The End of a Long Day
The End of a Long Day
"Please wait in the drawing room, as I must have a serious discussion with Sir Rupert regarding the sacred painting."
The mere fact that the Saintess and a young nobleman had been together in the drawing room was already unsettling.
But when she emerged after their conversation and said she would be alone with him in the workshop, the bishop and holy knights were thrown into bewilderment.
Of course, the Saintess's word was absolute, so they had no choice but to obey, yet they could not easily understand it.
She said the Mother's voice could only be heard by Rupert, the artist—they too were children of the Mother Goddess, so they felt a twinge of hurt.
However, they could not voice any dissatisfaction with the Saintess's words. Even the Pope, the head of the Order, could not directly hear the Mother's words, whereas the Saintess was the sole being capable of communing with the Goddess.
When a previous Saintess returned to the Mother's embrace, a new Saintess was born somewhere on the continent.
When that Saintess turned seven, the Pope of the era would dream a dream sent by the Goddess.
'My daughter has now been born and raised somewhere on the continent, so go and bring her.'
That was the content of the dream.
Thus, the moment the Pope traveled to the commanded location and personally faced the seven-year-old girl, the process of the Saintess's birth was complete.
The Saintess born in this way often took on the role of conveying the Goddess's will to the figures of the Order.
As befitting the Goddess's daughter, she possessed Divine Power surpassing even the Pope, and though her rank was said to be equal to the Pope's, she was in truth the most important figure in the Order.
An existence akin to the Goddess's own avatar, sent down out of love and fondness for humanity, her own creation.
There was no way anyone in the Order would dare object to such a Saintess's words.
And that very Saintess was now in the workshop, fervently conveying the Goddess's will to Rupert.
"The veins on the forearm should be clearly visible, Brother."
Despite it being midwinter, Rupert was drawing with all his might, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
It was a scene from the manga volume <Iron-Blooded Alchemist>, depicting the main characters Edmund Eldric and Lloyd Cavallo embracing each other with deliberately stern expressions.
The Saintess was pointing at Lloyd Cavallo's arm in the drawing.
Cavallo was depicted with his shirt sleeves rolled up to near his elbows.
The important part here, she kept telling Rupert, was the veins prominently bulging on his forearm.
"My, Brother, you truly are a natural talent."
When Rupert drew Edmund's expression with his lip bitten, the Saintess's face brightened beyond measure.
A reaction as if she had witnessed the Goddess herself before her very eyes.
But despite her fervent response, Rupert felt like he was losing his mind.
'What on earth is this...'
Before drawing webtoons, there had been a period when he worked as an illustrator.
Memories of the various jobs he had done back then suddenly resurfaced.
'So you're asking me to draw a beautiful girl with puppy ears and a tail?'
'No, I asked you to draw a pretty dog?'
Demands so gruesome that merely hearing the description made his common sense crumble.
But those clients always came offering huge sums of money, so he could never refuse—happy and miserable memories in equal measure.
However, even Rupert, who had accommodated the demands of such people, had one commission he had never accepted.
'I never thought I'd end up drawing BL.'
Rupert had endured even furry art, but that particular domain alone felt like some forbidden thing to him as a biological male, so he had never been able to draw it.
Now he had no choice but to draw it.
He had expected her to demand a sacred painting, but the Saintess had asked for illustrations of male characters.
Honestly, compared to the price of her keeping his lie a secret in front of the Crown Prince, it seemed like a cheap price to pay, so he had no particular complaints.
Except her fervent reaction was a little frightening.
If the Saintess were ever caught with this drawing, she would be questioned about its source.
'Sir Rupert drew it for me as a gift.'
The Order's people wouldn't be able to interrogate the Saintess, so wouldn't they come after him with nails and a hammer—those were the worries running through his mind.
"Um, Saintess. I am honored to draw for the daughter of Gaia, of course. But I worry that this drawing might put you in an awkward position..."
"Why would this drawing be a problem?"
"Well, that's..."
Rupert's lips twitched. He could hardly say, So you think a picture of two men embracing is normal? But the Saintess answered without a care.
"This is the noble camaraderie of warriors."
"Camaraderie?"
"Yes, look. These two are comrades-in-arms who fight with their own convictions. How could you harbor frivolous thoughts looking at them, Brother?"
Because your eyes look like they're harboring frivolous thoughts.
Rupert swallowed the words that had risen to his throat with superhuman patience and quietly began drawing again.
At last, the drawing was complete.
The Saintess admired the drawing Rupert handed her for a long while, then nodded as if satisfied and carefully rolled up the paper.
Then she tucked it preciously into a pocket attached to the white frill that he had assumed was merely decorative.
"But what should be done about the sacred painting?"
"Ah, the sacred painting was just an excuse from the start, Brother."
"Pardon?"
"If you have money to paint a sacred painting, it would be better to give a bowl of porridge to the poor of the Empire."
Watching the Saintess say she had never intended to commission a sacred painting in the first place, Rupert could only make a dumbfounded expression.
Her goal from the beginning had been BL art, and the sacred painting had been an excuse to come meet him.
It was astonishing that this entire affair had moved according to the Saintess's plan, but her boldness in using even the variables that arose along the way as means to achieve her goal drew admiration from Rupert.
Even if Rupert went around telling everyone this fact, they would sooner scoff than believe him.
To catch even a glimpse of the true nature of the Saintess, whom he had assumed to be a purely good and noble existence.
Rupert found drawing that kind of picture difficult, to be sure, but he thought the gains were considerable.
"I'll tell them the sacred painting proved difficult to proceed with and that we'll do it later when the Mother sends another revelation."
"Yes, understood. But isn't it problematic to lie about it being the Goddess's words?"
Unlike Earth, this novel world was one where gods undeniably existed.
Rupert felt a little afraid at the thought that the Goddess—who might have been the very being that sent him into this world—could see this mess and strike him with lightning in her fury.
But
"Children naturally cause their parents grief as they grow, so Mother will understand."
Seeing her speak so shamelessly to the very end, Rupert's tension broke and he let out a laugh.
Well, even the Saintess, the Goddess's daughter, was ultimately human, so she was bound to have her own desires.
With a somewhat lighter heart, Rupert saw the Saintess off as she left the mansion and returned inside.
"It really was too long a day."
The Saintess's visit and Amelia's sickbed visit.
And the Crown Prince's arrival on top of it all made this day incredibly exhausting, but since everything had been resolved well, it seemed like something he could keep as a memory.
'I'm glad I've been training my body lately.'
It wasn't a joke—if he had faced today's events in his old state, steeped in fatigue and Vitality Potions, his legs might have given out several times already.
Some of the household servants had collapsed into their seats only after the Saintess departed, as if the tension had finally released.
"Alright, you're dismissed. Everyone collapsed today, so don't push yourselves any further."
Rupert also went to the workshop employees and ordered them to leave for the day, even though there was still time left.
No matter that the Saintess had healed them, he thought it unwise to push people who had collapsed.
"Pardon? But there's still time left?"
"Don't push yourselves. There isn't much work right now anyway, is there?"
Rupert said with a bright smile.
Watching Rupert, the artisans felt a strange mix of emotions: happiness, but also an inexplicable unease.
When Rupert had recovered after collapsing and began promoting the slogan "Health is productivity!" while making everyone exercise every morning, they had wondered what his ulterior motive was.
But truly, from that day onward, overtime had vanished.
So recently, the artisans who went home early were happy, but also somehow uneasy.
Somewhere in their hearts, a strange irritation—why are we only doing this much work?
Now that they were told not to, they wanted to work overtime. Going home early just meant their wives nagged and their children wouldn't even talk to them.
Chatting and laughing with colleagues at the workshop was more comfortable, in a way.
Unaware of the artisans' peculiar ambivalence, Rupert urged them to leave and headed to his workshop himself.
Because he had to begin work on volume 5 of <Iron-Blooded Alchemist>.
Work had briefly halted when he collapsed after volume 4's release, but separately from that, the storyboard work for volume 5 was already finished.
If anything, his head felt clearer now, so the work came out more easily, and the release schedule didn't seem likely to be delayed much.
"The scene where the protagonist brothers head north to find an ally should appear."
The protagonist had approached the truth through the dying message—"The military is in danger"—that Mark Hughes, Lloyd Cavallo's comrade, had uttered just before his death.
Since they couldn't oppose the Artificial Human faction with their strength alone, it had to begin with them seeking out the Grand Duke of the North, called the Wall of the Empire.
With many characters appearing afterward, volume 5 could be called a buildup stage for volume 6.
The villain Kimbala, the Rose Alchemist who wielded explosion alchemy, was also an indispensable character.
Beyond that, the identity of Superbia of Pride, the hidden mastermind of the Artificial Human faction, would also appear.
And with the protagonist brothers' father and "that existence" appearing, it would throw the readers into tremendous confusion.
'It feels like making millions of friends.'
Every time he showed the people of this other world the stories he had created by adapting and altering works he had originally known.
Rupert felt as if he were talking about manga with friends.
When he imagined the unimaginably many people reading the book he had made and sharing the same impressions as him, his fatigue seemed to melt away.
That was why Rupert wanted to show volume 5 to the waiting readers as quickly as possible.
He wanted to let them know such an entertaining story existed, and to converse with them like friends.
Of course, since he couldn't overdo it now, he would refrain from all-night work, but it wasn't easy to hold himself back.
'Just let me off the hook for today.'
Sitting at his desk and drawing manga, Rupert's eyes gleamed with vitality.