"Feliciana, I have some obligation I must fulfill, but before that I want to let you know....."
After a long pause, Adrian, standing far away, suddenly shouted at me as if he had finally made up his mind.
"I love you!"
"Huh?"
I thought I must have misheard, my mind went completely blank. I never expected him to suddenly bring this up - I was totally blindsided.
"Hey hey hey, no way! You can't do that, it's a misunderstanding!"
I waved my hands frantically, trying to clarify, but Adrian had already turned and run off after shouting that out, probably without even hearing me. But what's worse, there was actually someone else walking over from behind me, who had clearly witnessed that whole scene.
"Ron, that was all just Adrian's misunderstanding, don't read too much into it."
Okay, now I felt like dying. That person was none other than Ron from the Star Glory Knights of the True Church.
"Read too much into what? Good morning Lady Feliciana!"
However, his attitude seemed a bit strange, as if his attention wasn't really on me. When I greeted him, it was like he had just snapped out of it, giving me a respectful bow before hurrying past me and leaving the scene.
"Uh..."
What was he up to? When I woke up today, why did it feel like everyone's attitude was so weird? I looked in the direction Ron had come from and saw that at some point, a plate of breakfast had appeared at the entrance of a certain tent, along with a bouquet of fresh flowers beside it.
Wasn't that Vivianne's tent? Did Ron specially send those over? It seemed I caught a whiff of something unusual. I turned back to glance at Ron's retreating figure and suddenly felt confused - my brain couldn't process all this.
I can't even deal with my own issues, where would I find the energy to care about other people's business!
"Heh heh heh, I heard everything you said just now!"
Just as I returned to my own tent, I heard a mocking laughter coming from behind me.
"So what!" I snapped back irritably. This girl is always eavesdropping on gossip, and her tent is right next to mine so I couldn't hope to hide anything from her.
"Just go back to sleep. Or if you can't sleep, hurry up and pack - we're setting off soon!"
"Yeah right, like I could sleep through such juicy drama!"
Cyra stretched lazily as she came through the entrance, an amused look still on her face.
"Since things have escalated this far, you've got to explain to me - what exactly is this 'misunderstanding' you were talking about?"
"Isn't it obvious? You know very well I could never like a man!"
I rolled my eyes at her and kept packing my things. The business at Sulide Volcano was settled, and we'd be heading down the mountain soon. Of course, Cyra and I wouldn't be returning to the Holy Capital - we'd part ways with the True Church and continue south towards Crescent City.
"Are you sure? To me, it seems like you have quite the crush on Adrian!"
Cyra persisted, making it sound like there was something unusual about my relationship with Adrian. Well...okay, maybe it was a little unusual! She must have secretly seen the whole scene of Adrian coming to bid me farewell.
"Come on, be honest - how far have you two gone?"
"What do you mean 'how far'? I told you, it's impossible between us!"
This was ridiculous. This girl was relentless. I had to stop what I was doing and firmly declare:
"You know my situation. Would you agree to it? Moreover, you and I have been travelling together this whole time - when could Adrian and I possibly develop any kind of...feelings!"
"That's not necessarily true! Back in Edenmere, Nicola mentioned that you two had already known each other. And Judith secretly told me that you and Adrian spent dozens of cycles together with your memories intact in the trial space - all in all it was about a year, right?"
Cyra wasn't so easily fooled - she immediately recounted all the details of my experience in the cave. That snitch Judith! She knew too much. It seemed in order to gain her trust initially, I had revealed more than I should have.
"For all I know, you two could have been living together in there!"
Cyra gave me a head-to-toe look with a dubious expression as she leaned in to ask, "Maybe you even...?"
"Do you believe me?" I felt I was about to explode. My face darkened as I pointed to the exit, kicking her out. This was getting too ridiculous, I couldn't take it anymore!
"If you don't shut up right now, I'll let it slip that you and the Pope switched bodies! Out!"
"Tsk, fine, I'm going..."
Probably seeing that I was actually getting angry, Cyra finally quieted down, muttering as she retreated out of the tent looking rather disgruntled.
"Phew!"
Only after watching her leave did I heave a sigh of relief, feeling utterly drained. This was exactly the kind of misunderstanding I dreaded the most from my companions. Thankfully for now it was just Cyra, and she wasn't the most difficult one to deal with.
Actually, it might be for the best that Adrian left first. Maybe in a few days he'll have calmed down? Putting everything else aside, from this world's perspective, a human and an angel being together would still be too difficult.
Since the True Church had been camped at the cave entrance for several days with many people and supplies, they couldn't just immediately depart. So Cyra and I decided to head out first. Joining us would be Judith, Brennan, and Yulanda, as they needed to return to the capital as well, so we decided to travel together.
"Then I'll just return to Norvale myself. We're currently in the Dona Mountain Range, so I can just cross over to get to the Astralrealm Kingdom faster!"
Vivianne had initially planned to come with us, but as soon as she saw Brennan and the others in our group, she changed her mind and said she would travel alone.
"But..."
She was clearly sulking! I looked to Brennan with difficulty, unsure what to do.
It hadn't been long since they had their falling out, so having them travel together did seem rather awkward. However, Vivianne's strength of around fourth rank, while not terrible, still seemed too risky for her to cross the Dona Mountain Range alone. It was a very difficult decision.
"No problem! How about this - I can have someone escort her back, that should take care of it."
Cysper was very accommodating, offering a compromise solution upon seeing our concerns.
"I'll go!"
Ron immediately stepped forward, volunteering himself.
"I've never been to the Astralrealm Kingdom before anyway, so I can take this chance to see it."
He was indeed a suitable candidate. As a sixth tier, Ron was exceptionally powerful. With him providing protection, there would be no need to worry about Vivianne's safety.
"Alright then!"
After a moment's thought, Cysper nodded in agreement, assuring Vivianne, "Ron is one of the True Church's top Star Glory Knights. You can completely trust him to excellently complete this mission!"
Having fought alongside Ron several times in the trial space before, Vivianne did trust him. She didn't object as the two of them set off westward across the mountain range.
"We'll head southeast towards Nikaro City first."
As for our journey, the plan had already been arranged. With those complications resolved, we could finally set out. Though with Judith's group tagging along, our speed would be considerably slowed since we couldn't fly with them around.
Not to mention, after we had traveled some distance, we noticed another person trailing behind us.
"Why aren't you going back?"
Clearly this was none other than Cysper! I was speechless - this guy had really gotten addicted to wandering outside. Wasn't he supposed to be the Pope, with a whole nation's affairs to handle every day? Yet he dared to carelessly leave it all behind.
"What do you mean..."
Lightly strumming his lute strings, Cysper replied matter-of-factly, "I have no choice, you know!"
"You still haven't given up after what happened in that cave?"
I knew, of course I knew! His reasoning was that outside the Holy Capital, he had to stay by Cyra's side or his body would dissipate. And I could understand that after being confined to the Holy Capital for so many years, he definitely didn't want to easily return once he had the chance to get out. But sticking with our group was extremely vexing.
Cysper's identity as the Pope of the Cresthaven Papal Dominion was really too awkward - no matter how you looked at it, he was a hot potato that couldn't be easily shaken off.
"You think I'm the type to easily give up? A little setback like this couldn't possibly deter me!"
Strumming his beloved lute, Cysper seemed determined to tag along with us, looking as if he wouldn't return until he had traveled the entire continent this time.
"To put it simply, it's just a special circumstance I've encountered. There are still countless amazing sights waiting for me to enjoy ahead!"
"Alright then...Cyra, you deal with this yourself. If it becomes too much, then it's your responsibility to drag him back!"
I was at a loss for words, so I could only pass this trouble onto the relevant party. These two switching bodies was headache enough, I just hoped they didn't cause any more problems. Thankfully we now had Judith from the Sage Council with us - she was quite knowledgeable about the elements, so perhaps she had some unique insights into this phenomenon.