The Girl Who Was No Longer a Villainess Is Terribly Clumsy
The girl who was no longer a villainess was terribly clumsy.
The next morning.
The first thing that greeted me when I opened my eyes was a water cup being poured from the sky.
As I got up from my seat, pondering the feeling of touching the taut string hanging in the air, it poured down on my head.
This must be some device installed by someone.
I fumbled in my half-asleep mind to catch the cup falling from the air.
Then the door opened, and a chubby-cheeked little one came in with a sleepy voice.
“Hwaang, boring~”
“Hello little one. Did you sleep well?”
“I’m not a little one, I’m Tina.”
“Yeah, Tina. What a fun prank. I almost got soaked from head to toe from the morning.”
“I’ll definitely succeed next time!”
After Tina disappeared somewhere while blinking, I headed to the living room.
In the living room, Elysia and Lucia were already busily preparing breakfast.
“Sister. Did you get your morning spirits? I’ll watch Tina. If it’s still early, I’ll come back!”
“Yeah… thanks…”
“Sister! This too, right? After washing it?”
“No. It’s fine. Today you’re not in charge of cleaning.”
“You have to do at least this much! Ah, by the way, the courtyard cleaning is all done, so don’t worry about it!”
“Huh? Ah, yeah. Thanks…?”
Elysia bustling about here and there, lively.
And Lucia standing in the middle of the living room, watching Elysia with a bewildered expression.
Just as Lucia noticed me and came running.
“Is it… what did you two do yesterday?”
“Do what… nothing?”
If someone heard, they’d misunderstand.
“Um… but why is Ria smiling so gently from the morning? She usually doesn’t wake up this early, but today she got up from the crack of dawn and did something not even her duty… she looks like a child who got her wish granted.”
Lucia touched her cheek, watching Elysia with suspicious eyes and on the other hand, worried ones.
I couldn’t say anything. The only thing I didn’t do besides walking was nothing.
After Elysia heard that I was settling in this city yesterday, she had been like this ever since.
Was there something wrong?
Every time that happened, the phrase “10 years and 132 days and 3 hours” started to ring sharply in my ears.
I don’t know. It’s scary to think. Just pretend not to know.
My throat started to burn a bit, so I gulped down the cold water Tina had tried to pour on me.
“Ah, Gray. Do you have some time today?”
“Time?”
“Actually, I need to pick up a few things from the Ragnea Temple in the south of the city a few days from now for the joint ceremony.”
“Isn’t the Astasia Temple usually this busy? We did a tour yesterday.”
“Our parish is especially large. Our guy makes a lot of work for us.”
“Yeah, Bishop Boris was like that even 10 years ago.”
“So, originally I was thinking of sending Ria alone…”
“You sound worried.”
“If the state is like this, of course.”
“I understand. I’ll go with you. Can we go now?”
To my answer, Lucia smiled faintly and said to Elysia.
“Ria, did you hear? Stop cleaning and come back quickly.”
Paaan…
I don’t know when she started eavesdropping, but Elysia jumped in surprise and turned her gaze.
Ppok… ppok…
I wonder if she knew that she had been wiping the same spot with a dry cloth for several minutes.
She was wiping with the momentum to erase it completely.
“You seem embarrassed.”
“… Really?”
“By the way, since Gray is going, I can bring this too. Ria, bring this with you.”
“……….”
“……… Ria?”
“Huh? Ah! Ah! Yeah. That, I’ll carry it.”
Ria hurriedly hid her slightly flushed face and tidied the mop.
I didn’t really need to prepare for the outing.
After I went out first and waited, Elysia appeared a while later dressed in her priestess robes.
She was carrying a package in her hand.
“What is this?”
“Um… if I say it’s a gift, is that okay? Since we’re visiting another church, as a courtesy, there are offerings to the deity… and some food to give to the priests there.”
Elysia answered in a much more excited tone than yesterday.
“Yeah? Can I offer to other gods besides Astasia?”
“Of course. Astasia doesn’t care about that. And the temple we’re going to is the temple of the Goddess of Struggle, Ragnea.”
“Ragnea…?”
“According to myth, Astasia is deeply acquainted with Ragne. So the churches have a lot of exchange.”
Acquainted?
Astasia with Ragne?
I had heard the name in passing, but it didn’t seem particularly close…
I tilted my head and asked inwardly.
The party’s reaction was immediate.
Close? She’s not close to that enemy at all, she’s someone to hate. Stop it. If the news that this offering was delivered through you reaches that guy’s ears......
No matter where Ragnea lives or what kind of god she is, it seems she not only dislikes but hates her.
Astasia’s misfortune is my happiness.
So, to take this step further, I had no choice but to hand over this gift to the other church to deliver to Ragnea.
This is a small revenge towards the goddess who tormented me with covenants.
I snatched Elysia’s gift and took it. Elysia, whose package was stolen, panicked.
“Ah, it’s fine, I’ll take that!”
“It’s okay. Going empty-handed is weird.”
“Still, that thing is heavier than I thought. I’ll take it. Give it here. Yeah?”
“Since it’s heavy, I’ll carry it.”
“……… U… uh?”
Elysia looked surprised.
“Wait… was this helping me?!”
“Then why would I help if it’s hard.”
“……… Really?”
Mmm…
No matter what I answered, Elysia looked embarrassed as if hit hard on the head, awkwardly fiddling with her fingers.
“……… Waa. So you were conscious enough to help carry the luggage…”
“…… What?”
“What to do. The smile won’t stop… Gray is much kinder than I thought.”
… What kind of relationship is it that I don’t even want to carry the luggage.
I kept my mouth shut and observed Elysia.
By the way, her personality has changed a lot.
In the past, when Elysia was the ‘villainess of Cadeliz’, she was at a level that didn’t even reach an older sister.
Even 10 years ago, it was hard to expect the cute emotional expression like just now from her.
Although it was also due to the situation surrounding Elysia at that time, simply thinking about it, recalling the current appearance from 10 years ago was somewhat disconnected.
Well… even if her personality changed while I wasn’t looking, it’s not strange, but I soon realized that it was only a part of what I knew.
“Wow! It’s the pretty priestess from Astasia Goddess’s temple!”
While crossing the riverbank leading south slowly, about a dozen children poured out from the field full of weeds.
“Priestess! Priestess! Hello!”
“Priestess! I prayed to Astasia with the star-shaped pendant you gave yesterday! Is this the correct way to deliver it to Astasia?”
“I learned the constellations too! These guys just pretend to pray, you know?”
They seemed like someone, but it turned out they were the orphans who visited the temple for a tour yesterday.
They rushed in all at once and surrounded Elysia, chirping like baby birds, and behind them, a middle-aged woman appeared.
“Oh my… I thought the children suddenly got noisy, but it was Priestess Ria.”
“Oh, hello, Director. Thank you yesterday. I hope you had a good night?”
To lessen the misunderstanding, the greeting just now was a strangely polite, dignified, with clear distance but feeling of closeness, calm yet mature natural greeting that flowed from Elysia’s mouth.
It was so natural, the northern noble accent was slightly elegant but almost no emotional fluctuation.
The appearance of chirping cutely alone just now was gone, leaving only a faint smile, and she was treating the director as if harmoniously mixing the somewhere between sacred priestess and noble aristocrat.
“Everyone is lively from the morning.”
“Sigh! As the priestess knows, this is daily life. It’s tiring, right?”
“No, it’s nice to see.”
“Thank you for understanding. But… the person next to you… is it a new apprentice priest who just arrived?”
The director asked while looking at me.
I wanted to say ‘tongue biting death if calling me apprentice priest when I’m Astasia’s priest’, but I didn’t open my mouth rashly even for the surrounding children.
“…… Ah, um? Th… that… Gray is… um… I… I… so…”
The answer was given by Elysia.
But the problem was that the one who had been very avant-garde until just now was stuttering in agitation.
“Oh… sorry. Are you friends?”
“Ch… close? Yeah?”
“The Ria priestess who is always calm and speaks little, seeing her like this for the first time. I was worried since she always goes alone, but there is a friend.”
“Friend… you mean? Me and Gray?”
“Huhu, the priestess’s age is way past playing age. Serving Astasia is good, but you have to do what you have to do.”
“Ah, a, a, a, a, a, no! I’m not that close to Gray to that extent…”
Elysia, losing her composure and panicking, looked completely unfamiliar to the children and the director, who widened their eyes watching her.
She was like this rarely outside, in the house where the temple is.
By the way, ‘too close to friends’… what should I respond.
“Huh? That’s the older brother from yesterday!”
At that time, one of the girls pointed at me and shouted kya.
The girl, being the eldest among the children, came to my side leading the other children.
“That’s the older brother, the one who saved me when I almost fell while following you guys!”
“Um? Ah, aa… you told me about the temple path yesterday.”
“Ah, yes yes! Thank you yesterday! I guess you found the temple well!”
“Somehow found it.”
“Hehe… good.”
The girl bowed her head and smiled bashfully, and Elysia’s gaze watching that scene.
“…… Are you close with Maya?”
“We met on the way yesterday.”
“Hmm.”
And boldly, one step closer,
“…………”
This time, too close, she awkwardly stepped back one step.
What… what is she trying to do.
Is it because being close is not liked.
The girl seemed to have noticed something from Elysia’s creaking movements.
“Ah ha…? So that’s it?”
The girl asked with sparkling eyes.
I could immediately tell she was a sharp-eyed kid.
“But where are you and the priestess going? A date?”
“D… date…?”
“Yeah? Right?”
The girl took the opportunity while Elysia was flustered.
“The Ria priestess’s relaxed appearance is the first time I’ve seen! She was always so adult-like! Other kids will think the same? Right? Priestess, priestess! Answer~ Yeah?”
“No! That’s not… no!”
“Ei~ But it’s not a normal friend relationship, right?”
“That’s……”
“What? Just a little tell me. I’m curious!”
“…… Um….”
A little blush on Elysia’s face while pondering.
“Gray and I are…”
“Priestess?”
“Still… developing stage…?”
“Developing? Kya! Really? What is it? How much developed?”
The director next to her was warning not to ask about personal life like that, but even she was listening with some curiosity.
Elysia took a deep breath.
From her expression alone, she was boiling as if confessing a very important fact.
She squeezed out courage and opened her mouth tremblingly.
“Th… now we are at the point where we can help carry the luggage…”
“……….”
“……….”
“……….”
“……….”
It’s embarrassing in front of the kids, so stop it.