At those words Leilaik's eyes went wide.
“I cannot be certain, of course. Only, there are traces of an altar built and then broken.”
“Where, exactly?”
“We found it on empty land beyond Dalopes territory.”
Originally a person had gone missing within the domain, and they had found it while searching.
“An altar. If it is an altar constructed by the Inferlim rather than mere heathens, this becomes complicated.”
“Which is why I came to you first, Cardinal Ludersk.”
Cardinal Dalopes had held the seat of Cardinal for barely three years.
His political base was still thin.
The one relationship he had managed to build on friendly terms was with Cardinal Ludersk.
“In my judgment it was the Inferlim who set it up.”
“On what grounds?”
“There are traces of a black magic circle where a rite was attempted.”
A black magic circle leaves traces even when erased.
One who holds the power of Condemnation could see those traces.
Cardinal Dalopes could also use the power of Condemnation, which was how he had secured definite evidence.
'It seems unlikely there is any reason for this other than the prophet's appearance.'
The severance from Lord Elysian, the Inferlim assaults that have targeted Lian all along, the anomaly of the Sacred Flame at the Naming Rite. All of it might mean that destiny had arrived.
A destiny of gathering around the prophet as a center and standing against a vast evil.
Leilaik was all but certain.
He now knew the reason for the visit to Ludersk territory, but he could not say everything here.
“Father!”
Because his son was calling.
***
-I'm back.
'Tell me later.'
-Mm!
Something interesting must have come up.
The expression that says she wants to tell me right now is written all over Elly's face.
“Father, I'd like to check Corin's healing ability.”
I've learned that the physical combat side is a complete write-off.
So now I have to check how decent his healing ability is.
I only know he has outstanding potential; I still haven't properly seen it with my own eyes.
“Ahahaha, that's strange... it definitely worked at home.”
Mm, no it didn't.
A bucket that leaks this badly outside was never going to be sound at home.
It's all right, Corin. No athletic reflexes, but you still have healing.
I patted his shoulder with that meaning behind it.
“You can heal, right?”
“M-mm! I really did practice that a lot at home!”
Ooh — so he really is good at healing?
Once healing came up, Corin recovered a little of his confidence.
The sight of it raised my expectations.
Before long a pot with a withered plant was delivered in front of Corin.
Healing is the power of life force.
It uses holy power to amplify and regenerate the life force a living thing possesses.
The more critically life-threatening the injury, the more a perfect healing requires an application of healing ability close to a miracle.
“Haaa...”
Corin breathed deep and brought his hand near the plant.
A haze of green light gathered and wrapped around the plant.
The wilted leaves gradually recovered their vigor.
The stem, bent and facing the ground, slowly raised its head toward the sky.
“Ooooh...”
Healing ability was as remarkable as holy magic.
“Huh? But...”
It took no time at all to spot the odd thing.
“Isn't there light of another color mixed into the healing light besides green?”
When holy power is used, it gives off a faint hue matched to each specialty attribute.
The color differs by attribute, and healing gives off green light.
Base-attribute holy power is simply white light. That is why the Sacred Flame shone completely white.
For reference, the Demonbane Bottle and the fountain-pen letters I used talisman arts on before also shone faintly white.
'But that plant right now has red light mixed in among the green, doesn't it?'
For reference, the Condemnation attribute is red light.
“Ah, th-that's... maybe because I'm still unskilled, the attributes get mixed together when I convert...”
That looks harder, though? This fellow really is peculiar.
'Huh? Hold on.'
So that means the force of Condemnation can be mixed into the healing attribute.
'Was this something that normally works?'
If you can do two attribute conversions at once, efficiency obviously goes up.
Wouldn't that be completely sweet?
“Lian, simultaneous attribute conversion is due to a characteristic of the Condemnation attribute.”
“Is it?”
Right before I could misunderstand. Father's correction came in.
Fundamentally Condemnation is an exorcistic force, so it is a power premised on layering an additional attribute.
“If converting to two attributes were easy, there would be a great many paladins running at the very front with healing wrapped around them, wouldn't there? Because that would be efficient.”
I see.
Fair enough, if mixing two attributes were easy it would be broken.
“Even so, Healing and Condemnation are not forces that mix well. Condemnation mixes well with Manifestation or Enhancement; it doesn't combine especially well with Healing.”
“Then why does Corin...”
“Corin's case is a special one.”
So this fellow really is peculiar after all.
“Mm-hm... but why does mine keep mixing?”
Good question.
Hmm. But what is this. My head is itching, as though something is on the verge of surfacing.
Why does it keep feeling as though something would work?
“Father.”
“Mm?”
“Would it be possible to attack a demon as a test, by any chance?”
“Hmm... if it's your request, Lian, I would like to grant it. But it seems impossible right now.”
I asked on a whim, remembering my infancy. No luck after all.
Father thought for a moment, then said:
“There is a Silver-Mane Wolf left over from the one procured the other day. How would that be?”
The Silver-Mane Wolf would be the monstrosity Mother brought in when she said she'd teach me the power of Condemnation.
“It's still in the house?”
“We brought in a good many for training purposes.”
Oh. Excellent.
A demon may be impossible, but a monstrosity carries demonic energy too.
After a short wait, a Silver-Mane Wolf caged in an iron enclosure was delivered.
“Grrrrrraaargh!”
Judging by the scorch marks here and there, it's the one from last time.
It seems to be barking all the more fiercely for Mother not being here.
The consequences... are you going to be all right with those?
“Thank you, Father!”
At any rate.
I approached Corin, who was frozen stiff at the sight of the monstrosity.
“Corin. Let's use your healing on that monstrosity.”
“Mm-hm?”
“Not just using it, though. When I attack and a wound opens, put the strongest healing you can manage on it.”
“Healing on a monstrosity?”
“Mm. There's something I want to test.”
I took up the staff I'd temporarily put Lightening on.
“Father, please release it.”
“Will you be all right?”
“Yes, I'll be fine.”
I gripped the steel pipe and gave it one whish— of a swing.
For several days since it was finished I had been swinging it daily, recovering the old feel.
'Ohh, this is the flavor.'
-Why on earth did you go through a whole reincarnation just to pick up a steel pipe...
Elly looked at the roughly finished steel pipe with distaste.
She'd been pleased I was holding a staff again, but seeing the finished article, she evidently disliked it.
'It's the classic.'
-You could hold a more refined staff, you know.
'It'll be prettier when we make a good one later.'
The steel pipe I hold now was blessed steel.
This world had a variety of materials too, and naturally a better material makes a better weapon.
And generally, the more expensive, the prettier.
“Corin, ready?”
“M-mm!”
“When I signal, put healing on the wolf exactly like you did on the plant.”
“Exactly the same?”
When I nodded, Corin lifted his rod with a resolute expression.
Clunk—
“Kyaaaagh!!”
The wolf monstrosity came bursting out the instant the cage door opened.
Target: me, standing at the very front.
Vwoom— whish!
I dodged the swiping foreleg with a light twist of my body.
'A beast is a beast after all.'
A five-year-old's body lacked strength, but it had advantages too. Namely being light!
WHUMP!
“Grrrr-uh?!”
The wolf, struck by the staff I swung as a counter, is bewildered.
It clearly hadn't expected a counterattack.
But no wound has opened yet.
'My strength really is badly lacking.'
I had inscribed both Lightening and Demonbane on the staff, but the only one activated was Lightening.
Because right now I meant to test Corin.
'Making it light halved its effect as a blunt weapon too.'
If I were bigger, maybe.
At a weight a child's muscle can lift, the impact was naturally not large.
Nothing for it.
I turned my back at once and ran, and the wolf gave chase.
“Grrrwaaargh!”
It looks thoroughly provoked after taking one hit.
Where I was headed: the wall!
'My body is light... so this will work!'
The wolf was fast, but since I set off first, the distance to the wall is comfortably short.
Whish!
Using the momentum, I leap toward the wall with everything I have.
Thump!
I plant my feet on the wall.
VWOOOM—!!
“?!!”
Using gravity too, I swing the staff in a full swing.
CRAAACK—!!
“Kyiiiik!!”
“Corin!”
“M-mm!”
Fortunately, a torn wound opened precisely on the crown of its head.
Corin had the sense to put healing exactly there.
Over the wound, a haze of light mixing green and red appeared.
“Grk, grhng?”
The wolf was briefly bewildered, having taken it for an attack and found it wasn't.
But the wounded area, which had seemed to be healing, began bubbling and swelling little by little.
'There it is!'
Confirming the anomaly, I immediately put distance between us.
“Corin! Can you mix in more of the Condemnation attribute?”
“Uuh... that isn't something I do by will, exactly... but I'll try!”
Perhaps because his control isn't good, the green and the red both deepened and manifested at once.
Still, the concentration of the Condemnation ability did grow denser.
That alone is enough.
The wounded area begins swelling grotesquely, like a balloon.
“Grk! Kyaaaagh!”
And then.
BAWOOM!
It burst.
“Oh!”
Splatter—
Blood and flesh scatter through the air.
This is far more usable than I expected, isn't it?
***
“Hoo...”
“Destructive force like that?”
Corin, who had actually delivered the healing attack (?), was appalled.
But the two Cardinals watching could only marvel.
They could hardly do otherwise.
'Mixing Healing and Condemnation to produce destructive force like this has no precedent.'
It was a combination nobody had ever attempted.
Naturally. There would be no reason to heal a monstrosity or a demon.
And besides, anyone intending to heal would not mix in Condemnation.
The forces of Condemnation and Healing were difficult to blend and convert in the first place.
'Corin manifesting a force like this, accidental though it is, is impressive in itself.'
Armel Dalopes looked at Lian, who was patting his son on the back.
'But that child, for conceiving of it.'
Seeing possibility in what everyone else took for mere inexperience or error.
And then actually experimenting and achieving it.
'A genius.'
A child with reason enough for a god to bestow a great blessing.
'This... I have no choice but to permit it.'
The truth was that he had come here to dissuade Corin, who wanted to enter the Inquisition Bureau.
Because he thought this child, of a particularly fragile temperament even among children, would not endure it.
But here he had seen Lian.
A friend who heard Corin's wish, saw its possibility properly, and found him a direction forward without fail.
A real friend.
***
'Wow, this actually works.'
I thought of it myself, and I'm proud.
“Corin, well done!”
“R-really?”
“Mm!”
I only tried it after recalling something like a cliché from a manhwa or a novel.
And it actually works.
I get to realize one dream and Corin gets an ability unearthed. Win-win.
'With one healing he can treat allies and tear demons apart, so that worry is handled.'
At this level he should be fine entering the Inquisition Bureau. Probably.
'The athletic reflexes... will sort themselves out after ten years or so of grinding.'
Lifting is fundamentally a matter of consistency.
-Don't go mixing muscle into that delicate look.
'I thought Corin wasn't your type?'
-He has potential. I have to see how he grows.
...Mm. So she says.
“Corin, do you really want to go to the Inquisition Bureau?”
“Mm-hm...”
Huh? That's an ambiguous answer.
“The truth is...”
Corin hesitated, then confessed the truth.
“Lian, I wanted to be in the same dormitory as you...”
'Aha?'
He must have been bothered about the dormitories being split up at the academy.
Pfft—
A child is a child.
“I'd be glad to go together with you too, Corin!”
“Really?”
“Mm. Let's work hard, shall we?”
Corin may have two left feet, but won't he improve with practice.
'Once we're in it'll work out somehow.'
And so Corin's Inquisition Bureau track was decided.