I hadn’t done anything special to Ester with my magic, but if any aspect of the healing deserved particular notice, it was the way I’d suppressed the glowing effect. Healing magic naturally created a glow, but I purposefully held that back. Someone used to seeing healing magic—for example, a saint like Ester—might conclude I hadn’t cast any magic at all. Or at least that was my hope.
Plus, I spoke only the word “heal” but omitted the chant. Most saints wouldn’t leave that part out, so what I did hopefully looked offhand and flippant. She should have concluded it was her own magic that healed her…
I forced a smile as I met Ester’s shocked gaze. “What’s wrong, Ester? Oh my, don’t tell me. Are you feeling just a liiiittle bit better?”
I tried my hardest to act like I couldn’t tell she was healed.
“Huh? Uhh…yes,” she said. “Yes, I do feel a bit better. As a saint, I can more or less tell how severe an illness is, but…I feel as though I’ve healed completely.”
I clapped and exclaimed, “Woooow, that’s incredible! Your magic must have been stronger because Mr. Unicorn and Mr. Tsarzi are here! I helped by cheering you on a bit too, I’m sure, but the healing itself was all you, Ester!”
I went on clapping as she stared at me blankly. Without warning, large tears streamed down her face.
“Huh?!” I searched her for some new malady. “A-are you still hurting somewhere? Your chest and back should be healed as far as I can tell, and I don’t see anything else wrong…”
She shook her head and said, “I feel fine, Lady Fia.” Fresh tears slipped down her cheeks, however.
“B-but, you’re crying…”
“I’m sorry. My chest just feels so tight that I can’t help myself.”
“Your chest? …But it should be healed?”
“It is. I have been cleansed of my illness, and a warm light has replaced the sickness inside my chest. It is this light and the comfort it gives me that brings me to tears.”
“Uhhh…”
I don’t really get it, but I guess she’s better? I blinked, confused.
With a teary smile, Ester said, “Oh… To think a saint’s power could be so amazing. This must be how a saint is truly meant to be. My heart is touched by such overwhelming power and kindness.”
Ester was pretty emotional. Most people who recovered from an illness were happy but not quite this happy. I was glad, but I didn’t expect this much of a reaction and began to wonder if my lie would hold up.
“F-Fia! Just what have you done?!” Cerulean exclaimed behind me.
“Y-yeah! What’s going on?! How are you able to heal such a serious illness?!” Dolly followed up.
When I turned, I found the jesters had moved closer and were no longer so pale and sickly.
“You two are looking much less faint! I’m guessing you feel better?” I asked.
“I told you we have a phobia of sick people,” Dolly said, “but there aren’t any sick people left in this room! Wait, that’s not important right now! Just what is going on here?! Don’t tell me you…you…”
He pointed at the necklace of holy stones around my neck and was about to say something but stopped, glancing at the earl and Ester. The earl seemed in a daze, however, and Ester was still overcome with tears. Dolly breathed a sigh of relief before turning back to me, but he couldn’t restrain himself entirely. “I can’t believe you. So high-handed!” Satisfied with that, he stepped back.
“Just absurd…” Cerulean muttered under his breath, shaking his head and stepping back as well.
What’s up with them? I wondered. Regardless, they were ruining my excuse. Their reactions made it way too obvious that I was the one who’d healed Ester. I’ll admit my ruse was a bit far-fetched to begin with, though. Maybe I should have claimed the holy stones had healed her? That worked for people like Dolly and Cerulean, who knew what the holy stones were, but Ester didn’t. And from how Dolly and Cerulean were acting, it seemed they preferred things that way.
Hmm. This is tough… I had to do something, so I grabbed Ester’s hands as she continued to cry and looked her directly in the face. “Ester, I know this might disappoint you, but I’m not actually a saint!”
“…Huh?”
Her confusion only made me more certain she hadn’t bought my initial excuse. Good thing I had a new plot in mind. I regarded her seriously before I continued.
“The truth is, I’m a member of a jester troupe. I’m a saint with tricks up her sleeve, not the real deal.”
“Huh? Okay…?”
It didn’t seem like she was buying it, so I lowered my voice as though sharing a secret.
“And believe it or not, my jester friends here are royal court jesters!”
Heh heh heh. If I phrase it like this, it’ll sound like I’m a royal court jester myself!
“And I’m actually the king’s favorite! That’s why he’s given me a special gift that lets me use the same powers as a saint.”
I stroked my holy stone necklace as I met Ester’s eyes.
Technically speaking, this wasn’t a lie. These stones were a gift from the people of Sutherland, but Saviz had to approve them. Saviz’s boss was the king, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch to say I received these stones with the king’s approval. What’s more, I’d spent the whole day with Cerulean, so we were pretty close. Therefore, it was basically true that I was the king’s favorite, and he had given me these stones!
With that utterly self-serving conclusion in mind, I turned my attention back to Ester. I stroked my necklace deliberately, hoping she would understand these weren’t normal stones, but the very power that had healed her.
To my disappointment, she cocked her head to the side in confusion.
…Oh dear. It doesn’t seem like she gets it. I tried really hard to create a story that was half truth, half fiction. Was it all for nothing?
I hung my head and noticed Cerulean’s face bunched up with anger.
Oh great! Not only was this meaningless, but I’ve stepped on his toes! I’m worse off than before!
“Fia, could you not make such misleading statements?!” Cerulean complained, just to kick me while I was down. “The king doesn’t have any interest in any woman! Least of all you!”
Come to think of it, there was a rumor going around that the king was a misogynist or something, wasn’t there? I recalled. The current acting king was a body double, which served as a bulwark against any potential woman troubles but also made succession quite complicated—and rendered my excuse pretty flimsy.
“Cerulean’s right!” I spoke up, trying to save my ruse. “The king likes little boys who dress up like horses and tall, effeminate men more than me!”
“Fia! Just stop, you’re only creating more problems!” Cerulean shrieked.
Sheesh. Talk about hard to please.
I frowned. This was becoming a real pain. The best I could do now was wrap this up so we could be done with it.
“Uhh, so basically, Ester, I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve thanks to the king and I used one such trick to heal you. But these tricks of mine are super-secret, so I want you to keep what happened today hush-hush. Is that all right?”
Ester blinked her teary eyes a few times, then smiled broadly. With a big nod, she said, “Of course!”
Good, good, I thought with a smile.
Then her next words hit me like a sledgehammer.
“You’re a saint whose existence is a secret known only by the royal family, hidden from even the church, right?”
“Huh?” I gawked at her.
She clasped her hands and gazed up at the ceiling with a dreamy look. “There aren’t many saints around, so I’ve come to learn the faces of all the others. But I’ve never seen you before, Lady Fia. I’d understand if you lived somewhere far away, but if you live in the royal castle, then it makes more sense that the royal family hid you away!”
“Uh, well…”
Wh-what do I do? She’s misinterpreting what I said earlier about the whole royal court jester thing! She thinks I live in the royal castle! …Okay, well, I do technically live on royal castle grounds, just at the knight dorms, but that’s probably not what she means. Yeah.
At any rate, Ester was totally off-base. I was just about to correct her when she grabbed both my hands and stared determinedly into my eyes.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let a soul know you’re a saint who the royal family is hiding! I swear!”
Her eyes shone. I gave up the fight. My perfect explanation had somehow been perfectly misunderstood. My shoulders slumped in defeat.