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“Ah, Axel?”  

I called his name in my flustered state, but Axel didn’t respond, his face buried in my shoulder.  

The only sound I could hear was his steady breathing in my ear.  

Not knowing what else to do, I nervously shifted my gaze around before cautiously reaching out to pat Axel on the back.  

Although I was surprised by Axel’s unexpected reaction, when I thought about it from his perspective, I couldn’t completely blame him.  

If I had a comrade who had barely been resurrected, only to find them in a lifeless state for fifteen days, and their corpse was right in front of me…  

I would have gone mad and raged as well.  

Looking back, there had been a similar incident in our past life.  

Back then, it was Kirke who had been gravely injured.  

Kirke, as a Sword Master, was the only one among our expedition members who fought in close combat with the enemy.  

Since neither mages, spirit sorcerers, nor priests could take the front lines, Kirke always led the charge in close quarters.  

Fortunately, Kirke was an exceptional swordsman, dodging attacks at the front and buying enough time for the mages and spirit sorcerers in the rear to launch their attacks.  

But things don’t always go smoothly.  

One day, while fighting as usual, Kirke failed to avoid an enemy attack coming from behind and was severely injured…  

After that, none of us were in our right minds.  

Axel, Servian, and I began attacking the enemies in a rage, without a thought.  

I don’t even know what kind of magic I used.  

When I came to, the enemies around us were all torn to shreds, and we were drenched in their blood.  

The process didn’t matter much.  

What mattered was that we had managed to rescue Kirke from the enemy ranks.  

However, Kirke had been struck by such a severe blow that his life was hanging by a thread.  

He had a deep wound on his back, had lost an enormous amount of blood, and his face had turned so pale that he looked like a dead man, unable to open his eyes.  

At that time, I really thought Kirke was going to die.  

The image of Bael, usually calm and composed, trembling as he poured divine power into Kirke, is still vividly etched in my mind.  

I even remember how Axel, Servian, and I stood in a row, a step back, watching in silence.  

We were all wrapped in a heavy silence until Kirke finally came to his senses.  

And that had only lasted for a few hours.  

Even in that brief moment, I had been so terrified and miserable that I didn’t know what to do.  

It wasn’t just a day or two.  

When I thought about the fear Axel must have endured for over fifteen days, I felt even more sorry.  

‘What’s so important about a holy card!’  

Well, of course, it is important!  

‘But it’s not more important than my comrade.’  

I stopped cautiously patting Axel’s back and pulled him into a full embrace.  

Even though Axel’s physique was much larger than mine, so in reality, I was the one nestled in his arms, I felt like I was the one holding him tightly.  

Axel, who was nestled(?) in my arms, flinched his shoulders.  

After all, he was the one who had embraced me first, but now he hastily pushed me away, trembling as he looked down at me with quivering lips.  

“Do you think you can just gloss over this with something like that?”

“This… kind of thing?”  

When I tilted my head, puzzled by his disgruntled question, Axel quickly shut his mouth.  

Even when I tried to play along, he reacted like this, leaving me wondering what on earth the problem was.  

Just moments ago, it had been a “joyous reunion after narrowly escaping death with a comrade”!  

Feeling wronged, I stared silently at Axel, when suddenly, the door behind me burst open with a loud noise.  

“Reshi!”  

I could tell it was Bael just by his voice.  

I quickly turned my head, and sure enough, Bael was hurrying toward me through the shelves.  

“Reshi!”  

Bael called my name again as he ran up to me and naturally pulled me into a tight embrace.  

Unlike when Axel had hugged me, this action was fluid and unforced.  

Since it was the second time today, I wasn’t caught off guard.  

I returned Bael’s embrace with a calm mind, but from behind, I could hear Axel grumbling.  

“What’s so natural about that?”  

Even letting out a scoff, Axel was left to his own devices while Bael and I continued our “joyous reunion.”  

“Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness. Oh, God.”  

As expected from a priest, Bael kept expressing his gratitude to the gods.  

If only he knew that I had just come from enthusiastically “auctioning quests” with those very gods he so reveres…  

‘How would Bael react?’  

Feeling a twinge of guilt, I cleared my throat awkwardly and carefully stepped out of Bael’s embrace.  

“Why am I at Kydsha?”  

“Ah… it seems you have no idea what’s going on.”  

Bael glanced briefly at Axel, who was standing behind me, before calmly beginning to explain.  

“Are you aware that you were in a ‘dead’ state for more than fifteen days?”  

“Yeah, Axel just told me a bit earlier.”  

“I see. Since your ‘death’ state lasted so long… we had no choice but to consider the worst-case scenario. We brought you to the temple at Kydsha to try and restore even a fraction of your lost life force.”  

So, does that mean the priests surrounding me had been performing some sort of ritual to restore my life force?  

I tilted my head in confusion.  

While lying in that coffin, I hadn’t felt any particular sensation of life returning to my body.  

“When I came to, I was inside a coffin, and I was really tense, thinking I might have already been buried.”  

“Ah, that coffin is actually an incredible relic of the central church. It’s the Coffin of Life, bestowed upon the first Pope by the High God.”  

“…An incredible relic?”  

“Yes! The Pope willingly lent it to us after seeing your condition, Reshi.”  

“…”

What exactly had I done with that amazing relic…?  

My eyes darted around as if an earthquake had hit my pupils.  

‘I definitely used a lot of strength to blow the coffin lid off, and it got lodged in the wall…’  

Cold sweat started to trickle down my back.  

From Bael’s explanation alone, it was clear that this was no ordinary relic.  

I couldn’t even begin to imagine how the central church’s priests would react once they saw it was damaged.  

Would they make me pay for it?  

Or would they accuse me of being possessed by an evil spirit for breaking such a precious relic…?  

No matter how I thought about it, the scenarios that played out in my mind were all negative.  

I swallowed hard, trying to stay positive.  

‘Maybe if I carefully extract it from the wall and make sure it looks okay, it’ll be fine? A few scratches should be manageable… right?’  

Seeing Bael smiling brightly, completely unaware of what I was thinking, made me feel a pang of guilt, but there was nothing I could do.

“Ahem!”  

I cleared my throat and quickly tried to change the subject.  

“But how did you know I was here and come to find me?”  

“Well…”  

Bael smiled and lightly pinched my cheek.  

“There was quite the commotion with people shouting, ‘The Saintess has performed the miracle of resurrection!’ It wasn’t hard to track you down after that, especially since so many people saw you walking around just fine.”  

“A m-miracle of resurrection…”  

I felt incredibly embarrassed.  

‘But considering they saw a corpse that had been lying in a coffin for over fifteen days suddenly get up…’  

It’s no wonder they could only describe it as a miracle.  

“In any case, it’s such a relief. If you hadn’t come back to us like this, who knows what those insane people might have done…”  

Bael sighed deeply, as if even the thought of it was exhausting.  

“Insane people?”  

I tilted my head and glanced at Axel.  

‘People’ implied there were at least two of them.  

‘I can guess one of them is right here.’  

But who was the other?  

As if sensing my confusion, Bael sighed again before answering.  

“Servian left the capital, saying he was going to find the Philosopher’s Stone… I need to contact him and tell him to come back.”  

“The Philosopher’s Stone? That legendary stone?”  

“Yes. And Kirke even sent the Royal Guard with him on this expedition to find it…”  

“What? Kirke is helping with such a ridiculous search?”  

And he sent his personal guard with them?  

‘Of course, Kirke is incredibly strong, so he doesn’t really need a guard, but still!’  

Before I could fully process my shock, Bael sighed once more and continued.  

“On top of that, there’s been a huge uproar at the Elpinard Duchy as well.”  

“What kind of uproar this time…?”  

“Well, the Duke…”  

Bael glanced at Axel, hesitating to continue.  

It seemed like he was struggling to discuss what was clearly a private family matter.  

Sensing Bael’s reluctance, Axel stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder.  

“Let’s head back to the estate first. Now that you’re awake, you should return home.”  

“What? So suddenly?”  

Bael widened his eyes in surprise and tried to object, but Axel was resolute.  

“You know the estate is in chaos. The Duke won’t be at ease until he sees her condition for himself.”  

“That’s true.”  

If even Bael readily agreed, it meant the situation at the Duchy was indeed serious.  

‘What on earth… has happened…?’