Vieille is crying as she shuffles along. Her white costume, richly embroidered with gold threads, is now soiled beyond recognition as she kneels on the muddy ground. In addition, black molds in some places enhance the girl's pathetic appearance.
Linos slowly squats down and whispers something to the crouching Vieille. Immediately after that, she looks up with a start and shakes her head from side to side while looking Rinos in the eye.
"If you can't do that, why don't you ask Lady Klimiana to save you?
With that, Linos turns on his heel.
"Wait! Wait! I understand! I understand!"
Once again, Vieille's exclamation echoes. Hearing his voice, Linos turns around again. Vieille begins to speak, shaking her body and trying to squeeze out a few words.
"We ...... believed ...... that the Lady Klimiana was ....... did not give us ...... her blessing. I, ...... Juvencel Vieille, pledge my ...... absolute loyalty to the king of Agartha, Linos."
When he said this, Vieille broke down crying on the spot.
"All right, Vieille. I will save you. Follow me."
Linos walked past Vieille and into the lodge. Then she rises like a wavering ghost and follows behind Linos with a stunned look on her face.
"Sister ......"
Without even a glance at Cassel, who called out to her in concern, Vieille followed Linos into the lodge.
Only a few minutes had passed since then. Rinos came out of the lodge with Vieille in his arms.
"Sister! Sister Vieille! Hey! What did you do to my sister!"
Cassel comes slowly down the stairs of the lodge, and Cassel hurls biting words at Linos.
"You idiot! Look closely."
Linos shows Cassel the figure of Vieille.
"Sister! The spots are ......!"
The purple spots that had disfigured Vieille's face were gone, and she had regained her beautiful face, showing her soft sleeping face.
"Mei! Roni! Zhiwan!"
At Linos' call, three people appear from behind the followers of Klimiana.
"Take care of Vieille. It is probably healed, but check it out.
Chi-wan takes Vieille and carries her out of the village. The villagers watched with bated breath as Vieille was carried out.
"People of Klimiana!
Suddenly, Linos' loud voice rang out. All eyes turned to Linos.
"As you have just seen, I don't know how far we can go with the healing, but we can remove the purple spots that are characteristic of Leroyance. A few months ago, we tried it on people with similar symptoms, and so far they haven't died. If you want help, we will help you. In return."
After saying that much, Linos breaks off and looks around. The faces of the clerics are frozen.
"You must admit that the Lady Klimiana, whom you believe in, will not save you, and you must pledge your absolute loyalty to me. Isn't that right? I'm going to save your lives. It's only natural that I should return the favor, isn't it? If you can't accept that, stay where you are. You can choose to live in this stinking land, in moldy rooms, without food, and you can choose to die of disease or starvation. I will not force you. However, if you are loyal to me, I will guarantee you a minimum standard of living.
The clerics are making noise. There seems to be a skirmish going on in the back.
"Well, I don't have much time. I'll give you 30 minutes. You have 30 minutes to decide. Someone! Call Matocal! Mato! Where are you?
Matkal immediately appears at my call.
"Mat, are the generals resting now? ...and all the tents have been notified? Good. Then gather everyone at the forest entrance in 30 minutes. I'll escort the followers. Yes, yes. Send the general and a few others to me. The young ladies will have to be escorted."
"Yes, sir."
With that, Matkal disappeared deep into the forest.
As soon as Linos arrived at the village, he put Vieille to sleep. He and Kassel, who was already asleep, put them both in the most comfortable dreamscape imaginable. Then he ordered Lafayence and the others to tell the tents and lodges with sick people to go immediately to the lodge with Vieille, where they might be cured of their current illnesses. They told them loudly and at the same time asked the congregation outside to help them tell their families and friends. This was accepted surprisingly easily, and within a few hours a large congregation had gathered in front of the lodge.
Exactly thirty minutes after Linos had urged the villagers to make a decision, there remained in front of the lodge a congregation of about five hundred people. Linos took the fifty who could be accommodated to the limit into the room of the lodge and had them all say out loud the same words as the vow of Vieille, then he put on the Ultimate Heel. They were lined up facing the wall, and Linos cast the spell at the back of the line so that the story would not be exposed.
The congregation of about 500 people who had pledged their allegiance to Rinos were led by Lafayence and the others to a point about 30 minutes' walk out of the forest. This was still the site where the troops who had defeated Lamarron's army had encamped, and it was still the training camp for Agartha's army, which had built a new village to house them.
Rinos, Mei, Chihwan, Roni, Ilimo and Matkal went out of the village and moved to the office of the capital. Linos instructed Matocal to prepare food and, as soon as it was ready, to take the soldiers to the village.
Linos and his team immediately went into the meeting with May.
"How did it go, Mei?"
"Yes. I think that environment is probably one of the causes of Leroyance. I will have to investigate it in more detail, but I would like to check it again against the patient's situation that the master has evaluated.
May's eyes light up. Seeing this, Chi-wan opens his mouth.
"In my opinion, the mold on their clothes may be a major cause of the lerowance. I would like to examine that in detail as well."
"Oh, okay. Chiwan, Roni, take good care of him."
They bowed their heads.
"Tomorrow, we'll take Soleil with us to investigate. Then we can save the believers who are begging for ...... their lives, too, right?"
"I would also like to investigate the believers that Master Linos healed once."
"Yes, Roni, please do. Do that, Roni, and see what you can find out.
"Master Linos, the food is ready and we are ready to go."
"Oh, Mat, you're very fast. I see. Let's move the food first.
I go to the basement of the pantry where the relief supplies are being prepared, and move with the supplies toward the storage wards that were created in advance when the village was built, and which are designed to be invisible from the outside. In an instant it is done, and I leave there to find an Agarthan soldier and tell him that I have brought the food to the storehouse. I enter the storehouse again and transfer directly to the capital of Agartha.
He did not need to confirm my return. Matkal has started to move toward the village of the boundary. Satisfied with this report, I went to my office to take care of the rest of my work.
When I returned to my residence in the capital in the evening, I was greeted by Eryl and Allyria. Their smiling faces soothe me. I wander around the dining room with them in my arms and tell them that Matkal will not be coming home tonight, and wait for dinner.
At night, I got out of the bath and went into the bedroom to find Rico.
"Huh? Rico, where's Eryl?"
"May is taking care of them for me."
"Oh, so that's why you and May were taking a bath together."
"Linos, I need to talk to you."
He speaks to me with a more serious expression than ever before.
"What's wrong?"
"May told me that today ...... you held a little girl named Vieille in your arms in the village of Crimiana. What are you going to do about it?
Rico's presence is different from usual. This is the mood of someone who is seriously angry.
"No, no, Rico! No, no, no! That's not what I meant when I said I held you. I mean a princess hug. ......"
"Oh, a princess hug? ...... got it. You are thinking of taking a new wife? I'm not opposed to that, but why didn't you say so in the first place? How old are you? Where are you from? What skills do you have? Or rather, where did you find him? No, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to, I just thought I'd ask."
"Rico! Rico! Wait! No, no, no! Wait!"
I hug Riko desperately. She breathes on my shoulder and murmurs in a small voice.
"Ohisama dakko ...... ohisama dakko ......"
I silently took Riko in my arms and carried her gently to the bed. She was still trying to say something, but I covered her lips with mine.