Ch.87Chapter 87 – Elena’s Inner Thoughts

‘B425’.

Room B425, fourth floor of B-wing in the Glesius Academy dormitory.

This was Elena Sandrios’ room where she lived at Glesius Academy.

After parting with Mina and returning to her dormitory, one thought kept circling in Elena’s mind.

“……”

At this moment, Elena was holed up in her room in dormitory B-wing, blankly staring at the ceiling.

She had forgotten both hunger and sleepiness as she mulled over the conversation she’d had with Etherna a few days ago.

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The Foundation Day grand banquet hall provided separate spaces where attendees could catch their breath or have private conversations.

Among these, the most popular place was the balcony.

This was because it extended outside the building while having walls and pillars that adequately shielded people from sunlight, rain, and wind.

Thanks to this design, conversations on one balcony couldn’t be overheard from another.

The grand banquet hall had six balconies in total.

On one of them, two women appeared.

A woman with silver hair and another with golden hair.

They were Etherna and Elena.

The two had come here because of Etherna.

Etherna Lumio Sol, the Chief Inquisitor and Saint of the Solar Order.

She had brought Elena to the balcony because she had something to ask her.

Once on the balcony, Etherna and Elena stood silently facing each other.

Etherna with her nearly closed eyes and Elena with her blue pupils.

Of the two gazing at each other, Elena was the first to speak.

“What… did you want to tell me by bringing me here?”

Elena’s eyes trembled severely as she questioned Etherna.

This stemmed from Etherna’s official position.

The Saint of the Solar Order was a status known only to a select few among the Solar Order’s leadership.

Her public title of Inquisitor was not something to be taken lightly.

This position, called either Inquisitor or Heresy Judge, had the authority to identify and punish those associated with demon cults and their collaborators.

In particular, the only means to identify demon cult participants was the holy power possessed by each order’s inquisitors.

The inquisitors of each order awakened another quality of holy power through rigorous training and self-discipline.

This awakened holy power causes intense aversion in demons and their collaborators and worshippers just by approaching them.

Thus, for demon cults specifically, inquisitors were essentially walking law books and judges.

If an inquisitor looked at someone and felt that person rejecting them?

That person would be branded as a suspect by the inquisitor, and if unable to prove their innocence, would be completely branded as a heretic and subjected to repentance.

Repentance was simple.

It involved infusing holy power, which is antithetical to demons.

If the subject of repentance was innocent, their body would become healthier and they would live longer without minor illnesses.

However, if they were collaborating with or worshipping demons, the holy power would burn them completely from their internal organs to their soul.

So it was natural for Elena to be extremely tense.

Who was the person who had called her to the balcony?

None other than Etherna, the Chief Inquisitor of the Solar Order.

“Well. Are you curious about why I called Lady Sandrios to the balcony?”

Rather than answering Elena’s question, Etherna seemed to be avoiding it.

Elena became increasingly afraid of her due to this attitude.

“I, I’ve never done anything with bad people!”

Elena blurted out a statement that could easily be misunderstood, but it had no effect on Etherna, who had been through it all.

“Lady Sandrios. No, Elena. I brought you out here to tell you one thing?”

Etherna approached the trembling Elena and placed her hand on her shoulder.

It was extremely rude for a stranger to touch the shoulder of a noble family’s daughter.

However, Elena, trembling with fear because of Etherna’s official position, was in no state to point this out.

“Elena. What do you think about Count Pathos Severio?”

“Um… what?”

Elena froze momentarily when Pathos’s name came from Etherna’s lips.

Pathos? Why on earth would his name come up?

Elena couldn’t understand why Etherna would ask her such a question.

Pathos Severio.

A man who received treatment equal to nobles as an ability user, and now had risen to the position of Count, not just a quasi-noble but one who could pass his title to his children.

The possessor of an ability that could fix anything.

He had fixed Mina’s magic wand, repaired equipment for numerous Glesius Academy students.

He had destroyed a demon sword and cured the incurable disease of the Marquis of Beventus’s daughter.

He was a man who had solved several major incidents in less than a few months.

“He’s… an amazing… person… isn’t he?”

“Hmm… is that so?”

Etherna showed an indifferent reaction after hearing Elena’s answer.

This was because the answer she heard from Elena wasn’t what she had expected.

She had thought Elena harbored some romantic feelings for Pathos, but looking at her now, it didn’t seem that way at all.

“Then that’s a relief.”

“Pardon? What’s a relief……”

“That Lady Sandrios doesn’t have any particular feelings for Count Severio.”

“……”

From Etherna’s words, Elena realized why she had been called here.

Seeing Elena’s slightly surprised expression, Etherna smiled deeply.

“That’s right, Lady Elena Sandrios.”

Etherna, answering Elena’s question—

“I… feel quite a significant attraction to Baron Pathos Severio.”

Had a face like a girl in love.

And she left one more question at the end.

“Lady Elena Sandrios. What kind of feelings do you have for Count Pathos Severio?”

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“What kind of feelings… even if I’m asked such a question… I have nothing to answer…”

Elena still had Etherna’s final question circling in her head.

Count Pathos Severio.

The man who had fixed the crystal orb attached to her friend Mina Endras’s magic wand.

For Elena herself, he was also the subject of an embarrassing and shameful incident where she had caused a disturbance at his shop, misunderstanding that her friend had been scammed.

After that incident, Pathos had entered Glesius Academy through a special admission.

Afterwards, thanks to the incident at the shop, she had been able to become friendly with Pathos and occasionally exchanged greetings when they met.

After the semester ended, they had talked at a café, and that was it.

In fact, the most recent time she had met him was at the Foundation Day grand banquet held at the Imperial Palace.

Since she had been meeting her family at home during the vacation, how could she have met Pathos?

However, Etherna, the Chief Inquisitor of the Solar Order.

She had guaranteed that Pathos had no heresy charges after he destroyed the demon sword.

The two had traveled together to the Beventus Marquisate on the empire’s border, and there he had cured the Marquis’s daughter.

‘If I had stayed at the academy, could I have gone there with Pathos, no, Count Severio?’

Elena called Pathos by his name but hastily changed to addressing him by his family name and title bestowed by the Emperor.

When he was just an ability user, it was acceptable to call him by name, but now he was a proper noble with a title.

Although she was the daughter of a marquis, she was relatively lower in status compared to a noble with a title.

‘Resolving crises and helping people in need. Just like a hero.’

Looking at Pathos’s actions, Elena felt they were similar to the deeds of the wonderful heroes in fairy tales she had read as a child.

A hero who fully utilizes his abilities to help people in difficulty and resolves crises approaching the world.

And usually in fairy tales featuring heroes, the story ended with the hero marrying one of the people who had accompanied him.

Looking at the endings of fairy tales, the person who married the hero was either a princess or a saint.

‘Oh my… what am I thinking? Count Severio can’t possibly be a real hero.’

Elena let out a hollow laugh, perhaps knowing that she was having foolish thoughts.

In her mind, the Imperial Princess was much higher in status than a princess, and Etherna was an inquisitor, not a saint.

“But… something feels strange.”

Strangely, Pathos wouldn’t leave Elena’s mind.

The more she tried to forget, the more memories of him surfaced.

‘Right. I have no feelings for Count Severio. Yes. That’s how it should be.’

Elena tried to firmly convince herself that she had no interest in Pathos by repeatedly telling herself so.

But by her own admission, when she thought about another woman being by Pathos’s side, she felt something strange in a corner of her heart.

She dismissed it as insignificant and sank into other thoughts.