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Once we finished our lunch, the time for Lyell and Maria to go back had arrived.

We gathered in the backyard to not attract too much attention and said the goodbyes there. It wasn’t normal for the Pope to be present during that. Or well, maybe it was, considering Maria’s position.

“Well then, Nicole. Don’t overdo it again, okay?”
“Yeah, I won’t get careless.”
“No, that’s now what I meant…”

While Lyell was pestering me to be extra careful, Maria was having a chat with the Pope. She had to depart from Berith because her position had grown too strong, but these two were apparently not on bad terms.

Pope Ashella also seemed to have been considering letting Maria succeed her, but with the intervention of various people starting from cardinals, her hopes were cut short.

“Take care of your body now, Maria.”
“I will, thanks. Stay well too, Ashella.”
“I really have to wreck my body sometime or I’ll just get depressed from so much energy.”
“Don’t say that even as a joke.”

Maria was technically lower than her in the hierarchy, which would normally require her to use honorifics towards Ashella, but the person concerned seemed to firmly reject that.

She looked like a little girl, but she was far older than Maria in reality. Even Maria could not ignore an order from someone like her.

“You can use teleportation magic, so you’ll show your face often, right?”
“That would be a little…”
“You will, right? You’ll let me baptize Fina, right?”
“…Yes.”

Even that Maria couldn’t oppose her, so I suppose this was the so-called wisdom of age. Even I, who wasn’t very familiar with her, could not go against her conduct.

Looking around, I saw Finia and Michelle looking at us as if seeing something amusing.

“What’s wrong, you two?”
“No, well…”
“Seeing Nicole and Lady Maria getting lectured makes you look like sisters!”
“Oh, what a nice thing to say, Michelle.”

Maria put a hand to her cheek in happiness, hearing that we looked like sisters.

“Maria, you should learn to tell apart flattery.”
“Hey now, I’m still young, okay?”
“Indeed. It’s strange that you look so young despite being in your forties.”
“Ugh?!”
“I wonder what’s the reason for it? If you found some method of anti-aging, I hope you can teach me too.”
“I don’t think you need that, Ashella…”

Because Maria had drunk God of Destruction’s medicine, her body was so full of vitality you could say she had returned back to youth. Someone who didn’t know that would naturally find it strange. But she couldn’t exactly tell that to the Pope.

Rejuvenating medicine was already a tricky subject, but the one who gave it to her was the ‘God of Destruction’.

The God who broke the world tree, and the Pope ruling the World Tree Religion. They were pretty much like water and oil.

I couldn’t even imagine what it would lead to had she found out about it. I suppose I had to give it to her for finding Maria’s weakness like this, even if unconsciously.

I also didn’t want this topic to delve any deeper, so I decided to dodge it. Besides, I was worried for Fina who was waiting back in the village.

“Mom, you have to leave soon, or Fina will—”
“Oh, r-right! I really should. Before that… Cortina.”
“Y-Yes?”
“You still haven’t accepted your punishment for this blunder, right?”
“Ehh.”

Maria looked at her with unusual seriousness.

Well, I guess you could say that she failed to fulfill her duty as my guardian. But that happened due to my own arbitrary actions, so she shouldn’t be blamed for it.

“Mother, that’s a little…”
“Be quiet, Nicole. Listen here, you may not know this, but Cortina going all out is much more amazing than this. And yet, she was outwitted too much this time.”
“Yes, I have to reflect on being too careless.”
“So I will be giving you a punishment. I ban you from getting close to Reid for three months.”
“Huuh?”
“Now that’s cruel!”

Cortina’s and my voices overlapped perfectly. I was enjoying my dates with her a lot, and Maria was going to ban that.

“You have been too lax ever since Reid’s comeback. So I think you need some time to cool off your head.”
“B-But that has nothing to do with Re—”
“Think back on the result. This time it all ended well due to unexpected luck, but in the worst case, Nicole would have died.”
“T-That’s… True.”
“So… Cortina. I need you to take special training.”
“Special training… I don’t even have a talent for actual combat, you know?”
“Even so, training should still do something about it. You have to be ready for similar situations from now on. This is for your own sake too.”
“Ugh…”

Cortina was still resisting, but it was short-lived.

I also understood Maria’s point very well. Having no power when it counted the most was something both she and I knew very well. Because of that, she could not object to it very strongly.

The fact was that Cortina had been the first one to be targeted among us countless times. The special training that Maria spoke about could be helpful in that sense too.

As a result, Cortina reluctantly agreed and decided to follow Maria to the north. Meanwhile, they would contact Maxwell and have her temporarily retire.

“Well then, Tricia. I leave these kids to you, okay?”
“Leave them to me… or so I’d like to say, but they are already more capable than me.”
“That’s true. In that case, Nicole, I leave Tricia with you. You can give her a beating if she drinks too much.”
“Hey?!”

While I was saying goodbye to Cortina, Maria was preparing the transfer spell. She drew the magic circle in high spirits. Her speed was quite something, but it still fell behind Maxwell, as expected.

“Goodbye, Maria. I’m looking forward to Fina’s baptism.”
“Why are you so excited about that?”
“Isn’t it fine to be happy about my cute friend’s second daughter?”
“Yeah, yeah. Later then.”

The Pope acted carefree to the very end. But this was all for Fina, so I wasn’t complaining. Fina would lose nothing if she had the Pope backing her.

Taking this opportunity, Maria invoked her Portal Gate and they returned to the south.

The crumpled smile Cortina had at the time was quite a novelty. I felt like I saw something rare.

“So Lady Maria’s gone.”
“Yes. It will be lonely without her.”

I heard those voices from behind. Looking back, I saw Michelle and Finia with dejected faces. Maria and others were special people for these girls, who have grown in their care. Since they could not meet them as frequently as I, this parting was more dear for them.

“It’s okay. I will learn Portal Gate soon and make it so you can visit them anytime.”
“Lady Nicole, that would be something really amazing, you know?”

Portal Gate was a spell of the highest difficulty among the Interference spells, on par with Polymorph. If I could master it, it would prove to be useful in many situations.

If we were hired by merchants like today, we could gain so much money using Portal Gate that it would feed us for a lifetime.

It wouldn’t be just trading. If I became the Guild’s messenger, I could expect a lot of remuneration. Even the kingdom could hire me.

It was a spell difficult to master and hard to reach. That was Portal Gate.

Maria who easily learned it was abnormal, as normally one would need to train until old age to master it. But I, who considered it possible that I could learn it when I was just 15 years old, was probably also abnormal.

“Well, I guess it is… Hmm?”

As I replied to Finia, I heard a strange noise. Though that noise didn’t sound dangerous, like that of battle or rioting, but instead filled with voices of confusion and cheers.

“There’s some liveliness at the entrance.”
“Yes, just like then Lady Maria arrived here.”
“I was unconscious during that.”

I didn’t know what happened when Maria and Lyell came, but it seemed that there was a similar atmosphere to it now.

In that case, maybe someone as famous as them had arrived here? Just as I thought so and was about to voice it, a tall man barged into the backyard.

As I thought, it was Maxwell, who had received a word after a delay.

“Is it true that Nicole suffered a grave injury?!”
“That’s already in the past.”

Maxwell shouted as he rushed in, but I retorted calmly. Maxwell looked dubiously at me as he saw my face.

“What is that eyepatch? Did you suffer a lasting injury?”
“No, this is…”

I guess I could call this an after-effect. I gained an excessively strong charming power, after all.

It seemed that just looking into my eyes would simply nail their eyes on me, but if I ‘voiced my desire’ at the same time, this charm power would gain directionality.

In other words, I couldn’t speak anything carelessly with the eyepatch off.

“Well, let’s just say I received a little overpowered ‘ability’ from that goddess. This is a magic item to suppress that.”
“I-is that so. I was awfully worried when I heard you suffered a big injury while I had my eyes off you.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. But you were worried, huh?”
“Of course I was. You are my… I mean, my one and only apprentice.”

He almost said ‘my comrade’ but corrected it. There were people other than us here. Still, to think he would appear in place of Lyell. This old man chose bad timing too. Not to mention, when there was the Pope around too.

The Pope in question gave a deep bow with composed expression and offered a splendid greeting.

“Good to meet you, venerable Maxwell. I am called Ashella.”
“How polite of you. Ashella… One from the World Tree Religion?”
“Yes, I serve as the current Pope. The cardinals are the ones with bigger voices, however.”
“That does sound problematic.”

Maxwell revealed a wileful smile like when he was scheming something. The Pope was the same. It seemed like the chance meeting between Raum and Berith’s influential duo would lead to something troublesome.