Interlude ─ Bell's report (II)

While the repairs were going on, Bell was doing her own thing.

Since she wasn't in the Kingdom, she couldn't have fun, so she decided to spy on the others what they were doing.

But she wasn't interested in men.

She only cared about pretty girls.

That's why she hid her presence when she was with Alisa and Airi following them.

"Alisa, we're out of canned food. I'll go see more."

"Understood, don't delay."

Airi went to the house where they were leaving the food.

Bell followed her.

"Even in this situation, Airi-chan is still the same. Despite the fact that herself agreed to the deaths Master took. She has certainly grown up, she doesn't try to see the kind side of others let alone feel sorry for the punishment they deserve."

Bell looked proud of Airi.

Suddenly they both heard a scream.

In the distance they saw an injured man.

He was lifting some beams for a house, he slipped and those beams jammed his legs.

He was screaming in pain.

Immediately Airi went to help him.

His companions removed the beams and looked at his legs with horrors.

When Airi arrived, she also panicked, but calmed them all down.

"Please stand aside. I will heal him now."

Airi knelt down and spread her hands over the man's legs.

A quality light emanated from her hands, generating the broken bones to snap back into place, the blood to stop gushing and the skin to regenerate.

The man who was screaming in pain stopped screaming.

After a while he saw his legs were healed, he was helped to stand up and could use them again.

The man in tears thanked her.

"Thank you very much, miss. I really appreciate it."

"I-It's nothing. I only did it because you were in trouble. Besides, it happened to be building houses, that's a bigger help than I do."

The men were happy for Airi's kind personality.

"You healed your legs without the need for an emblem. The magic of the Kingdom is amazing."

"She's like a saint, giving her help without expecting anything in return."

"Hehe. If you'll excuse me, I have to go get some boxes of food."

"Allow us to at least help you carry the boxes as a thank you."

"Thank you very much."

The workers accompanied Airi to the house and picked up as many boxes of canned food to go.

Bell was about to follow them when she noticed a man looking at Airi strangely.

The man left, and Bell followed him.

"Any threat to Airi-chan will not be tolerated."

Bell said opening her spherical body and pulling barbed wires out of it.

She arrived at an encampment.

By the ridge it was from the Kingdom.

They belonged all present to the temple.

Bell commented upon seeing them.

"The temple, huh?"

"Have they come to kill Erselica-chan?"

Bell approached the man who he saw was whispering something to a man of higher rank than him.

"... Really?"

Said a man with black hair combed back.

"Archbishop, it was real what I saw. There is no doubt about it."

"... I see, you are dismissed."

"Aye aye."

Bell muttered to herself watching the temple officers and knights at work removing debris or construction.

"Why are they doing this?"

The archbishop next to her answered himself.

"We came to this country to help you after the disaster happened."

"After what that degenerate Dixit and the others did. The image of the temple of the saint was tarnished as an organization of corrupt people."

The archbishop gritted his teeth hard.

"This is our chance to show the prime minister that the old regime of corruption is gone."

"With me in charge, I want to build trust again with the people and the palace. For years I've followed the scriptures of the saint for these monsters to destroy her image having used that imposter."

*Sigh*

After sighing he pulled out some very old papers from his drawer.

On them were drawn three objects.

One of them was the staff Erselica used when she was declared a saint.

The next was a necklace that only a queen would wear, but it was not.

It was the necklace of the saint.

All three of them were.

"The holy articles of the saint. According to the legends told, she wore these three items gifted to her by three different individuals."

Bell was surprised to see the last of them.

"A bracelet."

"The saint's bracelet, the last of the three missing items."

"All three items were stolen long ago by despicable pirates."

"The staff was found by that imposter on a summer island."

"Thanks to our recovering the commonwealth, I discovered that the necklace was among the possessions of the royal family."

"And now you, the last of all."

"According to my subordinate, a girl who healed a wounded man brought with her a bracelet just like this one. Could it be just a coincidence?"

"It must be, it would be very ridiculous if indeed she had found the missing piece."

The Archbishop stood up and went behind some officials to talk to them about what they would do before returning to the Kingdom.

Bell remembered something as she looked at those documents.

◇◇◇

"Airi-chan. that bracelet where did you get it from?"

Airi was bathing with Bell, after covering her spherical body with bubbles, Airi replied.

"This I found when I defeated a monster. It's my first drop item I've found, I took it as a treasure."

"I see. By the way, do you remember what happened during the monster tree attack?"

"Umm..."

Airi thought for a while and then told her.

"I don't remember. At some point my consciousness fades at some point and then I remember seeing Alisa from the ground."

"I see."

Bell muttered under her breath.

"Just like last year. She doesn't remember what happened when she used those powers, unlike that time. She has increased her strength."

"Ah, I remembered this."

Bell looked at Airi who said something puzzling.

"I remember before I woke up, I was in a forest."

"The sunlight lifted me up because of how hot it was."

"It was there that beside me was a woman."

"A woman?"

"What woman was she? Did you see her face?"

"Sure. That's why I told you it was a dream."

"Since..."

Bell for the first time was astonished to hear something impossible for her to be possible.

"It was Alisa speaking to me. In her hands she had a flute improvised with a leaf from a tree, I laughed so hard I remember."

"Then I woke up, it was a very strange dream. It felt as if Alisa was conversing with me, but at the same time she was someone else."

"I see."

◇◇◇

"..."

Remembering that, Bell flew back to where everyone was.

"The mysteries of this world are getting more and more confusing."

"But I could understand something about all this."

"The saint... it's possible she's real and trying to tell us something. Also, Airi-chan is destined to be the saint like Lucy-chan the priestess."

"Or will I be overthinking it?"