Yua, Elise, and Monanded in a deserted alley.


    “Should we really ask them for help?” in, now his hair is ck with a shade of green, asked Lauren.


    The woman with purple hair and red eyes sighed. “Then, what should we do? Infiltrate there… Oh hey, looks like you guys have another new friend.”


    The sorcerer trotted over to Kimi. The petite elf slowly descends while ying a soft tune with her lute.


    “Does it also function as a magic tool?” Lauren’s gaze could not be separated from the instrument. “Could I see it?”


    The petite elf who had justnded pulled the lute. “Sorry.”


    Lauren raised her hand with a big smile. “No problem. I can understand, really.”


    “So.” Yua used a slightly louder tone to wake in, who was fixated on her cleavage. “They want to invite us as finalists of the tournament?”_.


    “As we said.” in shook his head and massaged the spot between his eyes. “You actually got an invitation, but they don’t know how to send it. No delivery can go to the realm of God, after all.


    “In this country, in the event of that magnitude, the invited person may bring up to two of their colleagues,” Lauren added, still observing Kimi’s lute. “And pets are counted as guests too…. Hey, it turns out that you have more than one new friend.”


    Lauren approached Elise, watching Ciel, who had turned into a bee again, clinging to the female warrior’s shoulder.


    Yua raised an eyebrow. “You can tell that she is special?”


    “I feel something different in this bee.” Lauren nodded her head. “This creature emitting an aura simr to Elise’s, you, and even this dog.”


    “Maybe she felt a divine aura but didn’t understand it.” Raymund made a guess.


    “Her name is Ciel,” Elise told the sorcerer.


    in cleared his throat. “We’ve been talking too long. We’d better get going before it’s toote.”


    “I agree.” Lauren smiled slightly, slightly spread her arms. “Let’s go to the main residence of the Kozlov family.”


    ***


    Elise, Yua, Lauren, and in opened their mouths wide as soon as they got off the horse carriage. The white building before them was too massive to be called a house and looked more like a castle. Many towers with pointed roofs surround the main building, which is shaped like a royal fortress.


    “Holy shit.” in ruffled his hair when he realized the building was still far from the gate. “This is insane!”


    “No wonder they are called the greatest cloth merchants in the entire continent.” Lauren shook her head.


    Yua shrugged. “Well, it would be difficult if we infiltrated there without an invitation. It’s just too big to do a search on it.”


    “Ah, this is why Renee got caught, even though she’s great,” Raymundmented. His voice came from themunication device Lauren had brought. “The Emiliens may have asked the Kozlovs to mobilizerge numbers of people to kidnap Renee.”


    “We were parting ways with Renee for a moment when it happened.” Lauren sighed. “It’s been said that an army is ganging up on Renee.”


    Meanwhile, Mona seemed disinterested and instead looked at them. Likewise, Kimi, whose eyes were closed and her head lowered. She appeared to be sleeping standing up.


    A male guard in full armor came up to them with a crystal ball.


    “Actually, I know you two.” He said in a friendly tone. “But, I have to check something first since you guys didn’t get the physical invite.”


    The guard moved his index finger across the surface of the crystal ball, revealing the faces of Yua and Elise. Then, he signaled to another guard at the gate, who immediately blows the trumpet.


    “So, five humans and one pet, huh.” The guard continued. “Please wait a moment.”


    Except for Kimi and Mona, Elise and the others exchanged nces, not knowing what to wait for.


    It took a while until they saw the gate of the building’s fence open. Then, a horse-drawn carriage with golden decorations came to them.


    The carriage driver got off that thing, then bowed to Elise and the others. “Pleasee in, sir, madam.”


    They all got into the vehicle, still in awe. Especially when the horse carriage they were sitting in entered the courtyard area. Their eyes saw various exotic nts, from a cactus that should only live in the desert to giant flowers that looked like they had fangs.


    “So, I guess they nted this all with magic?” Yua looked at a tree in the shape of an upside-down leg through the window. “There are so many nts that don’t seem to be able to grow in this climate.”


    “What you said made me think, sir,” in spoke to Raymund, but his eyes fell on the chariot driver, who nced back at him. “Maybe without Elise and Yua, we’d still be allowed in. They know Lauren and I are Renee’s friends.”


    “The Kozlovs believe they can beat us both. They believe they can stop us from taking Renee.” Lauren added. “When Renee was kidnapped, it just so happened that we weren’t with her. Not that they were waiting for us to part with Renee.”


    “But, isn’t this too soon?” Elise, who had been silent all this time, joined in. “Renee spoke to Sir Raymund not too long ago, and she sounded fine back then.”


    “That’s because the second child of the Kozlov family, Daniil Kozlov, decided that this was the best time to have a wedding!” The carriage driver finally spoke in an excited tone. “He saw how graceful Miss Renee Emilien was when she participated in that tournament!”


    Lauren was about to confront the carriage driver again, but in put his index finger to the sorcerer’s lips.


    “The wedding is still three days away.” The carriage driver continued. “This is an early party to invite rtives and close people only. I hope you enjoy it.”


    The carriage stopped in front of one of the giant doors in the main building. As soon as they got down, they were greeted by a young man with wheat-yellow hair and wearing a silver robe over a pure white shirt.


    “Wee to the Kozlov family residence.” The man bowed with some of his bodyguards. “You still remember me, right? Especially for Miss Elise Fairchild and Yua Nakagami.”


    Yua and Elise looked at each other. The kunoichi whispered to her friend, “You know him?”


    “He’s the referee who officiates our matches in the tournament, right?”


    The man shed a smile when he heard Elise’s whisper. “Greetings, my name is Igor, one of the children of Niki Kozlov, the head of the Kozlov family.”