“Urgh.” My head was killing me. Something warm pressed on my cheek, leading me to open my eyes. The first thing I saw upon waking up was Astesia, who wore a smile on her face, even if it was rather stiff.
“Where am I?” I groaned.
“You’re awake? Thank goodness,” she said. “You’ve been asleep for half the day, so I was worried. Darkness arranged a room for us at a local inn.”
“Did you look after me? Sorry you had to do that…”
“I did it because I wanted to, so you don’t need to apologize. More importantly, how are you feeling? If anything hurts or feels off, let me know.”
“Oh, I’m doing okay. Thanks a lot.”
“I’m happy to hear that. But if you want to thank someone, thank your friend here.” She pointed to Rosalia, who was sleeping in a chair, not far away. “She stayed by your side until the absolute last minute, though she must have been exhausted from all the fighting.”
Rosalia had a blanket over her, put there by Astesia, I assumed.
I went and caused trouble for her again, I thought—right as something moved inside of Astesia’s clothes.
Holy crap, her boobs are moving?! That’s terrifying!
“Eeek! Hey, stop that!” she cried.
“Kew, kew!” Bursting out of her shirt, White leaped onto my shoulder.
“You were worried about me too, White?” I asked as he happily licked my cheek.
“Ah, but you were so soft.” Astesia looked really disappointed, which made me feel bad, but White’s adorable cooing distracted me. Petting him was healing for the soul.
“You know, that woman is quite amazing,” Astesia said. “She should be filled with hatred toward me due to the curse, yet she let me watch over you after saying, ‘I trust you because Lord Weiss trusts you.’”
“Yeah, she’s my best maid,” I answered, a smile on my face as I watched her dream away.
This girl… She was exhausted, but she stayed up for me…
“At least it seems she’s having a good rest now,” Astesia said.
If Rosalia’s usual behavior was anything to go by, she probably wasn’t planning on resting until I woke up, so it was a relief to see her fast asleep.
“Actually, I’m sure she is,” Astesia continued. “She kept saying she refused to sleep until she saw you wake up, even though she was barely staying on her feet, so I drugged her!”
“Uh, tell me you didn’t use anything bad? She’s going to be okay, right?”
“I just gave her some sleeping medicine. Don’t worry. Anyway…” Astesia looked back and forth between Rosalia and I, as though she were gazing at something too bright to keep looking at. “I’m jealous of how much you trust one another.”
Just then, I realized I’d accidentally called Rosalia my maid in front of Astesia, although at this point, there was no reason to hide who we were.
Astesia sure uses a lot of different medicines, doesn’t she?
Priests and priestesses needed to have a vast wealth of knowledge about practical medicines, considering they healed illnesses and not just physical wounds. Magic could be used to heal damage to the flesh, but it wasn’t all-powerful: It couldn’t cure diseases. In the game, Astesia used Zeus’s powers to heal, while she attacked with Hades’s powers, so I was happy to learn about this side of her that was into medicine.
“When I lift your curse, I’m sure you’ll find someone like that in your life.”
“Right, thanks.” For some reason, a conflicted expression crossed her face when she replied. Perhaps she was thinking back on her difficult past.
Wanting to avoid any awkwardness, I panicked and changed the subject. “So, uh, what happened after I blacked out?”
“That Darkness guy pretty much resolved everything,” Astesia replied. “He took Keith and Catalina into custody. They’ll be living at a different church nearby now. He’s going to be using the information left behind to take out the heretics who are still in hiding, as well as investigate the merchants and noblemen who bought slaves from the facility. Also, he found proof that the man who transformed into the priest was planning to pin all of his crimes on me, so he asked me a few questions. It seemed like my curse had no effect on him. Is he blessed by a Divine Beast as well?”
“Oh, about that. Darkness is actually one of the Twelve Apostles of Zeus,” I informed her, “so he has a super powerful blessing that gives him a high tolerance against heretics.”
“What? That man is an apostle? You must be joking…”
It was uncommon to hear Astesia so dumbfounded, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. Her face turned bright red in embarrassment as she glared at me.
“Must you tease me? A-anyway, I do have to thank you for your help. What happened to the reverend father is terrible, but I’m glad the children and I will not be sold off as slaves.”
The fact that she had it in her to be so concerned about the children’s well-being despite what she went through with Catalina and Keith was admirable. Little did she know, however, that she wasn’t going to become a slave. This was the incident that would have resulted in her becoming a Hades worshipper. That would have been a very different story. A different timeline. There was no need to correct her.
“Yeah, whew. So, what are you going to do now?” I asked her.
“Well…” Astesia hesitated a moment before answering me. “Once you lift the curse, I think I will follow Lord Zeus’s guidance at another church. It’s thanks to him that I met you, my savior. I’ve finally overcome the trial he bestowed upon me, so I want to do what I can to help save the world.”
The words sounded like she had rehearsed them ahead of time. It looked to me like she had mixed feelings, and I couldn’t shake that instinct no matter how hard I tried.
What if there was something else she actually wanted to do? I couldn’t help but think that she was mistaken about one big thing.
“Is that…really what you want?” I asked.
“I mean, that was why I was given this power,” she replied. “Everyone says so. They told me that my power was special, and that was why I needed to use that power for God’s sake. After all, Lord Zeus saved me.”
“You’re wrong.”
I stared straight into Astesia’s eyes and rejected her words. I couldn’t help it! She was totally off base. I had no way to know what Zeus was thinking when he bestowed his power upon Astesia. Maybe he wanted her to become a saint who could save the world. Worse, he might have meant for her to be a stepping stone for the protagonist, and that was why he’d blessed her in the first place. I didn’t have answers, and quite frankly, I didn’t care about them.
There was one truth that I felt confident in: Zeus didn’t save Astesia. He didn’t save her in the game, so she suffered and fell into the darkness. Because of that, I felt there was no reason for her to follow his plan.
“God didn’t save you,” I told her. “Angela asked me for help, and me and my friends took action. Together, we defeated our common enemy. You shouldn’t be thanking him. You should be thanking Angela. So, when I lift that curse, you should do whatever it is you truly want to do. Don’t just follow God’s instructions. Follow your heart.”
“What are you saying? I mean, you came here with your Divine Beast and saved me in my time of need! Are you telling me that was all just a big coincidence?!” Her voice was trembling.
“You’re not getting it,” I continued, giving her no leeway. “I was able to form a pact with White because of my own strength. Angela and I were the ones who saved you, and you saved yourself by fighting back against your despair. None of that was because of Zeus.”
My pact with White was truly a coincidence. If you absolutely had to explain it away, then you could argue it was thanks to the strange voice I heard just before I reincarnated, but I had no clue who that was, so there was no point in dwelling on it.
I smiled at Astesia.
“It’s okay for you to live freely,” I said confidently.
“Is…that really okay?” she asked. “I mean, I was given God’s power…”
“It is. Sure, God might’ve blessed you, but he didn’t save you,” I told her. “You can take that power and run with it. You went through hell up until now, so I think you more than deserve at least that much. If he gives you crap for it, I’ll get mad at him for you!”
“Run with it…?”
Astesia widened her eyes and looked at me in shock, but then she giggled. The smile on her face was a happier one than I’d ever seen from her.
“Jeez! You’re quite the villain, asking a former saint candidate to betray God,” she said, “But…thank you. I feel better about things now. I still don’t know what I want to do, but I’ll take the time to think about it.”
“Cool. If you ever need anything, just come to House Hamilton’s territory,” I said. “I’ll take responsibility.”
“Hmm. That’s a promise.”
“Lord Weiss…?” Rosalia mumbled.
It seemed that our talking had woken her. At first, she looked at me, half asleep, but eventually, her eyes widened and her tears began to flow.
“Rosalia, I’m okay,” I tried to reassure her.
“Lord Weiss, I was so worried!” Rosalia practically leaped out of the chair and embraced me in her arms. “Thank goodness. Oh, I’m so glad… If you didn’t wake up, I don’t know what I was going to do.”
“Whoa!” Her arms wrapped around me and she squashed my face with her breasts, leaving me no chance to object. White chittered in concern.
Dammit, look how worried I made her…
“Rosalia, I’m sorry. I…”
“I’m going to get stronger,” she said quietly. “I know you’re going to end up pushing yourself too hard for someone else, so I need to be strong enough to support you.” Having said that, Rosalia just held me that much harder. “And I’ll train you so you can improve your magic power. We’ll go even harder than before.”
“How, um, passionate,” Astesia said, her brows furrowing a little. “I’ll let you two have the room.” She stood up, clearly done with us. “This is a good inn, so you don’t have to worry about making too much noise.”
Wait, does she have the wrong idea about Rosalia and I?
Before she left the room, she said one more thing, though her face was flushed with embarrassment. “Um, thanks. Both of you. I’m going to try and find my own path.”
“We’re rooting for you.”
After that, I had to work for quite some time to finally calm Rosalia down.