A moment of silence settled over the office.
Erno, who had been staring blankly at Caelus's face, looked as if his world had collapsed.
"AHHHH!"
Suddenly, he clutched his hair and slammed his head onto the desk.
"Don't ask! Unfortunately, the saintess can't come for an entire week! She says something came up, but I mean, is some trivial temple business really more important than grand magic research?!"
While Erno writhed in agony, a strange gleam passed through Caelus's red eyes.
A week? Ariel won't be coming to the Magic Tower for a whole week… Temple business was obviously just an excuse.
Then there was only one possible answer left.
Finally, she's coming. After doing nothing but idling around the Magic Tower all this time, it seems she is finally making preparations in earnest—all to negotiate with me properly. She must have cleared her schedule for an entire week just for it.
The corner of Caelus's mouth curved up slightly.
He would have to tell Alfredo to bring the highest-grade parchment prepared previously into the office.
* * *
Today, as usual, Caelus stared out the window in silence. Documents awaiting approval remained untouched, piled high on his desk.
Why…
He clenched his jaw tightly.
"Alfredo."
Waiting outside the door, Alfredo entered the office immediately.
"Summon Bardim."
"Yes, Your Grace."
Once his butler withdrew, Caelus turned his gaze back toward the window.
He was done waiting.
* * *
From the very first day she skipped going to the Magic Tower, Ariel was frantically busy.
It all started with her bedroom door opening on its own every single day while she slept.
Thanks to the heat stones developed by the Magic Tower, the northern city was enclosed within a dome-shaped temperature-control barrier. The barrier blocked blizzards and maintained a steady temperature inside, but it was applied strictly to areas designated by Caelus. Regrettably, the northern temple had been excluded from that zone.
Run-down as it was, the temple still shielded them from the blizzards. But with a severe lack of magic heating tools, it was barely warm enough to keep everyone from freezing to death.
Whenever Ariel lay down to sleep, freezing cold air seeped right through the gap in her warped door. Every door in the temple suffered the same fate. No matter how tightly they shut them, after a little while, each door would creak open just a crack.
At least make it possible to sleep.
In the end, Ariel decided to renovate the temple. When she first proposed repairs, everyone gave lukewarm responses. Used to broken things, the locals simply shrugged off squeaky doors and leaky roofs, accepting them as typical winter annoyances. Gion even snorted, asking why he would ever have to do such work.
Then came the day Ian returned from night patrol. Because the main doors were heavy and their hinges completely rusted, one side of the front gate collapsed entirely. From that day on, howling winds rushed straight inside, forcing everyone to bundle up in thick winter coats even indoors.
A few days later, the floor of the hallway leading to the dining hall caved in.
The minor fixes Ian and Hilda had managed through sheer muscle power were reaching their limit, breaking down one after another.
When Mathias finally voiced his support for Ariel's renovation project, the temple officially launched a full-scale overhaul.
Hilda was deeply moved, believing the saintess had foreseen the future when she made the proposal, but Ariel obviously possessed no such foresight.
She simply wanted to improve her quality of life.
Because it looked like she would be living and surviving here for quite a while.
From day one of repairs, the person suffering the most was without a doubt Gion.
"Why… why did I come all the way to the North just to swing a hammer?"
Hanging precariously onto a window frame, Gion pounded nails while holding back tears.
He desperately wanted to run back to the central realm right away, but the transfer papers lacked official seals, and even the temple's communication orb was out of order.
That was not all. Ever since he fainted from the grand duke's overwhelming presence, his body had been acting strange. If he took even a single step past the temple grounds, his legs trembled so violently that he collapsed on the spot.
Unable to escape, Gion had no choice but to follow Ariel's work orders. He grumbled constantly, but surprisingly, he actually had good work instincts.
Naturally, the strong and resilient Hilda and Ian handled the heavy lifting, carrying and hammering materials, while Gion used his dexterity and practical knack to neatly handle the finishing touches.
He completed his assigned tasks well, but he was even better at bossing Ian and Hilda around.
"Hey, Commander Ian! Keep that layer even! It's going to leave spots!"
Standing beside a bucket of mortar, Gion pointed at the wall and shouted.
Ian quietly moved his trowel, applying another coat.
"Miss Hilda! That's too thick! Make it thinner!"
"…You told me to apply it thick earlier."
"I never said that."
Gion feigned ignorance and turned his eyes away.
"Alright, next wall over there!"
He clearly had no intention of picking up a trowel himself. His spotless, unsoiled hands were proof enough.
The next day was no different. Under the pretext of supervising Hilda and Ian, Gion did not move a single chair.
"Hey, Commander Ian! A bit higher! It's completely crooked!"
Gion shouted with his hands clasped behind his back.
Ian raised the massive temple painting slightly while supporting it with one hand. The gold-trimmed frame was as wide as three adults standing side-by-side, making it remarkably heavy.
"No, lower it a bit!"
"…Didn't you just tell me to raise it?"
"No, I didn't."
Gion feigned ignorance once again.
While a heated argument over the frame's placement unfolded inside, Ariel stood in a corner of the temple courtyard, facing a building materials merchant.
"Fifty silvers for a single box of nails?"
"Yes, Saintess. That's the current market price."
"The shops downtown were selling them for forty silvers…"
"…W-well, those nails are a bit soft, you see."
"Should I ask Miss Hilda to test them out?"
The merchant flinched and hunched his shoulders in. Just as Ariel opened the receipt and glanced at the next item—
"Hey, Commander Ian! To the left!"
Gion's voice echoed loudly from inside the temple.
"Miss Hilda! A bit more to the right! No, left! When did I ever say right? I meant right from my perspective!"
It seemed Gion desperately needed to be whipped into shape.
Ariel neatly organized the receipts and flashed a polite smile at the merchant.
"Excuse me, sir, but could you adjust the unit price and bring them back once more?"
"Ah, yes! O-of course!"
The merchant bowed repeatedly, packed up his supplies, and turned to leave.
Just as Ariel let out a light sigh and started walking back inside the temple—
Ding!
[Sudden Quest Alert]
[Sudden Quest: Teach the Lazy Priest the Sanctity of Labor.]
[Reward: 50G + 1x Item Shop Ticket]
[Failure Penalty: None]
Huh? A quest like this popped up? No penalty?
The status window in this world was far more fickle than she thought, which was annoying, but 50G was a figure far too tempting to pass up.
On top of that, it offered an Item Shop Ticket!
If she could obtain an item like last time, she had to clear this quest no matter what.
A lazy priest…
Anyone could see that meant Gion.
When Ariel stepped into the reception room, Hilda and Ian were busy hammering nails, while Gion stood supervising with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Priest Gion, a moment, please."
"What is it?"
Ariel thrust a stack of receipts toward Gion.
"I need you to organize the costs and write a report."
"I am currently supervising the work site."
"We'll have to report this to the central temple later…"
"Hand it over. I'll do it."
Gion took the receipts and eagerly marched out of the reception room. Ian and Hilda looked at Ariel, letting out a sigh of relief.
Ariel offered a bright smile.
"Could you two come over here as well?"
"…Pardon?"
"There's no time to idle around."
It was a smile as radiant as sunshine.
"Commander Ian, please shovel the snow in front of the temple. Make sure to pack down dirt at an incline so the snow won't pile up easily."
"…"
"Miss Hilda, please organize the stone blocks brought by the merchant into the storage room."
"…"
Unnoticed, a work checklist was spread out in Ariel's hands. It was the list Gion had meticulously organized all morning.
"Alright, let's finish up quickly. With the two of you, this should easily be done before lunch."
Ian and Hilda returned to their assigned posts as Ariel instructed.
From that day on, Ariel began trailing Gion around in earnest, barking out task after task.
"Priest Gion."
"Yes?"
Ariel stood before Gion, holding a hammer.
"The nail Miss Hilda pounded went a bit too deep. I think Priest Gion will need to handle the hammering."
"Huh?"
[Gion's Work Progress: 12%]
"Priest Gion."
"What now?"
"You need to sort the receipts by date."
"…"
"Priest Gion, this creaks."
[Gion's Work Progress: 35%]
"Priest Gion, the sink basin support is wobbling."
[Gion's Work Progress: 39%]
"Priest Gion, I think we need to sand down more stone slabs."
[Gion's Work Progress: 55%]
"Priest Gion?"
[Gion's Work Progress: 62%]
"Priest Gion!"
[Gion's Work Progress: 70%]
In the end, Gion exploded.
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