Leon said slowly:
"Iris, have you considered this? If the people Brellita is purging are the very same people who caused your father's death, would you still think her purges are terrifying? After all, she's the agent of Astalia."
That was an angle Iris had never considered.
"…But the key is, would things really be like you say?" she asked.
"I haven't verified the details," Leon admitted, "but from what I do know, the people she purges are definitely not the kind-hearted—or the virtuous."
"So you're saying you trust her character?" Iris shot back.
This girl was good—she tossed the question right back again.
Leon knew he couldn't give a fully committed answer yet.
Iris still hadn't completely revealed her own stance, so Leon's stance couldn't become too explicit too fast.
So he paused and probed cautiously:
"She's a Holy Maiden. If her conduct were sloppy enough to be caught easily, that would be suspicious in its own way."
Iris immediately nodded hard.
"Right? Exactly! That's what I think too! She has to be shady. When I first met her half a year ago after arriving in the capital as a diplomat, I felt like she might be my natural enemy! Our Elven Holy Land doesn't worship gods precisely because we fear the malice of gods!"
Leon knew that fear was—on some level—accurate.
Part of why Iris later rose to become the third heroine of Part Two was because Brellita died at the end of Part One, leaving an empty heroine slot.
Brellita might only be fourth-tier now, but once the main plot started, she would enter a rapid growth phase.
Before Part One ended, she would quickly reach legendary tier off accumulated merit.
Crossing three mid-tiers in under seven years—practically a miracle.
If she hadn't used a taboo holy prayer art to die together with the final boss, she would've had plenty of room to shine later.
Each installment only had three "heroine slots."
Even characters with lots of screen time were still supporting roles at best.
It might even involve intangible "luck" competition. The impact was huge, and not something easily explained.
Leon's head hurt.
Just as he was working on how to frame his response—
"Still," Iris said, "I thought it through carefully, Leon."
She felt that rejecting too strongly would look strange—illogical.
So she said:
"What you just said makes sense. If we join Brellita's faction, we can get deeper access to the Church of Astalia's internal affairs, find clues about my father's death, and also figure out whether she's truly our enemy… or our ally."
Leon: "Meaning?"
"Among the forces around Holsha, the Church of Astalia is the biggest," Iris said. "With a big tree at your back, everything becomes easier. I hate to admit it, but it is in our party's interest to join her."
Then Iris smiled.
"I can tell your stance is to join, right? I agree. But we must keep evaluating Brellita—so we don't end up with her being the same kind of person as the Holy Blood School."
She thought: If I do this, I won't get lost in wild thoughts, right?
And yet… she also felt a faint, creeping regret. But the words were already out, and she didn't know how to take them back, so she forced herself to keep smiling.
Leon also breathed easier.
If Iris could reach the conclusion herself, all the better.
She would still hold hostility toward Brellita, and Leon didn't know what would happen when they met or how it might affect his other tasks—but at least they'd advanced one step smoothly.
Or… before the training in a week, should he try to grind Iris's affection to 100%?
If affection hit 100%, even if a "love battlefield" erupted, he'd have room to maneuver, right?
"Come on," Leon said. "Let's go optimize our gear. We made good money—time to upgrade."
"At this hour, the Adventurers' Guild is already closed, isn't it?"
"It's fine. I've got another place in mind. More good stuff there."
…
That night.
Colt Street, South Ward.
Under the stars and moon, more adventurers appeared.
In the royal capital, early morning and night were when first-tier and unranked adventurers were most active on the streets.
After a full day in Oradu, what they needed most was a tavern drink—somewhere to vent the pressure of living near death.
The capital's residents also set up stalls at this hour to earn piles of adventurer coin.
Adventurers who walked the edge of death had money—and even more willingness to spend—so they contributed greatly to the capital's prosperity.
Leon and Iris both wore mage robes with hoods up, hiding their faces, walking side by side.
The next step was purchasing upgrades.
"So lively," Iris said. "No wonder this is the most prosperous adventurer metropolis in the northeast."
Walking around with Leon—this fresh experience she'd never had—made Iris forget her faint regret from earlier.
That's right. I only appreciate Leon as a teammate. Nothing else!
I should just enjoy my first ever shopping trip with someone other than my mother and cousin!
"Iris, you've never walked around this area at night?" Leon asked.
"Let me restate," Iris said casually. "I never stay out overnight."
"Fair," Leon said. "If you came out without hiding yourself, you'd attract a lot of men's covetous stares. After all, you're so cute and pretty."
"…."
Iris couldn't find words.
If it were any other man offering such direct praise, she'd dismiss it.
But for some reason, her heart started racing uncontrollably, and she felt absurdly happy.
Why?
Why do I react so strongly?
When other people praise me, I feel nothing.
Iris couldn't help asking herself: do I really see Leon as only a teammate?
Noticing she'd gone quiet, Leon glanced over and saw her cheeks had flushed again—somehow even cuter.
After about ten minutes, Leon led Iris into a narrow alley.
Then he grabbed her and walked straight through a wall.
On the other side was a wide estate.
They appeared on the front lawn plaza of the property.
Around the plaza, there were quite a few people waiting—judging by their aura, most were at least second-tier adventurers.
"That wall just now was illusion magic, wasn't it?" Iris asked. "Is this extraordinary gathering hosted by someone fourth-tier or higher?"
Having something new to focus on made Iris feel instantly less tangled—her mind relaxed.
"Exactly," Leon said. "The host is Marquis Sergei, a fifth-tier. He's the kingdom's only illusionist. He loves collecting rare magic items, and he hosts this kind of gathering every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's a decent scale."
Illusion magic was considered a branch of light magic, but it was a system only humans commonly mastered.
Usually, you needed to be fourth-tier or above to produce high-quality illusions.
The Holy Land's light magic, inherited from Elf King Teggsius, excelled in combat but not in illusion.
So Iris was genuinely interested.
Just like Leon's four-element spells: he'd mastered Holsha's mainstream versions, but hadn't yet touched other nations' variants. You couldn't chew too much at once.
Even what he already had was enough to study for a long time.
And even these "relatively cheaper than rare skills" spells had cost him plenty to learn.
Part of why he'd lived so tightly early on was the expensive learning cost of magic and techniques.
At the beginner stage, you couldn't learn them just by reading a manual.
Proper schools weren't cheap.
And there were plenty of sketchy rural schools—little real content, outrageous tuition.
Luckily, Leon's past-life knowledge let him identify which places actually taught the real thing.
As for deeper, more secret inheritances, the learning complexity was too high, so he'd set them aside for now.
After all, Elemental Mage and Phantom Walker were already high-tier main combat classes—more than sufficient.
For his tentative fourth class, Leon planned something production-oriented: Alchemist.
That class mainly improved mana, agility, and stamina—perfectly aligned with what he was already building.
He could stack a few strong stats first, then patch weaknesses later after he became strong enough.
If this gathering had decent alchemy items, he could consider purchasing them and do preparation training in his spare time.
~~~
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