"May I come in for a moment? It would be unpleasant to have this conversation out in the hallway."

For a while, the three brigade members just stood there, seemingly pondering her words. She had already put them in a somewhat awkward position, since a woman had no business being in an all-male dormitory in the middle of the night.

They would have to lose their conscience before asking a young woman to enter a bedroom with three men under such circumstances. But they also knew that they didn't really have a chance if what she wanted to talk about was as confidential as she made it seem.

Sean looked at the young lady of the house he was serving, he hadn't done that in a while, and now he was doing it far too often. She looked so different from the way he remembered her.

Not that she hadn't always been beautiful, her hair and eyes were the same, it wasn't even about the weight she had gained back to look healthy now, but the expression in her eyes was that of a completely different person. She had turned over a new leaf, he could tell for sure, just by looking at those eyes.

With a long sigh, he closed his eyes for a second, then motioned for Yaakov to step aside as he leaned all the way into the doorway, holding on to the frame.

"Only for a short while. Will she be coming in as well?" His eyes wandered to a space just a tad over her shoulder, realizing for the first time that there was someone standing right behind her, as she always did.

"Yes, it has something to do with her."

Both ladies stepped into the room, a bit smelly indeed, with three sweaty men crammed into this far too tiny space, but she shrugged it off. 'My room didn't smell any better most days, so who am I to complain?'

"It must stink, I'm very sorry, these two muscle heads just can't stop swinging their swords all day." It was Randall who chimed in, making himself the center of attention in one fell swoop.

He was the one Rowena had pointed out first, as the others remembered - and Logan seemed to realize now as well.

"May we inquire what this is all about, now that we are inside?"

Since the noblewoman had already checked if anyone was around when she was outside, for she couldn't let anyone notice that she was there, she went straight to the point.

"Yes," she said, making eye contact with all three of them in quick succession, "I know it is extremely risky for me to even come here. Not only because I am bringing you down with me, but also because you might report me."

"We are your knights, we would never endanger you." Sir Yaakov Mizrahi was a straightforward man - he once took an oath and he would keep it, no matter what the situation.

Meanwhile, Sir Sean's face grew more serious as he understood that this was going to be more than just a broken vase. And perhaps more than just a little holy water spilled on a venerable Saintess.

She sat down in a chair in the room, tucking a strand of lavender hair behind her ear. This was one of those moments when, once, her hand would automatically find the small piece of gold dangling from her neck, resting in the small pit on her collarbone.

But she didn't have it anymore, did she? Fiddling first with the strand, then with the ends of her sleeves, she opened her rosy lips.

"I need a favor." She'd already mentioned it in the hallway, but she couldn't find the words to express that favor, so she had to buy time with words that filled the space.

"My lady," the one who hadn't said a word yet finally opened her mouth, "is this still about Charlotte?" Norina had truly followed her mistress without uttering a single word, but it seemed as if there was much more going on than she could have imagined, judging by the tense atmosphere.

Her mistress gave a wry smile in return. "And what if it was?"

"I don't want you to do anything that could get you in trouble, my lady! Not for me. Not for my sister. I can handle this on my own, trust me, please!" She was devastated.

Not only was her little sister about to die, but her mistress, to whom she already owed so much, would be in hot soup for her misery. 'She doesn't even know my sister. This isn't right.'

"Right. But I'm not necessarily doing this for you, Norina," she said, though in reality she couldn't say why she was doing it. "I'm not a hero. I just think I can do something, so I do it. I don't even know if it will work. It also depends on your sister's will to live."

Maybe she saw something in the girl lying on that bed? Maybe she saw herself.

"If that's the case, all the more reason to stop-"

"Anyway," Rowena interrupted her maid, looking up at Sir Sean, "I have a secret. One of the people in the room already knows, so I won't go into too much detail. I don't want to drag you all into this mess, only one person needs to know the secret itself."

"If one of us gets in trouble, we all get in trouble." Yaakov said, although he knew who she was talking about - it was too obvious, since she had pointed out Logan the moment she had appeared on their doorstep.

"All right. I will put my trust in you. I can control Mana." There, she said it. 'Now, I'm fucked.'

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Only one of them flinched when she said it. The other two probably didn't believe what she said, or couldn't believe they heard her right. But only one of them knew it was true and couldn't believe that she would say something like that out of the blue and without so much as a twitch.

"Are you crazy?" Logan blurted out without thinking.

Again the whole room turned in his direction, but this time it was because his reaction gave validity to her words, not because he had been terribly rude to the lady of the house they were serving.

"Is it true, Logan?"

"Oh, damn, there you have it…" He couldn't even say anything after the mistake he had made.

"But who did-"

"No one. I had no teacher. Can we please skip the formalities?" She felt as if she had developed a habit of interrupting people, but as it was, this whole situation was becoming increasingly annoying to her.

Perhaps, she didn't like to think about things that might end her life so soon after getting a second chance. Or was it the fact that the night was already very advanced and she wanted to get into her warm bed before they had to continue their journey in the wee hours of the morning?

She sighed because no one wanted to say anything else. "Charlotte, Norina's younger sister, is in dire straits. She needs someone to give her the Life Force from a Mana Stone at full capacity. I want to try to find a way to help her, but I'm expected to go to Lodden and won't be back for about three weeks."

"We can't leave you here if that's what you want."

"No, that's not what I want. I will go to Lodden," she said, 'sadly.'

"Then what shall we do for you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Again she looked directly at the only Holy Priest in the room. "Logan Randall, please use these to keep Charlotte alive until I return."

She took two Mana Stones out of a pouch that she had almost forgotten was at her waist. They were the two Stones she had originally taken out for Norina to use.

"Where did you..." Logan started but trailed off, vaguely remembering who he was talking to.

"All I need is for the three of you to agree on a story to tell my first brother and the other members of the delegation," she began, handing the Stones to Randall as he froze, "Tell them there was an accident in Logan Randall's family and he had to leave. It's no big deal, as we can get people from the Nerena household to replace him, but he needs to be excused because he's an important asset to the Guard, as a member of His Grace's first division. His absence would be too obvious."

The war-bound first division was far more efficient than the second division, which normally protected the house and family and accompanied them on their travels. Missing a Holy Priest was a big hole in the net, but it wasn't as if it was normal to have him there in the first place.

Not to mention that they had direct orders to take care of the young lady, so of course, if he was gone, they would need to have a story ready to tell.

Now it was Logan who had to think hard. He couldn't possibly make this decision right away, but wouldn't it have been possible to tell the young lord what was going on? He wouldn't be angry that his sister was taking care of a sick person she had a connection to. He was sure he would understand.

"Young lady... what do you really need me for? Why me?"

"Because you have already kept one secret for me," she answered truthfully as she met his wavering eyes, "and now you must keep another."

"What secret?"

She sighed again. "The girl I saw today was not simply sick, Logan Randall. She was suffering from the leverage of a contract."

For a second there was a blank expression on his face, as he didn't understand what she was saying. That blankness was soon replaced by surprise, then horror, and finally he had calmed down. But there was sweat on his brow.

"How much do you know?" is all he said. It was more than enough.

"You don't want to know."

People who didn't deal with Numbered themselves didn't know how a contract was made in the first place. This was also true in Celia's world. In the book, there were several instances where the Saintess had shown pain over the leverage she had given up, but that was just assumed to be something the author had observed with an Executor before.

No one knew exactly how such a contract was made, and Rowena had just implied that she knew that information as if it were nothing.

"Anyway, I will try to find a way to fix her condition, but even if my chances are not very high, they will be null if she dies before I even make it back."

Logan still looked at the young woman he had just recently met. Yet she already seemed to be a person he had never seen before.

Who was the real Rowena van Varnhagen? The girl who spoke little and stayed with her maids all the time? The glutton by the fireplace? Or the girl who was sitting there now, calmly asking to take him to hell with her if something went wrong?

He had felt her Mana Paths. They were strong, but still thin. Of course, he hadn't known that she had started to build them only a matter of weeks ago, otherwise he wouldn't have judged her as someone who really didn't have a teacher.

However, as it stood, at least in his eyes, she obviously had no teacher, there was no pressing reason to doubt her, but it was indeed a rather delicate problem. The more he heard, the more it seemed like her brother or father might have been involved.

Where else could she have heard about a Numbered's contract? He had almost expected her to have one herself, but that he would have known when he had taken care of her.

Rowena knew all this as well. Since she had decided not to go public with her Mana path, she had decided to do these things alone.

Now she was no longer able to do everything on her own, which made everything a little more dangerous. Still, it was the sensitive nature of things that made her think of the man in front of her. The man who had said nothing despite the oath of fealty he had once taken in the Holy Empire.

When he said nothing after a while, she shrugged. "Of course, you are free to report to the authorities. But you must be aware of the fact that this will go both ways."

In other words, he had already kept her secret once, which could be proven, since he was the one who had examined her after the Eisenwacht incident. He would have noticed, and there were witnesses for his actions.

She didn't want to blackmail him, he was a nice guy and had probably helped to preserve her life more than once, but she had to ensure her own safety as well. It was a dog-eat-dog world after all.

Ultimately, yes, he was part of a knights' brigade, but unlike a Holy Knight, whose knights' oath was equal to his own life, a High Priest was indeed a priest of the Church of Aurora, not just a knight under its wing. Knights might have learned similar things, but not half as much.

A High Priest was first and foremost a servant of God... yet he kept his mouth shut about someone learning Mana outside the Church. To put it bluntly, if she considered it that way, that in itself made her guilty of heresy.

He could be charged with the same thing if someone tried her and found out that he knew about her condition and didn't report it to the Church or anyone else in power - unlike a sworn knight, not reporting to the Church first was a conflict of loyalty for him.

He took a deep breath, after a period of silence. Norina had no idea what they were talking about, Sir Sean and Sir Yaakov didn't know much about it either, and Rowena was just hoping for the best.

He really hadn't expected her to pull that card, but he hadn't felt any malice in her words. She had simply stated a fact - and she was right. He had screwed himself and he knew it.

"Hah," he let out a short laugh, "I guess I have no choice."