CH545

“Ben, you really can be such a sweet boy sometimes, you know that?” Myriad sighed. “It’s a shame you use so much of the rest of your time to be a bastard.”

“Excuse you, bastardry doesn’t even take up an hour of my time a day. I have brief bursts of it every few months or weeks at most.”

“Sure, but when you do I’m left remembering them for weeks after.”

“Sounds like a you problem, I basically forget the second I’m done.”

“That really was a nice thing you did for Verbum,” Helori agreed, not adding her own opinion on the topic of the rest of Ben’s attitude. “It might be worthwhile to get you to do that for the rest of the summoned if you can. It would be good for morale.”

“With what time? I had to skip sleeping last night to make that happen, doing that for two hundred people would break me.”

“As if you aren’t already breaking,” She shot back before walking over to him to plunge her arms into her chest. “You’re still getting headaches, I take it?”

“Off and on. They really aren’t that bad.”

“Except the strain to your mind is beginning to extend to your soul, which on the one hand shouldn’t be that surprising since that’s what you’re actually thinking with, but on the other is still troubling.”

“Um, okay, consider me troubled. How worried should I be?”

“…Probably not at all,” She admitted. “A little strain isn’t going to hurt you, at least not in a case like this, even if it’s bizarre to see. I don’t even know how you’re managing this right now. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Okay, I’m going to take that as it’s fine. The headaches are infrequent anyway so it’s probably not a big deal and Yuzu would have said something the last time I saw her if it looked worrying. Speaking of, is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Myriad reassured him. “Giving a blessing just creates a different type of strain compared to casting a normal spell. She’ll need a few days to recover from it but her teacher will be able to help speed things up on that front too.”

“Okay, cool then.”

With nothing else on his mind, he was prepared to give them an easy night while he focused on whatever books they could make him, but he felt Helori fidgeting, the sensation made all of the worse thanks to her arms still being inside of him.

“Something on your mind Helori? And if you’re done, can you pull those out.”

“…I have a favour to ask,” She admitted after a second’s hesitation, leaving his side to go back to sitting atop Myriad.

“Okay, what is it then?”

He felt a little on guard, the fact that she was hesitating to just say it couldn’t help but make him suspicious, but the actual request seemed harmless enough.

“With the next wave coming, I was interested in having my main church renovated to help ease the minds of any of my people who’re going there to seek comfort. Obviously, you’re the first name that came to mind.”

“Wait, is that all? That’s fine. Jeez, with the way you were hesitating, I was worried you might have a secret grandchild too.”

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“Absolutely not.”

“Cool, so what’s the issue then?”

“…With the war efforts in full swing and given I’m a smaller goddess, I don’t actually have much I can pay you for your services.”

It felt shameful for her to admit that, especially when what she was asking for was an entire renovation, but if she wanted it done by the best option she had available then she didn’t have much choice. All she could do was hope that he’d be a bit flexible on prices if he’d be willing to do it and waited while she watched him think, getting an answer that surprised her.

“Okay, you don’t need to pay me, I’ll do it.”