I’m an Immigration Officer!

“Uwaaaah!”
Caught between telekinesis and divine power, the Gustatory Officer let out a short scream.
Would there ever be another day as overwhelming as today for Sita Rahim?

“The nightmare of the Fire Spirit all over again…”
The memories of nearly being roasted alive came flooding back.
But no—this was far worse than the Fire Spirit incident.

It was happening right now, right in front of her eyes—the two women brought in by the Chief Officer, glaring at each other, spreading an ominous atmosphere across the room.
Rumble rumble rumble…
The real problem was that ominous atmosphere wasn’t staying as mere tension—it was physically affecting reality itself.

“W-What do I do, what do I do, w-what should I do…?”
She couldn’t even speak properly.
The two of them were far beyond anything she could possibly intervene with.

One was the former Saintess of the Holy Order.
The other, the current Princess of the Cross-Line Kingdom.
How was a mere Gustatory Officer like her supposed to stop people who could, with a mere glance, make someone like her disappear without a trace?

Crackle…
The sinister sound of power clashing echoed nonstop throughout the Recovery Room.
At this rate, there was no predicting what could happen.

“P-Please, the two of you shouldn’t fight… The Chief Officer will be sad…”
With all the courage she could muster, the Gustatory Officer squeaked out her words, trembling.
The response came immediately.
“We’re not fighting.”

“Mmmph…”
They answered without even glancing at Sita, eyes locked onto each other in a deadly stare.
Anyone could tell this absolutely looked like a fight.

“Princess. Say that again. No—choose again.”
Erzena pointed at the desk with the tip of her finger.
On it were dozens of paper cards, each with a word written on it.

“I won’t ask twice. Choose carefully.”
Her voice, colder than at any moment since she’d come to the Immigration Bureau seeking asylum, cut through the room.
“What exactly… is Nathan to you?”

Without hesitation, Elaine picked up two cards.
In her right hand—‘Friend.’
In her left hand—‘Man.’

Erzena read the two words aloud.
“Friend… and man…”
Simple enough.

The words Elaine had chosen showed their meaning exactly as they ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) were.
To the Princess, Nathan was a friend. Close enough to exchange letters.
And also, a man.

A friend who’s a man. That’s all there is to it.
That’s what Erzena had been thinking—exactly two minutes ago.
But if you rearranged those words… blended them appropriately…

“…Boyfriend.”
The word twisted into something completely absurd.
Once again, the two women’s eyes clashed.

Crack-crack-crackle!!!
The divine power in the room surged with unprecedented intensity.
A golden light burst forth from Erzena’s eyes.

Grrrk—
And as if in direct rebellion, the telekinesis rattled through the entire Recovery Room.
“Hiiiieeeek!! Ch-Chief Officer!!!”

Only the pitiful scream of the Gustatory Officer managed to match the atmosphere.
 
Approximately 30 minutes earlier.

 
“Hmmm… What am I supposed to do about this…”
Erzena sat inside the Recovery Room, staring at Elaine, who hadn’t moved for ages, wearing a clearly troubled expression.

“Mmm…”
The Princess’s expression was pure gloom.
Whatever she’d been doing outside, she’d come back after a noisy incident, completely in low spirits.

And of course, Nathan was nowhere to be seen, having vanished somewhere yet again.
Why would Nathan leave Princess Elaine with me…?
She pondered for a moment.

Nathan wasn’t the type to do things like this thoughtlessly.
He must’ve entrusted the Princess to her with some expectation in mind.
Did he want me to help with her aphasia?

No, that wasn’t it.
You could tell from their first meeting.
Elaine had shown fierce hostility at the mere sight of divine power.

Which was why Erzena was currently suppressing her golden aura as much as possible.
Then what the hell is this about…
A word suddenly floated to the forefront of her mind.

Friend.
Yeah… Maybe… Maybe Nathan asked me to be her friend.
The Princess only knew two people here—Hannah and the Chief Officer.

It was the exact same situation Erzena herself had been in when she first applied for temporary asylum.
And we’re already housemates too…
The way Elaine looked at Nathan did make her a bit concerned, but… it should be fine.

Nathan wasn’t the type of man to be easily swayed by that.
But… I have no idea what to even say to her.
Conversations didn’t work one-sidedly.

It had to be a give-and-take, an exchange of emotions and words—that’s what communication was.
Erzena slowly opened her mouth.
“Uhm… Elaine?”

“Mmm…”
The girl muttered weakly, visibly deflated.
As expected, Erzena couldn’t understand a single thing she said.

She frowned and glanced around.
“She can’t speak… Ah, how about writing, then?”
At those words, Elaine instantly perked up.

Nod, nod.
Why didn’t I think of that sooner?
Erzena quickly fetched some paper and a pen.

The moment Elaine got the paper, she began scribbling furiously without pause.
Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch…
“P-Princess, hold on a sec—”

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch…
About a minute later, the paper came back.
Erzena took it and read.

[ThismorningIwokewithgreatanticipationaboutgoingtotheImmigrationBureaubutafterwatchingtheChiefOfficer’sinspectionIrealizedthattheworldisatrulyterrifyingpla—]
Fwip.
Her hand instinctively slammed the paper shut.

She barely stopped the flood of overwhelming information from pouring out.
It was pure reflexive rejection.
“Wh-What was that just now…?”

More densely packed letters than even the Holy Order’s scriptures.
Tap-tap.
Elaine tapped the desk with her pen, silently pressuring Erzena to let her keep writing.

“Mmm…”
In that moment, the former Saintess realized it.
Losing one’s ability to speak… also meant losing the ability to communicate in any meaningful way.

For someone long isolated from the world, conversations weren’t dialogues—they were nothing but a one-sided dumping of information and emotions.
This couldn’t be called a conversation. It was just solitary muttering and scribbling.
That was the only way Elaine interacted with the world.

“L-Let’s do this instead!”
In a rush, Erzena grabbed two blank sheets of paper and scrawled out massive letters.
[Yes.]
[No.]

“This should make it easier for us!”
The most important things in making a friend were common ground and pacing.
Not going too fast—finding shared ground.

That was the first step to becoming friends.
Let’s try taking that step.
Maybe, just maybe, Elaine was open to it.

Maybe this was the best way to teach her how to communicate with the world.
“Elaine… do you… like cake?”
Start with food.

No one in the world hates cake.
A carefully crafted, foolproof question.
Elaine picked up a card.

[No.]
“…”
From the very first moment, Erzena felt like she couldn’t breathe.

 
****
“So then, not just showers… how often do you take a full bath, soaking your entire body?”

At the fifteenth question fired her way, Elaine picked up the paper cards in front of her.
[Once.] [A week.] [Evening.]
The vocabulary cards, which originally only had Yes and No, had now multiplied into well over a dozen different words.

“Excellent! Same here. Taking a bath before bed makes the blankets feel impossibly soft, doesn’t it?”
Elaine stared blankly at the woman chattering away in front of her.
…Weird woman.

That was the conclusion Elaine had come to.
She said she used to be the Saintess of the Holy Order.
That alone was more than enough reason for Elaine to hate her.

But Erzena claimed she excommunicated herself.
Why?
She was a woman who had once stood at the pinnacle of the Church.

And yet, she threw all that away and now sat across from Elaine, completely unaffected.
She should be uncomfortable around me…
From the Holy Order’s perspective, Elaine was nothing but a ticking time bomb.

A monster who had received divine love, only to use that power to kill her own brother.
But there wasn’t a trace of discomfort in Erzena’s demeanor.
Elaine’s green eyes quietly studied the woman in front of her, curiosity filling her gaze.

What exactly was this woman?
“All right. Let’s add more words. Let’s see… Man, Woman, Money, Trust, Friend, Funny…”
Erzena, now more excited than anyone, eagerly scribbled dozens of new words onto the paper.

Watching in silence, Elaine’s lips quivered ever so slightly.
The heavy gloom that had been weighing on her gradually began to lift, replaced by a faint spark of excitement.
It was honestly strange.

Hannah, who understood her wants without a word.
Nathan, the only person who could fully comprehend her mumbled speech.
Only those two ever stayed near me without being uncomfortable…

Who would’ve thought there’d be someone else, trying so actively to talk to her?
“Oh! Right! We should go buy some flowers together later. Nathan has zero interest in that stuff, so the house feels way too dreary, don’t you think?”
Little by little, Elaine’s thinking began to shift.

Maybe… maybe the world isn’t filled with only dangerous things, unlike what I saw at the Immigration Bureau…
Looking back, even that stubborn Dwarf eventually calmed down after talking things through with the Chief Officer.
And Erzena… not once had she released divine power in front of Elaine.

Consideration.
Something Elaine had only ever received from Hannah and the Chief Officer.
From Erzena, she could feel a strange sense of warmth.

A gentle, gradually disarming feeling, like the tension inside her unraveling bit by bit.
Even knowing she had been part of the Holy Order, that warmth didn’t go away.
It almost… felt like having an older sister.

“Okay, next question!”
But—there was one thing.
One little thing that stuck in her mind.

“When Nathan went to the Capital to meet you…”
“Nathan…”
She kept calling the Chief Officer by name.

Not his title. Not his surname.
With no regard for professional boundaries, Erzena referred to him as Nathan, casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Throb.

Without realizing it, Elaine placed a hand over her chest.
What is this feeling…
She didn’t know.

But every time she heard that word, a small discomfort bubbled inside her.
It didn’t hurt, but her chest tightened.
An unfamiliar sensation.

And at the same time, one fact resurfaced in her mind.
Nathan…
The Chief Officer called her by name.

Don’t cross that line.
There were times when he even dropped formalities entirely, speaking to her like they were close.
But I…

She still only ever referred to him by his title.
The discomfort inside her grew a little bigger.
Nathan called her a friend.

To the Princess, Nathan Kell was someone irreplaceable.
Her only true understanding companion.
I want to call the Chief Officer by his name too…

If she had the right to.
If she had the courage to.
Would it be okay to call him by his name?

At that moment—
“Ahem. Princess Elaine. So… what kind of relationship do you have with Nathan?”
Erzena asked, pretending to avert her eyes like it was nothing, though she was clearly being careful.

“Oh, I’m just curious! That guy never talks about himself…”
Elaine didn’t hesitate.
The answer was obvious.

She immediately scanned the mountain of cards on the desk.
“…Huh?”
But Only and Understanding Companion weren’t there.

“Mmm…”
Her eyes filled with flustered confusion.
She hadn’t thought of anything beyond that.

So, she picked the words that came closest.
[Friend], and [Man].
Nathan Kell was the first man to approach her, someone she could rely on.

At the same time, an irreplaceable, precious friend.
She held up the two cards.
At the sight, Erzena’s expression visibly relaxed with relief.

“Hmm. I see… Friend and Man… No, wait.”
Barely three seconds later, her face froze.
“…Boyfriend?”

“Eh? Uh… u-uh?”
Elaine, completely caught off guard by the unexpected word combination, lifted her head in surprise.
Crackle!

The divine power Erzena had been suppressing burst forth.
The suffocating golden aura filled Elaine’s vision, and without thinking, she released her telekinesis.
Completely unaware of the misunderstanding she had just caused.

“What did you just say, Elaine?”
“Eh? U-uh? Uh… ah?”
Like a hedgehog unaware of how sharp its own quills were—Elaine had no idea what she’d just stabbed.

But once she sensed hostility, she had no choice but to respond.
“…Mmm.”
That was how she’d survived this long.

Grk—
The telekinesis responded to her emotions, violently surging.
 

Later…
 
It wasn’t until after the Director of the Magic Society finally finished her work and left that I could head back to the Immigration Bureau.

“Damn, I’m running late.”
The sun was already starting to dip toward the horizon.
I made my way toward the Recovery Room, where Erzena would be.

Now that I finally understood what to say, what to show Elaine, there was no reason to hesitate.
Clack.
I opened the door and spoke immediately.

“Elaine, Erzena. Are you two he—Oh.”
And I froze on the spot.
The first thing I saw was Erzena, arms crossed, looking down at the Princess.

Her head raised with a regal posture I’d never seen before, her eyes lowered, glaring at Elaine.
The second thing I saw was Elaine, standing directly in front of her, locking eyes without flinching.
Her usual timid expression was gone—now replaced with pure tension and suspicion, one hand raised defensively.

The divine power and telekinesis split the Recovery Room cleanly in two, each side rippling like opposing forces at war.
And the last thing I saw—
“Chief Officerrrr…”

The Gustatory Officer, clinging to my pant leg, sobbing.
“I wanna go home eaaaaarly…”
Her hair a tangled mess, her face blotchy, clearly swept up in the crossfire of these two forces.

“P-Please let me go hoooome… waaahh!”
It’s already after hours, why is she talking about early leave?
“…What the hell happened here?”

My brain couldn’t even process the situation.
How do two people fall apart this badly in just an hour?
That’s when—

“Nathan.”
A voice colder than a midwinter northern wind called my name.
“Y-Yeah. Erzena.”

Wrapped in that suffocating golden aura, the former Saintess, housemate, asylum seeker, and collaborator spoke.
“You. We need to talk.”
“Huh? You mean… outside?”

“Yes. Right now.”
I just solved the last crisis, what the hell now?