She did not trust strangers easily, so she would be safe wherever she went, and Devin let out a quiet laugh at the thought. He had stopped by the fruit storage and by the time he returned, she seemed to have already passed this tree. He was just thinking he should go soon when Bacho came shooting in with a flap of wings and opened and closed his beak soundlessly. It seemed that people and birds alike lost their voice when startled. So he graciously opened the conversation first.

“Did you eat something bad? Is something stuck in your throat?”

“That is not it. Ha. Something terrible has happened.”

“What terrible thing?”

“A hummingbird appeared.”

Devin had been listening without much thought, but at the mention of an unwelcome visitor, he shifted his posture. Bacho drew close and spoke in a quiet murmur.

“Ororo has come here.”

“Ororo, who we have rarely crossed paths with all this time, has come here. Has the god already found out?”

“Yes. It seems the god knows we are here. We were so careful, yet where did we leave a trace?”

“Do not blame yourself. You left no trace. I had thought the sinkhole in the temple courtyard would give us away before long, but the god already knew we were here. How very like a god. Why has this busy god suddenly found the time? Are the higher gods not giving orders these days?”

“Is it a lower god?”

“That is how it appeared. The god was handling directly what would ordinarily be left to subordinates. A disguise, perhaps?”

“That is entirely possible. I have been watching for three hundred years and this god is no ordinary schemer. What will you do now?”

“What else? We run again.”

“The hummingbird was likely sent here to keep watch. If we are going to run, we need to leave tomorrow morning. There are things to prepare and we cannot slip out of the estate in the dead of night right away. On my way here to explain the situation to you, I expanded my divine power and checked the entire estate, but there was no hummingbird.”

“It seems to be coming and going. Can we leave for Lumiere Island right away?”

“I left six priests there with tasks to carry out. Since food supplies cannot be brought in from outside, the few people who had been living there appear to have returned to the mainland. It is an empty island now, so you may leave early in the morning.”

“Then that is what we will do. Let the priests remaining at the temple know as well. Bacho, after we leave tomorrow morning, stay here and muddy our traces.”

“Make it look as though we are still here?”

“Yes. Then follow immediately after.”

“Understood.”

The moment his conversation with Bacho ended, Layla finished talking with Bita and began to move. The sight of her trudging up the stairs was as vivid to Devin and Bacho, with their divine power, as if it were happening right before their eyes. Bacho watched her carefully and asked.

“Do you think the god found traces of the other Saints besides Miss Layla?”

“Layla has three friends. Where are they?”

“I would not know. I have never paid them any attention.”

“I will use my divine power here to keep the hummingbird out, so try to find some trace of them. No, we are leaving tomorrow, so there is no need to use up divine power and draw the god’s attention unnecessarily. I will need to use divine power to restore Layla’s memories as well. Nothing good comes of using too much.”

“No, nothing good at all.”

“Right.”

“Then I will go and check the area around the estate again. As long as the hummingbird does not interfere, you can use your divine power to restore Miss Layla’s memories, can you not? I will keep a sharp eye out, so please do not worry.”

Devin gave a calm nod. Bacho flapped his wings and took off into the sky, and Layla, who had been walking in silence, turned her head toward the window for just a moment. He watched her tilt her head in puzzlement and then continue walking, and Devin smiled to himself and rubbed his face. As time passed, his mate was responding to his companions as well. He found that both strange and amusing.

The soft sound of her small feet padding along reached him. She went round and round up the stairs and her breathing was light, which put him at ease. She would already have enough on her mind with the scattered memories of her friends she could not quite piece together. He waited for her to return to her room and change.

The tree shuddered with a knock-knock vibration, and when he looked down, Ilin was approaching. Ilin glanced around quickly and then climbed up into the tree in no time. The sudden added weight made the fresh leaves rustle and sway with a soft sound.

“Good timing. Bacho cannot use his divine power right now, so you look for Layla’s friends.”

“All of a sudden?”

“Once I give her memories back, she will certainly take it the wrong way that I never told her about her friends. No point earning needless resentment.”

“Are you going to restore Miss Layla’s memories now?”

“We are leaving for Lumiere Island in the morning. It has been quite some time since she lost her memories, so I intend to arrange for them to return naturally around dawn. Unlike us, Layla cannot cover long distances on foot in one go, so she will need a horse or carriage.

Tomorrow morning, there is a cart going out to fetch vegetable supplies, so we can use that.”

“That would be best. Waking up with a clear head, accepting the situation, and leaving this place. What is the point of giving her memories back early and having her lie awake all night in distress. The vegetable supply cart is clean inside, so it will be perfectly fine for Miss Layla to travel in. Taking a fine carriage would draw people’s attention, so it is fitting. I will clean the inside of the cart thoroughly before we leave, so please do not worry about that.”

“Yes, and there is also the fact that restoring memories is not such a simple thing.”

“That is true, it is a fearsome ability. You never gave it a second thought all this time, but a mate really is different.”

“Are you blaming me?”

“Not at all. Did you not carry out a weighty duty? It was the right thing to erase people’s memories while guarding the god’s treasures.”

“It was.”

When Layla’s door opened, Ilin glanced over without thinking and then seemed to catch himself, dropping his eyes. He made a show of looking around idly and spoke.

“Then I will be off to look for Miss Layla’s friends. While I am at it, I will look for traces of the other Saints as well.”

“Leave them. They scattered on their own, so they will have settled somewhere and be living their lives. They would only take fright at the sight of a priest, thinking they were being dragged back to the temple. They found their freedom, so let them enjoy it.”

“Is that how it is? Though I suppose they would have no reason to be glad to see me. Then I will look only for Maris, Nihil, and Salina. In the meantime, please leave for Lumiere with Lux. Is Bacho staying here?”

“I gave him a separate task to confuse the god’s eyes. So that even after we are gone, our presence still lingers in this estate, and the god does not notice. With Ororo having come, we can only fool the god for a few days at best.”

“That hummingbird Ororo actually came here? The god’s messenger?”

Ilin swallowed hard and asked quickly. It was the highest ranking among all messengers. The god’s own messenger, no less. Small in form, but its divine power was formidable.

“Bacho has a hard task ahead. Small as it may be, that is no ordinary hummingbird. It is a tiger. Then I will take my leave. Please take care of yourself.”

“You take care as well.”

“I will.”

A firm resolve settled in Ilin’s chest and his green eyes deepened. He was steeling himself, about to leave with a weighty mission on his shoulders. Tracking down Saints who had made up their minds to run and vanished was no easy task. Devin moved by following his mate’s scent alone, but Ilin could not do the same. It might turn out to be a task that took a very long time.

He was not like Bacho, looking down at the ground from high in the sky. Devin watched Ilin drop down and disappear without a sound, then turned his head toward Layla’s room. She was lying on the bed without having changed into her nightclothes. Her steady breathing and closed eyes told him she had fallen asleep.

“This is actually better. Rather than watching for one opportunity after another.”

He had told her in advance that he had erased her memories, and saying he was going to give them back might not go over well at all. Who would take that at face value? On top of which, Layla had been avoiding his eyes and keeping her distance all day. She would certainly take it the wrong way that Devin, as High Priest, had never told her he had freed her friends, but there was nothing to be done about it. He had already missed the chance to say it.