The next morning was surprisingly peaceful as everyone had already packed everything they needed. So, we only had to wait for noon to arrive.

As we were getting ready for breakfast, I noticed Melly putting on a different gambeson than usual. “What’s that?” I asked.

“Ah, you noticed.” She said with a smile. Uh, what?

“Yeah? It’s hard not to with how silvery it is.”

“Ah, that’s true.” She nodded.

…Is that it? I just shrugged before continuing to triple-check that I’d packed everything.

“You aren’t going to ask about it?” Melly asks sadly.

“Uh, I did. But, since you didn’t seem like you wanted to answer, I figured that I shouldn’t pry.”

“But I do want you to ask!” She exclaimed.

“Okay then. What’s with the shiny gambeson?”

“Well first, it’s an arming doublet, not a gambeson. The difference being that gambesons are thicker and usually used as stand-alone armor, while arming doublets are worn under your armor and have arming points for attaching plates. The distinction isn’t that important, though, especially in modern times with our better cooling techniques.” Melly explained.

“Okay.” Huh, she’s being quite passionate about this.

“So, this arming doublet has been lent to me by my family.” She announced proudly with a wide smile as she twirled around to show it off. I will admit, how it shines in the light is quite lovely.

“Lent?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s an enchanted piece of gear that has been passed down through my family from the ancestor that worked with our previous hero. Despite how it looks, it is actually quite powerful. Ah, I never thought that I would be allowed to wear this so soon!” She cheered.

“That’s nice. And it looks lovely.” I complimented.

“I know, right!” She then continued to bask in its presence. I couldn’t help but smile at how happy she is right now.

“So, how does your arming doublet compare to Eli's robes?” Rapunzel! Why are you doing this!?

“Ah, well, it obviously can’t compare to Eli’s robes, it’s of mortal creation after all, but it is definitely one of the best arming doublets in the world!” Phew, luckily Melly doesn’t seem to be angry about that.

“That’s impressive. So, what can it do?”

“It’s as protective as chainmail despite only having a fraction of the weight while also being resistant to most things, like acids and water. It can even slowly repair itself! Sadly, that does not include self-cleaning though.” Ah yes, the most important of features: self-cleaning…

“Don’t worry, I should be fairly close to creating a proper cleaning spell,” I informed her.

“Really!? That’s amazing!” Melly cheered.

“Thank you, Eli.” Rapunzel thanked me. Um, it’s not actually ready yet…

Still, I see that they really value my spell. Is being dirty actually that bad though? Well, I guess being clean is preferable regardless…

As we were talking, I realized how long we were actually taking. “Okay Melly, while I understand that you are excited, you should hurry up or you’ll miss out on breakfast.” I reminded.

“Ah, you’re right! Sorry, I’ll hurry up.” Melly said as she quickly finished getting ready. Oddly enough, we weren’t actually using the new dragon gear, as the Hero said that we should first get used to traveling again. Though, I think it has more to do with him wanting to increase everyone’s levels as quickly as possible.

Once Melly finished getting ready, we rushed to the cafeteria. Luckily, everyone was still eating by the time we arrived, so we didn’t end up missing breakfast. That would have been a fun way to start our adventure…

After eating, we did one final check to make sure no one forgot anything, before deciding to just sit around and chat while we waited for the Gate to be ready. Hmm, was the place we were heading to just busy or something?

As we were chatting though, I realized something. “The beds! We forgot about the beds!”

“Oh! We should hurry up and put those back.” Melly stated as she started to rush back to our rooms.

“I can’t believe you forgot about that.” Rapunzel sighed.

“Don’t act like you didn’t also forget,” I called out as I followed Melly.

When we arrived, there were already some priests getting ready to clean up our rooms. “Ah, sorry, we forgot to do something.” I apologized as Melly and I squeezed past them.

I quickly entered Melly’s room and took off the sheets and such from the made bed (how did we remember to do that!) before buffing Melly and clearing a path. The strange faces the priests made as we exited the room with the bed were priceless, but I was sadly too embarrassed to properly enjoy it.

We then quickly put the bed back in my room before habitually making the beds. We then returned and made Melly’s bed after making sure everything was in its original position.

“I’m sorry for interrupting,” I said with a bow before quickly leaving with Melly. Ah, those poor priests, they were so shocked that they couldn’t even say anything.

“Haa, that was almost a disaster,” I said with a sigh as we headed back.

“No, it still was. At least you’d asked for permission though.” Oh. That, that’s right, I, I was supposed to ask for permission, huh. I completely forgot. That, that’s not good. “Eli? Are you okay?” Melly asked with concern.

“Y-yeah, why?”

“You’ve gotten pretty pale. Are you sick or something? Should we talk to the Hero about delaying our journey?” Melly suggested.

“Nonono!” I said in panic. “It’s fine, everything will be fine. I can just use some magic if I need to.” I assured. I mean, that’s not even the reason after all. Haa, I’m definitely in trouble once we get back.

Also, using magic to heal illnesses technically weakens your immune system, at least, if you do it too often, as it doesn’t actually make you resistant to the disease like usual, so it’s annoyingly common to just get sick again right after.

Melly gave me a firm look before eventually accepting my explanation with a sigh. Once we returned to the Gate, Rapunzel asked. “How did it go?”

“Haa, the priests were just about to start cleaning when we arrived. Luckily we were able to deal with the beds without any problems. Though, I do feel bad for the priests.” I sighed.

“Their expressions were hilarious though,” Melly said with a laugh.

“That’s true.” I agreed as the memory caused me to also let out a laugh. Their faces were almost enough to make it all worth it. Almost.

“By the way, how are you doing, Eli?” The Hero suddenly asked. Huh, am I missing something? Ah, maybe he wants to hear about my progress? Or my robe’s new ability, or… “Eli? Is there something wrong?” Actual concern!? I did not expect that.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Uh, yeah, why? Is there something that I missed?” I nervously asked.

“I don’t think you have. It’s just that you’ve been through a lot lately, so I was wondering how you were holding up.”

“Oh. I’m doing fine. While I do still have some issues, most of them are long-term (or character issues…) so I don’t particularly need to worry about them yet.” I mean, even the addiction thing feels like it’s months away, considering I’m still getting a mood boost from my occasional cast of my ascended spell, instead of just gaining relief.

Which makes sense, if the addiction was super aggressive, either drawing out power would have to drain far less life than I thought, or there would be far more Valras.

“Well, I wish you luck with those. And remember, we are always here should you ever need help.” He promised with a smile.

“I will.” Especially since I’ve heard that a few times now.

Okay, let’s see, we still have a while until noon, so what should we do now? “Ah! That’s it!”

“Eli?”

“Do you guys want to learn how to dance in the light like me?” I asked. Oddly, everyone seemed to get quite nervous at the thought.

“Well, you see…” Rapunzel hesitated.

“Your halo.” Greg pointed out.

“Ah, yes, your halo! With you using it, we won’t be able to dance anyway, so you don’t need to teach us.” She said with a fake smile.

“You know, I can always just take it off.” I countered while giving everyone a look.

“Yeah, you can… But don’t you then have to reinfuse it? And isn’t that quite bad, especially since you’d probably get possessed, causing problems for everyone nearby?” She pointed out.

“True. Buuuut, I do actually need to get used to that at some point, so there wouldn’t really be an issue. Especially if I just reinfuse my halo somewhere private.” I argued. Seeing everyone still nervous though, I relented. “If you guys don’t want to, you don’t have to, you know. I would never force you to do something that you didn’t want to. For my own amusement, at least.” I added. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to in order to survive, like with Melly during the dragon fight, after all.

“Haa, I know. It’s just… you always seem so excited whenever the Gate’s light is brought up, so we didn't want to ruin that for you.” She confessed.

“Ah, well, you really don’t have to worry about that, I’m not some little kid that can’t accept people disliking what I like, after all.”

“True, but you’d still be saddened.”

I just shrugged at that. Yeah, I’d be a bit saddened, but that’s all. Besides, I’m already used to everyone being afraid of the light anyway… Ah, that’s what this was about, they are scared of the light. No wonder they don’t want to learn how to dance in it. Though…

“You know, just because you know how to dance in the light, that doesn’t mean you actually have to do so. It can just be something interesting to learn about.” I corrected. “And, you might even start to feel some of my wonder when you experience the light next,” I added, feeling some hope.

“Ah, that’s right.” She mumbled in realization. “In that case, I would love to hear about how you dance in the light.” Ah, I didn’t realize how happy that would make me.

With their agreement, I went into a (decently) brief explanation about the dance, how to know what to do, and a few examples to look for over the next hour.

“Interesting,” Greg said once I’d finished my explanation. “I did not realize how in-depth your dance was.”

“Well yeah, I did make it over the course of two years while I slowly figured out the pattern and how to follow it.” I pointed out.

“True, I just neglected to understand that. Thank you for informing us, Eli.”

“Indeed, thank you.”

“Yes, thank you for teaching us,” Rapunzel said with a smile.

“It was my pleasure to be of assistance.” I accepted. I then looked towards my two remaining party members to see what they thought of my teaching.

Well, the Hero seemed fairly indifferent, but I mostly expected that already. Melly though, seems like she’s still lost in thought. I honestly don’t know how much she even heard, considering how long she’s been like that. Hopefully, she’s just analyzing what I said as I was really looking forward to her reaction.

By the time Melly finally exited her stupor, though, it was about time for the Gate to open, so I couldn’t ask her what she thought…

“We are opening the Gate!” The worker soon announced. Ah, it’s time. Oh! I almost forgot to take off my halo. That wouldn’t have been good. No one would remember my lesson if they didn’t at least get an example, after all.

That done, I prepared to embrace the light once again. And, once the light arrived, I danced.

Ah, how I missed this, I couldn’t help but think as the light started to fade. That’s when I noticed everyone staring at me. While, yes, they normally do that anyway, this was different.

For some odd reason, they seemed especially mesmerized by my dance this time. Hmm, Ah! It must have been because of my explanation! With that epiphany, I decided to give everyone an exaggerated bow.

And that’s when I noticed the real reason why they were staring.

I, well, I was glowing. Not like the halo’s glow, no, it was my robes that had a faint glow that was actively flowing in various ways. And interestingly, the prismatic light coming from my robes reminded me of the way the Gate’s light flowed. It’s like they were linked or something.

Well, since there was still some light remaining, I decided to test that out. And, would you look at that, it was linked, with the patterns changing based on the light around me, and even fading as the light faded. Huh, that’s pretty cool.

And kinda annoying, considering I somehow missed this multiple times. Well, at least I know why Cardinal Caitlyn said she was looking forward to me getting my robes after seeing my dance. She wanted to see how this pattern would add to my ‘divine’ performance.

Well, at least I know now, so I can properly work my robes into my performance next time.

However, I do need to work on my halo’s ability to control the light, which is more important… Haa, well, I’ll just think about it when the time comes. Yay causing problems for future me!

Still, I wonder why the robes react like that. Is it because both the halo and the robes are divine? Does that mean the Gate’s light, as well as the Gates themselves, are also divine?

…You know, when I realized that, I figured I would, at least, be shocked or something, but honestly, it just fits.

Hmm, it is pretty interesting though, especially since the halo lets me control the light somehow. Does that mean I can use the light for something? Haa. And that’s another thing to work on.

Well, at least that should help inspire me to work more with the halo instead of my robes. Oh! Being able to control the light with the halo would mean that I can personally direct the flow, which, while counterproductive in most situations, would mean that those few fun paths that I had to abandon because the light moved in ways that I physically couldn’t follow could finally be used to completion!

Nice, new goal set, with this one actually being just plain fun. I’m looking forward to it, even if I’ll only really be able to work on that after the demon lord has been killed.

And after gaining that new goal, I finally realized that everyone had started complimenting me. Also, unlike the last few times, everyone seemed truly moved. Man, if people are already crying from this, what are they going to do when I perfect it?

Hahaha, I just realized, this might be what I’m remembered for! Dancing! Pfft, that’d be hilarious. Doubly so if I actually manage to do things like reduce the intensity of mana poisoning and the like.

Like, just imagine, some kids are in class, learning about the saintesses, and when they get to me, it’s like, ‘Elizabeth was famous for her (no, the) the Gate dance that she founded, which observers would describe as divine. Also, she resolved mana poisoning and killed a demon lord.’

“Hahahaha!” I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Man, that would be hilarious, wouldn’t it. Well, that’s yet another reason to learn to control the light, so I can become so famous it overshadows all of my other accomplishments. Ah, what a stupid, yet beautiful, goal I’ve made for myself.

Then I noticed everyone staring at me in confusion. Ah, right, I’m currently in public and the center of attention after my dance. Yeah, I, too, would be confused if, after an apparently divine performance, the dancer just started laughing like mad. Well, at least the Hero seemed to understand me as he just rolled his eyes at my antics.

“So, how was it?” I ask, trying to redirect the flow of the room.

“Absolutely marvelous. I was starting to worry that I would never get to see this with how your halo reacted to the light.” Cardinal Caitlyn, who apparently came to see us off, complemented.

“It would have helped if you’d told me about this before.” I teased. “Still, this has just improved my determination to perfect my control!” I cheered, getting some confused looks.

“Don’t you see, if I can master the use of my halo, I can truly create a truly grand performance!” I announced while spreading my arms.

“Ah, that’s right, it would. Well, I wish you luck, as I’m now really looking forward to what you create.” She said with a smile. “Anyway, I’m here to say farewell and wish upon you safe travels. Please be safe.” She finished with a bow.

“Of course, that’s what I’m here for,” I assured, as everyone else agreed, even the Hero. Huh, I guess we’ll be fine then. Unless his definition of safe is ‘alive’ of course… Haa, you never know with him. Speaking of…

“With that, I believe it is time for us to leave. Goodbye everyone, we’ll be back soonish.” He then turned to me. “Now, let’s go get Eli’s gift.”

…Huh?