A steady stream of chimes rang out one after another, but Tom paid them no attention, still stuck somewhere between bewilderment and mild alarm.
After talking things through with Nicolas that morning, he'd come away with a much fuller picture of just how single-mindedly devoted Joan really was.
But this... wasn't this working a little too well?
Her approval had shot straight to full in a single day?
Meeting Joan's practically blazing gaze, Tom felt, in a rare moment for him, something close to guilt.
Deceiving the naive shouldn't count as a crime, surely.
And if it did, well, he'd simply have to get that particular law amended. As for actual guilt, he didn't really carry that kind of thing around. A man like him, feeling remorse? Unlikely.
Besides, if some vague, intangible "Lord" was going to be the one coaxing this poor girl along either way, wasn't it better that a real, tangible person handle it instead?
God?
If the situation called for it, he could be God too.
"Divine Son, please rest assured." Joan shot to her feet, practically vibrating with excitement, her young, clear voice ringing with conviction, almost like an oath being sworn. "I will organize and refine everything I know as quickly as I possibly can, and offer it all up to you completely."
"Excellent! That's the spirit!" Tom gave her an approving thumbs up. "Though 'everything' will have to wait until we're both a bit older. For now, focus on your studies. Learn your letters properly before we worry about the rest."
Joan's face flushed, and she nodded, meek and obedient.
Tom called Ariana over and put her in charge of teaching Joan basic literacy and everyday knowledge. The little girl thumped her chest in agreement, marched straight over to Joan, and demanded to be called teacher.
When Joan obediently addressed her as "Teacher Ariana," Ariana's eyes crinkled into twin crescents of pure delight.
Never mind who she was teaching, or what subject. After waiting this long, she'd finally gotten to play teacher, exactly as she'd always wanted.
...
Watching Joan and Ariana walk off hand in hand, Tom finally found a moment to examine the three gifts waiting for him.
Handed to him this freely felt almost too easy, but the value behind that talent clearly wasn't small at all.
How else could a sixteen-year-old girl who couldn't even read become a master of that tier?
[Unshakable Conviction (25% Approval Reward): Joan possesses a will as unbending as steel by nature, one that no external factor can shake. Increases spellcasting success rate and amplifies magical power.]
[Voice of Revelation (50% Approval Reward): Years spent listening to missionaries recite Scripture and devotional texts have led Joan to interpret her extraordinary intuition as "the voice of the Lord." Combined with Unshakable Conviction, this elevates her intuitive gift further still, granting near-precognitive prediction of enemy movement in battle, along with the ability to sense the good or ill intent in another's heart.]
[Divine Grace Incarnate: Scarlet Lotus Saint (Full Approval Reward): To live out one's faith with life and soul entire, transfigured through purifying flame. In the final instant of dissolution, magic, spirit, and existence itself are branded into the fabric of the world, stirring unforeseeable shifts in its rules. Magical power ascends beyond its own nature, and the flame that consumes one's life becomes a lotus fire of judgment, consuming all.]
Tom read through the descriptions of all three talents first, mulled them over for a moment, then claimed the first two in order.
Unshakable Conviction gave him no immediate sensation upon claiming it, but the moment he tested magic experimentally, he felt the shift at once, something remarkably similar to the deepening he'd experienced from strengthening his soul's core nature.
Voice of Revelation's intuitive boost, meanwhile, seemed to only kick in under specific conditions. The talent's supposed sense for "good and evil" wasn't some abstract moral compass at all, but rather a read on whether a given person harbored goodwill or ill intent specifically toward the one who held the gift.
That was basically a cheat code, honestly.
As for the final talent, Divine Grace Incarnate, Tom decided against claiming it just yet. Something about its description sounded a bit too dramatic for comfort, and he had no idea how long absorbing it might take, or whether it would trigger some kind of dramatic spectacle. Better to save it for later that night.
Tom hopped out of bed, rushed through washing up, and hurried to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"You seem awfully cheerful today." Hermione noticed something different about him, the faint smile lingering on his face tugging upward without his seeming to notice at all.
"Of course I'm happy. I get to see you."
The offhand bit of sweetness had Hermione ducking her head, blushing. Ordinarily this level of playful flirting between them barely registered anymore, but for some reason, today it felt different, more sincere, and she found herself genuinely believing Tom's good mood really did have something to do with her.
Tom noticed the shift in her too. They'd been at this long enough now that Hermione would normally roll her eyes at a line like that, or pinch him for show. Being visibly swept off her feet like this wasn't like her at all.
He quickly put it together: this was Unshakable Conviction at work. Not only did he believe every word he said now, apparently everyone around him started believing it too.
No wonder a simple country girl had once managed to rally noblemen, knights, and soldiers alike to charge into battle behind her.
Tom fell into thought, and Daphne, standing nearby, immediately pouted.
"Tom, so you only care about seeing Hermione? Fine, I'll just go, then."