"Well, this is..." The priest standing by her side looked more than a little awkward.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to know the details; it was simply that the Bishop and Seia had both remained tight-lipped about the whole affair. He hadn’t pressed them.

After all, in business like this, ignorance was often the best protection for everyone involved.

Still, being caught completely in the dark under these circumstances left him feeling sheepish.

If Seia had been an adult, it might have been different, but she was, for all intents and purposes, just a young girl who hadn’t even hit her growth spurt yet.

Seeing his hesitation, Irene’s face clouded with clear dissatisfaction. Though she was a devout nun with undeniable talent, she was still only a novice.

This was her very first mission, and her lack of experience showed in her impatient gaze.

"He is merely the one tasked with delivering me here; he won’t be involved in the incident itself." Seia’s smile was far too composed for a child. Her eyes, possessing a strange, almost inhuman quality, swept over Irene and Burke, leaving them both with a peculiar shiver running down their spines.

Seia turned back to the sheepish priest and spoke softly. "Thank you for your help. This is far enough."

"Uh... right..."

The priest wavered, wanting to ask how she intended to get back later, but then he remembered Sister Irene and Father Burke were there. Swallowing his worry, he simply nodded, offered a quiet "May the Lord protect you," and took his leave.

Once his figure had completely vanished into the crowd, Father Burke turned his attention to Seia. "I realized I haven’t properly introduced myself. I am Burke, a priest of the Vatican..."

He trailed off, his expression turning complicated. The man looked to be in his forties, and his voice carried a certain weight. "I once... served as a Church exorcist for a time. Though, it has been quite a while since I’ve handled a mission like that."

Sister Irene looked at him, her eyes wide with surprise.

Exorcists were the elite of the Church, veterans who walked the razor’s edge between life and death.

They were the ones the Church poured its greatest resources into. She never imagined that a former exorcist would be assigned to a simple investigation.

It felt like using a heavy broadsword to trim a hedge. Had some accident occurred that rendered him unfit for exorcism work?

As she wondered, Irene noticed Father Burke’s gaze shifting toward her. She quickly followed suit with her own introduction. "I am Irene, a novice nun. I... well, I tend to perceive certain things that others might miss."

She didn’t have much of a resume, but those few words were enough to confirm her innate talent.

Father Burke’s expression grew increasingly grim.

An investigation? If sending a retired exorcist like himself was a sign of how seriously they took this, then... what did it mean to send Irene, a precious nun with such sharp spiritual sensitivity?

Was this just "field experience"?

If Dublin hadn’t sent an underage girl as well, Burke might have been able to convince himself of that. But looking at them now, this so-called "investigative team" was absurdly overqualified.

He didn’t yet know what made this girl special enough for Dublin to deploy her despite her age, but he was certain of one thing: she was no ordinary child.

"I am Yurizono Seia." The blonde girl gave a small nod, offering her name to the pair. "You may simply call me Seia."

Suddenly, a snow-white tit bird poked its head out from behind her golden hair. After a quick look around, it hopped onto her shoulder.

The sight made Irene’s eyes light up; she looked like she wanted to rush over and pet it, but she held herself back, fearing it would be rude.

"Yurizono...?"

Yurizono Seia. It sounded like a Japanese name, yet the girl before them didn’t look Japanese at all. Why such a name?

In the Church, the mention of "lilies"—the Yuri in her name—immediately brought one figure to mind: Gabriel.

In the countless depictions of the Annunciation, Gabriel is almost always accompanied by lilies.

In Christian art and symbolism, the flower reflects themes of purity, innocence, and divine revelation. Gabriel himself is the herald of prophecy, the messenger of the divine.

Dublin was a bastion of pure Christian tradition. From that perspective, "Yurizono"—the Garden of Lilies—couldn’t have been a name chosen at random.

Perhaps it was a nod to Catholic sensibilities, or perhaps they feared the weight of a more direct holy name, choosing this poetic, roundabout path instead.

[To put it simply, Protestantism views the relationship between humans, angels, and God as intimate, whereas Catholicism perceives a vast, reverent distance between them.]

This was Father Burke’s internal guess, as a Catholic man himself.

Regardless, the surname Yurizono wasn’t a burden just anyone could carry.

It was a testament to how much the Church valued this girl. And the more Burke realized this, the more his anxiety regarding this "investigation" grew.

"Please, do not worry, Father."

Seia’s voice cut through Burke’s brooding. "We are not headed toward the far side of some infinite darkness. We are walking toward the light of our Lord, seeking the path that will inevitably lead us there."

The smile never left her face. There was such an air of effortless grace about her that, despite her youthful appearance, both of them felt a strange sense of peace settle in their hearts.

Father Burke managed a genuine smile. "To think I’ve lived all these years only to be lectured by a child. Thank you."

Irene didn’t fully grasp the underlying tension, but hearing Seia’s words, she adopted a look of pure devotion, clasping her hands over her heart. "Precisely. This is all but a trial from the Lord."

A "trial from the Lord"—to a Catholic, that was an argument you couldn’t lose. Burke’s resolve hardened instantly.

"Shall we? Let us go meet this witness," Seia said, seeing their spirits were restored.

"Yes. I’ve arranged for a carriage. If we leave now, we should reach Galati County by evening." Father Burke nodded, stepping forward to lead the way.

Irene trailed a step behind, walking alongside Seia and curiously asking about the little bird’s name.

"It is not my pet, so I have not given it a name." Seia pulled her hand from her sleeve and held it near her shoulder. The bird hopped onto her finger with practiced precision.

It looked at Seia, then at Irene, and let out a series of cheerful chirps and tweets.

"It’s so cute!"

Irene felt as though the little round ball of fluff had shot an arrow straight through her heart. "May I touch it?"

The bird couldn’t understand her words, of course, but it could certainly read the eager glint in Irene’s eyes. It quickly retreated to Seia’s shoulder, looking ready to dive back into the safety of her golden hair.

"It seems... it doesn’t like me?" Irene asked, her shoulders slumping in disappointment.

"It is merely a little frightened. To it, you are a very large new friend," Seia said with a smile. Her voice, gentle and possessed of an inexplicable tranquility, washed away Irene’s dejection.

"I see." Irene thought for a moment. "Perhaps I could feed it some breadcrumbs? Would it like that?"

Whenever she fed the pigeons, they always seemed to love it.

"It would prefer fruit, berries, or perhaps some insects and seeds," Seia noted.

"Feeding bread to birds isn’t actually very good for them," Father Burke interjected. "Most of them can’t digest it properly."

Chatting as they went, the three of them boarded the carriage that had been waiting for them.

--+--

T/N: I have a Patreon!

It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!

[email protected]/AspenTL

If you guys wanna check it out.