Chapter 22: Miss Witch is a Goddess
“Thank you so much, Miss Witch!”
“For what?”
“You saved my daughter!”
The elderly woman at the food stand handed me a skewer with a smile. Before long, several people had crowded around.
One of the adventurers called out. “It’s the saintess!”
“No, I am not a saintess. I am just Eerie!”
“It can’t be…”
“That’s right, I am Eerie von Witchhat.”
“It can’t be! This woman is an angel of our goddess!”
“You saw how she healed our wounds?”
“No, rather, isn’t she a goddess herself? No mortal could have done that! No human could have done that!”
The crowd became larger and larger, encircling me. When I thought all hope was lost, my savior Mary arrived with two recognizable friends.
“Can’t you all see you are troubling her?” Mary asked. “This runs counter to the king’s wishes.”
Wood Beach made himself small, but Hela ran over and grabbed my hands. “It seems you did something crazy again, Eerie!”
“Hela? I thought you had left? Where is the other one?”
“Tank is reserving a room for us. All we did was go on a quest, but someone kept insisting on coming back here afterwards,” she said and turned to Wood Beach. “Anyway, it looks like you have your hands full.”
“I want to get out of here...Oh, I know! Why don’t you three come into my domain?”
“Domain?” Hela asked with sparkling eyes. “The way you say that makes you sound like a real goddess!”
“Not you too!”
The group laughed heartily at my suffering. With teary eyes, I opened the portal. They would regret making a fool of this actress!
Upon arrival, Sine ran up and hugged me as par for the course. Sumire remained seated on the couch, and the other girl, Riri, sat next to her. I had transported her here on the girls’ insistence, and King Tallow didn’t mind. However, there was no way I’d bring those boys here. I didn’t want to be responsible for something like that.
After short introductions, we walked to my library. It was a much more spacious place for discussions. The tables were sprawled out, and golems began their work. Hela looked over their movements with her mouth agape.
“I know I said it as a joke, but I am starting to believe it. Just what kind of person are you?”
Mary tapped her shoulder. “Remember? She is simply Eerie.”
Hela laughed. “No, you’re right. I am still grateful for her saving us before.”
“By the way, I thought you were going to be gone for a while?” I asked Hela. Last I remembered, she said she was going to her homeland.
“Ah yeah, I already went back there. You really do have a terrible sense of time, don’t you? You know, the last time we spoke was more than a month ago?”
“Are you serious?” I asked.
Mary, Hela, and Wood nodded in tandem.
“Anyway, that’s not as important. I hear that you are going dungeon diving with the heroes soon?”
“We are right here,” Sumire said. “There is no need to be coy.”
“Wha? You are the heroes? But you look so small and young.”
“Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter. We were summoned here by the goddess.”
Hela looked pointedly at Riri. “This girl is the healer, I presume?”
“My name is Riri. But, yes. I am the saintess.”
“Hmm, I have been a healer for a long time. Maybe I could help you?”
Mary grinned. “It may be possible to include your party in the upcoming raid. If teams were made, it would be much simpler.”
“How deep do they plan on diving in the dungeon, anyway?” Hela asked.
“They plan to conquer it. For that purpose, the King is going as well.”
“That old man, too!?”
“Yep, even if he is that old, he’s still a master of Candle Style. Apparently, he is the last one able to use the sacred art.”
Their conversation became hard to follow. Instead, I stood up with Sine and walked over to a bookshelf. If it was healing magic they needed, I had a book like that somewhere in that library. I projected my thoughts onto a small block golem before me.
It responded by floating upwards until it reached the fourteenth row. Then it sucked a book out from the shelf and floated back down.
I silently thanked it as I grabbed the book and opened it. Reading the first lines brought back memories of the first time I tried healing magic. I couldn’t believe I forgot the vibrant green glow of that flower when I cast the spell.
“What’s that?” Sine asked.
“This is a book on healing from a while ago.” I turned around to see the others had followed and stared at me. I looked at Hela and handed her the book. “Here is something on healing, but I am not sure if you will be able to read it.”
“Hmm?” Her pointed ears twitched when she grabbed it. “I can’t make out most of it, but this is pretty high level stuff.”
“Wait a sec,” Sumire said, “you can read that!?”
“Well, I am part Elf after all. Maybe if I was full, it would be a simpler task, but translating old languages happens to be an Elf specialty.”
“No, no, no! This is written in English!”
“What’s English?”
“Huh?”
Sumire gasped. “Wait a second! What language are we speaking currently?”
Mary was the one to answer. “We have all been speaking Krean. It is also known as the common language. Named after the Human Goddess, of course.”
“Are there more gods?” Sine asked.
“Not anymore. Well, that is not strictly true, but the pantheon has changed a lot. Even so, the demons don’t worship her.”
I stared blankly at Mary. The mysteries of this world were piling up. But more importantly, what kind of future would I have as an actress.
“Who do the demons worship?” Riri asked.
“They don’t worship anyone currently.”