Chapter 6 Part 2

Is it because I only formed bad relationships with Tia in my previous two lives? Whatever the intention, whenever I saw Tia in trouble, I found myself helping her without realizing.

After hesitating briefly at my urging, Tia put the received bead into the man’s mouth.

Soon, as the pure holy power from the bead quickly seeped into his body, the wound near the man’s kidneys quickly disappeared.

Only then did Tia’s frozen expression finally soften to its usual gentleness.

“Thank you for helping. El… you always save me.”

Tia, who smiled sheepishly while looking at me, seemed somewhat tired.

Though she didn’t show it, being harassed by the woman must have been quite exhausting.

“Tia seems to be in trouble every time I see you.”

“I’m sorry for always showing you such sides of me. But if it’s El seeing it, maybe it’s okay… oh!”

Finding her own words embarrassing, Tia’s cute appearance as she laughed lightly made even my lips twitch.

But I deliberately didn’t smile back.

If I did, it might really look like Tia and I were close.

“Tia, can you give me your hand?”

“What? Ah… yes!”

Just as I was frowning at the momentary bitterness, quickly regaining my senses, I pressed my lips to the back of Tia’s hand.

Only after engraving slightly deeper magic than before did the faded tracking spell become clear again.

As long as Tia was connected to me by a spell like this, Raphla would diligently watch over Tia in my place from now on.

When I removed my lips feeling satisfied, familiar red cracks appeared on Tia’s peaceful face.

“El, again…! I’m not the Holy Maiden yet…”

Tia’s appearance as she blushed, unable to hide her reddened cheeks, was quite pleasing to see.

Though I had boldly declared earlier that I would seduce the female lead, I wasn’t particularly confident… but looking at Tia’s expression now, it seemed there was at least some progress.

“You’ll be soon enough, Holy Maiden.”

“Haha… well, I’m not sure if I’m suitable material for a Holy Maiden.”

Tia responded with an awkward laugh to my simple answer.

Though outwardly it seemed full of modesty, it wasn’t particularly wrong in reality.

According to the oracle, the Holy Maiden might really not be Tia. But even so, the fact that Tia was this world’s female protagonist remained unchanged.

And above all, for now, she was also the only person who could open my path to approach the Cardinal.

“Tia, you said before that you wanted to help me. Is that still valid?”

The time limit on the black magic stopping time was gradually ending. I immediately got to the point.

“Yes, of course. I’ll do my best with whatever I can help with.”

“What kind of person is His Eminence the Cardinal? I’m curious since he’s such a veiled figure.”

My question wasn’t in an area she had expected, as Tia’s face instantly froze.

After letting out a brief groan as if contemplating, Tia slowly opened her mouth.

“Well… though I don’t know that much either, His Eminence is a good person. He helped me a lot in adjusting to the unfamiliar capital. He kindly taught me various things about the temple too…”

…Though I had roughly expected it, Tia’s answer really wasn’t helpful at all.

That kind of shallow information wasn’t what I was curious about.

It seemed I needed a more direct expression.

Something blatant that strongly hints at wanting her to bridge between the Cardinal and me.

“Would it be possible to meet him? I have something I really want to consult with His Eminence about.”

“Ah, that… I can’t meet him often either. But I’ll try to find out. Though, please don’t expect too much…”

She had an earnest face that seemed to want to somehow grant my request.

After finishing her words, Tia looked at me with her usual gentle face and smiled kindly.

Come to think of it, was this the smile that made Abel fall for her?

Since I hadn’t properly seen Tia’s smile up close until now, I hadn’t known… but somehow I could understand why he fell for her at first sight.

Unlike me who always smiled down at others with an arrogant face, Tia’s smile was pure itself.

A completely harmless smile, utterly untainted by the world’s corruption.

“Thank you. Well then.”

After giving a light farewell greeting, I was about to leave the place. But suddenly I felt Tia timidly grabbing the end of my sleeve.

“Um… El, did you perhaps meet me during the Flore Party?”

Her voice, trembling faintly with uncertainty, was full of awkward expectations.

At Tia’s words, suddenly the breathtaking moment when our eyes met in a dark corner of the venue on the day of the party flashed through my mind.

I had forgotten about it thinking it was nothing, but at Tia’s words, that scene seemed to unfold vividly before my eyes again.

How our eyes met exactly among so many people, even now it was both understandable and mysterious.

But I wasn’t in ‘El’s’ form at that time. So what Tia saw was neither ‘me’ nor ‘El’.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t see Tia that day. I went home early because I wasn’t feeling well.”

Thanks to wearing the thick robe, it wasn’t difficult to deny it saying it wasn’t me.

Unless we made eye contact, there was absolutely no room for Tia to take anything I said as a lie.

“I see. I felt happy thinking I had glimpsed you… I must have mistaken someone else.”

As soon as her sleeve end was freed with those words tinged with disappointment, I turned around mercilessly.

But then Tia’s voice was heard once again.

“How should I go about it when I want to see El?”

…Who wants to do what?

Just as I was startled by Tia’s abruptly thrown words, I stiffly turned my head to face her.

“…Me?”

“Yes, well… I thought I would need a way to contact you to deliver news about His Eminence.”

Ah, come to think of it, I had forgotten that Tia had no means to contact me.

While I could reach Tia anytime through the tracking spell, Tia couldn’t, so it wasn’t strange for her to have such a question.

Since Tia had also accepted my request, we naturally needed a means to contact each other.

After all, I couldn’t tell her not to worry about losing contact since I was watching her…

Fully recognizing the necessity, I quickly created a silver magical tool with my fingertips and handed it to Tia.

“El, this is…?”

“It’s a vision stone. You can contact me with this. It will work if you put in a bit of holy power.”

“Wow, now I won’t have to wait until El comes!”

Tia quickly received the vision stone, nodding her head as if genuinely happy.

More importantly, what did you just say? Waiting for me…

“You waited for me?”

“Yes…!”

Tia, who had been smoothly smiling with narrowed eyes, slowly nodded with a slightly shy face.

“Why?”

“Well, because I like El.”