"You are going to be used as a witness, Bjorki. A witness has to be alive to report back what they experienced, so, once again. Shut up. Or I will make you."
"!!!"
The atmosphere turned awkward, but only until Melinda rolled her eyes and scoffed, surprising everyone without exception.
"First thing first. Otti. We want to visit Koboldia. It's unfortunate that our timing is bad, but that doesn't really change anything. Will you go and ask the one in charge of the testing to deactivate the defense, or should I break through with force?"
With everyone's eyes on her anyway, Melinda turned to the little Kobold and asked, raising her hand and lifting a single finger.
"I… I'll go talk to Vish!"
"Thank you."
Otti called out and rushed out in a great hurry, circling the rampart without curling up into a ball.
No explosions meant that at least the defense system worked properly - that is, it didn't attack indiscriminately and was set to let kobolds pass.
"C-can you explain things while we wait…?"
Bjorki really had a hard time keeping quiet and asked.
"No."
For a change, it was Zane who answered her… although the answer remained the exact same.
After a few surprisingly short minutes, something started knocking on the stone wall from the other side.
"I believe it's our host."
"..."
The gold-haired girl pointed out, encouragingly looking at the black-haired one, making her take a deep breath and nod…
…before moving her hand down and leveling the ground back to its original shape.
The two magic turrets were still there, but they returned to their inactive state, also, between them, in the middle of the road leading to the tunnel's entrance stood two kobolds.
The sandstone-scaled Otti and a new one that neither Melinda nor Zane recognized.
The other kobold had violet diamond-shaped scales gradually fading into black, but surprisingly, she was wearing oversized leather pants that were mostly pockets and a leather vest in the same style, making her gradient not easy to notice at first glance.
The pocket-loving kobold was small, even for her species. Even Otti, who was considered little by Kobold standards, was taller than her by a whole head.
Also, the pocket-loving kobold was staring straight down at her clawed feet, clenching her clawed hands together and…
…shaking on the brink of bursting into tears…
"I'm… I'm shorry… My inventions… my inventions attacked… my inventions attacked…!"
The tiny kobold stuttered and started trembling so much that she started jingling - although that could be traced to the insides of her pockets and not some special quality of hers.
"..."
Otti, standing next to her, shifted from one leg to the other, making a troubled expression. It wasn't difficult to figure out on one hand, she wanted to soothe her brethren, but there was also a part of her that wanted to admonish her.
"...aww…"
Even so, Melinda let out a fawning sound and passed the blanket bundle to Zane before approaching the kobolds and crouching in front of the crying one.
"Hello. I'm Melinda Fenrioette. What's your name? And, if you don't mind, how old are you?"
While the tiny pocket-loving kobold trembled, shocked by her casually closing the distance, the gold-haired girl tilted her head and smiled, introducing herself and striking up a conversation.
"I'm Vish… I'm… I'm three weeks old…"
"Oh my gosh…! You're a babyyyy!"
The tiny kobold introduced herself back, accidentally causing Melinda to let out a high-pitched voice only a second before she pounced on the defenseless Vish and hugged her.
"It's okay, Vish~! You're so amazing, making stuff like that when you're so young!"
"I'm so shooorryyy…!"
But despite, or maybe because of the affection Melinda showered her with, Vish ended up bursting into tears after all, clinging to the gold-haired girl and pressing her little scaly face against the girl's collarbone.
"Now, now, sweetie…"
"But…! But it attacked…! My inventions attacked you…! I should have made it from the start that they would not attack you…! I'm a bad kobold…!"
The gold-haired girl comforted the tiny kobold, who started crying even harder.
Actually, it became clear that the tiny inventor was out of commission for the time being, so instead of trying to get her to suddenly be okay, Melinda simply stood up, holding her, and casually began to walk into the tunnel.
The others hurried after her, including the reluctant Bjorki, as the gold-haired girl became the center of attention without even trying.
The tunnel itself was dimly lit but spacious, enough for even Zane and Ross to walk side by side, with a lot of space to spare.
It was also remarkably long. Although, of course, it was shorter than the normal route going over the mountain, the distance it covered was nothing to scoff at.
With the light of the veins of mana crystals illuminating the way, it was hard to miss that every so often a formation of runes was inscribed in the walls, floor, or ceiling.
"Oh! Th-those are s-spike traps! I th-thought th-those were for p-pr-providing str-structural integrity!"
Catherine, who tried to stop herself from glaring at the sandstone-scaled kobold gazing with starry eyes at her Pigkin Orc, decided to have a closer look at some of the inscriptions - which caused her to let out a call of amazement.
"And th-those are at l-least high-tiered o-ones too!"
She exclaimed with a flushed face.
"...yea… those here are… uuu…"
The tiny kobold in Melinda's arms shifted her head to look at the black-haired girl and nodded before getting overwhelmed with guilt and starting to sob anew.
"Orthoclase, i-isn't it? N-not as g-good as quartz, but f-for th-the scale of th-the spikes, it's good a l-lot more e-efficient!"
"...o-oh…? Thanks… I put up a lot of rune formations of different elements to make sure every possible weakness would be taken advantage of… still, the earth one is giving me trouble…"
Catherine pointed out with a knowing smile and nodded, making Vish flinch and mutter as if the discussion about some of her creations had overcome her sadness.
"With the formation of this size, the quartz takes too much time to activate, and if the intruder is fast enough, they would simply run past it before it triggers… but since orthoclase will break if the attacker is properly armored, this trap is failing at dealing with them and only detains them for a bit."
Without letting go of Melinda, Vish leaned towards Catherine and started explaining, not even realizing that the gold-haired girl had stopped so that they could discuss.
"Y-you m-might be th-thinking too big. Th-there's no n-need to use b-big spikes. I-if you use small ones th-that shoot out, you c-could go w-with something like topaz or e-even corundum a-and n-not sacrifice th-the activation t-time."
Catheirne pointed out, placing her hand on the wall and concentrating for a fraction of a second before…
*SHING*
A thin, murky red spike the size of a knitting needle erupted from the wall in the space between her fingers.
"Y-you made th-those with big j-jaw-like spikes i-in m-mind, d-didn't you? Th-they can s-stay here and w-work a-as a di-dis-distraction."
"Oooohhhh…! Lady, you are smart! Do you like runic constructs, too?!"
Catherine pointed out while taking another look at the inscriptions, making Vish jolt up and call out with excitement.
"!!!"
"...?"
Something in her brethren's words made Otti straighten her back and take a step back, which was enough for the cautious Ross to take notice.
"...is that little one lying…?"
The Pigkin Orc leaned down and asked hesitantly, paying attention to anything that had the potential of threatening the black-haired girl.
"Eh? Oh, no, no…!"
The sandstone-scaled kobold flinched and took another step back before shaking her head hurriedly.
"It's the first time that Otti… that I heard Vish praising someone like that! Vish never ever called anyone else smart!"
Otti explained in a hushed voice, climbing on her clawed tiptoes and trying to be all conspicuous.
"I see."
Ross nodded his head with a relieved expression on his beastly face and looked back at the conversing girls.
"Y-yes. I l-like th-them. I c-can't use th-them myself, b-but I i-im-implemented some s-structures into m-my trap s-spells."
"They are so cool, right?!"
Catherine admitted, but it seemed that Vish jumped onto the initial part of the answer and got even more excited.
In her excitement, Vish fidgeted in Melidna's arm so much that the gold-haired girl placed her back on the floor…
"...umm… is it okay if…?"
"Sure~"
That made the tiny kobold hesitant, and she shyly raised one hand towards Melinda's hand, to which the gold-haired girl smiled warmly and held it.
"~!"
Vish responded with an even brighter smile and then instantly turned to Catherine and grabbed her hand, too, without hesitation.
"Lady~! Lady, let's talk about the runic constructs! From the ones you know, which one is your favorite?! Mine is…!"
The tiny kobold started talking, so happy and excited, like a child during their first visit to an amusement park.
"...!"
"..."
As the group started moving again, Bjorki stayed behind and almost bumped against Zane, who stayed behind, most likely to keep an eye on her in particular.
"Let's go."
"...that…"
He motioned his head encouragingly, although there was no warmth in his venomously green eyes, but the disguised princess seemed to be too bothered about something to truly pay attention to him.
That something being the corundum spike sticking out of the wall that Catherine left behind.
"...there… there are less than ten human mages capable of using corundum, half of which have some sort of elemental-type ability… ack…!"
"Stop it."
Bjorki mumbled, carefully studying the spike before trying to break it off the wall and take it with her, but got lightly smacked on the hand by Zane, who also scolded her as if she was a rowdy puppy.
"You…!"
"I was under the impression that you were snooping in her room because you wanted to find something that you could use to make her become your follower… but with a reaction like that, I guess it wasn't the case."
The disguised girl breathed in as if preparing to raise her voice, but Zane's slightly disappointed comment made her freeze up and chew her next words out of existence.