“Why… did you do such a reckless thing?”

Nigel turned her head and looked around.

The things that had entered her memory were a mess.

Nix, Noah, and Allen – all of them.

“Even if you came in here… you might not have been able to meet me, and you might never have been able to get out of here.”

Nigel muttered, burying her head to the floor.

Then, suddenly, she felt warmth on her cheek. Startled by the sudden contact, she raised her head to see Allen smiling brightly.

“Is it because she’s gotten smaller? It’s cute to say things like this. Isn’t it, Noah?”

Noah nodded gently, then raised his hand and softly placed it on top of Nigel’s shrunken head.

In the blink of an eye, Nigel’s two cheeks and crown were invaded by the two. Regardless of Nigel’s hardened face, the two were busy smiling broadly, fiddling with Nigel’s soft cheeks and flowing hair.

“Did you two really hear what I said? Why did you do such a dangerous thing?”

“Well, of course.”

Allen slowly removed his hand from Nigel’s cheek and looked straight down at her.

“Because we came here to see you.”

At Allen’s affectionate tone, Nigel’s throat tightened.

“…Then, now that you’ve seen me, are you satisfied? Hurry and go back. I’ll open the door for you. Since the medium is my magic power, it should be easy to open the door.”

“Wait, are you telling us to leave you alone again and just go?”

“Nigel, we didn’t come just to see your face. You know that.”

Nigel pretended not to hear the words of the two that were piercing like needles, and approached the magic door, extending her left hand.

“…!”

Just before Nigel’s hand touched the magic door, her right hand was grabbed by a large hand with calluses.

“What are you doing?”

Nigel, flustered, struggled to shake off Noah’s hand. But it was beyond the strength of a child’s body that hadn’t properly eaten or slept for days to escape Noah’s firm arm.

“That’s what we want to ask. What happened to your hand?”

“I just fell, it’s nothing.”

“How can you say it’s nothing? Blood and pus are seeping out… This isn’t a wound that can occur overnight.”

Noah looked at Nigel’s scarred palm with sorrowful eyes. Then, without hesitation, he tore off his uniform cuff and carefully wrapped it around Nigel’s entire small hand.

Every time the wound touched the cloth, Nigel winced in pain.

“What on earth happened here?”

“You don’t need to know. So hurry up and go back.”

As soon as her left hand was free, Nigel approached the magic door again.

“Noah!”

However, this time too, Nigel was caught firmly in Noah’s hand before she could reach the magic door.

“Hmm… It feels a bit wrong to bully a child.”

Allen looked sympathetically at Nigel struggling in Noah’s grasp.

Noticing the look of sympathy, Nigel quickly put on a pitiful expression and looked up at Allen and Noah with a solemn face.

“…Won’t you put me down?”

Whether it was the effect of her younger body, Noah’s eyes wavered helplessly. Nigel focused on attacking Noah, staring intently into his blue eyes.

“Sure~ If you tell us what happened here, I’ll put you down.”

Just when it seemed she had almost won him over, Allen covered Noah’s eyes with his own hand.

“…Is it because of that child?”

Noah’s eyes, freed from Allen’s hand covering his view, turned towards the pale Nix.

Nigel couldn’t say anything and lowered her head again. She could feel Noah’s sharp gaze fixed directly on her.

“Allen, try sensing the magic.”

At Noah’s words, Allen quickly closed his eyes and then opened them wide.

“Nigel, your magic…!”

Allen’s voice was tinged with regret.

“Now I understand.”

Noah began to speak calmly.

“Why Nigel couldn’t come out of the door, why her hands are in this state. And why she tried to open the magic door with her hand instead of a magic flame.”

“It was because your magic wasn’t manifesting?”

Noah nodded with a bitter face.

“Not being able to protect the child lying there. Not being able to manifest holy power. It all seems like Nigel’s fault.”

Noah, resembling Nix, recited words that seemed like a perfect answer sheet, as if piercing Nigel’s heart.

“What… do you mean?”

Even to Allen’s careful question, Noah continued without minding.

“So you couldn’t enter the magic door, and you were tormenting yourself until your hands became like this?”

“…Yes.”

Nigel raised her head roughly.

She didn’t want to show her powerless self to Allen and Noah. But now that everything had been revealed, there was nothing left to hide.

“Beselion, you’re right. As you said, everything seemed like my fault. I couldn’t accept that as a saint, I couldn’t even help a mere 10-year-old child. So I wanted to save them no matter what.”

Nigel, who was pouring out words one by one with difficulty, trembled all over.

“Do you know what the condition for manifesting holy power is? It’s when you sincerely want to save someone.”

Nigel raised her trembling hand and loosened the cloth that was tightly bound on her left hand, pulling it down below her wrist. The wound, not having healed, kept pushing out red blood.

“But, whether my heart was lacking or not, no matter what I did, it wouldn’t manifest. If it was because my desire to save others was insufficient, then… if I wanted to save myself instead of others, I thought holy power would manifest.”

Nigel spread her wounds for Noah and Allen to see.

Drip, drip.

Red, turbid liquid fell to the floor along her fingers. Nigel looked at the stains left by the dirty traces.

“…It was a foolish thought. But this method was all I had left. At first, it started with small scars, but it didn’t work, perhaps because my desire to protect myself was insufficient. So… when I came to my senses, my palms had become like this.”

Nigel laughed bitterly.

“…Yes, I was here because it was clearly my fault for not saving that child, and I was afraid of that. Are you satisfied now that you know?”

Nigel cried out in pain. Below her distorted purple eyes, tears had made paths.

“Yeah, I could have endured even that much. But… not only a child, I ended up putting you in danger too.”

Nigel muttered, looking into space, then sat down on the floor helplessly.

“I now have nothing, no magic, no holy power. So I might end up trapping you here.”

It was then.

“…What? You think we came here without being prepared for that? I’m disappointed that you seem to have taken our determination lightly, Nigel.”

“That’s right. Allen, what did we imagine yesterday?”

“In the worst case, we seriously considered a scenario where you, Nigel, were eaten by a demon hiding in Tilin’s stomach, and the two of us had to go rescue you.”

“So Allen brought lots of daggers and Reparos.”

Along with Noah’s words, all sorts of metal and glass bottles clattered out of Allen’s body.

At the light conversation, Nigel, knowing she shouldn’t, couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“…Huh? Did you just laugh? It’s funny, but not something to laugh about. We were really serious.”

“That’s right, Allen even went to Professor Nubilus and Professor Roneh for special lessons to prepare against demons.”

“…”

Unable to contain her curiosity, Nigel rolled her eyes upwards. The faces of the two people barely caught at the edge of her vision showed not a trace of playfulness.

“It’s a relief that you weren’t swallowed by a demon, weren’t being chased by robbers, and just haven’t manifested your holy power. Isn’t it?”

“Yes, Allen is right. So Nigel…”

The two knelt down. And they entered Nigel’s narrow field of vision as she lowered her head.

“You haven’t done anything wrong, so don’t lower your head.”

“That’s right, stop being so unlike yourself and drooping. Raise your head high. You haven’t done anything wrong…”

Allen, who had been muttering excitedly, trailed off as if he suddenly realized something.

“Well, you did make one big mistake by hiding from us that you’re a saint when we said there’d be no lies between us. But! I’ll forgive you. Because I have something I’ve hidden too.”

Allen glanced meaningfully at Noah. Noah pretended not to notice and just stared at Nigel.

Unable to ignore the two people’s warm hearts, Nigel’s vision blurred with tears.

“…Is it really okay to be with me?”

“Yes.”

A firm answer came back immediately.

“Even if being with me might put you in danger…?”

“Of course! If we didn’t want to be friends with you because it’s dangerous, we would have cut ties with you back in Histen.”

“And… even if it’s Nigel, you can’t save everyone. That child was probably happy just to have been able to be with you.”

Allen and Noah smiled brightly.

“…How can you assert that so easily?”

“Silly. Because we’ve been with you!”

A clear answer came back to the foolish question.

The tears that had welled up could no longer resist gravity and fell to the floor. The transparent tears covered Nigel’s blood that had fallen first, blurring it.

Seeing this, she couldn’t help but smile. Nigel slowly raised her head to properly face the two.

“Now that you know my secret, you might get involved in the crime of concealing a saint. Is that still okay?”

“Sure! So what. Our house is overflowing with money. Is there anything that can’t be fixed with money?”

“And… though it may be insignificant, I can lend you the power of the Beselion Viscount family.”

Noah took off his seal ring without hesitation and put it on Nigel’s left ring finger.

At the same time, Nigel’s eyes widened.