Gillene frowned with a face like she absolutely didn’t believe what she was hearing. Honestly, I didn’t either.
“...You would say that it’s all for the greater good, knowing how awful things are right now for everyone?! What could possibly be worth all of this sacrifice?!”
“But, My Lady-”
“Silence! Unless the next words out of your mouth are an explanation, I do not want to hear them!”
I almost wanted to clap and cheer for Gillene; Her words were so incredibly correct right now! Really, I should take a few notes here. Well, I say that, but I already have a few ideas about what to say next, regardless of whatever the butler has to say.
I mean, if whatever the hell this Lord of theirs is doing is so damn important, then why don’t we just go hear it all directly from the guy’s mouth, instead of from a secondhand party? These people here might worship him or whatever, but I’d like to see for myself what the fuss is all about. Besides, there's something very important that I have to check out...
My eyes strayed to the quest screen for a moment in determination before turning back to Gillene.
“Excuse me, Lady Gillene?”
“Ah, yes, Saintess? …I’m sorry for dragging you into this whole mess, by the way. I still haven’t been able to properly give you my thanks just yet for everything you’ve done to help…”
Gillene squeezed my hands like she really really meant what she was saying. It’s crazy, I didn’t even heal anyone or kill anything, or even clean anything, and yet I’m still getting thanked like this…
Oh wait, that's right! We didn’t kill that beet!
“Ack, wait, just a moment, please!”
I freed myself from Gillene’s hands, hurrying over to the vat that the lady paladin was still staring disgustedly into, and urgently looked down upon the still squirming boss beet.
“[Judgment]!”
With a bright light that seemed to radiate the heat of a laser, the boss beet was atomized out of existence. Everything that once made it up disappeared into a single ‘+400xp!’, not leaving even a small chunk of its beet-y self left inside of the gluey dough.
Phew… I can’t believe I just left that thing there and forgot about it! Sure, it’s been stuck there for around a month or whatever, but like… Who knows, right? Something unexpected could have totally happened at any moment! Everything would have been a disaster if we just dismissed the damn thing for too long and it figured out how to get a sneak attack off on us. What if it had managed to kill Gillene? Right now she’s basically the one in charge, the only person who can smoothly give the order to get this granary running again and finally feed the starving people back in Tarsus… But if she was gone? I’m not convinced that this butler, drunk on the Lord’s punch as he seems to be, would be willing to help us with any of this…
Well, I have a storage space, and maybe I could even get a bigger one if I spent the skill points on it, so maybe that would work as a last ditch effort to feed everyone?
…Until the Lord finally came back and tried to kill us for everything, that is.
Yeah no, we definitely need Gillene here for the best outcome.
I looked over to the lady paladin, who seemed to be blinking as if she were coming out of some kind of trance. My hand came out to give her a light pat in thanks as I spoke, but I quickly lowered it, seeing the uncomfortable look on her face at its approach.
“Good job keeping an eye on that thing, Dame Rayanne. Because of you, we stayed safe.”
I even tried giving her a smile since I really really meant what I was saying, but she just narrowed her eyes at me slightly, as if she thought I was making fun of her or something.
“...Yes. Thank you, Your Holiness.”
Ugh… Well, if she’s gonna think I wasn’t serious about what I was saying, then I doubt I’ll be able to convince her otherwise. Whatever. It’s not like I need her to like me or anything; We both already know that we don’t like each other.
Anyways, let’s get back to talking to a lady that actually wants to speak to me.
“Sorry for that, Gillene! I just remembered that that dangerous beet was still there.”
Gillene blinked her eyes rapidly, looking absolutely dazedly in the direction of the open vat. I had to look back and forth from her to there a couple of times before I realized what it was that had amazed her so. To be fair, most people had a similar reaction to seeing my [Judgment] go off for the first time. Really, it’s to be expected, given that it was a literal holy beam from the heavens and all. I’m lucky that she wasn’t the kind of super religious person that would drop to their knees and start frantically praying or something.
Thankfully, Gillene eventually came back to herself half a minute later, her face starting to look terribly embarrassed now that she realized that I was watching her this whole time.
“Ah, yes! No, it’s perfectly fine, Saintess! What is it that I can do for you?!”
Hmm… Okay well, maybe she’s a little bit frazzled, but I’m gonna choose to believe it’s because of her embarrassment, and not because she’s awestruck or anything like that. Hopefully she’s at least in a good mindset to answer my question without making any silly demands. To be fair, she doesn’t really seem like the type to try and do something like that to someone who she's grateful towards, but who knows; From our first meeting I never would have expected her to be the type to turn against her butler for the sake of her people as readily as she did. And if she sees what I’m about to ask as some kind of affront to her father the Lord somehow…
My eyes once more darted over to the quest screen, to help keep me brave.
{Secret Quest: [The Downfall of Tarsus]
The Saintess has discovered and resolved the plight of the farming village outside of the town of Tarsus, but what’s the real truth behind the suffering caused there? How far down the rabbit hole will the Saintess chase?
Progress: 2/4}
If I’m going to find out what this mysterious quest is trying to teach me, then I need to learn where the Lord of Tarsus is. So far, all signs of downfall in this place seem to be pointing towards him and whatever crazy thing he’s doing, so I'm sure he must be the final clue to this whole puzzle, right? At least, I hope that's the case...
“...Actually, I was wondering if you could tell me where your father’s expedition is? Even just where you last heard from them should be okay. With everything that’s going on, I’m starting to get kind of worried... I just wanna make sure nothing bad has happened there, you know?”
Gillene unsurprisingly looked a bit conflicted when she heard what I’d asked. Really, it was definitely to be expected. To be fair, though, it wasn’t nearly as bad of a look as the one that the butler had on his face when he sprung up and replied first.
“M-my Lady! Surely you wouldn’t tell an outsider-!”
“Hush! I told you I didn’t want any more words out of you!”
Contrary to the firm way that she spoke to the butler, Gillene still looked back at me in a bashful kind of way, as if she wasn’t really sure what to say. Once again she grabbed onto my hands, but for a completely opposite reason from last time.
“Well, you see, Saintess… I know you’ve done so much for the people of this town, as well as myself, but telling you something like that is-”
Yeahhh, I kind of expected things to go like this. For all that Gillene has gone along with whatever I've said so far, it’s all really just been to her advantage in the end. So far our desires have aligned perfectly, right? So she's had no reason to object to anything. But she’s plenty shrewd enough to know that she can’t just sell out her father’s top-secret location like this to someone she barely knows, huh? The granaries were a necessary evil in her book, but her father the Lord is someone that she's not willing to give up so easily, despite it all. Really, for all that he's failed everyone, I can't believe how loyal they all still are to him...
Agh, I didn’t wanna have to do this… I hate acting in this way, but if it’s what I have to do to finally find him, then-
I snatched my hands away from Gillene, and for the first time in either of my lives I did my best to look and sound superior and authoritative.
“Yes, Lady Gillene, you’re right, I am the Saintess. And as the Saintess, with the backing of the church, I urge you to answer me right this instant.”
The bashful smile that had been on Gillene’s face quickly crumpled, realizing what was happening. This was no longer a request, but a demand, made from someone much higher up than her, someone with a stronger backing than she or her father could ever possibly have.
Still, perhaps out of loyalty, or maybe even out of familial love, her mouth didn’t immediately start moving.
“...”
I couldn’t help but sigh. Sure, I was annoyed, but much more because I had to keep acting in this way that I really didn’t like than by anything that she’d done. Purposely speaking down to someone like this was harder on me than I'd expected it to be.
“Look. I made your butler talk for you earlier, didn’t I? Who’s stopping me from doing the same thing to you? Isn't it better to talk on your own without me having to step in and make you, Lady Gillene?”
“M-my Lady, don’t-!”
My eyes darted to the suddenly lunging butler who was reaching for Gillene, and then quickly over my shoulder to Kale.
“Kale, could you keep him back for me, please?”
“Yes, Saintess.”
With a flick of the feathers on his arm, Kale’s wind pulled back the butler, slowly moving him until he was stuck against the wall. I could see the man still desperately trying to shout and stop Gillene from speaking, but somehow Kale’s wind was keeping even his voice in check.
“...Thank you, Kale.”
I had to fight away the dirty feeling for a moment, crossing my arms to stop myself from shuddering.
…I should really just hurry up and find everything out so I can leave before I cringe myself to death.
“So, Gillene? …Your answer?”
Gillene gulped, her eyes repeatedly turning back and forth between the butler and me.
