Chapter 32

After dinner.

As Allen prepared to leave right away, I suggested he stay the night.

Just as I’d expected, Allen nearly leapt out of his skin and rushed to refuse.

“No! I’ve already imposed on you so much—I couldn’t possibly. I’m really fine….”

But outside, dusk had already settled in. Night would fall completely before long, and it wasn’t wise to set out alone.

Allen seemed to realize that too. He glanced out the window, and his expression darkened at once.

I grabbed his arm and practically dragged him over to the sofa, pushing him down to sit. Then, resting a hand on his shoulder as he floundered, I spoke firmly.

“Don’t be like that. Stay the night. If something were to happen to you, Allen, I wouldn’t be able to rest easy.”

“M-Muriel….”

Allen looked deeply moved, his eyes welling with tears. Trusting people so easily, opening his heart like that… he was really the type who’d get scammed wherever he went.

After patting his back a couple of times to soothe him, I brewed some tea and served it to him.

Allen sat quietly, took a sip, and let out an awed breath.

“Wow… the aroma is amazing. I know a bit about herbs—this is lavender, right?”

“That’s right. It’s good for calming the mind and body.”

I’d picked up the lavender leaves a few days ago when the Everything Shop was selling them at a 90% discount, so I’d snapped them up without hesitation.

At the time, I’d wondered if it was an impulse buy—but it turned out I’d made the right call. They came in handy at just the right moment.

“Thank you so much for the tea as well, Muriel.”

“It’s nothing.”

“After eating your cooking, Muriel, I feel like all my fatigue just melted away and my energy’s coming back. Is it because the food was so good? Haha.”

“…….”

Actually, that was thanks to my cooking skill.

That’s right. Recently, the system had started tacking on little skills related to housework—mostly things like ‘Cooking’ and ‘Cleaning.’

Thanks to that, I was slowly turning into an all-purpose jack-of-all-trades.

‘Looks like I won’t have to worry about making a living wherever I go now?’

I let out a quiet chuckle to myself and sipped my hot tea. Allen, sitting across from me, looked far more relaxed than before.

It felt like a good time to bring it up, so I set my teacup down and eased into the conversation.

“Allen, you saw the crops I’ve been growing on your way here, right?”

“Gah—cough—y-yes, yes!”

“…You can answer slowly. It’s fine.”

“Y-yes…! Cough, cough!”

It seemed Allen had gone down the wrong pipe; he coughed for a good while before finally calming down. Watching him with a sympathetic look, I continued.

“This is a contaminated zone. Aren’t you curious how I managed to grow such healthy crops here?”

“Of course I’m curious. But….”

Allen rolled his eyes slightly and glanced at Lycian, who was sitting beside me. He looked afraid of offending him.

Lycian’s reaction, however, was lukewarm at best.

From start to finish, he’d shown nothing but indifference toward Allen. He didn’t seem inclined to act hostile like before, but it didn’t look like he intended to treat him as a guest either.

I quietly reached out and covered the back of Lycian’s hand with mine. He flinched, just a little, and turned his head to stare at me.

After giving him a small smile, I looked back at Allen and said,

“The truth is, Allen… I have a purification ability.”

“W-what…? A p-purification ability?!”

Allen’s eyes flew wide open, his mouth hanging agape as he froze like a stone statue.

His lips moved helplessly before he muttered in a voice thick with disbelief.

“B-but… there hasn’t been a single purifier born in a thousand years…?”

As far as I knew, that was true. Ninabel hadn’t made such a fuss about a ‘purifier appearing after a thousand years’ for nothing.

With no purifier being born, contaminated lands across the continent had been left untouched for a millennium—especially in the north, where the Grastea Empire continued to suffer the worst of it.

Still, thanks to revolutionary advances in magitech, the people of the Grastea Empire were living relatively prosperous lives.

Though their food self-sufficiency was low, forcing them to import flour and grain from other countries.

“I know. But I really do have a purification ability. I think it’ll be faster if you see it with your own eyes. Come with me, Allen.”

I led Allen to an area that hadn’t been fully purified yet.

Most of the land around the house had already been cleansed, but the contaminated zone was so vast that there were plenty of spots I hadn’t gotten to. This was one of them.

A few clumps of dull, ashen grass swayed in the night breeze atop the dark violet soil. Just like always, I stretched out my hand and shouted inwardly.

‘Purify!’

An opalescent glow burst from my fingertips.

The light wrapped around roughly four pyeong of land like a veil, then slowly scattered away, dissolving into stardust.

“Th-this is unbelievable…!”

Allen couldn’t hide his awe as he stared at the purified ground. He dropped to his knees at once, scooping up the soil in his palms, turning it over and sniffing it.

Then he bent low, peering closely at the weeds themselves.

After a while, Allen rose to his feet and turned to me with an air of solemn reverence. His eyes sparkled so brightly it was almost overwhelming.

“Lady Muriel…!”

…I’d just been promoted from ‘Muriel’ to ‘Lady Muriel.’

“You really are a purifier! To think I’d witness such a miracle in my lifetime…! It’s truly an honor!”

Allen looked ready to prostrate himself before me at any second.

His hands clasped together as if in prayer, his gaze fixed on me, brimming with reverence.

I’d expected something like this—but his reaction was far more intense than I’d imagined.

Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat softly and spoke.

“It’s not that amazing. There are limits to how often I can purify, and to how large an area.”

“Even so, it’s an incredible ability! As you know, there hasn’t been a single purifier until now. If this becomes known… the great noble houses—no, the imperial family itself will try to take you in, Lady Muriel. And the Grand Temple will elevate you as a saint!”

“…….”

That kind of noisy, overblown life was exactly why I’d stayed hidden all this time….

‘And of all things, a dungeon had to appear in the Winterberg territory….’

…Well, dungeon or not, I probably couldn’t have hidden the fact that I was a purifier forever.

So I needed to treat this like a vaccination: plan carefully and move ahead of the problem.

Lycian seemed worried that I’d be used by others, but I wasn’t that easy to push around.

My power would be used when I wanted, and for what I wanted.

‘What was that? A guardian angel?’

I let out a brief, incredulous laugh at the system’s inexplicable reaction, then wiped it away.

All right. Now comes the important part.

I stepped closer to Allen and firmly gripped his shoulders.

“Allen, don’t call me Lady Muriel.”

“Huh…?”

“Just Muriel. Muriel is fine.”

“Y-yes! Understood!”

Allen answered in a ramrod-straight posture, so stiff he looked frozen.

…That the very first adventurer to stumble upon our farm turned out to be someone like this might, in a way, be a stroke of incredible luck.

“Allen, I want to keep my ability… a secret, as much as possible, until the day it’s fully revealed to the world.”

“Yes, yes.”

“But someday, it’ll all come out, won’t it? So before that happens, I want to find people who’ll cooperate with me.”

“Cooperate…?”

I smiled faintly.

“I’m interested in your guild.”

“O-our guild?!”

Allen’s eyes bulged as he echoed the words in shock.

I was just about to answer—

“Found you!”

A clear, ringing voice tore through the air.

Allen and I both jumped and whipped our heads around. Billowing waves of blazing red—no, on a closer look, it was someone’s hair.

A woman came charging toward us at terrifying speed, her flame-like red hair streaming behind her.

“Allen Moore! You’re so dead this time!”