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Chapter 7 - Just a bit of banter

"This way, your grace," the castle's guard lowered his back while inviting the saintess with his extended hand.

Mera gracefully nodded her head.

Even this restrained movement caused the thin cloth of her mask to flutter.

Mera stepped through the doors and into one of the castle's inner corridors.

She wore an elegant dress, perfectly white in design, but currently soiled with dirt, sand, grime, and blood.

The saintess herself didn't seem to mind. She simply refused to acknowledge the marks on her luxurious robe, not losing any of her innate grace. Soon, she appeared before a certain door.

"Thank you for escorting me, but this far will suffice," Mera spoke in a soft yet decisive voice.

"Y-yes, sai… your grace!" the young guard jumped a little, blushing and looking away the second Mera's emerald eyes locked on his face.

Mera nodded her head again before watching the guard turn around and rush away.

'Was it a bit too much for him?' Mera thought, her lips curling up into an amused smile. The then batted her eyelashes a few times before raising her gloved hand and gently knocking at the door.

Three knocks in quick succession, a pause, and then a single knock.

Mera lowered her hand and waited a few beats of her heart before reaching out with her left hand for the knob.

"Just come in already," Sarah greeted her friend from behind a small desk placed near the massive window that decorated the chamber. "Didn't I tell you to drop this silly act already?"

Sarah raised her eyes from the papers she was reading through. Her long, curly lava of hair fell down the sides of her slightly tomboyish face.

"Not gonna," Mera grinned under her mask before turning to close the door behind her.

Then, she dropped all the elegant pretense by running up just a few steps up to a huge bed… somehow losing both of her gold-laced shoes in the process. She then merrily jumped up, turning around mid-air before falling to the fluffy sheets with a small cry of joy.

"When will you grow up…?" Sarah raised her eyes as if lamenting to the skies. "Anyway," she rolled her eyes before moving her attention back to the papers, "who won?"

There was only a shred of interest in Sarah's voice.

The result of the tournament was settled the second it was set up.

What she was curious about, was a bet she had with her dear friend.

"You won't believe it," Mera jumped up on the bed, bringing the soles of her now naked feet together. She then leaned forward, nearly all the way over the edge of the bed.

The saintess frail body fidgeted with excitement.

"First, I won," Mera jerred, struggling to hold her anticipation for her friend's reaction back. "By a landslide to boot!"

Sarah looked at her friend with the side of her eye before breathing a heavy sigh. Then, her attention quickly moved back to her papers.

While she loved Mera's cheerful side to the bits, she was also sick and tired of her constant mischief.

'Will she even recognize her position as a saintess?' Sarah worried, struggling to focus on the letters.

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Sarah shook her head.

'Maybe I'm asking for too much…'

"Sarah, listen," Mera suddenly sobered up. Her face calmed down.

Sarah only sighed.

She then stood up and reached out, pulling at the cloth of Mera's mask to bring it back over her friend's face.

"You really should be careful with it. It would be a disaster if people learned that we are here," Sarah warned as she returned to her seat.

"Scratch that," Mera shook her head with a sense of urgency flashing in her eyes. "Listen, Sareo lost."

Sarah looked at her friend, expecting to see the usual silly smile on her lips…

But it wasn't here.

"Wait, are you for real now?"

Sarah's eyes widened.

"Yeah. And while he didn't finish that bastard off…" Mera suddenly cut her voice, a silly smile growing on her face as the look in her eyes appeared more distant now.

"There were no big names in this tournament…" Sarah muttered, sorting through all that she could remember about the competition to figure out the impossible outcome she just learned about.

She then raised her eyes to her friend's face.

"Mera," Sarah called out, her eyelids moving down as a sense of bother filled her face. "Mortal world to Mera," Sarah called again before reaching out, grabbing her friend's shoulders, and then shaking Saintess's body up.

"Mera!" Sarah shouted, forcing the distant look in the saintess's eyes away. "Wait," Serah's eyes widened even further. "Are you blushing?!"

Mera's eyes initially twitched in shock as she processed her friend's accusation. She raised her hands to her face…

Only for her blush to rapidly deepen.

'Isn't my face… hot?' Mera thought, curling up her knees up her chest before hiding her face down in her legs.

"No, wait, don't drift away now!" Sarah called, shaking her frail friend again. "If not Sareo, then who won?"

Mera raised her head… only to turn her eyes away, still struggling to calm her face.

"A mercenary…" the saintess muttered. Her face twisted into a pouty frown only for the young girl to suddenly spit a blow of air at the cloth of her mask, pushing it out of her face.

As used as was to her official outfit, she never really grew to like it. Not when she was aware of just how damn cute her face was, and what a goddamn waste it was not to show it to the world!

"What? A mercenary? What mercenary?" Sarah showered her friend with questions.

"I… I'm not really sure," Mera hesitated.

Now that she started to recall her exact memories, her face somewhat calmed down.

"I wasn't really looking, so I'm not sure what exactly he did, but he somehow used Sareo's mana against him," Mera finally started to reveal the news. "I only looked when half of the arena suddenly stood in flames. Once everything died out and when I went to treat him, though…"

Mera's face suddenly tensed up.

A deep frown crossed her forehead, clearly a bad fit to her naturally carefree face.

"Half of the arena stood in flames…" Sarah ignored Mera's strange antics.

She was too used to them to care by now.

Instead, she focused on the one piece of news she could make some use of.

Sarah fell into deep thought. Yet, after a few moments of grinding her mind gears, her face relaxed.

'Ah, I think I've got the clue,' she thought, lowering her eyes to the cute face of her delicate friend. 'Still, to pull something like that off…'

"Was there anything strange about him?" Sarah asked, her face tensing up a tiny little bit as the nature of her job and calling showed from beyond the cracks of the professional mask she rarely put aside.

Mera bit at her bottom lip.

"He was right on the verge of exhaustion. Not that far from bleeding out or going into a shock either," she listed out what she saw when she rushed to the collapsed mercenary the second his fight concluded. "But with just a bit of healing…" Mera squinted her eyes, clearly struggling to put some thought into words.

Then, her face brightened as she nearly jumped up on the bed.

"Right, he was… a soldier?" Mera's forehead produced a long wrinkle. "No, he was from the legion!"

Mera looked at Sarah with her usual, silly smile.

"Excuse me?" Sarah nearly jumped in her seat. "Legion? You mean, Legion of Karkuz? Those ancient brutes?"

Mera leaned her head over her shoulder and gave Sarah a confused look.

"He was really sweet, though?" she countered Sarah's worry with a puzzled look born out of blissful ignorance. Then, upon realizing what she just said out loud, Mera blushed before hiding her face in her knees again.

"I've heard some of those guys are the real deal," Sarah muttered as she laid her back against the backrest of her chair and sighed out loud. "There are rumors of some monsters capable of fighting opponents two and even three ranks above," she added in an exasperated voice of someone aware of just how little truth there was in those legends.

"Oh, right!" Mera quickly moved back to her preferred position with her knees far apart and her feet gathered at her crotch. "He was of a fifth rank!"

Sarah's face froze before morphing into something strange.

Mera grinned from ear to ear, perfectly satisfied with the results of her mischief.

"Oh," the saintess suddenly calmed down and turned serious. "And what was quite interesting, he invoked the honor of the emperor to keep those greedy nobles from cheating him on the reward."

Sarah followed her friend's lead and calmed down.

"Anything else?" she inquired.

"Oh, after just a bit of banter with the judge, he practically coerced him to give him something nice," Mera revealed as her memory refreshed. Then, her face darkened a tiny little bit. "And about that…"