Claire-sama and I were rendered speechless by the sight in front of us .
We were in a resort owned by the empire .
It was a small log house on the shore of a large lake on the outskirts of the imperial capital .
We’d received permission from Philine and His Majesty Sein to rest for a few days here .
I couldn’t explain that the apostle told us to flirt, so we took time off under the pretext of healing our fatigue in recognition of our achievements .
To begin with, His Majesty Sein and Dor-sama were against putting more burden on us, so our suggestion was accepted without any resistance .
They were reluctant to let us participate in the battle that would intercept the demon’s offensive, but as expected, they agreed to it .
This is singing my own praises, but considering that the scale of the attack was unknown, it would’ve been a bad move not to use my and Claire-sama’s strength .
Putting that aside, right now in front of me and Claire-sama, Mei and Alea were playing in water .
This lake had wide shallows, so we let them play to their hearts’ content while making sure they wouldn’t go too deep .
At first they were splashing water on each other, swimming, and playing around, but perhaps they got tired of it, as before long, their way of playing changed .
“Alea, I’m doing it!”
“Very well, Mei!”
Mei waved her hand left and right, and the condensed magic burst, creating waves on the lake .
By waves I don’t mean something as cute as ripples .
They were large waves that could easily swallow a large number of people that you could see in large swimming pools in 21st century Japan .
On the other hand, Alea was cutting the incoming waves with a twig .
Normally, a slash with a twig would be useless against big waves that Mei was causing .
However, Alea made numerous intense slashes reminiscent of Dorothea that offset Alea’s waves .
“Um… Claire-sama…”
“… What is it?”
We took out chairs and a table on the terrace of the log house and watched them, overwhelmed by the spectacle that unfolded before our eyes .
“Could it be?”
“Yes . ”
“By any chance, are they stronger than us already?”
“What a coincidence, I was thinking the exact same thing . ”
I thought from the start that both Mei and Alea were talented children .
However, they were even more abnormal than that .
Apparently, Mei caused such a phenomenon with pure magical power than had not taken on any attributes yet .
Alea was also holding just a twig .
Because we have experience in real combat, Claire-sama and I could still hopefully win in that, but when it came to the pure combat ability, they might have exceeded us .
We’d never make them stand on a battlefield, but even if they did, they’d be more than enough strong .
“We… have to be a little careful with them?”
“What do you mean?”
“Mei and Alea are in a dangerous position . ”
“Dangerous?”
Huh?
I didn’t understand what Claire-sama was trying to say, so I urged her to continue with my eyes .
“They’re still little kids who go to kindergarten, right? Despite that, they have disappropriate amount of power… This imbalance will definitely cause some problems . ”
“I see . ”
What was natural for those two was in no way natural to the kids of the same age .
Groups of children are more or less sensitive to oddities .
It’d still be okay if they were branded as geniuses, but there was a high likelihood they’d be rejected as something foreign .
In fact, Mei had already refused to attend kindergarten once .
“Ohh, four colored and colorless . What an unusual sight . ”
“!?”
While watching Claire-sama astonished by being suddenly spoken to, I thought, “this pattern again . ”
“Apostle-san, I told you not to suddenly appear . ”
“I apologize for this . I hold no ill will though . ”
Today, the apostle seemed to possess one of Mei and Alea’s bodyguards .
She was one of two women that as I explained some time ago were hired by Dor-sama .
She was my former boss and also a familiar face to Claire-sama .
“This time you possessed the head maid, huh . ”
“It was only her and another person in the vicinity after all . ”
That’s right .
One of the bodyguards was as a matter of fact François House’s head maid from the noble era .
I’d known she was good at domestic work, but only recently did I learn that she was also skilled as a bodyguard .
When Dor-sama introduced her, I was extremely surprised .
By the way, I’d thought the apostle could only possess people from the spirit church, but there seemed to be no particular restrictions .
At worst, there’s a possibility they’d possess Claire-sama or me .
“No, that’s not possible . You two are an exception . If I could do that, there’d be no trouble from the beginning . ”
“Can you naturally read minds?”
“Ah, excuse me . ”
As usual, only said something with a deeper meaning .
“Apostle . I somehow understand four-colored refers to Mei, but how is Alea colorless? If you’re ridiculing her lack of magic aptitude, I have an issue with that . ”
Claire-sama looked like she wouldn’t forgive the apostle depending on their answer .
“No, no, it’s not that simple . Alea Barbe’s aptitude – colorless is a rare talent . ”
“Hold on . The number of questions I have is increasing . Is Barbe Alea’s surname? Do you know Alea’s identity?”
“Let me explain both . ”
Having said that, the apostle brought a chair from the log house and sat down with us .
That doesn’t really matter, but why were they interfering when they’d told us to flirt?
“Of course I know Mei Barbe and Alea Barbe’s identities . We know the identities of all mankind . ”
“Then what about their parents?”
“As you are aware, they have passed away . Some of their relatives are still alive, but not one of them seemed to love these girls . ”
The apostle spoke like it was somebody else’s problem .
It actually wasn’t their problem, but I got extremely angry hearing about Mei and Alea’s circumstances again .
“Well, they have you now, so isn’t that fine? Another thing, Alea Barbe’s colorlessness is the opposite of Dorothea Naa’s nature . ”
“Which means?”
“Dorothea Naa rejects all magic, however Alea Barber’s colorless nature allows her to house all kinds of magic inside her body . ”
“What do you mean by her body housing magic?”
“It will be easier if she does it than if I had to explain . Please call for them . ”
Claire-sama and I tilted our heads, but we called out to Mei and Alea since we had no other choice .
“What is it, Rei-okaasama? We were just at a good spot . ”
“It’s not time for lunch yet, right?”
They looked like they still hadn’t played enough .
It was great that they were energetic .
“Mei-sama, Alea-sama . Your mothers said they want to see your secret technique . ”
The apostle said while pretending to be the head maid .
Secret technique?
“Eeh! Head maid, did you talk about it!?”
“We wanted to make it a surprise after we practiced some more!”
Seeing Mei and Alea’s reaction, I thought that they had something special in mind .
“I apologize . However, your mothers said they wanted to see it by all means, so it slipped . ”
“Jeez… Can’t be helped . ”
“It can’t be helped . ”
With those words Mei and Alea stood a little apart in the log cabin garden .
“Watch us! Alea, let’s go!”
“Very well!”
As we were watching to see what they’d do, Mei created a flame arrow in her hand and threw it at Alea .
“Watch out!”
At once Claire-sama and I formed magic bullets to shoot it down, but the apostle raised their hand to stop us .
“Please watch . ”
The flame arrow created by Mei hit Alea and burst into flames – or so we thought .
“… She is… clad in flames?”
Alea’s body was wrapped up in red light .
It was like she was absorbing magic .
“What… in the world is that…?”
“That’s the colorless disposition . She can’t use magic herself, but instead she can absorb every kind of magic and make it into her own power . ”
Magic absorption – that was perhaps even more of a cheat than Dorothea’s magic nullification .
“Mothers, please look! Mei, do it!”
“Yup!”
In response to Alea’s call, Mei this time threw a boulder at her .
“There!”
Alea brandished the twig and flames bisected the boulder .
“This Alea Barbe’s technique – let’s call it a magic sword for convenience – can penetrate Dorothea Naa’s magic nullification . You said earlier that they are stronger than you two, but there’s no way . The combination of the two of them is a match for Dorothea Naa . ”
The apostle chuckled in amusement and continued .
“However, the strength of you two isn’t in that direction, right?”