And so, that night.

Late in the evening, after Ethan, Celesta, and the rest of the visitors, including Gyeonmwa Joshekigwat, had all returned to their respective places, only Agnes and I were left in the hospital room.

We hadn’t yet discussed the second part of the preparations to eliminate McHart. Since it was a topic that only a few people should know about, it wasn’t something to be talked about in front of everyone.

As for the matter regarding the saint, I should discuss it with Celesta alone later on. If necessary, we can include the Hero, but no one else.

In any case, after all the exhausting events of the past two days, my body had reached its limit. Yesterday, I had a serious evaluation duel with Agnes, and today, the meeting went on so long that I didn’t get any rest, leaving me physically drained.

‘I need to rest well and recover quickly. If I’m going to participate in the noble exchange event that McHart will attend this break….’

As I was slowly drifting off to sleep with those thoughts, Agnes’s voice called out to me from the bed across the room, snapping me back to reality.

“Lillis, are you awake?”

“…I was just about to fall asleep.”

“…Sorry, should we talk tomorrow?”

“As long as it’s not a long conversation, I don’t mind. If we put it off until tomorrow, I might forget again, so just tell me now.”

“……”

In the quiet silence, I heard nothing but the sound of her breathing.

Just as I started to think she might have fallen asleep due to exhaustion, Agnes spoke again, cautiously.

“I’m sorry for fighting so seriously during the duel yesterday.”

“Huh?”

“You said you had no ill intentions, but I did. …So, I’m sorry.”

“…Now that you mention it, you did say something like that.”

I remembered that I had been caught up in the explosion of Agnes’s flames right after she said that, so I didn’t fully grasp her words at the time. But it seemed she truly meant it when she said she had ill intentions.

I didn’t recall saying anything that would make Agnes hold a grudge against me. I had teased her a bit during the duel, but with her high magical prowess, I didn’t expect her to take offense.

The only other thing that might have upset her was when I made fun of her physical attributes….

“Did I upset you when I mentioned your height and chest size a week ago?”

“…You didn’t realize?”

“……No.”

Agnes looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

I had thought her anger was just an act, but realizing now that it wasn’t, everything made more sense.

“I didn’t know it genuinely hurt you. I’m sorry, Agnes.”

“…It’s not your fault. I was the one who brought up the topic of our chests first. I was wrong to take it out on you.”

“But in the end, our plan worked out well, and we even ended up sharing a room. So let’s look at the bright side.”

“…So, we’re making up?”

“Huh? Making up?”

“…Do you still dislike me?”

“That’s not what I meant… I’ve never been mad at you, Agnes. We’ve always been friends, haven’t we?”

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

With that final word, Agnes quietly turned her face away, her cheeks slightly flushed.

Understanding that this was her way of saying she’d said enough, I closed my eyes and let myself drift into sleep.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Four days had passed since Agnes and I were admitted to the academy’s church.

Two days after the meeting, Agnes quietly rose from her bed across from mine, gathering her belongings.

Today was the day Agnes was to be discharged.

“It looks like the Elizabeth family’s carriage has arrived, Agnes.”

“…Maybe I should stay a bit longer?”

“Huh?”

“You never know. What if that bastard McHart tries to attack you while you’re alone?”

“We already heard from Gyeonmwa Joshekigwat that Prince McHart has returned to the imperial palace. Since the information came from Princess Seraphine, it should be reliable.”

“…Still.”

“I’ll be discharged in a day or two as well. Ethan will visit often until then, so there’s no need to worry.”

“……”

“The carriage is waiting, Agnes.”

Despite still looking worried, Agnes nodded silently, seeming to make up her mind.

“Alright. I’ll go now. Take care of yourself.”

“Take care on your way home.”

By the way, Celesta had advised me to stay in the church a little longer for treatment. Although both of us were injured in the duel, my injuries were more severe, so I would be staying here a bit longer. The power of Agnes’s explosive magic was just that overwhelming.

Originally, I had only been hit by one of Agnes’s flame explosions, while she had taken a stab to the heart and the same explosion. It would make sense for her injuries to be worse, but the fact that I was hit by a much stronger blast explained my longer recovery time.

…In the final moments of our duel, Agnes had managed to wedge her staff between my chest, which likely absorbed some of the blast’s impact. Considering the size of this mass of flesh I’m faced with every day in the mirror, it probably helped reduce the damage from her explosion.

“Your bag looks heavy. Would you like me to help you carry it?”

“A patient? Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m just worried you might trip while going down the stairs.”

“Do you think I’m a child?”

Honestly, if you only looked at her, you might think she was still in middle school, so she’s pretty much a kid.

Well, helping her as a patient myself didn’t make much sense either, so I just waved her off, watching her leave.

“…I’ll see you at the imperial palace on the appointed day.”

“Yes, Agnes.”

-Click.

After confirming that Agnes had left the room, I quietly woke one of the spirits resting beside me and asked for a favor.

Since I wasn’t physically helping, Agnes probably wouldn’t refuse this kind of assistance.

“Say, could you escort Agnes to the entrance of the church? It’d be nice if you could use wind magic to lighten her luggage a bit.”

‘…Sure, I’ll do that.’

Watching Say secretly follow Agnes, I looked around the now empty hospital room. It had felt a bit cramped with the two of us, but now that I was alone, it felt oddly lonely.

As I waited by the window, watching for Agnes to appear, the door to the room suddenly opened, and Celesta, who was overseeing my treatment, walked in.

“Oh, how are you feeling today, Lillis?”

“Thanks to your care, I’m feeling much better. I feel like I could run around right now.”

“Well, you know you’re not supposed to actually run around, right? You’ll probably be fully recovered by tomorrow or the day after, so please hang in there until then. You did sustain more serious injuries compared to Agnes, after all.”

“…Thank you.”

As Celesta checked on me, I couldn’t help but think about something that had been on my mind for a while.

For some reason, she had started calling me “Lady Lillis.”

I had tried to ignore it as much as possible, but the situation of her addressing me with such honorifics felt increasingly odd. In the original story, Celesta only used that level of respect for very few characters.

Usually, she reserved the term “Lady” for the Hero, whom she admired, the elders of the Aurelia Church who outranked her, and the royal family, whom everyone treated with utmost respect.

Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t use polite speech with others. Celesta was the type to use formal language with everyone, be they children or animals.

But when addressing others, she would usually use more common honorifics like “Miss” or “Mr.” The use of “Lady” was reserved for those of significantly higher status.

Even for someone of high rank like Ethan, a duke’s son, it would be understandable, but there was no reason for her to use such an elevated title with me. Yet, Celesta continued to address me as “Lady Lillis.”

‘And every time I’ve tried to correct her, she’s refused.’

It could only mean one thing. Celesta knew something about me that warranted this level of respect.

I had a vague idea of what it might be. I remembered that there was a time in the original story when Celesta had called Lillis “Lady Lillis.”

It was during the period when Lillis had awakened as the Saintess, and Celesta hadn’t yet undergone her own awakening. That was when Celesta started using “Lady Lillis” to address her.

It was an event that occurred only occasionally in the game. The reason it was rare was that the “Saintess Awakening” event usually happened with Celesta before Lillis.

Celesta was a character who was with the Hero from the early part of the story, so her experience level would naturally rise alongside the protagonist’s. Lillis, on the other hand, joined the party near the end of the second act, meaning there was usually a significant experience gap between her and Celesta.

Although Lillis started at level 15 when she joined, by the time the story reached mid-second act, Celesta and the other main characters were usually around level 20.

Not raising your characters to level 20 made it almost impossible to defeat the mid-second act boss, Ethan. Even if he was still the “Pig Prince” at that point, he was strong enough that you needed to level up to 20 just to have a chance against him with Lillis’s support at level 15.

In the process of leveling up, Celesta’s experience would naturally grow alongside the Hero’s, making her stronger than Lillis at the point of her joining the party, which was the most common scenario in the game.

‘But I wasn’t the average player of Luminor Academy.’

As someone who had tried every possible way to reach Lillis’s “Maiden Ending,” one of my strategies included awakening Lillis before Celesta.

By focusing all my grinding on a single character early on, I could create a vastly over-leveled protagonist, which allowed Celesta to join at a lower level than Lillis. This made it possible to beat Ethan and ensured that Lillis awakened as the Saintess first.

If I played through the game this way until the end of the fifth act, Celesta would eventually refer to Lillis as “Lady Lillis,” just as I remembered.

So, if my theory applied to this situation…

‘…It means Celesta already knows that I’m the true Saintess.’

If she indeed knew this, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.

The time and opportunity to talk to Celesta alone were running out.