A/N: HELLO! This website has apparently disabled email notifications across the board some time ago, so if you would like to continue receiving notifications for this story, please please please check your account settings. Thank you so much, and sorry for the first A/N in a while being lame Dx
Chapter 62: sun's still shining for someone like me
Middle Fire Month, 21st Day, 600AGG
"No, no, no," Dad jabbed at the paper with all sorts of words she couldn't read. "We're not going to be able to ship that over in time for the festival. Look, they'd have to send a caravan to the Empire, float it all the way down Dragon-Throat, and then the local Magician's Guild can do their thing."
"Does Napoca not have a branch?" Gaius, a blonde priest with a stout build, chewed on an apple. "Or is this the kind of material that's easier to store unprocessed?"
"Both," Dad's priestess friend, Cornelia, absentmindedly picked at her lips while she scanned another parchment. "Less issues if we just get it done here. Tch, damn pain in the ass."
"You're not supposed to say bad words!" Dad never told off Auntie, so the job fell onto Lydia to remind them.
"My bad."
"I can summon more angels to do that," the Goddess—No! Lydia kicked her feet back and forth as she continued doodling on the floor. They wanted to be called Yuriko, and Dad said to listen to them. "Have them fly all of it south. It'll be faster, right?"
"Can you keep track of all of your angels?" Auntie Cornelia cocked a dubious eyebrow. "Actually, do you even know what we're talking about?"
"No?" Yuriko uncomfortably squirmed. "Um, I can try my best—!"
"Na, forget it," Auntie shook her head. "If you're not one-hundred percent certain you can ship everything off without mixing it up, then we'd be better off doing it normally."
"Sorry," Yuriko stared at the table, face redder than a beet. Were they sick? Was that why they were quieter than the last time she had seen them? "I should've organized them from the start."
"Hey, don't mind her too much," Dad reached out to pat them on the back but paused and withdrew his arm. "You're doing a great job!"
"I'm not," they mumbled as they buried their head atop crossed arms. "I didn't even do anything to help you guys for a whole week. More than a week."
"You're still dumping most of your mana into resurrections, Lady Yuriko," Gaius said, not looking at them for some reason. Lydia clicked her tongue. You had to look at someone when you were talking to them! Even she knew that! "Surely that's a far greater task than the likes of us could dream of accomplishing."
"Meh," The angel didn't raise her head. Dad and Gaius turned to glare at Cornelia who helplessly shrugged in reply.
"O-Okay, but you can still send a runner!" Dad tried to encourage the despondent Yuriko. "We got the missive written out and everything: just need a summon to pass it to the Merchant's Guild branch there."
"Yeah…" They pointed at an empty spot in the messy room. "『Create Low Tier Angel』."
One flash of light later, and a floating Archangel Flame expectantly stared at Dad with an outstretched hand. He folded up the letter and placed it into an envelope before placing it in the summoned angel's hand. "You know, I've never seen a summoning spell quite like yours before."
"Not a spell," Yuriko's eyes peeked out from over her arms. "It's a daily-use skill."
"Truly?" Gaius perked up. "A boon granted by a sacred relic on your person?"
"Erm, it's a skill I have," the angel fidgeted uncomfortably. "From being a cleric."
"Incredible… I must admit I've never met a cleric who could innately create angels in the way you do—"
"Dad, I'm booored," Lydia complained with a pout. She didn't get what Gaius was rambling about at all. And his voice was annoying. "You said we were going outside in the morning!"
"Sweetie, Dad's a little busy right now, okay?" She scrunched her face as Dad tousled her hair. "I'm really, really sorry—"
"How about you go and take the kid outside?" Auntie nodded at Yuriko while gesturing at Lydia. "Leave the boring paperwork crap to us."
"But don't you guys need more help with," the angel helplessly waved at all the parchment laying around the living room. "Y'know, everything?"
"Looking after Lydia isn't less important than filling out missives and inventory reports," Cornelia softened her words. "Seriously, you'll be doing us a favor. We're not trying to push you away or anything."
"Mira said she had to go to training—oomph!" Cornelia elbowed Dad in the side as Yuriko's shoulders slumped lower and lower. Auntie did that a lot. "I-It's, ouch, it's fine!"
"Is it really okay for someone like me to…?" The angel gaze shifted back and forth between her and Dad. There was an indescribable emotion there; one that Lydia could almost name—an entire story packed into a singular moment. Something more in tune with what the streetside preachers proclaimed than whatever she could see with her own two eyes.
Lydia scrambled to her feet. For some reason or another, it suddenly felt wrong to be laying on the ground.
" 'Someone like you?' " Dad frowned in confusion.
"Nevermind, I'm just—talking to myself!" Yuriko awkwardly laughed with a forced smile. "Lydia, do you want to come flying with big sister?"
"Yeah!" She never had a big sister before, and now the Goddess—she meant Yuriko—said, said…! Wow! "We're going now?!"
"We can, if there's nothing you want to grab first—h-hey!"
"No time to waste!" Lydia pulled on Yuriko's hand, dragging them towards the door. "Dad never lets me go flying outside!"
"Sweetie, show some more respect!" Dad yelled at her from behind as they ran out into the streets filled with people staring at her and big sister. "Don't grab Lady Yuriko like that!"
"Can I grab you?" She tilted her head up towards the angel.
"Um, I don't mind," big sister gave a thumbs up. Lydia solemnly nodded; Dad was worrying for nothing as always. "Anywhere you wanna go, or…?"
"Flying is good!" Lydia imperiously declared in her best imitation of Dragon Queen Oriculus. The corners of Yuriko's mouth twitched before they turned away and released her hand.
"Right, right," big sister squatted down, fingers bridged together to form a platform over her butt. "So uh, hop on."
Lydia carefully wrapped her arms around the angel's neck and squealed as their six wings unfolded, launching them skywards.
Everything looked so small! The houses, workshops, the castle— she could even see the ports of Ordelia with all its ships sailing east and west along the mighty river. 'Does big sister get to see this everyday?'
It wasn't only the bird's eye view either: the howl of the wind blasting past them, the clouds that glided below the sun, the flapping of big sister's wings—their wings didn't flap. Lydia opened her mouth to ask but closed it after a second of consideration. Flapping was for birds, and angels weren't birds, so maybe that explained it.
"You okay up there?"
"Faster!"
The angel went faster… by a little bit. "Faster!"
"We can't," Lydia sighed. Grown-ups were no fun. "Going too fast is dangerous."
With a big huff she settled in for the flight, irritation gradually forgotten as the world continued to pass by underneath the angel's blindingly white wings.
Going slow wasn't bad. No way she'd admit it though!
The ride went uninterrupted for some time—it turned out clouds were a lot higher than she thought they were—until Yuriko began sniffling out of nowhere.
"U-Ugh," big sister made the weird noise people make when they were crying but didn't want anybody to know they were crying. "Sorry, it—It's pretty pathetic to see an adult act like this, right?"
"It's not!" Lydia angrily declared. Dad wasn't 'pathetic,' and he acted this way too sometimes! Plus, big sister was so strong she could beat up all the demihumans with her pinky, so she couldn't be either! "Nothing wrong with being a crybaby!"
After all, she herself wasn't 'pathetic' either!
"Me, a crybaby…" Eh? Did she do a bad thing somehow? Big sister sounded even sadder than before. "H-Heh, I guess that's true…"
"No one's gonna make fun of you," kids at the temple Lydia went to did that to each other, but she couldn't imagine anybody going up to big sister and insulting them. "Because you're the Goddess."
"That's, people only say that because I'm strong," their slow glide came to a stop as big sister hovered in the air. "It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't change the fact that I'm not. Gods don't mope. Gods don't have regrets."
"I dunno," how would she know? "Maybe if you act bad everyone will stop?"
Mm, it had to be because they were super nice. They even gave a piggyback ride to her when she didn't even ask!
"I've already done enough bad stuff," big sister mumbled.
"Oh… like what?" She didn't think they actually did. "Did you miss your bedtime?"
"No—well, sometimes, but I meant bigger things. L-Like making people go away forever."
"You killed bad guys?" She knew Yuriko was responsible for getting rid of the demihumans who Dad said ate little kids, but if the big sister was the queen's kissy-friend then why would they be upset about killing them? "That's a good thing though! Everybody says so!"
"I guess you're right," eh? Why did they sound sadder? "They were the ones attacking the kingdom. They deserved it."
Lydia agreed with everything big sister was saying; although, she wondered why they had to mention something everybody knew.
"Lydia, do you really think I'm…"
"Wuh?" She guessed even angels had a lot of questions. It felt extra weird because everyone back in her old home always thought angels had the answers. If Dad and her ever returned to the Theocracy for a visit, she'd make sure to tell everybody about the real angel facts.
"Do you think I'm doing a good job?" Big sister's voice was so small she could barely hear them. "I wanna help, but sometimes I feel like I'm only getting in the way."
"Duh," wasn't it obvious? "If you were doing a bad job, she'd tell you to stop helping."
"That's true. Pft, I wonder what people would say if they saw me asking a kid to cheer me on."
"What's wrong with a kid, huh?!" Lydia scowled. Grown-ups always thought they knew everything until they didn't and had to ask kids for answers.
"Sorry, sorry!" Big sister laughed, causing the child to grow more annoyed. "I was being rude; I'm sorry."
"Hmph," well, they apologized and they were her big sister and Dad said not to bother them, so she supposed forgiving them was fine. "It's okay this time."
Yuriko only hummed in response, lazily circling around for a few minutes before coming to a halt thousands of meters above the ground. "You wanna guess how many people live down there, Lydia?"
"Um, five thousand?" Five thousand was a big number. Lydia couldn't imagine several hundred, much less a thousand. "Six thousand!"
"Well, I don't have a clue either. But it's a lot, right?" She nodded. "This is just one city too. Tens of thousands out of millions. No idea how Draudillon deals with it."
"Queen Oriculus studied really hard in school," smart kids tended to end up with more important positions—though she couldn't remember any at the moment. "So I bet she knows how to do all sorts of smart-person stuff."
"Right? And she tells me that I can learn how to do it too," Lydia wasn't sure. Big sister had a lot of questions that were easy to answer which probably meant they weren't as smart as the queen. Or perhaps angels had their own school and didn't sit in the same lessons that the queen and other mortals did. "Although helping everyone… is definitely impossible."
Lydia kept quiet. This was one of those serious moments you weren't supposed to interrupt.
"I don't think I'll ever know if everything I've done has been worth it," Yuriko's quiet voice cut through the wind. "And maybe it hasn't. Maybe there's no coming back, but—but I'll keep doing my best. For all of you."
"Yay!" She didn't completely understand what big sister was talking about, but it sounded like they figured something out. "Doing your best is good. The priests back home said so too!"
"Y-Yeah, anyways, we should probably get you home now," big sister's neck felt awfully hot. Lydia frowned; she wanted to fly for a bit more, but if they were sick then it would be better to head home. "I promised to check on some other people too."
"Mrmm," Lydia unhappily grumbled as the angel entered a slow descent upon her house. She was beginning to understand why big sister seemed upset about so many people relying on them.
'And Dad won't let Mira do this with me.'
"Can we do this again tomorrow?" She hesitantly tugged on their ear. "This was the first time Dad let me fly around…"
"Sure," Lydia couldn't see big sister's face, but if she had to guess… "But you have to ask your dad first, 'kay?"
They were definitely smiling.
"Lady Fouche," Antilene didn't bother looking up. "Should I leave her here?"
"Yeah," the Rubix cube in her hand endlessly clicked and clacked, more out of habit than any real attempt to solve it.
"I understand," the Captain of the Black Scripture respectfully dipped his head and released his hold on the traitor. "The Executive Council—"
"I know, I know," click, clack, click click clack. "Feel free to stay if you want to watch."
"… I see. I'll be taking my leave then."
His footsteps gradually diminished to nothing, leaving only her and the traitor in the Sanctum Sanctorum.
"Did you have a nice vacation?" Antilene put the cube on the floor. "See some interesting things?"
"H-Hieee…"
She sighed and pushed off the pillar she was leaning against. "Oi, Windstride. This how you greet an old friend?"
Seeing someone she remembered flaunting their strength with so much confidence in a state where they couldn't even prevent their legs from trembling was disheartening. Here stood a champion of the Theocracy, the pinnacle of six centuries' worth of careful cultivation, and they couldn't muster a single word before her.
Ah. They weren't a champion anymore.
Right.
'I have a job to do.'
"Here," Antilene tossed Windstride's old equipment towards them. Otherworldly metal clinked against marbled ground and laid flat at the traitor's feet. "You haven't gotten a chance to wear this in a while, right?"
"Wh-What?"
"Put it on," She sighed and worked out the cricks in her neck. "Unless you want to go in like that."
Windstride's face burned with shame as they picked up the assassin's armor and weaponry, doffing their old skimpy leather outfit—were those Adventurer tags?—and donning the sacred relics belonging in the Theocracy's holiest of holies.
Antilene dispassionately watched them change attire, putting aside Charon's Guidance in favor of stretching out her arms and legs. "It's been a few years."
"Getting nervous~?" Cute. But overplayed. False bravado was something she had become sickeningly familiar with throughout her long life. "I, I've gotten stronger too~"
Well, it was better than begging for mercy that she wasn't interested in dispensing. "That so? Why don't you come and—"
Antilene lazily sidestepped Windstride's lunge and raised her knee directly into their gut, the sheer power behind the impact launching them into the air as spittle and blood flew from their gaping mouth.
"—show me?"
"Urgk," Windstride clutched their stomach and retched, their vomit staining the holy sanctuary. This was supposed to help her warm up before heading to the Elf Country? "Hrrg."
"You're breaking my heart here, Windstride," Certain Death pulled them to their feet with all the gentleness of a mother caressing her infant. "I thought you said you got stronger. I'm beginning to wonder, was your little trip worth it?"
"I'll t-tell you everything—"
Windstride flew across the Sanctum, a nasty crack sounding out from where their body met the other side of the chamber. "Great idea. For my first question…"
She pondered over what exactly she should ask. Of course, there was the information the Executive Council wanted her to confirm and uncover, but there were other, more curious things on her mind.
Either way, work first, as always.
"Who was that lich with you in E-Rantel?" in a blur of motion, Antilene reappeared in front of the shuddering traitor. "Ah, you're in shock from the pain.『Heavy Recover』."
A warm light at odds with Certain Death's frigid voice enveloped Windstride. "Can you speak now?"
"I-It was Khajit. Khajit Dale Badantel," hm, with a name like that… it could possibly be someone from the Theocracy? If so, it wasn't unlikely that Raymond and the other higher-ups already knew. "He's one of the twelve core members of Zurrernorn."
"Thank you. Does he have the Crown of Wisdom with him at the moment?" Antilene was equal parts relieved and disappointed. Relieved that they broke so easily. Disappointed that they broke so easily.
It had been so long since she felt an anger that burned this hot.
It hadn't been long enough since she felt a sorrow that ran this cold.
"He does—no, he gave it to that Night Lich!" The traitor flinched in anticipation of another strike. "The vessel too!"
'That alchemist kid in the reports, huh…?'
"Do you have a name?" The sitting Captain provided an epithet, but now that they ran Windstride through a rigorous pass of de-enchanting, questions this dangerous could be asked without triggering some magical trap. "Their abilities, habits, anything you know."
"Banejieri A-A-Anschass—"
" 'A-A-Anschass?' "
"Anschass! Their name is Banejieri Anschass!"
"Abilities."
"They're a necromancer," she could almost see the steam pouring out their ears from how hard they were trying to think. "Had a Zombie Dragon—I think I saw them cast Fifth-Tier magic?"
For some reason, their tone irked her.
'She's beginning to sound more comfortable,' traitors had no right to relax. "Is that everything you have?"
"Yeah, they were reeeeally hush-hush on everything—"
Antilene hit them once.
She hit them twice.
She stopped counting.
Eventually, Windstride was little more than a quivering mass of flesh. Antilene supposed it was a testament to their vitality that they didn't die even if she was holding back.
"You really are in the Realm of Heroes, huh?『Heavy Recover』,『Heavy Recover』,『Heavy Recover』," the sorry sack of shit healed to the point where one could barely recognize a human if they squinted. "So, why?"
She slammed their head into the wall, fracturing solid stone with almost laughable ease. "You lacked for nothing. Parents who tolerated your existence. A country that would bend over backwards to fulfill your requests.
"You had a purpose," Antilene loosened her grip and allowed the traitor to slump to the ground. "And you gave that up. For what? Your impulses? Hedonism? I don't understand."
Here lied someone who she had watched grow from a child into the woman they were today. Perhaps she could not see them as a child, but to call them a protege of sorts wouldn't be completely incorrect. Therefore, it was her fault for failing to properly educate this fool.
" 'Shard of Quintia,' " that got a reaction, more of a wiggle really. "Still remember the day we first met?"
Smack.
"『Heavy Recover』. It was a lot like today," Smack. "In fact, this is the first time I've had to do this to the same person twice."
Smack. "Was once not enough? Or did I go too easy on you?" Smack.
"『Heavy Recover』. It's not as if I don't understand how you feel," Crack. A gurgled scream. "The feeling of not belonging… but it's different for you, isn't it?"
"P-Please…"
"You never cared in the first place," Antilene straddled the fleshbag's waist and continued pummeling them from there. "I've seen the reports: 'Unnecessary collateral damage caused by Clementine.' What? Did you think nobody was watching?
"『Heavy Recover』. Well, it's not as if any of that matters now," she paused to scratch an itch on the back of her neck. "Raymond asked me if I thought you could be 'rehabilitated.' "
Her heart hardened a bit more at the sight of the horrified expression peeking through the traitor's swollen, bruised eyelids.
" 'A single day,' I told him," Antilene wondered if she should ask someone to fill a bucket of horse piss again. "So try to last a little longer this time, alright?
