Coming-of-Age Ceremony
"Haaah∼. Haaah∼. This is insane. That face doesn't belong in this world."
The one-two punch of the prank and the rejection left Kate reeling.
But that only lasted a moment. The instant they arrived at the workshop and Jun shrugged off his outer clothes so she could take his measurements, she recovered her energy at once.
No—she recovered so thoroughly that she got overexcited and her nose started bleeding.
"Heh heh heh. Stay still, Jun. Big sis will make sure it doesn't hurt."
Kate approached slowly, clutching the measuring tape like a rope meant for tying people up. With every step she took, droplets of blood beading along her jawline dripped onto the floor.
Her tone, her behavior, her entire appearance reeked of criminal intent. It was impossible not to feel wary.
"Get away from him! If you so much as lay a finger on our Junie, I won't stand for it!"
It wasn't just Jun—Fortuna hurriedly stepped in front of Kate to block her path. Seeing how stiffly her fairy wings were raised, Kate must have looked seriously dangerous.
"Whyyy∼. What did I even do to make you all so wary of me."
"...There are plenty of things I could point out, but first things first. Do something about that nosebleed."
"Nosebleed? Ah."
Only then did Kate realize she was bleeding from her nose. She gave an awkward laugh and healed it. Her face flushed slightly.
It probably wasn't just from seeing the blood. She must have imagined what she looked like just now.
"Ahem ahem. Alright, enough joking around."
"I wasn't joking, though."
"Ugh! Just shut up and get over here! We need to cut the fabric to size and get it dyed already."
"Ah, so the other sisters aren't here because they went to dye fabric for the other kids."
Jun looked around the empty workshop, then stretched his arms out to either side. Kate hurried over and began pressing the measuring tape against various parts of his body.
"You're the tallest of the boys. The rest of your measurements are on the large side too, but considering your height, it's a perfect golden ratio. Not just the face—your body is excellent too. Isn't that a little too broken?"
"Don't sneak in a feel while you're complimenting me!"
"Tch! Fortuna, aren't you being a little petty? It's not like I'm going to wear him out just by touching a little."
Fortuna swatted away Kate's hands as they slyly groped Jun's abs and forearms, no questions asked. Kate puffed out her cheeks like a blowfish in protest, but Fortuna paid her no mind.
"Haaah∼. Life is so unfair I can barely stand it. Anyway, his build is completely different from what I expected. There's going to be a lot to adjust."
Kate scowled as if this had become a nuisance, then picked up the fabric laid out on a nearby table. She started scratching chalk marks here and there. Even to Jun, who knew nothing about clothesmaking, it was clear there were quite a few places that needed work, just as she'd said.
"What kind of body did you think I had?"
"I heard from the kids that you train really brutally. So I figured you'd be all bulked up and massive."
"Really? I don't think I look like that."
"Heh heh heh. You never know. Under that tightly wrapped robe that doesn't match that beautiful face, a beast might be hiding."
Kate let out another lecherous laugh. At times like this she really seemed less like a nun and more like some dirty old man who loved crude jokes.
"Sorry to disappoint—there's no beast in here."
"It's fine. I got to touch skin soft as a baby's instead."
As if recalling the sensation of groping Jun's body, Kate drooled and kneaded empty air with her hands. It was a pretty disgusting sight.
"Hss. But I'm really jealous. How do you even maintain skin like that? If Donald and Leon are sick of it, the training can't be ordinary. Please teach me the secret!"
"I don't really know myself how this is possible. Maybe because I drink elixirs? Or thanks to the gods' blessing?"
He couldn't honestly say it was because he'd remodeled himself with Realize. That would be no different from confessing he was a Wisher.
"So you don't know for sure either."
Fortunately, Kate didn't seem particularly suspicious of the excuse. Well, who would expect a Wish-series skill to come out of ordinary psychokinesis.
"Haaah∼. Blessings depend on the gods' will, so never mind that—should I start drinking elixirs from today? Ugh! Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up."
"But you're still thinking of trying."
At Fortuna's question, Kate puffed her cheeks out again and nodded.
"Hmph! Unlike someone, my body isn't going to stay forever young. Look at me. Small and scrawny, and firm on top of that. If I keep going like this, I might not even be able to get married after the chastity vow ends. Just like the other sisters. Sob sob. I don't want to live that lonely."
Kate collapsed onto the table and started crying pitifully. Jun was about to tell her not to worry, that she'd definitely be able to get married—
But then he caught the expectant glances she kept shooting him and decided against it.
"Fort, the chastity vow has a time limit?"
"Wait! Is now really the time for that question?!"
"The chastity vow that cliff over there mentioned is a geas. In exchange for keeping your chastity for a set period, you can grow your holy power core rapidly."
"Don't just answer him so casually!"
Kate's cry, full of sorrow. Even hearing it, Jun and Fortuna kept going with their own conversation.
"U-uwaaah!"
In the end, unable to hold back her sorrow, Kate really burst into tears. They hadn't expected her to go that far over something so small, so Jun and Fortuna were both baffled as they hurriedly tried to soothe her.
Isn't this role reversal?
"Sniff. Hic!"
"Feeling a little calmer now?"
"Hmph!"
"Cliff. Do you really want to act like that in front of a kid?"
Ignoring Fortuna's jab, Kate picked up the scissors next to the fabric. In an instant, the soft, fluffy, squirrel-like atmosphere around her turned cold and sharp.
The other kids might not have known it, but this was a mood Jun had experienced before. Whenever she mercilessly split assassins' heads open with a mace, she always wore this exact atmosphere.
No point hiding it. The woman who looked like nothing more than a fragile nun was, in fact, a paladin dispatched by the Church four years ago at Leonard's request.
"Blue Flash."
At Kate's coldly settled voice, Jun straightened his clothes and took a seat across from her. The sudden formal speech and the situation itself didn't particularly startle him. He was the one who had engineered this situation, after all.
"Were you very surprised to hear my true identity?"
"I had my suspicions, but... yes, I was quite surprised. So much so that I wondered if Father Leonard had that dream the moment he heard the truth."
Surprise and shock settled into Kate's coldly sunken eyes. It was exactly the reaction he'd wanted, so Jun nodded in satisfaction.
"You met the First Prince's subordinates?"
"They were waiting for me, so I met them once. They told me to become a subordinate of the First Prince."
"Am I correct in understanding that the reason you're telling me this at the same time as revealing your identity is because you want the Church to protect you from the various problems that will arise if you refuse that offer?"
"Yes, that's right."
There's a saying, isn't there. Life is a continuous series of choices, and you must duly bear the responsibility that comes with those choices. Even if you want to dodge the responsibility, the world won't leave you alone.
Jun, whose combined ages from his past and present lives were nearly fifty, knew well that the saying was a kind of truth. So after choosing to refuse the First Prince's offer, he had constantly thought about how to take responsibility for it and how to prepare.
He'd come up with various measures, but nothing was fully fleshed out yet. However, stage one of every measure he'd thought of shared a common point: leaving the Britia Empire.
He'd already told the First Prince's subordinates that he had no intention of opposing the First Prince, but the chance that the First Prince would believe that and leave him alone was almost zero.
If Leon's assassination failed before the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, the biggest cause would be him, and even if it succeeded, he'd interfered—so there was a high chance of retaliation or of them harassing him to make him follow.
No matter how well Jun ran and how well he fought, he was ultimately human. He absolutely needed proper rest, sleep, and meals to survive. As long as he was in the Empire, all three of those would inevitably be under threat. If the threat dragged on, he'd eventually lose his life or get captured by the First Prince.
Even holing up tightly in Lemumni wouldn't be an exception. No matter how much Lemumni was a Labyrinth City half-independent from the Empire, it couldn't completely escape its influence.
So asylum in another empire wasn't a choice—it was a necessity.
Or so he'd thought. Until he saw Sprout's Worldization.
If I can just stay in the subspace, I can rest and sleep without any worries. Fortuna said plants grow quickly near the sacred beast, so I should be able to self-sufficiently produce food to some extent too.
If he could solve the rest, sleep, and food problems, requesting personal protection from the Church would be better than seeking asylum. Honestly, the other empires weren't places fit for human habitation.
One empire had demihumans as the mainstay of the nation, so treatment of humans was poor, and the other was a totalitarian military state with extremely severe government control and pressure. In that regard, the Britia Empire was a better country for humans to live in than any other nation in this world.
Well, as long as you didn't get involved with the nobles.
"Blue Flash, there's one thing you should know. You haven't committed any major crimes, but you've stepped quite deeply into the matter of succession to the throne. Ordinary personal protection won't be enough to protect you."
Just as expected. At the answer he'd anticipated, Jun let out a long sigh and clutched his forehead. If Leon or Leonard had been nearby, he'd have wanted to punch them.
No choice. I hate living in debt, but...
Being a little in debt would still be better than discrimination and control. Thinking that, Jun spoke.
"I'll request Special Protection Status. Ah, and have Leon and Leonard share the cost of the price with me."
He hadn't gotten permission from the parties involved, but if they'd been here, they definitely would have smiled and agreed.
Really?
Yeah, of course.
As the saying goes, debt is better the more you share it.
Well, if not, oh well.