Delphia noticed the poison in the tea as soon as she put her lips to the cup.

‘I thought I could purify it, but is it not possible with Grandmother’s poison?’

Delphia’s ability was body modification, so she thought she could easily purify the poison. It seemed her expectation was wrong. I looked at her and swung my legs back and forth.

“But I can save you.”

Delphia stared at me with interest. Her lips were gradually turning purple. I furrowed my eyebrows and bit my lip tightly.

“…Oh, really?”

Even though she was clearly being poisoned, Delphia didn’t seem to care at all. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she looked at me.

I nodded vigorously.

“Yep!”

“How can you save me?”

I recalled what happened yesterday and murmured.

“I have a weapon that can save elder sister.”

“…A weapon?”

“Yep!”

Suddenly, Delphia’s eyes lit up.

“Really? Then what do I have to do for you?”

I was momentarily flustered.

‘I was just going to treat her…! Because it might hurt…!’

But that wouldn’t do. This is a villain family, after all. I narrowed my eyes and said,

“Of, of course you have to do something for me.”

Delphia’s eyes curved gently.

“Mhm, what is it?”

“It’s…”

Thinking that it would be good to take just a little bit of her power, not enough to threaten Dad, I opened my mouth.

“A portion of the power that elder sister Delphia has.”

Ability users like Delphia could turn a portion of their power into mana beads.

That Axel Mirmod, the final boss of this Mirmod family, was such a vicious person.

He threatened ability users who attacked him and inherited a portion of their power. By absorbing mana beads into his body.

“A portion of power, you mean you want mana beads?”

“Yep! Just a little bit will do!”

When I answered cheerfully, Delphia burst into laughter.

It became more and more puzzling.

It seemed she should be upset, but I wondered why she looked so happy.

“Then does that mean I become your subordinate?”

She seemed quite pleased even as she uttered the word ‘subordinate’.

“…Huh? Not to that extent.”

Even if she gave up a portion of her power, I couldn’t call her a subordinate. It was just that I would have a part of her power.

As I tilted my head in confusion, Delphia clapped her hands once.

“I like it. I want to be your subordinate.”

“…?”

“I want to entrust my life to you. It seems like it’ll be really fun.”

Delphia’s lips curved lazily.

‘No, why is she like this? This person!’

I felt a bit troubled, not wanting her to entrust her life to me.

But Delphia was already excited. She placed her hand near her heart and created a small mana bead.

“Take it. This is my leash.”

They say mana beads follow the characteristics of the person. I swallowed hard as I looked at the mana bead in her hand.

The mana bead, slightly smaller than my fist, shone with a brilliant silver color, reminiscent of her hair color.

“Ah, should I make it into a necklace for our baby?”

I shook my head primly.

“…I’m not a baby.”

As she reached out her hand to me, Delphia answered with a languid smile.

“Right, Master.”

The mana bead in Delphia’s hand changed into a beautiful silver necklace.

She leaned towards me and slipped the necklace around my neck. Delphia whispered close to my ear.

“Now please save me.”

It wasn’t at all the attitude of someone who wanted to live, but… Delphia’s mana bead was already in my hand.

I’m not sure how it happened, but Delphia was quite compliant.

Come to think of it, I remembered that one of Delphia’s character settings was that she’s quite soft and peachy towards those who satisfy her curiosity.

For some reason, it seems I’m quite an interesting existence to Delphia.

But to me, she just felt like a burdensome pervert sister in many ways…

I quickly turned away from her and looked towards the door, speaking loudly.

“You can come in now!”

As if he had been waiting, a little boy in white clothing, Acid, opened the door and entered.

I wore a bright smile on my face.

Until the day before yesterday, he was just an ordinary person, but from yesterday, Acid became an ability user!

“That little boy is the weapon that can save me?”

Delphia seemed half in doubt, but I was more certain than anyone.

“Yep! He can save you!”

Yesterday, during the sacred power test, what happened was…

I smiled broadly as I watched Acid approaching us.

***

Just yesterday, inside the sacred power testing room of the Senoa Temple.

The sacred power testing room was a place where only the priest and the person being tested could enter.

So, leaving Sien and Matthias outside the door, Acid entered the testing room alone.

As soon as Sien disappeared, Acid felt a bit intimidated, but he had to overcome it.

It wasn’t that he was depending on Sien, but rather he wanted Sien to believe in him.

But the atmosphere inside the testing room was cold and chilly.

The priest conducting the sacred power test looked more annoyed than usual.

In fact, he was really bored and annoyed, and actually a bit irritated.

‘Tch, every Tom, Dick, and Harry is clamoring to take the sacred power test these days.’

Recently, as the temple’s good deeds continued in contrast to the evil deeds of the Mirmod family, people began to yearn for sacred power. That yearning led to the hope of ‘Maybe I have sacred power too?’

As a result, it was the priest in charge of sacred power testing who was suffering.

Yesterday and the day before, he had to work overtime, and his already not-so-great personality was currently at rock bottom. Moreover, even though he was the younger brother of a holy knight, he was relying on the villain Mirmod family. He couldn’t bring himself to speak more kindly.

“Sit down. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“…Yes.”

As soon as Acid sat down in the chair opposite him, the priest continued, as if crushing him.

“I’ll tell you this because you probably don’t know.”

Acid looked at the priest with clear eyes. Something strange was felt in that gaze. The priest coughed a couple of times and said,

“Kid, there are four categories of sacred power in total. One is offensive sacred power, one is defensive sacred power. Another is prophetic sacred power that can communicate with the gods, and lastly, there’s healing sacred power.”

The priest doesn’t know, but even the refugees on the streets knew this much.

People with offensive or defensive sacred power become holy knights, those with the power to communicate with gods become priests or priestesses. Those with healing sacred power are rare in the world, but they become healers.

Healers are said to have the power to heal everything on the brink of death.

“Having healing sacred power, becoming a healer is almost non-existent… Well, I guess you want to be like your knight brother.”

The priest sneered at Acid.

“Just know that cases of sacred power manifesting at your age are extremely rare.”

Acid stared at him quietly and then nodded.

“I… know.”

“I’m giving you the chance to leave now without taking the test.”

“I… I’ll take it.”

Acid knew this too, but he came just in case.

Although he was intimidated, he had no intention of giving up.

At the somewhat clear voice, the priest hesitated for a moment, but that was all. He shrugged and held out a small cube to Acid.

“Tch. Then let’s start with the cube test. Put your hand on this cube.”

The priest didn’t bother to explain the process of testing sacred power to Acid. He expected this seemingly unremarkable boy to fail at the first stage, the cube test.

Unknown to anyone, the sacred power test consisted of two stages.

One was to test whether one possessed sacred power.

This test was done with the cube test, which simply involved placing one’s hand on the cube on the table.

More than 99% of the riffraff who came for sacred power testing failed at this level.

The other was to test what kind of sacred power one had, and how much. There was no need to explain this stage as no ordinary person ever reached it.

The priest looked at Acid with his eyes half-closed, resting his chin on his hand.

Despite being said to have rolled in the mud, his form as he reached out to touch the cube was quite princely. But that was all, there’s no way he could have sacred power…

“…Hm?”

The priest frowned as he looked down at the cube.

When a person with sacred power touches the cube, a pure white light ripples from their hand.

And right now, a pure white light was rippling before his eyes.

The priest, who had frowned for a moment, raised one corner of his mouth in a sneer.

“…It seems you have some power, albeit at a pathetic level.”

Acid didn’t respond.

The priest glanced at Acid. Acid seemed somewhat relieved.

Since he was Ted’s younger brother, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

But even if he passed the cube test, that was all.

Even among the 1% who passed the cube test, many were judged to have weak, useless levels of sacred power in the next test.

He coldly threw words at Acid.

“Don’t be relieved, kid. There’s another test.”

“I’m not… relieved.”

His attitude, seemingly unaffected, was inwardly surprising, but that was all.

The priest handed Acid a rosary.

On the surface, it looked like an ordinary rosary with beads nestled within a coiled metal chain…

But that was clearly a rosary bestowed directly by the gods.

The rosary was a precious object that directly chose humans with strong sacred power.

When a human grasps the rosary, light begins to flow from it. The color of the mana flowing from the rosary differs depending on how strong the sacred power is.

Usually it’s white, if the sacred power is a bit strong it’s red, and in the case of humans with the most powerful sacred power, it turns golden.

“Be grateful just for the chance to hold this rosary.”

“…Yes.”

The priest buried his head over the table and wrote a report.

Result of 2nd Sacred Power Test: Weak sacred power.]

This should be enough.

Unlike the priest who had already decided the result in his mind, Acid calmly picked up the rosary.

He remained steadfast even in front of the priest who showed no interest in him and rather displayed an air of coldness.

Because there had been many people who treated him like that until now. Only Sien had treated him as a human being.

He wasn’t even hurt by such treatment anymore.

After firmly grasping the rosary in his hand, Acid quietly asked.

“Should I hold this rosary in one hand like this?”

The priest raised his eyes carelessly and was about to answer indifferently.

But that’s when it happened.

A clear blue light was flowing down to the floor from the rosary Acid was holding in his hand.

“Wh-what?”

Having tested countless people until now, he could say with certainty that this was the first time he had seen such a clear blue light.