Seraphina quickly left the Sanctuary grounds, leaving Gairon behind.
Following what Ambre Arest had written, his daughter Claire Arest could be arriving any minute now, as she had most likely read the letter a while after it was delivered.
Adding to that, it was already in the afternoon and there was no chance they would be coming at night which immediately narrowed down the time of their arrival to only a few possibilities.
Seraphina hurriedly reached the kitchen and grabbed the nearest water-filled teapot before looking around and opening every closet nearby like a child hunting for candy on Saint-Hallow Day.
"What are you looking for High Priestess?" her conspicuous actions were spotted by two Priest of One Star rank. "Can we provide you with any help?"
"Hamster and Beaver, do you know where the tea leaves are?" Seraphina asked them since they had offered their help.
Hamster and Beaver were the Priests in charge of making the meals for the supplicants, so it was only natural for them to know the kitchen better than her.
"Aah...about that... we've run out of tea leaves." Hamster 'squeaked' at her.
"We were planning to go buy some more after cleaning up the kitchen from lunch." Beaver chimed in, joining his 'animal-name' friend.
Seraphina visibly paled after hearing that. She immediately stopped searching the closets and prepared to take off as quickly as possible to buy some tea leaves.
Just when she was about to run off the kitchen, Gairon arrived in the room, dramatically panting.
"Huff...wait...wait, " he said between ragged breaths. "You needed...tea leaves...correct?"
He asked his usual rhetoric question as he had already overheard their conversation.
"I knew this would come in handy one day." Gairon said after recovering his breath and pulling out a bag of dark tea leaves from who knows where. "Here, take it." he held both her hands before handing the bag of dark tea leaves.
"Thank you." Seraphina thanked him with a smile before hurrying off the kitchen.
'Gairon really is helpful... ' thought Seraphina after he left her view.
The man always seemed to have everything on hand and would always try to help her out whenever he could.
If that was not the definition of helpful, then what was?
...
After leaving the kitchen grounds, Seraphina quickly climbed the stairs, reached her private quarters and opened the door to her nearly unused room.
She had to prepare for Claire Arest's arrival, hence why the need for tea leaves. Building upon that, she also needed to prepare a place to welcome the two and what better place than the High Priests' room.
Her room did not look like a room at all and more like an office. It was spacious, quite like the kitchen in size and was dusty, a proof of its unused state.
Her room was in a very minimalist state and lacked even the most basic furnitures of what made up an actual room.
It lacked a bed, and with the only notable things around being a window giving her a full view of the shelter and the church's entrance, and a table with two large sofas around, it clearly looked more like an office room than her bedroom.
Seraphina opened the window, letting the outside air enter inside her room to sweep the dust away from here.
Then, Seraphina placed the water-filled teapot on her desk-like table before gathering her light-elemental mana inside her left hand.
"O Lux, let thy radiance be warmth," muttered Seraphina as a warm light gathered at her fingertip."Sunspark."
Unlike an advanced Radiant 3-Star spell like [Light Execution] which required a long incantation to bring forth a light devoid of any heat, [Sunspark] was one of the most basic spell in the Light element spell tree. It summoned a light bearing warmth, and naturally, its incantation was much shorter and different from [Light Execution].
The silver-haired girl pointed the [Sunspark] at the teapot before sending it flying towards the object.
Shortly after contact, the light spell seeped through the teapot's metallic shell, and the sound of water boiling could be heard inside the room.
Seraphina unfurled the bag of tea leaves she had received from Gairon and added them to the boiling water after opening the teapot.
Right after adding the tea leaves, the silver-haired girl placed a strainer over the tea, as her eyes darted around anxiously between the window and the steaming teapot.
Claire could be arriving any minute now, making her anxious about whether she could make it in time or not.
However, before she could finish, from the corner of her eye, Seraphina spotted a carriage bearing Alequessa's crest stopping before the church, from outside the window.
...
"Hi, Sera! Long time no see!" Claire cheerfuly said when she caught sight of Seraphina.
The High Priestess had gone down from her room without finishing the tea prep as soon as she spotted Claire's carriage.
She had arrived at the church's entrance to welcome her friend's arrival. It was the least she could do to show a minimum of politeness.
"Welcome to the church, Young lady of Aurest." Seraphina said, not bowing her head.
Claire was a young lady with dark purple hair and eyes of the same color to boot. Her skin was fair and smooth without a hint of blemish or imperfections. At face to face, she was much taller than Seraphina and her figure indicated that she was older as well.
She was wearing a black and amber colored skirt that reached her lower thighs alongside a similarly colored coat that bore Alequessa's crest and finally, skin colored tights.
Her clothes complemented her hair and eye color perfectly, rending this noble and elegant girl even more beautiful than she already was.
"You can drop the honorifics, Sera. " said Claire Aurest of Alequessa, as she got down from her carriage with the help of her lady in waiting. "We are close friends aren't we?"
"That's true..." mumbled Seraphina.
The Church and the Nobility had always been quite close, and as High Priest Gabriel's successor, Seraphina had the opportunity to meet with the heir of the Aurest family on numerous occasions, and by extension Claire the Third Daughter.
"Aww, how I missed seeing your cute little face." Claire squealed as she approached Seraphina and pulled her into a tight embrace. Seraphina was an adorable child with silver hair and golden eyes, wearing a robe too big for her, it was only natural that Claire found her cute.
Claire was both older and taller than Seraphina, so her tight hug was almost like a murder attempt on the small thirteen year old girl.
How so?
Well, it was certainly not the hardest thing for Claire to choke Seraphina out of her breath as she possessed the cups of tea Seraphina was missing for her prep.
Adding to that, Claire had already condensed her second Star the last time they had seen each other, meaning her phisycal strength was certainly not something to laugh at!
"Can you please release me Claire?" Seraphina asked with a voice muffled by Claire's body.
"Nooooo, let me hold you for a bit longer." Claire replied as she rubbed her cheek against Seraphina's.
"Ngghhh...Let's get going already, Claire!" Seraphina helplessly cried out under Claire's affectionate and uninterrupted rubs.