TNDM 10

Chapter : 10

It was too late.

It was the moment she realized there was no way to avoid it. As though time itself had slowed down, she could see every sharp shard of glass raining down from above in painstaking detail.

Or rather, that was how it felt.

She instinctively took a step back from the center of where the glass would land, but the area covered by the falling shards was simply too wide.

At this rate, she might avoid a serious injury, but she would probably suffer at least a minor one.

“Ahhh!”

At the screams of the terrified worshippers, Cecilia reflexively covered her head with her hands.

At that very moment, a white light burst from her hands.

Crash!

The vicious sound of glass shards striking the floor rang out right beside her.

Yet even as time passed, she felt no pain from her skull being split open. Nor did she feel anything wet trickling down.

Huh?

She opened her tightly shut eyes and immediately saw the people frozen in shock.

And at her feet lay a circle of glass shards—or rather, debris that could now only be called powder.

…Why is it the glass that’s been smashed to pieces instead of my head?

Awkwardly lowering her hands, Cecilia watched glass fragments cascade from the back of her hand.

Then someone shouted from among the stunned crowd.

“Woooo! It’s a miracle! The gods have watched over the Saintess!”

That cry was the starting signal.

The worshippers who had witnessed the miracle clasped their hands together and began marveling at the Saintess’s divine majesty.

“Such brilliantly shining divine power!”

“As expected of our Saintess!”

…Excuse me?

Her heart, which had been pounding from shock, now began beating for an entirely different reason.

This is divine power?

The divine power used by the Pope and the priests healed people, but this…

Cecilia looked down at her hands, which were still faintly glowing, with a dubious expression.

They say the fundamental nature of divine power is the power of purification. So this is… physical purification?

The fact that her divine power took a different form from theirs, and that her two hands had consequently become weapons capable of reducing even solid glass to powder, wasn’t actually a major problem.

The real problem was…

So how do I turn this thing off?

Surely she wasn’t going to have to live the rest of her life with glowing hands.

Just as the thought of living with self-illuminating hands was beginning to make her dizzy, the Pope came rushing toward her, completely forgetting his usual dignity.

He was so startled that his face had gone as pale as his ceremonial robes.

“Oh, my God. Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere…?”

“I’m fi—”

Before she could finish answering, the Pope grabbed both her shoulders and poured divine power into her.

A huge mass of white light, on an entirely different level from what had emerged from her hands, enveloped her entire body.

It felt as though she were wrapped in a soft blanket warmed beneath the sunlight.

After enjoying the comforting sensation for a moment, Cecilia gently shook her head.

“Your Holiness, I’m unharmed. As you can see, I’m not hurt at all.”

Even if she had suffered the slightest scratch, the divine power he had just poured into her would have erased every trace of it.

After carefully examining her from head to toe with his own eyes, he finally withdrew his hands.

“…It seems so. Thank goodness.”

The Pope let out a deep sigh of relief and smiled weakly.

“Still, just in case, let’s go to the infirmary for now.”

“I really am fine, though…”

Cecilia trailed off, unable to readily agree.

She truly hadn’t been injured even in the slightest. More importantly, she had suddenly remembered the person who had shouted at her just before the glass fell.

“I’m only saying this because I’m worried about you.”

The Pope lightly placed a hand around her shoulder.

Behind him, she could still see the worshippers and priests murmuring among themselves. Far in the distance, even the knights of her family were rushing over after noticing the accident.

In the end, unable to find a way out, Cecilia reluctantly nodded.

“Then I’ll trouble you for a little while.”

As she turned around, led by the Pope, she quickly scanned the crowd during that brief moment.

However, the man wearing the robe had vanished without a trace.

The place she was eventually led to was a small room containing a couple of simple beds, a wooden table, and a long sofa.

I thought there would be lots of patients since this is an infirmary…

Perhaps noticing her question, the Pope explained that this was a space reserved for nobles who visited the temple to receive treatment and blessings.

As he personally prepared warm tea and snacks and set them down, the Pope spoke.

“You were very frightened, weren’t you?”

Was frightened all she had been?

It wasn’t exactly a bolt from the blue. It had been pieces of glass. And calling them pieces was an understatement—they had been nearly as large as the window itself.

She had been too shocked and disoriented to fully comprehend it at the time, but she had very nearly had her skull split in half.

However, instead of telling him the truth, Cecilia gave him an awkward smile.

“I was startled, but I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt, either.”

The Pope before her was already excessively worried, and more importantly, someone else who had entered the room with them had been shedding tears nonstop.

“Sniff… I-I thought the Saintess had been seriously injured…!”

It was Sena, who had stayed by the Pope’s side from the very beginning.

In other words, she had witnessed the accident happen right before her eyes.

Apparently, the sight had been quite traumatic for the child. The girl who had been too shy to even approach Cecilia before was now sitting right beside her, repeatedly pouring out divine power with clumsy movements.

Directly over her head, too.

My, my eyes!

It was so dazzling that her eyes didn’t merely sting; they were watering involuntarily.

“Sena, it’s all right, so you can stop now…”

“B-but the glass! It was so big, and it fell right onto the Saintess!”

“Sena? I told you I’m not hurt.”

“Sniff!”

“Stop… Stop!”

With her vision growing brighter and brighter, Cecilia finally grabbed the child’s hands.

Just like magic, the glowing mass faded away.

Wow. I almost went blind.

“See? Do I look like I’m hurt anywhere?”

“But there are tears in your eyes…”

That’s because of you.

While Cecilia desperately swallowed the truth, Sena’s gaze wandered over every part of her body.

“…You do look all right.”

The girl lowered her damp eyes sadly, then timidly clasped the hand Cecilia was holding with both of hers.

That alone seemed to calm her down as if a switch had been flipped.

Just as Cecilia, having barely preserved her eyesight, reached out with her free left hand to brush away the hair clinging to the child’s cheek—

Bang!

As if one disturbance naturally led to another, the door burst open without even a knock.

The person who appeared through the doorway was none other than her older brother, Knox.

Perhaps he had run all the way there, because he was breathing heavily as he hurried straight toward her.

“Cici, I heard your head exploded!”

His large hands suddenly grabbed both of Cecilia’s cheeks.

He must have been extremely startled, because his hands were terribly cold—and damp as well.

I guess he really was worried about me, since I’m his little sister?

“My head didn’t split open, so don’t worry—”

“Even if it’s a useless part of you, it’d be a disaster if it disappeared!”

Knox seriously muttered this as he thoroughly inspected her perfectly intact head.

What on earth had she expected from this man?

A sudden urge to remove one of his useless parts welled up inside her.

Cecilia grabbed Knox by the wrist and pulled his hand away before continuing in a gentle tone.

Don’t worry.

“Please just get lost.”

“Cici, I think your inner thoughts slipped out again.”

This time, of course, it had been intentional.

Yet instead of flinching at the insult, Knox’s eyes gleamed with an ominous light.

“Are you telling your older brothers to get lost?”

“Yes.”

Wait. Older brothers?

By the time she realized the subtle error, she had already answered in the affirmative.

Knox turned around with a broad grin.

“Miguel. Cici says you should get lost too.”

Only then did Cecilia shift her gaze behind him.

The knight, who had been standing awkwardly on the threshold without daring to come inside, flinched.

“…I’m sorry.”

Why is he acting like that now?

His silver hair had drooped so miserably that anyone watching might have thought he was the one who had broken the window.

Knox glanced sideways at the bewildered Cecilia, then let out a deep sigh as though he had been waiting for this moment.

“Whew. I barely managed to bring him here because he was blaming himself for failing to escort you properly. If I’d known he was going to be scolded so harshly, I probably shouldn’t have brought him.”

“What? No, that’s not what I meant…!”

“Poor Miguel. Just as our merciless Saintess has ordered, I suppose you’d better leave as soon as possible.”

Speechless, Cecilia clamped her mouth shut.

She desperately wanted to give that mouth a fistful of something called mercy, but the Pope and Sena were both right beside her.

I can’t destroy the child’s ideals like that.

Cecilia barely swallowed the vulgar words that had risen to her throat and called out to the knight.

Naturally, she completely ignored the irritating Knox.

“Sir Miguel.”

“…Yes.”

“Unless you personally broke the window, I don’t think you bear any responsibility whatsoever. So please, come inside.”

After all, his assigned duty had only been to escort her so that she could meet His Holiness the Pope.

There was no reason for him to blame himself for failing to protect the Saintess from an accident.