Ey Shmeely, than you for supporting me~
The crystal pulsed again softly. It was almost like a heartbeat syncing with the room's breath.
Ludwig felt the shift first. Not with his Magic Sense, not through mana threads or dimensional instinct, but through Cless. Her small fingers tightened around his. Her mana fluttered, rippling outward in little spirals, drawn toward the floating crystal like moth into a flame.
"Lud…" Claire murmured behind him, voice tight with warning.
"Relax. It shouldn't be dangerous." Ludwig whispered back.
The crystal responded.
A flare, not bright, but deep. Like sunlight through stained glass. Colors swirled inside it: lilac bleeding into sea-green, then drifting into soft pearl. It wasn't random. It wasn't chaotic. It was… communicating.
Reaching.
Calling.
At that moment, Cless stepped forward before anyone could stop her.
Her eyes, big, black, always so gentle, reflected the colors inside the crystal. She lifted her other hand, slow and reverent, the way she touched canvases she didn't own.
"Hi…" She whispered.
The crystal trembled.
Then… It cracked.
Not violently. Not explosively. Just a soft shatter, as if glass sighed apart. Thin glowing lines ran across its surface, and mana flowed through them like veins awakening after long sleep.
Claire stiffened, hands slithering towards the little girl.
Kushina braced herself. Rimuru leaned in like a kid at a magic show.
But Ludwig didn't move. Because he could feel it now. Not just guessing. The intent. The presence.
Whatever inside wasn't hostile, not even close. It was hopeful. Curious. Gentle.
A second crack echoed.
Then a piece of the shell flaked off and dissolved into air like butter in a hot pan. Another piece. And another. The crystal melted away soundlessly, leaving behind,
A floating white tiny fox.
But that white fur soon shifted. White turned into lavender before it rippled into navy. Mint swirled into soft gold. Every breath it took changed it.
Cless gasped, hands flying to her mouth. "It's… so pretty…"
The creature uncurled its tail. Thin, delicate, ending in a plume like a paintbrush dipped in starlight. Its eyes opened next.
Ludwig's breath caught.
They weren't eyes.
They were liquid colours. It shifted from one to another just like its fur. Right now, they were dawn-pink and trembling sea-blue.
The little fox blinked once.
Twice.
Then looked straight at Cless.
The change was immediate.
Its entire body brightened in a soft flush of gold, then softened into a warm rose. The fox flailed, silent even on mana ground, and stepped toward her.
Kurobe whispered, awestruck. "A fox…"
Rimuru's pupils shrank slightly. "But it seems like not just any normal fox."
Claire didn't speak at all. She had gone utterly still. And when Claire went silent, it meant she was either analyzing or terrified.
But the little girl in front of him didn't know any of that. She only knew a small, trembling creature had walked toward her.
Her hands lifted. But from how it twitched from time to time it was clear that she was hesitant.
But as if the little fox had enough of her antics, the fox jumped towards Cless, nuzzling its head against her chest the moment it landed.
A flare of white washed across its fur. Pure, bright, innocent joy.
Then suddenly, Cless's eyes began to shine with tears. But not of fear nor shock.
She was touched by something.
"Hello…" Her voice cracked. "Did you… come for me?"
Ludwig flinched. But it was clear he's not the only one. It seemed like his gut feeling was true: that fox had come for the little girl. That only meant one thing, the little fox, or its parents were strong enough to pierce through his anti-divination artefact.
Now that's scary. Ludwig chuckled in his mind.
He had gone to great lengths to make sure he was divination-proof. His trip to Sylvaris Sacred Grove was one of the journeys he underwent to achieve that. The reason? Imelda was one, no more breath should be wasted on the reason.
The second one was because he wanted to avoid any higher being peeping at him and decided he should be the Chosen One for whatever disaster coming. Watching both Naruto and Harry Potter was enough to know becoming a main character of fate was a bad idea.
The fox answered to Cless question. Not with sound, but with color. Its fur shifted into soft aquamarine, then into pale yellow. Whatever the meaning was.
Cless plopped down, hands shaking, and the fox dropped immediately into her lap. As if it had been waiting centuries for this exact patch of cloth.
Its small muzzle nudged her stomach once, then its entire body relaxed. Completely. Trustingly. Like a creature who had been holding its breath for ages finally found home.
And then,
A pulse.
Not loud. Not bright. Just a trembling shiver of mana that passed from the fox into Cless and then outward into the dimension.
Ludwig stiffened.
His experience was telling him something was forming between them. A bond. If earlier it just seemed like the little fox had taken a liking of Cless, now it had become official. They were one now.
Cless exhaled sharply, her pupils dilating.
"Cless?" Claire whispered, stepping forward instantly.
Cless blinked, then looked up with a peaceful smile Ludwig had never seen on her before. "It's okay, Aunt Claire. She's… talking to me. Not with words. With pictures."
Kushina leaned in, eyes sparkling. "Aww… it's so cute. What's his name?"
Cless looked flustered. "It's a she, aunt Kushina. And she doesn't… have one yet."
Rimuru crouched. "Then you should give her one."
Ludwig watched Cless. That tiny girl who once hid behind Claire the moment she saw so many different races eating in the restaurant now held the fox like she was afraid to break it and yet certain she never would.
Cless swallowed softly.
"She's white, just like Harry's owl." Cless mumbled. "Then I'll call her Hedwig."
Ludwig couldn't help but chuckle when he heard the name. He then looked at Rimuru. The slime was shaking. Probably trying hard to not break out into a full cackling. Now, it would really be funny if Harry, the age when he already had Hedwig, stepped into the restaurant.
The fox's fur burst into blooming pastel hues, pinks, blues, and soft yellows scattering like ink on wet paper.
A laugh bubbled out of Cless, pure and light.
Ludwig's chest warmed.
Hedwig curled into her lap again, tail flicking like a brushstroke across a blank canvas.
Ludwig knelt beside them. "Looks like you've been chosen."
Cless nodded, eyes wet. "Lud… she's showing me pictures. Of colors. Of paths. Of… dreams."
"Fitting partner. Ludwig murmured.
Cless hugged the fox gently. "She said… she waited for me."
The entire group.
Except for him.
Kurobe let out a long breath. "This is an omen. A good one."
Rimuru rubbed the back of his neck. "Or a dangerous one. After all, whatever guided the fox is strong enough to pierce the veil between worlds."
Claire finally spoke, voice quiet. "No. It's fate. Pure fate."
Ludwig didn't argue. Because he knew it too. He saw the way the fox curled around Cless like she was the center of its universe. He felt the mana resonance between them, small but unmistakable.
He sensed the gentle oracle flicker the creature radiated, reacting to future threads like a whisper caught before a storm.
And deep in his chest, he felt something he hadn't expected on this trip.
A shift in the future.
A new story beginning.
Not for him.
Not for Claire.
Not for Kushina.
But for Cless, the little girl who once trembled before crossing worlds.
Her path had changed.
And Hedwig, the Dream-Fur Vulpini, was now a part of it.
Ludwig whispered to the dimension at that moment. In the next instance, so much food was spread around in front of Cless. "It's not as good as the restaurant's, but it should do the job."
The little fox twitched its snout, fur shifting though colours. For the first time through the conversation, it left Cless embrace and walked to the food.
"She's hungry…" Cless chuckled.
Claire smiled at the little kid. Her hands reached to her and ruffled her blonde hair. "Then, let's make sure she doesn't choke."
Cless giggled a little before jumping towards the little fox. Kushina followed with the same glee as her.
"Alright." Ludwig said softly, glancing at Rimuru and Kurobe. "Now let's get back to why we came here in the first place. That's all the metal I have gathered on my journey. I'm open to trade, but some are off limits."
Kurobe's brows raised at Ludwig's declaration, maybe slightly irritated. Yet his feet still brought him closer to the floating cubes. But that's not all, his head inched closer and closer to the cube, only stopping just before his nose touching the mana wall.
"This one… What is it…" Kurobe murmured.
Ludwig crossed his arms and pulled the information he stored in the cube.
"That one is called Dragonwake Alloy. It's created by mixing wyvern bone ash with mana-rich steel." Ludwig recited the information he pulled from the mana box.
Kurobe hummed. "That's interesting. What is that mana-rich steel?"
Ludwig made a motion with his finger, another cube came to obey his order. "It's this one. Mithril. A light weight metal with extreme mana conductance."
"Mithril?" Kurobe whipped his neck to the side and looked at Ludwig.
Ludwig's brows went up after hearing his question. From what he knew, the Tenshura world should have Mithril, or at least their own brand of Mithril. So why was he so surprised?
"Yeah, Mithril. Why are you so surprised?" Ludwig asked.
Kurobe looked back at the metal and stilled. A pulse later, his words came out in fragments."T-this Mithril of yours is different from what I know. It has no noise."
Ludwig's brow rose. "Noise?"
Kurobe's lips tightened, as if annoyed at his own lack of words. "Our mithril has impurities. Even when refined by dwarf smiths, there is still… chatter in the mana. It resists a bit. Like raw ore grumbling at being made into a sword. This one…" He tapped the cube lightly. "It does not grumble. It waits."
To be honest, Ludwig wasn't someone who had great interest in metal and how mana interacted with them. But from what he knew about it, what the guy just said should be correct. After all, it was the favourite material of many adventurers out in Ortus. Highly malleable and conduct Mana well.
"So…" Rimuru said, glancing between the two, "is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
Kurobe exhaled through his nose. "For weapons and armor? Very good. For forgemen's sanity? We'll see."
He looked back at Ludwig, eyes now sharpened not with suspicion, but hunger. Smith hunger. "How much of this mithril do you have?"
At that question, the end of Ludwig's mouth lifted. If there's one thing that really surprised him regarding metal in Ortus, it would be just how available Mithril was.
He even made a dumb spectacle of himself once because he thought he had stumbled upon a great treasure after finding it in the wild.
So, it's time to surprise someone else.
"How much you need is the real question." Ludwig snapped his fingers. Another Mana Cube appeared, but the size simply dwarfed everything in front of them. "That's how much Mithril I have."
Kurobe's mouth opened wide as his eyes locked on the ginormous cube of mana filled with Mithril. "H-how can you have so many…"
"Well…" Ludwig chuckled. Some part of him knew he shouldn't tell them the truth because they were at the dawn of negotiation. However, when it came to Tempest, Ludwig's policy was always honesty first. "In my world, Mithril is easily available for those who have a deep enough pocket. But it's not the best material around. We have stronger and better material."
"How is that possible…" Kurobe murmured.
It seemed like today was a day where Kurobe's worldview crumbled.
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