As soon as Wolf was pulled out of Kukei's room and the door was shut by one of her companions, a fit of coughs could be heard from the other room. Rushing out of it came Runner, the timid boy whose only supporters were his friends.
"AGH! AUGH! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SMOKE?!" Getting down on his knees, he continued to cough in the corridor. His eyes had grown red from the smoke, and had he not woken up from a stress-induced nap, perhaps the late teen would've suffered a quiet death.
Slipping out of Renee's grasp, Wolf offered Runner a hand. Glancing up at Wolf's body, the young boy was shocked at first at the prince's proximity. However, breaking into yet another fit of coughing, he took his hand and was helped to his feet.
"Hey, you okay? The priestess should be a few doors down; we can knock on her door if you need any help," taking a deep breath, Runner looked at Wolf and gave him a light nod.
Throwing one of his hands over his shoulder, the prince helped him down the corridor until they found what should've been the priestess's room. Urging Sola to knock on it, Wolf stood to the side while she called out to the priestess.
"Miss Kanna? We need your help!" For a moment, everything went quiet inside the room. Just before she'd knocked, a quiet chanting could be heard, but it halted abruptly the moment Sola knocked.
Knocking some more, the maid tried to get the priestess' attention. Eventually, the priestess opened the door with her body drenched in sweat for some odd reason. Looking at the crowd gathered in front of her room, the half-druid's breasts were nearly transparent under her skin tight mermaid gown.
A flash of her pink nipples had turned apparent, but not noticing that at all, Kanna forced a smile and greeted the guest with a gentle bow.
"Did you need my help with something?" She asked, her eyes wandering to the boy.
Blushing red at the lecherous sight of the priestess' curves, Runner appeared sicker than he was–giving the priestess an idea as to what was going on. Gesturing Wolf to get him inside, she turned on her side and began walking towards her goddess' idol. Covering it with a veil while the prince helped Runner to sit on the ground, she walked back to the group without turning around.
"It's so hot in these rooms that just lighting the incense turned this place into an oven…" A coliseum made of bricks and clay, sitting bare of clothes before the group had come in, Kanna had been praying to the goddess. Sweating from every pore in her body, the moment she was made to wear her clothes again, her gown had soaked her sweat and turned near transparent.
"Anyways, let me see what's wrong," kneeling in front of Runner, Kanna leaned closer and placed a hand on his pounding heart. Her body being close enough to feel her heat, the youngster's mind and hormones were firing up to the very max. "Oh my, your heart is pounding so much. You probably have a fever, but did anything else happen to excite your body so much?"
As she asked that question, her breasts hanging in front of him, Runner began feeling lightheaded, for all his blood was headed for a single place. His excitement, paired with the smoke poisoning, sent him thrashing to the back and losing consciousness in just a few seconds of being so close to the priestess.
"W-what?! What happened?!" Growing a bit nervous by what had happened, she looked up at the other three–all of whom were staring back at her with a blank expression.
'Bitccchhhh, hide your tits, damn it…' Thought Renee and similar thoughts ran in Sola's mind, while Wolf was indifferent to the matter. Being a woman of faith directly in service of the goddess, he saw her as too pure to try his hands on…just yet.
Moving past the whole ordeal, Wolf explained to her what had happened to Runner inside of his room. With that knowledge, the priestess placed a hand on his chest and began purifying his lungs through holy magic. Dark fluid began pouring out of his mouth as she did, but eventually, that stopped–marking the completion of the healing process.
'Now that we're here, I suppose I should recruit her into the alliance too.' As Wolf began his explanation about what he was trying to do, the party was met with a curious observation. Sheltered in the church, Kanna had little knowledge of William's atrocities, and thus, pitting her with what would've been a common enemy wouldn't really work.
"Did Prince William not receive the most amount of cheers?" She asked, sitting in a chair with her hand modestly set on her thighs.
Thankfully, her clothes had begun to dry, and the distraction of her peeking nipples was no more.
"They're scared of him, scared that he'll do something bad to them if he wins, and they hadn't cheered him on during the competition," Wolf explained, and yet he was only met with a curious look.
Politics was beyond this girl. Just as Hestia had assessed, twenty-eight years of age, and yet she was as innocent as a toddler. Having her in the team would've been a great boon, but with Kanna having no clue what Wolf and others were fighting for, she had no interest in being anything more than one of Akramadia's judges.
"I only intend to be part of the competition as the future king or queen has to work in alliance with our goddess," fanning her hand to the side, she pointed to the room next to hers. "With that in mind, how can I allow a heretic like Waallian or Rostei to get any further in the competition?"
Hoping to eliminate the heretics before dropping out of the race herself, Kanna had no intentions of being queen, as Astoria was already ideal for that role. Recognizing that Wolf and his group knew that she couldn't be pursued, and thus their search for alliance members came to an abrupt end.
Waallian wouldn't open his door, and Runner was of no use at all, leaving Wolf with only two companions–Sola and Kukei, only one of whom would be any good in the coming events.
"Wha-what happened?" Right as Runner woke up in Wolf's room, the echoes of Astoria's voice came thundering into the coliseum's basement.
"The preparations are done! All the participants, gather now!" Left with no choice but to go out, Wolf gathered his party and headed out to face the first main event of the competition.