Chapter 38: After the Mission
“IF I’d known Fairy Leaders were allowed to intervene, I would have lent you my aid,” said Sauge as she appeared out of nowhere and wrapped her arms around Iris from behind. The teachers recognized her voice and all turned to look at Iris in surprise.
“Shhhh! Keep it down, Lady Sauge!”
I swear, this fairy is so fickle. She’s never considerate of my needs!
“Oh, my precious Iris, look what they’ve done to you! This never would have happened if you would stop refusing help from fairies just because you’re at school!” she shouted. “This is an outrage and an insult to your character! If I had been with you—”
Iris pulled Sauge away from Nigel and Reseda and pressed her hand over Sauge’s mouth. “Lady Sauge, stop this! Settle down!” Sauge shot Iris a dubious look, so she got up on her tiptoes and whispered into her ear: “I don’t want to be the Holy Maiden!”
“But then you won’t be permitted to marry the prince…”
“I don’t care!” Iris told her flatly.
She looked at Iris with sympathy in her eyes. Then, with a heavy sigh, Sauge glared at the teachers.
“Very well. If you insist, I shall hold my tongue. And if you refuse to accept my aid, then go and receive medical treatment posthaste.” With that, Sauge ruffled Iris’s hair, planted a kiss on her forehead, and vanished.
Ugh! Lady Sauge, you’re completely incorrigible!
Iris’s legs gave out, and Reseda hastily caught her before she hit the ground. Everything had turned out completely different from HanaKoro by this point, though probably not in a bad way. Iris was just so tired… At least Camille managed to win the competition.
“Are you all right, Miss Iris?!” Cytisus asked as he hurried over to her. He saw her hands were covered in cuts and burns. “You’re always so reckless!”
“Yes, but Miss Camille protected me with her magic,” Iris replied. “She is the true Holy Maiden.”
He grimaced. “We were watching you, you know. We saw how you protected Miss Camille. Without you there, she wouldn’t have won—but if you had any mana, you would have won instead!”
His frustration was palpable, but Iris simply shook her head. “No…I only thought of slaying the monster. It never occurred to me that there might be another way. That’s why I believe Miss Camille deserves the title more.”
Cytisus took both of her hands in his. Her already scarred arm was now sporting even more gruesome cuts.
“We need to get you patched up at once! I’ll teleport us.”
He hoisted her up in his arms princess-style, whipped out his wand, and opened a magic circle in the air. Then he carried Iris through the portal.
Hrrrrk! Magic makes me wanna hurl! Iris squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to endure the nausea. She felt the impact as they landed and slowly opened her eyes.
“Lord Cytisus?! And…Lady Iris? Why is she covered in blood?!” Pavot yelped. Apparently, we had come to the Temple of Magic.
“Pavot, please treat Miss Iris. I’m not as good at healing magic as you are.”
Her jaw dropped…and then she smiled, blushing. “Okay!” she squeaked. She took Iris’s hand, looked at her red, inflamed palm, and winced. “What happened?”
“I was participating in the monster dispatch mission for the Holy Maiden Evaluation… Most of the blood isn’t mine, but I got burned…”
Specifically, her palm stung where the heat from the Sacred Beast’s fire had transmitted down her metal sword to the hilt. Plus, there were some cuts on her arms.
“They still made you take part in that?! Even though you don’t have any mana?!”
“The other faculty members were hoping that the crisis would awaken mana within her,” Cytisus explained bitterly. “They couldn’t accept that someone with no mana would receive so many fairy blessings.”
“That’s monstrous!” Pavot raged.
“It’s all right. The other candidate kept me safe,” Iris said with a smile.
Pavot bit her lip. She pressed her forehead to the back of Iris’s injured hand, closed her eyes, and began to pray. A silver light engulfed them where their skin touched, spreading outward to envelop Iris’s entire body. She could feel her insides shifting.
“Hrrrrggghh… I hate this…!”
It felt like the magic was whirling around inside her, and she could scarcely stand it. Iris squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth.
“Do you feel any better now?” Pavot asked.
When Iris opened her eyes, she found that her cuts had mostly closed over, leaving only faint red scratch marks that would probably fade after a few days at most. Her palm still tingled, but at least no blisters were forming.
“Amazing… Magic is incredible! Thank you so much, Lady Pavot!”
She giggled from beneath her hood. “Oh, it was no trouble at all. I’m glad it worked out.”
“As I said, Pavot’s mana exceeds that of the Holy Maiden herself,” Cytisus explained.
“Yeah, but I don’t like being in front of large crowds!” she laughed.
“Indeed. On the day of the popularity contest, she never showed up.”
At this, she shrank down shyly. “You should have just dropped out yourself, Lady Iris,” she mumbled.
“Aaaagh! You’re absolutely right!!!”
Why hadn’t she just thrown in the towel early on?! Well…truth be told, she was a little worried about how Camille would fare…
“She stayed to assist Lady Camille, who has far less combat experience,” Cytisus explained in her stead.
Pavot fixed Iris with a pitying look. “You don’t really make smart life choices, do you, Lady Iris?”
“You’re one to talk!” Cytisus retorted quickly, and Iris was inclined to agree.
“But I like that,” she continued.
Cytisus and Iris exchanged a look.
“Er…thank you…?”
“So, if you’d let me touch you a little more…”
“No thank you.”
Iris answered so swiftly, the two of them burst out laughing.