The Truth
"So Stella, what do you think?"
"Hmm... I understood nothing."
"...I see. Still, that's progress."
The saintess took Stella to observe a potion concoction session. "You probably won't find these interesting. Maybe let's just go to see rune forging." She didn't want to put any pressure on Stella about picking any subject. To her, Stella was just a little girl, albeit a very smart one.
"It's alright. I'll watch a few more of these in the upcoming days." Stella replied.
"Really? I thought you'd flee this place at the first chance you get." The saintess was surprised. She didn't think Stella would be interested in alchemy.
"I'll be able to make many special juices if I learn alchemy, right?" Stella tilted her head.
"What?"
"I meant poison."
".....Oh. That's...right." The saintess tried to say something more but ultimately decided to keep it to herself.
"Shall we go to the next area?" Stella smiled.
"Hmm. Alright. Let's hurry. Anne had to go to the healing ward, and there's a brat who likes to push all the work to her." Saintess Lavonne replied as they went towards the rune forge.
.
.
.
*******
.
.
"Jonas, hand me the crystal ink." A bearded man with round glasses was sitting on a chair, engraving a little amulet in front of him on the table.
"Master, we're out of crystal ink." The young man called Jonas replied nervously.
"What?? Bullshit! I just brought a whole bottle this morning." The bearded man was quite angry.
"But master, you already used up all of it by etching on the botched ring." Jonas meekly replied.
"Ugh... Damnit! Go call Richard. I want him in front of me in five minutes."
"Yes, master!" Jonas hurriedly left for the door.
"Move your arse! Running like a wimp... The mana engraving will get ruined at this rate." The bearded man screamed at Jonas.
Suddenly, two silhouettes entered the room. One tall, one short.
"Aren't you in a great mood today, Henry? I hope you didn't scrap another valuable artifact today?" The saintess smiled.
"Oh! Saintess Lavonne! I... I didn't quite see you there. I apologize for my inappropriate words." Henry became embarrassed.
"It's alright. I will let it slide...this time."
"Ah, thank you! May I ask... why are you... here?" Henry nervously asked the saintess.
"Oh, I'm here to observe. This is Stella, she'll be observing too. And Stella, this is Henry Goldman. One of our best runesmith." Saintess Lavonne introduced each other.
Henry finally had the time to look at the little girl beside the saintess. But as soon as he looked at her, he was stunned. He couldn't believe someone could be this beautiful. But he quickly got out of his stupor. Her eerily perfect beauty freaked him out. 'What a scary little girl. I wonder how many Empires will wage war because of her beauty once she grows up.' Henry shivered.
"What are you mumbling about?" The saintess raised her eyebrows.
"Huh? N..nothing!" Henry shook his head as if his life depended on it.
"Why is he so scared of me?" Stella broke into a grin as she asked the saintess.
"I don't know. People who bury their heads in research all the time, and have minimal human interactions tend to be a bit... special." The saintess smiled back. "Anyway...Henry, carry on with your work. We'll be observing from the side."
"Y..yes, saintess. I'll carry on with my work." Henry sighed with relief.
"Aw, what a bummer. I just wanted to say hello." Stella smiled mischievously.
Henry felt his blood freeze. His arms were shaking as he etched more carvings onto the amulet. He didn't dare to say anything or look at them. 'Oh no! Why did the saintess bring this weird little girl here? Am I going to die today? Will she skin me alive and feed me to goats?' Henry's paranoia was going out of control.
"Stop it. He might drop dead from anxiety." The saintess sighed.
"Okay. I'll just stay quiet." Stella nodded.
But after a few minutes, she started to creep up behind Henry. Looking at her actions, the saintess felt... helplessness.
Stella slowly moved from behind to his side, then she moved in front of him. However, Henry was unable to detect her. Stella had [Absolute Stealth] active to erase her presence only from him.
The saintess was surprised. 'How did she get to his front without alerting him? Anne said she was fairly strong. It seems her movements are also very stealthy.'
The saintess could evaluate that Stella's physical strength was somewhere in the ballpark of an apprentice knight of the Empire. But what was more surprising, is that she crept up on Henry without alerting him. As a grandmaster runesmith, his perception of auras and fluctuations was one of the best. It showed that her abilities were beyond just abnormal strength.
As the saintess was deep in thought, she heard a horrible scream. As she looked up, she found Henry passed out on the ground. He was frothing from his mouth and his eyes were rolled up.
"He just suddenly looked up. His expression was quite horrifying. But I'm not sure why he would scare himself to death. Not my fault. Nope." Stella shook her head and returned to the saintess.
Stella removed her presence but didn't make herself invisible. So, Henry saw her staring at him with eerie eyes as soon as he looked up from the table. He couldn't handle that much shock and fainted.
"That was unnecessary. He's quite jumpy. He could've died." Saintess Lavonne chided her.
"It's alright, even if he died, couldn't you just revive him?" Stella wasn't bothered.
"....No. I can't! Stella, you can't make trouble everywhere you go." The saintess was vexed. She finally understood what Anne meant about Stella being a troublemaker. 'She is a natural when it comes to brewing up trouble.'
The saintess sighed and took her out of the room. 'I'll just send someone to fetch this poor guy. I hope he's not too traumatized.'
They started walking towards the healing ward. Stella was silent for a while. But then she shook her head thinking about something and chuckled, "Whatever. I'm sure he'd never reach heaven anyways."
The saintess was momentarily stunned. "Stella! Stop saying such things. You'll anger the Gods!" She started reprimanding her sternly.
"So what? Why should you fear Gods? And why would they get angry? What about Vena, huh? Did she get angry?" Stella rebuked her.
The saintess was at a loss for words. She didn't expect her to be this direct. "I.... I don't know."
"When was the last time you heard from your Goddess?" Stella pressed on further.
The saintess jolted as if she remembered something heartbreaking. Her face showed pain and sadness. "I heard her voice for the first time when I was three. But...the last time... I heard from her... when I was eight years old." Tears started to fall from her eyes.
She didn't expect Stella to ask her such a question. She was caught unprepared. The events surrounding this were one of her deepest buried secrets, one that she would never tell anyone by herself.
"....I'm sorry." Stella consoled her. "It must've been devastating for you when you realized what happened."
The saintess widened her eyes in surprise. Her entire body trembled. 'She knows?! How?!' "How.... How did you know??!" She held Stella as she cried.
Stella smiled and whispered into her ear, "Actually, she's here. And... I think you meet her quite often."
The saintess felt her heart skip a beat. She was confused, but Stella's words made her hopeful. "How do you know all these? Who are you?"
"Duh, I'm Stella. And I don't know my actual identity. So, I can't help you there." She chuckled.
"I... believe you. Would you please... tell me who she is?" The saintess wiped her tears. She had the ability to glimpse at fate. So from the start, she knew Stella was anything but normal. But she didn't expect her to be this mysterious.
"Hmm, obviously, it's not me... But, we'll encounter her soon enough. So, let's carry on with our tour, shall we?"
"Of course. It would be my pleasure." The saintess slowly formed a smile.
.
.
.
.
.
[A/N: I have been sick for the last couple of days. It's quite taxing for me to write. So the updates are going to be a bit messy for a while. But the story quality will not be impacted by any means. As always, I'll try my best. Thank you ⊂((・▽・))⊃]