The Saintess Descends (1)
Serista's sudden burst into the infirmary froze both my expression and Gehmajoshigi-gwat's into something caught squarely between shock and embarrassment.
She'd seemed to make a hasty escape earlier when the two of us were talking alone, but apparently whatever excuse she'd blurted on her way out had been just that — an excuse. The moment the conversation turned to the Hero, a topic that concerned her personally, she came right back.
Or maybe not. Perhaps she'd simply found it strange that Gehmajoshigi-gwat had visited the theology building without stopping to see her, and returned to check. After all, once you'd visited the church as the reigning Hero, there were only two places left to call on afterward — Serista's dormitory or my infirmary room. If neither of those was her, she'd have every reason to feel uneasy.
Truthfully, her barging into the conversation wasn't the important part. I had already gotten through nearly everything I needed to discuss with the Hero in private, so it wasn't as though we'd been left with an unfinished story dangling.
The real problem was how much of that conversation Serista had overheard. Depending on the answer, she might have learned that I was a transmigrator — which was exactly why I couldn't help feeling tense.
"S-Serista, Lady Saintess...?"
"No! I — I haven't even told the Hero how I feel yet! I, I know Lilith is the real Saintess, but — but my heart still hasn't sorted itself out, I'm telling you...!"
"O-okay, I understand, so how about you take a deep breath first...?"
...Right in front of that very Hero, who was standing there listening to every word about himself.
Worked up all on her own, she'd not only revealed that she'd known I was the Saintess all along, but straight-up vomited out the fact that she was in love with the Hero. Gehmajoshigi-gwat, the poor man actually receiving this confession, had turned his head away, his face flushed with secondhand embarrassment.
Come to think of it, this guy had gone on about how he was going to return to his homeland once he defeated the Demon King, so I'd assumed he had zero interest in women. Turns out there was an unexpectedly soft side to him after all.
"I — I know I'm not the real Saintess! H-how could I not know I was manufactured to be a fake?! B-but it's still too soon! At — at least for as long as I'm at the Academy, in this — this short little stretch of time, if I could just stay by the Hero's side, that alone would be enough for me...!"
"...Lady Serista. I understand this conversation with the Hero has you flustered, but aren't you perhaps sharing a little too much of your personal business?"
"...I'm sorry?"
"You've, ah... forgotten, haven't you? That there's someone else here besides me listening to all of this."
"......"
At my words, Serista's frozen face turned, slowly, toward the back of the room. The moment her cautious gaze met the Hero's — who had been doing his best to look anywhere else — the quiet infirmary filled with her scream.
"...I'm sorry. If it's what Serista wants, I'll pretend I never heard any of that just now...."
"Kyaaaaaaaaah?!"
"Serista?!"
With the textbook scream of a faint-hearted heroine, Serista toppled backward, face scarlet, and Gehmajoshigi-gwat lunged to catch her.
"Hey, are you okay?! Stay with me!"
"A-ah... hahh... I, I waaas... hahh...."
"Her embarrassment just piled up past her limit and knocked her out. She'll be fine on her own after a little sleep."
"...People can actually collapse from sheer embarrassment? Was this even in the game?"
"Probably not in my guidebook. This is Serista's first-night solo event. I vaguely remember seeing it when I cleared her route on my fourth or fifth playthrough, but by run twenty-five I was deep in the Lilith route, so...."
"A-ah... right."
I'd never imagined I'd witness that event unfold like this. In-game it was a fan-favorite scene that showed off Serista's adorable side from every angle — but watching someone genuinely keel over from shame right in front of me left me with a strange, complicated feeling about the whole thing.
"Her heart rate spiked and her brain basically shut down for a moment, but her divine power handles the self-recovery, so if you carry her back to her room she'll come around on her own. Worst case, she'll wake by tomorrow morning."
"Right... now what? We still need to figure out exactly how much of our conversation Serista overheard."
"Wait until she wakes up, then feel her out yourself and let her know casually. Serista's not the type to go broadcasting your private business to other people anyway."
"...No, I suppose she isn't."
"Carrying a young lady too flustered to see straight off to her bed, huh. You've got it in you when it counts, don't you?"
"...Don't push it."
I tossed a few parting jabs at Gehmajoshigi-gwat's retreating back — he looked for all the world like a groom off to his wedding night — and with that, the Hero made his exit along with Serista.
After that, the day wound to a muddled close once Ethan returned from his student council duties, which meant my original objectives — persuading Serista and triggering her Saintess awakening — slipped by entirely untouched.
...A genuinely worrying moment. As of the day of the operation itself, forget the awakening — I couldn't even be sure I'd manage a single conversation with Serista on the subject.
The night of the day I'd held my secret meeting with Gehmajoshigi-gwat and weathered Serista's fainting fit, a familiar voice drifted into my sleep and slowly, gently pulled me out of it.
"...Lady Rees? Lady Lilith?"
"Mmmgh... mnnn..."
Deep in slumber, my exhausted body was gradually helped upright by a woman's voice calling me awake, and bit by bit the face of a young priestess peering at me through the darkness came into view.
"Serista...?"
"Are you awake now, Lady Lilith?"
"What on earth brings you here at this hour...?"
"...I'm so sorry, Lady Lilith. There's something I simply must tell you right now."
"If it's about your confession to the Hero this afternoon, don't worry — I was already planning to keep it secret...."
"Kyaaahhp...!"
The instant I mentioned the incident, Serista clapped both hands over her own mouth with a flurry of flustered noise. If she'd shriaked the way she had this afternoon, everyone within at least two floors in every direction would have been jolted awake.
Admittedly, by this point most of the students had been discharged or gone home, leaving the Academy nearly empty — but the people who maintained the church would still be around, and that surely would have kicked up a fuss.
"I — I'd love it if you kept that secret too, but... that isn't why I've come tonight...."
"Then what is it you've come for?"
"...We're short on time, so may I explain on the way?"
"I'm sorry — on the way to where, at this hour...?"
"Right now is the only time of day the Academy's main cathedral stands empty."
...The main cathedral?
Why on earth was she trying to take me to the cathedral at an hour when no one was there? Woken from a deep sleep by an unannounced midnight visit and now being hastily dragged out of my room, I felt a flicker of genuine suspicion — until her next words dissolved it entirely.
"So that you may wield the Saintess's power, Lady Lilith, I will perform your consecration."
"...Right now?"
"Yes. Right now."
So Gehmajoshigi-gwat had finished the persuading without me knowing a thing. When it counted, that man really did deliver. Impressively reliable when he actually commits.
Walking the dark corridors of the church beside Serista, I exchanged quiet, hushed conversation with her — about how much Gehmajoshigi-gwat had actually told her, and why she had resolved to perform the consecration.
"There are several reasons I decided to consecrate you, Lady Lilith — but the biggest one, I think, is thanks to a promise from Gehmajoshigi-gwat, the Hero."
"...A promise?"
"Yes. The Hero promised me that even if I'm not the real Saintess, he will never abandon me."
...Even by the light of the dim oil lamps, the flush on her face was impossible to miss. Seeing her this overjoyed by a single sentence from the Hero, it was clear this world's Serista held deep affection for the man he was now.
She might love him even more than the original game's Serista did. The Serista of the original had stopped at raising affection points through fixed dialogue choices, but this world's Serista seemed to have racked up quite an extensive history of working alongside Gehmajoshigi-gwat beyond all of that.
She was an auto-win heroine whose affection rose simply from spending time with someone — so naturally, a Serista who'd logged more hours with the Hero than her original counterpart would have charted correspondingly higher.
"How much of the conversation between you and the Hero did you actually hear?"
"...I heard everything starting from the part where the Hero said that if I couldn't become the Saintess, he would take you with him, Miss Lilith. The moment I heard that, I got a little anxious and cut into your conversation. I'm so sorry...."
"No, it's quite all right. Our discussion was wrapping up around that point anyway."
Thankfully, it seemed she hadn't overheard any of the earlier talk about the Luminor Academy guidebooks, or any of the other sensitive matters. Whether that counted as a small mercy, I couldn't quite say.
"At first, I thought it meant that I — now useless — would be cast aside by the Hero in favor of you. I'm a fake Saintess who can't even use the Saintess's power, while you're the real one. It was obvious I'd be less help than you."
"Please don't say that, Lady Serista. Someone with a heart as upright and pure as yours could never remain a fake — you will become a true Saintess in every way that matters, I'm certain of it."
"You sound just like the Hero."
"......"
"I suppose that's something you know through the Saintess's power you carry as well? The Hero has mentioned it from time to time — that contrary to what the world believes, his power includes 'the ability to see the future.' And he's been using that power to actively help me pass as the Saintess even though I'm not."
"...I see."
"If you, the true Saintess, hold that same power too, Lady Lilith, then I think I finally understand why the Hero told me to use it and play the part. He must have seen this far ahead when he made me the 'Saint of Prophecy.'"
In truth, it was far more likely that the whole thing had simply been a convenient coincidence. When Gehmajoshigi-gwat first met Serista, he probably couldn't have dreamed that someone else had transmigrated into Lilith's body.
But as a result, Serista now barely questioned the fact that I was the Saintess — and since the outcome was good, even the sloppiest improvisation retroactively looked like a master plan conceived from the start.
...Though it did prick my conscience a little, knowing that the pre-awakening me had been using the Saintess's power not for anything so prophetic, but to blast krakens into oblivion with Mana Blast.
By the time we'd descended from my third-floor infirmary to the ground floor where the main cathedral stood, Serista cautiously turned the conversation toward me this time — as if, having answered my question earlier, she'd decided it was now her turn.
"Before I perform your consecration, may I ask you just one question, Lady Lilith?"
"...If it's something I can answer, then I will."
"Wh — whatever your answer may be, my resolve to consecrate you won't change. So please, just answer comfortably."
"Of course, Lady Serista."
"I'm only asking in case — in case, well.... Miss Lilith, might you... perhaps...?"
"......"
"J-just like me.... Do you love the Hero too, Lady Lilith?"
...As if that were even possible.