72 The Necromancer and the Priestess 6 (1/2)
When Yin Mei discussed the matter of her project with Leon, he was quite intrigued. Summoning a hero was, like Yin Mei had thought, more suited to the space system of magic, as it was taking an object or person or whatever else and essentially teleporting them through space and time to get to the location they wanted them to.
Yin Mei constantly invited Leon over to work on this side project of theirs. Rather surprisingly, Leon was a fairly passionate researcher of magic. Although it was rather implied that he was a skilled magician mainly due to his high affinity and genius, in actuality, a lot of his skill came from hard work and research.
She admitted that he was a better person than he appeared to be on an outside - he had more depth to him rather than just being the empire's number one well known playboy.
During this time, El made several visits to see her. Yin Mei didn't say too much about her project or the matter of the two ingredients that she would be sending Rosella out to find, and they instead mostly only made small talk. Celestina would leak important church information to him on occasion, but she didn't really have that much access to such information.
The Bishop never told her really important things, as long as there wasn't any need for her to know them. The things he did tell her were normally like if a member of the royal family was born, thus they would be coming over for her to baptize the newborn. Either that, or if she was to make a public appearance, or if a subjugation team was going out, and etc.
She was not completely left out of the dark about the hunt for El, mostly because the Bishop never revealed to her the identity of the ”criminal necromancer” that he would speak of. But, he was still cautious about her finding out, so he would never say much. It was just that Celestina had already discovered of the necromancers existence through the mouths of some of the more talkative priestesses, so he did give her some information to keep her from asking more or becoming overly curious.
Yin Mei and El were sitting on their ground with their backs to each other, and El passed her a cookie that he had gotten from a popular bakery outside. Celestina was not allowed to eat anything from the outside, but El knew that this was her favorite item from when they had sneaked out to play in the capital when they were kids, so he would always bring some for her when he visited her through the secret passageway.
”I heard that recently you've been inviting that space user, Leon, to the church?” El said, his expression covered in the shadows created by the flickering candle lights that never seemed to go out. Leon's playboy attitude was not at all secret, and El's heart grew dark when he thought about that person using his flowery words and cunning wiles to seduce his Celes.
”Yes. I need his help for something.” Yin Mei answered, not seeming to notice that the person beside her was currently eating a jar of vinegar right now. She was instead happily munching on the cookie. The food that the high priestess got was pretty good, just a little too... humble for her tastes. It was plain and simple, something that you would expect a member of the pious church to eat. But Yin Mei couldn't stand eating that sort of thing day in and day out, and wanted a little more variety... It was too bad that the priestesses had all vehemently opposed her stepping foot in the kitchen, so now her only comfort were some of the sweets the priestesses made for hobby, or the snacks that El brought from the outside.
Hearing this, El felt even more upset in his heart. If he had to explain the way he felt toward Celestina, then he would say that he felt more like a father or older brother toward her than anything. And this emotion too, he explained it as a feeling of his daughter being chased around by a good for nothing fly.
It wasn't that he was jealous.
He felt that this emotion was really complex... he wondered what matter Celestina was talking about - was it not something that she could say to him? Was it something he was incapable of helping her do? Was he just that unreliable, or was it that only that playboy magician could help her with it?
A thousand questions and thoughts swirled in his head, and his heart only grew heavier and darker.
”It'll be a nice surprise when I finish it,” she commented, bringing El out of his reverie. He didn't reply, but pondered on the meaning of her words.
They talked about a few more little things, with El mostly talking about what was going on with the outside world - how a new sweets store had opened up that was popular with his female students, or how a famous entertainment troupe was coming into town soon. Those sorts of things.
At the end, Yin Mei would always see him off with a smile, before returning back to her room, or if it was still early, to sit at the fountain in the inner sanctum's courtyard. Today, she would once again be meeting up with Leon to discuss some finer details of the summoning circle that they would be using.
It was already around time for Rosella to go with the expedition. Considering Rosella's luck was actually pretty good, and she wasn't as prone to getting into trouble like Wen Hua had been, Yin Mei didn't feel too worried. With her protagonist aura, it was likely that she would not get into any life threatening danger that would kill her.
When Rosella was asked by Yin Mei to find a certain herb for her, she immediately agreed. This life at the church was extremely peaceful and happy for her, and she felt that she had Yin Mei to owe for this. Because of this, she would do anything to repay this debt toward the girl. Although she was a little worried about going to the Gloom Forest of the stories and rumors, she was still determined to get the flower that Yin Mei had asked for. She was being entrusted with this important task; she would ensure that she would carry it out no matter what.
When Rosella met the captain in charge of the expedition, he appeared like a middle aged veteran that had seen his fair share of battles, the scar running down his face giving him a gruff and stern look. She was nervous, but recalled that she was here for the sake of her assignment, given to her personally by the high priestess.
Although the members of the squad were secretly a little bit unsatisfied having to take care of this little girl who probably had no combat experience whatsoever, they also knew that this had been a personal order from the Bishop, under the request of the high priestess.