"Hey, Dorthaunzee," I said as I climbed the <Observatory's> stairs.

I came upon the nun fiddling with the telescope. As soon as I was on the platform, Dorthaunzee spun around and greeted me. I lifted my hand, and Dorthaunzee put her shroom on me.

"So, Elma got out of here?" I asked.

Dorthaunzee reacted with surprise. "How did you know?" she probably asked.

The answer was Narlivs. While Svilran was busy engaging her mind studying our Heroes and making notes, Narlivs was keeping track of everything else. She told me Dorthaunzee had been using the telescope to find worlds, and she told me when Elma had left. For the record, as I recently realized, Dorthaunzee and anyone else could use the Observatory's basic functions. She, naturally, couldn't make use of any function that consumed points. On the other side, the Heroes could access the Mission menus at the <Portal> and at the <Observatory>. Finally, Svilran could bar Heroes from being able to use facilities if she needed to.

"Well, this is the Hero Hub, and I'm sort of in charge. Anyway, you're not in trouble or anything. I just kind of wish Elma had told me she was heading out again. I didn't think she was so upset."

Dorthaunzee responded with panic. She shot up from the seat and waved frantically.

It felt like I was getting, "It wasn't like that!"

Dorthaunzee ran up to me and handed me a note that she had pulled out from between her cleavage.

She had been holding that paper for a long time. I, meanwhile, was replaying the sequence of her pulling that note out--of all the people, I never expected the nun to do that. I finally shook myself free of the shock and took the letter.

"This is from Elma?"

Dorthaunzee nodded.

I opened it up and started reading--

{Fainn, I hope you don't mind that I left on a mission without informing you and Madam Goddess. After all we spoke about, I felt like I couldn't waste any more time. Not only do I want to help Kanae, but I also want to get to work on improving. These worlds probably have monsters I can fight as well, so I'll try to take down as many as I can while completing the missions. Oh, Dorthaunzee helped me find new Missions. They're easier, so I shouldn't take too long.

I hope that once I return, you and I can spend some time together... But I hope we'll be able to do so with a little less pressure.

Yours, Elma.}

I looked at Dorthaunzee, who looked like she had stars in her eyes, as she stood there, her hands clasped.

"Did she leave a letter for Svilran?"

Dorthaunzee shook her head, and I winced.

"I hope that's not a sign of some weird dynamic between the two of them... I could see Elma thinking Svilran might not mind as much as I do."

Dorthaunzee grabbed my hand. "Elma's more worried about offending YOU," she conveyed.

"I'll have to tell her that she's got nothing to worry about. And you--good on you, Dorth. I didn't think you'd be so good at this. You found so many missions--wow! Just wow."

"The telescope was easier to use!"

"Yeah, you definitely seemed talented before--now you're even more so! Oh, did you write down the calibrations for the worlds you found?"

Dorthaunzee nodded and showed me the notepad.

"Bless you, Dorth. Bless you."

She flashed me a thumbs-up.

"I'll need to teach you all the cool stuff we can do now sometime."

I felt happiness radiate from her.

***

Back at the house--Dorthaunzee's consultation--

"And here she is! Our X-Rank Hero! Do you even need a consultation--"

"Treat her fairly, Svilran."

Svilran waved away my comment. "Of course, of course, Mister Fainn. I may play favorites, but they're all my favorites."

"Well, that's nice to know."

"Anyway, we already covered the 'X' ranking. I think it would be prudent to point out that our systems weren't sure what to do about the Abyssal Curse. I suspect the curse is playing a part in confounding our systems. Fainn, you didn't see it, but Dorthaunzee treated the big monster the Hero had to face like nothing when she hit it with a tentacle!"

Dorthaunzee scratched her cheek as she radiated bashfulness.

"It was so like, wow. Just wow. What a blessing Dorthaunzee was."

Now, Dorthaunzee was radiating happiness.

"So, what's important to point out is that Dorthaunzee's healing magic is tied to her class. She's so far the only person with a class ability. It's too bad we still can't read the deity's name. Beyond that, we can see that Dorthaunzee is our slowest Hero. Dorthaunzee, what do you feel about trying to become faster?"

Dorthaunzee nodded enthusiastically. "I want to be super fast too," she conveyed.

"On that note, you can probably become better with staves too, so don't give up on your practice!"

Dorthaunzee pumped her fists.

"Finally, your tags are some of the most straightforward. Was there anyone you had a question about?"

She shook her head.

"Great. What's worth pointing out is that Dorthaunzee's accolade, Familial Guardian, is being registered as a tag. We can assume more accolades will register as tags too."

"Fair assumption," I said.

"Anyway, Dorthaunzee, I think what you need now is practice in those two areas. Who knows what new things you'll be able to do once you've improved."

"Speaking of improvement--Dorthaunzee, we unlocked a really interesting statue a while back."

Dorthaunzee cocked her head at me.

"It's called Statue to ■■■■■ and praying at the statue--WHOA! Dorthaunzee!"

She had fallen to her knees and was bowing before me.

"Please build the statue! Please! I promise I'll work hard! I'll even quell my lust for a painful moment!"

That was a shocking reaction. And that last part? I must have misunderstood it. Why would a nun lust?

"Whoa there, miss." I took her hand and helped her stand up. "Alright. You don't need to do that. I'm interested in building it too because it'll do good things for you, but it takes a lot of points. It'll be a while--"

"I'll do my best!" she conveyed, her hands clasped in front of her chest.

"I believe you."

"Anyway, just wanted to let you know..." I studied that particular menu item again. "Actually... Dorthaunzee... To unlock the statue in the first place, it said we had to gain ■■■■■'s attention--"

Dorthaunzee's eyes went wide, and her mind was buzzing.

"--is that a good thing?"

"Oh! Good question, Fainn!" Svilran said.

Dorthaunzee immediately started looking around frantically.

"Dorthaunzee?" I asked, my own mind overwhelmed by her frantic searching.

She then looked at me and stepped closer--so close she was pressing her chest against mine as she stared into my eyes.

"Well, this is heavenly," I joked.

"Hey, Fainn..." Svilran whispered. "Careful there. She's a nun." I could feel a cold air radiating from Svilran.

I closed my eyes and chided myself for saying that last bit out loud. Anyway, I opened my eyes to see Dorthaunzee squinting at me. "Dorth?"

She then looked over at Svilran and stared for a bit before looking into my eyes again. After a few seconds, she backed off and seemed to sigh.

"Couldn't find the deity, I'm guessing?"

She nodded dejectedly.

"Well, you know what, Dorth? I bet your deity is why you ended up here."

She nodded, then looked at me for a bit.

"What's up?" I asked.

She smiled with her eyes and then lunged at me, wrapping her arms around me and hugging me.

"Aww!" I patted her head. "I like you too, Dorth. Isn't she adorable, Svilran--err."

I had looked over to see the wide-eyed and red-cheeked Svilran... At least the cold air was waning.