Chapter 4. Flight and Service (11)
Chapter 4. Flight and Service (11)
Okay. Let me be honest.
I did have some desire to get involved with the main characters.
After all, wasn't this the novel I'd read? I'd liked it quite a bit, and that was exactly why I'd given the author such affectionate advice.
Of course, it was common sense that the childhood friend was the main heroine, but that didn't mean I disliked the other heroines. I just hoped they wouldn't end up with the protagonist—they were all good kids with their own circumstances.
If I hadn't read the original novel, if I hadn't known that Glaria's nature wasn't fundamentally bad, I wouldn't have stepped forward to help like this.
......Though by my standards, it was a pretty old novel.
"So...... uh, Lady Glaria? Miss Glaria?"
"Just Glaria is fine."
"......."
I didn't really know what differences there might be in the appearances of Elves from that other world. Were there Elves with different skin colors? Even if there were, I might not know. I hadn't seen the entire continent, and if a civilization had developed in a thoroughly isolated environment, I wouldn't have seen people who looked different.
But even so, Lee Si-yoon apparently looked very handsome in Glaria's eyes.
No, more importantly, didn't her way of speaking change? It was like that in the original too, though.
"Then...... uh, Sister?"
"Yes, Brother."
Lee Si-yoon seemed a bit more at ease addressing me that way. Setting aside the fact that I was someone of high status, I was a nun, after all.
Whether there's a State Religion or not, people inevitably become more careful with their words and actions in front of those who have placed them inside a religious facility.
"You'll be moving around with us for a while—is that all right with you?"
"Of course."
I nodded.
Now that I'd come this far, there was nowhere to back out anyway. Better to stand beside him confidently and keep Glaria in check so she didn't approach Lee Si-yoon strangely.
Whoosh.
I felt a presence approach beside me and quickly turned my head.
Ria flinched back slightly, perhaps a little startled that my face had suddenly whipped toward her. To be fair, the distance warranted it. She'd apparently been planning to whisper something quietly into my ear.
But there was something that bothered me more than that.
"......You were going to poke my side again, weren't you."
When I said this while lightly glaring at Ria, her eyes blinked once.
"Uh, no, I wasn't going to......."
Maybe so, judging by the fact that she hadn't even raised a finger, but I was capable of learning too. Ria's reflexes were incredibly fast to begin with.
Right. And those reflexes had been displayed best in the novel.
I wasn't just talking about how they helped Lee Si-yoon in fights.
In the novel, the heroine who took Lee Si-yoon's first kiss was none other than Ria—that is, Lee Chae-eun.
It might not have been enough to call it a proper kiss. It was more like what people call bumping lips—or just a peck.
But no matter how you rationalized it, a kiss was a kiss. What reader in the world would say something like, "Their lips only touched lightly, so it's not a kiss"?
I looked up at Ria with narrowed eyes, then turned my body around with a swish.
Her footsteps paused for a moment, then Ria quickly fell in behind me.
She didn't try to strike up a conversation.
*
The setting was modern, but fantasy was fantasy.
There was even a forge inside the Association. Of course, it wasn't the sort of forge you'd see in a real medieval fantasy. An automated machine did the hammering instead of a person, and there was no furnace with molten iron bubbling away. If anything, judging by its shape, it looked like a giant coffee pot.
The only part that gave off a forge-like atmosphere was the assortment of materials hanging inside.
Something like a large beast's horn hung from the ceiling by chains, and on the table, gemstones I'd never seen before emitted light in every color.
Every one of them had an air of being materials or ores that didn't come from beasts of this world.
And there, a short-haired woman was pedaling to operate the artificial hammer.
She had fewer curves than I did, but by real-world standards, hers was still a well-balanced figure that couldn't be called small.
Rather, her arms visible beyond her tank top were so well-toned that far more people would likely find her attractive. On top of that, her face was pretty too. Though the short haircut had divided readers' opinions.
"Oh, Si-yoon's here!"
The woman, who had shouted like a manly warrior while raising one hand, sprang up from her seat and immediately rushed at Si-yoon, putting him in a headlock.
It was called a headlock, but obviously, in that position, his cheek or ear would end up touching the side of her chest.
"Uh, hey!"
Han Yu-ri, who had been standing with a slightly uneasy expression, quickly tried to stop her, but the woman didn't let go of Lee Si-yoon easily.
That bastard Lee Si-yoon's face was turning red, so his mood apparently wasn't all that bad either.
It was a sight that made my eyes narrow on their own.
And I actually was narrowing my eyes while looking at that woman—when our eyes met dead on.
"Hm?"
The blacksmith woman's eyes widened as she looked at me. Did she take my narrowed eyes as some kind of challenge?
The woman immediately released Lee Si-yoon and came straight toward me.
I nearly flinched for a split second, but her expression wasn't particularly dark, so I didn't back away—
Even if I hadn't, there was someone who stepped between me and that woman.
"......."
"Ria?"
Ah, right. Of course.
Inside the Church, there was no one who would attack me directly, and the people I came face-to-face with were basically people I'd met once or twice.
More than anything, there weren't many people who approached me this closely. If someone like Lee Si-yoon, Han Yu-ri, or Glaria had approached with the same slightly stiff face, Ria would have stepped in between like this.
"Ria, hold on."
I spoke gently and tapped Ria's back. Ria flinched slightly at the contact and turned to look at me.
"It's all right. You don't need to react like that. No one in here is going to harm me."
"Even so......."
"If there really were someone like that, you would have already noticed and drawn your sword. Isn't that right?"
At my words, Ria searched for a response for a moment, then nodded.
Did that mean she was on edge in her own way while escorting me? Well, it made sense—even if she was easygoing normally, Lee Chae-eun was the type of character who did her assigned work properly.
When Ria stepped aside, the person whose path had been blocked looked at me and Ria in turn with a slightly flustered expression and carefully opened her mouth.
"......Uh, so, it's okay to talk to you, right?"
"Yes, of course."
I considered making a light joke about what had just happened, but decided against it. Ria would feel a bit awkward if I did.
When I gave a light nod, the person came straight up to me and grabbed my hand with both of hers.
"Really, thank you."
"Pardon?"
I hadn't sensed any hostility, but I hadn't expected this kind of reaction.
Actually, if anything, I was the one who'd been more wary and guarded, so it was even more bewildering. I only knew who this person was because I'd matched the novel's descriptions to the current situation—if I hadn't read it beforehand, I wouldn't have known who was standing in front of me.
And in that situation, the first thing I heard was "thank you."
"That day, if you hadn't been there, Sister, my little sibling wouldn't have come back alive."
"Ah......."
I see.
So there was a setup like that.
Even without me, they might have come back alive. Even if they'd lost an arm or a leg, as long as they could receive Holy Power in time.
Given the circumstances, there would have been a Saintess there, and even if not a Saintess, there would have been Saintess Candidates.
......Though if part of their internal organs had burst out or been torn away, and their aorta had been damaged so they'd lost too much blood, that would be a different story.
"That's a relief."
I nodded.
The fact that someone was thanking me meant that, regardless of those hypotheticals, that sibling had received help from me.
Though I didn't remember it. I couldn't possibly remember every single person I'd healed.
But at least, one person's life had been able to continue. And there was someone who was grateful for that fact.
If so, wasn't that enough?
*
Come to think of it, my influence was far greater than I'd thought.
I'd been focused on my status, but in the first place, everyone here had also been near that Gate at the time.
There were cases like that person earlier, whose family member had received help, and cases where they themselves had survived.
And to those people, I was, quite literally, a benefactor.
"......."
I didn't expect any particular thanks when I helped, but that didn't mean I disliked receiving gratitude.
I was a very materialistic person, the type who got swayed by things like that.
"Sister Anna is amazing......."
"Ah, no, it's not really my own power, haha......."
Seeing people praise me and offer thanks everywhere we went, Han Yu-ri spoke with a bit of admiration. Even though she'd been at that place too, seeing me receive greetings like this was a separate matter.
The people fighting had been focused on fighting, so they hadn't had time to see how badly people were hurt.
Glaria was also looking at me again with wide eyes. Was she revising the information about me in her head?
Hm.
How should I put it—since the grateful people weren't saying things like "God," I honestly didn't feel bad at all.
By the time we'd made a full circuit of the Association building, my mood had improved considerably.
.......
No, wait, what had I been trying to do?
Ah, right. I'd been trying to keep her in check.
.......
Well, it didn't matter anymore. Glaria seemed to be focusing more on me than on Lee Si-yoon anyway.
Han Yu-ri was also too busy being impressed to create a sweet atmosphere with Lee Si-yoon, but that was something the two of them would sort out on their own if left alone.
"......."
Only Ria was looking at me with an expression slightly different from the others.