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After that, Asherah and I made surprisingly smooth progress on the Journey.
Her lively energy has returned, and she's no longer in such a rush.
She easily passed through all the stages of training, quests, and trials. Now, only the final trial remained.
Then one day, when we were focused on training for the final trial...
Captain, are you present?
The letter you've asked me to send to Lady Alicia the other day...
She... actually replied!
Captain, you wrote to Alicia?
Oh, that letter...
She's such a busy person and she's usually away, you see.
All I could do was leave the letter on her desk and hope she saw it.
I honestly didn't expect her to reply at all...
I received the letter from Lisa and read it.
Mhmm...
What... does it say?
Here, take a read.
Asherah took the letter with a puzzled look on her face.
Dear Captain,
My apologies for not introducing myself sooner. I hope you will forgive the delay, given the current circumstances.
But I must say, this is a bit unexpected.
Your first letter to me being about the Star Savior...
I didn't think you would be interested in that person.
You asked Alicia about the Star Savior?
When Asherah first brought up the Star Savior, I thought about what could help her. And that's when I thought of Alicia.
After all, no one knows more about the Star Savior than Alicia.
Many have wrong notions about him.
They believe he became who he was because he was special from the beginning.
But my first impression of him was nothing like that...
He was timid, soft. An ordinary person you would find anywhere.
Oh...
...
Over time, many books and stories spoke of his greatness...
But he wasn't the kind of superhero who could do anything, unlike how the legends make him out to be.
There was only one thing that set him apart from others.
His unwavering perseverance to keep moving toward his goal.
At first, people around him laughed, but little by little, they were moved by his determination.
Even those who once opposed him eventually came to support him.
Many people gathered around him and united their strength.
And in the end, the Star Savior was able to save the world.
...Now, after all this time, all anyone remembers about him is the power he had.
But as I said before, he wasn't strong from the start.
He always said that anyone could become like him.
And now, I believe those words.
The [Journey member] you've taken under your wing has all the potential become just like him.
May the blessing of the stars be with you and your Journey.
...
I see...
It's not like I believed everything written in those books, but...
...
Heh... Even in that aspect...
You're just like him... Captain...
Hm? Did you just say something?
O-oh, nothing, nothing!
Just talking to myself you know. Yep!
Anyway, thank you, Captain. Really. You even wrote to Alicia for me.
It's like... It's like my head feels clearer somehow.
Now I finally feel like... I can move on from being the little girl who used to read storybooks.
Let's keep sticking together until the end, Captain.
Yeah, let's do that.
It looks like Asherah's preparations for the final trial are complete.