I Wish They’d Do That Somewhere Else

“Yes, I’m not sure if it can be erased, but it’s worth trying-“

Before Ceres could finish her sentence, Yona grabbed her shoulders firmly.

She had forgotten what she was doing and who this silver-haired woman in front of her was.

It was Ceres who was surprised by Yona’s sudden change.

Even she, who always seemed composed and unlikely to be surprised by anything, now had a somewhat startled expression towards Yona.

“Then… can you erase curses and such things too?”

“Since the result is similar to purification… Ah, let go and let’s talk.”

Because Yona had gripped her tightly, Ceres’s shoulder ached, so she patted Yona’s hand that was holding her shoulder.

Only then did Yona realize what she was doing and withdrew her hand, her face turning bright red.

“Anyway, to continue, my personalized magic is not much different from purification. It’s quite unique, you see.”

“…Personalized magic?”

“Yes, personalized magic.”

What’s that?

Yona had no knowledge about magic.

She had heard some explanations about magic from Alevian, but the logic was so complex that it made her head spin, and Yona had recoiled from it.

Personalized magic… it sounded familiar somehow.

But she didn’t know what it was.

“…You don’t know, do you?”

“No, not at all.”

Ceres nodded as if she had expected this.

“To put it simply, it’s my specialized magic that I, Ceres Alkamine, can use. You could say it’s the magic most tailored to me. Do you understand? I tried to explain it as simply as possible.”

Yona knew that there were various types of magic and that they were hierarchically divided.

It was common knowledge in this world, after all.

She didn’t know the details, but she just knew that such things existed.

Beyond that was the realm of experts, and unfortunately, Yona, as a cleric who handled holy power, couldn’t use magic power at all. Even if magic power were to form, the pre-existing holy power would consume it.

She didn’t pay attention to a power she couldn’t use.

“…It seems you didn’t understand, but anyway, it’s the magic I handle best.”

Yona understood one thing, though.

Although magic power and holy power were different, so to speak, “fuels,” their results were almost the same.

And that meant that maybe, just maybe, it could turn her back into a man from this woman’s body she was in now.

“These tattoos aren’t important. Actually, I-“

Yona stopped mid-sentence.

The question of whether she should tell this woman that she used to be a man put the brakes on her.

The fact that she had casually blurted out to her adventurer guild companions, somehow felt like it shouldn’t be told to this woman – that intuition.

“…No, it’s nothing. This kind of tattoo is a bit inappropriate for a cleric, so let’s… try erasing it.”

Aha, aha, ahahaha… Ceres stared at Yona as she awkwardly laughed it off.

Her gaze twisted slightly, then quickly returned to a nonchalant expression.

“Alright. Then shall we give it a try? Don’t blame me if it doesn’t work, okay? Understood?”

“Of course, naturally.”

Yona felt cold sweat running down her spine.

This feeling, how long had it been?

It was like the time when she had a bad feeling before entering a so-called kobold cave, stopped Alec, and marked the quest as failed. A few days later, she heard that the cave actually had three hop kobolds, and the adventurers who had entered were all wiped out.

That strange feeling of having narrowly escaped death.

“You need to give me your arm, right?”

Yona, who had been hesitating due to that chilling feeling, snapped back to reality at Ceres’s words.

Then she awkwardly smiled and extended her right arm to Ceres.

“It won’t hurt at all, so don’t worry.”

Unable to fully trust her, Yona couldn’t hide her stiff expression.

Seeing this expression, Ceres also smiled awkwardly.

“I’m not doing anything bad, so if you’re this wary, it makes me feel bad too. You know?”

“Y-yes…”

“Good. Manage your expression well. Now, let’s see.”

Ceres lightly held Yona’s hand and raised her own hand.

A soft incantation followed the line of her mouth. As the incantation continued, a bluish light began to slowly surround Ceres’s hand, and as the incantation reached its climax, the blue light also intensified.

As Ceres’s hand approached, a subtle warmth enveloped Yona’s arm.

It was an awkward sensation rather than an unpleasant one.

The first feeling of magic power she had ever experienced.

The warmth slowly wrapped around Yona’s right arm, following Ceres’s hand as it gently caressed it.

“Oh, t-this…?”

Yona hurriedly covered her mouth with her left hand at the voice that escaped without her realizing.

Her right hand, not just the arm but the hand too, which had been dyed pitch black with those letters, was clearly, albeit faintly, becoming lighter.

Yona’s heart started to pound heavily at the noticeably faded black color.

But that was it.

Although it had faded, it didn’t disappear completely.

The faintly but clearly remaining letters, though not as pitch black as before, still retained their alien feeling.

But it had been erased to some extent.

It had definitely been erased somewhat.

Yona looked at Ceres, who was breathing heavily as if tired, with an admiring gaze.

“This is the limit. Even so, local purification is too difficult. If it were a full-body purification, it might be different.”

“F-full-body purification?”

“Yes. As a healer, you probably know well, but my purification works in the same way as the priests’ healing, so purifying just one area like this is very inefficient. Have you shown this to the priests at the cathedral, by any chance?”

“I did show it.”

Precisely, only to Teacher Aeizé.

“What about to the Saint?”

“…Not yet.”

‘I’d rather bite my tongue and die than show it to her.’

She couldn’t bring herself to say the latter part.

“Is this why you’re going to the mage community, perhaps?”

Ceres asked with her usual relaxed smile.

“No, that’s not it…”

“This doesn’t seem to conflict much with holy power, so you probably didn’t get the answer you wanted from the cathedral. I thought that might be why you were going to the community, but it seems that’s not it either.”

Hmm- Ceres, who had been thinking about something, soon just smiled and laughed.

This made Yona smile back awkwardly as well.

“Well, Yona must have her circumstances, and there’s no need to pry too much. Anyway, I understand. I see that it’s possible with magic, but… if you’re going to the mage community to erase tattoos, it’s a waste of time. There won’t be any mages there who can use magic purification.”

“I-is that so?”

In fact, she had a different purpose, but she couldn’t say it outright.

She had a very strong feeling that she shouldn’t tell the truth to her, to Ceres.

“Anyway, I understand. I feel like there will soon come a moment when Yona needs me. I’ll wait for that time.”

Ceres smiled at Yona.

Yona couldn’t smile back.

Even to her, the feeling that she would soon have business with Ceres was too intense.

When you live as an adventurer, you tend to lose your ability to sleep in.

You need to wake up early, prepare, and go to the guild to secure good quests, and diligent companions are mostly directly linked to skill, so it’s related to survival rate as well.

When Yona first started her adventurer life, she used to wake up as soon as the morning sun rose.

But after getting Alec as a guard, and due to her job characteristics as a healer, she often found herself in situations where quests waited for her rather than her needing to secure them, so her morning sleep habit returned.

“Why are you coming down only now? Rubina has been waiting for you for so long.”

“You’re talking as if you didn’t know I sleep a lot in the morning.”

Yona, who had woken up slowly even after the morning sun had risen, came down to the first floor after hastily putting on her clothes.

In the makeshift dining room set up in a corner of the first floor of the official residence, everyone in the party was already having breakfast.

“Sit over there and eat.”

Without answering, Yona stood behind Alec and quickly scanned the menu.

It’s corn bread steamed, not the commonly eaten rye bread.

There’s a plate with some sauce, maybe grape, and milk.

-Smack!

“Damn, why is this girl acting up again.”

“Baldy.”

Yona pulled the milk pot towards her while picking up the cup in front of Alec.

After confirming it was empty, she poured a cup of milk into it and placed it in front of Alec.

“If you know you’re likely to get indigestion from eating tough bread, why don’t you drink some milk with it? Huh? Do I have to take care of you like this? Are you a child? Did your intelligence fall out along with your hair follicles?”

“No, I was going to drink it.”

“You were going to drink it, but you didn’t, right? You always have to make things difficult for people, don’t you?”

“Sister, sister. Sit here.”

Rubina, who was sitting next to Alec, quickly made room and cleared the seat next to Alec.

Yona patted Rubina’s head and sat down in that seat.

“Oh my, why is my arm so stiff?”

As she said this while rotating her right arm, Kairoc, who ended up sitting next to Rubina, opened his eyes wide.

“Isn’t that a holy cloth? A spare one?”

Yona looked at Kairoc and smirked.

Then she glanced sideways at Alec sitting on the other side and cleared her throat.

“This is a high-grade holy cloth, you know. Ahem! Ahem!”

However, Alec just dipped his bread deeply in the sauce, took a bite, and only gulped down the milk.

“Are holy cloths expensive too?”

Ludvik, who was watching this scene, asked Bigrin.

Bigrin, who was originally a light eater, had already finished her meal with just one piece of bread and a warm cup of milk.

“Holy cloths need to be handmade, so they’re hard to obtain easily. And from the looks of it, that weird-haired healer…”

Yona glared at her, bristling at those words.

But Bigrin didn’t pay any attention to Yona.

“It must have been even harder to obtain, but somehow she managed to get it well.”

“Is that so? Oh my, I didn’t know holy cloths were handmade. Thanks to you, Saint, my knowledge keeps expanding.”

Hahaha.

The hero said this while tearing the corn bread he was holding in half.

Because it had been baked not long ago, when torn, the bread’s white flesh tore nicely along the grain, and steam rose in beads from between the cracks.

Ludvik dipped it deeply in the reddish-brown sauce and suddenly held it out to Bigrin.

“Try a bite of this, Saint. It’s really delicious. I noticed you only ate the apple sauce, but this is raspberry sauce. It’s quite a delicacy. Give it a try.”

“H-Hero, I’m already full…”

It was true.

Bigrin doesn’t usually eat much.

“Oh come on, will your arm fall off? Oh no, my arm is really falling off!”

As Ludvik pretended to be dying, Bigrin’s face turned as red as a radish.

She never expected him to make such a fuss, she never expected the hero to behave so casually!

And it was even embarrassing!

“I-I’ll eat it. I’ll eat it, so please stop…!”

Flustered, Bigrin took the bread from Ludvik’s hand.

And she started to chew it, putting the piece of bread in her mouth.

‘…It’s delicious?’

The raspberry sauce tasted quite good.

‘He’s making a fuss, what a fuss.’

Yona became displeased.