you so much! This makes me want to help you even more!" [Diana]
"Thank you for your kindness." (It feels suffocating to be surrounded. It feels nice, but I'm not nearly as good as Diana when it comes to this kind of thing) [Dana]
Philip's people are really swarming all of us, especially those whom we helped during the Coffin Turtles incident. Even though I feel like I did the least amount of work, somehow they felt grateful to me the most. I can see that Dana is a little tired because she really doesn't know what to do. For me, I just gracefully accepted their sincere praise and gave it back. It's tiring, but it brings back my energy!
While the work is still going on, since they gave us food and drink, we feel that it would be rude not to eat it right away, so we decided to take an early break while Philip's workers told their citizens about it. They are reasonable people, and so they say their last thanks before returning to their homes and work. I wave goodbye as hard as I can and even give them a simple icy breeze to make them feel refreshed. I'm so happy to have met them and I'm sure the feeling is mutual
"Someone's popular" [Mara]
"I am amazed at the recipient you have received" [Mara]
"You are adored by Amlethians and now here by Philip" [Marianne]
"I'm sure the same can be said for the people of the Elven Kingdom" [Adnan].
"It just means that Diana is a good and kind-hearted person, so everyone is happy and loves her" [Neloufa].
"Look who is talking. You're even more kind-hearted than I am" [Diana].
Although the sun isn't as blazing as it will be at noon, we still put some shade over our heads to eat and drink in peace. The amount of food and drink they gave me is generous, and of course I distributed it equally to everyone else. This saved the cooking team some trouble in preparing today's lunch.
Still, I feel like they gave us much more than we should get. I kind of feel like a scrounger. I know they didn't mean any harm and neither do I, but it's just a feeling that I wanted to give something back. Not something like food or water, because that's something precious to our team. Think, Diana, think.
"Neloufa, can we sing a duet when we arrive in their big city?" [Diana]
"Why?" [Neloufa]
"We have received so much from them, I think we should give something back" [Diana].
"It's rather embarrassing to perform somewhere I'm not used to, but I agree. We are expected to arrive at night two days from now, so how about we start practicing!" [Neloufa]
"Agreed! What song shall we perform?" [Diana]
"How about the song that Madam World Tree Priestess sang back then?" [Neloufa]
"I see. I see. Let's brainstorm what magical effect we can use to make the duet even better!" [Diana]
"For starters, how about your flowery field magic?" [Neloufa]
The two of us start brainstorming about which flower to use. Which butterfly to show. The temperature during the duet, down to the last detail. We even called Madam Vita to ask her opinion and she wanted to sing too. So we added another slot for her solo as well!
We start practicing dancing and singing while doing our work. It's fun. It improved the mood so much. The beauty fairy Aidna even blessed us by making our clothes more beautiful for the performance. We sing and dance and repeat until we feel confident in our last minute duet.
When we arrived in their big city and installed the big mana core in the center of the city, the people of Philip were waiting for both of us. Asterion, with his speed, has already told everyone in the city the great news, and the news has spread even faster than his galloping speed! I'm amazed, and this pumps both of our hearts to the fullest! We are ready to sing our duet, but now before
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to see my two apprentice duets! It's me, Vita from the Opera House" [Vita].
"This is Madam Vita!"
"Her voice! Her appearance! The Magic Motion Orb really is the best magical technology of the century!"
"I'm glad I closed my shop early!"
"Young Lady Diana Vars! Lady Neloufa! We love you!"
The cheers and applause are deafening. The others, watching from the back and sides of the stage, signal us that everything is ready. I begin with a flowery field magic, inspired by the breathtaking view of the World Tree Realm. It's not a hundred percent imitation, but it's still a sight to behold. I even use sensory magic like smell for the scent of flowers, sound for the sweet soft buzzing of honeybees. I even threw in an icy breeze spell to make the temperature feel a little colder.
We begin by performing the song we agreed upon. I'm sure almost no one here understands the lyrics, but just like Grandma Farhah and Madam Vita were able to enchant their audience back then, we feel confident that we can do the same, so we start the duet with passion.
As the song continues, as expected, they don't understand a single word, but the song still touches their hearts as they want more and more! And we should give them more! The two of us sing two more songs before we close with Madam Vita solo! It's a short notice performance, born out of the spur of the moment, but it makes the journey even more memorable.
"The audience is going crazy" [Nar].
"Neloufa, I am so proud of you. The once shy girl is now able to perform in front of others effortlessly" [Jean].
"True" [Sas]
"You two are really talented, especially you Neloufa" [Kat].
"Agreed. My ear melts when I hear your harmonious duet" [Linda].
"You both perfectly perform the old elven song" [Farhana]
"Im impressed. I'm very impressed" [Elegast].
"Thank you all for your support. We couldn't have done it without your help" [Neloufa].
"Meow" [Fie]
"Yes, that includes you Fie" [Diana]
Praise left and right, from our teams as well as from Philip's people. We go to bed a little later than usual today, feeling a little more tired than usual with a sore throat, but nothing that a sweet glass of honey tea couldn't cure. It's tiring, but it's really worth it. I can see that Neloufa is really happy about it!
"Once dancing on a small stage in my house and now... Really... I am grateful" [Neloufa].
"And one day you will even beat Madam Vita, Madam Florence from The Empire and Madam Yachiyo from Southern Island!" [Diana]
I am sure of it!