Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: On the Vast Plains (3)
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If I had to pick my most shocking memory since coming to this world, number one would undoubtedly be when the Priest of Corrosion suddenly appeared as the first boss.
Four wings obscuring the moon.
Hundreds of Chaos Bugs blanketing the north.
And the Priest of Corrosion, standing with flames at his back…
Those memories still surfaced in my dreams from time to time.
I’d spent a whole year preparing just to see the original ending, gathering all three of my juniors, only for that black lizard to show up as if to say, “Hehe, nice try.” I thought I was going to lose my mind.
‘Well, now I’m at a point where I feel like nothing could be worse than that, so I don’t get quite so shocked anymore.’
A man grows through his frustrations.
No matter how much I let my memories of the Three Kingdoms fade, that truth remained.
Other times I’d been greatly shocked included…
Being punished by Hilde’s surprise confession,
Being punished by Hilde’s surprise kiss,
And being punished by Hilde’s surprise wedding proposal.
‘…Hilde seems to be involved a little too often.’
In any case, aside from Hilde’s outlandish behavior, I thought there wasn’t much left in this academy city that could truly surprise me.
But the immutable truth that pinkettes must be pushovers remains.
And just like in the clichés, that confident thought of mine was shattered today.
I once again felt my heart plummet to my feet.
Shivering like a pinkette with a thousand times heightened sensitivity, I had no choice but to ask again.
“What… did you say…?”
“Jinsu! Jiiin-su! Jinsu! Abooboo—☆”
There was no mistaking it.
That little kid just said “Jinsu.”
…The name from my past life.
Hearing it, my mind went completely blank.
“…”
A few minutes ago… when Nella, the head of the Theology Department, suggested that Alvitt and I have one-on-one meetings with the Sword Spirit, I had confidently volunteered to go first and immediately arrived at the empty meeting place.
The Sword Spirit was there, cradled in Nella’s arms.
But as soon as I arrived, that pink-haired pipsqueak had called out my past-life name without a shred of hesitation.
She started shouting it the moment I walked in… I didn’t even have a chance to prepare myself.
‘I never thought hearing my Korean name in this world would feel so awkward.’
I wondered if maybe the kid was just babbling, so I tried sidling around a bit, moving cautiously from side to side…
*Shashak…*
*Shashak…*
But she pointed a chubby finger at me and said it again.
“Jinsu! Jinsu!”
“…”
There was no denying it.
That translucent pink pipsqueak… the Sword Spirit, had guessed my past-life name.
Ha…
‘Is this the divine power of the ‘Just Big Tree’?’
The power of the World Tree was on a cosmic scale, so perhaps it had discerned my original name like some mountain spirit.
If I didn’t have my knowledge of the original story, I probably would have had my faith corrupted by this miracle and become a pink-haired nun. Then, while doing good deeds for a wild girl like Hilde, I’d be clumsily drugged with an aphrodisiac and subjected to unspeakably lewd acts.
It would be a BAD ENDING, closing on a shot of the wet floor as a passerby in front of the church muttered, “Was there always a water mill around here?”
Such was the fate of a pinkette.
…
…
…
I was so flustered that my thoughts had gone completely off the rails.
I shook my head, trying to clear away the strange ideas.
‘I really need to fix this habit of spouting nonsense in my head when I’m surprised.’
Nella watched me and let out a small laugh.
“Fufu. It seems the Spirit has taken a real liking to you, Saintess.”
“…Is, is that so—☆ I haven’t even done anything yet, I wonder why—☆”
“Fufu… perhaps? If so, then that too must be destiny.”
Nella didn’t say anything more after that.
She simply watched me and the pink spirit with a faint smile on her face.
I shrank back from that smile of hers, the kind you’d expect from the squinty-eyed type.
‘She doesn’t even have squinty eyes, so why is she smiling so cryptically?’
*-Ah, I see… so that’s how it is.*
*-So that’s what’s happened.*
*-But you don’t need to know that.*
…That was the kind of vibe her smile gave off.
She appeared in the original story as the one in charge of handing over the holy sword, but I didn’t remember her having such a mysterious air about her.
In the first place, the very existence of a [Saintess] appearing now felt out of place.
‘From what Urðr said, she originally existed in this world… but was forgotten for some reason, a [Destiny] that the post-story Clara discovered belatedly.’
But the Sword Spirit knew.
“…”
A silent space, deep in the forest beyond the fields.
Despite it being midday, a strangely desolate atmosphere lingered.
“…”
Amidst it all, the pink spirit’s innocent cries echoed again.
“Jinsu—! Jinsu—!”
The spirit cheered, raising both hands and chanting my name over and over.
She seemed genuinely delighted, her eyes sparkling with joy.
“Aboowoo—☆ Jinsu, Jinsuu—! I like Jinsuu—☆”
Alright, I get it, so please stop.
‘Hearing my old male name in a baby’s voice feels like a rebuke of my current, pink-haired fallen self.’
…
No, that can’t be it, right?
It must be my imagination.
“…”
Besides, the Sword Spirit wasn’t a character who thought that deeply. Strictly speaking, she was just a child who acted on instinct… a literal spirit.
‘Wasn’t she just a simple character meant to pass on the holy sword… like a fairy you’d typically see in fantasy stories, something like Excalibur…?’
But even in my confusion, one thing was certain… my name, which I hadn’t even revealed to Urðr or Hilde who knew about my past, was known to the Sword Spirit.
I had no idea what kind of sorcery this was.
“…”
I felt like my cover was blown from the start, leaving me at a loss for words.
‘I thought I’d just quietly pledge, ‘I will set an example as the [Saintess]—☆’ and be done with it…’
As I was internally agonizing over how to handle the situation, sidling around to avoid the pointing finger of the pink spirit chanting “I like Jinsu!”, Nella suddenly spoke in a relaxed voice.
“Were you surprised?”
“Y-Yes?!”
Of course I was surprised.
I thought my heart had dropped into my stomach.
‘Hey, if you see my boobs on the floor over there, could you pick them up for me?’
But Nella made no move to search for any lost property on the ground and simply continued.
“The Sword Spirit… said she feels a very familiar aura from you.”
“H-Huh…? Familiar? I may be a cute girl☆, but I don’t think I have a common look—☆”
Is she talking about the aura of a [Saintess]?
The Sword Spirit has existed since the era of [The Three Heroes], so maybe she also knew about the forgotten [Saintess].
“Oodyaah—☆”
“The Sword Spirit said that you have already become a splendid [Saintess of Sacrifice]… that there is nothing more she needs to tell you.”
“Oh my—☆ That’s strange… I haven’t really sacrificed anything…”
“Dya dya—♪”
“The Sword Spirit said that your stigmata are proof that you have already realized and found your [Destiny]. Girls with the destiny of a [Saintess] lose something precious to them… they are wounded, and in turn, they become able to wield the great power of [Destiny].”
“…”
“The slowest, most painful path… she said that you yourself know your next destination best, so if she were to add her own words, it would only be a hindrance.”
To be honest, stretching the two syllables ‘Dya dya—♪’ into all of that feels like a bit of a stretch.
…But I didn’t bother pointing it out to Nella, who was pretending not to have heard the name “Jinsu.”
‘Or maybe she’s filtering and interpreting that word in her own way?’
Watching Nella, it seemed as if she was directly hearing the spirit’s will through some kind of religious faith or something.
Was she adding her own opinions to it?
“…”
Well, it seemed the Sword Spirit somehow sensed that I was raising my juniors with a firm goal in mind. And I already knew I was a [Saintess], having heard it from the [Golden Witch]…
‘Hmm… I’ve had what I already knew confirmed, but it’s not very helpful.’
Judging by the atmosphere, this seemed like the time to offer a pitiful smile… say something Saintess-like, and then withdraw. But for some reason, I felt uneasy just letting it go as a coincidence that she had called out my past-life name.
Finally, I brought up what had been bothering me.
“Um… among the things the Sword Spirit said☆, what did she mean by calling me ‘Jinsu’… ☆ Ah, could it be an ancient word of exclamation, like ‘Cute!’—♪”
“…”
Nella looked at me intently, then smiled brightly and said.
“Before she was shattered by [Destiny]… back when she was alive as a [Saintess]. It was the name of the person she respected most. She said that a similar aura flows from you.”
…
…
…
‘…What?’
Now that I knew the Sword Spirit’s identity, I was struck with a fresh wave of shock, and my mind went blank again.
“…”
I had no choice but to understand.
The Sword Spirit was my senior.
And…
“…”
An ancient stranger.
A stranger in this game world.
The person respected by the [Saintess] of a bygone era.
The man who led [The Three Heroes] but at some point began helping .
The Prophet’s name was Jinsu.
“…”
I didn’t want to… but I couldn’t help but understand, intuitively.
***
Alvitt approached the lakeside Nella had told her about. She had been told that she had to face her own [Destiny] here to be able to claim the sword.
“…This is the holy sword.”
There, a heavily rusted longsword was stuck in the ground at the water’s edge. Time and moisture had worn it down completely, making it look more like a blackened tree branch than a sword.
“…”
It looked like you’d get tetanus just by touching it. But for some reason, Alvitt felt as if she were in a trance, her hand reaching for the sword.
She had come to this place for this very purpose.
She had to pull this out to move forward.
Her mother’s prophecy.
Her friends’ stories.
Her senior’s and her own destiny.
Such thoughts flickered through her mind.
“…”
But…
The sword was firmly lodged in the ground and wouldn’t move.
It looked so fragile that a child could knock it over with a tap, yet it was as unyielding as if it had been driven several meters into the earth like a stake.
“…Why?”
Alvitt stood there for a long time, gripping the sword. The faint cry of a hawk echoed in her ears, along with the sound of great wings beating.
-Still… not enough…
“…”
What was not enough…?
Was this not her [Destiny]?
“…”
Alvitt struggled to pull out the sword.
She even mobilized her Aether, putting all her strength into it.
She tried digging up the ground around it to pull it out from below.
But the sword remained motionless.
“…Why.”
Alvitt stood blankly by the lakeside. Gentle waves lapped at her feet, soaking her legs. The desolate lakeside wind rustled through her hair.
“What am I lacking?”
A month passed since that day.
Alvitt was still unable to pull out the sword.