Chapter 35
The next morning.
My foot doesn’t hurt anymore! This is great! I spun around a few times in place to show Lian Qi and Qifeng.
“Full status restored~!”
“Be careful, Fei’er, don’t fall again,” Qifeng urged, worried.
“I’m not wearing high heels, why would I fall?”
“…What are you doing? Publicly cringe-dancing… how come you’re not ashamed of this?” Lian Qi stared at me with a look of disdain.
“What? I’m not! I’m just showing you that my foot is fine.”
“Actually, I thought of a way to heal your foot instantly last night. I just didn’t say it because I was afraid you’d be too ashamed.”
“What way!?” I looked at Lian Qi, completely baffled.
Lian Qi gave a solemn cough—“Doesn’t your saliva have healing abilities? You could have just licked your own foot, right?”
“Me… lick my own foot?”
I visualized that scene in my head, and my face turned red all the way from my neck to my forehead.
“That’s too shameful---!”
No, that’s not right. It’s too perverted.
The most I’ve ever done is suck my finger when I accidentally cut it while chopping vegetables. Lian Qi truly is someone from another dimension, her head is full of these indescribable ideas.
“I can lick my own ankle!” Qifeng raised her hand to demonstrate.
“That’s a bit too much information,” Lian Qi said, looking at her sideways.
Just then, I heard a tap-tap-tap on the window. I turned to look. A raven with jet-black, glossy feathers was standing outside the window, staring at me. Its eyes glowed with a murderous red light. On this day, I finally recalled the terror of being repeatedly slapped in the face by it with an envelope…
“What’s wrong? Who’s tapping the glass?” Lian Qi came over to ask.
I pointed at the raven on the windowsill—
“Q-quickly, get the letter for me. Don’t let it get near me.”
“…Huh? You’re even afraid of a bird?” Lian Qi dubiously opened the window, which undoubtedly let the raven fly right in! It drifted in mid-air, slapped the envelope onto my face, and flew away.
“Fei’er, I’ve discovered that the small animals in your world aren’t very friendly to you. That unicorn before was the same.”
“Uu…” I wanted to cry but had no tears. Ravens are extremely intelligent birds. Could it be… it saw through me, that I’m a boy, and despises me for wearing girls’ clothes?
“Who sent you a letter?” Qifeng asked, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, sucking on a biscuit stick.
I broke the envelope’s wax seal—“…It looks like Tristina is summoning us to the palace.”
“Us? Last time it was Lord Man and the vampire loli. Who are we protecting this time?” Lian Qi continued, “By the way, doesn’t your sister have a spy planted in the rebel army? It would be great if we could find out the assassination organization’s base.”
“Yeah, Sister Phylicia wants to round them all up, too. It’s just a pity their security is too good. Even though we already have the assassination list, we still don’t know where their hidden base is.”
Then I looked at Qifeng and asked her, “Has the Holy Light Church not found any clues about the assassination organization ‘Seven-Leaf Tree’ either?”
Qifeng, sucking on her biscuit stick, shook her head blankly—“…I don’t know. I haven’t been back to the church at all recently.”
I felt helpless. “…You’re just skipping your Inspector job like this?”
“I am not! Actually, right now I’m—”
“Stop! I get what you mean,” I quickly cut her off. I knew what she was going to say—that staying by the Saintess’s side and protecting the Saintess is, in itself, part of her job…
After we finished breakfast, we set off for the royal palace—the Château de Champs.
Actually, the place I live is quite close to the Château de Champs. It counts as a front-line palace-view room. Every morning, I can see this fairy-tale-like pure-white castle just by opening my window. It’s even just a short walk to its outer walls. Usually, there are many soldiers standing guard, but today—Eh? What is that crowd of onlookers staring at? And the soldiers on duty are maintaining order. What happened?
We got a little closer. The soldiers, who had formed a human wall to keep the crowd back, automatically opened a gap when they saw us. I saw Sister Phylicia’s solitary back. She, like everyone else, was looking up at the high castle wall.
What is Sister looking at? What is everyone looking at? I curiously raised my head—only to hear Qifeng gasp beside me, and Lian Qi covered my eyes with her hand.
“Don’t look, Fei’er. You’ll have nightmares.”
“Wh-what is it?”
“There’s a girl hanging from the castle wall. She seems to be dead.”
I heard the sound of a flock of crows taking flight.
Only then did Lian Qi move her hand away from my eyes. The first thing I saw was three women in military uniforms approaching Sister Phylicia and kneeling on one knee. Are they Sister’s subordinates?
“Lady ‘Scarlet Flame’ Phylicia.” The woman in the middle spoke. “This must be the rebels’ doing! Please give the order to allow us to execute the three rebel dogs in the prison to avenge Estina!”
“Yes, we must repay them, tooth for tooth!”
“I wish I could skin those three people and pull out their tendons!”
I saw that every one of their faces was filled with intense hatred.
“Calm down! Estina wasn’t just your comrade, she was my subordinate,” Sister Phylicia said, her face dark.
The three petitioning women were stunned into silence by the killing intent emanating from Sister Phylicia’s profound magic power. Even I could feel it from so far away.
Sister Phylicia raised her hand. A fire arrow shot from her fingertip, burning away the rope holding the girl. The moment the girl fell, she was caught by Phylicia’s Manipulation-type magic, hovering, and then gently lowered to the ground.
Sister knelt and covered the girl’s eyes. The girl suddenly burst into flames.
From my perspective… is this a cremation?
Sister Phylicia stood up and, with her back to me, explained, “She was my spy planted in the rebel headquarters. Her identity was exposed, and she was killed. Her body was hung from the castle wall in an attempt to warn us.”
I was stunned. The “Seven-Leaf Tree’s” assassination list and intelligence… it was all passed to us by this person, at the risk of her own life? Only for her end to be…
We’ve lost her. The assassination organization’s next move has also become unpredictable.
I heard Sister Phylicia say, “As for the three captured ‘Seven-Leaf Tree’ dogs, they still have value. We cannot kill them so easily.”
She then ordered her subordinates—
“Immediately spread the word: this afternoon, I will publicly execute the three ‘Seven-Leaf Tree’ dogs to set an example. Heh—this time, they will be the bait to lure out their comrades.”
This afternoon!?
The atmosphere instantly grew tense. I had a feeling that a great battle was approaching.
“Little sister Fei’er.”
“Hm? Yes.”
Sister Phylicia lightly patted my shoulder as she walked past me, her crimson hair scattering sparks of fire.
“Are you ready? The final battle with the assassination organization ‘Seven-Leaf Tree’ is about to begin.”