The Goddess
Lately, a certain thought kept nagging at me.
Ever since I got transmigrated, weird people just kept showing up around me.
Of course, once I'd decided to get involved with Lucia, there was no helping it.
None of this is my fault, apparently.
This is the world's fault.
Something is seriously wrong with this world!
And honestly, I had good reason to think so.
The moment I entered through the front door, there she was — a blue-haired woman, unconscious on the floor.
Instructor Rihel.
I had absolutely no idea why this woman was here.
And why is the door open?
Unless Rihel had opened it herself, the mana shockwave from my spell had probably blown it wide. Was I so focused on saving the elf that I'd lost control of it?
...No. There's no way it would've opened from just that.
If the door had been shut properly, it would have splintered off its hinges long before swinging open like that. Which meant Lucia hadn't closed it all the way.
Hmm.
So the door had been left ajar. It didn't quite sit right with me, but it was the only explanation I could come up with on the spot.
Besides, there was no time to agonize over it — I had a situation to deal with right now.
"...Killing her would turn into a hassle."
Lucia gazed down at Rihel and said it with complete seriousness.
Is it killing-her-time just because she walked into the room? That's a slightly terrifying line of thinking.
Rihel had witnessed me reviving an elf in a state of emergency.
"...I see."
Lucia closed her eyes, looking like she was steeling herself for something.
Then she opened them again.
"Understood. I'll follow your will, Master."
No idea why the atmosphere got so grave, but if she was going along with me, I was nothing but grateful.
So, now I need an actual plan.
I'd just tried to whip up a memory-erasing spell from scratch, but...
...I failed, didn't I?
Now what on earth do I do?
Just as I was wrestling with this life-or-death dilemma—
-Glub-glub-bubble...
A strange sound came from the invisible bathtub I was leaning against.
What now?
Lucia must have sensed it too, because she turned around.
I wondered what the noise was, and then I saw it.
The elf's head was still shoved underwater in the invisible tub.
-Glub! Glub-glub-glub!
She'd been holding her breath this whole time, and her limit had finally arrived.
Oh dear.
I yanked her out of the water immediately.
"Khahak! Kehk! Kuhk!"
She'd tried to breathe and swallowed a mouthful of water instead — every cough sent more of it spilling out of her mouth.
I saw through the elf's body and inspected her insides.
Her throat — no, her lungs were flooded.
-Trickle trickle!
I used telekinesis to draw every last drop of water out of her.
...Sorry about that.
She kept coughing for a good while after before finally calming down.
"Haa... haa..."
As she caught her breath, she looked up at me with dead, hollow eyes.
She'd swallowed quite a lot of water, so I was just checking in.
"I-I'm fine... but, but me, me from now on, I'll be good, I'll obey. Okay? I, I... I can't run away anyway. So can't you just stop now...?"
Even while gasping for air, she hurried the words out in a frantic rush.
Her green eyes were brimming over with pure terror.
What exactly did I do to her?
I thought carefully back through my actions.
One. I revived the elf. In a somewhat violent manner.
That one's fine.
That's simply how elves are meant to be handled.
Two. I made her drink water for an extended, continuous period — flagrantly violating a doctor's orders to sip water in small amounts.
That's it.
I'd forced her into something bad for her health, so naturally she was worried. Make no mistake — an elf is an elderly creature. She's at exactly the age when one takes one's health very seriously.
"—No mistakes! I won't make any! So please, just stop... okay?"
She cut me off with something completely nonsensical.
I was the one saying I'd be careful.
Is she really that sensitive about her health?
Fun fact: elves become extremely, extremely health-conscious in their old age.
Learn something new every day.
Anyway.
"A-Ahh..."
Hearing that, the tension seemed to drain out of her body entirely; she let out a low moan and collapsed face-down onto the floor.
"B-but. Um. Who's the girl over there by the door...?"
A blue-haired woman in a uniform that mixed black and red in a rather stylish way — Rihel.
"...You're not planning to... deal with her, are you?"
The elf seemed to grow anxious, forcing herself up onto her arms.
I couldn't exactly leave her lying there.
"Is it because she saw what just happened? Are you worried she'll spread word of what you two really are?"
"In that case, I have a way. Leave that child be for a moment — could you lend me some of your mana?"
Both Lucia and I had somehow forgotten this, but the elf was, surprisingly, a creature of legend. One that stood shoulder to shoulder with dragons, no less.
...Though I have my doubts now.
Still, there was no question that she was a species of tremendous power.
"Okay. Got it."
Legs trembling like a newborn fawn, the elf shuffled over to where Rihel lay. She knelt down beside the woman's head, spread her mana out, and opened her mouth.
"—Rewind Memory."
As the elf intoned the cringe-worthy incantation, she pressed her hand to Rihel's forehead.
"Rewind Memory"
⟨ Rewind Memory ⟩
A light as bright as sunlight spread through the room.
"I can erase portions of a human's memory selectively. It's a technique passed down through my family line for generations... though I'll admit, it was never very efficient."
The light flared and scattered even more violently, and mana began pouring out of my body in torrents.
It felt like having a hose jammed into my sparrow body, my strength siphoned off sip by sip.
This is bad. Done wrong, I'm the one who's going to collapse.
For now, I kept watching the elf work.
"...Your mana is so dense, this is far easier than usual. Now, let's take stock of this child's memories."
With those words, the elf closed her eyes, and her face gradually scrunched up.
"I don't know why, but this child is terrified of Lucia."
"How should I put it — more precisely, it's a fear of the unknown. Either way, it's something very much like that... Ugh. My head aches a little."
Several minutes passed like that.
By the time I'd burned through roughly half my mana, the elf spoke up again.
"All ready. Now — exactly which memories do you want erased?"
I thought for a moment.
Erasing only her memories of us would be pointless.
Rihel must have had a reason to come all the way to our dormitory. I'd love for it to have been pure coincidence, but...
She probably sensed my mana.
I'd been so focused on saving the elf just now that I hadn't paid any attention to how far my mana was spreading.
If Rihel had happened to be passing nearby, it wouldn't be strange at all that she'd tracked it here.
Therefore:
"Yes. Up to a point, I can manage that."
There was a deliberate reason I'd picked Veronica.
After the herb-obsessed cadet had decked her professor, Rihel had stayed behind to watch the remaining sparring matches — and she'd paid especially close attention to Veronica's bout.
Don't know why, exactly, but it felt like Veronica had practiced more than in the original story.
Veronica's mastery of the Mana Bullet was noticeably higher than the girl from the original work. That was probably why Rihel had watched her so intently.
Which means this fabricated memory will fit together perfectly.
Just as I finished that thought, an intense light burst from the elf's fingertips.
Whoa, that's bright.
One more second of staring and I was certain I'd lose my eyesight for good.
I threw up a protective barrier, wrapping it around the elf and Instructor Rihel.
Eye health is important.
Okay, that's better.
Another few minutes ticked by.
"Done."
Hearing the elf's word, I dropped the barrier.
"Thanks. But my eyes sting a little, so... could you take me back to the portal?"
The elf asked while squinting toward where Lucia's shoulder was. Apparently she couldn't see.
She'd earned it today, so I floated her up with telekinesis and flew her straight to the wardrobe myself.
But man, I'm nearly out of mana.
Maybe that's just how memory magic worked — less than a tenth of my reserves remained.
It took ages to cast, drained my mana like a leech... clearly not something I could use at the drop of a hat.
Shame.
Still, a job's a job.
I floated Instructor Rihel gently up into the air and set her down on a bench near the dormitory.
Naturally, I'd confirmed there wasn't a soul around first.
...She's going to wake up fine, right? The memory wiped properly?
A little on edge, I waited for Rihel to stir.
About ten minutes later.
"..."
Her eyes fluttered open, and she murmured something under her breath.
It was soft enough that anyone sitting right beside her would have missed it — but the ears of a mana-tuned sparrow are exceptionally sharp.
"...Why am I here?"
She rose from the bench, scanning her surroundings.
You useless long-eared—!
Did that mana-hogging pointy-eared leech botch the memory wipe?
Even as I was cursing that useless floppy-eared freeloader from the bottom of my heart—
"...Was I trying to see Veronica? Seems I came to the wrong dormitory."
Rihel murmured quietly to herself and walked away.
Proceed as scheduled.
Just like that, she was on her way to Veronica.
In the dark hours before dawn, a blonde girl in a nun's habit slipped carefully out of the Holy Cathedral.
The blind Saintess, Celiel.
Under normal circumstances, even a simple stroll would have seen her flanked by dozens of Holy Knights — but at this hour, and this hour alone, she was free to move alone.
The girl stared out toward the forest with her grey, clouded eyes.
It's frightening... but I have to go.
Summoning her courage as she did every day, she took her first step.
One step, then another.
Muttering the route she'd committed so painstakingly to memory, she made her way across the forest—
-Rustle.
"...!"
She flinched and turned toward the thicket the sound had come from.
At first, she could see nothing at all. The terrible curse upon her allowed only grey to enter her eyes.
But Celiel did not see the world through her eyes.
-Saaaaa.
Holy power gathered and took form, and she felt that shape clearly.
...Hmm. It feels like a small animal coming closer.
A creature about the size of a fist crept toward her, little by little.
Celiel reached out and stroked it.
"Oh, is that you, my squirrel friend? I'm sorry, but I'm busy today. I promise I'll pet you extra hard next time, so let's play until here for now, alright?"
Setting her regret aside, she pressed on.
The sisters must have noticed I'm gone by now.
She truly had to reach the end of this today — to finally uncover the identity of that unplaceable presence she'd felt ever since the entrance ceremony.
It should be... this way.
Celiel had begun wandering the forest starting the very day after the entrance ceremony.
Again and again, in every corner of the Academy, she'd sensed that familiar presence.
That was unmistakably... the Goddess's.
Ordinarily, she never would have chased a presence to the point of sneaking out of the Cathedral like this.
But for the past three months, Celiel's communion with the Goddess had been severed.
There had been times, long ago, when the Goddess vanished for a month or so. But never — not once — had she been gone this long.
Could that presence... be connected to the Goddess?
She had followed a pressure that felt somehow different from holy power itself, and at last, Celiel arrived in front of a building.
This is...
She paused and focused on the mana around her.
Judging by the average level of the mana here — a building used by the first-years.
I came the right way, then.
The dormitory block where Halls 1 and 2 of the first-year dormitories stood together. She had gone exactly the direction she'd intended.
The sisters were always slandering her — "Our Saintess couldn't find her way out of a paper bag," they'd say — but the truth was quite otherwise.
As it happens, I seem to have quite the talent for finding my way.
In any case — now was the moment to finally uncover what that presence really was.
-Srrrrrk.
Celiel felt the presence once more.
Unmistakably stronger than before.
...This is certain, then.
She fixed the approximate direction the presence was drifting from. Somewhere quite high up in the Hall 2 building, it seemed.
The fourth floor? Or perhaps the fifth?
The moment she realized it, Celiel's heart began to pound.
This was a dormitory where cadets lived.
Could there be someone else besides me... someone else chosen by the Goddess?
What sort of person would they be?
Cradling a small thread of hope, she turned back toward the forest.
She could find the place now whenever she wished, so there was no need to rush.
It was definitely... this direction, wasn't it? Hehe. I'm very good at finding my way.
Celiel pressed steadily onward, into the forest.
After sunrise, the Academy hummed with Monday-morning bustle.
Part of it was because today was the day of the written exams — but not all of it.
The Saintess had vanished.
The announcement echoed from the magic loudspeakers stationed all across the grounds.
My mood thoroughly soured, I perched on the window frame.
What's all the racket first thing in the morning?
Grouching to myself, I cracked the window open just a little. I wanted a bit of fresh air to clear my head.
-Saaaaa.
A strange presence brushed against me from somewhere near the dormitory.
That's not mana.
I closed my eyes and concentrated.
A presence I had never once felt before — bizarre, and yet somehow warm and comforting.
...Holy power?
In that instant, several pieces of information clicked together in my head.
Don't tell me — did the Saintess leave that behind?