From there, the saints showed us around their villa. Dorothée escorted us to all the main places they used, and the other saints followed, assisting with her explanations. Though quite prickly on the surface, it seemed the saints were actually quite kind.
Even so, Priscilla glared when she spotted me walking hand in hand with Charlotte. “Hmph. Are you two close?”
“We are! Charlotte has lived away from her family ever since she was young, so I’m both her friend and a replacement mother!” I puffed up my chest.
Charlotte shot me a wide-eyed look. “But Fia, you’re only fifteen! You can’t be a mother! I turn eight today, so…you’re more like a big sister. That is, if you want to be…”
What a sweet and considerate girl she was. But more importantly—did she just say it was her birthday?
“What?! Today’s your birthday?! I had no idea! I need to get you a present!” I racked my brain for a good option.
She smiled. “Just being able to see you is enough. If you’re my big sister, that means I was able to see family on my birthday.”
“Oh, Charlotte!”
How could somebody possibly be this sweet?! As her new big sister, I needed to get her the perfect present, no matter what!
I continued scrambling for a good gift when I noticed Priscilla studying me again.
Oh. Shoot. I had been in the middle of talking to her, huh?
She’d originally asked if Charlotte and I were friends, so I asked a similar question in return. “Do you have any friends you’re close with back at the cathedral, Saint Priscilla?”
Her cheeks flushed for some reason. “I don’t need any frivolous accessories like friends!”
“Frivolous accessories? I can’t say I’ve ever thought of friends as accessories. What an interesting idea!” I wondered what kind of accessory I was to Charlotte.
Lloyd, who’d been listening in, joined the conversation. “An interesting idea indeed. As a good friend of Fia’s, I wonder what kind of accessory I’d be. One she could wear anytime, I’m sure, given my dashing looks.”
“Singing your own praises is kind of uncool, Lloyd…” I said. He was genuinely rather fetching, so his bragging didn’t come across like a proper joke. It left some room for improvement in his role as a jester… Oh, but I guess he was in Duke Mode and not Jester Mode at the moment, huh? Fair enough.
Besides Charlotte, what other friends did I have? Zavilia, Cyril, Fabian… They were all a bit too dazzling to wear as accessories, though… Yeah, let’s not think about this anymore.
I pushed aside thoughts of friends and focused on Priscilla. She was finally talking to me! I couldn’t let this chance slip away.
“Saint Priscilla, you lived in the cathedral, right? I heard you’re a powerful saint. Can you tell us about yourself?”
Charlotte beamed, saying, “I want to hear about you too. I heard you’re the likeliest candidate for becoming the next head saint. I was thinking you could teach me some things.”
Priscilla blushed, apparently pleased with our praise. We’d reached a nice stopping point in our tour, so we returned to the parlor and sat around a big table to talk. The other saints sat nearby, as though just as eager to talk about saints as we were. How nice.
With all eyes on her, Priscilla made a big show of sweeping her hair back, then interlaced her fingers on the table. “They discovered I was saint when they tested me at three years old. Initially, I lived in a church near my hometown, but they called me to the cathedral when I turned seven.”
Lloyd, sitting behind me, added, “Girls are tested for saint powers when they’re three and ten years of age, but most saints are discovered when they’re ten. Only a very few are powerful enough to be discovered when they’re three.”
Charlotte had also been discovered when she was three, so it seemed she was every bit as powerful as Priscilla!
When I nodded, Lloyd continued. “Furthermore, only the saints with the strongest magic gather at the cathedral. They are our nation’s pride and joy, but number less than fifty in total.”
Priscilla wore a triumphant expression. “The turnover rate is high at the cathedral. They seek the best of the best and regularly swap out those who are lacking in favor of newly discovered promising saints.”
The other saints had been listening attentively but frowned at this last bit. One spoke up, apparently voicing the thoughts of the entire group. “You don’t need to say it like that! The cathedral also dispatches talented saints to other regions, so it’s not as if all saints who leave the cathedral are lacking!”
Irritated, Priscilla ran a hand through her hair. “Oh my. Are there saints here who were once at the cathedral? I suppose it’s true a saint may leave the cathedral for a reason other than their abilities, but I’m sure you all know the cathedral would never let go of a saint they truly deemed worthwhile!”
“Wh-what was that?!”
“Who do you think you are?!”
As the saints clashed, I wondered if this was just a matter of conflicting opinions. It wasn’t wrong to have pride in being a saint, nor to believe in one’s own abilities. I considered letting them go at it a bit more, but Priscilla’s phrasing really could have used some fine tuning.
Lloyd tugged at my sleeve and whispered, “Fia, if you want to play the peacemaker then you should try bringing up the fact that you’re going on that meat tour with Desmond. That’ll be a nice change of topic.”
Huh? How does Lloyd know about my meat tour with Desmond? Surprised, I blinked, but he merely smiled. Right… He was a duke, so he had eyes and ears everywhere. Besides, it wasn’t a terrible suggestion. I cut into the conversation.
“Speaking of the cathedral, that’s in the Holy Kingdom of Dhital, right? Right after the head saint selection, I’ll be going there to eat meat with Captain Desmond!”
I intended to ask for restaurant recommendations, but the saints cut me off.
“With Captain Desmond? That’s the Second Knight Brigade captain, right? The one in charge of royal castle security? What business would he have that would bring him all the way to the cathedral?!”
“More importantly, why are you going right after the head saint selection? Is there something you need to report to the cathedral immediately afterward?”
Uh, I was just going to eat meat. I wasn’t going anywhere near the cathedral… Hm? Wait a second… With sudden realization, I snapped my mouth shut.
Why was the knight brigades paying for this meat tour anyway? Could Desmond be planning on working while he was there? And wait a minute, Desmond said he got permission for me to go on this meat tour from Cyril, didn’t he? If he had to go out of his way to ask my captain for permission, then maybe this really was somehow tied to work stuff.
If so, I needed to be careful about what I said here. If Cyril ever found out I said I was going to Dhital to eat meat rather than work, he might snatch away all the budget allocated for the trip! Desmond would chew my ear off if it came to that! Better to play things safe…
I smiled cautiously. The saints scowled at me, but—come to think of it… I grinned as I realized I had actually managed to change the topic. They’d all forgotten about quarreling with Priscilla thanks to my excellent topic-changing skills!
My joy deflated when I remembered their looming question: Why was I going to Dhital with Desmond? I wanted to be on good terms with the saints, so I had to answer what I could while glossing over the fact it might involve work and leaving room for me to talk my way out of troubles at a later date. My, how I’d grown.
“Uhh, so Captain Desmond and I are going to Dhital to eat meat together. It’s got nothing to do with our jobs. It’s got so little to do with our jobs, in fact, that even Captain Enoch is coming along.” I strongly emphasized the fact there was no deeper meaning to our trip by bringing up Enoch, but the saints only questioned me even harder.
“Both the man known as the Tiger of Náv and the genius mage are escorting you on this trip?!”
Huh? People think Captain Enoch’s a genius? No, wait, that’s not what’s important right now…
“‘Escorted?’ N-no, I mean, I may be weaker than them, but if it came to it, even I could protect the two of them! Well, probably… Maybe…?”
They had to be really strong to become captains, but I was also a proud knight of the brigades!
Sharply, one of the saints said, “And that red hair! Just who are you?!”
“Uh, me?”
I was a knight, of course…
My mind flashed back to pleading recently with Saviz that I was a knight. Recycling the words I used then, I said, “I am but an ever-obedient, useful, and one-hundred-percent ordinary knight!”
I was suddenly reminded of how Saviz, Cerulean, and Cyril reacted to me saying this back then. By which I mean they barely reacted at all, staring blankly and mutely instead.
As for why I would suddenly remember such a thing? It was because the saints reacted the exact same way.