Ch.346Chapter 346 – Tonight, I Will Come to See You. (2)

When Chris dropped his bombshell statement, silence fell among our group.

From a distance, I could see Kara clenching her fist as if pleased with the development, while the usually chatty sailors seemed to notice something was up and were quickly making themselves scarce.

“Ahem.”

Beatrice, who had been talking animatedly just moments ago, cleared her throat, glanced at Chris’s blushing face, then checked the reactions of Sarah and Eve before sighing slightly with disappointment.

“…So it’s the little nun this time. Should I aim for the next opportunity?”

After that meaningful mutter, Beatrice brightened up as if nothing had happened and said cheerfully:

“Looks like there’s a bite on Sia’s fishing rod, so I’ll go check on her.”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I quickly blocked Beatrice’s escape attempt.

She couldn’t have escaped anyway, since Sia, whom Beatrice was using as an excuse to flee, had sensed the suspicious atmosphere and was already slinking over in our direction.

While I was blocking Beatrice’s retreat, Eve and Sarah exchanged glances before turning to Chris.

“Chris, what did you just say…?”

“Ah, no, that’s…!”

Chris flailed her hands in panic.

“It’s treatment! Purely for therapeutic purposes!”

“…And for that, you need to be alone in a room?”

“Well, I concentrate better without prying eyes…!”

“Are you saying Miss Christina needs privacy to focus on her divine arts?”

“It’s just that I get embarrassed…!”

“Embarrassed?”

When Eve tilted her head slightly in question, Chris began a self-destructive spiral.

Eve wasn’t even conducting an interrogation.

Chris was volunteering suspicious statements all on her own.

If she had just played it cool, Eve might have thought nothing of it and moved on, but Chris’s strong reaction was practically advertising that something was going on.

Fortunately for Chris, there was someone willing to take her side.

“Um, so what I meant was…!”

“Chris, let me explain.”

Kara stepped forward with a heavy sigh, positioning herself in front of Chris.

Chris looked up at her with a face on the verge of tears.

“Kara…”

“You should just be straightforward about it…”

Kara sighed again, seemingly finding Chris’s behavior a bit pathetic.

Nevertheless, she soon gave Chris a gentle look before turning to face Sarah and Eve.

She looked like a mother bird protecting her chick.

“Miss Kara, it seems you’re quite familiar with the divine art Chris intends to use?”

“It’s not just familiarity. I know it too. I can perform it as well. In fact, I was the one who suggested it to Chris.”

Eve and Sarah exchanged glances again at Kara’s confident statement.

This time, Sarah took the lead in questioning.

“Could you tell us what kind of technique it is?”

“It’s classified as a top-tier recovery art among divine techniques.”

“Top-tier?”

“It has many conditions that need to be met.”

Kara explained, holding up her fingers.

“It’s one of the high miracles that can revive a dying body. That’s what I suggested to Chris.”

“Revive a dying body?”

“Yes. It’s also known as the resurrection technique.”

Eve and Sarah fell into thought at Kara’s words.

Soon, Eve spoke quietly.

“There is indeed a famous divine art called the resurrection technique. I believe I’ve heard it can bring someone back from the brink of death.”

“Ah, I actually asked Chris about this once out of curiosity. I wondered why such resurrection techniques couldn’t be used on battlefields.”

Sarah said with a smile.

“Can’t be used on battlefields?”

“Yes, Kei. According to Chris, resurrection techniques have extremely strict conditions.”

Sarah counted on her fingers as she spoke.

“It requires an enormous amount of divine power, the technique is difficult so it demands intense concentration, and the patient must be in absolute stability?”

“And I’ve heard the priest performing it needs to have exceptional communion with their deity.”

Beatrice chimed in softly from behind Sia, apparently familiar with the topic.

Then she added as if just remembering:

“Come to think of it, I believe I heard that when using the technique, blessed cloth needs to be placed over the patient or the patient needs to lie on it.”

“No wonder it can’t be used on battlefields.”

Just the requirement for the patient’s absolute stability would be difficult to satisfy on a battlefield where anything could happen.

Add the condition that the caster needs abundant divine power and communion with their deity, and the number of people who could perform it would be very small.

The blessed cloth seems like the easiest condition to meet.

“Ah, I heard that a high priest is needed to create the blessed cloth. It has to be someone different from the caster.”

“So not one but two people are required.”

Two high priests needed just to save one person.

The difficulty level is insane.

And thinking about it more carefully, there was a catch.

“When you think about it, even though it’s called resurrection, it doesn’t seem to actually revive the dead.”

They said it brings someone back from the brink of death, but nobody here mentioned reviving someone who had already died.

It seemed to be resurrection in the sense of saving someone critically ill, not actually raising the dead.

“Good observation. That’s right. It’s not a technique that revives the dead.”

Kara nodded at me as she spoke.

“But its effects are definite. And I judged that this technique could further stabilize your body.”

“Two high priests are needed, but… we have them. Now that I think about it.”

We had both a high priest who could create the blessed cloth and a high priest with exceptional communion with deity who could cast the divine art.

Both were in our party.

“I’ll prepare the materials, and Chris will cast the divine art. There’s no one more suitable than Chris anyway.”

I nodded at Kara’s words.

Since Chris herself was a deity, she easily fulfilled the requirements for divine power and communion with deity, making her the perfect caster.

Soon Kara faced Eve and Sarah with a confident expression.

“What Chris intends to do is legitimate treatment. I think interfering would not help that man either… but will you stop us?”

It felt like Kara was using me to pressure the two.

And Eve smiled slightly before speaking.

“Well, Miss Kara. There’s one thing I’d like to ask…”

“What is it?”

“…You’re going to perform the resurrection technique, correct?”

Kara grinned at Eve’s question.

Her face suggested she’d been waiting for this.

“That’s right.”

“Then, we’ll go with that.”

Eve briefly exchanged glances with Sarah.

Then Sarah spoke up.

“In that case, we’ll regretfully visit you tomorrow, Kei.”

“We’ll make it up to you plenty tomorrow.”

Eve said with a slightly seductive expression.

The thought flashed through my mind that tomorrow night might be challenging.

And seeing my reaction, Eve continued with a smirk.

“I’d like to spend the night with Kei, but treatment comes first. Besides, Miss Christina, Miss Kara, shouldn’t you be preparing?”

“We should. And he should go in and rest too.”

“I-I’ll go ahead then!”

As soon as Eve finished speaking, Chris moved.

She quickly grabbed Kara’s hand and disappeared from sight.

“We did it, we succeeded…!”

“Now all that’s left is to bring out that special outfit.”

“Special outfit?”

Chris was jubilant while Kara seemed to be plotting something.

After watching the two for a moment, I quietly muttered:

“…She said I need to rest.”

I could just lie in bed and rest, but I wondered if that would be enough.

As if reading my thoughts, Sarah approached with a smile.

“You should rest comfortably in bed and use the healing stone, Kei.”

“The healing stone?”

“Yes. Keeping it near your heart should be sufficient.”

The item we got from Rubrum would come in handy.

While I was thinking this, Sarah spoke again.

“To receive the best treatment, you should probably go in and rest now.”

“Is that really okay?”

“It’s fine.”

Eve said with a smile.

“We have Beatrice and Sia here. Kei, you just focus on tonight’s treatment.”

“So please go ahead now.”

Since both of them insisted, I had no reason to refuse.

I nodded in agreement with their words.

“Then I’ll head in first.”

“Have a good night.”

Sarah said with a smile.

Then, as if remembering something, she added:

“Oh, and don’t oversleep, okay?”

“I won’t.”

I don’t think I’ll oversleep anyway.

Thinking her words were strange, I headed to my cabin.

+

After Chris and Kara left to prepare, and Kei also departed to rest as instructed, the situation seemed to conclude.

The sailors, who had an uncanny sense for when drama was over, quietly returned to their duties.

Eve watched them for a moment before quietly saying:

“That was bold.”

“Indeed.”

Sarah agreed.

Then Beatrice quietly asked:

“Bold?”

“Yes. Truly bold.”

Eve said this and then looked at Sarah.

“Sarah inadvertently helped them.”

“I know.”

Sarah said this, then quietly continued:

“…She said it’s a technique also known as the resurrection art.”

“But she never confirmed whether it’s the resurrection technique we know.”

Eve said with a smile.

And Sia, who had been quiet until now, tilted her head and asked:

“Are they not using the resurrection technique?”

“She said it’s a technique known by that nickname. That’s all.”

“The conversation smoothly shifted to the actual resurrection technique, but we don’t know if that’s what Chris will be performing. And…”

“…She never explained why the little nun would be embarrassed about it.”

Eve, Sarah, and Beatrice answered in sequence.

After understanding the situation, Sia quietly asked:

“…So you all…”

“Pretended to be fooled.”

Eve said with a light laugh.

“Otherwise, poor Chris finally worked up her courage.”

“The little nun must have some secret she can’t talk about. She’s probably relieved right now, thinking her plan worked.”

Beatrice thought that if Chris knew they had seen through it but played along out of consideration, she would be even more embarrassed.

Looking at the two women who had been remarkably composed throughout, she asked:

“You two are surprisingly calm about this?”

“I figured this would happen eventually.”

Eve said quietly.

“Honestly, it’s been obvious that Christina has feelings for Kei.”

“And she’s been subtly trying to show it for a while. Given her personality, she couldn’t be more direct, so there wasn’t much progress.”

“I’d like to call this a major step forward, but… given Christina’s personality, that’s impossible. Someone must have encouraged her and she got swept up in it without realizing.”

Eve looked in the direction Kara had disappeared and spoke.

“She won’t be spending time with Kei today.”

“Indeed.”

“Aren’t you angry?”

Beatrice probed cautiously.

Sarah nodded quietly and said:

“If it were a complete stranger, maybe, but if it’s Chris…”

“She’s a good person. It’s acceptable.”

The two were taking it much more graciously than expected.

Thinking they wouldn’t engage in a life-or-death struggle over this, Beatrice smiled and said:

“I thought you two wouldn’t tolerate any competitors.”

“We went through that phase, but considering Kei’s health isn’t great, we don’t want to cause unnecessary conflict that would distress him.”

Sarah said with a faint smile.

She seemed slightly disappointed but accepting.

‘This might be okay.’

Beatrice sighed lightly before smiling and saying:

“This might sound strange, but I’ve seen Sarah and the Guild Master lady having tense standoffs a few times, so I was a bit worried.”

“So you thought we’d get angry at Christina?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t that be natural?”

Beatrice agreed with Eve’s words.

Soon Eve smiled and said:

“…We did have our confrontations, that’s true.”

“Especially given how we first met.”

The two remembered their first encounter at a restaurant.

Eve had entered with her subordinate Rachel, while Sarah had come with Kei.

“But we quickly realized there was no need to push each other away.”

“Because we knew that when something happens, this person would be the one who could help Kei.”

“So there was no need to drive away someone who’s nearby.”

At Eve’s composed words, Beatrice fell into thought.

For all that, their confrontations had been quite intense.

Forming a hypothesis, Beatrice decided to carefully confirm it.

“…Were you fighting over who gets to be right beside him?”

“Something like that. Mikea Kingdom isn’t monogamous after all.”

“There was no need to completely reject the other’s existence!”

From what they were saying, it seemed their conflict really had been about who got to sit closest to him, Beatrice thought.

‘And judging by how calm they are, they must have reached a conclusion?’

Beatrice decided to probe deeper.

“So you’ve reached a conclusion?”

“No.”

Eve said quietly.

“In the end, whatever we decide, Kei is the one who chooses.”

“And we think Kei will accept both of us being by his side. And…”

“Even if something happens to one of us, the other will support Kei. We realized there’s no need to fight fiercely over something that isn’t ours to decide.”

‘So that’s why they’re letting the little nun have her moment.’

Ultimately, it was Kei’s decision to make, and they intended to remain by his side regardless of the outcome.

‘Still, it must have been hard to be this gracious.’

Perhaps they had gone through more inner turmoil than it appeared, or maybe they had been of one mind for some time, Beatrice thought.

While Beatrice was drawing her own conclusions about Eve and Sarah’s relationship, Eve spoke as if remembering something:

“Now there are four, I suppose?”

“Probably?”

Eve and Sarah looked at Beatrice as they said this.

Beatrice tensed slightly and asked:

“…Who’s the fourth?”

“Who could it be?”

“We’re curious too.”

The two slowly approached Beatrice.

‘I take it back.’

They might be accepting of Chris because they’d known her for a long time, but that didn’t mean they were accepting of everyone.

Thinking that the look in their eyes was somewhat frightening, Beatrice glanced at Sia.

She was hoping Sia might help her.

Noticing the glance, Sia sighed as if resigned, then smiled and said:

“Looks like there’s a bite. Have a good time.”

“Hey, aren’t you going to help me?”

Sia ignored Beatrice’s plea.

+

While Beatrice was in a crisis facing Eve and Sarah, Chris was heading to Kara’s cabin with her.

“…I did it…”

Chris muttered softly, clenching her fist.

“I finally did it…!”

She had finally secured an opportunity to advance her relationship with Kei.

Having successfully arranged a private meeting with Kei at night, Chris was smiling more brightly than usual with joy.

‘Alone with Lord Kei… a secret rendezvous…’

Though the purpose was treatment and she genuinely intended it as such, it still meant a man and woman would be alone in a room.

How far their relationship would progress was uncertain, but it could become more intimate.

‘If I do well, we might even kiss…!’

Clenching her fist slightly, Chris began to imagine the scenario in her head.

Watching her, Kara spoke up:

“You look happy, Chris.”

“Yes. It’s all thanks to you, Kara…!”

Chris believed she had this opportunity to advance her relationship thanks to Kara’s enthusiastic support.

Kara nodded and said:

“I did work quite hard.”

“…Yes. Thank you so much, Kara.”

Though it might sound like she was being sarcastic about Kara taking all the credit, Chris meant it sincerely.

Kara knew this, so the two smiled warmly at each other.

They were heading to Kara’s cabin in good spirits to prepare for tonight…

“But you know.”

Kara’s voice turned slightly cold.

Her gaze swept over Chris once.

‘W-what is it?’

As Chris instinctively became nervous at Kara’s slightly displeased look, Kara stared at her with serious eyes.

“By the way, Chris, are you going in that outfit?”

“Huh, of course I am?”

“…Hmm.”

As Kara looked at her with disapproval, Chris quickly examined her own clothes.

‘…There’s no dirt anywhere…?’

Though quite worn, it was a clean nun’s habit as she never neglected her laundry.

In fact, she had taken special care with this particular outfit for today.

Since she had no other clothes besides her nightgown and nun’s habit, she had no other options.

“Even for a special occasion, I don’t think you’ll progress beyond a kiss in that outfit.”

“R-really?”

“Yes. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed.”

At Kara’s words, Chris suddenly felt a wave of shame.

Normally she wouldn’t have cared, but perhaps due to her anticipation for tonight, for the first time ever, she felt slightly embarrassed about her nun’s habit.

‘…But I can’t get clothes from anywhere…’

It was obviously impossible to buy clothes on a ship that had already set sail.

And if she wanted to borrow something, the only person on the ship with a similar build to Chris was Kara.

Even then, Kara’s clothes would probably be slightly loose on Chris.

‘What should I do…?’

Chris felt like a crisis had suddenly descended upon her.

And seeing her distress, Kara smiled and said:

“Well, I anticipated this and prepared clothes for you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I spent an enormous amount of divine power to make them in time. I made them from scratch.”

“You made clothes?”

Chris was slightly surprised by Kara’s words.

And Kara grinned as she spoke:

“I was a saint, after all. I can easily handle such minor tasks with divine power.”

“…You’re still a saint.”

Chris responded with a slightly exasperated smile at Kara’s words.

Using divine power for mundane tasks seemed a bit ridiculous, but there was nothing bad about it at the moment.

In fact, she felt fortunate, so she could overlook that part generously.

‘This is really fortunate…’

If it was a newly made outfit, she wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed about her nun’s habit.

While thinking this, Chris became curious about something.

‘…Where did she get the fabric?’

As far as Chris knew, Kara hadn’t brought anything that could be used as fabric.

If she had, Eve would certainly have noticed.

‘How did she get fabric without the Guild Master noticing…?’

“You look like you’re wondering how I made the clothes.”

Kara grinned as she spoke.

Chris decided to answer honestly.

“I am curious.”

“You’ll see soon enough. Anyway, here’s my cabin.”

The two had arrived at Kara’s cabin.

And Kara grinned as she said:

“Once I open this door, you’ll see the clothes I made.”

“Really?”

“Of course. But before I open the door, promise me one thing.”

Kara smiled meaningfully as she spoke.

“In appreciation of my effort, you’ll wear the clothes I made when you go to that man. Understood?”

“…Yes!”

These were clothes that Kara had secretly made for her.

There might be some flaws, but Chris couldn’t ignore the sincerity behind them.

“Then I’ll open it.”

“…Okay.”

Kara opened the door.

With a creaking sound, the door opened, and clothes could be seen hanging on a rack inside.

And Chris froze.

“…Kara?”

“What’s wrong?”

“…Is this really okay?”

Chris slowly turned her gaze to Kara.

And Kara nodded confidently as she said:

“This will definitely work.”

“Um.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t want to wear it now, Chris.”

“But…”

Chris thought that rather than wearing this, she should just go in her original nun’s habit.

She couldn’t imagine wearing such an outfit in her right mind.

Facing such a Chris, Kara quietly said:

“Is the goddess planning to break her promise to her devotee?”

“…Um.”

“Trust me, Chris.”

Kara placed her hand on Chris’s shoulder.

“With this, you can definitely go beyond a kiss.”

“……”

“Just trust me.”

Kara was serious.