Leave a comment

Their hands stopped when they heard my question.

My hunch was on the mark.

Parsha brimmed with curiosity and Gabril made no effort to spot her. It seemed that their bad habit of being eternally penniless was still not cured.

Parsha started flailing her hands in protest as my gaze fell on her.

“Wait! We had some leeway in money when we were in Filaramis!”
“Passing the inspection cost us more than we imagined.”

I felt lethargic.

“You do know that since you’re Mercenary Guild members you can pass for free if you accept Rondoville commissions, right?”
“Uh, well…”
“We were in a hurry,” Gabril answered in his usual carefree manner in place of Parsha who was at a loss.

So it was basically that, huh? They just couldn’t sit still when they heard about the ice dragon. They would’ve realized that its subjugation commission was already completed if only they visited some branch.

“Good grief… By the way, what do you plan about your lodging?”
“U-Uhh…”
“Illya, can you let us stay over?”

I heaved a sigh and responded with a smile.

“Nope.”

Not just Parsha, even Gabril looked regretful.

“Even the floor will do.”
“Still a no. If you end up accidentally munching on Haku’s tail while half-asleep, you’ll give it a bone fracture.”
“W-What about here? There’s a bed in this room, right?”
“That’s a bigger no. Using the branch for personal reasons is forbidden. I can’t make an exception for myself.”

Parsha was petrified with no words, while Gabril just shrugged it off and continued eating.

“Big sis you meanie!!”
“I’m fine being mean. Just do your commissions as you should.”

Thus, it was decided that the two would stay in Luneville to earn the traveling expenses.

That said, I couldn’t just let them go wild, so I banned them from summoning Gnome. I wouldn’t want the town that was developed with trouble to get destroyed, and I had other things to do too.

After I conveyed that, the two agreed without any complaints.

…I wanted to have some time alone with him.

Thus, while the two were away on the commissions, I faced the great earth spirit in the private room.

Haku stared at him curiously at first, but it seemed to have understood things for the most part and moved on to curling up above my apron.

“So then, priestess. What did you wish to discuss with me?”
“Gnomid. Did you notice anything strange?”

Gnomid. Gnome was the name of the masculine form while Gnomid was of the feminine form.

Like Undine, she had transformed into a girl with two braids and no beard according to my tastes, and was now looking at me quizzically with a tilted head and knitted brows.

“Not anything particular I would say… The leylines and the World Tree roots I can sense through them have no particular abnormalities.”
“Can I take it that that’s how it’s been since the last time we met?”
“Indeed. After all, your every action brings influence to the world, Priestess.”

She answered with a smile, but that was a dark history for me.

It made me want to run away just like when your relative auntie teases you about the mischiefs you did as a child.

At any rate, it’s good that I heard the spirit’s view of this matter, even if only related to earth Factors. Or rather, it was all the more important since she was a great spirit deeply related to the earth Factors.

The one thing that I was worried about the most was an evil god’s revival. The one with the highest chance of revival among them was a being called “the oldest evil god” that I killed, who was related to earth Factors and beings like the great spirits.

“I’m relieved to hear that.”
“It is an utmost honor if I served to be of help to you, Priestess. Please ask me anything.”

Her innocent smile with no deeper meaning made me break into one too.

“Then, can you stop calling me Priestess?”
“I am afraid that I can not oblige.”

Tsk. She’s still stubborn with things like this, as always.

If I pushed the matter she’ll probably run away, I thought as I looked out of the window to distract myself.

“Parsha still hasn’t completed the slate, yes?”
“The present fairy king is a little too big of a misanthrope.”

Fairy king’s slate.

That was a treasure that had a way to remove the curse depicted on it, which would allow a fairy to become a fairiel. The fairy kings of many generations willingly placed the trials throughout the world to earn the qualifications to inspect it.

Ever since the current fairy king got to that position, quite a few fairies finished the trial and became fairiels after requesting it from the fairy king.

However, most of them got drowned in their desires or went into self-abandonment, straying away from the proper path. When it was revealed that some of them conspired with humans to bare their fangs at the fairy king, the fairy king destroyed the slate into fragments and hid them in various dungeons and unexplored abysses.

On top of that, you couldn’t reach it with superficial strength, and some devices would require you to have several comrades with you, which would then use bewitchment and such to test your bonds… He basically prepared a bunch of bullying methods under the name of trials.

Though the main reason behind becoming a fairiel was related to love, this went beyond a protective father into an unreasonable and stubborn father.

“Ever since they started acting separately from you, Priestess, their collecting speed dropped significantly. Perhaps one of the reasons why they came for the ice dragon subjugation was to ask you to help with the plate recovery.”

The great spirit nonchalantly disclosed the intentions of her masters.

Looks like I was still in a higher standing compared to their contractors when it came to these girls.

I smiled wryly with those thoughts, but Gnomid started fidgeting around, misunderstanding it for something else.

“T-Those two truly idolize you!”

The Gnome looked both flustered and a little dispirited. I smiled and then went to fix her slanted hat.

“Even without that, those two always try to help people in need, so I wish they became a bit more selfish.”
“…Priestess, you saying that is not very persuasive.”
“What, I live quite selfishly, you know?”

I mean, I’m even letting the devils and the nice evil gods that supposedly exist be.

Even if you call them evil gods, there were various kinds of them. The one I killed, the oldest evil god, was relatively more evil as it periodically ate female sacrifices. But there were also evil gods that raised the sacrificed children instead.

So, though they were ultimately being that brought harm, I didn’t really want to get involved with them too much.

Either way, there was a limit to how much I could look into evil gods right now, so those two mattered more.

“Gnomid. I have one other thing I really need to ask.”
“Please ask me anything.”
“About the way Parsha talks, it’s…”

She tilted her head as I hesitated to continue, but then bloomed into a smile, realizing what I was getting at.

“She is imitating you, Priestess.”