Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Paying Back the Debt
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Because Bianca's gaze grew icier with every excuse he made, Krash went through quite the ordeal before wiping away his cold sweat and walking down the temple corridor.
It was the first time she'd looked at him so coldly, leaving him flustered.
Fortunately, they'd agreed to tour the Freeman Holy Kingdom together later.
Still, it was surprising that sticking together every day would actually calm her anger.
[You scoundrel, trying to pick up another woman?]
At that moment, Crimson Garden appeared at the corridor window.
She straightened her wings and gave Krash a pitiful look.
[Don't you know what happens when a Regressor toys around with his dick like that?]
"What do you take me for? I've never lived that promiscuously."
[Hmph. You think fooling around physically is the only kind of promiscuity? Your mind itself is utterly depraved.]
"The depraved one is Crimson—you and your mouth."
She had a knack for slipping in lewd innuendos so casually.
[Tsk tsk. You'll only wise up when some woman shows up claiming she's pregnant with your kid. By then, even if you get stabbed, you won't have a leg to stand on.]
"That won't happen."
He had no idea what she saw him as.
To begin with, he had no intention of getting that close to anyone until he'd at least averted the world's destruction.
This damned world could blow up at any moment, after all.
"More importantly, Crimson, remember what I told you about Bianca last time?"
[I've already called for someone from the Valheim Family's Green Pine Pavilion.]
Crimson Garden let out a long sigh.
[I know what it's like to watch helplessly as your kin die without being able to do a thing.]
Maybe it was because she'd had to witness her kind dying powerlessly so many times.
Crimson Garden seemed to be taking Bianca's feelings into account quite a bit.
Whatever the case, Crimson Garden had grown fond of her too.
"Thanks. Bianca will be thrilled."
[Better than stopping her from packing her bags with nothing but the clothes on her back to follow you.]
"Yeah, stop her from doing that."
He absolutely couldn't let Bianca end up like that.
[If you do your job right, that won't happen.]
That was Crimson Garden telling him not to show up in such a state again.
"I'll do my best."
[Even if you die, you're not promising you won't show up like this again, huh.]
Knowing the future, Krash couldn't give her a firm guarantee.
If anything, things would only get worse, not better.
[Go flirt with the Saintess or whatever.]
With that, Krash gave a wry smile as Crimson Garden flew out the window.
He then knocked on the door he'd arrived at.
"Saintess, it's Krash Valheim."
- Ah, one moment.
The door creaked open with the voice from inside.
There stood Holy Knight Diona, a woman with deep golden blonde hair.
As he stepped inside through the door she'd opened, Astraia looked his way.
"We meet again, Mr. Krash."
Astraia's appearance under her sunlit hair was a bit different from before.
She'd changed clothes and even done makeup she didn't usually wear—she'd dolled herself up.
This was actually the look Krash was more familiar with.
As the Saintess took on more public duties, she'd always made sure to present her most beautiful self, never skimping on her primping.
In Krash's memories, Astraia had always looked like this.
"Indeed. Looks like you've prepared well for our date. You look stunning."
As Krash teased her, she flinched and averted her eyes again.
The same old Astraia.
"Diona."
Astraia, who had been avoiding his gaze, called out to Diona.
"Lady Astraia."
"It's fine. I'm not leaving the room."
A Saintess couldn't be seen alone with a man in public.
So she had no intention of letting anyone outside see her alone with Krash.
Of course, from Astraia's perspective, just having a man in her room and talking alone was enough to make her heart pound.
But she tried her best to hide it.
"......Understood."
Diona let out a short breath and withdrew.
She glanced at Krash before closing the door and leaving.
She trusted that someone of the Valheim direct lineage wouldn't cross any lines.
With that, Krash and Astraia were left alone in the room.
A brief silence passed between them.
In that silence, Krash moved first.
He walked over to the chair opposite where she sat.
Astraia flinched again.
At the same time, her hands fidgeted busily under the table.
By the time Krash pulled out the chair and sat, he finally spoke.
"Thank you for making time for us to talk alone."
"Ah, y-yes, yes."
"No need to be so tense. I'm not here to propose some major deal or anything. I just want to talk about the Freeman Holy Kingdom."
No matter how mature she seemed, Astraia was still only fourteen.
At Krash's consideration, her eyes widened round.
"Pardon?"
Astraia responded a bit blankly.
As Krash looked at her curiously, her face began to flush red.
"Ah, a-ah, r-right! Someone of the Valheim direct line might have business with the Saintess, of course."
Astraia panicked and changed the subject.
Krash watched her quietly, his expression turning to one of realization.
"......Did you perhaps think I was actually asking you on a date?"
Astraia's mouth clamped shut.
Her face beet red, she looked exactly like someone who'd been spot on.
Seeing that, Krash belatedly realized his mistake.
'Was Astraia less shrewd than I thought at this point?'
The first time Krash met Astraia was at Raheln Academy's graduation ceremony.
'The Astraia back then was more grown-up than she is now.'
Krash scratched the back of his head for a moment.
Then a question occurred to him.
'Then why did she accept the "date"?'
If she'd taken it as a real date, she should have refused outright.
After all, propositioning the Saintess for a date was incredibly rude.
An invitation from a rude man whose face she hated.
Even as a Valheim direct lineage, the Saintess could easily refuse.
So why had she accepted?
"......Saintess, don't you find my face repulsive? Like, too sharp and villainous-looking."
"N-no?"
At Krash's question, she answered without thinking, too embarrassed by her misunderstanding.
"I-I think you'd be considered quite handsome......"
Unable to maintain her usual composure due to the shame, she blurted out the truth.
Realizing it too late, her eyes now spun in circles.
She was so mortified she wanted to crawl into a hole; tears even pricked at her eyes.
She'd never laid her true feelings so bare to anyone before.
Meanwhile, Krash stiffened upon hearing her words.
'Her words back then were so different?'
Looking at Astraia in her maximum embarrassment state, those words were sincere.
Could someone's tastes change so drastically in just a few years?
'Or maybe.'
They'd been the same from the start, unchanged.
As the situation clicked for him, Krash recalled past memories one by one.
The true meaning behind Astraia's various remarks.
He'd thought it was just fondness born of familiarity.
But Astraia had feelings for him from the very beginning.
Her occasional harsh words were all to hide her shyness.
He never imagined he'd realize it today.
Krash swallowed a hollow laugh.
Back then, Astraia had restrained herself so well that even perceptive Krash hadn't noticed.
As a Saintess, she couldn't afford feelings for the opposite sex, so she'd suppressed them thoroughly.
They only burst out at the very end, revealing her true heart.
And Krash had responded by not going on that date.
Krash slowly ran a hand down his face.
'What a piece of trash.'
Even if it was due to the Heavenly Demon's idiotic antics, he'd been incredibly rude to Astraia.
'Now it's like it never happened, so I can't even apologize.'
Krash looked at Astraia, who still couldn't lift her face.
"Saintess, do you know about the fake Saintess?"
To ease her embarrassment, he decided to get to the main point.
Astraia finally snapped out of it.
"The fake Saintess......?"
"I mean the one who's recently appeared in the Freeman Holy Kingdom."
Astraia's head tilted.
"What if that Saintess isn't fake?"
Astraia's expression changed immediately.
Finally, she was back to her usual self.
She began focusing on Krash's words over her embarrassment.
"Honestly, it might be better if you didn't hear this, from your position as Saintess."
What Krash was about to say was none other than a deep secret of the Church.
Even he hesitated a bit now that it was time to speak.
"This sounds like quite an important story."
Astraia smiled like the sun, as always.
"Tell me. I want to know any story that concerns me."
It was a look that perfectly befitted the term "Saintess."
That was why Krash soon spoke the truth.
"That so-called fake Saintess is the Saintess recorded as having died 300 years ago."
"Pardon?"
Astraia's smile froze at the completely unexpected answer.
This was something she'd never heard before.
"And she's your future self."
Bang!
At that moment, the door burst open violently.
Standing there was none other than Diona.
She'd been quietly eavesdropping from outside and burst in the moment she heard Krash's words.
"Diona."
Astraia's eyes turned colder than ever.
It was a signal not to interrupt this moment.
"Lady Astraia!"
Diona's eyes trembled.
She looked at Krash.
How could a boy of the Valheim direct line know such a fact?
This was a secret known to only a tiny few even within the Freeman Holy Kingdom.
"It's fine. Please continue."
"A Saintess is a semi-immortal being."
The Saintess's body, brimming with holy power, is close to eternal life.
Her aging flesh doesn't senesce because the cells are preserved by the abundant holy power within.
She might be the closest thing to Crimson Garden.
However, there's one thing.
Even holy power can't preserve it.
That's the mind.
The body lasts a lifetime, but the Saintess's spirit typically breaks down around age 250 on average.
Living solely to heal others within the Freeman Holy Kingdom.
Most of them eventually lose the will to live and hit their mental limits.
That's why the Freeman Holy Kingdom replaces the Saintess every roughly 200 years.
The method is simple: They place the mentally broken former Saintess in a glass tube, force her to expend all her holy power until it's drained, infusing the water in the tube with it.
Then, they raise the next-generation infant candidate Saintess in that water.
That's the Holy Grail.
That's how the Saintess is passed down.
Once the explanation ended, Diona bowed her head.
She knew the story.
"In other words, the fake Saintess is the shell of the previous Saintess."
The fake Saintess rampaging now was the 300-year-old former Saintess, senile and drained of holy power, reduced to an old woman.
The Saintess is the Freeman Holy Kingdom's shame, a secret that must never be revealed.
The reason she could roam freely was due to internal factions within the Holy Kingdom opposing the Saintess succession.
'And this was the beginning of the Freeman Holy Kingdom's purge of the Saintess.'
Astraia herself had told him all this in the past.
The current Astraia surely knew about the Holy Grail.
But not how it was made.
Of course not.
She learned this after Diona Stella sided with the anti-succession faction here.
And died confronting the Freeman Holy Kingdom head-on.
That was also the trigger for her joining the Generation of the Sky.
Backed by the Generation of the Sky heirs from each kingdom and empire, she blackmailed the Holy Royal Family and the Temple.
Expose her existence to the world and shake the Holy Kingdom's foundations?
Or grant her freedom?
The answer was simple.
She formally joined the Generation of the Sky to support them as a Saintess.
Inheriting the will of Diona, who had worked so hard to free her from her chains.
The silent Astraia turned to Diona.
"Diona, you didn't tell me this clearly for my sake."
"......I."
Diona couldn't finish, looking at Astraia with conflicted eyes.
She'd hoped Astraia wouldn't learn and suffer.
But Astraia was strong.
「If, just if I could go back to that time. I want to make sure Diona doesn't die because of me.」
And Krash remembered her words.
That's why he told her today.
"That's all I had to tell you."
Astraia turned to Krash.
She couldn't understand why he'd shared this.
From his position, it was all disadvantageous information.
Holding it could have been leverage against the Holy Kingdom someday.
But speaking it aloud could make him a target.
Telling it directly to the Saintess, the foundation of the Holy Kingdom.
No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't something to blab about lightly.
"Why did you......?"
"Tell you, you mean?"
Astraia fell silent.
Krash gave a short smile.
"I can't stand being indebted."
Back then, when the Generation of the Sky's vanguard had fallen.
The worst raid that hit the latecomers.
Krash and Astraia, caught in it, had been on the brink of death.
Both suffered massive injuries, but Astraia's could recover as the Saintess.
Krash's, however, were beyond even her healing, a total mess.
Long-accumulated curses had rampaged with his wounds, devouring his body.
There, Astraia's action was straightforward.
「Don't... die. You don't get to die... on my watch.」
Just like with the Holy Grail for succession.
She poured every drop of her holy power into Krash.
Solely to save him.
When Krash finally opened his eyes late.
"......Astraia?"
Astraia was no longer in this world.
Despite her own incomplete recovery, she'd given all her holy power to Krash, leaving only her corpse.
That day, Krash received a debt of gratitude.
And that's how he survived.
The holy power dwelling in his body acted like Astraia's will.
As long as it wasn't instant death like his throat severed or heart pierced, it kept regenerating his body endlessly.
That's how Krash carried an undying body, endured countless curses, and barely clung to life.
He couldn't face Astraia if he died.
And now, it was time for Krash to repay that debt.
Of course, he didn't voice that fact.
"I survived this time thanks to you, Saintess. So isn't it my duty to help you choose the path you want, even a little?"
"That was just the natural reward for heroic actions. Facing an 8-star Erosion Beast and ending up like that, it was simply what I had to do as Saintess."
But Krash shook his head.
Instead, he asserted firmly.
"The one who saved me was Astraia, you—not the Saintess first."
Astraia looked flustered.
It was the first time in her life she'd heard such words.
No one had ever thanked Astraia the person, not the Saintess.
"Someone once told me to take care of myself first."
It was something she'd said to him so often it sometimes felt like nagging.
"Don't you think you should consider it once, Astraia?"
Krash finished and stood from his seat.
He left his final words to the dazed Astraia.
"I'll get pretty strong, you know."
The playful smile on Krash's face was the first time today he looked his age.
"If those chains piss you off, just say the word. I'll cut them for you."
Those last words were for Astraia, not the Saintess.
Leaving the speechless Astraia behind, Krash walked out of the room.
Astraia just stared blankly at his retreating back.