Ep 83. You’re Leaving? (2)
Serenis watched the two deities in front of her.
Correction. One deity, one enforcer.
Iris was trembling all over in a panicked fear – while Aldrid’s fingertip was slowly closing in on the enforcer’s left eye. If anything, it was the quite entertaining sight.
“Hold still! You don’t want me poking your eyes, do you?”
“…Aldrid, I don’t think I want to do this anymore…”
“Is that so? I could stop, but you’ll have to live the rest of your life with odd-colored eyes.”
When the dragonlord snorted in amusement, Iris – who had reclaimed most of her appearance as the usual red-haired enforcer – angrily pouted back at the laughing dragon.
“This isn’t funny, Serenis.”
“I beg to differ.”
“…”
Despite announcing that she’d live out the rest of her life as the human enforcer named Iris Alpid, there had been two glaring problems in the enforcer’s statement: ‘Felicis’ actually looked nothing like Iris in her original state, and she no longer had an unlimited mana reserve to keep her appearance changed. Nobody would recognize the girl as their city enforcer, and using a glamour spell would exhaust her mana in under an hour now.
Alas, the solution Aldrid had proposed was quite simple.
- ‘I could permanently change your appearance. That would make things easier, wouldn’t it?’
…Again, Aldrid was the deity of life. Technically speaking, there was nothing weird about her being able to create – or transform – a human’s body. And that’s exactly what Iris was now: a human.
What was weird, though, was…
“…Lady Felicis, I need your eyes open.”
“…Your finger’s too close.”
“I promise I won’t poke you. You already did it once, one more time and we’ll be done.”
“Ughh…”
Serenis watched on as the enforcer struggled to keep her eyes open.
Once, the enforcer had come across as stern, strict, and ruthless to Serenis – but said workaholic was nowhere to be found in the deity of life’s presence. Interestingly, even though their difference in age should’ve been negligible given the millennium they’d spent as deities, their relationship as caretaker and child from the past era seemed to have persisted into the present.
‘Despite being so prone to change…some things never do change.’
Puzzling as it was, that was how mankind had always been.
? ? ?
When Aldrid was finished with work, the familiar red-haired enforcer was once again in the room with them, rubbing the phantom pain out of her eyes. She rapidly shook her head, forcing herself to rise before embarrassing herself further.
“Right, um…thank you, Aldrid.”
“You’re welcome. I suppose I should call you Lady Iris now, hm?”
“…Please drop the ‘Lady.’ You’re older than me, too.”
“Oh, we’re both over a thousand years old. What difference does a decade or two make?”
“…”A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“And besides, you’re a mere human now. Should you really be telling a deity what to do, Lady Iris?”
As Aldrid quietly snickered to herself, Iris’ expression gradually twisted into bewilderment. The enforcer then turned to Serenis, pointing at the laughing deity.
“Come to think of it, wasn’t your goal to destroy every divinity? What about hers?”
“Aldrid and I have already agreed to withhold destroying hers until the other divinities were first dealt with.”
“Wait, then mine was…?”
“You wanted yours destroyed, did you not?”
“…”
Iris let out a long sigh. Serenis was right: the enforcer had blatantly stated so, at least twice, to the dragonlord before her. She’d wanted to rid herself of that cursed reminder as soon as she could. But apparently, it also came at the hefty cost of becoming ‘a mere human.’
After clearing her throat, the enforcer intentionally changed the topic at hand.
“…Right. So, Serenis. What do you plan to do from hereon? I do believe you’ve finished what you meant to accomplish in Partivine.”
Upon hearing the question, Serenis briefly closed her eyes. It was a question that had lingered in her mind ever since Felicir had been dealt with. It was also something she’d discussed in length with Aldrid before.
At core, her goal remained the same: eliminating the star of its divinities.
“I’ll be heading to Astellion.”
“…Astellion? The northern continent?”
“Aldrid has informed me of a divinity that can sense my presence, and that they reside somewhere within the northern lands. Though, as we do not know their exact location, our first destination will be…”
The dragonlord trailed off her words, turning her gaze towards the deity of life. Aldrid added on to finish the sentence for her lord.
“We’ll be heading to see Rozerre first. I do know where the boy is, and he could probably tell us where the other deities in Astellion are.”
Rozerre. The Clown, deity of emotion, and as Iris knew it, Aldrid’s only son. It made sense to seek him out before meeting the other divinities.
After nodding towards Aldrid, the enforcer once again met the dragonlord’s gaze.
“So Astellion, then…are the others coming with you again?”
Serenis shook her head.
“For now, only Aldrid will be accompanying me. I do plan to inform the others of where I’ll be, but whether they follow or not is their choice.”
“Ah…”
A relieved expression dawned on Iris’ face – which didn’t go unnoticed by the dragonlord.
“And Iris, you especially don’t have to be accompanying us; you’ve finally obtained the life you wished for. Forget about the deities and live your life how you see fit. With the divinity of space no longer present, the city shouldn’t be in any immediate danger.”
The enforcer lowered her gaze, her head sinking down in shame. Serenis being able to see through her was embarrassing, but the appreciation she felt was far larger.
“…Thank you, Serenis.”
It might’ve been odd to thank someone for destroying their immortality. But Iris felt genuine gratitude all the same, and even greater was the sense of relief washing over her. Her shoulders were much lighter than they had been as the deity of mana.
The dragonlord beamed back a small grin at the relieved enforcer.
“You’re welcome.”
? ? ?
And later that day, Serenis and Aldrid visited one of the refugee tents outside – the one that belonged to Ilias and Light. As expected, the two were still far from their usual upbeat selves, which only became more evident when Serenis conversed with them.
“…I see. It seems you’re settled on your decision, then.”
“Sorry, Lord Serenis. I…”
“It’s nothing to apologize for. I’m glad that you’ve decided to remain.”
Serenis turned her gaze towards the corner of the tent. Light was curled up on a small mattress, hugging her knees while Ilias’ tail wrapped around her. The half girl’s eyes were red and swollen, and it was all too easy to guess why.
“I’m sorry, Light.”
“…It’s okay.”
Time was barely passing for Light; to her, she still felt that she could walk out of this tent and head home, and her parents would be there to welcome her back. But whenever she tried to imagine such an occasion, their graves would flash before her eyes to scatter such thoughts away.
With their little sister so despondent, it was only natural that Ilias was electing to remain at her side. Which was probably for the best.
‘And from what I’ve heard, Karas will be busy with managing the broken institute…’
Numerous mages that had gone on an involuntary rampage under Felicir’s will were put under arrest, including the institute’s headmaster; aside from Karas, there were hardly any personnel left to pick up the pieces.
Of course, Iris was busily running about to prove their innocence and settle the matter, and said mages will eventually be proven innocent. Their arrest was a temporary measure in order to prevent any further breakouts while simultaneously confirming that they were no longer under the Reaper’s influence.
But that didn’t necessarily mean that Gio would return to his previous position.
Even though they had all been under the Reaper’s influence, Gio suffered the worst of its consequences. Unlike the others, attempts to suppress the archmage failed countless times until Serenis’ arrival; as a result, he’d massacred hundreds of his own colleagues and students, and countless civilians besides.
It wouldn’t have been odd to see the archmage driven to insanity. Under such circumstances, imprisonment was the least of Gio’s concerns.
‘I suppose that leaves…Raizel and Patrick.’
Serenis didn’t have a clue how the two would react to the news of her departure.
Patrick had avoided his little sibling for the entire week. She couldn’t exactly tell what was making him avoid her so profusely, but she felt that it was necessary to at least tell her sibling where she was heading.
As for Raizel…
‘…I wonder what she’d do?’
It didn’t seem like the steel dragon would remain in the city; it wasn’t her nature to mingle with humans, nor did she seem to have grown any fond of this place. But she wasn’t exactly the one to follow orders, either – though she did seem strangely inclined to listen to her lord.
‘I suppose I’ll know in time.’
Nothing but to talk to them and find out.