Chapter 242: Divine Descent (2)
Grace burst into laughter, nodding cheerfully without a care. “Mother-in-law? Pffft! Well, from your perspective, I suppose that’s how it works.”
Unlike her, Iris stood flustered, her face a picture of panic. “C-calling Lady Grace m-mother-in-law. What on earth?”
Her reaction was understandable. From her point of view, a legendary Saintess straight out of myth was now fully aware of her love life. Anyone would be shaken by that.
Grace replied, “It’s fine if he calls me that. More importantly, your name was Iris, wasn’t it?”
“Ah, y-yes,” Iris replied meekly.
Grace beckoned Iris toward her. “Come a little closer.”
She smiled as she gently stroked Iris’s cheek. “Hehe. Is it because you’re my daughter? You’re very pretty.”
Though she was only a semi-transparent spirit and there was no real sensation, for some reason, Iris felt as though a warmth was softly spreading across her cheek.
“Thank you, Lady Grace,” Iris said.
“Why so stiff? Don’t call me Lady Grace. Try calling me Mother. Mother.”
“Eh? Ah, I think that might be a bit...”
“I told you already. We may not be connected by blood, but we’re bound by something deeper than that.”
Iris’s pupils trembled. Those simple words struck her heart like a miracle. “M-Mother.”
Grace nodded gently, a faint smile on her lips. “Hehe. Yes, my daughter.”
Like a real mother, she tenderly placed her hand atop Iris’s head. “Seeing you reminds me of myself when I was young.”
As she slowly lowered her gaze, her eyes suddenly stopped around Iris’s chest. And then, her eyes flew open in shock. “W-what is this!”
* * *
Surprised by Grace’s reaction, Iris called out to her. “Mother?”
“Ah, u-uh, yes! My daughter! You really do look just like me when I was young, yes!”
Your voice is shaking an awful lot, Mother-in-law, I thought.
Grace swallowed hard and hastily averted her eyes from Iris, turning to face me instead. “S-son-in-law!”
“Yes, Mother-in-law.”
“Why are you being so formal all of a sudden? You used to just call me by my name.”
“Well, it’s just...”
Once you start thinking of someone as your actual mother-in-law, it’s kind of hard to speak casually.
“Hmph, fine. Just talk normally. Thanks to you, I was able to fulfill my mission,” she added.
A mission, huh.
Now that she mentioned it, there was something I had been wanting to ask her. “Grace. What did you mean by what you said before?”
“Hm? What did I say?”
“You warned me to be wary of the sixth hero.”
The number of Great Heroes was five. Of course, even back then, many superhumans bore the soul stigmata of the Seven Gods upon their chests, but they weren’t called heroes. Those bearing the soul stigmata only came to be called heroes after the Great Five Heroes were established. Five hundred years ago, only the Great Five Heroes were known as heroes. So, the sixth hero did not exist back then.
“Did I say something like that?” Grace asked.
“You don’t remember?”
She nodded faintly. “As you probably know, I’m not truly Grace, only the remnant soul she left behind. Even though I was summoned again through the power of the Seven Eyes, not all of my memories remain intact.”
That meant there was no way to learn anything about the sixth hero after all.
“That aside.” Grace shifted her gaze toward Yurina, Elisha, and Laneige. “Who are they? Are they members of my daughter’s party?”
“Ah, yeah. That’s right.”
“Oh? I see.” Floating through the air, Grace drifted toward the three women. “Nice to meet you. I am the Light of Life, Grace, though, more precisely, I am the remnant soul she left behind.”
“I-it’s an honor to meet you! I’m Yurina Helios!” Yurina replied.
“Helios? D-don’t tell me, you’re Reynald’s descendant?”
Yurina nodded stiffly, her expression tense. “Yes. That’s right.”
Grace stared at her for a moment, then let out a hollow chuckle. “Hah. To think that womanizing brat’s descendant would turn out to be such a proper young lady.”
“Womanizing?” Yurina asked.
“Oh my, you didn’t know? That Reynald fellow didn’t leave a single woman untouched. What did he always say again? Ah, right. He’d spout nonsense about wanting to make everyone happy, then what? That man got married three times. Three times!”
Grace shook her head, as if she were utterly fed up just by recounting those experiences. Faced with this never-before-heard piece of family lore, Yurina froze on the spot.
Grace continued, “Then the remaining two are...”
“I am Elisha Baldwin. I serve as a professor at the Hero Academy.”
“Hm? The Hero Academy? Ohhh, you mean the school Reynald founded? That thing still exists?” Grace swept her gaze over Elisha, a satisfied smile forming on her lips. “Good. Your skills seem solid, and your judgment seems sharp as well.”
Even Elisha, renowned as she was, couldn’t help sounding slightly nervous as she bowed before a Great Hero. “You flatter me.”
At this moment, Laneige introduced herself. “I-I’m Laneige Maram!”
Grace’s expression stiffened slightly as she examined Laneige. “You’re... I sense the aura of a demon.”
Laneige’s face was drained of all colors. She looked on the verge of bursting into tears at any moment. “T-that’s because...”
However, at that moment, Iris stepped forward toward Grace. “Laneige is half human and half demon. Even though demon blood runs through her veins, she’s kinder and more warm-hearted than anyone I know, and she’s a true hero.”
Grace nodded. “Hmm. If my daughter speaks of you so highly, then I’ll believe you.”
Her gaze then swept across the three women. “That said, if there are five of you in the party, that’s rather unfortunate.”
Iris was confused. “Unfortunate?”
“Well, isn’t it common for young men and women in the same party to end up becoming lovers?”
As she said, the number one reason heroes became couples was precisely that they belonged to the same party.
“But our son-in-law is already dating you, Iris.” Grace clicked her tongue in regret as she looked at the other three women in the room. “Such pretty, fine young women, yet unable to find a partner within the party, doesn’t that feel like a waste?”
Iris gave an awkward smile and avoided Grace’s gaze. “Well, I-I suppose so.”
“Hehe. Right?” Grace turned toward me, puffing out her chest with a smug expression. “Having such a dependable, handsome man like my son-in-law in the same party, yet being forced to just watch from the sidelines... It’s such a pity.”
Yurina murmured, “They did more than just watch.”
“Hm? What did you say?” Grace asked.
Yurina flinched, shaking her head vigorously. “N-nothing at all!”
Iris hurriedly changed the subject. “Um, more importantly, Mother! There’s something I wanted to ask you!”
“What is it?”
“Well, you possessed the Seven Eyes as well, didn’t you?”
Grace nodded. “Yes. Though they no longer exist now.”
Iris’s eyes shimmered with rainbow light. “I was wondering... If you could tell me how to properly use their power.”
The Seven Eyes was a saintly power that dramatically amplified one’s divine power, allowing miracles to be performed without offering sacrifices. No, to be precise, only those who possessed the Seven Eyes could be recognized by the Holy Empire as a true Saintess.
“Just the fact that you were able to summon me in my remnant soul state using my relic suggests you already handle the Seven Eyes quite well, doesn’t it?” replied Grace.
“That’s true, but...” Iris trailed off, lowering her rainbow-colored eyes. “I still want to become better.”
Even the records of past Saintesses hadn’t mentioned anyone at her age being capable of wielding the Seven Eyes as skillfully as she did. Yet, Iris was not satisfied. Her closest friends—Camilla, Yurina, and the rest of the party—had all been growing at an astonishing pace day by day. But her growth had stagnated for months. To catch up, she needed the guidance of Grace, the first Saintess and the very origin of the Seven Eyes.
“Hmm. I see.” Grace nodded with a faint smile, as if to say, “That’s my daughter.”
She then asked, “Have you tried Divine Descent?”
“Divine Descent?”
“It’s a form of mental communion with the Seven Gods through the Seven Eyes. By communing with a god, you can draw out greater power from the Seven Eyes.”
Iris’s eyes widened in shock. “I-I didn’t even know something like that existed.”
Grace frowned slightly. “You didn’t know? It seems many records about the Seven Eyes have been lost.”
“Well, to be honest, after you, Lady Grace, there hasn’t been a single Saintess who could wield the Seven Eyes perfectly.”
“Haa. I suppose that’s only natural. It’s not a power just anyone can handle.”
The Seven Eyes were a divine power granted only to those chosen by the Seven Gods. For a mere human to wield them perfectly was impossible.
“Then, does that mean I can’t use this Divine Descent either?” Iris asked.
“No. You can. You won’t be able to commune with all Seven Gods yet, but you should be able to connect with at least one.”
“Ah!”
Mental communion with a god; for a follower of the Seven Star Church, there were few words more stirring than that.
“Then which of the Seven Gods should I commune with?” Iris asked.
“Any of them is fine. What matters is the act of communion itself,” Grace explained.
“In that case, hmm, I think it would be best to commune with the Sky God.”
The Sky God’s soul stigmata was the most common among support-type heroes, and Iris herself bore that very soul stigmata. If any god would do, it was only natural to wish to commune with the one who had granted her that mark.
Grace replied, “I’ll tell you the method, so just follow my words and slowly draw upon the Seven Eyes.”
“Yes, Lady Grace.”
“Tsk. I told you to call me Mother.”
Iris smiled awkwardly, still unaccustomed to that. “Ah, s-sorry, Mother.”
Just as she slowly drew out the power of the Seven Eyes according to Grace’s instructions, I stepped toward Iris. “Wait.”
“Hm? What is it, Dale?”
“It doesn’t matter which of the Seven Gods you commune with, right?”
“Ah, yes. According to Lady Grace, I mean Mother, that’s right.”
Placing a hand on Iris’s shoulder, I said, “Then I have one request. Commune with the Forest God.”
“The Forest God?”
“Yeah. That man, no, that god. There’s something I need to ask him.”
I bit down hard on my lip, clenching my fist until it felt like it would shatter. Yes, there was something I needed to ask. No, it was something I had to ask. Why had he given me the Blessing of Resurrection? Out of thousands, tens of thousands of humanity, why me? I wanted to know why I alone had been forced to wander the frozen wastelands for over a thousand years, unable even to die.
