On the other side, inside the Judgment Holy Night stronghold.
Mason placed his spiked armor and weapon back in their original spots.
He did not linger, walking with steady steps through the slightly empty hall and heading straight toward the stairs leading to the third floor.
Just as he stepped onto the first step, a figure with messy pink hair and wearing loose Magus robes happened to wander out of a bedroom on the second floor.
Margaret rubbed her sleepy eyes.
Catching sight of the Captain about to go upstairs, she immediately waved a hand in greeting with full energy.
“Yo, Captain!”
The girl’s voice held the raspiness of someone who had just woken up, but her expression was exceptionally haughty.
However, the moment her gaze swept over Mason, she immediately restrained herself.
Seeing him in casual clothes and looking like he was in a hurry, she said curiously, “You’re back from the squad early today? Is this… are you planning to go wake Monica up again?”
“Yeah.”
Mason didn’t stop, giving only a concise response.
His face wore an expression unique to elder brothers—a mix of helplessness and indulgence.
“Who else is going to do it? I’m her brother, after all.”
Mason climbed a few more steps before suddenly remembering something important.
He came to a sharp halt.
He turned back, his gaze falling on the pink figure below the stairs. His tone instantly became serious.
“Margaret,” he said in a low voice.
“It’s good I ran into you. Go and gather everyone else… in the Council Hall right now.”
He paused for a moment, emphasizing, “I have a very important matter… that I need to announce to everyone.”
“A very important matter?”
“Yes.”
Mason ignored the dazed Margaret and turned to step onto the slightly dark stairs leading to the third floor.
The layout of the third floor was completely different from the other levels.
It wasn’t divided into multiple rooms; most of the space was used as a warehouse for storing archives, supplies, or magic materials.
Only at the very end, behind a heavy wooden door… a space had been set aside as a bedroom.
And Monica… had specifically chosen this room, hidden at the end of the hallway and far from the crowds, as her residence.
As for the reason…
Mason stood before the bedroom door and knocked gently.
“Monica, get ready to wake up. We have a mission.”
After saying that, he pushed the door open and walked in.
What appeared before him wasn’t so much a young girl’s boudoir as it was a crime scene. Various items of women’s clothing were scattered everywhere.
The duvet on the bed had already slid to the floor, and the cabinet drawers had all been ransacked.
Even though Mason had seen this scene many, many times, he still felt a flicker of shock and a wave of helplessness every time he saw it again.
“Monica? Where are you?”
There was no sign of anyone having slept in the bed; even the duvet was empty.
After rummaging through the room for a good while, Mason finally found the young girl under the desk.
At that moment, her entire body was buried under a pile of clothes, leaving only her delicate little face exposed.
She was breathing softly.
“Wake up.”
Mason gently shook the girl’s body, raising his voice by several decibels.
“Wake up! It’s morning!”
After this series of shouts, Monica finally slowly opened her sleepy eyes.
She glanced at Mason.
Then she went right back to sleep, mumbling incoherently.
“It’s 8:00 now. Between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM… there isn’t really any difference… so I don’t need to get up.”
“There’s a huge difference!”
Regardless of what Monica thought, Mason reached out and pulled her.
He was about to drag the somewhat dazed girl out from the pile of clothes.
However, before he could exert much strength, he noticed something.
Monica’s upper body was pulled out slightly, but… there was no clothing to be seen on her shoulders.
“How many times have I told you!”
Seeing this, Mason couldn’t help but take a deep breath, even repeating himself.
“How many times have I told you! Wear some clothes when you’re sleeping! I remember you weren’t part of the naked-sleeper crowd?! Why are you always stark naked?”
“Because… because…”
Monica didn’t even open her eyes, mumbling in a daze.
“Took a bath… grabbed clothes…”
“And then?”
“And then… it turned out like this.”
“How does it ‘turn out’ like this to the point that your room looks like it was hit by a thief!?”
Mason couldn’t help but clutch his head.
Thinking about it now, perhaps the reason Monica wanted to live alone on the third floor was because she was completely unable to take care of herself, making it easier for him to look after her.
“In any case, hurry up and put on some clothes.”
As an elder brother, he naturally had to teach Monica some common sense.
Even though she would forget just a few days after every lesson… she wasn’t like this when she was little.
Everything had undergone a 180-degree change after she obtained that white spear.
That spear was a Magic Artifact known as—the Flower of the Other Shore.
It was undeniable that the power of a Magic Artifact far exceeded conventional weapons, but it required an extremely high price.
The price for the Flower of the Other Shore was that it would devour the user’s emotions.
This was why Monica had become so expressionless and spacey.
It might even devour other things; otherwise, Monica wouldn’t have become so terrible at basic self-care.
“Here…”
Mason grabbed several pieces of fitted underwear from the floor and threw them toward the girl.
He also hurried to turn around.
“You should at least try to have some sense of modesty.”
“Eh?”
Monica tilted her head, speaking in confusion.
“Do I need to avoid being seen by my brother?”
“It’s true that I’m your brother, but can you consider the fact that I’m also a man!”
“I don’t understand.”
Monica tilted her head, then began rustling as she put on the clothes Mason had thrown over.
“I’m dressed.”
“Fine… you should still try to use it less…”
Mason turned around, but just as he was about to continue nagging, he immediately covered his eyes and turned his back again.
“What kind of ‘dressed’ is this?!”
“Isn’t it fine as long as there are clothes on my body?”
“But you’re only wearing a shirt, and you haven’t even buttoned it! Besides, what about everything else besides the shirt? Just put it all on, okay?!”
“Mm…”
Monica still wore an expression of half-understanding.
“But animals don’t need to wear clothes…”
“But we are humans!”
Mason didn’t care what Monica thought.
He grabbed the panties off the floor and tossed them at Monica’s face.
“Hurry up and get dressed!”
Monica looked down at the panties in her hand—green with stripes.
“Brother, your taste is so bad.”
“Wait, what? You bought those yourself! What does that have to do with my taste?”
Mason didn’t even know how to roast her anymore.
He kept his back to Monica, and after a brief silence, he gave her a warning.
“That Flower of the Other Shore… you should try to use it as little as possible.”