“Who was that girl?”
Asks the demon king, who was watching us from afar. She’s asking about Noir.
“Noir, an alchemist with an atelier in the neighboring town.”
“Hm, I thought she was your little sister, because of the black hair.”
That’s not much of a reason, but I guess black hair is not common in Merzelia.
“We’re not siblings.”
I say flatly.
“By the way Loyd, you seemed to know each other pretty well, but when did you two get close?”
Asks Isolte with a quizzical expression. I think she’s questioning that because we really don’t have much reason to interact.
“I just happened to meet her in town a while back and we hit it off. That was when she told me about the fishing tournament too.”
“Did she ask anything about being an exclusive mage?”
“Not really.”
“I see. Good then.”
Isolte breathes a sigh of relief. Did she think Noir was recruiting me?
Things are going pretty well for me as an adventurer, so I really have no intention of being an exclusive mage again.
There’s a restaurant for tourists in the Luminous farm, so we’re having a late lunch there.
There’s a wooden sign in front with an illustration of a smiling cow and the words ‘I recommend the hamburger steak, it’s good moo’. You’re the one being eaten, you know?
We all order what they recommend, and it arrives shortly after. Thick slices on a hot iron plate that look really tasty.
““““Let’s eat.””””
We all say while putting our hands together.
I cut it with a knife, and its juices come out. I take a bite, and it’s as tasty as I thought. The way it’s thickly seasoned makes me think they have young people in mind. The meat itself is fresh and tender, and full of flavor.
While we eat, we talk about the stuff we saw today, and touch on the meteorite too.
“By the way Loyd, have you noticed that the meteorite houses holy power?”
“Yes, of course. You mean super Iris.”
“Super Iris?”
“That meteorite has about a hundred times more holy power than Iris, so we call it super Iris. Ah, but I wasn’t the one who came up with that, it was Iris herself.”
“Lady… Calling it super Iris is kind of…”
Sephilia is a little exasperated, but Iris’ naming sense really is devastating.
“That makes it sound like it was infused with holy magic energy.”
“Yes, but it has nothing to do with Iris. It had that holy energy from the start.”
“Do you know what caused that?”
“No, not even a little, but meteorites are like that. They fall from the sky, so it’s not unusual for them to be packed with energies we don’t know.”
“What a strange thing.”
The demon king says as she crosses her arms, looking not content with that explanation. But Isolte proposes something interesting.”
“What if it fell from the heavens?”
“Heavens?”
The legendary territory said to be above the clouds.
It’s not clear if it really exists, but a lot of scholars claim it does, and fervently research it.
They say that long ago, angels who lived in heaven descended onto this land, and they would use holy power to purify the land instead of saintesses.
“Do you believe in heaven, Sephilia?”
“Heaven is stated to exist in Emeraude dogma, so the answer has to be yes.”
Sephilia is a devout believer of Emeraude.
I’m not really a believer. I feel like if it did exist, we would be able to confirm its existence with flying dragons. I’m thinking Isolte probably brought up heaven because the holy power in that meteorite is immense.
Here in this world, this holy power only exists in items handled by saintesses. It’s not really something that comes about naturally.
“You have been on this planet for a long time, so do you believe in heaven, demon king?”
“No, not really. I have never seen these beings you call angels.”
“Demon king… Iris is an angel reincarnated.”
“No, your opinion doesn’t really matter.”
The demon king is getting good at snapping back like that.
But in the end, we aren’t going to reach a conclusion to this heaven talk.
However, if it does exist, I’d like to go there once with this group.
Later, we get back on the wagons and head to Minerva.
On the way back, the conversation shifts from the farm to the harvest festival that’s happening in a week.
It’s been half a year since I came to Minerva. The harvest festival is going to be my first big event here, so I have high expectations, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like.
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