Volume 7, Chapter 52 – The Complete Sacred Relic Analysis?

There’s distinct fear in her eyes.

Not missing the cowardice Anastasia failed to hide, Fia sighed inwardly.

This girl is just putting on a brave front.

If you’re this reluctant, don’t force yourself.

Now you’re just passing the difficult problem to me.

—If even Anastasia is trying so hard, wouldn’t refusing be failing to live up to Anastasia’s heart?

Fia didn’t want to give an insensitive answer. It wasn’t just because Anastasia had said that if she wanted to change her views, taking a step forward starting with Anastasia was most appropriate. More than that, Fia wanted to respond to Anastasia’s efforts. Undeniably, just as Anastasia held ambiguous feelings towards her, she too felt goodwill for Anastasia. This feeling had first sprouted when Anastasia proactively took her hand in the tunnel back in Aurora City, letting her experience the bond between people. Now, it had merely blossomed and borne fruit over time, growing to a level that was hard to ignore.

The Anastasia before her and the one who held her hand weren’t the same person, yet they were more alike than not. Their feelings toward her held not the slightest difference, sometimes making one feel that Anastasia hadn’t disappeared at all.

Gradually finding her answer, Fia’s rigid body relaxed, her spine also straightening.

This was both a response to Anastasia’s bravery and an acknowledgment of her own heart.

She stopped just as her fingertip was about to touch the front of Anastasia’s dress, withdrawing her hand.

Now it was Anastasia’s turn to be taken aback. The courage on her face vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye, replaced by intense disappointment.

“It… it was presumptuous of this subordinate. My sincerest apologies…”

“No. It’s not that I think badly of you, Anastasia. I just don’t think you should forcibly pull my hand to do this. Wouldn’t that give me an excuse afterwards to say, ‘I didn’t want this; Anastasia forced me’?”

You wouldn’t say such a thing.

Anastasia thought it, but the words felt too cunning. She changed them at the last moment.

“Even if you did say that, so what? It would be the truth.”

“That wouldn’t be fair to you, Anastasia. I may be much younger, but I’m the type who has to do things myself at times like this. What I mean is… Anastasia, close your eyes.”

Though she wanted to coolly look directly into Anastasia’s eyes, simply managing to say the whole sentence seriously had taken all her effort. Ultimately, she couldn’t keep staring at Anastasia’s face and slightly shifted her gaze towards the open fields behind her.

“Huh?”

Realizing what Fia meant, Anastasia’s cheeks instantly turned red. Not daring to delay, she hastily pulled her shoulders in and timidly closed her eyes. As darkness set in, her anxious heart was evident in her slightly trembling eyelashes.

“I… I’m ready.”

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“Don’t say things that are easy for people to misunderstand…”

Fia couldn’t help but want to hold her forehead. Those words gave her the feeling of lovers in love, having overcome hardships, alone in a room at night, preparing to begin an intimate exchange.

She reached out her hand. Then, just before her fingertips could touch the purple collar of Anastasia’s dress, her movement halted.

She was hesitating.

The embarrassed feelings were secondary. The truly powerful obstacle was guilt. She already had Claire as her fiancée. Doing this would be unfaithful to Claire.

For a moment, Fia felt a suffocating wall blocking her path, so formidable that even though her palm could feel the warmth from Anastasia, she couldn’t advance a single millimeter.

Damn it.

Claire said she doesn’t mind. Since everyone, even you yourself, thinks this could bring everyone happiness, why are you afraid to take a step forward? Why are you binding yourself?

You are Dofilia now, not that former thing that only knew rules. You should have your own thoughts. If taking a step won’t bring anyone sorrow, then why agonize about which direction you’re stepping? What do you actually want?!

“Ugh…”

Swallowing her saliva awkwardly, Fia took a deep breath. Though it was just ordinary air tinged with a faint smell of mold and dust, it seemed to infuse her with courage, bringing some clarity to her conflicted brain.

She no longer hesitated and took a step forward.

The hand paused in mid-air passed through the non-existent barrier, touching soft, elastic fabric. As her palm further pressed to a full size one hand could barely hold, a warm sensation was transmitted to the surface of her skin. Immediately after, Fia felt she could smell, even through her palm, the scent of violets mixed within the warmth. It was as if this ethereal fragrance wasn’t just in Anastasia’s hair but was soaking into her lustrous skin, making one intoxicated and wanting to bury one’s nose in it, falling into a cloud that one would never want to leave.

Of course, Fia didn’t let her fingers make any lewd movements. She maintained just enough force to be able to leave at any time, without making Anastasia feel uncomfortable. Anastasia only shuddered at the very beginning; after that, only her cheeks remained like ripe apples, her body slightly curled in.

Truly a perfect work of art. Even just being pressed together, it feels grand and luxurious, making it hard to let go.

If we were in a relationship like mine with Claire, I’d probably be unable to suppress the desire in my heart, bend my fingers slightly, and commit an indecent act, wouldn’t I?

In fact, since confirming my relationship with Claire, I’ve also become infatuated with the same things…

Thinking of another woman at a time like this, even if it’s Claire, feels too unfair.

If a human is called scum, should I be called elf-scum?

I really took that step.

It felt somewhat lacking in reality.

With great effort, she spent a lot of energy before managing to pull her attention out of her palm. Fia coughed with feigned seriousness.

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“Ahem. Anastasia, I’m going to begin. You’d better not move around.”

Otherwise, she’d be unable to stop her imagination from running wild.

“O… okay.”

A tremor echoed in Anastasia’s voice. Fia noticed Anastasia quietly opening her eyes, seemingly wanting to observe her face. But when Anastasia realized Fia was looking back, the eyes that had just peeked open immediately closed again.

Truly befitting a Royal Guard captain. Her movements were quite slight; you wouldn’t notice without looking carefully.

But having come this far, it would be inexcusable not to start learning Faith magic now. Even knowing Anastasia was merely using learning Faith magic as a pretext to close the distance between them, Faith magic was still something that couldn’t be neglected.

Then, let’s seriously ask the world’s rules for [Sacred Relic Analysis].

No longer overthinking, Fia closed her eyes, her thoughts sinking into the sea of consciousness.

I hope Anastasia’s efforts won’t be in vain.

In an instant, even with her eyes closed, Fia could see a dazzling gold filling her surroundings. The scene was somewhat reminiscent of the dream the Elf God had once conveyed to her through the Holy Tree in her deep sleep. The difference was that the Elf God’s projected dream was exceptionally eerie, whereas the current golden brilliance was full of affinity, making one subconsciously relax.

Simultaneously, unlike when learning Faith magic before, visible golden runes began circling around her and Anastasia. They combined into interlocking rings rotating with each other. Though intangible, they emitted a humming sound as they spun.

Perhaps it was Fia’s hallucination, but she also heard faint chanting, similar to a choir’s hymn in a church, though it seemed quite far, barely noticeable if you didn’t listen carefully. She felt even more that this was her brain making up its own logic, given the holy atmosphere of the surroundings was so rich that other elements couldn’t intervene, creating an atmosphere very much like a cathedral.

This process lasted about a minute. Then, an extremely massive amount of information flooded into Fia’s mind. Even Fia couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the huge volume of information. An ordinary person would likely be experiencing a splitting headache and losing consciousness by now.

Her brain ran at high speed, making her feel her head getting hot, as she quickly understood the information as a magic that could be used. As she suspected, this should be the full version of [Sacred Relic Analysis]. Since she’d never used Faith magic before, she couldn’t be sure if the world’s rules might have withheld a tail and didn’t hand it over—like learning 99% but failing to master the remaining 1%.

Anyway, let’s test it on myself first. [Sacred Relic Analysis] shouldn’t cause harm to people. In any case, the progress speeding up this much is a joyful thing.

Anastasia’s ‘special attack’ actually worked.

Maybe I should have touched sooner…

…Wait, shouldn’t I take my hand back now?

Even though it felt like her hand was being sucked in by a vacuum, making it hard to pull away, Fia relied on her tenacious will, mentally gritting her teeth as she made her hand leave the smoothly-textured fabric of Anastasia’s dress. Feeling the sensation disappear on her chest, Anastasia, who had been tensing her body with an anxious heart, expecting Fia to take the next step, subsequently opened her eyes.

Fia did not take any next step.

It left her feeling both wistful and relieved.

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Her Highness is still the same.

Expelling from her mind the disrespectful thoughts, Anastasia tentatively asked.

“How does Your Highness feel?”

“…Much better than I expected.” Touching her chest, saying this was incredibly embarrassing. Fia suppressed her embarrassment and explained with a straight face, “The magic should be complete. [Sacred Relic Analysis] was originally used by the church to repair divine weapons like The Unsinkable Moon. While theoretically harmless to people, to be safe, I should test it on myself first.”

“How could you use yourself—”

Before Anastasia could finish, Fia raised her palm towards her, crimson eyes filled with unquestionable intent.

“I know what you want to say, but this is a non-negotiable issue. Let’s leave it at that.”

The moment her words fell, Fia cast [Sacred Relic Analysis] on herself. The golden runes and flowing light she’d seen while learning Faith magic appeared one after another. Unlike when using elemental magic, Fia felt no intense consumption of mana. On the contrary, she only felt the comfort of being soaked in warm water.

The golden runes circled her, combining into rings and rotating slowly in different directions. Along with this, the dust and mold in the air vanished. Even the weeds on the ground seemed endowed with a soul, swaying slowly in unison with the flow of the golden brilliance. Even Anastasia, touched by the afterglow of the light curtain, was deeply affected—her senses and physical fitness felt noticeably stronger than before.

Had someone been looking down from above, they would have seen the top of the wooden house shrouded by a golden light curtain like an open umbrella, adding much vitality to the gray Land of Exile.

However, despite the spell’s successful activation, Fia didn’t obtain what she wanted. [Sacred Relic Analysis] created a phantom of herself in her mind. This phantom failed to transform into data like the spell itself; even its outline was twitching and blurry. She could only sense in her consciousness that this was her , yet couldn’t identify through her eyes where the phantom resembled her. If she had to look with her eyes, she’d think it was a flickering ghost from a horror movie, not herself.

Even when she concentrated hard, putting all her concentration on the phantom within, she couldn’t slow down its distortion even a little. This effort instead caused her focus and energy to be consumed rapidly, making the phantom increasingly unclear, as if she were fighting another version of herself.

This struggle lasted about three minutes with no improvement, until Fia felt dizzy and lightheaded, almost losing control over her body. She had to completely give up; continuing might cause her to lose consciousness.

This was the first since arriving on the World Tree continent.

Probably, [Sacred Relic Analysis] wasn’t the full version.

Of course, the problem was more likely with herself .

For instance, the information constituting herself might exceed her brain’s capacity, preventing her from analyzing herself.

Considering the Nanomachines in her body and her near-infinite mana, Fia didn’t think this possibility did not exist. The feeling of weakness feeding back from her limbs told her the three-minute long [Sacred Relic Analysis] had consumed quite a lot of her energy, more than the feeling of weakness after using [Overload].

If [Sacred Relic Analysis]’s consumption was this immense, the church people couldn’t possibly have used it. Therefore, the problem was more likely with herself. One’s greatest enemy is oneself. A simple hypothesis: if her mana were infinite, of course she couldn’t analyze how much mana she had.

I’ll go back and try it on some magic tools.

“Your Highness’s expression isn’t good… Was the effect not ideal?”

Seeing Fia open her eyes, Anastasia asked worriedly.

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Tucking a strand of black hair that had fallen before her behind her ear, Fia breathed out softly, feigning ease.

“It wasn’t ideal. But I think the problem lies with me. For example, I’m too powerful, so I can’t analyze myself. It should work on tools or people weaker than me.”

“In that case, would using it on this subordinate work? Your magic is full of holy atmosphere. Just being touched by the afterglow, I felt my power become stronger. And you’ve verified the spell doesn’t harm you. Wouldn’t using [Sacred Relic Analysis] directly on me be more direct then?”

“That is more direct…”

The refusal was on the tip of her tongue, but seeing Anastasia’s eagerness and expectant expression of wanting to help her, Fia ultimately couldn’t say it. If she got hurt, she’d feel it. Since she felt no pain just now, [Sacred Relic Analysis] indeed had no side effects.

I’ll just watch closely. If any problem arises, stop immediately.

“Then I’ll begin. Extend your hand.”

“Yes.”

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Fia placed her right hand over Anastasia’s palm, held out flat and used [Sacred Relic Analysis] according to the information in her mind.

Golden runes and rings appeared once again. Perhaps the light was too obvious, Fia even heard shouts from exiles in the distance. They took it as a miracle, shouting “Praise the Elf God!”, “Goddess above!”, “Save us!” and such.

Ignoring the commotion from the other side of the house, Fia waited quietly for Anastasia’s phantom to appear in her mind. However, to her surprise, the magic that had been incredibly sluggish moments ago now flowed as easily and naturally as water following a channel. No image of Anastasia appeared in her mind. Instead, information constituting the person Anastasia directly emerged—from her golden hair to her toes, to the cell combination forming her skin and her strongly beating heart, leaving nothing out.

Immediately after, [Hyper-computation] activated, reconstructing [Sacred Relic Analysis]. The originally vaguely constructed information became even more detailed. Fia could even perceive the arrangement of micro-particles forming the cells. The massive data of the existence named Anastasia was completely integrated in Fia’s mind, making her feel a slight swelling pain in her head, her thinking also becoming sluggish.

Though she couldn’t modify these data or rearrange them as she wished, simply knowing Anastasia’s makeup, knowing what thing should be put in which position, was enough to create a vessel for a soul.

It worked!

Wild joy instantly surged into her heart.

Fia almost immediately opened her eyes and stood up. But due to the excessive energy consumption from analyzing herself, the moment she stood, her legs became as weak as if they had lost their frame. Had Anastasia not reacted in time, Fia would have her body go soft and slumped back down.

“Your Highness?!”

Anastasia hastily supported Fia’s armpits, her lovely face full of concern and alarm.

This is really unseemly.

I’d better not analyze myself again in the future. It feels like I did something stupid.