༺ The Lord Is With Us (54) ༻
The night was cold.
I was on my way to find Senior Delphine.
I was walking through the chilly night air. The Academy was quiet in these late hours, probably because the final exam period was drawing to a close.
Most of the students were stuck in the library, studying during this time.
I was sure it was morning up until the moment I left the temple, but it was night in the blink of an eye due to my busy schedule.
It was because all my friends who heard that I was discharged from the hospital came to visit me one after another.
At first, Celine and Leto came as if it were a matter of course. With Seria as a bonus.
Although they still seemed to argue every time they met, Celine and Seria seemed to have been going everywhere together recently. From what Leto told me, Celine was participating in Seria’s training.
It seemed like the past couple battles stimulated Celine in some sort of way.
It wasn’t a bad opportunity for her to grow as a swordsman. I was just glad that two of my favorite juniors were becoming friends.
Celine and Seria immediately ran towards me the moment they saw me. There was no need to say who came first.
It was quite a sight to see Seria’s haughty expression suddenly change to a teary one. Meanwhile, Celine slapped me on the back.
“Aghhhh! Hey, Celine! I’m literally a patient who was just discharged…….”
“I was so worried, you idiot!”
When Celine started to cry, I couldn’t say anything more to her. Seria also looked a bit tired as if she also went through a hard time while I was unconscious.
I had to console two juniors who were looking up at me with tears in their eyes.
“It’s okay, I’m okay. I was just slightly on the brink of death.”
“Please, Senior Ian… You’re gonna drive us crazy. Please don’t do something like this ever again.”
Seria clung onto me with a pleading tone of voice. I had no choice but to clear my throat with a dry cough and nod.
To be honest, I wasn’t confident that I would be able to keep such a promise.
If another letter arrived tomorrow, there was no way for me to know what would happen in the near future.
However, there was no need for me to add tension to the situation in front of me right now. I stroked their heads or patted their backs while waiting for them to stop crying.
Leto just shook his head.
“Did you use the scroll?”
“Yup, it came in really handy.”
“Then repay me, punk. That was worth more than my two months’ allowance.”
As always, the conversation between Leto and me was short and concise. We had nothing to hide from each other anyway. It was just that he was a more rational person than Celine and Seria, just as expected from a wizard.
He gave me a brief rundown of what happened while I was out.
“I heard they launched a major investigation into the Gilford Orphanage. It seems like both the Holy Nation and the whole nation is in turmoil because of the demonic human they discovered for the first time in years.”
I asked in a slightly calm voice, stroking Celine’s head as she sniffled next to me.
“Anything about the flesh nest?”
“They’re investigating, but we’ve been asked to keep it a secret from the public just because it’s such an unbelievable story. My guess is that someone might visit you soon?”
That was about as much as I expected, so I nodded to Leto’s words.
Even if a mythical monster appeared, there was a strong possibility that it would only create anxiety amongst the public to announce it prematurely. The cause and countermeasures had to be concluded through a series of thorough investigations before being announced to everyone.
I didn’t know how long that would take. There was a high chance that it would take several months, maybe even more.
There wouldn’t be many places right now that still have historical materials from thousands of years ago.
The graduate students who majored in mythology or archeology were probably screaming right about now.
Unfortunately, there was no way for me to know if it would be screams of joy or screams of their final death throes.
Come to think of it, someone was going to visit me to talk about this.
It was useless to worry about it now. At least the person wouldn’t harm me, I thought to myself as I shook my head and cleared my brain of random thoughts.
Leto looked around briefly, then lowered his voice to speak to me.
“This is also something I heard through the grapevine but it looks like the name of the evil mastermind behind this incident is coming out.”
“…….Where on earth are you getting this kind of information?”
I looked at Leto with a look of absurdity. Leto just snorted and shrugged his shoulders. As if the information he was about to tell me wasn’t a big deal.
“This is obviously the information I dug up while helping out in the investigation as someone who was involved in the whole situation. The name of the person who regularly delivered hundreds of gold pieces to the Gilford Orphanage was written in the ledger.”
“Who?”
“…….’Mitram’.”
It was the first time I ever heard that name. I carefully repeated the name in my head several times to engrave it. Leto added on with a wry smile on his face.
“There’s a high possibility he’s the Priest of the Dark Order.”
‘Dark Priest Mitram’.
Somehow, I got the feeling that I would be hearing that name for a while.
While I was lost in thought, Celine snuggled deeper into my arms and buried her face in my chest. Seria didn’t miss a beat and cuddled further into my arms as well.
Unfortunately, my arms were not big enough to hold both women at the same time. Celine and Seria, both who were still crying, began to glare at each other.
“…….Hey, you loser. It’s a tight fit here right now?”
“Yes, it is. It would be perfect if Miss Haster got out of the way.”
The two women started to growl at each other.
I smiled bitterly.
How dare they fight amongst themselves in front of their senior. I couldn’t even fix their attitude right now using my hatchet.
After the trio left, Emma came to see me while I was resting in my dorm room.
Her crying face suddenly appeared in front of me the moment I opened the door.
She was a lovely girl with an impressionable reddish-brown hair and clear green eyes.
Her hands were holding a lot of things as she asked me a question.
“Ian! Are you okay?”
Her voice was full of worry. So, without thinking, I let her into the room.
I felt a little embarrassed because there were alcohol bottles all over the place. It was from sipping alcohol by myself at night to relieve the loneliness I felt.
However, Emma glanced around the room and didn’t pay much attention to the bottles at all. She started taking something out of the bag she brought with her.
“Okay, this is a potion that helps with physical vitality. And this is hornet honey, it helps you recover from fatigue if you mix it with water and drink it. Oh, and this is the porridge I made so if you feel a bit nauseous from finally coming back to consciousness you should warm it up little by little and eat it…….”
I was silent for a moment at the majesty of the bundle she carried that contained medicine, drinks, and even homemade food.
I have been thinking about this since the last time I saw her, but isn’t this too much?
On top of that, I was already indebted to Emma. I was only able to survive thanks to the potion she gave me.
If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have been alive and breathing, much less boast to the Saintess.
So I carefully tried to dissuade her.
“Emma, it’s okay. It’s been a long time since I was completely cured. It just took time for me to regain consciousness.”
“B-but! Hasn’t your body gotten a lot weaker? Oh no… Look at how much weight you’ve lost.”
It wasn’t fat I lost but more muscle loss due to not being able to exercise, but that alone made Emma upset enough to have tears in her eyes as if her heart was breaking.
She immediately rolled up her sleeves and took a step forward.
“D-do you want me to make something for you right now? I took a lot of bridal classes so I’m pretty confident in my cooking skills. And while I’m at it, I can clean your room a bit too……”
If I left her alone, she looked like she was ready to do anything. So I had to call her name quietly.
“…….Emma.”
But Emma didn’t even bother to acknowledge me. As expected from an alchemist, she didn’t seem to be the type to listen to others once she was focused on something.
So I decided to use the last resort.
“I’ll clean the liquor bottles first, then uh… There’s a lot of dust piled up over there! Since your stomach is still a little weak, maybe you can eat porridge or s- oup…..?”
She stopped speaking, taken aback by the sudden hand that wrapped around hers. Her widened, light-green eyes turned to look at me.
I smiled bitterly.
“Emma, it’s okay. How can I possibly get water on your hands?”
It didn’t make sense for me to ask a guest to do housework.
But Emma had the opposite reaction from what I anticipated.
Her face turned bright red and I saw steam rising above her head. She lowered her head.
She squirmed for a bit, then soon sat down on a chair while dusting off her skirt. Politely.
“…….Y-yeah. Okay.”
Then she started to look restless for some reason.
She glanced at me, then blushed and looked away. She repeated that several times.
I let out a light laugh. I found Emma quite cute while watching her do that.
Coincidentally, I had something to give to Emma.
I got up and took out a pouch from my dresser. I pushed the pouch in front of where Emma was sitting in a cautious manner.
Emma’s eyes turned to me and seemed to ask questions.
I spoke to her in a nonchalant tone.
“It’s for the potion.”
Emma’s eyes glazed over at my words. She quickly looked into the pouch. Even at a glance, there were a lot of gold coins inside.
It was actually the reward that I received for killing the demonic wolf last time. Adding this and that to it, there was probably about 150 gold inside the pouch.
To be honest, I wanted to add more to it but I haven’t been paid for defeating the demonic monkey and demonic human yet. I still haven’t gotten paid for discovering and destroying the flesh nest either.
I was willing to pay Emma an additional amount to compensate once more money came in later.
However, the moment Emma finished counting the gold coins in the pouch she immediately threw it onto the table with an upset look.
“This is way too much, Ian! And I don’t want to get paid… I-I just wanted to help in any way I could……!”
“Emma, you’re worth it.”
I was calm as I spoke to her. So Emma stopped talking and had to look at me with a teary expression on her face.
“I know better than anyone else. So I can’t accept your hard work for free.”
“But I owe you my life……”
“And you saved my life this time.”
I picked up the pouch that Emma dropped on the floor and carefully placed it back in her hand.
Her light green eyes looked up at me.
“This is all I have for now, but someday I’ll repay my debt.”
“…….This is still way too much.”
Emma’s voice came out more like a whine and I responded with a faint smile on my face.
“Then let’s just say you’re hired. Permanent employment.”
At my words, Emma’s eyes quickly avoided mine again. Why on earth was she being so shy?
I couldn’t figure out the answer to my question, but nonetheless she was such a lovely and dedicated girl.
In the end, I had to survive on the nutritious items and porridge that Emma gave me for a few days.
The last person to visit me was Senior Elsie.
It happened to be when I was walking down the Academy’s central street.
I noticed a cone hat running around somewhere in my field of vision. A small girl was urgently looking around for something.
The expression on her face looked very anxious. It was quite a scene since a lovely looking girl was running around like that.
I quickly realized who she was.
Elsie Rinella, the Loli Gangster who was once the object of fear at the Academy.
I slightly lifted my hand. Senior Elsie’s wide eyes turned towards me.
I said hello with a bitter smile.
“It’s been a while, Senior Elsie.”
To be honest, it didn’t really feel like a lot of time had passed.
I just closed and opened my eyes and other people around me said that a week had passed, so that was it.
However, Elsie’s time must have flown normally, as she had a huge smile on her face the moment she saw me.
She came hopping towards me before falling into my arms.
It was a touching reunion.
If only she didn’t open her mouth to speak.
“…….Master!”
Why did her name for me change?
A cold sweat started to run down my spine and the reactions from the people around me were just as I expected.
Everyone was staring at Senior Elsie and me with wide eyes.
It seemed like the problem I was worried about had finally exploded right in my face.
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