Where Shall I Sit, Grandmother?
Roslyn alone looked more than capable of handling the assassins. The intensity rolling off her was staggering — the killers had actually frozen for a moment, watching their captain get beaten to a pulp. They snapped out of it soon enough, though, and charged straight at her.
"Get off her!"
I called out at once.
"Yuis."
Yuis let out a sigh and dumped Ross on the ground. Black script unfurled from the tips of his feet — and then the characters became chains, binding the assassins where they stood.
"Ghk!"
"Gahk...!"
Roslyn, who had been pounding the assassin captain like she meant to kill him, paused mid-swing.
"Huh...?"
I said to her,
"I think that's enough. You can step back now."
Five of the captain's teeth lay scattered across the ground. Only then did Roslyn go, "Ah..." and withdraw, looking almost shy about it.
Ross covered his eyes with both hands.
"It's not the mana disease that's going to kill me — it's you! I can't live like this...!"
...And so Roslyn hoisted Ross under one arm. Meanwhile, the assassins' faces flushed a bursting red. They were being choked; the oxygen was running out.
Yuis spoke up.
"Let's not overdo it. I need to conserve mana on this end."
That was why someone of Yuis's caliber had simply turned and run. There was no telling how much mana treating the mana disease would take.
I pulled out a communication crystal and opened a channel. The recipient was Antonio, standing by near the tavern.
"Please come to the tavern."
"Yeah, miss."
There were roughly a dozen assassins. That number didn't stand a chance against two of Irregular's elites. The message was simple: wrap this up.
After cleaning up the tavern, we returned to Esgard's Second Manor. From his perch on Roslyn's shoulder, Ross looked around the estate with keen interest.
"Noble mansions really are something. They've got every magitech device you could think of. Think I could take that one apart?"
"Want me to take you apart, big brother?"
Ross shut his mouth at once.
I brought the siblings to the room Mother used to use and laid Ross on the bed.
"I'm going to roll up your pant leg."
"It's going to be an ugly sight."
"It's fine."
I said so and rolled the fabric up. Hidden beneath the trousers, it was worse than I had imagined. The leg had rotted black, and it was bent at a grotesque angle besides.
Ross said,
"It doesn't matter if it can't be treated. I never expected it to work in the first place..."
While he was still talking, I took hold of the Botella and set my hand on his leg. Healthy flesh began to bloom from where my palm rested.
"...!"
"...?!"
Ross and Roslyn's eyes nearly popped out of their heads. The pitch-black leg was slowly returning to what it was meant to be.
That was when Yuis caught my arm.
"Look at the Botella."
It was completely empty. Beads of sweat had gathered on my forehead.
I'll have to do this in several sessions.
Even draining the Botella dry, healing a single leg was difficult.
Are they disappointed?
I looked at the siblings. Their reaction was nothing like what I had expected.
Roslyn touched Ross's leg with a trembling hand.
"C-can you feel that?"
"..."
"I asked if you can feel it."
"...Yeah."
Ross's eyes crumpled. It didn't look like pain, or disappointment. It looked like a man trying to hold back a feeling too large to name.
Roslyn clamped a hand over her mouth. Tears streamed down without pause. She sank to the floor and barely managed to find her voice.
"Thank you... thank you... Truly... thank you, Saintess..."
She seemed overwhelmed by the hope of it — that the mana disease could be fully cured, that he might actually live. I smiled.
"We'll need to split the treatment into several sessions. Stay at the Second Manor in the meantime. If you go back to the tavern, the assassins will come after you."
"W-will that be all right?"
"Yes. And about the treatment fee."
"Ah!"
Roslyn hurriedly pulled out a cloth pouch and held it out to me. Inside were Zavid's seal and several high-quality diamonds.
"This is everything we own. If it's not enough, I'll spend the rest of my life paying you back."
"If you're going to stake your whole life on it anyway, why not just give me your lives?"
"Our lives...?"
"Work at the Magic Tower."
I said it with a bright little grin, and both siblings flinched. Roslyn stared at me with startled eyes, then seemed to understand. She nodded with grim resolve.
"So we're raiding the Magic Tower. I'll do it."
"No, no. You don't need to be that dramatic."
"Then...?"
"I'd like Roslyn to join the Magic Tower's guard, and Ross to become a Magic Tower mage. As my people, that is."
"What do you mean...?"
"You'll enter through the official route."
Which is to say...
Antonio came through the door pulling a cart. The cart was packed to the brim with books. I smiled sweetly.
"It means you start by studying for the written exam."
"...?!"
"...!!"
The siblings jolted.
In the room I had given Ross, the window looked out on Roslyn hunched over a bench, groaning her way through a stack of books. Ross leaned against the headboard and watched her without end.
I hung the Botella — freshly filled with Yuis's mana — around my neck and asked,
"Do you enjoy watching Roslyn study that much?"
"Hardly. It's just strange. That kid's never studied a day in her life."
Ross cleared his throat and looked at me.
"But why did you choose us? If it were me, I wouldn't have trusted someone who worked as a Geum-sul practitioner."
"Because of the mana disease."
"...Pardon?"
"Mana disease can be treated in its early stages, can't it? The fact that you didn't get it treated... I figured there must have been something more important than treatment."
"..."
"Roslyn, right?"
"..."
Ross looked quietly down at his own hands.
"Treating mana disease costs a fortune, and as long as I kept using Geum-sul, it would just keep coming back. Seemed like a waste."
"It must have been agonizing."
"If I could just endure that, I could help Roslyn find her dream and put together a dowry for her. So that even if I died, she could find a new family."
Ross smiled, bitter and thin.
"I don't hesitate to break the law when things get desperate. But Roslyn is a genuinely good kid."
"..."
"She got arrested at the martial arts tournament because Count Gareka was assaulting a woman."
"..."
"Since you've shown her such kindness, that kid will follow you until the day she dies. You've gained an excellent pair of hands. I guarantee it."
"Two of them, actually."
"...Pardon?"
"From where I'm standing, that includes you too, Ross."
Ross's eyes trembled, just slightly. I smiled.
"There were no casualties in the monstrous bird incident. When I looked into it, I heard a handsome man in a wheelchair went around treating people with everything he had."
"..."
"With the mana disease that far along, it must have felt like dying. That's why I believe you genuinely wanted to save those people."
"..."
"Putting your sister ahead of the fear of death... that kind of heart is something I respect."
Ross lowered his head, his eyes bright with unshed tears.
"Meeting you, Saintess, is the greatest fortune of my nineteen years of life."
"...?"
"Why that look?"
"Nineteen...?"
"...How old did you think I was?"
Sorry. I thought he was around the same age as the vice-guildmaster. ...Late twenties.
"W-well, with the illness, I suppose I look a bit older. Ah, but once I recover, it'll come back, so don't worry...!"
"This was my face even before that."
"...Yuis, is the tea ready yet?"
I got up a little too smoothly and headed for the door. Ross stuck out his lower lip and grumbled.
"Nineteen. Four years older than you, miss. Please remember that. We'll be seeing each other for the rest of our lives, after all."
I let out an awkward little laugh.
Ross could walk within two days. The treatment wasn't the problem. The problem was...
"I'm telling you, why would you use Corte for this formula? Does that make any sense? Vega is far more efficient than Corte! These idiot magitech engineers!"
Every time he turned a page, he suffered aloud at the stupidity of every magitech engineer who had come before him. Roslyn, who had been sitting by his bed reading, looked up with hollow eyes.
"Shut up. Please."
"Look. Connecting the circuit with a Corte formula is easy, sure, but it makes it hard to conserve thermal energy."
"If you want to keep breathing, big brother, shut it."
"..."
I supposed studying was hard even when you were too intelligent for the material. I held out cups to the siblings with a look of genuine pity. Ross took his with a bright face.
"You're the only one who thinks of me, Saintess. Is this tea?"
"Coffee. So you don't fall asleep."
"..."
"If it gets too hard, I'll restore you."
"..."
Roslyn's eyes went wide. She wrapped both hands around the cup.
"I'll show you just how long a person can go without sleep."
That was the spirit. The Magic Tower exams weren't far off — they needed to work hard. That was what I was thinking when hurried footsteps sounded outside, followed by a pounding on the door.
Yuis opened it. A butler whose face had gone sallow said,
"Orders have come down to escort the young lady to a tea party at the First Manor."
Esgard's First Manor? The moment those words left his mouth, every face in the room went still. There was only one person at the First Manor who could issue an order like that.
The Duchess.
Antonio shot to his feet.
"Has she lost her mind?!"
The reason she would summon me to a tea party was obvious. She meant to use me — the Saintess — for all I was worth.
Yuis frowned.
"We should inform His Lordship."
He meant I should ask Dad for help. But Dad was busy right now. And if he handled it from his end, the tea party guests would take it as a snub and nurse the grudge for years.
"Prepare the carriage."
I said it firmly, and Yuis and Antonio both sighed. Roslyn rose in a rustle of movement.
"I... shall I come along? I believe I could be of help."
"Have you ever served at a tea party?"
"No. If things get dangerous, I was going to break the Duchess's legs."
"..."
I fell silent. Yuis eyed Roslyn — who was smiling, almost shyly — as if she were some new species of creature, then whispered to me.
"She's almost at Antonio's level."
I smiled, kindly.
"...That's some impressive intensity, but I'll be fine."
With that, I left the room. Yuis and Antonio would serve as my escort. The carriage ran hard for the First Manor. It wasn't far; we arrived at the carriage stand in under an hour.
The First Manor's servants bent at the waist the moment they saw me.
"This way, please."
And so we were led toward the garden.
The Second Manor is a fine place, but it can't match the grandeur of the First.
It was winter, and we were outdoors, and yet the air was warm. You could feel the madness of money in it. I walked, taking in the garden as I went. Yuis whispered,
"Will you be all right?"
"Yeah."
He looked worried. He seemed to think I was about to be put in a very difficult position. Everyone else had probably assumed the same — especially the Duchess, watching me from across the garden with that arrogant look in her eyes.
The moment you granted one person's request, you had to grant the next. You did it for this house — why not ours? Feelings would be hurt. The houses you refused would become enemies.
More than anything, the Imperial Palace and the Temple won't like it.
A Saintess wielding her powers however she pleased. Anyone looking on would decide she needed to be reined in. And if the Palace and the Temple moved to control me, Kuaron would see none of the benefit of keeping a Saintess in the house.
That's what the Duchess is after.
When we reached the party grounds — tables everywhere — the Duchess smiled.
"You've come."
"I greet the mother of House Esgard."
I spread my skirt and curtsied, and the noble ladies tittered.
A ladies-only party today, then.
Most of the faces were ones I knew.
"Your posture is as lovely as ever."
"It's been a while, Yustea. Ah — should I be calling you Saintess now?"
The ladies offered a few words of welcome that doubled as greetings. Then they pointed to the seats beside them.
"Come sit here."
"No, it's windy over there. This side would be better."
"This seat has a better view of the flowers."
Yuis's expression turned cold. The moment to pick a side had already arrived. The Duchess lifted her teacup to hide the smile climbing into the corners of her mouth.
I moved slowly. And then...
"...!"
I said it loud enough for everyone to hear, while making a show of whispering it to the Duchess.
I'll hand you the choice.
I smiled brightly. The Duchess bit down on her lip. If she assigned me a seat, the resentment would be hers to carry. I had even used the word Grandmother on purpose. She was Dad's stepmother; there was nothing strange about me addressing her that way. Which meant this:
It isn't that the Saintess and Kuaron lack the standing to outrank the Duchess. I'm showing the courtesy due a grandmother.
The older ladies couldn't help but find that charming.
"What shall I do, Grandmother?"
"...Sit beside me."
I thought as much. If you didn't want to disappoint anyone else, that was the only answer. The Duchess turned her head, her face stiff. I smiled and took the seat beside her.
Socializing is hard, isn't it?
She had grown up basking in the late Emperor's favor and become the Duchess of Esgard. She had never been in a position where she needed to win people over. But now that a rival to her own son had appeared, the game had changed. She had to gather power from wherever she could find it — and high society existed for exactly that.
Sorry, but I'm a step above you when it comes to social warfare.
I had been in these rooms since I was small. And on top of that...
"It's been a while, Yustea."
"I beg your pardon. And you are...?"
"Maria of House Negrot. You don't remember me."
"I'm so sorry! I did remember you — you simply looked so young I thought you were your daughter! How mortifying!"
"Oh my, listen to this child!"
I had even picked up the shopping-district salon madams' passive skill: the Art of Fantastical Flattery. Marchioness Negrot burst into an ohoho! of laughter.
"You've gotten even cuter since I last saw you."
Yuis turned his head to hide a laugh. The Duchess stared at me as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. I smiled.
"Thank you for arranging this gathering."
It would have been difficult for me to seek these people out myself. They would have said I was using a Saintess's gifts to line my own pockets. But this? This looked like I had been dragged here against my will by the Duchess. A perfect chance to win the ladies over.
I set about buying their hearts with genuine enthusiasm. When Countess Maas smiled and said,
"I heard you greatly pleased His Majesty at the Year-End Festival?"
"That's all thanks to what I learned from your son, the heir of House Maas."
"And what exactly did my son do for you...?"
"He gave a guest lecture at the Academy emphasizing diplomacy. I admired him so deeply that I've been following his teachings ever since."
"Oh my."
I made her beam. And when Countess Deramada sat there looking thoroughly unimpressed...
"Have you heard about the bard Davila getting grabbed by the hair by a certain count who used to sponsor him?"
"...By the hair?"
"Yes. Apparently the son born to a certain count's house was actually the bard's child..."
"So they caught the wife red-handed having an affair!"
"They didn't catch them in the act — a certain count had azoospermia..."
"Whaaat—?!"
Gossip to rival a morning drama. I had her snorting with excitement before she knew it. The atmosphere was wonderfully warm.
"My, I had no idea time was flying."
"Having a young one around makes everything so lively."
"How does she make conversation so entertaining?"
Everyone was in excellent spirits. The only person sitting there frozen solid was the Duchess. She was just narrowing her eyes when a man who appeared to be a butler approached her.
"A guest has arrived."
There's another guest?
A smile returned to the Duchess's face.
"Show them in."
And when I saw who the butler had brought, I had to swallow a hollow laugh. Because the person who had stepped into the garden was someone I knew all too well.
...First Prince Yohael.