~CHAPTER 19~
“I didn’t even notice until just now. …But now that I see it, I think it stings a little.”
“Oh no!”
The child hit their own chest in frustration.
“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
“Fine?!”
The child frowned deeply and scolded me.
I shut my mouth awkwardly.
It was hard to say anything when they seemed more upset about my injury than I was.
Should I tell them it’ll heal soon?
My body, being that of a Demon King, is far sturdier than a human’s.
Depending on the injury, something like this will vanish completely in just a few hours.
Then it happened.
Wooong—
A resonant sound filled the air as a red light spread from the child’s hand.
Like a drop of crimson dye falling into clear water, the light quickly enveloped us.
I felt a gentle warmth.
Caught off guard, I looked around in surprise.
A shadow passed over my face.
I instinctively lifted my head.
A red bird—Latia—was flapping its wings in front of me, gazing down.
“Latia?”
A single feather drifted down from Latia’s wing.
My eyes followed it.
Whoosh—
The red light faded, and the warmth disappeared.
Both Latia and the light vanished as if they had never been there.
The wound that had been on my palm was gone too.
“This is…”
“I did good, right?”
The bird form of Latia was gone, and in front of me stood the same child claiming to be Latia, smiling brightly as if asking for praise.
As far as I know, monsters can’t heal.
They’re beings born of darkness, like demons.
A race cursed by the gods—that’s what demons and monsters are.
So using a divine power like healing shouldn’t be possible.
I did feel something when I first touched the egg… like mana.
That’s why I thought Latia was a low-grade monster.
But if she can use healing… only a god or a being loved by the gods could do that.
In other words, this child is…
A spirit.
That explains the faint magical energy I sensed and the strangeness I felt.
Judging by the light and warmth earlier, she must be a fire spirit.
A fire spirit who can take human form?
That would make her at least a high-ranking spirit.
If she’s a high-ranking fire spirit in the form of a bird, there’s only one possible answer—Phoenix.
This was beyond something I could handle alone.
Who sold a spirit’s egg?
This wasn’t just a case of Zahar being scammed.
A spirit’s egg—something that should exist only in the divine realm—had appeared in the human world, even in the black market.
That was a serious problem.
If the demons were accused of stealing the Phoenix’s egg…
Damn it.
The thought alone was terrifying.
Even if the demons weren’t responsible, the gods and spirit kings wouldn’t care to listen.
If the culprit wasn’t found quickly, they’d turn their wrath on us instead.
And if a demon really was behind this… that’s even worse.
I didn’t want to imagine that possibility.
I knew all too well how the gods dealt with demons.
***
I took Latia’s hand and headed for the chapel where Sian would be.
I needed to tell him I had to return home early.
Thanks to him mentioning earlier that the chapel was on the third floor, I didn’t get lost.
I could tell we were getting closer.
Children were sneaking out into the hallway, giggling as if they’d slipped away from the priests.
The closer we got, the more of them there were.
So they’re just letting them go now, huh.
The children who were skipping prayer looked startled to see me, but realizing I wasn’t someone they knew, they quickly passed by without concern.
Standing in front of the chapel door, I quietly pushed it open.
Inside was dimly lit—so dark I could barely make out the faces of the people inside.
Prayer is usually done in a solemn atmosphere, with only a few candles burning.
Thankfully, spotting Sian wasn’t difficult.
He was tall—much taller than the orphanage children around him.
I found him easily and grabbed the hem of his robe.
Sian was watching the children as they prayed by the wall.
When he felt me tug at his robe, he turned his head toward me.
“Sir Sian.”
“Zerena.”
He looked surprised to see me when he’d expected me to be with the children who weren’t attending prayer.
“I think I need to head back first.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Um…”
I glanced at Latia.
“That child…”
He tilted his head slightly, confused by the unfamiliar face.
Of course he didn’t recognize her. I hadn’t at first, either.
I thought about explaining, but in the quiet chapel, that wasn’t possible.
Even a whisper might be overheard.
And the fewer people who knew Latia’s true identity as a spirit, the better.
“Would you mind stepping outside for a moment?”
“Of course.”
The three of us—Sian, Latia, and I—left the chapel quietly, careful not to draw the priest’s attention.
The children who had been loitering near the chapel door were gone, probably already off playing somewhere.
Good. If they’d run into Sian, they would’ve been dragged right back inside.
As I looked around the corridor, Sian was the first to speak—to Latia.
“I don’t think I’ve given you a name yet. Did you just arrive?”
“Me?”
Latia blinked wide-eyed and turned around, checking if he was talking to someone else.
When she saw no one behind her, she huffed and shouted indignantly.
“You already gave me one!”
“…I did? But this is the first time I’ve seen—”
“Latia!”
“…”
“Latia! That’s the name you gave me, Sian!”
Yeah, sounds unbelievable, right? I thought so too.
At first, I didn’t believe it either.
So even if he was looking at me for an explanation, there wasn’t much I could say yet.
So many things floated in my mind, but only one sentence made it out of my mouth.
“…That’s how it turned out.”
He glanced back toward the chapel.
From what I saw before we left, the prayer seemed to be ending soon.
If he wanted, he could still go back and finish.
Does he still have something left to do?
Maybe my thoughts showed on my face, because he answered before I even asked.
“I haven’t given the new children their names yet.”
“Ah… their names?”
Now that he mentioned it, he had asked Latia about that earlier too.
“The children who come to the orphanage are given new names. It’s to let go of their past and bless their new lives.”
He paused, looking at the chapel door.
“Every month, when I visit, I give each new child a name that can also serve as a baptismal name. Attending the prayer is part of my duty, but naming them is even more important, so I can’t delay it.”
“I see…”
Suddenly, everything made sense.
No wonder he takes naming so seriously!
Names like mine—Zerena—and Latia.
He wasn’t just picking names that sounded nice. He thought about their meaning too.
Sian, who names each child himself…
He must put real thought into giving each one a name that suits them.
No one knows what kind of lives those children will live after, but at the very least, I hope they live in a way that honors the meaning Sian had in mind.
For a moment, that’s what I thought.
