So, they set off with great enthusiasm, but—

“It’s boring.”

“It really is.”

“…For the record, I’m the one rowing the boat here.”

“Shall we try rowing too, Eunice?”

“Nod… nod…”

A summer of absolute peace.

On a single waterway cutting through the Sea of Trees, Ziel traveled leisurely with Eunice and Roylen.

Even the splash of the paddle pushing water sounded gentle.

Summer was gradually drawing to a close, but the sun still shone strong in the daytime. The sound of water carried the warmth of the sea directly to the ear.

With a high-pitched "peee", a bright red bird flew across the sky.

“That’s strange.”

Eunice muttered with a slightly slack-jawed, dazed expression.

“Why are there birds that red? The sky is blue, so they’d stand out way too much.”

“Maybe it usually flies in the evening but came out during the day by mistake while still half-asleep?”

“That might actually be a good deduction.”

“That’s an autumn bird. There are regions in the Sea of Trees where the leaves change color, so when they migrate from the north, their plumage changes too… Looks like that one came a little early ahead of the season.”

“So I was totally wrong.”

“Is deduction really about being right or wrong? What matters is the process of verifying hypotheses…”

“That sounds very researcher-like. Maybe you’re rubbing off on him.”

“Its scientific name is…” Roylen began.

Ziel and Eunice listened quietly, murmuring “Ohh.”

“In reality, birds can’t choose their coloration, so my explanation was slightly off. A more accurate one would be: among birds migrating south for winter, some just happen to have colors that match their environment.”

“Ohh… If that’s the case, does the Sea of Trees change a lot once summer ends?”

“Yes. With all the migratory birds, and even more so the aquatic life changes greatly due to the ocean currents. Ziel, have you ever seen a whale?”

“I have.”

“What? Really? Lucky…”

“If Eunice hangs in there until winter, he might see one too. A pod came last year.”

“Maybe I will stick it out.”

“Birds and fish, huh. Do land animals not move around as much?”

“Most of them probably just hibernate. Moving overland affects human settlements more, so I imagine such migratory creatures have decreased. Small animals aside, to my knowledge, there are no large terrestrial creatures that migrate like that.”

Ziel nodded again with a quiet “Ohh”, and the peaceful, silent journey resumed.

Summer’s peak, perhaps, had already passed.

Back when they didn’t even know about Tenchi Jizai—when the true nature of the Shaking was still unknown, and they feared deep down that another dreadful event involving the Destroyer King might occur. The forest had been livelier, noisier, overflowing with life.

The fish swimming through the sea. The lizards leaping from hollow to hollow in the forest. The mice clashing tails in territorial disputes. The birds tossing berries at each other in play. The insects that rubbed their wings together longingly through the short season—

Now, as if sensing the end of the season, all of them merely continued to breathe calmly within the forest.

In truth, Ziel thought,

as he looked up at the blue sky, where the bright red bird had vanished between the white clouds, leaving not even a trace.

He had thought they might struggle more, but with such an obvious landmark as their destination, and with Roylen's practiced guidance, the journey wasn't so bad after all.

Occasional magical beasts appeared, but they were slain and sunk. While afloat, they rowed the boat; when the sea ended, they carried it over their backs and walked through the mud. They had expected a round trip to take two weeks, but now it seemed that even one way might only take three days or so.

“Speaking of animals, it reminded me…”

Maybe that's why—

such a frivolous question drifted into his mind.

“Did dragons… really exist?”

“The essence of holy magic— is cleaning.”

“……”

At that moment in the laboratory, Klaha was being fed nonsense by Lililia.

They had finished breakfast, seen off Ziel’s group, waited around just in case someone came rushing back yelling “Wait, I forgot something!”, helped Dewey prepare lunch side by side, eaten it—

And now, she and Lililia were tidying up together.

Since the words came from someone who had finished the cleanup in the blink of an eye, Klaha couldn’t quite bring herself to say, “That’s totally a lie, right?”

“…Is that,”

Trying to gauge the timing—

“Is that really true?”

“Klaha, you’ve been gradually losing your trust in me lately, haven’t you?”

“N-no! That’s not true!”

“It’s a good thing.”

What does that even mean…?

As she was thinking that, Lililia quickly returned the neatly washed dishes to the shelf, so Klaha hurried to follow.

“‘Essence’ might be a bit much, but it’s definitely one of the core aspects.”

“I see…”

“Holy magic does need output when it comes to defense and enhancement, sure, but for things like healing, control is more important than raw power. Doing delicate work like cleaning with holy magic is surprisingly good practice.”

“…I-I see.”

It kind of made sense.

It made sense, but precisely because it made sense, she couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious. What Klaha had learned over the summer was that “Lililia seems like a very good person, but her tone doesn’t change whether she’s telling the truth or joking.”

“So, with that said, shall we go wreck the lab already?”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go!”

She took off on her own.

Klaha hurried after Lililia, who was wobbling out of the cafeteria. Lililia had longer legs, so her stride was bigger… but perhaps she was being considerate, as Klaha caught up surprisingly easily.

“By ‘wreck the lab’…”

Walking beside her, Klaha asked,

“You mean clean it up?”

“That’s one way to see it if you're being optimistic.”

“……”

“Alright, I sense someone inside. Let’s start with this room.”

Even as Klaha was wondering what the pessimistic interpretation would be, Lililia moved with brisk decisiveness, showing no sign of allowing any interference.

Knock, knock, knock. As soon as she knocked, a voice responded, “Coming!”

“Hey. What’s up? Need some muscle?”

The one who opened the door was Dewey.

“Nah. We’ve got time to kill while Ziel and the others are out, so I thought we’d clean the lab a bit. Since Roylen’s not around, I wasn’t sure who to ask for permission.”

“Did Miss Lililia just say ‘because we have time to kill’?”

“Nope, didn’t say that.”

“Feel free to go ahead—much appreciated!”

A voice replied from the back of the room, and a slight peek past the door made it clear.

It was Ney.

“Oops, are we interrupting?” Lililia asked.

“Not at all,” Ney said, moving toward the door.

She had a spray bottle in hand.

“I was just taking care of the plants. The teacher left me in charge while he’s away. And Dewey was just being a nuisance and distracting me.”

“Hey now. I came to check if you needed help, since there are no other guys around.”

“Not needed~”

“Well, guess we’ll take him off your hands. Lucky you, Mr. Dewey. By tomorrow, your muscle strength will be five times greater!”

“What are you making me do…?”

Dewey glanced over with a worried expression, and Klaha averted her gaze, unable to answer.

This was the room where they first met Roylen and the others.

The room had white sheer curtains, aquariums, containers, pots… now she finally understood what they all were. It was the room where Roylen kept the plant samples he had collected from the Forest Sea as part of his research.

“Miss Ney. Are there any places we shouldn’t disinfect?”

“Hmm… let me see. As long as you don’t touch the plants themselves, it should be fine. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mess with the water in the tanks. It’d kill the microorganisms.”

“So, it’s okay as long as I stay within reason?”

“If it’s within reason, you’re good.”

“Alright then,” Lililia said as she stepped forward.

She moved a little away from the plants, placed a hand on the glass shelf filled with chemicals, and said,

“Let’s start with something like this.”

With a casual motion, as if she hadn’t exerted any effort at all, she gave it a gentle wipe.

Yet the change was dramatic.

“Whoa.”

“Wow. So this is what the glass actually looked like.”

“Might be cleaner than when we bought it. Oh wait, we didn’t buy this—made it, didn’t we? Since Mr. Dewey’s here and all.”

“No, this was here before I arrived… seriously? Hey, could you do the other lab after this too?”

“Personal items come with a fee.”

“Alrighty, let’s get started,” Lililia said.

Klaha stood in front of the glass, completely at a loss.

Because it was completely different.

From her perspective, it hadn’t looked like cleaning it would change much. The glass had already seemed well-maintained. But after Lililia’s touch, it was completely transformed. Not excessively ornate—just returned to a pristine state, as if the glass had remembered its true form, free of any cloudiness.

The essence of holy magic… is cleaning.

She was beginning to think maybe that was true. And unfortunately, Klaha hadn’t grasped even a sliver of that essence yet.

“Observe carefully and think deeply. That applies to everything.”

As Klaha stood puzzled, Lililia spoke.

“Did you know that holy magic works better on people you’re close with?”

“Ah. Yes, I’ve heard that.”

“Huh,” Dewey chimed in beside them.

“So that’s how it is.”

“Well, not exactly.”

“Huh? It’s not?”

“Nope. It just seems that way. Especially with healing magic, a lot of people first learn it as kids through stuff like ‘pain, pain, fly away.’ You don’t usually do that with someone you don’t care about, right? Because that’s their first experience, they grow up thinking ‘it works better on people you like.’”

In truth, she continued,

“It’s just that you can use it once you can clearly imagine what to do and how. Magic that interacts with living beings tends to need delicate handling. Mr. Dewey, if someone gave you a really complex tool and said, ‘Fix this,’ but you had no idea what it did or how it worked, you’d be stumped, right?”

“Yeah, definitely. With prehistoric tech, I usually have to feel my way through it.”

“You try that with a living being and you’ll end up cutting an artery and killing them.”

“Yikes,” Dewey said.

“Scary, huh~” Lililia laughed.

“So actually, most people can do this kind of thing. Whether with magic or by other means, in some way. But the fear of ‘what if I kill them?’ holds them back unconsciously. That’s why we study holy magic professionally—to learn where the safe limits are. Some people can just do it instinctively from the start, but not everyone.”

“…So maybe, the idea that it works better on people you're close with is actually because ‘you understand the limits better with people you know well’?”

“Exactly. Gold star for you.”

And then, with a raised index finger, Lililia—

“The best way to practice that kind of thing is to try cleaning objects! After all, it’s easy to build up volume, the procedures and methods are similar, and maintaining cleanliness around the human body before and after healing is also important. Besides, sanitation management of living environments was one of the major roles Holy Magic played during the Rebuilding Civilization era. So, let’s start by watching how I clean, and then try experimenting for yourself.”

“—Yes!”

Responding energetically, Klaha turned to face the glass shelf with determination.

It would probably take time, but she felt she had been taught something fundamental and very important. Until Ziel returned, she would give it her all. She had made up her mind.

“Wait, if that logic holds, then maybe…”

Meanwhile, Dewey spoke up.

“Maybe someone like me, a technician, could also be suited for the church’s healer roles. I use a bit of magic power regularly when repairing things.”

“I think you’d be suited for it. The structure of living organisms is quite complex and fluid, so it’s not exactly the same, but people with such backgrounds tend to adapt quickly. Even people who came from magic academies to the church—many of them were from magic tool fields. Also, those who specialized in water, fire, or even plants—tangible natural elements.”

“Huh. So if push comes to shove, a job change might be viable.”

“However, healers examine a considerable number of people in a day and require a lot of concentration. So unless you have a large amount of magic power, or something to compensate for it, it might be tough to do it professionally.”

“Hmm…” Dewey groaned.

“Hmm…” Klaha also groaned, each for different reasons.

“In that case, well… kinda borderline.”

“That’s how the church is, isn’t it?”

Ney chimed in.

“In the end, it’s so specialized that they can’t secure enough personnel.”

“That’s right. Healers and patients often end up in one-on-one situations, and it takes a lot of training to produce a skilled healer. Plus, in complex situations, it all comes down to skill. So to avoid disparities in the quality of care depending on the region, we also need to periodically revise personnel assignments.”

In that sense—

Lililia placed her finger on another piece of glass and gazed at the medicine bottle behind it.

“Having someone like Mr. Roylen who handles pharmacology is a big help. They can cover issues like staffing and treatment of standard symptoms quite well.”

“Oh? Could it be this’ll get him a commendation?”

“At this rate, he might receive the title of Honorary Cardinal. Oh, and it’s not like I’m leaking internal info just because I’m a Saint. Looking at past recipients of the Honorary Cardinal title, many were related to pharmacology. As long as Mr. Roylen doesn’t refuse—although, he doesn’t seem interested in aiming for the title of Archmage either, so maybe he just doesn’t care about that stuff. If we start asking him to take on advisory roles, though…”

“That’s kind of the impression I get too. What do you think, Ney?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much the kind of person he is. Not greedy, or anything.”

“Ms. Willae is like that too,” Lililia said, withdrawing her finger.

And in that moment, Klaha clearly saw it with her eyes.

Such extraordinary skill—it felt as though every impurity had vanished from the spring. It was hard to believe it had really happened in front of her, and even harder to believe it was done by human hands.

She seared the image into her eyes.

Even just a little—she wanted to imitate that.

Her fingertip began to glow faintly—

“Whoa!”

“Eh!?”

Clatter-clatter-clatter! A strange sound suddenly cut in.

Startled, Klaha almost broke the glass in a disastrous accident, forcibly retracting the magic power that had gone out of control. The sound still continued. It wasn’t something you heard in daily life—but while adventuring, it was a sound she’d heard many times.

The sound of metal scraping.

From Dewey’s pocket, a silver, ambiguous substance—neither liquid nor solid—peeked out.

“My bad, I left that in there.”

“Please don’t scare me like that, Dewey.”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry.”

“What is that?”

When asked, Dewey replied with, “Ah,” and instead of pushing it back into his pocket, he pulled it out.

“Don’t remember? From that doll room in Tenchi Jizai.”

“Ah, that magic alloy from back then… You brought it back?”

“Yep. Perks of the job, I guess. But see, this thing—”

He extended it between both hands, the alloy flexing oddly.

“I think it was used as a key for that storage space—like, it gets fixed in place when you imbue it with magic. But maybe due to age deterioration, that function broke down. Just a little bit of magic… or even just some magic being used nearby like just now, makes it react all squishy. Totally useless as a material now.”

“That’s nice,”

Lililia said.

She held out a hand.

“Mr. Dewey, are you using that? If not, can I borrow it?”

“Sure, but… what for?”

“For Ms. Klaha’s training.”

“Then by all means,” Dewey handed it over.

“Much appreciated,” Lililia accepted it.

And the magic alloy was placed right beside Klaha.

“Okay, Ms. Klaha. From today, while cleaning, always carry this with you and try using Holy Magic without triggering it.”

“……Yes.”

“No no no no,”

Dewey interrupted.

“That’s impossible. Even a tiny light spell sets it off. I had to use candles during late-night work because of that—”

“But when I was cleaning, it didn’t react at all.”

“…Oh?”

“Everything comes down to control.”

Dewey gave her a look like, “Is that so?”

Klaha wasn’t sure if it was “so.”

“But—”

Still,

If she was told to try, there was only one thing she could say in return.

“I’ll do my best…!”

“Good. Honest and adorable. Very good.”

“Go for it—”

Ney, who didn’t seem very interested, offered her support while continuing to water the plants.