Rosaline glanced at Lia a few times, then leaned her staff against the side and picked up a file to help with the paperwork.
“Little Ya, I just heard from the soldiers that Little Ai has left the squad. Is that true?”
“It’s true.”
Lia propped her head up, looking listless and answering nonchalantly, as if it were an insignificant matter.
“Why? Did something happen?”
“That useless guy’s plan was full of loopholes, and he got the Knights into this mess. And he still wouldn’t admit it—I just kicked him out.”
“Little Ya, you can’t do that.”
Rosaline’s tone carried a hint of reproach, but her smile remained perfectly gentle and holy, unchanged.
“No matter what mistake Little Ai made, he’s still our comrade, and one of the Chosen of the Goddess and her followers. How can you make decisions in place of the Goddess?”
If anyone else said this to Lia, they’d probably get shouted down, or even punched and sent to the hospital.
But in front of Rosaline, Lia was unusually docile, unable to raise her temper.
She only curled her lips slightly and grumbled with some displeasure:
“I already gave him chances to admit his mistakes, twice even, but he just wouldn’t cooperate. So what do you want me to do? Should I admit his faults for him?”
Just thinking about it made Lia’s stomach churn, nausea rising.
“Little Ya, what you said isn’t right. Only the Goddess has the authority to judge mistakes. Even if you have to expel him, you should report to the Goddess first.”
“…Enough with the nagging. If I have to report every little thing about that useless guy to the Goddess before making decisions, then what exactly are we here for?”
Rosaline tilted her head in thought for a moment, looking a little troubled.
“Little Ya, I heard that Little Ai was seriously injured when he left?”
“Tch. Those profiteers actually raised prices at a time like this—they should be burned at the Inquisition!”
“That useless guy too. We should have gotten rid of such a scumbag sooner instead of letting him cause trouble for me now…”
Lia was gnashing her teeth while looking over the supply list from the Merchant Association and didn’t immediately hear Vivian’s voice.
“Little Ya!”
“…Huh? Injured? Yeah, he was hurt. That useless guy even messed up the Divine Protection given by the Goddess.”
“That makes it even worse, doesn’t it? Anyone who belongs to the Goddess’ people is a Blessed Lamb who needs redemption. Even if Little Ai isn’t a hero anymore, we still have to protect his safety.”
With that, Rosaline clasped her hands, closed her eyes, and struck a devout praying posture.
“Goddess, please protect your loyal hero’s safety…”
“That’s enough!”
Lia threw the files aside in frustration, stood up abruptly, and roughly ruffled her hair.
“He was the one who asked to leave! Why does it sound like it’s my fault!?”
Rosaline opened her eyes and looked at Lia with disbelief. Her perfect smile finally flickered a little.
“…He left on his own? Little Ai?”
“Yes. Happy now?”
For the sake of her pride, Lia had told everyone she was the one who kicked Eze out.
But now, unable to bear Rosaline’s reproach, she just went along and told the truth.
Fine, at least she wouldn’t get blamed if that guy ended up dead in the wilderness.
“…I’m going on patrol. I’ll leave this to you for now.”
Without another word, the exasperated Lia walked out of the tent, leaving Rosaline sitting alone.
The priest-hero stared blankly at the papers in front of her, shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe what she just heard.
“Little Ai… left on his own? That’s impossible.”
But soon, she returned to her usual expression—a gentle, holy, and flawless smile.
This was her habit whenever no one else was around.
Then, in a kindly tone, she murmured to herself:
“That won’t do, Little Ai~ Abandoning your master, abandoning the Blessed Lamb of the Goddess—such acts will surely bring divine punishment~”
The party organized by Sheen ended quite late.
By the time Eze and Vivian were sent back to the mansion, it was already the next day.
A lot had happened, and both were exhausted, so they went to their rooms early to sleep.
Vivian, somewhat drunk, didn’t wake until noon, but—
Eze was already sitting in the study, wearing a pair of glasses he’d acquired from somewhere, shuffling through a pile of papers stacked half a person high.
“Good afternoon.”
Seeing the witch enter, Eze looked up and greeted her but didn’t stop what he was doing.
Vivian rubbed her sleepy eyes.
“Afternoon… When did you get up?”
“Five-thirty.”
“…We didn’t get back until after one, right?”
“Yeah, but since we both woke naturally, I just got up.”
After a moment’s thought, Eze added:
“In the squad before, I averaged only two hours of sleep a day. Four-plus hours is plenty for me now.”
“Uh…”
Eze’s past experience in the squad was far worse than Vivian had imagined.
That much was clear.
But those glasses really suited him! They matched his delicate features perfectly! She kept looking at him while—
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
Noticing Vivian’s gaze, Eze looked up in confusion, while Vivian hurriedly shook her head, restraining the urge to go crazy.
Not yet, can’t scare him.
Calming herself, the witch moved to the desk, frowned at the huge stack of documents, and asked:
“What’s all this? Where did it come from?”
“This? These are all the monster hunting commissions from the Adventurers’ Guild over the past two years for Tafia. They were delivered this morning. Sheen asked me to review them again to see if there’s any foul play.”
Vivian sighed, flipping through the papers.
“So many… It’ll take two weeks to finish, right?”
“No, I’ve already finished going through them.”
“…What?”
Vivian’s eyes darted between the paper mountain and Eze, utterly bewildered.
Eze was as calm as ever.
“What’s strange about that? This workload is less than the usual daily chores I had before.”
Vivian decided not to overthink it, fearing a mental breakdown.
“So what are you looking at now?”
“These…”
Eze pulled out another even taller stack of papers from under the desk, thudding it onto the table.
“These are trading records from the Tafia Merchant Association, which I asked Sheen to collect.”
“The Merchant Association? You want to go into business?”
“No, just gathering intelligence. A large part of what’s called intelligence comes from open-source analysis. The secret work most people imagine only accounts for a fraction.”
Seeing Vivian still confused, Eze sighed softly, took off his glasses, and put down what he was fiddling with, then showed her the document:
“For example, here: despite no disasters or demon invasions, why did grain prices soar massively in this city? It’s likely that the local nobles are stockpiling grain to prepare for deploying troops somewhere.”
“And this one: the nobles of this city clashed with demons last month, and ore prices skyrocketed afterward, indicating they suffered heavy losses in the fight and urgently need new equipment.”
“Well, these are the simplest parts. More complex info requires cross-referencing with other intelligence, which can…”
Suddenly, the witch slammed her hand on the desk, cutting off Eze’s endless chatter.
“Eze!!”
“Huh?”
“Do you remember what you said before?”
“…What?”
Eze blinked in confusion, and Vivian sighed with a hint of reproach:
“Wasn’t it you who said you wanted to find a place to freeload and do nothing? You’ve been working all this time anyway, so what’s the difference from before!?”