“Satomi-kun has descended...”
The black haired girl, Harumi, realized what the meteor was almost right away, and why the scouts had left. They had noticed Koutarou descending from the Blue Knight, and prioritized Koutarou over surveying this area. It also meant that Harumi and Elfaria had successfully managed to deceive the scouts.
“W-We're saved... When they came into the room, I thought it was over...”
Harumi was released from all the tension that had built up in her body and sat down on the spot. However, her heart was still beating rapidly, and more time would be needed for her to calm down.
“Your plan worked, Harumi”
The other black haired woman approached Harumi.
“Your majesty...”
As Harumi looked up at that woman, her outline temporarily disappeared and she turned into a different woman. The new woman had an expensive looking dress and a crown on her head. She was empress Elfaria, one of the two the scouts were looking for.
“I was surprised when you said I had to hide because the scouts were coming, but your plan was a complete success”
“I'm glad it went okay”
Seeing Elfaria's calm smile, Harumi was finally able to smile herself. And remembering what she had done, she felt relieved that she had survived the crisis.
Upon realizing that the scouts were approaching, Harumi's first thought was to hide somewhere in the cottage. However she soon gave up on that idea. The scouts were using Forthorthe's advanced science. She didn't think she could completely fool all of their sensors. For instance, if their temperature were tracked, they wouldn't be able to hide. In order to make the cottage look empty, they wouldn't just need to hide, but also hide all traces that they had been here. Doing that would have been difficult, even with the help of magic. So Harumi came up with the bold plan of not hiding at all.
Harumi was hoping that doing that would trick the scouts to believing that they were completely unrelated.
Using that plan, they wouldn't need to hide their traces. It would be a lot easier to change their appearance than try to erase all traces of themselves. But on the other hand, it also had the risk that if the scouts took their time to collect data, they might find out that it was actually Elfaria. It might even be possible to identify her just by analyzing their temperature data. In short, Harumi's plan was a big gamble.
Fortunately, the scouts didn't gather data that detailed. That was because they were pressed for time and because they didn't want to be found by local residents. And the fact that they detected Koutarou approaching was a big factor as well. Thanks to that, the scouts easily gave up on Harumi and Elfaria and left the cottage.
Thanks to Harumi's gamble, Elfaria was safe. Like Elfaria said, Harumi's plan was a big success.
“But, I still can't believe it went this well...”
“Everything is like that. No matter how hard it might look, when you give it a try, it might be surprisingly easy”
However, Harumi still didn't feel like she had come out on top. Since she had lived like a normal girl up until now, she couldn't imagine herself being as successful as the characters that appeared in movies or plays.
“Thank you Harumi. You were a big help”
“Ah, n-no, not at all!”
All Harumi could feel right now was relief that everything had ended safely, and embarrassment from being thanked by her friend's mother.