Hero, I Will Definitely Save You!
“Waaaaah!!”
Tenesa finally gave up.
She abandoned any hope of calming the Hero who was sobbing and throwing a tantrum inside the solitary cell, or of making her understand.
No matter what words she offered, the Hero showed not the slightest intention of listening right now.
Perhaps with time she would settle a little.
Being far too considerate of the Hero when she was first summoned had been a mistake.
True, she was the Hero summoned to this world bearing the heavy mission of subjugating the Demon King. Yet coldly speaking, she was still only a girl cast into a strange world. Moreover, in the world she had come from, women were said to be fragile beings—much like the men of this world.
From Tenesa’s perspective, if she herself had ever married and borne a child, she would have had a daughter just like her. So she had treated the Hero the Goddess had guided to her as her own daughter, cherishing her and trying to help her grow.
At first she had thought the girl simply could not mingle with those around her because she had been summoned into an unfamiliar world. But after watching her carefully for a long time, Tenesa realized the truth.
A child full of wounds…
She simply did not know how to deal with people, and found other human beings deeply uncomfortable. The only person she could communicate with at all was Tenesa, whom the Goddess had named as her proxy. Even then, unless something truly special was afoot, she was extremely reluctant to converse. It was a reaction born of the simple fact that people themselves made her uneasy.
Therefore, so that she would not feel uncomfortable… so that she would not come to hate this world and might adapt well… Tenesa had been as considerate as possible.
Far from resenting the way their Pope treated the Hero, the church personnel had actually welcomed it. Who, after all, was the Hero? She was the one the Goddess herself had summoned and charged with the mission of slaying the Demon King. When the Hero acted willfully or avoided people, they simply believed she needed time to adjust to a strange world, and they understood. Not one of them harbored any other thought, because the church’s faithful could not help but feel unconditional goodwill toward the Hero who bore the Goddess’s blessings.
The blessings the Goddess had bestowed upon summoning the Hero were many, but three stood out as representative:
The blessing of language, so that a Hero from another world could communicate smoothly with the people of this one.
The blessing of discernment, allowing one to know whether a person or an action ran counter to the Goddess’s doctrines.
And the blessing of affection, ensuring that even if not every soul in this world could love the Hero, at least those of the church who followed the Goddess’s teachings would never hate her and would instead hold her dear.
Because of these, even Tenesa—Pope and head of the church—had not been entirely free of goodwill when dealing with the Hero. Yet she understood the Goddess’s blessings better than anyone, and so she never acted with blind favoritism; she always exercised judgment. That was why, though it tore at her heart, she had been able to make the grave decision to confine the Hero to solitary confinement.
Having resolved to return for the Hero later, Tenesa entrusted her to the one person in the church she trusted most.
“Yuria, under no circumstances are you to allow the Hero out of that cell without my permission.”
“Yes, I understand, Your Holiness.”
Yuria was one of the cardinals serving under the Pope. She was so capable that she had risen to that lofty rank at an age nearly the same as the Hero’s, and she followed Tenesa more devotedly than anyone else in the church. As a child she had been an orphan; on the brink of starvation Tenesa had taken her in. From that day she had trusted and obeyed Tenesa above all others. In order to be of use to her, she had studied and trained relentlessly until, still young, she had climbed to a cardinal’s seat that no one in the church dared take lightly. That was why Tenesa could place her faith in Yuria.
“Should the Hero somehow get outside and act on impulse, the only person who can stop her is me—because I hold the sacred relic.”
Still, just to be certain, Tenesa felt compelled to drive the point home even more firmly.
“If she leaves without me at her side, she may well head straight for the Frigid Grand Ducal family. Should that happen, the situation will become far more troublesome.”
If the Hero, without any mental growth or even a brief period of reflection, slipped out alone while Tenesa was away, there was no telling what she might do.
“You must never let the Hero leave this cell. This is an unavoidable measure for her own sake.”
Yuria, too, would feel goodwill toward the Hero because of the Goddess’s blessing. Tenesa had even explained the reason for the confinement, yet she still fretted that the girl might somehow set the Hero free.
“Yes, I understand.”
Yuria grasped why Tenesa kept repeating the reasons and stressing them so hard; she spoke again so that her superior would not worry.
“I place Your Holiness Tenesa’s… no, Mother’s words above even the Hero’s. Please trust me.”
“Yuria… thank you… It’s been so long since you called me that…”
Yuria had often called the woman who had taken her in “Mother.” She used the word only when they were alone—when times were hard, when she had done something she hoped would earn praise, when she truly needed to say something, and when, as now, she needed to set Tenesa’s heart at ease. Tenesa, wholly devoted to serving the Goddess and burdened with endless duties, had never married and had never formally taken an adopted daughter. Yet whenever Yuria called her Mother, far from correcting her, she had welcomed it, thinking that if she had ever borne a child she would have raised her just like this.
Lately, however—more precisely, ever since the Hero’s summoning—Yuria had stopped using the word. Tenesa had assumed it was because the girl now paid her less attention and poured her interest into the Hero instead, and she had felt a quiet pang of loneliness. The reason Yuria called her Mother now was surely to show she would carry out the order without fail and to reassure her.
“I’ll keep dropping by whenever I have a free moment. Please take good care of her.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Tenesa smiled softly, relieved, and left the Hero in Yuria’s care.
The moment she climbed up from the basement that held the solitary cell, Tenesa found a man waiting for her.
“Your Holiness!!!”
“Claude?”
His name was Claude, one of the church’s Saint candidates. The church had its usual ranks—Pope, cardinal, priest—but it also possessed one special office: the Saint. Goddess Rabinus selected pious men from among her faithful and appointed them Saints, though the interval was never fixed. Therefore the church itself designated those who came closest—men who worshipped the Goddess fervently and followed her doctrines well—as Saint candidates and kept them under its care. Of course, because the candidates were chosen by the church alone, a true Saint did not necessarily emerge from their ranks. Still, the practice was a long-standing tradition meant to keep up appearances, and so the church currently maintained several Saint candidates. Holding a position that carried a measure of speaking rights, Claude now confronted the Pope.
“I cannot understand this!”
“What do you mean?”
“The Hero is suffering so terribly—how can you lock her in such a tiny room!?”
The Hero’s screams and thrashing had been so loud that, even though the cell lay deep underground, the noise had reached all the way to the surface. From Claude’s point of view, the Pope’s decision to imprison the Hero whom the Goddess herself had blessed and summoned was bound to raise questions.
“…Have you not heard the news?”
He had heard that the Hero had caused a violent scene at the Frigid Grand Ducal Castle, yet—
“I know! Isn’t the whole disaster because the second son of Frigid seduced the Hero with his beauty? The Hero has done nothing wrong!”
Claude had taken the reports and twisted them to suit himself, so of course Tenesa’s decision made even less sense to him.
“Who on earth told you such absurd nonsense!?”
To Tenesa it was simply ridiculous. The place where the rampage had occurred—hardly fortunate, yet still—had been the Frigid Grand Ducal Castle, and that was why no one had died. The Hero had suddenly displayed an absurd leap in strength; had she run wild in any other household, they might never have subdued her, and countless casualties could have resulted. Yet here was Claude defending the Hero by blaming the second son of Frigid, and Tenesa could not help but grow angry.
Even so, Claude showed no sign of retreating before the scolding of a woman who rarely raised her voice.
“No, Your Holiness—every man in the empire knows!”
“Knows what, exactly?”
He spoke with such brazen confidence, invoking the men of the entire empire, that Tenesa decided to hear him out.
“That the second son of Frigid, famous since childhood as a peerless beauty, has been seducing countless women with his looks and plunging the world into chaos!”
“On what possible grounds are you saying such a thing?”
She had half-expected nonsense, but the second son of Frigid—Edward—seducing women? Everything Camilla had always told her, and every rumor that circulated, insisted that Edward never sought meetings with women. What utter rubbish was this?
Dumbfounded, she demanded his evidence. Claude answered with the same unshaken confidence.
“Evidence abounds! If he had no intention of bewitching women and throwing the world into turmoil, he should have held his debutante the moment he turned fifteen and been a married man by now!”
“That is only because the second son of Frigid himself did not wish—”
“Then why did he attend a debutante precisely at the time the Hero descended!?”
“Haa… The Hero was summoned only recently, and the fact that she has come to this world is known solely to our church…”
“No! That cunning second son of Frigid must have learned of the Hero’s summoning through his own secret methods!”
“Huh…”
Tenesa let out a hollow laugh. It was pure fabrication. Every noble in the empire knew that the imperial family had forced the imperial debutante to be held at the Frigid Grand Ducal Castle. Claude was simply twisting the facts to suit himself. And he was no longer content merely to slander Edward; he was about to cross a line. Tenesa’s expression turned cold.
“Are you suggesting that our church is so lax that a traitor could exist among us, or that a spy could slip inside?”
“Th-that isn’t what I meant—only that the second son of Frigid, by his own methods…”
Only then did Claude realize he had denigrated the church itself while trying to justify his claims, and he hurried to backpedal.
“I can no longer tolerate such baseless remarks.”
Tenesa had no intention of listening further. Yet Claude still refused to yield.
“I speak as a Saint—for the sake of the pitiful Hero summoned from another world!”
“You, a Saint? You are merely a candidate. Do not act so rashly.”
“I am a candidate, but I will soon become a Saint!”
He kept forcing his absurd claims and even grew arrogant. Despite her warning, Claude continued to shout at her without shame. Tenesa’s face turned glacial as she delivered her final warning.
Ssssshhh—!!
“Claude. I told you not to act rashly.”
“Y-Your Holiness?”
Feeling the sudden chill, Claude called out in alarm and tried to say more—
Ssssshhh—!!
“I’m sorry…”
He apologized at once, sensing that to provoke her further would be dangerous. Tenesa looked at him and sighed.
“Haa… After some time has passed I will release her and settle the matter myself. Do not concern yourself any longer. That is an order.”
“Yes… I understand.”
Claude could only bow his head and accept the Pope’s command. Leaving him behind, Tenesa walked on.
Thud… thud…
Once she had gone, Claude lifted his head and gazed toward the basement that held the Hero’s cell. He muttered to himself.
“Hero… how much you must be suffering!”
His heart ached for her. A beautiful girl summoned from another world—simply adapting to this place would already be overwhelming, yet she also bore the crushing mission of slaying the Demon King. The pressure must be crushing her. She had fallen for the wicked schemes of the second son of Frigid and been seduced. And the Pope, instead of resolving the matter, had locked her deep underground.
This could not stand.
Claude made a vow.
He would save the Hero himself.
“Hero! I will definitely save you!”