"I won't lie to you and say I can't resurrect your parents," Stella said, her face cold. "But I'm not going to do that. Think about it, child. By now, they would long have died of old age. It would—"
"Yeah, yeah, throw the balance for a loop, Blondie; we know," Kaede interrupted, eyes rolling.
And sure. In a sense, she even agreed to that sentiment, but—
Ugh. After she promised Brigida to help, and brought her to the right place?!
It was so annoying that they arrived in the wrong era.
But how was she to keep track of time while traveling back and forth—and often sideways?!
Like, good luck figuring that out.
She made only a small miscalculation, and now they were about a hundred years too late.
The current Stella was calm and collected, and crazy strong, too, which—
Made her so much tougher to negotiate with than her old, crazy-confused self.
Once the necromancer found her inner peace, she became a balancing force of this world.
Kaede could no longer bait, fool, or intimidate her.
In fact, she was thirty thousand years too early to pick a bone with Stella's current form. And it was all the more annoying that she didn't look a minute older than the last time they'd met.
Meanwhile, all Brigida could do was give her the puppy eyes.
The mute girl had a history with the former executioner—albeit a short one, from many years ago. Kaede felt how she used her telepathy to pull on the necromancer's heartstrings, but—
Damn, when did that kid learn to shield her mind so well?!
Even her communication channels were impervious to her curious probing by now. She hadn't taught her anything like that while they traveled together, that's for sure.
But considering how strong that child was when they ran into each other at Lucifer's—
Brigida still showcased explosive growth in magic and mana over the past five years.
Five more, and she might've even caught up to her.
Like, with the freaking dragoness she was, already over a thousand years old, which was crazy.
And yet, all Brigida could do now was clutch her parents' rings, and—
She looked rather miserable.
"All right," Stella sighed, cold eyes turning away. "As I said, I'm not going to do that. Especially won't support you time-traveling around with them. But, and I'm talking to myself in here—"
She got up from her comfortable cushions and walked to the windows to look at the landscape.
"I'm in constant need of servants more autonomous than your average undead. If you were to talk too much about those parents, I could, by sheer accident, make a pair that looks like them."
Brigida gasped, her green eyes lighting up.
"Oh?" Kaede smirked, too, crossing her arms.
So those puppy eyes did affect Gabrielle's cold and calculating student after all?
"They wouldn't be your parents, though," she turned, warning. "They'd be blank homunculi who look like them. But that'd let them connect to their souls through the rings you carry."
Brigida shook her head, then nodded as hard as she could.
Tears welled up in her eyes, but they all sparkled.
Sigh. Powerful as she was, she was still nothing but a child inside, longing for her parents.
But, well. While coming here was risky, and kinda out of the way for the ancient dragoness—
Seeing that happy, tear-stricken face now?
It might've actually been worth the trip, after all.
***
"I'm sure you understand that, like the Church or your Saints, the Spirits aren't a monolith, either. They all have their own will, goals, favorites—and they like to clash with each other."
"What are you getting at, child?" the bishop asked from the angel, rubbing his wrists.
"Easy," Lily offered. "Have you seen giants jump at each other's throats over an anthill before?"
"Not the best metaphor," Konrad sighed, still keeping his shields up.
"The same way the Saints made a pact to become the Saints they are now," Gabrielle sighed, resuming time. "The Spirits have some basic rules laid out, too, to keep the fragile peace."
"And what does this cursed child have to do with anything?!" the tiny man demanded.
Well, about that.
Konrad had caught a few glimpses of the reason through Brigida's fragmented memories.
Funny that the images kept coming even after the angel froze the moment.
But if anything, the time dilation made them much easier to comprehend.
He saw her and Kaede—a thousand years older than in Tokyo—meeting Stella here a hundred years from now. Which was already mind-bending, but he no longer cared about such details.
Like, the blonde woman in front of him also looked the same age, but—
Her face had still changed.
A lot.
Rather than accumulating wrinkles over the years, her face smoothed out. She seemed less nervous, more graceful, but still as natural as, well—
A woman over a hundred years old, and still looking twenty, could be.
Old age and experience gave her a calm air and beauty he couldn't even imagine, looking at her now. But, um, that might have been for the better, anyway.
Paula was too busy decoding Brigida's memories to shield his mind from his jealous wives.
And the current Stella was anything but calm and graceful.
She was already the Spirits' favorite, though, for whatever reason.
"So you mean to tell me," Benedictus grunted, reaching for his scepter. "If this girl died, the Spirits would go to war with each other and the Saints, and destroy this entire world?"
He was careful, probing the still-glowing-hot magical weapon, and for a good reason.
Konrad might've dispelled his Isekai Microwave, but didn't bother to cool it off.
"How does that even make sense?" the bishop grunted, and yeah—
For once, he could sympathise.
"What do I know?" Gabrielle scoffed, dusting herself off. "Kasserlane is one of the most backwards, nonsensical worlds in the multiverse. No wonder it was on our blacklist. But—"
"If it ain't broken, don't fix it," Lily offered with a grin, still clinging to Konrad's arm.
"A necromancer," the old man breathed, shaking his head. "This is ridiculous."
"Well, ridiculous or not," Konrad interjected, trying his best to act tough. "If even the one true God is tolerating it and sent an angel to protect her, so will you, bishop."
It must have done something, because if nothing else, Lily squeezed him harder.
'I'm not sure whether Gabrielle's God even knows about Stella, though,' Paula noted.
As if she weren't smart enough to recognise a bluff.
But Konrad used up a hundred mana in mere seconds. If there was one thing he knew, this bishop guy could have caused them way too many issues if he weren't on their side.
And there was the curious case of how and why Brigida ended up serving him, too.
He still didn't see that part in her memories, so keeping the peace was the best he could do.
"I will have to seclude myself and pray," Benedictus grunted. "If the Saints had agreed to this revolting pact of yours," he glared at Stella, then Gabrielle. "I'll have to reevaluate some things."
Then he touched the scepter with his fingertip, and—scorching as it were—it disappeared.
Konrad sighed, too, letting his Staff of Light dissolve the same way.
But while Paula was still busy processing those memory fragments, he stayed on high alert.