The Former Villainess Is Hopelessly Inept (2)
"Kids, shh! You mustn't put the priestess in an awkward position!"
The director, unable to watch any longer, broke into a cold sweat as she tried to settle the children down.
Elysia's answer had clearly been a shock to them in more ways than one, because they obediently backed away at the director's words.
"......?"
The only one who didn't understand what was happening was Elysia herself, who had answered in all seriousness. She tilted her head in silent confusion.
"I'm so sorry. The children must have put you in an uncomfortable spot."
"Not at all, Director. They're at an age where this sort of topic is just starting to catch their interest."
Elysia answered plainly.
She spoke with an elegant smile, but if you judged her solely by her idea of a relationship worth bragging about — namely, "someone who can carry your bags" — she fell so far short of the children's expectations that she wouldn't even meet the standard for kids their age.
The director, equally bewildered, looked at Elysia before changing the subject.
"By the way, where were the two of you headed?"
"We're on our way to Lady Ragnea's temple."
"Lady Ragnea's temple?"
The children started chattering again.
"Priestess! I don't think you should go there right now..."
"Yeah, there's a fight going on over there!"
"...A fight at the Ragnea Temple?"
The children all nodded at once and piled on with vivid firsthand accounts.
"There were loud noises starting this morning! Priestess Cherny had a huge fight with Temple Head Baren!"
"The Temple Head betrayed Priestess Cherny and went to see the ladies at the red house, that's why!"
"But Temple Head Baren would never do something like that! Priestess Cherny must've gotten the wrong idea again."
"The important thing is there was a kiss mark on Temple Head Baren's neck. Priestess Cherny was so mad! Priestess, Priestess! Listen — it went clang-clang! And bang-bang!"
"There was thump-thump too! And then stab! And boom! It exploded!"
I didn't know about the rest, but I could tell that "stab" and "boom" sounded dangerous.
And who exactly was this Temple Head Baren, that a man of the cloth would have such sordid rumors circulating about him — red houses and all?
Elysia, equally concerned that such talk was coming from children's mouths, met their eyes and spoke gently.
"Please don't misunderstand. The people of the Ragnea Temple aren't like that. The faithful of Lady Ragnea, Goddess of Struggle, have always held martial arts sacred and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to honing their skill. What you saw and heard was probably just that."
"Still, Priestess Ria, Priestess Ria, be careful anyway!"
"Don't let yourself get stabbed! Or boom-ed!"
"All right. I'll do my best to avoid the stabbing. Thank you for worrying about me."
With that, Elysia and I set off toward the Ragnea Temple.
It had gone quiet for a moment — and then, before I knew it, she was walking a step or two ahead of me, staring blankly forward.
She didn't say a word. There was nothing wrong with her leading the way, since she knew the route. But this odd sense of distance was a gap she was creating on purpose.
In the short time I'd been watching her out here, Elysia looked quite different from the woman I'd spent the past day with.
In front of Lucia and Tina, she was a member of a close-knit family — one who didn't even bother hiding her slightly unsavory "hobby." And with me, she was... well, whether you'd call it shyness or just an extension of that same unsavory hobby, she was a young woman wound tight with tension in every possible way.
Both of those sides were one thing. But the woman who restrained her emotions and her expressions, the one they called "Priestess Ria" — that was the most unfamiliar version of her I'd seen yet.
"Um... Gray...?"
"............"
"Hey, Gray...? Th-this is Lady Ragnea's temple."
Tap, tap. Elysia nudged my shoulder, and when I looked up, her face flushed scarlet and she started trembling.
I spoke while taking in the temple in front of us.
"Closer than I expected."
"Close... ah... I-I-I'm sorry. I got too close, didn't I? It's too much, right? It's annoying, right? I'll back off. I'm sorry......"
"I meant the temple."
I'd been watching her, and this didn't even seem like a verbal tic — I couldn't count how many times I'd already heard her apologize.
The witch I could understand, but what happened to the "villainess" who'd made the Academy students sick of her very existence...?
The biggest problem was that I had no way of predicting how she'd react if I just told her to stop.
Maybe things would get better if we took it slow and got to know each other.
I changed the subject and asked her.
"...So this Ragnea is a goddess too?"
"Huh? You didn't know?"
"Of course I didn't. I've never even seen her."
"Well, I've never met Lady Ragnea in person either, obviously..."
I supposed I should be grateful that our dawn walk had at least done some good. Unlike yesterday, we were managing a bare minimum of conversation.
I was silently studying the temple's exterior and decorations, thinking things like, Well, a goddess with this kind of gaudy taste would clash horribly with Astasia anyway — when it happened.
"Well, well, if it isn't Priestess Ria! Hahaha!"
I turned toward the unfamiliar male voice and saw someone emerge from the temple.
Lady Ragnea was the Goddess of Struggle, wasn't she?
A solid build, plenty of muscle, a bold nose, and a striking face. At a glance, he looked like the kind of man who'd open a dojo and spend the rest of his life pouring blood and sweat into martial arts training.
This had to be Temple Head Baren.
I was able to figure that out immediately thanks to the kiss mark the children had mentioned, plus the bruises covering him and the deep scratch marks from fingernails.
At this point, I had a pretty good idea where those "stab! boom!" sound effects had come from.
Elysia paid none of it any mind and offered a calm, polite bow.
"A faithful servant of Lady Astasia greets the servants of Ragnea, Goddess of Struggle. Good day to you."
"Please, come in. We've been expecting you. Is this the first time we've met like this? We've always been the ones to visit you, and this is our first joint ceremony, so I spent quite a while wondering how best to receive you."
"It's the first time the church has proposed a joint rite, after all. You've been troubled since morning as it is, so we'll just collect the ceremonial implements and be on our way."
"Haha, don't be so cold. I've prepared some simple tea and refreshments. Even if just for a moment, please stay and have some!"
"...Very well. Then I'll impose on you briefly."
"Yes, yes, please come in. ...I'm terribly sorry to meet you looking like this... nngh...! That stings... Haha! There was a bit of a misunderstanding, you see!"
"It's quite all right."
Elysia answered quietly.
"......If I may ask, who is the gentleman beside you, Priestess Ria? He doesn't appear to be one of the apprentice priests I've seen at the temple..."
"Gray is... here to help me today."
"Oho. So you two know each other well?"
On the way here, I'd thought the people of this city were wary of me. But I'd finally realized those obsessive stares weren't about me at all — they were about Elysia.
The dirty looks I'd gotten walking down the street, and this man as well — in the end, what they found suspicious wasn't me. It was "the shady young man walking around with Priestess Ria."
Tina had mentioned that plenty of people came to the Astasia Temple just to see "Priestess Ria."
Was this Baren fellow the same type?
If he was just a fan, I could at least understand that.
"...Which reminds me, Priestess Ria. A new bakery opened near the market district — have you heard of it?"
Sure enough.
"Oh, it's a sensation! Everyone says everything there is delicious, so these days my morning routine is running over there for the opening! Haha! Honestly, they just send me on errands — people can be so inconsiderate! Thanks to that, though, I've become an expert on their entire menu."
Baren gestured wildly with his hands and feet as he talked.
"Even Cherny, picky as she is, eats it right up. If you're interested, you should join us sometime!"
He was doing everything he could to grab Elysia's attention.
But all that effort was for nothing. Elysia cut him down with blade-sharp one-word answers — "Yes." "Yes." "No." — until he was practically on the verge of tears.
Watching from the outside like this, Elysia's expression and tone were actually quite sharp. That way of speaking that slipped a dagger in without you even noticing.
So this was where fragments of the villainess from ten years ago still lingered.
But Baren's tearful clown act didn't last long.
Not a single piece of the tea and refreshments he'd prepared had been touched, when one of the temple's less tactful members came along and ruined it.
A snappish voice. She was a girl just entering adolescence, her features still youthful. She approached with a thoroughly sulky gait and didn't so much as glance at Elysia or me.
She went straight to Baren and tossed the words at him like a dart.
"Baren. It's done. I moved every last one of the supplies the Astasia Church people are supposed to take. Nothing left out."
"Uegh, what? Cherny. It's already finished? I told you to take it slow..."
"I. Did. Take. It. Slow. If you don't believe me, go check yourself. Near helped."
"Tsk. That Near kid, always doing unnecessary things...!"
"Anyway, stop slacking off here and get back to work! We need your signature to submit to the church!"
"Aagh! That hurts, Cherny! Fine, I'm going, I'm going! That's where you hit me earlier! Nngh...!"
Cherny drove Baren off with a blatantly murderous glare. In the end, he had no choice but to flee the scene.
The girl called Cherny plopped down across from Elysia as if she'd been waiting for this. From every angle — up, down, sideways — she looked thoroughly dissatisfied.
Dissatisfied might not be the right word. Sulky was more like it. The look she gave Elysia in particular was ice-cold.
"Hmph!"
Cherny picked a fight for no reason at all. She glanced at the sweets on the table and scrunched up her face as if she couldn't believe it.
"He bought expensive cookies again, for no reason. The person who knows the temple's finances better than anyone shouldn't be this childish!"
"........."
"He's like a little kid. Getting all infatuated just because someone's pretty..."
"........."
Elysia didn't so much as twitch, her face perfectly calm. If anything, that composure might have been what got under Cherny's skin.
"Excuse me. Priestess Ria."
"...Yes?"
"I'm talking so you'll hear me, you know? Especially you."
"Ah, yes. I'm listening."
"...Are you ignoring me right now?"
"Ignoring?"
Elysia tilted her head, looking a little vacant.
But it wasn't that Elysia didn't understand what Cherny was getting at. She sat up straight and spoke with perfect courtesy.
"No. I'm grateful to everyone at the Ragnea Temple for your warm hospitality."
"Hoooos-pi-tal-i-tyyy?"
"........."
"Ugh, this is so annoying! What does Baren even see in you that he grins like an idiot?! Yesterday he went off and did something stupid the second I looked away!"
A grinding sound — she was clenching her teeth.
The whole display looked so much like watching Elysia from ten years ago that...
"El..."
"........."
Right. I wasn't supposed to call her "Elysia" out here.
But calling her "Ria" felt weird too, so I just tapped her on the shoulder. Elysia's calm eyes went round as she turned to look at me.
"Huh...? Did you just... talk to me?"
What does this girl even think I am?
"Doesn't she remind you of how you used to be?"
"Priestess Cherny... is like me...?"
But Elysia seemed to have misunderstood what I meant. Her face went pale, and she clutched my sleeve as she launched into an explanation.
"No! I never had some childish crush like that ten years ago! Not after that either! It's true, I've never liked anyone else. Please believe me!"
I was talking about her attitude...
More than that — even with romantic instincts weaker than a child's, she'd already picked up on what was going on between Cherny and Baren.
"Hey! What the hell are you two even talking about?! A crush?! W-w-w-who's supposed to have a crush on who?! Don't talk nonsense!"
Cherny protested, her face turning bright red, but Elysia was more concerned with explaining herself to me. Her lips trembled as she teetered on the edge of tears.
"D-did you get the wrong idea because of Temple Head Baren earlier?"
"Hey! You two! Stop ignoring me and listen!"
"It's not like that with Temple Head Baren... it's really not... uh..."
"What... is she crying right now? Out of nowhere? The 'Priestess Ria' who looked like she wouldn't bleed if you stabbed her is crying?"
"I'm sorry I made you misunderstand. I won't do it again. If you want, I won't even open my mouth around Priest Baren. You're not sick of me, are you? Are you angry? It's all a misunderstanding. So please don't leave, okay? I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry..."
"You're so annoying! It's not enough that you ignore me — now you're ignoring Baren too? I can't take this anymore!"
I, of course, hadn't said a word. The one hurling remarks at Elysia was a thoroughly worked-up Cherny.
A moment later, Cherny shouted at the top of her lungs.