“It’s beyond my ability to cure. The disease has already spread all over the body. All I can do is momentarily alleviate the pain. ……Although I don’t know how much help that will be.”

“……Rather, I should…….”

“Enough.”

As I was about to lament, looking at Elihu, a familiar voice from behind interrupted our conversation.

Turning around, Levanfell, arms crossed, was looking at me with a crooked posture, having been standing there since who knows when.

“Teriella. I know what you’re thinking, but your involvement ends there.”

“Your Majesty.”

“It’s a fact known to the whole continent that Emperor and Empress Eteria came to the Empire to meet the Empress. If news spreads that an incurable disease has been completely cured here, what do you think will happen?”

I couldn’t answer Levanfell’s question and only swallowed my unjust saliva.

“It’s good to cure one person in front of you right now. But that will soon plunge this continent into chaos.”

“The Emperor is right.”

Elihu, who had been looking at where Lisa was, added in a lamentable voice.

“People will suspect the emergence of a saint.”

“What if hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people run to you, can you handle all?”

“…….”

“Do you remember how this continent was before the peace agreement? Wars were boiling. Invaders and conquerors ran wild, and the powerless shed tears of blood in sorrow.”

At Levanfell’s words, Elihu painfully closed his eyes, perhaps recalling that time.

“The current peace agreement is just a temporary phenomenon. It’s just a break because neither side has anything to gain. What if delicious prey called a saint falls into it?”

“The continent will again be stained with blood, as Your Majesty says.”

“To save just one person.”

“What if, like last time, Elihu did it…….”

At my words, Elihu shook his head slightly.

“I agree with using power with good intentions, but saving a dying person is different from simple treatment in the use of power. I can’t easily do it, so I can’t brush it off like last time. If someone probes with bad intentions, it may lead to the announcement of the birth of a saint.”

“…….”

“Her Majesty’s power is unstable now. If you use your power excessively now, it may strain Her Majesty’s body like last time.”

He was not wrong.

My desire to save Lisa in front of me was selfish. A cruel selfishness without thinking about what might happen.

I turned my head without opening my lips.

“……I understand.”

I finally gave in to the two.

Even though I have power, I cannot use it. After suppressing the sense of powerlessness that sprang up everywhere, I clenched my fist.

If I had known how to use my power properly.

If I could treat and not collapse even if hundreds of people flocked, could I have announced myself as a saint?

Could I have saved Lisa and helped the people dying in front of me?

‘I have to control my power.’

I clenched my fist tightly and thought of the small back of the hamster.

If there is no justification, I had to fully learn how to use my power to create justification.

‘Let’s have special training!’

(This is a time separator.)
The blessing of the substitute officer was of no help.

Certainly, when there was an accident at the substitute shrine, it was said that the epidemic there was all neatly healed by the blessing of Substitute Officer Elihu.

So Emperor Eteria insisted on this forced march. While feeling Lisa’s body getting worse, he hoped that something might change if he met Elihu.

But the miracle did not happen.

Elihu kept coming for several days afterward and gave Lisa a blessing every day. Anyone could see that he was trying.

After the blessing, Elihu sweated coldly enough to wet all the priest’s clothes he was wearing.

But still, Lisa’s body did not get better.

“O God.”

Emperor Eteria was frustrated. The reality that there was nothing he could do but watch his loved one die was cruel.

“Rather, take my life.”

All he could do was to pray desperately, looking at the moonlit night sky after Lisa had fallen asleep. That was all.

“If you need someone to take away, I will go to your side. So please take me.”

Please save the person I love from despair.

Emperor Eteria swallowed the tears that were welling up. Lisa said she didn’t like a man crying.

But the tears welled up again as soon as those words came to mind.

Everything from my small things to everything is you. How should I live in the dark if you disappear?

Emperor Eteria clenched his lips until blood came out, lest his tears disturb Lisa’s nap.

He was ready to give his life if someone would save his loved one, even if it were the devil.

And then.

“Emperor Eteria.”

The devil approached him.

“……Who is it?”

Emperor Eteria hastily wiped his red eyes at the call from outside the bedroom. The calling sound was heard, but no other sound was heard.

‘What is it?’

Emperor Eteria cautiously opened the door with a small dagger in his hand.

Squeak.

But there was no one beyond the door.

Instead, a small canteen and a letter were left in front of the bedroom door.

“……What is this?”