Soft Hands and Hidden Ties
For the record, I hadn't brought any arrows with me.
I did have practice arrows, but I had no intention of using them.
Creak.
The bowstring, empty of any arrow, was drawn taut.
Having earned the recognition of the goddess Eru, I could wield holy power, and I could release that power whenever I wished.
Yellow light spilled from my fingertips. It resonated with the bow and began shaping an arrow perfectly matched to my stance.
Soon after—
Zzt. Zzt.
An arrow of pure holy power crackled into existence, spitting sparks.
Holy power arrows can only be created from nothing.
Imbuing an existing arrow with holy power was impossible. In the end, if I wanted to launch an attack of holy power, I had no choice but to form the arrow myself.
Was it like this when I took down Lutin?
Back then, merely creating one had left my body trembling. But not anymore. My total holy power must have grown enough that I could handle it now.
Holy power arrows have clear advantages—and equally clear drawbacks.
The upside was that as long as I had holy power, I could create arrows even in a place with nothing at all. And only these holy power arrows could pierce the curses of evil apostles and kill them.
The downside, though—
Zzzt. Zzt.
Still noisy as hell.
It crackled and sparked as if advertising, Hey, dodge this.
...It's somewhat manageable since I can use Stealth, but.
Unfortunately, the arrow had one more fatal flaw.
Whoosh.
I released the string. The arrow flew true and struck the scarecrow a short distance away dead center.
But—
"...How is it that it only hurts evil apostles?"
The scarecrow was completely unharmed. Not even a scratch. This holy power arrow was a terrifying weapon against evil apostles, yet utterly harmless to anything else.
I managed to keep dodging Anin's relentless invitations somehow, but training itself was unavoidable. From the moment I decided to become an apostle of the goddess, I had no intention of running from special training with Anin.
"Hah..."
I ran, and ran some more. Stamina mattered more than anything. And the faster you were, the better. Anin always said so, and honestly, he wasn't wrong. So I repeated full-speed sprints over and over.
"Why is Ceryll so damn fast?"
At first she had been running alongside me, but now she was far ahead—already several laps ahead, in fact.
Anyway, we started with running, then moved on to mock special training with Anin.
...Clearing dungeons is nice for the money, but...
The main enemies of the goddess's apostles were the evil apostles. And they—demons included—were mostly human. In the end it came down to person-versus-person combat, so mock battles with Anin were essential.
Thanks to Anin's all-rounder talent, I can get a feel for fighting people who use all kinds of weapons.
Yeah. All good.
But...
"Is that all you've got? I haven't even gotten serious yet."
Aren't you being a little too earnest against a student? And what's with looking that happy about winning?
"That's enough for today."
"Already?"
What was with Anin, the guy who normally lived for special training?
"...I've been summoned by the imperial family."
Anin added with a sigh, as if the whole thing annoyed him.
"...Even if they call me, I have no intention of revealing my identity."
Identity? What did that mean?
"We'll have to keep the special training short for a while. There might even be days when we can't train at all."
With that, Anin left.
"Reina, are you okay?"
Ceryll came scampering over to me as I lay sprawled out alone like a starfish. She had finished her mock training with Anin earlier and been waiting. She had witnessed every last one of my pathetic states.
"I'm alive."
"You worked hard."
Ceryll held out her hand. The old me would never have taken it. Not now.
Thud.
I took her hand and smiled. Once I was fully on my feet, I slipped my fingers between hers and said,
"Ceryll, your hands are soft too."
"U-uh?"
When I lifted my arm a little, her hand came with it. I brought our joined hands up in front of my face and pressed my palm flat against hers.
"Just... I thought you have long, pretty fingers."
Was it the height difference? Comparing them like this, I could clearly feel that Ceryll's hands were bigger than mine.
"I-is that so?"
Ceryll reacted as if somehow embarrassed. I nodded.
"Yeah. They'd look good with a ring or something later."
"A-a ring..."
Her face suddenly flushed red.
What? Did she hate rings? Some people found accessories uncomfortable, so it wasn't that strange.
"...I'm not forcing you to wear one. Just saying it seems like it would suit you."
Whoosh.
Ceryll suddenly pulled my hand toward her chest. A soft sensation pressed against my palm.
"No. I want to wear one."
From her reaction, she clearly didn't hate the idea.
"S-so... later, let's get matching ones."
Matching?
Is she talking about friendship rings?
Back in my school days I had vaguely heard that close girl friends sometimes got matching friendship rings or necklaces. Maybe Ceryll wanted something like that.
We are close, after all.
I didn't particularly like wearing accessories, but if it was matching ones with Ceryll, it wasn't bad.
"Okay."
"It's a promise!"
"Yeah."
Ceryll beamed. Seeing that smile, I felt my heart ease. It was strange. I had always lived a life full of anxiety. Solitude was familiar, and I hated it when someone spoke to me or approached. I had thought I would live alone forever—and that was fine.
But.
Maybe this is what I've been wishing for all along.
I wanted to keep living like this with Ceryll. That was my wish now.
Therefore—
...I should look into whether Ceryll has any connection to the fall of the Reina family after all.
I wanted to eliminate any sources of anxiety as much as possible. Honestly, whether the Reina family had fallen or not had little to do with me. But Ceryll might be different. She probably didn't know much about the incident, just like me. What if she learned the truth?
She'd definitely have a huge mental breakdown.
The relationship we had built so far might collapse.
I don't want that.
To prevent such a situation, I had to find the connection between Ceryll and the Reina family. I needed to know what had happened so I could prepare for any contingencies.
Since it concerned the Reina family, asking Reina's parents would be the easiest route. So I spent a considerable sum to use a communication magic orb and tried contacting them.
The connection went through.
But—
"I thought we agreed to cut ties with the family once you went to the academy."
Beep. Beep.
With that, the call cut off. I tried again, but they wouldn't pick up anymore.
"...Cut ties with the family."
Just as the Original Protagonist had said, I could feel how thoroughly they hated Reina. In the end, learning anything from the parents was a failure.
So next I decided to ask other nobles. Fortunately, this academy was full of noble children.
"The reason your family fell? You don't know that? It was for treason against the imperial family."
Treason against the imperial family. It seemed unrelated to Ceryll at first glance, but it wasn't. Ceryll had deep ties to the imperial family. So I was about to accept the slap girl's words.
But—
"Huh? I heard it was because they scammed other nobles."
"What are you talking about? Actually they were commoners pretending to be nobles and got found out."
"Wasn't it because a collateral relative committed high treason?"
Every noble said something different, leaving me more confused than before.
What?
Not a single person gave the same reason. At this rate, it was safe to say none of them knew the real one.
In the end, the last person I went to was none other than the Original Protagonist.
"Reina, what's up?"
Since it was about the Reina family, the one holding the key was probably Reina herself. But with me possessing her body, communicating with the original Reina was impossible. That left me no choice but to ask the Original Protagonist, who seemed to know her better than anyone.
...If it was Reina, she probably told the Original Protagonist everything.
So I asked. And the answer I received was—
"I don't know?"
"You don't know?"
"I asked you over and over, but you never answered."
Reina had kept it secret even from the Original Protagonist? Impossible!
"R-really?"
"Yeah. You said you don't remember. You don't know what happened. You just kept saying stuff like that."
Don't remember?
"Ah, still."
"Still?"
I stared at him. He averted his gaze as if he really didn't want to continue. What. Spit it out to the end. When I kept staring, he reluctantly opened his mouth.
"...It is related to Lady Ceryll, though."
Huh?
"She said so herself."
Herself...
"...You mean I said that?"
"No. I heard it from Lady Ceryll."
From Ceryll? No—more than that, had Ceryll even spoken with the Original Protagonist before? When had they had that conversation?
"It was a long time ago, so I don't remember exactly what she said."
I had assumed Ceryll knew nothing. But that wasn't the case. Whatever conversation she had shared with the Original Protagonist, Ceryll was aware that she was involved.
It was a needless worry.
Ceryll knew the whole situation and still chose to get close to me. In other words, even if she was connected to the fall of the Reina family, it wasn't a major obstacle.
"Ah. There's Ceryll."
As I was walking, I spotted Ceryll with the slap girl.
"Ah."
The slap girl noticed my presence and made a sound. Perhaps because of her voice, Ceryll turned toward me. Thanks to that, I could face her directly—and so I saw it clearly.
Ceryll's face turning deathly pale, like someone seized by pure terror.
"Ceryll."
I strode toward her. I was going to ask what had happened. But before I could—
"I'm sorry."
Ceryll said those words and fled from the spot.
Huh?