Jonas kept the girl by his side partly because he worried that the Void Realm Church might take drastic action against her, and partly to give Yushua a little taste of Alt's might the next time she came.
He had initially thought that being deemed a "Qualified One" by that unknown entity in the Void Realm was hardly good news for Celine. Yet Miss Yushua was not the self-centered person he had imagined, and her faith was not as easily shaken as Afanisi had claimed... judging by her conversation with Celine, though, she did resemble Afanisi in the early days.
He simply did not understand why she had changed her faith along the way. Jonas had originally assumed Yushua was an egotist who used faith as a tool, but when she said she was willing to accept Celine as the new Saintess and pledge her loyalty to her, that clashed with his original impression of her as an ambitious schemer.
That led to one conclusion... the Zerg Overlord in the Void Realm had indeed concealed certain things from him, and had paid a price for doing so.
To keep him from losing trust over this matter, the Overlord had even been willing to share a nearly eternal lifespan with him.
Jonas shook his head, stopped dwelling on what the Overlord had hidden, and turned his attention back to the girl before him.
Her eyes sparkled with anticipation. Though she said nothing, her expression spoke volumes.
Jonas tapped her on the head and said irritably:
"What's with that look?"
Despite the tap on her head, the girl held her head in her hands and grinned foolishly as she said:
"Hehehe, Mr. Jonas, when you said I could stay by your side, did you mean never leaving it?"
"What are you imagining?