A Small Change
Just as dawn began to break.
Lucia rubbed her bleary eyes and rose from bed.
It was still the hour when she ought to have been sleeping soundly, yet she had woken because she had sensed someone approaching.
...
Lucia sat on the edge of the mattress and focused her senses.
The footsteps drawing steadily nearer were light, yet unhurried.
Shiron, is it...
Identifying the newcomer was easy enough. She felt a little sorry for him, but among everyone living in this mansion, there was not a soul who could fail to distinguish Shiron's presence.
The two demon maids' auras were simply too powerful to conceal. Process of elimination left only Shiron.
What brings him here?
The annex was spacious—comparable to a proper estate in its own right—yet only four people lived there.
Because of that, outside of mealtimes Lucia and Shiron rarely crossed paths inside the annex. Unless he had a reason, Shiron never so much as ventured near her room.
"...This is no time to sit around."
Lucia scrambled off the bed and hurried to the vanity.
Back at Dawn Castle, a single press of the call bell would have brought a skilled maid to dress and groom her with practiced ease. With fewer hands available now, she had to manage on her own.
Swish— swish—
Seated before the mirror, Lucia began combing out her thoroughly tangled hair.
Ugh, why won't this cooperate...
In this life and the last, she had always left her grooming to others. Taming a nest of sleep-mussed hair was no small task.
"There...!"
Knock-knock—
As if on cue, a knock sounded at the door.
"You awake?"
"W-wait! I'm up, just hold on!"
Lucia darted to the door.
"Morning!"
She opened it carefully. Shiron stood there greeting her with a smile. A child's growth truly was swift; with each passing day she found herself looking farther up at him.
Lucia returned the greeting to the Shiron who, of late, seemed to grow handsomer by the hour.
"...You're in an unusually good mood today."
"Oh, it shows?"
"Yeah. Your voice is weirdly bright for this early."
"...That obvious, huh."
Shiron cleared his throat and leveled his tone.
"Anyway, I came because there's something I want to ask of you."
"A favor?"
Lucia's eyes went wide at the word.
She had been feeling guilty about always being on the receiving end; this was perfect timing.
Shiron smiled, pleased by her eager response.
"Nothing that grand. Want to hit the training grounds together for a run? It's been a while."
"Didn't you quit training? You haven't been showing up at the grounds much lately."
"Quit? Hardly. I haven't skipped a day of swinging a sword."
Shiron chewed over her words for a moment.
He had merely cut back on conditioning while stacking a few delinquent points; apparently it had looked to Lucia as if he had given up entirely.
"N-no! I'm not refusing or anything. I was just... wondering what brought this on."
When Shiron's brow furrowed slightly, Lucia waved both hands in front of her.
"There's something I want to check. Get changed and meet me at the training grounds."
Shiron gave a short laugh and closed the door again.
Once he confirmed Lucia had changed into clothes suited for activity, Shiron headed for the training grounds.
After a brief warm-up, he drew several deep breaths.
"So we just run?"
"Yeah. I want to see how much my stamina's improved."
Blessing of Vigor
She said it keeps the heart from tiring, didn't she?
The Blessing of Wrath and the Blessing of Focus were hard to test under ordinary circumstances. There was little call to rage in daily life, and his will to act was rarely broken in the first place.
Endurance, however, was easy to measure.
Shiron watched Lucia loosen her limbs and work through her own warm-up.
According to Siriel, she had never once beaten Lucia in a spar—making her a more than adequate control group.
Time to test the buff's performance.
"No time limit. Just run until you're spent. Pace yourself however you like."
"...Got it."
The instant Shiron kicked off the ground, Lucia fell in behind him.
They ran for a full four hours.
His speed never dropped, and Lucia, keeping pace beside him, showed no sign of stopping either—so Shiron finally called the run short midway.
Performance is excellent.
The blessing Latera had placed on him was outstanding. Better than expected, even.
He had gone all-out from the first stride, yet his pace never flagged. If anything, once his body warmed, running felt easier still.
"..."
More astonishing was that he was not out of breath. Even after finishing the run and settling into recovery, his breathing remained as quiet and even as if he were simply going about an ordinary day—no ragged gasps at all.
"...How? Your stamina was never that good."
"Heh heh heh. Curious?"
Flush with achievement, Shiron lifted one corner of his mouth at her.
Lucia made a faintly dubious face at the expression, but it had been so long since she had seen him smile like that that she decided to let it pass without comment.
"Running a long time isn't all that impressive on its own. Being able to run like that without your breathing falling apart, though—that is strange."
Unable to rein in the smile that kept breaking free, Shiron looked at her.
"It's a stroke of fortune."
"Fortune?"
"I had a dream. An angel appeared and put a blessing on me."
"...Really?"
"Yeah. Said I'd been living so virtuously that I was just too admirable, so she showed up in my dream."
Shiron finished speaking and studied Lucia's face.
"...That's good. I'm glad."
Lucia answered lukewarmly, offering an awkward smile. At that tepid reaction, Shiron tilted his head.
Less of a response than I expected.
He had casually dropped the word "angel," yet Lucia's reaction remained thoroughly bland. He had meant the performance test of the blessing to double as a probe into the angel who, five hundred years ago, had supposedly been Kylie's companion—but Lucia made no move to press him about angels at all.
Deciding to push a little harder, Shiron smiled and stepped closer.
"You don't sound like you believe me. It's real, you know."
Listening, Lucia took a step back the moment he suddenly closed the distance.
"N-no, I mean—after a result like that, I do believe you, but..."
"Then why? Don't you want to meet an angel and get a blessing too?"
"J-just back up a little. You're too close!"
Lucia whipped her head aside and shoved the too-near Shiron away.
For some reason, facing him this close made her feel shy. They used to talk without a second thought even when both were drenched in sweat.
Was it because Siriel's recent comments about Shiron acting a little strange kept sticking in her mind? Or because she had broken down and cried like a child in front of him? Either way, Lucia found it difficult to treat him the way she once had.
"I don't need one. I don't even want to meet one."
"Why not?"
"I just don't like the idea of someone doing something to me. What if they pretend to give a blessing and slap a curse on you instead?"
Lucia found the angel Shiron claimed to have met thoroughly suspicious.
She thought back to the succession ceremony.
Before the children of the Prien family, Yuma had declared that an apostle of God—an angel—had delivered a Holy Sword to Kylie five hundred years ago.
At the time, Lucia had scoffed.
That would mean Yura was an angel. I received a Holy Sword from Yura, and that doesn't add up at all.
The Yura Lucia remembered had been an ordinary human. She could not wield holy power, and the only magic she used was a bit of spatial magic.
Having cooled the heat in her body somewhat, Lucia decided to confirm a few things with Shiron.
"So what did the angel you met in the dream look like?"
"A big sister with a sparkling ring floating above her head. Black hair, purple eyes."
Big sister she may have been, but even if she looked like a little kid, she was five hundred years old.
Shiron described the form Latera had taken in that strange place.
Hearing the concise description, Lucia lowered her head as if lost in thought. The Yura she remembered had also had black hair and purple eyes.
Narrowing her gaze, Lucia fixed her eyes on Shiron.
"I guess I'd better start living virtuously..."
"Young Master!"
Just then, an elderly man in a neat suit came running onto the training grounds. It was Philip, the mansion's steward.
He arrived panting hard, his clothes thoroughly disheveled from the haste of his arrival.
"Young Master! You must change at once!"
Philip blanched at the sight of the two of them caked in dust and sweat.
"What is it?"
"His Highness the Third Prince has come to the mansion to see you, Young Master! And he has brought his knight order with him!"
"Huh..."
At the news that the Third Prince had arrived, Shiron let out a soft sound of surprise.
What? He got here faster than I thought. I didn't expect him to show up this soon.
"In any case, you must change into formal attire immediately. Lady Siriel is already there waiting."
Even after bolting all the way here, Philip's face remained pale. He made as if to scoop both Shiron and Lucia up at once. For a white-haired old man, his strength was considerable.
"Hold on a second, old man. Let go."
But Shiron shook off his hands.
Philip's eyes went round as he looked down at him.
"I'll meet him like this."
"I beg your pardon? What do you mean by that?"
"I have no intention of making a good impression on the guy, so this is fine."
"W-what in the world—?"
As Philip stood there dumbfounded, Lucia—still held in his arms—looked down at Shiron.
"Why would royalty come to see you?"
When Lucia voiced her complete bewilderment, Shiron merely shrugged and grinned.
"Beats me. Guess I looked like an easy mark."