Magical Girl? I’m not sure about this.

Despite Alex’s misgivings, having Yvne and Seraphina perform for the whole castle was enough to get Grace to leave her room and see what the strange music was all about.

“What child is this, who, laid to rest, On Mary’s lap is sleeping, Whom angels greet with anthems sweet While shepherds watch are keeping? “ Seraphina sang.

Fuzi, Grace familiar, led Grace down the stairs into the lobby. “Mary? Is it a song about Cosmos?”

Grace put a finger to her mouth, instructing her flamingo familiar to let the musicians finish.

When they finished playing the song on the organ, Alex murmured possible lyrics to herself. “... hmm mmm to cast me off discourteously . . .green sleeves is all my joy, green sleeves if my ummmm…”

“What are you mumbling about?” Fufi whispered into Alex’s ear.

The black-haired girl whispered back. “It doesn’t matter, if I can remember I’ll write the original lyrics down, just need to get the christmas song out of my head.”

The short performance finished. Fuzi clapped her wings together and Grace joined in, putting on a smile for everyone to see.

“What a lovely song.” The former-succubus-turned-back-to-human said. “Who wrote it?”

“It is from Alex’s world.” Yvne stood and curtseyed. “Want to try playing it? We have the sheet music right here.”

“I haven’t done much with any class skills for years.” Grace took the papers and looked them over. “Don’t expect it to be very good.”

Baroness Yvne stood up from the stool and gestured for Grace to sit. “Be my guest.”

The musical magical girl tentatively sat in front of the organ and spread her hands out over the keys. “I am more familiar with smaller instruments back when I was fighting on the demon queen’s continent. I wouldn’t have been able to transport something that I couldn’t store on my person.”

Eyes on the music, Grace played the piece. She did so and the music evoked an emotional response in everyone. She sang along to the organ while she played perfectly, capturing the reverence of the piece in the tone of her voice.

Yvne clapped politely and everyone followed. Alex joined in because she didn’t want to be the only one not clapping.

“Could you play us another one?” The baroness asked. “Everyone here would like to hear more of your beautiful voice.”

Grace agreed. “Don’t expect too much.”

Her next song was a slow relaxing lulibuy. “Little baby go to sleep. Close your eyes and don’t you fret.” She sang, hands going across the keys gently.

Alex felt suddenly drowsy and leaned back in her chair. Her eyes became heavy. She blinked once, twice, then the third time she felt like resting her eyes for just a moment.

Then the music stopped.

“Oh dear.” Grace’s sultry voice woke Alex up. “It looks like I used an ability without meaning to. Sorry.”

The black-haired magical girl straightened and looked at the sleeping people around the room.

“Weird.” Alex stood up and regarded the napping maids and nobles.

Fufi spoke next. “They don’t have a cuteness stat. So the ability is going to hit them harder.”

Fuzi added. “Grace’s abilities are amazing! Hoards of demons came after her and she sent them all back. It doesn’t matter how big the group of imps are if she can attack any that can hear her music.”

Grace rose slowly. “It didn’t matter in the end,” she murmured, her voice low and velvety. “I cut down thousands of them… maybe tens of thousands. But it still wasn’t enough. I’m not some tireless undead like the one you’ve been traveling with.”

She let the words linger, a faint, knowing smile touching her lips. “So I learned something. You can win every battle, every single one, and all it takes is losing just one for everything to come crashing down.”

“You’ll get them in the end.” Fuzi tried to cheer the magical girl up. “Look at Alex and Ariel, you are not a lone magical girl anymore.”

Fufi joined in the optimism. “Don’t underestimate the power of friendship!”

Alex felt an unread notification on her phone.

[Opposed cuteness save against mind magic: failed ]

[Effect: Sleep]

Apparently, Grace was cuter than her. This also confirmed the fact that magical girl abilities cheat a bit. It wasn’t a save against mental resistance but cuteness. Alex considered how to use this little glitch to her advantage.

“Wow.” Alex looked around the room. “Can your ability hit all the demons at once?”

“Only the ones that can hear the music.” Grace explained. “But most demons are prone to rush. Well, that was how it was at first, but I can only keep playing and singing for so long. Most everyone has to rest eventually.”

“Rest…” The black-haired magical girl remembered how her dreams were invaded by lewd ones.

Grace nodded. “The demons are cowards, if they can’t win one way, they’ll try another. Anyway, we should wake everyone back up. ”

The two magical girls gently woke up everyone that fell asleep to the song.

“What happened?” Yvne blinked a few times when she awoke. “I felt suddenly drowsy and did a long blink but that is all I can remember.”

“Grace accidentally put everyone to sleep.” Fuzi explained. “She’s a bit rusty when using her powers so please forgive her.”

“Oh,” Yvne wiped her eyes. “So that is what kind of powers she has. That is very strong.”

“My partner is the best.” Fuzi praised. “If it wasn’t for our little setback we’d be well on our way to being the next Cosmos!”

The people in the room all woke up with gentle effort but they looked at Grace with a bit of either fear or respect. Considering she spent most of her time in her room they figured she wasn’t that strong but this event proved otherwise.

The three magical girls and their familiars met the gnomes in the castle airship bay.

“Do you want to see the palladium deposit?” Alex said when the gnomes didn’t look too distracted with their work.

“It is really cold.” Fufi added. “So you’ll have to dress warm.”

“Perhaps just me then.” Octavian mused. “How long will it take?”

“Not too long.” Alex said. “We can collect some ore but if we are just going to check it out the portal pipe is very close by.”

“Uncerstood.” Octavian nodded. “Are there any garments available in my size?”

Alex nodded. “I can sew something suitable up for you quickly. You’ll have to change in the carriage because the pipes won’t work if wearing the wrong outfit.”

With a short detour where Alex got some thick bolts of cloth and cut then sewed them to fit the mechanized gnome.

After donning the outfit, Octavian said. “This is quite a bit warmer than it looks.”

“It is the magic of friendship!” Fufi proclaimed.

Some of the servants had already started prepping the carriage for the glacial biome. So they were ready quickly.

Grace, Merumeru and Ariel chose to come as well. So the group of magical girls, a slime and a gnome headed through the portal pipe back to Bob and Martha’s farm then through another one that led to the icy wasteland near the temple of purity. After quickly deploying the carriage everyone rushed inside and changed into warmer clothing.

Merumeru stayed dressed as a plumber. She informed Ariel that the cold didn’t bother her.

Using dolls, Alex cleaned out the entrance to the mine they had started. This helped because she could control them from inside the carriage. Almost always it was windy and even when it wasn’t snowing, ice and drift from the glaciers would fill up any place that could be drifted into. So unburying part of where they collected the ore from had to happen first if they wanted to get out of the wind.

“It isn’t easy getting the ore but using the portals and turning the carriage into a card makes it not too bad.” Alex used her three main dolls to clear out the entrance then move the carriage out of the wind.

With everyone bundled up they got out and took a look around.

Alex showed off her doll dancing a bit more and used Edielwiess’s drilling spear to get some rocks loose from the far side of the mine.

Octavius inspected one. “This has some ore but you are not following the vane.”

Grace stepped forward. “Let me try something.”

She took a deep breath and let out a high note for a long time. It was deafening and the whole cave shook. Several rocks fell from the ceiling.

Everyone panicked and a few rocks hit the carriage.

Ariel yelled at Grace. “Don’t do that again. You want to get us buried in here?”

“Sorry.” Grace looked away. “I haven’t tried using a sonic attack for something like mining. I wanted to see if it would work.”

Shivering, Octavius picked up some of the fallen rocks. “This one is good.” He placed it in the carriage.

The majority of them he tossed out of the entrance though.

“Meru me me.” Merumeru pointed towards the exit.

“You want to put on a cape and fly them to the island?” Ariel puzzled at the slime girl.

“Ru meru Ru ru.” Merumeru explained.

“You did it before?” The sea elf didn’t look convinced. “I’ve never heard of a feather that can turn into a cape and let you fly.”

“A feather that turns into a cape.” Alex thought she remembered that from somewhere. “I think that is from an old game from my world. Weird.”

“Is this a fake story?” Ariel crossed her hands.

Merumeru shook her head. “Meeeruuu me me.”

“She says she got it from the dungeon?” Ariel looked at Alex.

“That sneaky girl snuck into the dungeon.” Fufi explained. “Luna powered it when she first brought Alex here so people found weird stuff and some of it was related to Alex’s world.”

“Is this dungeon still active?” Octavius asked. “If machines could be dropped from there that would be a big treasure.”

Fufi shook her beak. “No, the dungeon was used up last year. I don’t think Luna will be able to recharge it for obvious reasons.”

“Can we get going?” The gnome shivered. “The cave protects us from the wind but I can still feel the cold seeping in through my metal. I don’t think I’ll last too long out here if I start to ice up.”

Merumeru kept pointing and tugging and explained how her fancy portal launcher worked. Someone would just have to jump into a pipe, fall into another pipe then a third pipe would send they flying up to the island. All they would need is a cape so that they could get high enough to land on the island.

“This girl says the strangest things sometimes.” Ariel chuckled and patted Merumeru on the head.