After Kii had finished crying, she fell asleep from exhaustion and from the deep relief while still hugging Koutarou. Carrying her, he headed towards the Cradle.
“She really is a child. Look how well she's sleeping.”
“She should still have childish parts like this. She's too good of a child.”
“That's true. If she's always awake, I would lose my turn to console you.”
“You're awfully childish about the weirdest things.”
“Shut it!”
By now, Koutarou had managed to recover to his usual state. The grief hadn't vanished, but he somehow supported himself thanks to Kii's and Clan's help.
I'm really grateful, Clan. I'm glad we're together...
When Koutarou thought of being alone here, he was overcome with gratitude for Clan. The reason he didn't say that directly was because of the distance between them. He was a little embarrassed about telling Clan his honest feelings.
And this might be for the best for Clan...
If he had saved his mother, Clan would lose her place to return to. That fact also helped easing his grief. She was an important friend to him. While he grieved for his mother, he also felt like he should be happy that his friend would be alright.
“By the way, Clan, what do we do now?”
“I've finished my calculation, but wait a little for our departure.”
“Why?”
“This girl found out the location of the Cradle, right? After we get her home, I'm moving its position.”
“Okay, I'll leave that to you. I better practice my acting, so you don't have to hurry.”
“Oh yeah, there was that thing too.”
As Koutarou and Clan discussed the future, they entered the mountain where the Cradle was buried. Since they would be walking on a paved path for a while, it wouldn't be very difficult to traverse. Kii didn't wake up as they started the climb.
As Koutarou and Clan had made it about halfway up the mountain, the bracelet on Clan's right arm sounded off an alarm.
“Warning. An unidentified group is approaching from ten o'clock. Forces four, threat of weaponry is low, energy reaction is also low. Maintaining threat level one.”
“Bertorion, someone is coming.”
“Looks like it.”
Though slightly behind, Koutarou also noticed that.
They don't seem to be very hostile, but...
Koutarou's ability to see spiritual energy was growing weaker, but he could feel the presence of four people approaching.
“It might be best to wake that girl up.”
“Yeah.”
A mysterious group was approaching them from the left. There was no path in that direction, only an abundance of trees and bushes. It was hard to imagine it would be someone gathering mushrooms and plants at this hour, so they decided to at least stay on guard.
“Kii-chan. Wake up, Kii-chan.”
“Mm, Mmmm~”
Koutarou lightly shook Kii's body while calling out to her, and she soon began moving. She moved her arm that was around Koutarou's neck and rubbed her eyes.
“Good morning, Onii-chan? What is it?”
“Some strange people are coming. They don't seem like enemies, but we thought it would be best to wake you up.”
“I see.”
Kii seemed satisfied with the explanation and got off of Koutarou and nodded. And while rubbing her drowsy eyes, she looked to the left hand side. A bush in front of her shook and four men appeared.
There was an elderly man in the front with three men behind him and all of them were wearing expensive brand suits. Based on how the man was moving and the three were following him, it looked like they were the elderly man's guards.