The Golden Saintess
"Restrained and secured. Great work, everyone!"
At last the commotion died down, and the shapeshifter's limbs were bound tight as a drum.
One of the cavalrymen came over and saluted me.
"That was a remarkably effective takedown, Examiner, sir!"
His eyes sparkled brightly, entirely at odds with his fierce-looking face.
"You established the encirclement as the top priority, then captured the culprit alive with a minimal number of men and zero casualties!"
He was looking at me as if I were some legendary general.
"No wonder the Count left us entirely in your hands, sir!"
"Ah, ahaha... It was nothing. Merely a stroke of luck."
Uncomfortable under that admiring gaze, I turned my head slightly and asked,
"...What will become of him now?"
The shapeshifter, unconscious and limp, was being dragged off somewhere.
On the surface, we had caught a terrorist; in truth, the kidnapper of the Saintess.
But this wasn't something the Immigration Office had accomplished alone.
We'd received help from multiple quarters and requested cooperation besides, so the lines of responsibility had gotten rather tangled.
The soldier caught my meaning and answered.
"Rest assured. Since he caused a disturbance within the Count's territory, the initial interrogation will be handled on our side."
Reasonable enough.
Full credit for the roadblocks and the encirclement belonged to the Margrave, after all.
Primary jurisdiction over the interrogation rightly fell to him.
"We will contact the Immigration Office as soon as possible. It won't take long."
With that firm assurance that he would be handed over shortly, I nodded.
"Incidentally, what is the punishment for someone who has caused a disturbance of this scale?"
The question occurred to me out of the blue.
Normally, the Immigration Office would slap anyone who caused this much of a ruckus with a permanent blacklist and a deportation order.
But how did the local law of the Count's territory handle it?
The soldier stared at me for a moment before answering, with an air of dark significance.
"...Execution."
"Yowch."
A shiver ran down my spine before I could help it.
Why did that word sound so familiar?
"Assaulting a public official of the state, no less — there will be no pardon. And since the Count has taken a personal interest, he'll be held in the underground dungeon as a special measure."
"How perfectly fitting a punishment."
Inwardly, I offered a prayer for the shapeshifter's soul.
You and I are alike, friend — both doomed to die soon.
I won't pity you, though.
You committed a crime worthy of death.
"I'll take my leave then. We'll dismiss the remaining soldiers once the scene is secured."
With those parting words, the soldier saluted and led his horse away.
The whole thing was finally winding down.
The onlookers drifted back to their own business, one by one.
But we still had unfinished work.
I turned to the werewolf, who was stretching lazily against the glow of the setting sun, and said,
"Thank you for your efforts, Olfactory Officer. We resolved this beautifully thanks to you."
If it hadn't been for him, the soldiers would have bled a great deal more.
Besides, though the Olfactory Officer had worked himself into a frenzy, he hadn't killed anyone.
Excellent restraint and excellent execution. Both worthy of praise.
At my words, the Olfactory Officer finally let his tension melt away into pure satisfaction.
"Hrrrraaaargh! I think I just worked off about a month's worth of stress, heheh."
"I see..."
My eyes narrowed.
Right. Praise was praise.
But he had omitted the single most important thing.
"Awooo-awoo, grrrrr-rowf, yip? (=So where is the Saintess?)"
The werewolf's language rang out of nowhere, and the Olfactory Officer stared blankly for a moment before his face twisted.
"...I am the Olfactory Officer, Central Officer, sir. That stings a little."
"Yip yip yip. (=Answer the question.)"
I spoke in their tongue again, signaling him to scan the surroundings.
Too many listening ears around.
Even with things winding down, soldiers still lingered nearby.
If we talked openly about the Saintess here, there was a strong chance it would reach the Margrave's ears.
There was exactly one reason we had run this pig-hunting operation.
The Saintess — who wasn't here right now.
Where's our pig, hm?
Only then catching my drift, the Olfactory Officer hastily switched languages.
"Wh- awooo. Grrrr yip yip grrrr, yip. (=Ah, the piglet in the bag. She was in an inner room on the second floor, sir.)"
"Woof huff-huff-huff awooo? (=Then why didn't you bring her?)"
"..."
No answer came back.
A look of guilty realization.
He subtly avoided my gaze.
Obvious.
He'd gotten drunk on the smell of blood, had himself a merry brawl, and completely forgotten.
Great at everything, and then he fumbles the landing. Every time.
"Sh-shall I go get her?"
"No need. I'll go myself."
So saying, I stepped into the half-demolished building.
Persuading the Saintess was my job anyway.
*****
"..."
Erzena was trapped inside the bag.
She had no idea how much time had passed.
Too exhausted to struggle or resist any longer, she simply lay there, still as the dead.
I want it all to stop...
From the highest station a woman could hold — Saintess —
to the lowest station imaginable — a pig.
Fallen in a single instant, only two emotions remained permitted to her.
The hope that someone would surely come to save her, and the despair that no salvation was coming and she had no idea what would become of her.
She still had hope.
Erzena still remembered the voice of a certain man she'd heard just as she was about to give up everything.
- S-Saintess?
A man who had recognized her — when no one else could — with a single touch.
In the divine holy power she'd felt at his touch, she had believed she'd finally found her way out of this hell.
She'd believed the Lord God would deliver her through him.
But —
- THWACK!
That hope had been mercilessly kicked to pieces.
- Come quietly if you want this man to live.
It had become a shackle instead — a chain to bind her, a leash to drag her along.
"Ugh..."
Her forehead throbbed with pain.
To stop him from killing the Central Officer, she had thrown her whole body against the wall.
She did not regret it.
He had done nothing wrong.
Just an upright man doing his duty, following his principles.
She could not let such a man die.
She had to prevent it — the sight of him dying unjustly, swept up in the Order's blind fanaticism.
That is my atonement.
But even that resolve had gone numb as time crawled on and hope slowly drained away.
The Central Officer, whom she'd thought was her final salvation, was gone now.
God did not answer.
The shapeshifter's whisper — it's too late — had stabbed into her like a knife.
With even her will worn down to nothing, all that remained to Erzena was darkness and silence.
Things she had never once known since becoming Saintess.
Unable to grow accustomed to them no matter what, she could only curl up and shiver, again and again.
But her despair did not end there.
- AWOOOOOOO!!
A wolf's howl shook heaven and earth and slammed into her ears.
Scary — it's scary!
A terror beyond anything she had ever felt before.
To a powerless animal, the cry of a beast of prey carried the weight of a death sentence.
As a pig, she had felt it with terrible, vivid clarity.
Trapped in a bag that was a prison cell, she had cried out for salvation amid the darkness, the beast's roar, and the clang of steel.
Crying out for a salvation that never came.
And so, Erzena gave up.
A Saintess forsaken by God.
Just as she was deciding that this was her wretched end and surrendering herself wholly to despair —
"Cough! Oof, how much did we smash in here? Why is there so much dust..."
"...!!!"
A familiar voice drifted in from somewhere.
- Thud. Thud.
Footsteps drew steadily closer.
"Open the curtains first. Can't find anything if we can't see anything."
- Shhhhk.
She knew that voice.
The voice of the very man she had been worrying about all this time.
But she couldn't bring herself to speak.
An hallucination?
Had she finally gone mad, hearing phantom voices to escape this crushing silence?
Had she yearned for rescue so desperately that she'd conjured an apparition of the Central Officer?
"The bag... she said it was around here somewhere. I'm sure this was the room."
No.
This was real.
It was no hallucination.
The Saintess's eyes flew open and she shouted.
"Here! I'm here!"
"Hm?"
The response was immediate.
The footsteps came toward her, and then —
- Click.
The bag opened.
"Ungh...!"
The darkness split in two, and golden sunset light poured down onto her face.
Light so dazzling she could not bring herself to look at it directly.
"There you are."
The voice came through clearly now.
Erzena blinked slowly.
A man with black eyes was looking down at her.
It was the face of the Central Officer she had longed so desperately to see.
A face worn by fatigue, yet never once defeated by it.
"Good evening, Saintess."
The golden sunset light glowed bright upon him.
A smile of relief greeted her.
"I've come to rescue you."
Ah.
Ah, ah.
You.
Of all people, you.
Why — why do you come to me as salvation, even now, even like this?
"You're safe now."
It wasn't a phantom voice.
He had truly come to save me.
The only man who had recognized me, even transformed into a pig.
He never gave up.
He never once bowed to despair.
"I'm truly glad you're unharmed."
Her chest burned.
Her whole body trembled.
Embracing the something that swelled up inside her, the piglet leapt into Nathan's arms.
The warmth of another person was so soft.
Soft as the golden sunset light that wrapped around her now.
Something she had taken so for granted that she had forgotten it.
Something she had longed for, and needed, more than anything.
Nathan Kell gave it to Erzena, whole and complete.
And so, Erzena wept — wept until her voice broke.
Carrying every ounce of the regret, the guilt, and the relief she had swallowed down because she had never been permitted to release them.
"Huaaaaaaah!"
And in that very moment —
- Fwaaaash.
The transformation potion's effect wore off.
*****
- CRASH.
"Whoa—!"
The sudden weight bowled me over backward.
And so, naturally, the Saintess who had landed on top of me wept loud enough to shake the heavens.
"I'm sorry — it's all my fault!"
"W-wait, Saintess—?"
"Hic — it's all my fault, all of it! Branding you a heretic, that was all my... Huaaaah!"
Her piercing wails filled the room wall to wall.
But I was every bit as bewildered.
What on earth was even happening right now?
I'd heard a pig crying, opened the bag, and found the Saintess inside.
She'd seen me, and suddenly thrown herself into my arms.
Then she'd turned back into a human and burst into tears.
Stark naked, at that.
Her snow-white bare skin gleamed beautiful in the light of the setting sun.
Despite everything she'd been through, her sky-blue hair spilled down like a veil and draped itself over my body.
"Sniff — I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Tears fell in fat drops from her endlessly apologizing eyes, soaking into my chest.
"Uh..."
Where her hands touched my body, a faint golden haze shimmered and wavered.
A grown woman, naked, clinging to a man she's not married to and sobbing into him.
If anyone walked in, they'd get entirely the wrong idea.
"L-let's get you dressed first."
I quickly shrugged off my examiner's coat and draped it around her shoulders.
She was too overwhelmed to manage a word, so I fastened the buttons for her.
The moment Erzena's hands left my body, the haze faded away again.
"Saintess. It's all right now. Everything is resolved. So—"
The instant I opened my mouth, trying desperately to calm her —
- BANG!
"Central Officer, sir! Are you all right?! We heard a loud noise and came running!"
The Olfactory Officer flung the door open in a panic.
"...Huh?"
"Ah, Olfactory Officer. Good timing."
He stood there, staring blankly at the scene before him.
A room flooded with the beautiful glow of the setting sun.
A building where no one would come.
A young man and a young woman.
The woman, tear-stained and glistening-eyed, held in the man's arms, naked beneath nothing but a single coat.
The man, holding her close, smiling awkwardly as if caught in a predicament.
The Olfactory Officer was sharp.
"My apologies, sir. Enjoy your evening."
"W-wait a moment! Olfactory Officer! Hey—"
- Creaaak, slam.
The door shut.
Voices filtered through from the other side.
"Huh? What is it? Why aren't you going in?"
"No no, we go in now, and we're dead. Come on, walk a lap around the building with me."
"What are you talking about?! Is the Central Officer all right?!"
"Oh, he's fine. Too fine, if anything — that's the problem."
Spouting one misunderstanding-prone line after another without a shred of hesitation, the Olfactory Officer dragged the Gustatory Officer out of the building by force.
I stared dumbly after them, and then realized what I needed to do right now.
The reason I went to such lengths to rescue the Saintess.
This was no time to be sitting around like this.
I straightened myself up and sat down across from her.
"Saintess."
"Yes...?"
"Forgive me for saying this, but there is a reason I rescued you."
"A reason... hicc — a reason, sir...?"
I hesitated a moment.
Could I really lay my whole situation bare to this woman?
Erzena — a woman armored in fanaticism and rigid black-and-white thinking.
But right now, I needed her.
I had saved her from her kidnappers; whatever debts lay between us, I'd say they were cleanly settled now.
Which meant —
"The truth is..."
All right.
Showing my whole hand.
In the end, only honest words could move a person's heart.
I laid out every detail of my current situation, holding nothing back.
How, after my denial of entry, the Queen Consort had raged and tried to have me summarily executed.
How, when that failed, she had issued a royal writ to push the Crusade army through the border.
And finally, my own trial, soon to begin.
Sniffling all the while, the Saintess listened to every word.
"So... that is what has happened..."
"I know it is a great deal to ask of you. You are, after all, a daughter of the Holy Church. But—"
You saved me, so please, save me in return. Just as I opened my mouth to scrape together some kind of negotiation, the Saintess spoke first.
"I will do it."
"Please consider it carefully at least once. A man's life is at st— I'm sorry, what did you say?"
That was far too fast.
*****
"I will do it."
Erzena had already settled the answer in her heart.
She gazed quietly down at her own hands.
She had returned to human form, but her divine holy power had not come back with her.
The warm golden haze was gone as well.
Naturally so.
Being turned into a pig had had nothing to do with her holy power.
The power that had vanished the instant the Central Officer stamped DENIED on her entry did not simply regenerate because her body had returned to human shape.
And yet, just now... I definitely felt it, at the very tips of my fingers.
But she had seen it.
The instant she had lost herself and thrown her arms around Nathan, the moment her hands had touched his body, her holy power had flickered, faint but unmistakable.
The moment she saw it, Erzena understood.
This was revelation, and it was trial.
A revelation that her fate was bound to this man,
and a trial demanding that she move forward without clinging to the divine power she had depended on all her life.
So this is the true trial.
Was I only revered because of my holy power?
No.
If I am to truly deserve the name of Saintess,
I must not be swayed by such things.
I must believe in what I know is right and walk that path unswervingly.
Just like the Central Officer standing before me now.
Just like Nathan Kell, who had endured every external pressure and every trial, unbending to the last.
And so Erzena wiped away her tears and spoke.
"I, Erzena Selaphe, will appear as a witness at your trial, Central Officer."
She had made her decision.
She would set right her own wrongs.
By this man's side, she would be born anew.
Just as he had saved her, now she would save him.
The pig lost in despair was gone.
Only the Saintess, risen once more, remained.
"What testimony do you need from me?"
Her resolve-filled golden eyes caught the sunset light and gleamed.