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We headed to the church while I held Fina in my arms. Finia, Maria, and Lyell were coming with me. As well as Ashella who was dressed overly extravagantly. After looking over them, I realized that someone was missing.

“Huh, wait, where’s Cortina?”
“Oh, we sent her on endurance training with someone to monitor her. It’s been three hours.”
“Oof…”

Cortina, being of a feline race, was by no means weak physically. Rather, her race far exceeded humans in terms of explosive power. However, when it came to stamina, they were at most on a human’s level, or even lower.

This was apparently because their muscles developed that way to maintain their high explosive power. It seems this was also the reason why many of their members had petite builds.

And that Cortina was out on a three-hour endurance run now? Even I’d die from that.

“Mommy, look, look, people are avoiding us.”
“Indeed. It must be because this auntie here dressed in fancy clothes to appear young.”
“Maria, why do I feel like your words are thorny?”
“Well of course. I was supposed to hold this baptism ceremony, but you snatched it from me.”
“Oh come on, that’s because you didn’t call me during Nicole’s baptism!”

Ashella made excuses while flapping her overly long sleeves around.

She looked pretty much like an elementary student from the outside, but she was old enough in reality that Maria could call her aunt. Good grief, just like Whitey, she’s as immature as it could possibly get.

“But it’s still your fault, okay? Why did you go and wear such an extravagant vestment in this poor, remote village.”
“Oh? But isn’t your vestment of even higher quality than mine?”
“But this one looks simple at least on the outside.”

Looking closely, Maria’s vestment was plain-looking black, but it felt like it was sucking the light in. Moreover, the surface looked rough and didn’t seem to have a texture. It seemed like some sort of skin… Wait, I remember this.

“Could it be Evil Dragon’s membrane?”
“Oh, how perceptive of you. I ordered it alongside Lyell’s scale armor when they made it. The seamstress did scold me that a needle couldn’t pass through it and she had a hard time.”
“…I’m surprised she managed to do it.”
“We used Lyell’s Holy Sword to poke pinholes in it.”
“That’s such a wild method.”

Using the Holy Sword for pinholes was so sad it made me want to cry. Moreover, there were countless stitches on it, so I couldn’t help but think how fruitless it was, considering how much Lyell had to work to make pinholes.

I broke into cold sweat without letting Fina see it. I moved my gaze away from Maria to the front to drop this topic, but then, I saw some kind of tattered, dustcloth-like roll of fur lying on the ground.

“What’s that?”
“Ugh.”

Strangely enough, that fur raised a groan. Wait, it wasn’t fur. It was Cortina, who had collapsed due to fatigue and looked like tattered cloth.

Fina jumped down from my arms and dashed to Cortina.

“Teeenaaa!”
“Ugh, Fina, run, there’s a demon here. And he’s called Lyell….”
“Don’t diee, your wounds are only fatal!”
“That means I’ll die! More importantly, who taught you that ominous line?”
“Mommy.”
“Listen, Fina. She’s a traitor. A manipulator.”
“Whaa?!”
“Stop telling her such irresponsible things.”

Maria slapped Cortina on the head as she was drilling disturbing ideas into Fina. Then she cast Cure with flowing movements. Her fatigue wouldn’t recover, but it could recover her body condition itself.

It seemed to have had some effect, and Cortina staggered to her feet.

“Speaking of which, where are your two guards?”
“Oh, when they saw me drop flat and stop moving, they rushed out to bring water.”
“Shouldn’t you have called mom instead?”
“If I did that I’d have been put through even more pain, you know?!”
“Oh, okay…?”

Cortina drew close to me while shedding waterfalls. Unlike before, we were on the same eye level now. It’s been three years since I left Raum. I’ve grown quite a bit too in these years.

“Actually, aren’t you a little cruel too, Nicole? You never come to see me!”
“Err, I don’t?”

I actually met her all the time as Reid, and I was visiting this place as Nicole too from time to time. I talked to Cortina during those occasions, but she apparently found it lacking.

“I can somehow put up with this hell since I get to adore Fina as much as I want, though.”
“Nyaaaaaahhh!”

She ruffled Fina’s hair and rubbed her cheeks with hers as she said that. Because of that, Fina’s tidied-up hair was roughed up. Finia pulled her from Cortina’s hands and quickly fixed her hair. Finia’s timidness was gone too, huh.

“That aside, where are you all going dressed up like that?”
“We’re going to baptize Fina. Ashella came here for that reason too.”
“Oh… Wait, Ashella? Wait, the Pope?!”
“Oh, you know about me? It’s an honor.”
“Why are you in such a place?! Aren’t you a super important person?”
“It feels strange to hear that from you.”

Maria calmly rebutted her question. With Cortina and Maria present, Ashella’s importance fell by a level. She was still one of the world’s most prominent people though.

Cortina looked greatly perplexed, but Ashella wasn’t one to back down from it. She was instead puffing her chest proudly, so she probably didn’t realize that Cortina was implicitly telling her not to show up here.

“Oh well. But I want to come along to the baptism ceremony too.”
“You won’t be able to get in the church so there’s no point.”
“Even so! It’s a rare celebration, so let me participate. You’re fine with that too, right, Lyell.”
“Well, I did make you run to the limit today, so I guess you can take a break.”
“Yaay!”

Cortina snapped her fingers and yelled in joy. And with that, she got to participate in the baptism ceremony as well.