“O-okay! We’re here! Let’s go take a look!”
“Mm. Let’s check every nook and cranny.”
Ira was her usual self, but Ifriita, in a foul mood, stayed silent.
“Did something happen?”
“Nope. Not at all. Nothing.”
Right. Totally convincing.
High Priestess Katalina greeted us at the front of the cathedral, her sharp gaze cutting right through me. I straightened my posture instinctively.
She was a stern, commanding woman, and quite frankly I had a bit of a rough time with her. She didn’t seem thrilled that I was romantically involved with so many women while also being with Elen, so she was pretty sharp with me, so to speak.
Then again, maybe that was just my guilt talking.
“How are things with Lady Eleonora?” she asked.
“Um, we spent the day together yesterday. Both she and the baby seem to be doing well.”
“Is that so? I am pleased to hear it.” She folded her hands behind her back. “Though I do question why you would then bring other women with you on a pleasure jaunt to such a holy place the very next day.”
“Ah ha ha ha… We’re actually here on official business. Research. We’re investigating something that could aid the country’s development. They’re both highly skilled mages, you see.”
“I am well aware,” High Priestess Katalina said coolly, before turning on her heel.
“Please, right this way.”
“Thanks… Come on, ladies.”
“Mm.”
“…All right.”
I wasn’t worried about Ira, but I was genuinely relieved when Ifriita nodded and followed without protest. She still looked prickly, but at least she was holding it together. If she blew up here, I’d be the one getting an earful from the High Priestess, no question.
Please, please let this go smoothly, I prayed silently.
We stepped inside the Adolist cathedral, and even I had to stop for a moment.
“Beautiful,” Ira murmured.
“Really impressive.”
Ira and Ifriita’s voices softened as their eyes traveled up the super high ceilings and at the detailed engravings and stained-glass windows.
“Agreed,” I said. “Though I probably shouldn’t be asking, but isn’t this a little awkward for you?”
“I mean, a little,” Ira admitted. “But that’s that, and this is this. Beautiful art is beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Ifriita said quietly. “When I think about how much blood, sweat, and tears my people shed building this, I certainly have some mixed feelings. But I can still respect the craftmanship. The artisans who built this place were incredible.”
“I see.”
So they did have complicated feelings about this place, but they could at least appreciate its beauty. Granted, that probably only applied to the two of them. There were likely other demi-humans who held only negative feelings about this place. Hell, there wasn’t a demi-human in sight. Most of them probably wouldn’t dare set foot near this place at all.
On the flip side, there were human Adolists in here, though not many. The ones present were clearly watching us with guarded curiosity, probably wondering why demi-humans had stepped foot into their sacred space.
“So, what do you think? Figure anything out?”
“The mana in here is thinner than outside,” Ifriita said.
“Yeah. Magic energy recovery is supposed to be faster here, right? How odd.”
The two of them each produced glowing orbs about the size of fists and held them aloft, moving them slowly across the room. I recognized the spell from when Ira did something similar back in the underground ruins. It was some kind of mana-detection magic.
“Thin, huh? I can’t tell a thing.”
“Because you have no magic energy.”
“And when we say thin,” Ifriita added, “we mean it’s so faint, we can’t sense it without detection magic. It just…feels like the air here is very clear.”
“Okay?”
So, clear air meant thin mana. Then when mana was thick, did the air feel stagnant? I’d never heard anyone back at the rear base describe it that way before.
“I’m getting a magic energy reading from some of the walls and pillars,” Ifriita reported.
“The metal used in the dressings…I wonder if it’s mithril?” Ira mused.
Ira and Ifriita turned their focus on the cathedral’s ornate dressings while I peered from behind. I couldn’t tell for sure, but the metallic sheen did look like some kind of alloy that had mithril in it. Maybe mithril mixed with gold?
“It’s plating,” I said. “Maybe made from mithril-gold alloy?”
“I think this is some kind of magic circuit,” Ifriita pointed out.
“Mm. I agree. It probably diffuses mana. You could even say it purifies it,” Ira added.
“So instead of collecting magic energy, it diffuses it? What’s going on here?”
All three of us tilted our heads in confusion. High Priestess Katalina, who’d been silently following along, watched on impassively. Still, the fact that she followed us in silence and hadn’t scolded us—or kicked us out—suggested she was kinder than she seemed.
“High Priestess Katalina,” I said, “miracles conducted here are stronger, right? Healing effects for injuries and illnesses too?”
“Yes, that is the case,” she replied. “I’ve heard that you were once on the receiving end of such blessings.”
“Apparently. I was stabbed in the liver with a dagger coated in basilisk poison, but came out the other end in one piece.”
“Wait, what? Hold on. I didn’t know about this.”
“Really? Well, it happened,” I said with a shrug.
“Then how are you still alive? Basilisk poison is deadly enough to take down a dragon! What even is your vitality?!”
“I might be a little tougher than your average person.”
Just a little.
And that “just a little” bit of extra toughness was probably the only reason I’d survived in this world long before I got hit with the basilisk poison. I guess I owed the jackass who gave it to me some reluctant gratitude.