'It's gone.'

Rina looked down at her bright red, swollen hands. Although it looked painful, she didn't feel anything at all. Even when she pressed her palms together, she only felt that her hands were being touched. There was not even discomfort, let alone pain.

'Maybe I have lost my sense of pain, after all.'

Still, Rina didn't panic at the thought at all. She just acknowledged it. Fortunately, it only affected her own body. There was nothing to worry about. The only minor problem was, how to hide those burns from the people around her from noticing it. After all, they would be concerned about her, and that was something Rina wanted to avoid.

After picking up and cleaning the cooking utensils, that were scattered on the floor, she put her hands under the faucet to cool them off. But even then the swelling and the redness didn't recede. So she had no other choice but to hide her hands as a whole until the burns faded.

With that in mind, she hurried out of the kitchen, headed straight to the infirmary where she had spent the night before, and sloppily bandaged her hands. But that wasn't enough, as the bandaged hands were a telltale sign that she had injured them.

Then, an idea popped into her mind. She remembered that Clara had presented her a pair of thin white gloves, often worn by noble ladies to protect the skin of their hands, as a birthday present in the past. This way, instead of getting suspicious, Clara might even be happy that her gift was finally being used.

However, Rina, on the other hand, was a bit split about using them. They were one of those birthday presents she rarely received, even when including her past life. After all, with well over thirty years combined under her belt, she could probably count the presents – tokens of appreciation for her existence – she had received on one hand, at most on two, and the majority of them were from her second life. In addition to that, the pair of gloves were given to her by her beloved mistress. So it was only natural for Rina to want to keep them safely stored away, rather than use them and risk damaging them.

However, there is a saying that beggars can't be choosers. Therefore, swallowing the bitter pill, Rina ran to her own room, took out the gloves she had stashed away, and put them on.

Having finished that, she went back to work, this time waking Clara up and getting her ready for breakfast.

***

After breakfast, and after Marianne and Rina had cleaned up with the help of the other servants, the usual trio sat on one of the mansion's many terraces, sipping tea and enjoying the morning sun.

And indeed, just as Rina had thought, Clara hadn't mentioned anything about her wearing those gloves. Instead, Rina even caught Clara blushing for a split second. All in all, although Marianne had eyed her suspiciously, Rina considered her plan a success.

So, as they had done every day for the past few years, the three of them sat there in silence and enjoyed the downtime, before the day would actually start. Clara would then head to her office to attend to her business, while the maid duo would go about their duties, with Rina occasionally checking on Clara and even helping her.

However, this day would not play out that way. Even though Marianne and Rina had already suspected as much, they still couldn't help but twitch, when their mistress finished the tea and placed the cup on the corresponding saucer with a *clink*.

As expected, Clara then shot both of them a glare, sending shivers down their spines, and finally asked, “So, what happened exactly?”

As if she had been preparing for this situation over the past few days, Marianne immediately said, “Just to be clear, I know nothing.” In doing so, she diverted all of Clara's attention to Rina and left her to fend for herself.

This worked, as Clara looked at Rina for an answer. But when she saw, how her maid only fidgeted around, seemingly unable to come up with an answer, she sighed, “Have you taken a Demon-Spawning-Cloud into your body again.”

It took Rina a while before she could truly digest the content of her mistress's words. When it did, Rina widened her eyes in surprise and reflexively shouted out, “HUUUUH?” But shortly afterwards she noticed her slip-up and gave her best to bring her expression on her face back to normal, trying to play it cool. After all, her ability to take on those black mists without suffering any significant consequences was supposed to be a secret.

But when she realised that she had probably been played and seen through by Clara, she puffed out her cheeks and looked away from her mistress. However, it was not because she was angry or whatnot at the blonde, but rather because of her own inability to keep a clean poker face.

When Clara saw how cutely her maid reacted, whether it was intentional or not, she couldn't help but let out a soft giggle. But only a split second later, her expression turned serious again and she explained, “No need to be shocked. I've known since the first day we met that you can somehow stay sane after touching those clouds. After all, you were unconscious back then too. However...” The serious look on her face was replaced by one full of concern. “...there's no telling when that would change and what those things might do with your body. So, can you promise not to do it again?'”

At Clara's request, Rina only looked down and hesitated to promise it. After all, Rina knew, that her current present was only a snapshot in time. She was convinced that her dreamlike state, being surrounded by people she cared for, would change in the future, as well as their feelings for her. So, if fate were to separate them in the future, where would Rina's place be?

The answer was clear. The world had given her the ability to absorb Demon-Spawning-Clouds without going mad. This was something special no one else had. So where could her future possibly be, except on the front-lines cleansing Demon-Spawning-Clouds to prevent demons from invading the world? This way, she could at least protect her loved ones from afar, when the situation arose.

Clara, sensing the bad direction of Rina's thoughts, got up, agitated, and shouted “Rina!” to urge her to agree to the promise not to touch those black clouds again.

Unfortunately for her, or fortunately for Rina, they were interrupted by a carriage entering the courtyard just below the terrace the trio was on. Looking down, Clara, Marianne, and Rina realised that it was the same carriage that Fran had borrowed five days ago after dropping off Marianne and Rina. It seemed that the elf had finished her business at the Royal Palace and came back.

A few seconds later, the door opened and out of the waggon stepped Fran. When she then looked up and spotted the trio, her face lit up with relief as her red-headed student seemed all right. But that expression faded soon after as she shouted, “Wait there! I've urgent news for you.” With that, she hurried into the mansion, heading for the terrace where the trio was waiting.

Since Fran had lived in this house for a few years in the past to teach Clara and Rina, she naturally also knew her way around. And as she was a familiar face to everyone working here, nobody stopped her. So, it wasn't long before Fran reached the terrace where the others were waiting.

When Fran finally arrived, she rushed towards Rina and took her in her arms, whispering, “I'm so glad you're fine.”

Even though Rina didn't really understand the elf's behaviour, she decided to stay put until Fran was satisfied.

“How are you feeling? Did you have any bad thoughts lately?”

“No, everything's the same,” Rina answered to Fran's question.

“I see... I'm so glad... I'm sorry, Rina.” Having said this, the elf wrapped her arms around her pupil even tighter.

Unfortunately, this caused a certain blonde lady to finally snap and push herself between them to separate them. “Enough of this.”

Strangely enough, because of Fran's actions, Clara concluded that Rina's unconscious state was only the result of an accident, or of Rina's own actions. It didn't occur to Clara that it was actually Fran who was mainly to blame. So, luckily for Fran, one of the problems that had plagued her mind lately, making excuses to Clara concerning Rina's past state, had resolved itself.

However, just as they finished celebrating their reunion and as Rina was about to go in to fetch an additional chair, Fran looked at them, especially at Rina, with a grim expression and said, “A large army of demons has appeared.”

“””...”””

“Most of the smaller settlements between the capital and the Demon Territory have been destroyed. Nearly no one survived except for the few who managed to escape to the capital to inform us.” After saying this, Fran glanced at her red-haired student and continued, “Mousa was also completely destroyed. There are no survivors.”

Hearing the former High-Priestess's information, Clara and Marianne grimaced and tensed up, with the former even closing her eyes as if to keep herself from crying. It was clear that the two didn't take the news well that thousands of people had died and that Valhale might be next.

Either way, Rina could clearly feel the sadness, fear, insecurity, and anger inside them. But what about herself?

While Fran was relaying this information, Rina noticed how the elf glanced at her. Rina didn't have to think long about why. After all, Fran had stressed multiple times during her lessons, how important it was for those with power to stand up for those without, and how crucial it was to have empathy and sympathy for other people, whether they were strangers or not. It was obvious that Fran secretly looked at her to see if she was responding that way.

Then again, how did she feel? Her past self, when she was still on Earth, would certainly have felt so. Rina thought of herself as a very sensitive and emotional person. After all, she had loved reading emotionally driven dramas in her past life in order to cry herself to sleep with the help of them. Even though one of the reasons why she loved doing that was to forget about her own sad self by imagining that there were people with even sadder lives, it was clear that she had the ability to feel with and for them.

But what about now? Nothing. She felt nothing. She was only able to acknowledge the fact that thousands of people had been eaten, tortured, or hunted to death as they screamed in agony. She might have even talked with quite a few of them as those included all villagers of Mousa. But nothing, not even joy, as some might have guessed.

The only feeling that she had right now, was worry for the two young women beside her, who were their best trying to digest the news. But nothing for all the dead people.

Rina looked down at where the hole in her chest had been five days ago, and at her gloved hands, which were probably scarred from the burns. So, when she realised in what state her body and unempathic mind was, she couldn't help but ask herself,

'Am I broken?'