The Necromancer and the Priestess (23)

When they arrived at the guild, Leon started to arrange for a room for El on the upper floors, where the White Bird party resided. Rosella had already bid goodbye, to go take a bath and return to her room for some much needed speech.

Meanwhile, the three of them, plus a certain Eve thrown and forgotten in the corner of the room, were standing in Leon's office.

"What? He can just stay in my room," Yin Mei said, and Leon and El both looked at her with bulging eyes.

"N-no, no, no, no. Definitely not," Leon immediately rejected this. A man staying in the room of an unmarried girl, and more importantly, a former high priestess? He could see himself being struck down by the gods in his head.

"? Why not?" Yin Mei said, confused. Perhaps it was because she had lived as a married couple with Yao Heyan for many years already that she felt this was totally natural. She couldn't see anything wrong, and innocently blinked her eyes at the two men.

On the other hand, these two people misunderstood, and felt that Yin Mei was too innocent!

"No! Men and women shouldn't share a room. We should get Sir... Kiel here a separate room. We have enough of them to spare." Leon said, and El nodded in agreement. He hadn't shared a room with Celes since they were children. It was too indecent to do so now that they were both adults - for the 20 year old El and the 17 year old Celes, they were both classified as adults under the empire's laws.

Yin Mei still had part of the open mentality of a modern day person, and couldn't quite understand the more conservative mindset of people from an older era.

But since El had agreed with Leon, sigh, she could only reluctantly let him go. No, wait, she should still be a little angry at him. So what was she doing, allowing him to sleep in the same room! It should be proper that she shun him and have him sleep outside. But, since he was the one to want to sleep outside, how was that a punishment anymore?

Yin Mei felt a little miffed, her expression immediately becoming upset. Leon and El both saw this and were speechless, but couldn't do anything. Why in the world was she upset about not sleeping in the same room as El? Shouldn't she be more protective of her innocence??

Is it because she was raised up in such an isolated and closed off environment that she didn't understand this sort of thing? But no, a high priestess should be conscious of it, because they needed to protect their purity.

Sigh, they really couldn't understand this person...

In the end, the night passed without a hitch, though Yin Mei was considering whether to raid El's bedroom, she decided against it. Bah! He still needed to work a little harder for her favor.

The next morning, Yin Mei decided against going to Gloom Forest's border, instead opting to work on magic research in the guild lab. The guild had two magic laboratories - one, which was open to adventurers for a small fee, and another private one that was exclusive to only a select few magicians that worked with Yin Mei to develop things like the magic scrolls she used, or the special information magic taught to the members of the information guild.

Lying on what appeared to be an operation table was Eve, who was still knocked out even after all this time. Yin Mei put on a pair of gloves, custom made medical tools arranged neatly on a tray nearby.

"Wait, you aren't going to..." The nearby Leon started to say pale faced, thinking that she was about to start dissecting the demon right in front of him.

Although due to healing magic, science, and especially medical science, was much underdeveloped, there still existed the knowledge of dissection to learn more of the human body, used mostly on the corpses of criminals or unknown humans that would have been thrown into a mass grave.

"No, this was just for getting in the mood." Yin Mei said, her partially shadowed expression returning to normal as she put her hands up innocently. Of course she wasn't going to dissect Eve! First of all, she didn't have that sort of experience, and second of all, Eve was her precious experimental subject. As for things like whether or not it was disgusting, or whether it was immoral or not... that sort of stuff had flew far, far away after five hundred years of living in a cultivation world, and then several years battling and dissecting zombies.

"What I want to do is see the results of the new magic I tried on her," Yin Mei said, putting her hand on Eve's head. A faint light glowed, and she opened up her eyes - previously, they had been a red color, but were now a pale gold.

"What magic...?" Leon asked, unable to see that Eve had opened her eyes.

"Memory manipulation," Yin Mei said, and Leon subconsciously backed away a step in shock and... fear. "Are you afraid that I'll use it on you?" The girl asked, looking back at him with an almost menacing expression. "Don't be. In the first place, your magic is too strong for me to use it on you in the first place."

Leon stilled, feeling embarrassed that he had shown such fear in front of Yin Mei. What the heck was he doing, doubting the former high priestess? Just because her actions in this last year had been a bit... it didn't mean she was different from before. That's right, he had known her for this long already, and here he was, doubting her.

On the other hand, Yin Mei's eyes staring at Eve were emotionless. Actually, what she had used wasn't just memory manipulation magic, but also the forbidden mental manipulation magic. They weren't really that different, but one was forbidden black magic, and the other wasn't.

As a result, she was certain that should she have revealed the whole truth, then Leon would probably end up reporting her to the church, despite her identity.

Because, forbidden magic was simply just that taboo. It was ingrained in the minds of the people from birth.

But, just as forbidden as it was, so was it useful.

But, it was also true that because Leon's magic power and control almost rivaled that of Yin Mei's, she would be hard pressed to perform such magic on him. So, there really wasn't any need for him to worry no matter which magic she used.

Yin Mei then smiled, as she placed the finishing touches on her experiment. She asked in a gentle tone. "How are you feeling?"

Eve blinked several times, her dull eyes seeming to regain their light. "A-ah... I'm feeling quite fine... Where is this?" She looked around, confused.

"This is the guild. I'm a healer. We found you unconscious in the forest and brought you back here. There's no uncomfort anywhere?" Yin Mei took off her gloves as Eve sat up.

"No, not at all," Eve said, studying her body to check. Rather than uncomfortable, she felt great and refreshed. Was it because the healer was just that skilled?

"That's good," Yin Mei smiled. "Don't worry about compensation either, since we were the ones to pick you up." She washed her hands, drying them with a towel before walking back up to Eve. "I'm... That's right, I'm Yin. What about you?" She stuck her hand out for a handshake, her smile bright and sunny, as if with no ulterior motives behind them.

Eve, seeing this, felt very warm inside, thinking that this person was truly a good person. "Ah, I'm..." She paused for a moment. "I'm..." She tried thinking harder, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't remember. Her name, her background, her home, none of it. She was only drawing a blank. "I-I can't seem to remember." She stuttered out, her hand touching her head as a confused expression surfaced on her face.

"You can't remember? Oh... that's terrible. You must have hit your head somehow when you were injured." Yin Mei put on a sympathetic expression. "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can really do about that. Aside from waiting for them to come back..." She shook her head.

Even if Eve wasn't a demon and had knowledge about human magic, she would not doubt this. Although memory manipulation magic was not exactly forbidden magic, it also was not a magic that was kindly looked down upon. In addition, it was an extremely difficult magic to learn, and had steep requirements. Because of this, though perhaps not as rare as some other magics, it was still hard to find someone who could use this magic.

"I see..." Eve had on a lost expression, not sure what to do.

"How about this, you can stay with us for now. We have a lot of empty rooms that you can use. You can also work for us in order to make money." Yin Mei said, and Eve immediately brightened up.

This person was already kind enough to treat her, and was now even willing to offer lodging and work? Would there ever be a better offer than now? She had no suspicions, the thought to doubt Yin Mei not even crossing her mind. "Really?"

"Yes. The job isn't too hard either." Yin Mei said.

"Oh... now that I think about, where are we...?" Eve said, looking around curiously.

"This... is the guild." Yin Mei smiled.

Although Leon was a little doubtful, he didn't go against Yin Mei's suggestion, and had some of the receptionists show Eve the ropes of the job. El disagreed with keeping her around, but once Yin Mei said that she would be good use as a hostage or traitor, did he end up finally accepting it.

"So, El, do you plan on overthrowing the current demon king?" Yin Mei suddenly asked, from where they were sitting on the guild building's roof. Yin Mei was eating Celes's favorite cookies that El had gotten for her, and it was like the events from a year ago had never happened.

"... Why would you say that?" He said, wishing that Yin Mei would not bring up matters about the demons. It made him realize that things weren't the same anymore, and that the events from a year ago could never be truly erased.

"Because if you are, then I'll help you." Yin Mei said, holding up the last piece of the cookie and dropping it into her mouth. She munched on it happily, before speaking up again after swallowing. "Don't treat me like an idiot. I know! I can tell." Well, since the system had given her such a mission, she could assume that El had such ambitions.

But, she wondered... would he... truly be happy with such materialistic things...?

She felt like in most stories, the theme would always be the opposite. But for some reason, her system believed that these things would save her demon king.

... No, there was no point in doubting the system. Anyways, her job was just to complete the mission. There was no need to ask questions.

"..." El was silent, looking at the sprawling city before them, at the church, the palace, and the people walking on the street. "If you want me to, then I will," he said with a smile, not truly answering her question.

"... If it makes you happy..." Yin Mei said to herself, so quietly that El couldn't hear it. "Then I guess we'll have to prepare to take the crown! And after that, we can conquer the world! Then you won't have to worry about hiding anymore."

"Kiel, too, deserves the funeral he never had." Yin Mei said. This wasn't her feelings, but Celestina's.

Although Celestina had put on a brave front, with that gentle smile, and appeared so peaceful and lovely, in reality, she had been constantly suffering. She didn't know what to do. Everything about the world only brought her pain. She was trapped in the church, unable to leave in the foreseeable future, and her childhood friend was a wanted criminal and mass murderer. The fact that El had stolen Kiel's identity was just another point that caused her agony, that her old friend would never be able to be properly laid to rest.

"You're right," El said in agreement, closing his eyes.

Mini-scene from last world:

Yao Yu: Mommy, are you fighting with daddy again?

Yin Mei: Of course not, sweetie. It's just that daddy did something very bad, so he doesn't get dinner today. What happens when you're bad?

Yao Yu: Bad girls don't get to eat mommy's cooking!

Yao Yong: B-bad boys also don't get to eat mommy's cooking...!

Yin Mei: That's right. Your daddy was a bad boy, so he's getting punished.

Yao Heyan, grabbing Yin Mei by the waist and whispering in her ear: How about I show you just how bad I can really be...?

Yin Mei: !!!!

Yin Mei sharply elbows Yao Heyan in the stomach, and he immediately lets go, clutching his stomach in pain.

Yao Yu: Oh no mommy! Your face is red! Are you sick??

Yao Yong, looking at his father on the ground: O_O...

Yin Mei: No, mommy just overexerted herself a little getting rid of a certain pervert.

Yao Heyan: ... QwQ

Yao Yu and Yao Yong: ???

Yin Mei: It's okay children, you don't need to understand. Just know that in the future, when you marry... until the man begs for forgiveness saying that he was an idiot, while offering to make you dinner and clean, you can't forgive him!

Yao Yu and Yao Yong: O_O

Yao Heyan: Lanying, it was me who was stupid... I'm sorry. I'll make you dinner and clean, so please forgive me...

Yin Mei: Fine, but just this once!

In the future:

Yao Yong, inwardly crying while kneeling with a bouquet of roses in front of Rong Xing: Please forgive me! I was stupid! How about I cook and clean for you today? We can go shopping for anything you want later as well! (I finally understand my father's sufferings...)

Yao Yu, laying in bed unable to move: So this was what mother meant...