The Saintess's First Miracle
While Kylus and I were talking, Ivetta remained quiet.
Is she nervous?
When I looked closer, I saw that Ivetta was murmuring what sounded like a prayer under her breath while fidgeting with her fingers.
It looked like she was running a simulation of using her divine power.
To avoid disturbing her concentration, I sent my encouragement silently in my heart.
You can do this.
Though my true inner thought was closer to, Honestly, you already look enough like a saintess without doing any of that.
For this outing—so it wouldn’t be directly tied to the temple—Ivetta was wearing a simple white dress instead of her priestess robes.
Every time those delicate fingers of hers twitched, a sacred energy filled the inside of the carriage. It was so potent that even I, who didn’t have a single rat’s claw’s worth of divine power, could feel it.
Even Kylus’s face, which had been exhausted from overwork, gradually regained some color.
If we’re going to do this, a real practice run would benefit both of them, right?
“Ivetta.”
“Yes? Lord Minos?”
She must have been deep in her prayer, because Ivetta answered with the wrong name.
“I’m not a revelation that descended from the heavens, you know.”
When I teased her, Ivetta laughed along with me.
Her smile was clear and bright—the smile of someone who had been eating well, sleeping well, and resting properly.
“You’re practicing how to use your divine power right now, aren’t you?”
Ivetta flinched, as if she hadn’t wanted to be caught practicing even inside the carriage.
But she soon nodded honestly.
“Yes… I’m a little nervous.”
“Perfect timing. There’s a really great practice partner right over there.”
I pointed at Kylus with a dramatic ta-da sound.
“Me?”
Kylus, the chronically fatigued office worker, was a beat late in catching on.
Ivetta gave me a thumbs-up where only I could see it—clearly pleased to have found someone who desperately needed divine power.
“Would it be all right if I used my divine power on the Count?”
Ivetta politely asked for permission first.
“It would be an honor.”
Kylus’s previously sunken eyes sparkled with anticipation.
“Then… I’ll give it a try!”
Once she had mentally prepared herself, Ivetta closed her eyes, recited her prayer, and cast Heal.
Thanks to all the practice, the gap between her prayer and the activation of Heal had shortened so much that they were nearly simultaneous now.
“How do you feel?”
Ivetta asked Kylus with a proud little smile.
“Hmm. It does feel a bit better than before, but I’d need to receive it a few more times to be sure.”
Kylus looked noticeably less tired than earlier, but he deliberately dragged out his words, asking for more divine power.
“Keep going?”
Lucy and I had served as her practice partners so often that the effects barely showed on us anymore.
But for Kylus, who was steeped in exhaustion, the effect of Heal was visibly dramatic.
Ivetta looked thrilled to have found a brand-new practice partner who had appeared at just the right moment.
“Yes, please keep going.”
Kylus, who desperately wanted to shake off his chronic fatigue, was just as excited.
Their interests aligned perfectly.
Ivetta continued pouring divine power into Kylus while testing out various versions of her prayers.
After about twenty consecutive uses, Kylus’s face was practically glowing.
“It feels like I ate a ton of sweets and then took a really deep nap.”
Kylus gave his review with the satisfied expression of a well-fed cat.
“Um… would it be all right if I visited the detached palace from time to time? I could check in on the children as well.”
Kylus clung to Ivetta with his true intentions written all over his face.
“Of course! Please come whenever you’d like!”
Ivetta, who already held goodwill toward Kylus for taking such good care of the orphanage children, readily agreed.
In return, Kylus offered to teach her some tips on handling divine power.
At their core, magic and divine power were forces of a similar nature.
While the temple would never admit it, the Magic Tower considered it practically common knowledge that the mana scattered throughout nature was the power of Lord Minos, and that priests were essentially a type of mage specialized in purification and healing spells.
So it wasn’t strange at all for Kylus the mage to teach Ivetta the saintess how to handle divine power.
“You weren’t deliberately adjusting the output of your divine power, were you? You can only release that much from the start, right?”
“How did you know that?”
Ivetta widened her eyes like she’d just met a brilliant fortune teller and nodded vigorously.
“It’s a common occurrence among young mages with high potential. They have so much power but don’t know how to control it, so it leaks out on its own. On the surface, it might look similar to low-level magic.”
Kylus went a step further and offered to demonstrate, showing her how he manipulated his mana.
Even though he specialized in mental magic, he seemed capable of other types as well. A vision of snow falling appeared from the carriage ceiling.
“Whoa.”
Once Ivetta showed interest, a proper hands-on crash course began in earnest.
Since I had neither divine power nor mana, I mostly tuned it out.
Before I knew it, we had reached the outskirts of the city.
“It’s time to switch carriages.”
At Kylus’s words, Ivetta moved to the parade carriage that had been prepared for her.
After confirming that the escort personnel had completely surrounded Ivetta’s carriage without any gaps, Kylus fell into brief thought.
“Divine power really is something wonderful.”
After muttering something cryptic, Kylus smiled gently.
“Since I need to watch over the saintess, I’ll ride a horse from here on.”
Which meant I would be the only one left inside this carriage.
“It would be so worried to leave Lina alone, so I’ll send one knight to accompany you.”
With those kind words, Kylus stepped down.
I hope it’s Ed.
I was secretly hoping the knight would be Everett.
When Kylus gave instructions to a nearby knight, a man wearing the uniform of the Imperial Guard soon approached the carriage on horseback from behind.
Thankfully, it really was Everett.
The surrounding knights were packed so tightly that even as Everett passed between them, they only glanced at him for the briefest moment before losing interest.
It was as if Everett had become someone with almost no presence.
To me, though, it felt like only Everett had color added to him while everything else was monochrome.
Seeing him in the Imperial Guard uniform after so long, I realized that the real reason I had joined this schedule today was for this very moment.
Kylus took the reins of Everett’s horse, whispered something to him, then headed toward Ivetta’s side.
Once Everett climbed into the carriage, the procession began moving again.
As we entered the city streets, people were packed densely along both sides of the road.
Their faces were filled with excitement and anticipation at the chance to see the saintess—who had appeared for the first time in hundreds of years—in person.
Naturally, the tension among the knights escorting Ivetta rose as well.
Taking advantage of the moment when everyone’s eyes were on Ivetta, I carefully spoke to Everett.
“I thought I wouldn’t get to see you until we headed back.”
“Same here.”
Everett let out a hollow laugh and shifted to sit beside me.
The carriage ceiling was low, so he had to duck slightly as he moved. In doing so, the necklace he had tucked inside his clothes slipped out.
Everett casually slipped it back inside his collar.
Since he hardly ever wore accessories, even that simple motion drew my eyes more than it should have.
“I’m glad the Count’s mood seems to have improved.”
Everett murmured.
“It must be thanks to the saintess, right?”
“The saintess?”
As if he wanted to hear every little detail, Everett scooted even closer until he was practically pressed against my side.
“The saintess was…”
But my explanation didn’t get to continue for long.
The moment Ivetta’s carriage came into view, an enormous cheer erupted—so loud it felt like my eardrums might burst.
My voice was completely drowned out by the roar.
Everett and I both looked out the carriage window.
“Saintess! Please look over here!”
“Please bless our child so they can grow up healthy!”
At the flood of voices coming from every direction, Ivetta seemed momentarily overwhelmed, but she soon broke into a bright smile and began waving her hand.
Ivetta really was born for the stage.
The crowd’s cheers grew even louder.
As Ivetta passed by, people reached their hands out past the temporary iron barriers that had been set up along her route.
Among them was the tiny hand of a three- or four-year-old child being held by their mother.
Ivetta’s gaze landed on the child.
When the little one smiled brightly, Ivetta smiled back and gave them a Blessing for their future.
Just the way she had briefly learned from Kylus inside the carriage.
It seemed that all the Heal and Blessing I had received from her until now had truly been nothing but imitations.
A light as powerful as the one that had burst forth when Ivetta first awakened exploded outward.
For a brief instant, the entire city district was bathed in golden radiance.
The space that had been buzzing with the voices of countless people fell into sudden silence.
Once they realized what had happened, an explosive cheer erupted to make up for that brief quiet.
The people who had witnessed the miracle were in a state of extreme excitement.
“Ivetta!”
As the light slowly faded, Ivetta collapsed.