“?!”

Approximately two and a half seconds later, her face exploded into full-on redness as the skirt floated in the air of the night sky. She used both hands to push the cloth back down.

Without a word, she turned her head to look at the small sister at her side.

“…S-Sister Angeline?”

“W-well! This is always how our unit was, wasn’t it?! So, it was, umm, just like, a habit, that’s all!!”

Angeline probably meant that to defend herself, but Tatemiya and the boys among Amakusa then grew as red as Lucia and averted their eyes in additional embarrassment. And Kamijou froze in place while being held down by Index, which gave her the perfect opportunity to take a bite out of his head.

4

Amakusa seemed to have enough common sense not to go near land with their giant submersible. First they headed toward land in it, and then Tatemiya removed a bundle of papers from his pocket and threw them in the other direction, toward the sea. They transformed into nearly twenty small wooden boats. They all split up to board the boats, with Tatemiya finally returning the submersible to paper form. Without pausing to pick up the Japanese paper, it melted into the seawater and vanished.

The paddleboats headed for a nearby source of light. Kamijou wondered for a moment if it was an island, but, focusing his eyes more in the night’s darkness, he saw that it was actually land. It appeared to be a place jutting out to sea at a sharp angle.

“Welp, now we’re back in Chioggia. Though this area is separated from the central part where the lady Orsola lived by the sea.”

Apparently, it was called Sottomarina. When they reached the shore, the members of Amakusa turned the paddleboats back into pieces of paper again. Then they scattered another bundle of paper, which this time created wooden chairs and a table. There were even wooden spoons, forks, plates, and cups, so they must have been setting up the table to eat food.

Then, the tall Lucia looked around them nervously. “I would love to join you, but we must now go back to where Sister Agnes is.”

“There’s no point going now,” said Tatemiya, flat-out rejecting her. “We’d just throw the whole place into confusion. They’ll all still be on high alert. We need to kill some time first.”

With that, preparations for a late dinner on the dark sea began.

No actual food came out of the strewn-about paper stack, of course. Someone took out metal cooking utensils for camping, and the young men and women of Amakusa began to speedily start making food. As Kamijou watched them, he noticed they seemed to be doing unnecessary things in the process. Maybe it was some kind of ritual that obeyed Amakusa’s rules or forms or something.

Angeline, who was also looking at the people making the food, said, “Coffee and black tea are okay, but I like cioccolata con panna.”

“What’s that?” Kamijou asked, looking at her.

“Oh, you don’t know? It’s a chocolate drink with fresh cream piled on top. Normally you use espresso for it, but I like chocolate bet— Mmph?!”

Before Angeline could finish her proud explanation of the supersweet drink, Lucia pushed down on Angeline’s head from beside her. “Sister Angeline…You’ve seemed to be lacking a fair bit of caution lately. We are only cooperating with them temporarily. And also, I thought I’ve warned you to get rid of that attachment to such sweet food and drink.”

Kamijou was the one who was confused by Lucia’s anger. “You don’t have to go that far. I mean, aren’t all sisters basically the same way? You know, always letting others know what they want?”

“What basis do you have to make such a statement?! Please do not take Sister Angeline, a nun in training, to be representative of the entire Crossist Church!!” she shouted. Her face looked like she could absolutely not believe what she’d just heard.

Index looked away awkwardly. Incidentally, Orsola, next to her, had already picked up the thinly sliced fresh ham they’d brought from their chopping block and was munching down on it saying how “quite good” it tasted…Yes, all of them were basically the same way.

In the meantime, the cooking was finished.

Upon Tatemiya’s urging, Kamijou and the others sat down at the table.

Then, suddenly, he found a white towel being held out toward him. He turned to see the girl with the epicanthic eyelid folds there. She was holding her cheek with her free hand, blushing slightly, eyes wandering.

“Oh, thanks,” said Kamijou casually, taking it.

The Amakusa girl said, “N-no, not at all!” and beat a hasty retreat. Then came the other voices, from which she shrank away: “The towel plan again, Itsuwa?!” “Go to the next step! Blend into the confusion and grab his hand!” “Argh, you’re taking too long!” “No, maybe Itsuwa’s charm is in not making any progress?” “You will clash with the priestess in time, but for this, we are all behind you, Itsuwa!!” Kamijou wondered to himself what they’d been discussing all this time, noting that he was the only one anyone gave a towel to.

Of course, not all of the Amakusa members could fit at the same table, so they created other tables for the rest of them and walked over toward them as they talked among themselves.

After all was said and done, they began to pool their information and held a war council.

“First we’ll start with the fleet, where that person named Agnes is being held.” The first one to speak was Index. “I believe it’s probably the Queen’s Fleet, which guards the Queen of the Adriatic. Is that correct?”

She got it right in one shot. Lucia and Angeline looked at her, startled. Kamijou was somewhat used to this, but times like these made him really realize how unique the girl was.