“Yerna? How is it already…?”
As soon as Luke opened his eyes, he was greeted by Yerna’s face and recoiled in shock.
He looked as if he had just seen someone he shouldn’t have.
‘It’s definitely Luke when I look into his eyes.’
At first, Yerna was unsure, but seeing his round, teal eyes and golden irises confirmed it for her.
This woman was undoubtedly Luke.
She didn’t know what had happened, but she would hear the story from him soon enough.
While Yerna managed to compose herself to some extent, Luke was still flustered and bewildered.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t come home tonight, sister?”
‘Sister…?’
Hearing that familiar voice coming from such a mature face made Yerna feel a little strange.
It felt like the woman she now felt she should address as sister was babbling with a childish intonation.
“Luke, it’s morning now. The sun is already high in the sky.”
“What? No, that can’t be…!”
Shocked by Yerna’s words, Luke hurriedly turned his head to see the bright sunlight shining in the sky, bewildered.
It really was morning.
“That’s impossible.”
He had clearly been meditating just a moment ago…?
‘Could it be that I dozed off while meditating?’
A great mage like him dozing off during meditation?
It was utterly incomprehensible.
A mage dozing off while meditating was absolutely out of the question.
However, there was no sign of time acceleration, and his body felt too refreshed as if he had just woken from a deep sleep.
The evidence was clear.
Yet, he simply didn’t want to accept it.
“That’s impossible!”
To think he would do something so foolish that Renie would do!
For Luke, that was a truly horrifying prospect.
——
‘No, no matter how fast children grow up…’
Isn’t this a bit excessive?
Not just a couple of centimeters, but suddenly 30 or 40 centimeters taller…?
He was a cute kid the last time she saw him; now he had become a woman so tall that it was somewhat terrifying.
She had heard mothers with teenage daughters lament that their children had grown too fast, but thinking that there might not be a single parent who had such an experience was oddly fascinating.
How would others come to terms with a daughter suddenly becoming an adult overnight?
However, Yerna accepted Luke’s changed appearance more quickly than she had expected.
After all, Luke had once transformed into a much larger form than his normal self.
There was the incident in the forest when Luke transformed into a dragon…
Back then, she really thought she was going to faint.
Still, even when Luke was not in his human form, she could confidently recognize him as Luke.
It was the same now.
Thinking about it, Luke suddenly growing up didn’t feel as bizarre as it might otherwise.
No, it was certainly strange, but she felt as if she had simply adapted to it…
Luke was definitely a chimera unlike anyone else.
In reality, Luke’s magic pattern was much closer to that of a monster than a human.
That meant whatever happened to Luke was not particularly impossible.
Human and dragon. Moreover, Yerna even had a photo of Luke when he was presumed to be in a ‘cat’ form.
Everyone wears a mask in their lives, but how many forms does Luke really have?
This incident seemed to remind her of that fact after such a long time.
Yerna gently reassured Luke, who was holding his face in regret, and sat him down in a chair, patting him on the shoulder.
“Luke? Are you calmer now?”
“…Yes, sister.”
“…”
Yerna averted her gaze from Luke, feeling a strange tickling sensation as she scratched the back of her neck.
The word ‘sister’ which she always heard now felt all too strange.
Still, it brought her some relief that Luke’s gently smiling expression remained the same.
“Then, tell me what happened. How did this happen?”
Yerna asked Luke for an explanation.
“Ah, do I really need to explain that?”
Originally, Luke hadn’t intended to explain this body to Yerna.
He hadn’t even given her a heads-up about his body on purpose, had he?
Thinking about where to start and how to explain made his head ache tremendously.
‘I should have successfully entered the 5th Circle last night…!’
If he had, he wouldn’t even be in this situation.
He could have just calmly welcomed Yerna home as usual, served her a meal, and lived as he normally did.
However, now that she had discovered him like this, Luke had found himself in a situation where he must explain his appearance to Yerna.
Thinking that all of this stemmed from his ‘drowsiness’ filled him with self-loathing.
What on earth was this?
Luke averted his gaze from Yerna and smiled awkwardly.
‘Could it be that there is a secret he can’t talk about?’
Yerna contemplated with her chin resting on her hands.
She wanted to skip it this time if he really didn’t want to talk, but one can’t always brush things aside.
In fact, she did not know in detail what kind of experiments Luke had undergone or what his past was.
For fear of hurting Luke, she had deliberately refrained from asking him about it until now, but she no longer wanted to continue that way.
Aren’t they family now?
Originally, family means sharing pain and sorrow and overcoming it together.
Therefore, it seemed necessary to learn more about Luke on this occasion.
“Luke, don’t hide it; tell me. I want to know about you now.”
“Ah…”
Luke’s expression became even more troubled as he looked at Yerna’s determined face.
If this continued, it would likely turn into an explanation about the ‘things he could never speak about.’
Arinseia, divine power, goddess, and his origins were all pages that had to be forgotten in history.
This was a story that must never be revealed to anyone—about the foundation of the modern magical society where gods do not exist.
The moment the existence of a goddess is revealed, faith arises from there.
One by one, people will borrow the power of the gods, and faith will gradually grow and spread.
The influence will also affect his body, which holds the shard of the goddess, or ‘faith’ itself.
When that time comes, Luke, a mere Circle mage, will no longer be able to suppress the goddess, who has grown beyond powerful.
It would mean the resurrection of the goddess.
If that happens, humanity would revert to the age of mythology.
A society where there is no development or change—a dead society desired by the gods.
“…”
Luke sealed his lips.
Yerna was not one to just blurt out secrets, but the fewer people who know about secrets, the safer they are.
Seeing Luke like that, Yerna shook her head with disappointment.
“…Sigh, I get it. You won’t tell me again. So, it seems that to you, I am still only this much. Even though we’re family now.”
“What? No, it’s not like that…”
Luke was bewildered by Yerna’s sudden response.
What was she talking about all of a sudden?
That he was only “that much”?
“No, you must have things that are hard to say too. But… still, I am always ready to listen to your story and understand. Can’t you trust me a little more?”
“Ah, no. So…”
Luke thought the atmosphere had suddenly become strange.
In the past, he might have simply accepted what she said and stayed quiet, but thanks to the spirit language, he could read the emotions of people to some extent. He realized that Yerna’s feelings were currently in a seriously negative state.
It felt like being betrayed by someone he trusted the most.
If this continued, it was so clear that Yerna would be greatly disappointed.
Would disappointment be the end of it? He felt that missing this opportunity could jeopardize their relationship as it was.
Luke called out a little urgently.
“Th-Then…! I’ll tell you!”
—–
Yerna marveled at her healed right arm, turning it this way and that.
No matter where she looked, her burn had miraculously healed.
It was that burn which was difficult to recover from even with modern magical techniques.
“Wow… It really healed nicely.”
As she admired her arm, Luke let out a deep sigh.
‘I was planning to use the ointment I made myself to heal her…’
But there was nothing he could do in the circumstances.
“‘This power’ is why my body grew. As you saw earlier…”
He had no choice but to explain in this way while avoiding the topic of divine power.
‘Show the phenomenon directly.’
It was much more persuasive than explaining in many words, and it didn’t require much explanation.
People focus more on the results in front of them than on the principles behind phenomena.
Questions like “How did you do it?” held no meaning.
“I see… This power is the reason…”
“Yes…”
Luke nodded while blushing.
He felt embarrassed about his body, which had grown a little bigger than before.
The damage on Yerna’s body was quite an old wound, and forest keepers with heroic ideals usually valued their worth much higher than others.
Among them, Yerna’s individual worth was incredible, and it therefore required more divine power than he had expected to heal her.
Thus, even having only healed the burn on her right arm, his body had grown a little more.
“…”
He had no idea how far this body would grow.
He wondered what would happen if he continued to use divine power once he reached the full adult form, but he didn’t really want to experiment.
It wouldn’t do him any good to increase the goddess’s influence over this body any further.
“And, this power can only be used by ‘me’. No one else can use it. If this is revealed, I might die. That’s why I can’t tell anyone else.”
By saying this, Luke further explained that this power was of a kind that could not be passed on to others and could not be revealed.
Moreover, if others learned about divine power and developed faith, they would be unable to suppress the shard of the goddess sleeping in his body, meaning that it was true that he might die as a Circle mage.
“…I see. This is more troublesome than I thought.”
Yerna nodded in response to that explanation.
Indeed, the reason Luke had become an experimental chimera was because of that ‘power.’
Thinking about it that way, she could understand why so much effort was put into Luke’s body.
Perhaps Luke had undergone experiments in order to control that power.
Now she understood Luke’s words.
If that power were to be exposed, it would certainly become dangerous.
Dylan had died, but there was still no clue as to which organization or facility was directly related to Luke’s past.
Moreover, they knew nothing about the powers of the facility that could conduct chimera experiments and confine Luke, using Dragon Hearts and demonic beasts.
It was a rather frightening speculation, but it could mean that the one who created Luke was an organization powerful enough to compare to a nation.
So, it was a definite act of great courage for Luke to even say this.
“Please, don’t tell anyone about this power. I’m begging you.”
Behind Luke’s voice was a hint of moisture.
The reason was, in fact, just the embarrassment about this flesh and the self-loathing for putting himself in this situation by dozing off during meditation, but it resonated differently for Yerna.
Yerna comforted Luke, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll take this secret to my grave.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Luke wiped his tears and smiled softly.
Seeing him like this, despite his large size, he still looked like a child.
“How do you feel now? Doesn’t it feel good to let it out?”
“Yes. It really does.”
Certainly, revealing even a part of his secret felt quite refreshing.
Perhaps Renie had become addicted to this feeling and had always been so loose-lipped in front of her.
Thanks to that, she knew all the flaws and bad habits of the ministers without having to go to the palace.
Yerna patted Luke, who seemed to be feeling better.
Although Luke was sitting in the chair, his head was still higher than usual, which was a bit surprising, but his hair was still soft, so there wasn’t much difference in texture.
“By the way, why are you just wearing a bathrobe? Did you just finish bathing?”
“That’s because I don’t have any clothes that fit my body at home.”
“Ah…”
Yerna nodded as she glanced down at Luke’s body.
Indeed…
