‘That aside...’
That was not what mattered right now.
There was another, much bigger problem occupying Camilla’s mind at the moment.
That light that had healed the children’s wounds.
That light that had poured from her hand at the very moment she had been lamenting Arena’s absence!
“What in the world happened?”
Camilla stared fixedly at both her hands.
There was nothing different from before. She could not feel anything special either...
‘But that feeling...’
It had definitely been holy power.
The same power she had used before when she saved those two children after they had turned to stone. It had not felt different in the slightest.
‘What is this?’
Arena had not possessed her body, so she could not understand at all why that kind of power had manifested.
After thinking for a while, Camilla let out a low gasp.
“No way...”
[Call for me whenever you need me. I’ll lend you my strength.]
All at once, she remembered Arena’s final words as she left. Could it be that this was the help she had meant back then?
“Dorman.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Tell Havel I want to see him.”
“Havel?”
“Yes, as soon as possible.”
“Understood.”
If she asked the reaper Havel, who would know Arena’s current situation, would she get an answer...?
“Haa.”
Arena, what exactly did you do to me?
*****
“Big sister...”
“Dive...”
“We can see each other again, right?”
“Of course.”
“Sniff...”
Camilla pulled Dive, whose eyes were brimming with tears, tightly into her arms.
But as the child’s crying only grew louder, the corners of Camilla’s eyes also gradually began to redden.
“If anyone saw you, they’d think this was goodbye forever!”
Unable to bear watching them anymore, Ravi picked Dive up by the scruff and pulled him away from Camilla.
“I’ve let this go and let it go, but what kind of farewell drags on all day? At this rate the sun will come up again!”
“He’s just sad. Very sad.”
“You didn’t even come out to see me off when I went away on a long business trip before!”
“How is your business trip the same as Dive going back to the Gracia Empire?”
Compare things that are actually comparable.
“What do you mean, how is it different? Going far away is still going far away!”
“Why are you picking a fight again for no reason?”
It was time for Dive and the Duke of Esclara to return.
Dive’s break was nearly over, and the Duke of Esclara had also said it was difficult for him to remain away any longer.
“Daughter.”
“...What?”
At that sulky reply, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} the Duke of Esclara let out a silent laugh.
He was very pleased to see that Camilla no longer showed any real rejection toward the word daughter. Though it seemed she herself had not noticed that change very clearly yet.
“We’ll be seeing each other again soon too, won’t we?”
“Do we have to?”
“That’s really too much. That reaction is completely different from what you gave Dive just now.”
Camilla looked at the Duke of Esclara for a moment with faint contempt at the way he could not hide his wounded expression.
This man and that man alike—why was everyone so obsessed with comparing themselves to Dive? If it bothered them that much, they could turn into children too.
‘I know very well because I went through it myself, and it feels a lot worse than people think.’
Not something I’d recommend.
“...I’ll come visit Gracia sometime soon.”
When Camilla finally said that with a slightly awkward expression, a satisfied smile spread across the Duke of Esclara’s face.
“Good.”
After lightly patting her head, the Duke of Esclara wrapped an arm around Dive’s shoulders. Dive still had tears swimming in his eyes.
“See you again.”
Seeing the Duke of Sorpel and everyone else nearby wearing expressions that clearly said hurry up and go, the Duke of Esclara clicked his tongue lightly.
What a remarkably consistent bunch. The stranger thing was, why did that only make him want to come more often?
When he did not even bother hiding his intentions and smiled in open ill temper, the sound of grinding teeth came from the opposite side.
Unable to just stand by watching the Duke of Esclara continue his quiet provocation while the Duke of Sorpel simmered in silence because the children were present, Ravi finally stepped in with a sigh to mediate.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
“Want to come with us?”
“You lunatic...! Get out right now!”
In the end, the Duke of Sorpel exploded and snapped as hard as he could, but the Duke of Esclara let it slide without the slightest concern.
After looking once at the Duke of Sorpel, whose face had turned bright red, at Ravi, who was wearing a bizarre expression, and finally at Camilla, whose eyes had gone round at the sudden shouting, he crushed the transportation mana stone in his hand.
The next instant, the two of them were swallowed by bright light and vanished from the spot. It was obvious they had jumped straight to the border region where magical travel was permitted.
“......”
For a moment, Camilla silently stared at the place where the two of them had been standing just before.
‘Again, again...’
When they were here, they were always prickly and never especially kind, but the moment they were gone, a strange sense of disappointment came rushing in.
‘This is a sickness too. A real sickness.’
And then afterward, she always regretted it too late.
That she should have treated them a little better.
That she should have been a little warmer.
Tap.
Someone gently wrapped an arm around Camilla’s shoulders. When she turned her head, she saw the Duke of Sorpel looking at her in silence.
“Next time, let this father take you to see Dive.”
“...Okay.”
As if he understood every bit of her disappointment, the Duke of Sorpel soothed her in that way, and only then did a faint smile touch Camilla’s lips.
*****
“I heard you were looking for me.”
“Yes.”
After getting word from Dorman, the reaper Havel had come to meet Camilla at the café without the slightest delay, and immediately asked why she had called him.
“What is it?”
“Drink your tea first.”
Camilla set down a cup of iced coffee loaded with ice in front of Havel. Even in weather this cold, he only ever drank iced drinks.
“Is it good?”
“Just say what you called me for.”
When half the coffee was gone, Camilla finally brought up the reason she had summoned him today.
“How is Lady Arena? Is she doing well?”
“......”
For a moment, Havel only stared at Camilla in silence.
“What?”
For some reason, the look Havel gave her seemed to say he found her pathetic, and Camilla was left with the unpleasant feeling that she might have asked something pointless.
“She is no longer someone you can think of as close to you. Stop concerning yourself with her.”
“So she is doing well?”
“She is a god now. Wouldn’t it be stranger if she were not doing well?”
“Just because someone became a god doesn’t mean everything is good.”
If anything, maybe she could be doing badly.
“Is that why you called me?”
“That too. And I went through something strange recently.”
“You’re always going through strange things.”
“......”
...Excuse me? Could you not say something like that with such a sincerely serious face?
The fact that I can’t even argue with it makes it even more annoying. God, that’s irritating.
“Anyway, I went through something strange recently.”
“What happened?”
Havel, against his will, pretended to be interested and asked back.
“It’s just that—”
“Ah!”
Just then, a small cry came from the direction of the counter.
Camilla turned her head at once and saw that one of the employees had apparently burned her hand while making hot tea and was crying out in pain.
“Yeni, are you okay?”
“Cool your hand first!”
“W-what do we do? It’s really red!”
The other employees rushed to look after her when they saw how red her hand had turned.
Understanding what had happened, Camilla also hurried over. Then she placed her hand over the burned spot.
Fwoosh!
Bright light poured out and wrapped around the employee’s injured hand in an instant. A moment later, when the light vanished, there was not the slightest trace of a burn left there.
“Boss!”
“I-is this that holy power we’ve only heard rumors about?”
“Wow!”
The employees around them all stared in shock and burst into excited cheers.
They had heard rumors that Camilla could use holy power, but this was the first time they had ever seen it with their own eyes.
So our boss really was the kind of talent the temple desperately wanted!
“This kind of thing.”
Leaving those people behind, Camilla returned to Havel.
“This happened before too. Arena isn’t inside my body, but I can still use holy power.”
“......”
Sluuurp.
“Are you even listening to me right now? I’m saying I can use holy power!”
“My hearing is perfectly fine.”
Sluuurp—
“...What?”
Camilla’s eyes gradually narrowed.
“You already knew, didn’t you?”
It felt strange no matter how she looked at it. Havel had witnessed this shocking situation with his own eyes and yet showed almost no reaction.
Watching him continue to calmly drink the coffee in front of him, she became certain.
This bastard knew something.
“It’s nothing unusual.”
“What do you mean, nothing unusual?”
“It only means you became Lady Arena’s first saint.”
“First saint?”
What was that supposed to mean?
As Camilla sat there looking baffled, Havel added an explanation.
“It means exactly what it sounds like. You received Lady Arena’s blessing, so now you can use her power.”
Hearing that only made Camilla’s thoughts tangle even more.
So what he was saying was that I really had become some kind of saintess who could use holy power...
‘Are you serious?’
A saintess with no faith.
That was about as absurd as saying Ravi had matured, Ludvill had become a womanizer, or Arsian had turned over a new leaf.
