There was only one word that came to mind when looking at the hidden room behind that door: “White”.

  Everything was white. The ceiling, the walls, the floor. Everything.

  However, it wasn’t pure white like snow, but rather more like a very light gray, or a matte white.

  The white that covered everything in that room had no radiance at all, and was just a plain, boring white.

  And in the center of that room was a bed on which someone lay.

  “…What is this place?”


  “…A hospital room, or a bedroom, perhaps?”


  While Alectus and Ann shared their speculations, Reiko was staring at the person in the bed.

  That person was covered in white sheets, so she couldn’t see them well.

  At that moment…


  “Who’s there?”


  They suddenly heard a new voice.

  When they turned toward its source, they found a white –a

  white girl standing at the other side of the bed.

  She was about 1 meter tall, making her smaller than Reiko. Her hair was pure white. Her skin was also infinitely white. The clothes she was wearing were also white. Only her eyes were black.

  “Have you come to bother my father?”


  That person that

  like a small girl walked around the bed and put herself between Reiko’s group and the bed.

  “I’ll protect my father.”


  Then she spread out her arms in front of her chest as if blocking the way.

  This confused the three of them, but Ann soon opened her mouth.

  “Don’t worry. We’re not going to do anything. So that one on the bed over there is your father?”


  She spoke with a gentle tone of voice so as to not irritate the girl.

  “Yes, that’s right.”


  “What’s your name?”


  “…Neige.”


  “Neige, huh? I’m Ann. …Is your father asleep, or is he sick?”


  “…I don’t know. He’s been sleeping for a long time, and won’t wake up.”


  Neige’s gaze was fixed onto the floor.

  Ann then crouched and met Neige’s eyes, and then continued speaking in an even more gentle tone of voice.

  “Hey, Neige, could you let us see your father? If he’s not feeling well, we might be able to cure him.”


  Neige raised her head.

  “Really? And if you cure my father, will he wake up?”


  “Yeah, I’m sure of it.”


  After hearing that, Neige remained thinking in silence for a brief moment, and then moved herself to the side with determination.

  “…Please, wake my father up.”


  “Okay.”


  Ann slowly got closer to the bed where Neige’s ‘father’ lay.

  Meanwhile, Reiko approached Neige and started talking to her.

  “So the one sleeping over there is your father, right?”


  “Yeah. What’s your name?”


  “I’m Reiko. I have a Father as well.”


  “You too?”


  “Yes. My Father made me, and is the best father in this world.”


  Hearing that caused Neige to frown.

  “The best father in the world is my father.”


  That remark drew a gentle chuckle out of Reiko. She could really sympathize with Neige’s feelings.

  “Yeah, you’re right. For you, your father is the best father in the world, huh?”


  “Yeah!”


  “But to me, my Father is the best father in the world.”


  “So the two of them are the best?”


  “Yeah, it looks that way.”


  It seemed that something similar to empathy had sprouted between the two of them.

  While Reiko and Neige were getting along well, Ann started to check on Neige’s ‘father’.

  “Let’s see…”


  It was about as tall as Reiko, and very similar in appearance to the Nega-Doll that they had met just a moment ago.

  But there were many differences as well.

  The first one Ann could notice was his skin color. Rather than a sickly pale tone, his skin was warmly tanned. And he had white hair on his head.

  “Let’s take a look at his pulse…”


  To begin her diagnosis, Ann checked his pulse. However…


  “There’s no pulse?”


  She checked his wrist, his armpit, and the zone where his carotid artery would be, but there was nothing even remotely close to a pulse anywhere.

  “But…”


  She could feel that the being lying on the bed right in front of her wasn’t dead.

  His body was still warm, and it felt alive. But she still didn’t know how to wake him up.

  ＊ ＊ ＊


  Back in Hourai Island, Jin and Laojun were also at a loss for what to do.

  “At any rate, we could try ‘Check Up’ and a ‘Trace’…”


  There was a chance that they could learn something by looking at the flow of magical power in his body.

  “I’d like to have Elsa’s opinion… Laojun, where is Elsa right now?”


  “I’m sorry to bother her, but please ask her to come here.”


  ＊ ＊ ＊


  “A call from Laojun?. …I see, I’ll give that a try. ‘Check Up’…”


  Ann started her examination the same way she would do for humans.

  “There are biological reactions inside his body, but I can’t understand his organs or metabolism. I believe he’s not human. Let’s try a ‘Trace’…”


  With that, she was able to find out how the magical power in his body was circulating.

  “So his body works via a magical technology… But what should I do now…?”


  At that time, Ann received another call from Laojun, this time to deliver some instructions from Elsa.

  “‘Healing’ and then ‘Trace’… I see…”


  Ann examined the flow of magical power after applying intermediate recovery magic, and then shared her findings with Laojun.

  His flow of magical power seemed to have improved, albeit slightly.

  “‘Healing’ ‘Healing’ ‘Healing’”


  Since she was equipped with an Ether Converter, Ann could continue to use the same spell over and over without a single worry in the world.

  Not to mention the fact that the spell’s potency was significantly amplified in this environment, which had a high density of Ether.

  “‘Trace’… He seems to be getting better little by little. I expected no less from Lady Elsa’s insight…”


  After five more consecutive uses of “Healing”, Ann made a small pause.

  “Now’s time for some recovery medicine.”


  She then took out an ampoule of muscovite out of the first aid kit she always carried for emergencies, and fed its contents to Neige’s “father”.

  Though he couldn’t have taken the medicine Ann was giving him in his initial condition, now that he was slightly better, he was able to swallow it without a problem.

  “Now… ‘Recover’ ‘Recover’ ‘Recover’.”


  Through Laojun, Elsa instructed Ann to apply surgical healing magic.

  The reasoning behind that was that even if his body’s structure was different, it could still be effective to some extent.

  And Elsa’s reasoning proved to be correct, as shortly afterwards, Neige’s “father” slowly opened his eyes.