For a few years now, Fran's mind had been a mess. But it was not because of the failure of the Hero Summoning Ritual, which had stripped her of all her magical powers, in addition to her position as High Priestess of the Temple.

True, she did find it highly unfortunate that she, one of the kingdom's, or even one of humanity's strongest magicians, had lost her powers. After all, it meant that the human forces would have less fighting power available in the future. But since she would have also lost her powers, even if the ritual had been successful, she wasn't too sad about the loss. After all, she was more or less prepared for it.

And when it came to her position as the High Priestess, she cared even less. In her eyes, that position was a means to gain the political influence she needed to propose the ritual back then.

No, the reason for her mind's mess was neither of those two factors. After all, it had started only weeks, or maybe months, after she had moved into Dragonherz mansion to teach a certain red-haired girl how to use magic. Yes, the cause of her inner turmoil was Rina.

At first, she was satisfied, even ecstatic with the girl's aptitude. In her eyes, Rina back then was a girl with extremely high magical powers, who had the potential to grow into the strongest mage humanity had ever seen. On top of that, the girl had very low self-confidence, which meant she was someone who could be easily manipulated. So, Fran was determined back then to indoctrinate Rina into a mindset so that she would willingly sacrifice her own happiness for the safety of the world.

And it had worked.

However, as time went on, Fran slowly but surely learned to appreciate the presence of said girl by her side. Every day back at the Dragonherz mansion, she had looked forward to teaching Rina. To make matters worse, there had even been times when she had found it hard to resist the urge to just take the red-haired girl into her arms and cuddle her.

It was also at that time, that the first doubts arose.

Why was she so hell-bent on saving humanity?

Why did she want to win against the demons?

Fran had thought that using herself for the greater good was the only right way. She had even found it acceptable to use the lives of strangers. After all, she didn't have to think long, when she had to choose between the lives of a hundred and a million people.

But what about the people close to her?

Unfortunately, those who were related to her by blood were no longer of this world. They had either been killed, been sacrificed, or simply disappeared long ago. The only one Fran considered close to her was her friend Milia. But the Dark Elf was a knight and thus also prepared to fight the demons to the death, so she brought no comparison value to Fran.

So the only other person still alive that she thought was close to her was Rina.

Then, again, was she willing to risk a friend's life for something as abstract as the safety of mankind and the world?

Unfortunately, she couldn't find an answer to that question. That was why she had left the Dragonherz mansion one year ago. To get some distance from Rina and to have some time for herself to rethink her purpose.

Luckily (?), the demons had started to become active back then, so she was able to also use that time to travel around the kingdom, research the demons, and most importantly, visit the villages that had been attacked to relive those horrors... so she could find new determination to see her plans for Rina through to the end.

And indeed, it had worked. In the year that she had been away from the Dragonherz mansion, she had experienced the terrible state of the world. She was able to find new resolve to sacrifice everything in order to fight back the crisis.

Fortunately, just as she was about to return to Dragonherz mansion, a message had arrived, informing her of a Demon-Spawning-Cloud in the vicinity of Mousa Village, the birthplace of her pupil.

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So Fran had planned to use this opportunity to see if her teachings were still present in Rina's mind.

But when she arrived at the mansion and saw Rina for the first time in a year, knowing that the red-haired girl was now legally an adult, Fran suffered her first setback.

She suddenly perceived Rina in a completely different way than she could remember. In the past, she had thought of her pupil as an innocent, naïve girl, lacking in self-confidence, easy to manipulate, and, above all, cuddly.

But that feeling changed when she came back. Fran wasn't sure if it was because she knew that Rina was now legally of marriageable age, but she somehow felt, that a little skin-ship with the red-haired girl wasn't enough anymore. She wanted more. But since Fran was someone with no practical romantic experience, she was able to push these thoughts out of her mind.

In the carriage together with Rina and Marianne on the way to Mousa, Fran experienced her second setback, when it came to her plans. She learned that Rina had grown tremendously over the past year, mentally speaking. Well, maybe the growth had already started before Fran had left the mansion, but since she hadn't seen Rina for so long, the difference stood out even more to her.

Said growth had probably made Rina have the same problems as Fran had a year ago. Rina had also seemed to ask herself who was more worth saving. And the girl had apparently answered that question for herself that only those close to her were important and therefore worth sacrificing herself for... the complete opposite of Fran's view. Rina had only agreed to come because she had thought that this mission was important to Fran, someone who the redhead cherished.

So, Fran couldn't help but feel both happy, that she was high up in Rina's rankings, and guilty, that she had chosen the complete opposite.

Maybe... maybe that was also the reason why Fran was so irritated when she saw how the villagers treated Rina, someone from this village who had come here to protect it. That was the reason why she 'lashed out' at the innkeeper who treated the twelve-year-old girl like trash.

But Fran knew it was just her throwing a tantrum, like a child angry and disgusted with no one but herself.

And now, to the present, where Fran was currently sleeping in a bed in the only inn for travellers in the village of Mousa. It was here that she faced her third setback. The cause was the two girls she shared the room with.

Somehow, while Fran was trying to fall asleep, dead tired from all the travelling, Marianne had persuaded Rina to sleep in the same bed. Initially, Fran didn't really mind it, but now, a few minutes after they had slipped under the same blanket they started flirting with each other openly...

“What do you do to make your skin so smooth and nice to touch, Rina?”

“M-Marianne... please stop it... you're tickling me!... I-I don't do anything special...”

“Muuu... are you trying to make me envious? You're a bit of a show-off, aren't you?”

“T-that's not my intention?”

“Oya? Really~?”

“M-Marianne... your hand movements are somehow lewd... besides, aren't you the show-off? Pressing your b-b-breasts against my back like this...”

“Hehehe~~, was that too obvious? But you like it, right? I know you like women with big breasts... after all, you very often stare at Lady Clara in her dresses...”

“Huuee!? W-what are you saying? T-there's no way t-t-t-that's true!”

“Psht! Not so loud!... But it's true, everyone knows it... But that's not important right now~... because I know your preferences, I understand perfectly that you like it when I press mine against you, right? Even if they're not as big as Lady Clara's, I'm pretty confident in them...”

“...”

...like that. And it really, really got on her nerves.

However, was far from the first time Fran had felt this way. After all, even back at the Dragonherz mansion, before she had left a year ago, Clara and Marianne had often flirted with the red-haired girl like this. So she already was somewhat used to these antics.

Back then, when she had witnessed them behaving like this, she had usually used it as fodder to tease them. After all, they had always reacted bashfully at those times. But now, she couldn't help but feel irritated by this blatant flirting.

So, as if to distance herself from those two, Fran, who was lying on her back, rolled by ninety degrees, so that she was on her side with her back to Rina and Marianne. Unfortunately, this resulted in her being in the same spooning position as Marianne. The only difference was, that in Marianne's arms was a soft girl to cuddle with, whereas there was nobody in Fran's arms. An uncomfortable position to sleep in without a pillow for side sleepers.

'If Rina were in my arms instead...'

It was only a few seconds after she had thought this, that Fran realised its content. And it was only then, that she truly understood, why she felt so uncomfortable, irritated, and whatsoever.

However, these feelings were not directed at the girls. No, they were directed at herself.

All her life she had told herself that the world and humanity came first, that the lives of millions were more important than the happiness of any one individual, including her own.

Now, however, she couldn't help but doubt whether her so-called determination was right or not. Unfortunately, there was no way she could find an answer to this doubt. Not, when they were already in the village, where the Demon-Spawning-Cloud had been sighted. But still, she couldn't help but think that she was missing out on something.

So, feeling kind of frustrated and dissatisfied with her situation, Fran fell asleep, dreaming that she could cuddle, flirt and joke with Rina as freely as Marianne and Clara always did.