The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time - Chapter 379

After the council concluded and the dukes left, Vandalieu and his companions remained and continued conversing.

“But with this, Vandalieu and Pauvina are both S-class adventurers, huh. There are four in Amid, but we have one in Orbaume and seven in Vidal. We’re unstoppable now,” said Schneider, clapping Vandalieu cheerily on the shoulder.

He considered his own party as belonging to the Demon Empire of Vidal, though the Demon Empire of Vidal currently didn’t have an Adventurers’ Guild.

Randolf decided not to point that fact out, and instead gave a frown. “If you look only at the numbers, I’m on my own. It feels like I’m on the losing side.”

“You should have raised more successors while you were still active, Sensei. If you’d done that, you might have even been able to retire,” said Vandalieu.

Indeed, the reason Randolf had been unable to retire was because there had been no other S-class adventurers. If he’d had a successor or a companion who could carry on his work, the dukes and Adventurers’ Guild at the time wouldn’t have stubbornly refused to let him retire when he tried.

“Well, I’m sure it’s easier said than done,” Vandalieu added.

“That’s right. Unlike you, I’m not a Guider. And back then, I wasn’t a proper enough person to take on apprentices. Even now, being a temporary teacher is all I can manage,” Randolf admitted frankly with a sigh.

It seemed that he had no intent to argue with Schneider this time.

And Vandalieu himself was an apprentice of Zod, one of the Storm of Tyranny’s members.

“I was more surprised by the fact that you listened to the Guild Master,” said Meorilith. “I was sure you were going to refuse to accept your promotion without completing commissions and going through the evaluation process like everyone else… I was in chills just imagining it.”

Indeed, Vandalieu and Pauvina being promoted to S-class was a request from the Guild Master, the top figure in the Adventurers’ Guild of the Orbaume Kingdom… Although, if one had seen the Guild Master’s expression at the time, they might have described it as ‘begging’ rather than a request.

This had been a request to promote E-class adventurers who had just graduated from Adventurers’ School to S-class without taking the corresponding examination or the examinations of the ranks in between. One did not need to dig into the history books to know that it was an incredible achievement with no precedent in the Guild’s history, even if the Adventurers’ School in question was the Hero Preparatory School.

There were historical records of individuals being promoted to B-class only a year after registering at the Guild, and individuals who were promoted all the way to C-class in a single promotion. But there were no such precedents for S-class.

Even Randolf and Schneider had started from G-class. They had been promoted rapidly from F-class through A-class, but they had done so one class at a time on the way to their current status as S-class adventurers.

To begin with, the criteria for becoming an S-class adventurer was vague – ‘accomplishing worthy feats.’ Thus, the decision for such a promotion did not only need the Guild Master’s approval; public sentiment played a role as well. There was no criteria that unconditionally guaranteed promotion to S-class.

And yet, Vandalieu and Pauvina were exceptions among exceptions. Vandalieu had defeated the Demon King Guduranis after his partial resurrection, and earned the praise of Vida, the Goddess of Life and Love. Pauvina had tamed Luvesfol, the Raging Evil Dragon God, and contributed in the battle against Guduranis.

Vandalieu had always been an adventurer who had ‘accomplished worthy feats,’ and nobody could argue that Pauvina wasn’t, either… If their accomplishments were not worthy, then whose were?

And leaving Vandalieu and Pauvina as E-class adventurers would leave open the risk of nobles using the Guild’s system to make political moves. Minor examples, such as making commissions for escort missions in order to build personal connections, would still be within the realm of acceptability. But foolish nobles blinded by greed might attempt to propose underhanded deals, or worshipers of Alda driven by a mad sense of justice might attempt to assassinate them, and this would cause major issues.

It would not matter whether they succeeded or not. Although it was a pretense, the Adventurers’ Guild was supposed to be politically neutral; it would be very undesirable for a precedent of the Guild being utilized for political means to be so clearly engraved in the memories of the ruler and nobles of an extremely powerful nation.

However, given the fact that Vandalieu had been so reluctant to graduate from the Hero Preparatory School, some had imagined that he would also be reluctant to be promoted to S-class. The Guild Master had earnestly pleaded for Vandalieu to accept the promotion, willing to convince him to do so at any cost, but… surprisingly, Vandalieu had readily accepted the promotion.

“My initial plan had been to take some steps to being promoted to around A-class,” said Vandalieu. “Exterminating Goblins and bandits; exploring Dungeons that I discovered beforehand and reporting them as ‘undiscovered’; riding in Sam’s carriage to purify Devil’s Skies; traveling to the Demon Continent and Demon King’s Continent, and so on.”

“If one knew the truth, they’d know that most of that would be shams, but to someone who didn’t know anything, such feats would indeed be worthy of A… no, even then, you’d have been promoted to S-class for certain,” said Meorilith.

“I think it’s still respectable that you didn’t consider methods like creating Dungeons yourself or secretly releasing dangerous monsters to fabricate incidents and then deal with them yourself,” said Randolf.

Although they hadn’t been revealed to human society, Vandalieu had accomplished numerous incredible feats that would go down in history. Accomplishing such feats again and reporting them would have certainly earned him a promotion to A-class, and he could have even aimed for S-class. Vandalieu had intended to earn promotions that way with Elizabeth and the rest of her party, and Pauvina had intended to do the same with Reinhardt and her other party members.

Of course, that would involve improving Elizabeth and the others’ ability to a level worthy of their adventurer class. Still, Vandalieu would have enjoyed spending his time doing that.

“But Guduranis’s resurrection forced me to reveal all kinds of things, and Elizabeth-sama became duchess,” Vandalieu said. “Even I had to realize that doing things that way would be impossible now. And I have to deal with all kinds of things because I let Heinz get away.”

Due to Guduranis’s resurrection and the fact that he had failed to kill Heinz afterwards, Vandalieu had been forced to make large changes to his plans. He had needed to reveal various truths about himself, so he could no longer enjoy an adventurer’s life.

With that being the case, having to take the promotion examinations would simply be boring. The examination for promotion to D-class – testing whether he could kill a person, and whether he could do so without losing his ability to reason or his sense of ethics – would be completely pointless. He had killed hundreds, thousands of bandits and criminals, sucked their blood, or captured them alive for human experiments. And he would continue killing, sucking blood, and using such individuals.

That had not changed Vandalieu’s ability to reason or his sense of ethics. Pauvina didn’t have much experience in battling other people to the death, but she was unlikely to have any issues there, either.

The written examination for promotion to B-class and learning how to interact with the upper echelons of society wouldn’t be a problem, either. There probably wasn’t a single noble in Orbaume who would lodge a complaint against Vandalieu or Pauvina. In fact, given the relative power balance, the nobles would need to cater to them, not the other way around.

“Elizabeth-sama and the others refused their promotions, though,” Vandalieu said. “‘We’ll get stronger on our own and catch up to you, so just wait,’ they said.”

Elizabeth and the other members of Vandalieu’s party, as well as the members of Pauvina’s party, had refused to be promoted. Or to be more accurate, the Guild Master had not offered them promotions. Vandalieu had offered to ask the Guild Master to offer them promotions in exchange for accepting his own promotion, but they had refused.

“Well, their abilities are apparently about equivalent to B-class now, but I’m sure they are not worthy of A-class yet,” said Meorilith. “And besides, as a noble, she’s already reliant on you for the running of the Sauron house, so I’m sure she doesn’t want to be reliant on you for her career as an adventurer as well.”

“Sorry to change the topic, but what are you going to do about the request to build an Adventurers’ Guild headquarters and branch offices in the Demon Empire of Vidal? The Mages’ Guild were asking the same thing, too,” said Randolf.

“That still needs consideration. Their work overlaps with the Explorers’ Guild, and unless they accept not just members of Vida’s races, but Undead and monsters as members as well, we can’t even begin to discuss it,” said Vandalieu.

The Guild Masters hadn’t just requested for Vandalieu and Pauvina to accept their promotions. Establishing their Guilds in the Demon Empire of Vidal was an important goal for them, too.

There was a nation on the other side of the mountain rage. There were monsters that had never been seen by human eyes and Dungeons whose existence was unknown to human society. There were an untold number of adventurers who had been extremely intrigued upon learning this. It would be a painful loss for the Adventurers’ Guild if many of these adventurers couldn’t resist their curiosity and moved to the Demon Empire of Vidal to join the Explorers’ Guild.

The situation was even more severe for the Mages’ Guild. Its members were itching to get their hands on materials only available in the Demon Empire of Vidal and conduct research on Undead.

Given that Vandalieu was capable of moving mountain ranges, Vandalieu could create a tunnel through the mountain range connecting the Demon Empire of Vidal to the Sauron Duchy or Hartner Duchy at any time, causing mages who were passionate about research to flood out of the Orbaume Kingdom.

Both Guilds were desperate to minimize the number of members they could lose.

“Well, I’m planning to put the Demon Empire of Vidal’s headquarters of the Mages’ Guild in Talosheim once we’re ready to accept members. We don’t have a Guild that competes with the Mages’ Guild, and there are no problems as long as they obey the laws of our nation,” Vandalieu said.

As for the Tamers’ Guild, it had already been decided that it would be accepted into the Demon Empire of Vidal as well. Of course, this was only after revising the rules and regulations, as it was necessary to ban Ghouls, other members of Vida’s races, Undead, and Demons – who were considered regular citizens – from being classified as tamed monsters.

With that, it wouldn’t be long before Vandalieu’s companions could walk freely around town without wearing collars issued by the Tamers’ Guild… though even now, there wasn’t anyone in the Orbaume Kingdom left who would complain that they weren’t wearing collars.

Incidentally, Eleanora and Isla still wore collars despite that being the case.

“Now then, Vandalieu,” Darcia said gently, placing her hand on her son’s shoulder. “Let’s think about what to do about that letter, shall we?”

Vandalieu was forced to face reality head-on. In front of him was a letter inside a simple envelope, which had been handed to him by the Guild Master of the Adventurers’ Guild.Read the latest chapters at novelp‌ing.com.

It had been sent by Asagi Minami, the B-class adventurer who was currently in Orbaume – the reincarnated individual with the ‘Mage Masher’ cheat-like ability.

“… Mom, why don’t we pretend we never saw it and go and eat with everyone?” said Vandalieu.

To him, Asagi was someone he found very bothersome to deal with.

Asagi hadn’t harmed Vandalieu’s companions, nor was he after Vandalieu’s life. Thus, he wasn’t an enemy that Vandalieu had a reason to kill.

Still, he was an annoying, bothersome person to deal with. Vandalieu had heard from Duke Gerard Birgitt that Asagi had worked with him on research to safely seal away fragments of the Demon King, and the research had actually produced results. Vandalieu had thought it would be fine if Asagi just lived peacefully somewhere, not getting involved with him at all, but… he hadn’t expected a letter from him at a time like this.

Ignoring the letter and going to have a meal sounded like a wonderful idea.

Surely, Vandalieu was tired from the council with the top-ranking officials of the Orbaume Kingdom. Adding even more stress on top of that would surely be bad for his organs, his scalp, his skin, and… well, his health. He was the ruler of a nation; it was very important for him to maintain his health, and that was plenty of reason to ignore this letter.

So surely, the best thing to do was to go and enjoy a delicious meal with everyone and forget all about the letter. The most delicious food of all was that cooked by Vandalieu himself, and it was even better enjoyed with everyone… The only places that could accommodate all of Vandalieu’s dozens, or rather, hundreds of companions were Castle Knochen, Sam’s carriage, or one of his own Inner Worlds, but any of those options would do.

Vandalieu had a feeling that cooking enough food for everyone when he was already tired would tire him out even more, but he also felt that an appropriate amount of exercise would be good for relieving fatigue. Cooking a large quantity of food would therefore relieve his fatigue, so there was no problem with that.

But as Vandalieu began thinking of what he should put on the menu, trying to escape reality, Darcia gently wrapped her arms around his head to hold him still.

“Vandalieu. It isn’t like I’m taking this Asagi person’s side, okay?” Darcia said gently. “But if you ignore this letter, and something bad happens as a result, you’ll feel even more terrible than if you just read it. I’m telling you this for your own good. You wouldn’t like it if this Asagi person grew desperate because you ignored his letter and decided to join the Farzon Duchy or the Holy Nation of Amid to harm the people of the Orbaume Kingdom, would you?”

Indeed, Asagi had been Vandalieu’s classmate on Earth, but no matter what happened to him, Vandalieu wouldn’t feel anything beyond a little pity. In fact, he would be more concerned about what happened to Asagi’s companions, Tendou and Shouko.

But he would certainly feel guilt towards anyone Asagi caused trouble for in the event that he did something rash due to the lack of response and poor treatment on Vandalieu’s part.

And Asagi possessed the ‘Mage Masher’ cheat-like ability, which could prevent the casting of spells or dispel already active spells of any attribute, including the death attribute.

‘Mage Masher’ was far from making Asagi invincible, as it could not nullify no-attribute magic, which used Mana that contained no attribute, nor did it have any effect on physical attacks. Even Randolf, Bone Man, or Knochen could kill Asagi in an instant as long as they were wary of his ability, let alone Vandalieu.

But even so, there was no doubt that he would become troublesome if Vandalieu made an enemy of him. And he probably still had Rodcorte’s divine protection, which made him grow stronger at a faster than normal rate.

It was unclear as to whether he had the potential to rival the Five-colored Blades in the future, but it wasn’t a possibility that Vandalieu should dismiss lightly.

“But Mom, I’m sure that letter contains nothing but troublesome things for me,” Vandalieu complained.

His desire to put off reading Asagi’s letter was… simply because Asagi was troublesome, and Vandalieu didn’t want to get involved with him.

“Then should I take care of it for you?” suggested Randolf.

Vandalieu looked up at him in surprise.

“Adventurers have to carry out dirty work at times,” Randolf said, looking at Vandalieu with a serious expression. “This man named Asagi is not a criminal, but attempting to personally make contact with someone who dislikes him and is the ruler of a nation makes him an impudent fool who doesn’t know his place. If he threatens to disrupt the ruling of the nation, that would be enough to warrant death, at least in my field of work.”

Asagi was not a noble or even a citizen of Vandalieu’s nation, and yet he had used the fact that he and Vandalieu both belonged to the Adventurers’ Guild in order to send him a private letter. This might be acceptable if there was mutual agreement to this contact beforehand between the two, but given that this wasn’t the case, it was a poor attempt at diplomacy that abused the Adventurers’ Guild’s information relay network and ignored common manners.

The contents of the letter remained to be read, but any threatening words whatsoever would be completely unacceptable. If Vandalieu were the ruler of the Orbaume Kingdom, such a letter would result in a bounty being placed on Asagi’s head.

“Randolf-sensei… I thought you hated dirty work?” said Vandalieu.

His surprise was not at the suggestion itself, but the fact that Randolf had voiced it.

“Yes, I do hate it,” Randolf said. “That’s why I don’t intend to kill him. I’ll promise his friend, the man named Tendou, that I will spare Asagi’s life. I will kidnap and imprison him, and carry out measures to prevent him from escaping. We can release him in a month, a year, a decade, or however long it takes for us to clean matters up. How does that plan sound?”

Randolf wished to avoid dirty work as much as possible, so his suggestion was kidnapping and imprisonment rather than assassination… That was plenty dirty as well, but still better than killing Asagi.

He didn’t bother explaining that the measures to prevent Asagi from escaping would be to sever all four of his limbs and gouge out both of his eyes.

“Hey, why don’t you just send that Asagi guy back to that ‘Origin’ from your previous life? You could probably do that now, couldn’t you?” said Schneider, suggesting another, very different revolutionary idea to deal with Asagi.

It had previously been impossible to transfer living people across the barrier between worlds for anyone other than Zuruwarn, the God of Space and Creation. But now, this feat was also possible for Vandalieu, though he was limited only to the world of Origin. He had brought Mei, Hiroto and the others from Origin while making it possible for their bodies to adapt to Lambda’s laws of physics, so it would almost certainly be possible for him to do it the other way around – make the body of someone from Lambda able to adapt to the laws of physics of Origin.

Vandalieu had no obligation to go to such lengths for Asagi’s sake, but doing so would ensure that Asagi would never again return to the world of Lambda unless Vandalieu were to bring him back.

Even if he were to die again in Origin, Rodcorte wouldn’t have accounted for the possibility that he would be sent back to Origin after being reincarnated in Lambda, so it was unlikely that he would be reincarnated in Lambda a second time… and even if he did, he would lose his memories and personality from his previous life and begin life on a clean slate as a baby, like an ordinary person – he would no longer be Asagi Minami.

And this would have benefits for Asagi, too. He was someone who only saw other reincarnated individuals as his companions, so it would be more comfortable for him to return to the world of Origin where his companions were. As for his family records and whatnot, he could just have Sergei, the president of the Federal States, fabricate a story – something like, ‘Everyone thought Asagi was dead, but he was actually kidnapped for Rikudou Hijiri’s experiments and his survival was kept secret in order to keep him safe while he focused on recovering.’

“Ah! Amazing, Schneider-san!” exclaimed Darcia, clapping her hands at this brilliant suggestion. “Vandalieu, don’t you think it’s a great idea?”

Vandalieu almost found himself agreeing. “Mom, this idea is very tempting and I really want to agree to it, but there’s a big problem. Asagi has become much stronger than he was when he died in Origin.”

Several years had passed since Asagi’s reincarnation in this world; he had gained experience, increased his Level, undergone several Job changes and was now a B-class adventurer.

Just looking at this Status, he was likely many times stronger than he had been when he was first reincarnated here.

Even in the past, Asagi had been one of the more prominent fighters among the Bravers. However, the current Asagi was a superhuman who far surpassed any of the other Bravers.

Before his reincarnation in Lambda, if he punched a human with full force, the most he would have done was break their jawbone. But if the current Asagi were to punch a human from Origin with full force, their head would be crushed like a ripe fruit, scattering bone fragments, brain pieces, and blood everywhere.

Before his reincarnation in Lambda, if he were to be shot by a bullet, it would kill him easily as long as it hit the right place. But the current Asagi wouldn’t even suffer a bruise from a pistol bullet. A larger caliber firearm might crack one of his ribs, at most.

His proficiency in magic had improved by leaps and bounds compared to before his reincarnation, and it was possible that he had acquired ‘Surpass Limits’ and various resistance-type Skills. If he had also learned physical fighting skills, nobody in Origin would be able to touch him.

Even Amemiya Hiroto might have a hard time restraining the current Asagi.

As for whether there would be conflict between Asagi and Amemiya, who were comrades… Vandalieu couldn’t predict that. Would he cooperate with Amemiya Hiroto and the others to help rebuild Origin after the damage caused by Rikudou Hijiri, or would he gather followers among the Bravers in order to build a new world order, causing even more chaos? Vandalieu felt like both possibilities were equally likely.Read this novel at novelping(.)com for the best experience.

Vandalieu found it difficult to believe that Asagi was someone whose personality would remain exactly the same even when he found himself in a world full of people who were far, far weaker than him.

And he could not dismiss the possibility that Asagi would make a complete mess of things in Origin.

“Since a part of me is a god in Origin, I can’t just carelessly toss a bomb over there. Joseph and everyone else, Sergei, Meh-kuh and Hiroshi’s parents, they all live there, too.

“Hmm, then how about we bring the Bravers over to this world and have them convince Asagi to go back and join them?” suggested Darcia.

“That’s certainly an option, but it depends on what the letter says,” said Vandalieu.

Despite having been against it and having all these discussions, Vandalieu opened the letter, only to find that its contents were even more serious than he had imagined.

The day after the council, a little after midday, Asagi Minami was being held captive.

“… I’ve already said this multiple times, but isn’t this treatment a little too much?” he complained.

His neck, his dominant arm and his legs had shackles on them, with chains linking them in different places. The chains were made of thick Obsidian; he was incapable of tearing them off with his bare hands.

If he could use magic, or if he were able to do something with his free arm, he might be able to escape these shackles, but…

“And every time you say it, we’ll give the same response: This treatment is only appropriate,” said the ‘Clairvoyance’ Tatsuya Tendou.

Under his watch, and the watch of the ‘Ifrit’ Shouko Akagi, escape was impossible.

“Appropriate? I only–” Asagi began.

“You left us nothing but a letter and tried to go off to talk to Vandalieu on your own, didn’t you? My heart almost stopped when I read that you intended to threaten to take the results of your research to the Farzon Duchy if he didn’t do what you say,” said Shouko.

Asagi had left on his own to settle matters with Vandalieu, leaving behind a letter for Tendou and Shouko because he knew they would try to stop him if they knew what he was planning.

By a stroke of fortune, the two of them had discovered Asagi’s letter immediately after his departure. After tracking his location using ‘Clairvoyance,’ they had quickly apprehended him. And how, they were imprisoning him. The Adventurers’ Guild had a service meant for facilitating communication between adventurers; in order to keep Asagi docile, they had used this service to send a letter to Vandalieu – written by Asagi and corrected by themselves before sending.

“It’s like running as fast as you can towards the edge of a cliff. You do know that in this world, threatening the ruler of a nation is an act that forfeits your right to complain if you get killed over it, right?” Shouko said.

“Even in other worlds, it’s enough for the death penalty, depending on the era and country,” Tendou added. “Didn’t you think about how much trouble you’d cause for Duke Birgitt?”

“Come on, it’s not that big a deal, you know,” said Asagi. “Vandalieu and I are–”

“Reincarnated individuals. That’s it. He’s not your comrade or your friend,” Shouko said, cutting him off.

“Strangers who just happened to be in the same class at the same school,” said Tendou.

With a short groan, Asagi fell silent.

Tendou gave a heavy sigh. “Asagi… We are currently crossing a very dangerous bridge, in the present continuous tense. Even sending a letter through the Adventurers’ Guild was a dangerous move. It was only possible because Vandalieu is a registered member of the Guild; it’s quite rude in the context of diplomacy in this world.”

Indeed, Randolf had even suggested assassinating Asagi; that was how much danger they had placed themselves in.

“Asagi, you might be thinking that Vandalieu is just another reincarnated individual like us, but it’s about time you realized that our places in society are way too different, and the trust or friendship needed to overcome that difference between us and him is completely non-existent,” said Shouko.

Neither Shouko nor Tendou had intended to fight Vandalieu when they were first reincarnated in this world, but they still felt that Vandalieu was a threat, and they considered Kanako and the others to be dangerous as well.

That was why they hadn’t objected to Asagi’s suggestion of carrying out research into methods of safely sealing away fragments of the Demon King. They had thought that this would avoid a direct conflict with Vandalieu and, at the same time, give them a way to stop him in a peaceful manner if it ever became necessary.

They had figured that even Vandalieu wouldn’t want fragments of the Demon King that had escaped from their seals rampaging and killing innocent people in places where he wouldn’t be able to stop them… specifically, the Birgitt Duchy. Surely, he wouldn’t oppose preventing such incidents from occurring.

And even now, despite the fact that Vandalieu had defeated Guduranis after his imperfect resurrection, they still felt that he was a threat. They had the common sense and ethics of Earth… or rather, of modern-day Japan. It was likely difficult for them to forget the revulsion and fear they felt towards the things that he was doing.

But some time ago, they had realized that this was a problem that they had no say in – though it seemed that Asagi did not share this view.

“You might be right, but… you guys both saw it, right? The place called the Zakkart District. You really looked at that place and thought nothing of it?” Asagi asked incredulously.

During their stay in Orbaume, Asagi had gone out and investigated various things in between his duty as Duke Birgitt’s guard. He hadn’t entered the territory of the Demon Empire of Vidal. He had never seen any city that was under Vandalieu’s rule. But a part of Orbaume had been rebuilt by Vandalieu after its destruction and named the ‘Zakkart District.’ The atmosphere of this place was exceedingly similar to that of the nation that Vandalieu ruled.

Asagi had spoken to the Demon and Undead residents there and felt a sense of danger, which was why he had taken action.

“To be honest, I do have my own thoughts about it. But that’s only the result of the common sense and values that we learned on Earth and in Origin… the result of measuring things by the standard of other worlds,” said Shouko.

“In any case, even if we never get a reply to the letter, I’m going to keep watching you until the way you think changes,” said Tendou. “Do you underst–”

He was interrupted mid-sentence by a knock on the door of the inn room they were staying in.

“We’ve brought Vandalieu’s reply,” a voice said from the other side.

“Would you mind opening the door?” said another.

Asagi, Shouko, and Tendou were shocked to hear these familiar voices.

“… Shouko, let them in,” Tendou said.

“Alright.” Shouko opened the door as she was told.

With ‘Clairvoyance,’ Tendou had already seen who was there.

“As I said, we’ve brought Vandalieu’s reply. The reason we’re here is so that we can answer any questions you might have about it,” said Legion’s Pluto, who had the appearance of a young girl with black hair, wearing a white one-piece dress.

She was holding a letter in one hand.

“As for me, I’m here to convince you to never get involved with us ever again. In honor of the fact that we were once comrades, of course. It’s been a while, you three,” said Mari with a smile, looking younger than Asagi, Shouko, and Tendou remembered.