Outside the gates of the Goddess of Nature's Temple.
At this moment, Sophie and her two companions were still waiting there.
The three of them neither spoke nor did anything else. They simply stood quietly where they were, waiting for Shien and Merika to emerge from the temple.
Yet as they waited, Sophie and the others ended up waiting for a full hour.
The three of them did not grow impatient.
Still, seeing that Shien and Merika had yet to come out of the temple, Sophie and the others found it somewhat unbelievable.
"They've been in there for so long."
Leia could not help but speak up.
"Yeah."
Nia agreed wholeheartedly.
Hearing them, Sophie more or less understood what they were thinking.
An hour was nothing to the long-lived Elves.
But when paying respects to the Goddess of Nature, one of the pinnacles of the Divine Realm, being able to speak with that Goddess for an entire hour was rather astonishing.
"Goddess Nadula must have had a lot she wanted to say to those two, right?"
Sophie remarked with feeling.
Being able to speak with one of the Divine Realm's pinnacles for so long was, in itself, something worthy of others' admiration.
If she did not truly value them, how could such a lofty Goddess possibly converse with others for so long?
That was precisely what Leia and Nia found surprising.
"Could there be some very serious problem behind Merika's sudden surge in mana?"
Leia made such a guess.
"Not necessarily." Nia had a different opinion. "If she only wanted to discuss Merika's situation, then Goddess Nadula would not have summoned that male outsider as well."
Nia believed that what Goddess Nadula wanted to discuss with those two was certainly not limited to Merika's condition.
"That's true." Leia acknowledged it,