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Oh no—! That blow could very well be fatal!

“「The Great Healing Hand shall kindle your flame of life.」—Regeneration!!”

Almost on reflex, I aimed my trusty staff, the Ari di Luce, at Regulus and cast Regeneration.
Golden light enveloped him, and the limp body slumped against the wall drew breath once more.

“—Cough! Cough… My- my thanks, My Princess. Urgh, what a kick that was. Nearly every rib shattered in one strike, one of my lungs collapsed as well…”

Coughing up blood, Regulus still bowed his head toward me.

Meanwhile, the assailant, Eliza, tilted her head curiously, her leg still dangling from the kick.

“I still can’t quite grasp the control, it’s difficult. But this is amazing. My entire body is brimming with power. What specs this body must have! And to think—this much destructive force when I’m not even used to it yet.”

The reckless kick had clearly taken a toll; her leg was swollen purple, blood pooling beneath the skin—perhaps even a complex fracture. Yet she stroked it fondly, as though admiring it.

Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—since her body had been replicated from mine, its abilities matched mine as well. The auto-healing that Eliza could never use before now activated instinctively, restoring her injuries before our very eyes. In moments, the leg was whole again, without a single blemish.

“How marvelous. This healing. This seemingly inexhaustible power! Truly, the very embodiment of the Saintess. Now I understand just how small, how worthless that little girl I was before truly was. …And yet, this still isn’t anywhere close to the full extent of it. Clara, tell me—what are you, really?”

…That’s what I’d like to know.

“Your Shrine Maiden Princess title, your standing within the Order, your power—everything—I can make far better use of it all. So hand it over to me.”

With arms spread wide, Eliza repeated her ecstatic yet utterly unreasonable demand.

The name of the Shrine maiden Princess, symbol and idol of the Church.
The position that would surely be expected of me in the future within Livitium Imperial Kingdom.
The glory that would spread across the entire continent.

She was demanding I surrender all of it to her. So, in response, I…

“…Ah, sure. Certainly. Please, take it.”

Drawing upon my full spirit of shoving things onto others, I unconditionally offered up the title of Shrine Maiden Princess and everything else besides.

At once—

“……Wh… WHAAAAAAT?!”

Her theatrically composed demeanor collapsed in an instant, Eliza’s shrill outburst echoing through the underground cavern.

♦♢♦♢

“They say you’re aiming for the summit of Mount Clorinda? Forget it— even A-rank adventurers can’t make it up there.”

In a tavern at one of the post towns surrounding Holy City Thera Maryth, the capital of the Eunice Theocracy, an adventurer drinking the local sake—on Jesse’s tab—spoke with a grim expression.

“It can’t be impossible. I tried going into the forest at the foot of the mountain the other day, and there weren’t many monsters. And besides, Mount Clorinda isn’t all that tall, even if it’s called a sacred peak.”
“The height’s not the problem. It’s what’s on the way that’s deadly.”
“What do you mean?”
“First, you’ve got to get through the Clorinda Flame Labyrinth at the mountain’s base. I don’t know where you came from, but volcanic dungeons are a whole different kind of hell.”
“That won’t be an issue. I’ve been to the Stulti Vastitates before. I know a thing or two about handling extreme heat.”
“Oh? You’ve been to that wasteland, huh? Still—the real problem is what comes after the labyrinth. The exit usually spits you out around Clorinda’s mid-slope… and that’s where the monster shows up.”
“Monster?”

Pouring more sake into the adventurer’s cup, Jesse urged him to go on.

—And so.

After splitting up to gather information, Jesse and the others regrouped at their inn by evening, just as planned, to share their findings.

For the record, Jesse, Eleanor, and Bruno did the tavern rounds for hearsay; Chaton set up a little stall to peddle goods while listening to gossip; Pryui and Asimi asked the forest and stream spirits for news; the rest stayed behind at the inn.

“I heard that twenty or thirty years ago, a True Dragon took up residence at the summit of Mount Clorinda.”

At Jesse’s words, Eleanor tilted her head.

“That’s strange. The story I heard said it was some bizarre creature—something that’s neither man nor frog—that built its nest up there.”

Bruno also spoke up in protest.

“The story I heard was that swarms of golems in maid uniforms attack you.”

Finally, while counting the day’s sales, Chaton added,

“True or not, they say there’s been a miniskirted maid girl who hasn’t aged a day in thirty years, nya. She holds her stomach and says, ‘My chronic ailment…’ and when you try to help her, she suddenly sucker-punches you in the gut, strips you bare, and dumps you at the mountain’s base, nya.”

When all those conflicting rumors were pieced together, the conclusion was:

“There’s no mistake. At the very least, that useless maid is on that mountain! Which means it’s highly likely Lady Jill is there with her!!”

Pointing decisively toward the volcano outside the window—Sacred Peak Clorinda—Eren declared.

“—I’ve been saying that from the very start, haven’t I?!”

The frail old man who looked more like a ragged scarecrow than a pontiff—Pope Theodoros—squawked, but everyone else only gave him the lukewarm looks one reserves for a senile elder.

“Indeed, this matches with what I’d previously heard from Sir Emil as well. I’ll proceed with my plan to reach the summit of Mount Clorinda. I can’t even imagine how dangerous it will be, but everyone—please, lend me your strength.”

When Luke bowed his head once again, everyone responded with nods of agreement.

♦♢♦♢

“Please, by all means, go take it.”

If she’s willing to take it, then I’ll gladly hand over this cross.

I answered lightly, but the moment I did, Eliza’s smug expression crumbled. She stomped toward me in a fluster, frothing at the mouth as she shouted:

“Hold it right there! Do you even understand what I’m saying?! I told you I’m taking the title of Shrine Maiden Princess and your entire life as Clara! This is the part where you should be shouting things like, ‘I won’t let you!’ or ‘How dare you try to steal the fruit of my efforts?!’ Instead, you’re just—what, giving it away like you’re lending me a tissue? Is Clara’s name and the title of Shrine Maiden Princess really so trivial to you?!”

Wowww… what a hassle…
I mean, if she says she wants it, everything would be solved neatly if she’d just take it, but why is she getting so worked up about this?

“Well?! What do those things mean to you—the title of Priestess Princess and the name of Clara?! Tell me honestly!”
“Uh, well… if I tell you honestly, you won’t get angry or hit me, right?”

At the very least, I wanted to put up a safeguard, because she didn’t look like the type to accept compromise.

“…I won’t get angry. Go on, say it.”

Ah, that’s definitely the “I promise I won’t be mad” pattern. Like when your mother says ‘Just tell me the truth, I won’t be angry’—and the moment you confess, she absolutely blows up.

With no other choice, I steeled myself and put my true feelings into words.

“Um… to put it in a single phrase…”
“In a single phrase…?”
“…Being called the Shrine Maiden Princess, and living life as ‘Clara’… is kind of an embarrassment…?”

In that instant, Eliza’s fist—pulled with no restraint—came flying at me.