Chapter 26: maybe im not cut out for this. (nevermind i take that back)

Upper Fire Month, 11th Day, 600 AGG

Borislev Frel Kestava wiped off the sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Next!" the Lady of Wings, Lady Yuriko, called out. "If you're coming for a resurrection, head to one of the lines on the left! If you're here for healing, head to the ones on the right!"

He had been assisting in dispensing the angel's charity for over a week now. Caldevera was slowly recovering from the weight of its long oppression, the administration of the Draconic Kingdom working itself to the bone.

Despite the worst of the horrors being over, there was still much to do.

"Hey," the Lady of Wings poked his arm. "Could you check them really quickly? Thanks!"

"O-Of course!" Borislev snapped out of his musing. "I'll do so at once!"

His heart pounded as the angel gave him a thumbs up and a smile. It would be inaccurate to say he was infatuated—imagining any sort of close relationship with such a divine being felt borderline heretical and more importantly, unconducive to a peaceful life. Not to mention the rumors regarding her and the Dragon Queen… Well, they were probably just that, rumors.

"『Zone of Truth』," a small field of light formed around the petitioner. "Name, location and date of death?"

If the Dragon Queen's beauty—and he was loath to admit it—was an imperative that commanded an entire kingdom, then the Lady of Wings' was an abstraction. An idealization of a concept that mortals could never reach even if they were given an eternity to strive towards it.

"I'll pass on your request to the Lady of Wings," Borislev calmly reassured the distraught man while he noted down the relevant information on the form he was holding. "You'll be notified when it's been processed."

"How would I know I'm being notified?" the man asked in confusion.

"Trust me," Borislev dryly responded just as a flight of angels took to the air with bewildered, blanket-wrapped resurrectees in their arms. "You'll know."

"Hey, Bor!" one of his colleagues from the Theocracy waved at him. "You hear the news?"

"What? News?"

"We're being sent back home!" Silas walked over and slapped his shoulder with a chuckle. "By the gods, we're getting kicked out!"

"Weren't we sent here as reinforcements though? I thought the Theocracy had a contract going on with this kingdom."

Silas leaned closer with a serious expression. "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but I heard from one of the higher-ups around here that the deal is being revoked. Something to do with what went down in Almersia."

"Wouldn't the Lady of Wings have told us then if that was the case?"

"Who knows," Silas shrugged. "Maybe she forgot. Maybe she isn't aware. She's pretty busy all the time, after all."

'Would a deity really be so absentminded?' Borislev didn't think it likely. Sure, the angel had a habit of 'losing' things that turned out to be close at hand. Sure, she had once asked them what they wanted for lunch only to bring back the wrong meals for everybody. No one had been upset—Borislev would've commended the bravery of anyone who dared—and if they were, no one wanted to be the one to tell her.

Okay.

She might have forgotten.

"But there's still plenty of work to be done in this city," Borislev weakly argued. "Wouldn't the Theocracy's reputation suffer in her eyes if we left without completing our tasks?"

"Hey," Silas raised his hands up. "Not my decision. You'll have to ask the people in charge."

The priest sighed. "Cheer up a bit. We can finally stop worrying about those damn subhumans, eh? Can go back home and see our families again. Er," Silas froze up and apologetically looked at Borislev. "Unless, you know—never mind. Just ignore me."

"I have a younger sister back home," Borislev huffed. "Even if I went back, it's not as if we'd see each other that often anyways."

"She a priest too?"

"Paladin."

"Wow," Silas whistled. "Which temple?"

"No idea," Borislev felt a familiar sense of helplessness wash over him. "It's classified."

"Huh. Weird that they would hide that. Now, if she was a part of the Six Scriptures though…"

"Who knows?" Borislev awkwardly shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "She's doing fine. Sends mail every now and then."

"That's good," Silas caught the hint and dropped the topic. "Anyways, I'll see you around, Bor. Don't work yourself too hard, alright?"

"Yeah," Borislev nodded to the priest who was returning to their duties. "You too."

The priest sat back down. A sizable line had formed at his station while he had been busy talking. Borislev's face heated up in shame. "N-Next."

There were surprisingly few people who needed healing. Probably because the subhumans didn't want their livestock damaged, he thought to himself with no small amount of hatred. It had surprised him when he arrived in the city and learned there were still subhumans walking around and working there.

A goddess's mind was truly beyond comprehension. Borislev didn't think he knew anyone who would have allowed the same thing. Even mercy had to have its limits.

The priest pushed the thought out of mind. It wasn't anything he had any control over, and it wasn't causing any harm… yet. Perhaps they were needed for some long-term plan of the angel's.

"Okay everyone!" A burst of wind swept over Borislev as the Lady of Wings alighted on the ground. "It's lunchtime!"

'Have we really been working for that long?' He looked up at the sun. Sure enough, it seemed to be a little past noon.

Angels distributed their food—simple fare, but he wasn't going to complain, not with Caldevera in the state that it was in. Borislev bit into the hunk of bread and watched as the Lady of Wings walked around and chatted with his coworkers.

'The gods walk among us once more,' he mused to himself with no small amount of amazement. Despite having worked with her for more than a week, it was still a difficult state of affairs to get used to. She might not be one of the Six Great Gods, but he was certain that she embodied the precepts they passed down.

He watched as one of the administrators sent to help the city back to its feet passed a few sheets of vellum into the angel's hand before whispering something into her ear. The angel's eyes widened before sheepishly nodding.

"Hi, so I have something to tell everyone!" Background chatter gradually died down as the Lady of Wings began clapping for everybody's attention. "So, um, firstly, I'm really sorry for forgetting to tell all of you about this."

Silas shot him an 'I told you so' look from where he was eating. Borislev rolled his eyes and focused his attention back on the angel.

"Because of some," the Lady of Wings squinted as she held the vellum notes closer to her face. "Some, uhhh, problems? Yeah, problems! R-Right, because of some problems, all of you guys from the Theocracy are to return home by the end of the month."

"What were the problems?" one of the soldiers from the Draconic Kingdom raised his hand. Borislev scowled. The subjects of the Dragon Queen—and the queen herself, no doubt—treated the Lady of Wings with far too little respect.

"Errr," the angel frowned. "That's classified. Sorry. Moving on! Draudillon also wanted to say that if any of you wish to stay and continue to help in the Draconic Kingdom, you're free to do so! You'll be fairly com-compen—compensated for your work!"

'Then what was the point of forcing us back home?' he couldn't help but wonder. 'The contract's certainly been cut off, so doesn't the Dragon Queen know that we're duty-bound to return home?'

The administrator pointed at the back of one of the pages the angel was holding. Her face flushed red as she coughed into her fist. "One of the—crap, how do I read this?—requirements! One of the requirements is that you'll become a citizen of the Draconic Kingdom and be placed into an organization run by Yuriko." The Lady of Wings paused and reread the line to herself. "Eh?"

'A chance to directly serve a deity in service to humanity?' Borislev found himself more tempted by the prospect than he thought. 'That would be heresy though, wouldn't it?'

The Gods did not answer him.

Conversation broke out all around him—some heated, and some that stepped a bit beyond just heated.

"Who does that mongrel queen think she is?!" one of his fellow priests snarled. "Does she really believe that this will go unanswered?!"

"We'd be serving under the Lady of Wings, not the Dragon Queen though, right?" Borislev turned to the man. "It doesn't seem that outrageous to serve under a goddess."

"You…" the priest gaped at him in disbelief. "Are you seriously thinking of defecting?"

"No such thing," he quickly replied. "It was just an idle thought."

"Keep it that way," the priest grumbled, somewhat placated. "Do not forget the responsibilities you have back in the Theocracy."

"Of course," Borislev lowered his head. His colleague wasn't wrong. Being a priest entailed many duties from dispensing general healthcare, assisting in the day-to-day operations of the temple he was a part of, keeping up with the census of his parish, and many other tasks. It would be highly inappropriate of him to simply drop all of that on a whim.

"—Okay, so she definitely talked about this with me," he heard the Lady of Wings mutter to herself as she pulled at her hair and stared at the documents. "And I… aaah…" The angel looked supremely upset with herself until she rapidly shook her head back and forth. "Okay! I can do this. I can do it. Draudillon believes in me!"

'Do the rumors actually hold some weight?' Borislev walked up to the angel. 'She seems to be rather… close with the queen.'

"Hm?" the angel saw him approach and quickly shoved the pieces of parchment behind her back. "Do you need something?"

"What would be the purpose of this organization?" he mustered up the courage to ask. "Would we just be based here and continue what we've been doing?"

"Hrm," the angel fell into deep thought. "I guess?"

His heart sank. So he would be doing the exact same things, but for a different kingdom.

"After all of this, I think it'll be cool if we went around and helped people," the angel continued. "I, I don't really know yet. But we'll figure it out!"

"That sounds—interesting," wasn't that the same thing adventurers did? In that case, it should be much more effective to train up a suitable group within the Draconic Kingdom's military instead of bringing in outsiders.

Unless training new divine casters was too difficult for them.

"Maybe," she put one hand on her hip and scratched the top of her head with the other. "Did you want to join?"

"I…" Working for a deity sounded like a novel experience, but—

"Unfortunately, I don't think I can, my Lady. My sister would be rather upset if she returned to an empty home," he belatedly noticed that everyone had fallen silent and were watching their interaction. A bead of sweat rolled down the back of his neck.

They wanted to see how the angel would react. If this 'offer' was just a facade for coercion, then it would be critical that they had someone test the waters before rejecting her outright.

"Oh," she slumped in disappointment before straightening back up. "Well, that's alright! You don't have to leave now, but if you want a ride back home," the Lady of Wings gestured at the angels around them. "You can ask one of them. Um, the ones that aren't busy at least."

"Thank you," his body relaxed in relief. "It's, well, she would get fairly angry with me."

"Family, huh?" the angel's gaze softened. "Yeah, it would be pretty mean if you did that, wouldn't it? And I guess you have other people waiting for you back home too?"

"... I do."

"That's good," Were the Six Gods this comforting to their own believers? "Thanks for all your hard work up until now, Borislov!"

'It's Borislev…' he wryly smiled. "Thank you, my Lady. It's been an honor."

The angel gave two thumbs up and then walked off. Borislev let out a sigh he didn't know he had been holding. Around him, the noise of conversation began to swell again.

"Guess it's back to the temples," he muttered to himself. It wasn't too bad—just boring, that was all. "Hope they've been able to pick up the slack without me there."

Having to catch up on work would be an awful homecoming present.

"Heading back home then?" Borislev startled as Silas came up from behind. "Thought for sure you'd jump at the chance to hang around the angel judging by the way you stare at her all the time…"

"Don't go around spewing that kind of nonsense," he pinched his nose in annoyance. "Everyone does."

"I don't."

"You're an exception then."

"Perhaps," Silas thoughtfully stared up at the sky. "You know, I think I might take the Dragon Queen up on her offer."

"Don't you have a kid back home?"

"I'll just bring them over," Borislev followed Silas as they headed back to their station. "I doubt the higher-ups would try to stop me, given who's asking."

"Would it really be okay to bring them here?" He questioned his colleague. "The Draconic Kingdom still has its fair share of problems, you know? Besides, you were pretty excited when you learned that we were going home."

"Isn't it a priest's job to minister to those in need?" Silas snorted. "Traveling around doesn't sound too bad. Anyways, even if I die, she'll probably resurrect me, ha!"

"Taking a goddess's blessing for granted," Borislev felt faint. "How did you ever become a priest?"

"I'm a righteous individual," Silas scowled. "I don't want to hear that from someone who's wrapped around their sister's pinky finger."

"Tsk."

"Anyways, you better start packing up. Might as well hitch a ride on one of her summons before she changes her mind."

"Just what kind of person do you think she is…?"

"Huh? Do you even need to ask? She's a scatterbrain! An absolute airhead!" Silas shook his head in disbelief. "The rest of you are way too caught up in your own imaginations."

"Then why choose an 'airhead' over your homeland?" Borislev bristled. He would have never expected words like the ones he was hearing to come out of a priest's mouth. It was borderline blasphemous, the way he dared to insult a champion of humanity in such a way.

"Curiosity."

"Ridiculous," he scoffed. "Reverence, I can understand. But to uproot yourself for mere curiosity—"

"Don't tell me you aren't interested, Bor," Silas crookedly smiled. "You don't have to be jealous; I'll make sure to send you letters every now and then so you don't feel left out."

"Go to hell."

"Countess Tierref," Draudillon stood up and greeted the emissary from the Baharuth Empire. "I assume Ambassador Gyrfurt was unavailable?"

"He had other commitments, Your Majesty," the Countess curtsied. "As did you, I presume."

"It's unfortunate that we were unable to meet last week, but there's been a multitude of events to keep up with," Draudillon answered apologetically. "Thank you for putting up with the sudden change in location."

"It was no inconvenience at all," Tierref sat back down on one of two recently added sofas. "Emperor El-Nix extends his well-wishes and hopes that the relationship between the Baharuth Empire and the Draconic Kingdom continues to flourish."

'Emperor El-Nix can go shove his well-wishes up his ass,' Draudillon's smile imperceptibly tightened. "Likewise. We look forward to our continued friendship as well."

Friendship. Draudillon resisted the urge to snort. It was no secret that Jircniv despised her. At least he was competent enough to put aside his personal dislikes when it came to foreign policy.

"With all that said, I must admit that Your Majesty looks… different from what I had been expecting," the Countess kept her face carefully blank. "Were it not for your bearing, I would've never known you were the same person."

"The times are changing," Draudillon noncommittally answered. "I suppose that was one of the things that changed along with them."

'Get to the point!' The emissary was beginning to grate on Draudillon's nerves. 'No, calm down. That's probably what they're aiming for.'

"So," Draudillon sat down and leaned back on the sofa opposing Countess Tierref's. "I'm gladdened that Emperor El-Nix is concerned for my kingdom's well-being, but I'm sure he has his own fair share of issues that need to be dealt with."

"Hm, well," Tierref flicked her eyes to the Cherubim Gatekeeper hovering behind Draudillon. "The Empire wishes to reopen trade routes that were closed during the, ah… crisis."

'How shrewd,' Draudillon silently approved. Whatever others might say about the Bloody Emperor, he was certainly not one to miss out on an opportunity. 'I should apply some more pressure.'

"Fetch me my stationery," Draudillon commanded the Gatekeeper. The angel floated to her desk and back, gently setting down some parchment, her quill, and an inkwell upon the table sitting between the two women. "I'm afraid our borders aren't quite ready for trade yet. Does the Emperor find the current flow of goods unsatisfactory?"

"T-That is," the Countess nervously swallowed. "No. He does not. This was proposed to promote the growth of both our nations."

"You know," Draudillon's quill scritched across a piece of parchment. "I don't recall Emperor El-Nix ever being so eager to trade with the Draconic Kingdom. It may be a bit inappropriate of me to ask, but what changed?"

"Well, it's hardly my place to speculate on His Imperial Majesty's thoughts—"

"You need resources," Draudillon continued writing. "For the campaign in Re-Estize. The timing is very… convenient. Will he ask for a proclamation of approval as well?"

"What are you trying to imply, Your Majesty?" Tierref's eyes narrowed even while her hands trembled in—fear probably. Being stared down by a lance-wielding demigod probably wasn't an enjoyable situation.

"Nothing," Draudillon airily responded and finished signing the letter she had been writing with a flick of her wrist. "An idle observation, nothing more. Dry it."

She placed the letter into the hand of the Cherubim Gatekeeper, allowing the angel to dry the ink with a few flaps from its powerful wings. The Countess's eyes widened by just the slightest bit as she looked at the Dragon Queen in disbelief.

Draudillon put the letter into an envelope with an air of indifference before stamping it with her royal seal. "Here. Take this back to Emperor El-Nix. I would be more than happy to continue this discussion with him."

"... By your leave then, Your Majesty," Countess Tierref bowed and left the room with commendable aplomb. Draudillon felt a twinge of guilt for going a little overboard with the Gatekeeper. The Countess really didn't deserve that.

A knock on her door.

"Come in," she raised her voice. The door opened to the unpleasant sight of her Prime Minister. "Tch!"

"How rude, Your Majesty," Martin sniffed. "Is this how you greet the people grinding themselves into dust to fulfill your decrees?"

"It's how I greet busybodies sticking their heads where they don't belong," Draudillon grumbled and covered her eyes with an arm. "How long were you waiting there?"

"Not long at all, Your Majesty," Martin sat down opposite to her. "The good emissary looked somewhat distressed when she ran out."

"It'll make her more empathetic to the plight of our own Ambassador to Baharuth," Draudillon stretched out and laid herself prone on the couch. "Plus, I'd forgotten the last time I've been able to negotiate from above. Let me enjoy the moment for a little longer!"

"... I do not see what Lady Yuriko sees in Your Majesty, truly."

"Piss off."

"Hm. How crass, Your Majesty," he dumped a pile of papers on the table sitting between them. "Very well. I will 'piss off' as Your Majesty demands. Please have those papers signed as soon as Your Majesty finds it acceptable."

"Ugh…" Draudillon crawled up from her prone position. "Aren't you the one who wanted me to get more rest? The one who went and told Yuriko to force me to get some sleep?"

"It was to my understanding that Your Majesty willing agreed—"

"Stop putting ideas in her head," Draudillon harshly cut him off. "I can take care of myself, and she shouldn't have to worry about me on top of everything else she's busy with."

Martin gave her a disbelieving look.

"I can," she insisted.

"As you insist, Your Majesty," Martin got up and was a step out of the room before he paused. "Though if you ever need any advice on how to deal with the angel, your faithful servant can always ask his wife to talk with you—"

"Get out."

"Of course, Your Majesty," he respectfully bowed. "Have a good evening."

"I hope you have a terrible one!" she shouted as the door shut behind him. "Who does he think he is, acting like some crude gossip hag—"

"Who's a crude gossip hag?"

"Wha—" Draudillon jumped in surprise. "Yuriko! I, I didn't notice you were here."

"Oh, sorry," Yuriko sheepishly knocked the top of her head with her knuckles. "I came in just now, and you looked like you were pretty upset sooo…" the angel pressed her index fingers together. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Draudillon tried to calm her pounding heart. "It was just Martin. You know how he is."

"Huh?" Yuriko tilted her head in confusion. "But I thought you guys were friends?"

"He is, but…" she recalled his offer to 'assist' with Yuriko. "Never mind. It's not important."

"If you say so," Draudillon fought back the urge to squirm as Yuriko looked at her with an indecipherable gaze. After a few seconds, the angel shrugged and pulled out a number of preservation containers. "Anyways, I baked some fish! There was this really pretty lake nearby that someone showed me, and it had lots of fishies, and um…"

Yuriko coughed and blushed before taking a seat beside Draudillon. "S-Sorry, I got kinda excited."

"It's fine," Draudillon breathed in the fragrance of the baked fish and roasted vegetables. "I liked hearing you talk about it. Go on?"

"No, it's dumb," Yuriko brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she took a bite of food. "But it's just that the water was so clean and there were actually fish in it."

"That's nice," and it was. It was nice to hear that there were still some good things left after the beastmen's occupation of the city. "I didn't know you fished though."

"First time for everything!" Yuriko said before surreptitiously looking around and lowering her voice. "I had a lot of help though."

"Pft," Draudillon cracked a small smile. "I'm glad you're having fun."

"Yeah," Yuriko suddenly went quiet. "Is that bad? I mean, everyone else is working so hard to fix the city, and I'm out here taking time off to fish." The angel turned their eyes towards her. "Is this how you feel all the time?"

"Yes," Draudillon softly replied. "It is."

The room went quiet save for the sound of eating.

After a few minutes of the unbearable silence, Draudillon set her utensil down and turned her eyes away. "There's something I wanted to talk about."

"About what?" Yuriko worriedly scooted closer. It was clear that this had been eating away at the dragon queen over the course of the day. "What's wrong?"

"Earlier today…" Draudillon wasn't sure how to begin. "With the Theocracy. I should have made sure you understood what you were agreeing to." She shot a side glance at Yuriko. "Did you understand?"

"N-Not really… But I can do it! You can trust me!"

"I know," Draudillon sighed with a tired smile. "But it was a mistake on my part nonetheless. I apologize; if you'd like, I can clarify it now."

"You don't have to apologize," a welcomed warmth flowed from Yuriko's hand into hers. Draudillon immediately chided herself; wasn't she supposed to be putting more distance between them instead of indulging in her own selfish desires? "It was my fault for agreeing without making sure I knew what you were talking about. I'm guessing this isn't the sort of thing you can take back?"

"Not at this point, no. The Slane Theocracy should already be aware of my proposition. Taking it back now…" the dragon queen's voice trailed off. "I could if you're absolutely certain you don't want to be affiliated with the group, but if it's just a matter of workload, then I can easily handle that."

"Oh, I mean, that's fine," Yuriko swallowed another bite. "I think it's a cool idea, so don't worry about it. You already work waaay too much." She wiped her mouth with a napkin pulled from the void. "So, um, why did you want them to come over again?"

"There's a few reasons. One, even though I used the incident with the Sunlight Scripture as an excuse to remove Theocracy elements from our military, we still have a shortage of divine casters," Draudillon looked at Yuriko apologetically. "Only a few of your summons can use healing magic, so we'll need a stopgap of clerics and priests until you can create more of those."

She held up a hand halting Yuriko's question. "There's no rush; in the end, I think it's better this way. Unilaterally supplanting all of the temples in the kingdom might result in some… undesired consequences."

"But there's not that many that said yes to your idea…" Yuriko frowned before her face lit up in realization. "You want to use them to train more divine casters?"

"Exactly," Draudillon nodded. "It's more of a long-term investment—we still have a few temples of the Four Gods standing in the Draconic Kingdom, so that in conjunction with the steadily increasing count of healing-capable angels should be a suitable temporary measure."

"Do you want me to summon more Empyreans and Thrones of Light then?" Yuriko thoughtfully chewed on a forkful of vegetables. "Thrones can't deal with status effects like poisons and sicknesses though."

"It's leagues better than nothing. The three headed ones… Empyreans. You're limited to only one per-day, correct?"

"Yup," the angel popped her lips. "And if I do that, I can't summon Gatekeepers and most of my other super high level stuff."

"They're stronger than Gatekeepers, aren't they? Why not just stick with them instead?"

"I can do two Gatekeepers a day," Yuriko shrugged. "Can cover more space that way. Plus…"

"Plus…?"

Yuriko's face grew pink as she muttered. "They're better at protecting."

"O-Oh," Draudillon's lips suddenly felt the urge to wet her lips. Had the room always been this hot? "That's reasonable."

"Yeah, Empyreans aren't really efficient when it comes to mana," was it just her, or were they sitting even closer than they already had been? "I guess it's better than needing to use experience, but like, my『Bringer of the Host』feat still makes them cost more than an『Armageddon - Good』…"

"How many do you have on hand?"

"Ten… no, not even ten?" Yuriko flicked the ever-present starry orb that floated above her shoulder. "The one I put back home is the only one that isn't stored away right now."

"I see," Draudillon grimaced. If anyone else had been in the room with them, their eyes would have boggled in shock at her reaction. Having access to even one of those godlike entities was a blessing beyond belief.

It didn't change the fact that even a Seraph Empyrean could not be everywhere at once. For this problem, a multitude of weaker priests and angels was far more effective than a single unstoppable force.

"Then could you summon more Thrones of Light?"

"Sure," Yuriko pulled out a folio of loosely tied-together pages and a filigreed quill Draudillon couldn't recall seeing before. "Summon… more… Thrones… So what were your other reasons?"

"Seeing if we could get any information out of them," Draudillon watched Yuriko's quill scratch across the parchment in that foreign script of hers. "Theocracy priests should be privy to some amount of sensitive information."

Draudillon quickly continued upon seeing Yuriko fidget uncomfortably at the idea. "If you feel uncomfortable with needling them for their secrets, then it's not a problem. I doubt they'll share anything truly important anyways."

"Okay!" the angel brightened and continued writing. "Make… friends…!"

'I didn't say that,' Draudillon crossed her arms, unimpressed. "Moving on, the third reason is that I want to see how the Theocracy reacts."

"Sounds cool—Huh?"

"I want to confirm if they have any trump cards capable of competing with you," Draudillon was sure she sounded braver than she felt. What if they did? What if Yuriko decided to back out? "Therefore, I thought a minor… transgression was the surest way to gauge their reaction. If they respond aggressively, then that in itself would be good enough of a confirmation."

If the Theocracy did have superweapons that somehow surpassed the angel, then Draudillon was prepared to fall to her knees and beg for forgiveness. That being said, she found it a near impossibility. At the very least, they were either weapons that were unable to be repeatedly used, or there were outside limitations on their application.

"Didn't you say it was unlikely?" The angel displayed none of the anger Draudillon had expected them to. Instead, their countenance was filled with worry. "Why do you want to know, anyways? They still send people to help against the beastmen, right?"

'Because I'm a True Dragon Lord, and I fear what they might resort to now that their military supremacy is threatened,' she couldn't say that out loud. Draudillon swallowed the lump in the back of her throat. Even now, she still wasn't ready. If Yuriko thought her to be a freak of nature like so many already did— 'Forgive me… No, I don't deserve forgiveness.'

"I…" it would be so easy to lie, so easy to give a half truth.

Draudillon couldn't do that. Not to Yuriko. Not when she dragged them this far down already. "It has something to do with me. I'm just," her words faltered. "I'm not ready to talk about it yet. I know, I know, it's audacious of me to heft all this upon you—"

"I don't mind."

"Then you're a fool," Draudillon bitterly spat out. "All I've done is use you. Adelemus. Caldevera. Almersia. What have you ever received in turn for your deeds? Nothing."

She pulled her hand away from the angel's, ignoring the wounded look in their eyes and the pit in her own heart. Yes, it was better this way. Better that she keep her distance from Yuriko and push them away from the hell she was falling into.

"I think," Yuriko got up and put the containers along with the utensils back into her Item Box. "That I've received a lot more than you realize." She opened the door and glanced back at Draudillon with an air of sadness. "I wish you could see that. I'll come back tomorrow."

The door closed behind her.

'Go after her, you fool!' Draudillon remained in her seat, frozen with indecision. Wouldn't chasing after her be the height of hypocrisy after what she had resolved to do and what she had already done? 'Go!'

She shot up to her feet and dashed towards the door, shoving it open with a burst of strength. "Yuriko!"

The angel, who had been sitting on the floor outside the room, hurriedly wiped at their eyes. "Dra-Draudillon?"

"I'm," what did she say now? What could she say now? "I'm sorry. What I said—That was cruel of me."

An apology was worthless. Words that were as fleeting as the wind and a fraction as substantial.

"Idiot," Yuriko glared at Draudillon before pulling her into a tight hug, the angel's voice filled with an unspoken relief. "I forgive you."

But sometimes, maybe an apology was enough.