The defeat of the Pestilent Guardian Dragon had been the hottest topic at the academy before shifting over to Nemophila a few days ago. A holy woman who had lost her knight had made a comeback and defeated one of the Twelve Corpses. In terms of narrative, it was too good to pass up.
The Shaman of the Heavenly Garden’s defeat had been confirmed. The shaman’s Forbidden City was an old mountain mining town that had originally been home to a certain tribe that considered the mountain sacred. The tall mountain was so close to the sky that it had been both feared and revered as a path to Heaven. Their idea of Heaven had been little different from ours, but that wasn’t important.
Eventually, the lord of the territory had negotiated with greedy traitors from the tribe who had lost sight of the reverence they once had for nature, and the decision had been made to mine the mountain. All the tribe could then do was offer up almost daily prayers to the shaman to avoid incurring the mountain’s wrath. At least, that was the story passed around nowadays.
In reality, it was unclear whether that shaman had in fact been the Shaman of the Heavenly Garden. The only thing that was certain was that an earthquake would occur whenever someone entered the mine, resulting in them being buried alive. Due to their frequency, it was likely a curion’s unique ability. The phenomenon was likened to the mountain’s wrath, giving that curion the name “shaman.”
Alongside the Voiceless Mermaid, it was one of the Twelve Corpses with little to no confirmed sightings. Or at least, it had been. That all being the case, it was likely the blue-haired holy knight had obtained its ability.
“Black defeated the Pestilent Guardian Dragon, and Blizzard defeated the Shaman of the Heavenly Garden. What a time to be alive.”
“It’s like the hands on a clock that have been paused for three hundred years have finally started moving again.” A bunch of female students were gossiping in the academy cafeteria. They were mostly second- and third-year holy women.
Many of the first-years, on the other hand, looked quite gloomy. They had witnessed the deaths of their fellow classmates during the Pestilent Guardian Dragon incident. One pair of saints and sixteen pairs of students had died in battle on that day. I couldn’t blame them. Some holy women and holy knights hadn’t been able to move past the shock and had left the academy.
Today I was sitting with Cuphea and Linum in addition to the princess. The princess had been worrying about Nemophila a lot the past few days. She had gone about gathering information in her own way, consulting her older sister, Orlaya, and writing a letter to her grandmother.
“Two of the Twelve Corpses being defeated in such a short time is pretty crazy,” said the red-haired Cuphea as she tore a piece off of her bread and tossed the chunk into her mouth.
“The Twelve Corpses being gone doesn’t mean their cities will be freed right away, but it’s still a good thing.” The blue-haired Linum pulled a pendant out of her pocket and gripped it tightly, offering a prayer before digging into the rice omelet and salad on her tray.
“Oh, you’re using it, Linum?”
“Ah, yes. The pendant I used to use belonged to Mama Edel. Thank you again for giving it to me.” The pendant was a coin with three diagonal lines on it, from top right to bottom left. It was a crest that represented the goddess holy women worshipped shining light down upon them. The pendants were commonly worn by all who worshipped the goddess and used during prayer. The princess had a pendant as well, and holy woman uniforms also had the crest on them.
Linum and Cuphea had grown up in an orphanage, so any money they would have spent on buying a pendant had gone to the children’s food instead. The pendant Linum had worn when she first enrolled was a hand-me-down from her foster mother, Edel. I had bought the princess a hair clip and Cuphea a hair tie, and not wanting Linum to feel left out, I had bought her a pendant too.
“You’re welcome.”
“A-Ahem.” Cuphea deliberately brought attention to herself as she was playing with her ponytail. She was probably trying to show me that she was using her gift too.
“I’m glad you wear yours all the time too, Cuphea.” I was pretty sure I’d already told her that, but it didn’t matter.
“W-Well, I do like it.”
Linum giggled. “So much that you always stare at it before you go to sleep.”
“Hey! Linum?!” Cuphea turned bright red after getting exposed by her roommate. Learning such cute information did make me happy at least.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that the children get jealous sometimes.”
“Y-You’re right. I did feel a little bad when Linaria commented on it.”
“I’ve still got some money from the mission left over,” I said. “Maybe I should use it on something other than food.”
“That’s a good idea. Ribbons, hair accessories...maybe dolls?” Linum suggested. Her ideas turned into an entire conversation between childhood friends.
“Buying dolls for all the girls might be a bit too much. Maybe we can make them ourselves if we buy the materials. Mama Edel and grandma might even help if we ask.”
“If buying individual gifts is too much, we could try getting them all some picture books.”
“Buying books sounds good.” While I was admiring how kind they were, the princess still had a worried look on her face. I poked her cheek, my finger sinking into the softness.
“What is it, Albert?” The princess reluctantly faced me, my finger still on her cheek.
“Your food’s getting cold.”
“Oh, right...” Although she finally started eating, it was clear her mind was elsewhere. She had to have been thinking about Nemophila and the blue-haired holy knight—the Grave Keeper of the Golden City. In terms of chronology, Nemophila and her original holy knight had first visited the Golden City, which was managed by her family. While there, her knight had died in battle and Nemophila had returned alone. A few days later, she had met her second holy knight, and they had defeated the Shaman of the Heavenly Garden. The Twelve Saints’ titles were apparently based on weather, so they had been given the title of Blizzard.
There was a gap in the timeline between the death of her first holy knight and the appointment of the grave keeper as her second holy knight. Somehow a holy woman who had lost her holy knight had made an agreement with one of the Twelve Corpses. That was the extent of what we knew at the moment. There was also the mystery of how she had obtained a means to restore a curion’s flesh. Since it was a secret technique of the princess’s family, it was probably weighing on her mind. We could come up with as many guesses as we wanted, but what we really needed was factual information.