episode_0534

Professor Bellus. To be exact, a week has passed since the battle with the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings, Bertus.

The first thing they did after the battle was to stop by the church and check for any abnormalities in their bodies.

First of all, it was possible that not only Mirif, who had been kidnapped and almost subjected to human experimentation, but also other people had even a little bit of bodily fluid on their bodies from Bertus’ transformation pattern.

Of course, if you think about the original story, there won’t be any problems with your body if you come into contact with bodily fluids, but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful. Fortunately, the test results were all normal.

‘… Thinking back, it was a miraculous victory.’

I could only say that it was a victory achieved through a combination of many factors including luck.

Thanks to the fact that I was stopped midway from transforming by taking some strange drug, my transformation form wasn’t complete, and thanks to the ridiculous misunderstanding that I was a survivor of the water village, I was able to secure an escape route.

… and, thanks to the magical power of Mana Blast temporarily reviving the victims, I was able to kill them with certainty.

If there wasn’t even one of them, we would be crawling on the lab floor like those flesh-colored monsters, or we would have used Mana Blast as a last resort and died as a result.

Thinking back on it, it was a spine-chillingly dangerous moment. I’m glad we somehow managed to finish it safely.

‘It’s a bit of a shame that Professor Bellus was just listed as missing.’

The fact that there was a professor who conducted human experiments on students in the basement of the Academy was widely spread was not good news for either the Academy or the Empire.

Not only will it tarnish the reputation of both sides, but it will also confuse the minds of the students currently enrolled at the Academy.

Above all, information about how many experiments Bertus conducted and on whom has been completely lost.

It is impossible to guess what the monster looked like when it was human just from its appearance, and the list of names from when it was originally human was probably buried in the underground laboratory along with Bertus’s body.

It was a truly unsettling ending, as many of the students who went missing under Bertus were left missing forever.

‘In the end, this is the best the kids can do without the hero.’

Still, it is a great achievement to have killed the Four Heavenly Kings without a warrior. To be exact, it is not the Four Heavenly Kings, but the Four Heavenly Kings (Jin).

The positions of the Four Heavenly Kings that Noctis and Bertus should have filled will probably be filled by other demons. Of course, they won’t be as strong as those two guys, so even if you don’t know the strategy, I believe that anyone who knows how to use the Gyeomjyo-Jo-Se-Gi-Gi-Oh can do it.

‘I got to know Bertus because I used the excuse that I heard it through a prophecy when I was a saint.’

I thought I had successfully saved Mirif and defeated Bertus, and that I had managed to find a suitable excuse to overcome the problems that arose in the process… .

… A week has passed since then. These days, a new worry has arisen for me.

“Ah, Mirif. Where are you now… .”

“… Ah, Lee, Sister Lily! I, uh, I have something to do back at church, so I’ll excuse myself! ”

“… Yeah.”

That’s right, recently Mirif has started to blatantly avoid me.

Last time when he escaped from the lab, he seemed to be strangely unable to make eye contact with me, but recently, I have often seen him get startled and run away when he accidentally runs into me inside the academy.

And he was reacting in a way that was so blatant that anyone could tell he was trying to avoid me.

‘Is it because I acted too perfectly in the underground lab that I’m from Suin Village?’

Ethan and Antonio already knew that I was once the ‘Saint of Prophecy’, so they would have understood my excuse. Mezlen, being a member of the royal family, would have heard my story from Seraphine and Antonio.

However, since Mirif didn’t know that I was the Saint of Prophecy, the explanation I gave her back then might have felt like a somewhat impromptu excuse. In the first place, there was no other saint in her mind than Serista.

Even if I were to reassure Mirif, I couldn’t explain everything about my relationship with Serista and the saints right then and there, so it’s possible that she still hasn’t cleared up her misunderstanding about me.

‘This needs to be resolved quickly.’

I have already learned from many experiences that if you pile it up unnecessarily, it will only become poison later.

With those thoughts in mind, I followed behind Mirif, holding the whispering leaf.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

‘But you didn’t lie.’

As I walked along the whispering leaves, the place my footsteps reached was the Academy Church.

I thought she just made up an excuse to avoid me and ran away. Or maybe she had no choice but to come back because she thought it would be considered lying if she didn’t go to church.

First, I walked towards the third floor hospital room following the direction indicated by the whispering leaves, and then I heard the familiar voice of a priestess inside one of the rooms.

‘Yes. Then get some rest and be careful next time.’

‘I… Priestess. I don’t think my arm is moving yet. If you could just wait a little longer… .’

‘Oh, really? Then should I cut it once and try to treat it again? Maybe there was a problem during the treatment… .’

‘Ah, oh, it moves! Thank you, Father!’

… that joke is a bit scary.

But if I didn’t say it like that, I wouldn’t be able to kick out all the nagging male students one by one. Still, thanks to my background as an adventurer, I was able to draw a clear line in this regard.

When we first went on an expedition together, the guy called Bottom or something was acting up, but Mirif struck him down like a knife, so the level of flirting from the Academy students must have been cute.

-Knock knock.

“Then get some rest, patient. I’ll take my leave now… .”

“Mirriff. Are you done with your business?”

“Hiyaak?! Lee, Sister Lily?!”

“I have something to tell you, if that’s okay with you… .”

“Sister Mirif! Could you come for a moment?! The patient in Ward 7 suddenly… .”

“Ah, yes! I’ll go right now!”

“… … .”

“Sorry, I’m sorry, Sister Lily! I, I’m busy right now, so I’ll talk to you later!”

Mirif disappears, clutching at the perfect excuse that just appeared as if it were some kind of lifeline.

Since he had a determined attitude of not wanting to talk to me, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed at this point.

I had a strong desire to somehow have a sincere conversation with Miriff and clear up all the misunderstandings she had about me.

“I’m glad you’ve calmed down. Then I’ll go to the waiting room for a moment… .”

“Do you want to go together, Mirif? You just said you were going to the waiting room, right?”

“… Hey, I meant the patient waiting room, Sister Lily! That’s it for now… !”

“Whew, I’m glad you’re safe somehow. And I think I’ll only prescribe one potion each. It seems like it’ll be hard for us to get stamina and magic potions for the time being. Well then, goodbye… .”

“Are you done with work now, Mirif?”

“Ah, you haven’t left yet, Sister Lily… ?”

“I have the whole day off today. So let’s talk leisurely from now on… .”

“Mi, Sister Mirif! Come here for a moment!”

“Yes, yes, yes…!! I’m, I’m sorry, Sister Lily!”

…Is this how a returning student feels when he keeps hitting on new students and gets rejected over and over again?

Since I’ve been refused the opportunity to talk openly like this, I feel like it’s time to start being more cautious.

It would be good to clear up the misunderstandings that have built up between me and her, but it would also be putting the cart before the horse if it made Mirif uncomfortable.

‘But it’s not a good idea to continue to harbor the misunderstanding that I’m from Suin Village.’

As someone who has had an experience of having an accident after harboring a strange misunderstanding for a long time, I really didn’t want to make Mirif go down the same path as me.

Above all, it was a misunderstanding that would have been better left alone. Unlike werewolves, water people were still treated as demons in the empire.

‘By the way, it seems that Miriff is really trusted in the church.’

There were instances where they made excuses and distanced themselves from me, but most of the time, it was the priests who discovered Mirif who called her first and she ran away with them.

Because I often treated patients directly at the Academy Church and because I dealt with adventurers with strong egos, my strong personality seemed to be very helpful in dealing with people.

“Hey, Mirif… .”

“Oh, later… .”

“Mirif, wait a minute… .”

“There’s something urgent… .”

After that, I wandered around the Academy Church for almost two hours playing tag to talk to Miriff, a popular member of the Academy Church.

It was the moment when, after a long period of effort without giving up, they finally succeeded in driving Mirif to a place where he could no longer escape.

-dripping.

“Are you in there, Mirif?”

“… … .”

“You can’t run away anymore.”

“Uh, uh, this is the bathroom, Sister Lily… .”

“So what? Since Mirif keeps running away without even talking to me, I can’t do anything about it. Even though it’s a little embarrassing, I have no choice but to talk about it in a place like this.”

“… … .”

You should have just stopped doing that and gotten caught up in it.