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–––Freya’s viewpoint

I could tell that mentioning Lichium’s name caused her to stiffen up. Lichium was known not just in Lumielle, but in the entire world as a Saint. Hearing that name would never make a regular person feel nervous. This girl knew something, I was sure of it, so I decided to apply a bit of pressure.

“Lithium..? I’m sorry, I don’t really know…”
“I don’t mind if it’s just a small detail. Could you tell me anything you know? Please.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything.”

I continued to bow to her, asking her to tell me, while she apologized with a worried look. As that continued, other villagers started to take notice, and by the time a small crowd started to form she finally broke.

“Okay okay, I get it so please stop doing that!”
“So you’ll tell me what you know?”
“I’ll tell you what I was told. Come to my house, there’s too many people here.”

She turned around and walked away, trying to avoid the gaze of people, and I followed after her. She took me to a detached house.

“Ahh… that was a close one. Just a bit more and the entire village would’ve been there.”
“I’m sorry, I just really need to know more about Lichium, and it seemed like you knew something.”
“The things I do…”

She grumbled something, telling me to sit somewhere, so I reclined myself against the single table in the house. The owner of the house, the girl, sat in front of me. Now that we were somewhere private, she looked far more relaxed and calm than earlier.

“First of all, I don’t have any tea or other things to offer visitors. Going to the well to get water is also too much effort.”
“That’s alright. I’ll leave as soon as I hear everything. Also, do you mind if I ask your name?”

After everything that happened, I realized I did not know her name yet, and she nodded.

“My name… is Ion. How do I put this… I’m the descendant of Lichium, the person you’re looking for.”
“?!”

Lichium’s descendant?! I had never heard about him having a family, but it was not impossible. There had been signs that Lichium had visited this village multiple times in the past, and that made sense if he was visiting his family, and not just meeting with friends.

“Lichium’s descendant… I see, I wasn’t expecting to find someone like that.”
“…Please don’t tell anyone. I’m only telling you because I trust you as the hero Freya. I may be his descendant, but I have no special abilities, he lived three centuries ago so he’s basically a stranger to me too.”

I could understand that. Three centuries was enough for many generations to pass, which meant grandsons marrying into different families, mudding the family history. But the existence of his descendents was kept to this village because she never told anyone.

“So what exactly did you want to know about Lichium?”

She made no effort to conceal the fact she wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. Maybe she disliked talking about Lichium in general. Feeling a bit bad for her, I explained why and how I got here, and she crossed her arms in deep thought.

“A staff… I’m sorry, but as you can see, there’s nothing that precious in my house. My ancestor was a rather eccentric man, and I was told he didn’t really leave any sort of mementos behind.”
“I see… You weren’t told any stories either?”
“Even if there was anything left, it probably already got sold by my ancestors. We were never a wealthy family, and an item that belonged to Lichium would’ve sold for a lot of money.”
“…”

I did not want to admit it, but Ion was right. But this also meant I had reached the end of that lead. Seeing me looking so dejected, Ion started feeling bad for me and tried to think hard again.

“Since you came all the way here… maybe visiting his grave could tell you something? There’s a gravesite in the backyard, and I believe Lichium was buried there, so maybe you could learn something there?”

I realized I was smiling, having felt her kindness.

“You’re right. Since I’m already here I might as well give a prayer for the Saint Lichium.”

There was an old and crumbling gravestone in Ion’s backyard. It looked like it was well-kept, but its old age had eroded it to the point where it hardly looked like a gravestone. I knelt in front of it and silently prayed to Lumiere.

(Lumiere, please bless Lichium that sleeps here, Ion, and all her ancestors.)

A light of prayer surrounded my body, and then extended into the gravestone. To my surprise, a portion of the light branched off, pointing to the pole used to hang clothes in the yard. Once the light reached it, the entire pole began to glow majestically, a holy and serene glow filling the surrounding area. It was so sudden that Ion was left dumbfounded.

“Wh-what is…”
“Wait… could it be that the pole is Lichium’s staff?”
“Huh?! That pole?!”

I hesitantly reached for the pole and tried channeling a bit of mana into it, and I felt like my magic power was getting multiplied many times over.

“…Yes, I’m certain now. This… this is the staff Lichium used. Ion! Could I please borrow the staff? I’ll do anything in return, so please let me take it!”
“Umm… umm! Y-you don’t have to do anything! You can take it! There’s plenty of branches I can use in its place.”
“I can’t accept that. This staff is a valuable relic for the temple. I can’t take it for free. Hmm… alright, let’s do this.”

I decided to make an offer to Ion. I would give her all the money I had currently in my possession, and once I got back to the temple I would thank her properly again. If I had to estimate, I had roughly around ten thousand gold coins with me, which felt like a cheap price to pay to save the pope. Meanwhile Ion was frozen, completely shocked either out of fear or nerves, or just trying to process her luck to obtain enough money for a lifetime in an instant.