The Qualifications of a Saintess (2)
"You're going to make Serista the Saintess?"
"…Yes, Young Master Ethan."
"……."
It was hardly a surprising reaction, given that Ethan was glaring at me with an expression that seemed to ask whether I'd lost my mind after hearing I intended to make Serista a saintess.
'To be fair, that's not exactly the kind of thing a person should casually announce with their own mouth.'
Becoming the Saintess meant having one's power and standing formally recognized. It was a title that carried rank and prestige exceeding not only that of commoners, but even that of most noble daughters — and, going further, most noble house heads as well.
Considering the honors that trailed after Serista and Lilith by the story's ending, it was only natural that such power wasn't something to be tossed aside so easily.
But that was purely the perspective of an ordinary person, and it didn't apply to me. Having indirectly experienced the Hero Party's journey through Luminor Academy twenty-five times over, the duties of a saintess and the honors that came with them were of absolutely no interest to me.
"As I mentioned before, that power is unnecessary for me. I could even say it would be a hindrance to living the life I actually want."
"…Then what is this life you want, Lilith?"
"Certainly not one of traveling the world after graduating from the Academy alongside the Hero, working toward peace. I lack the resolve to shoulder such grand duties, you see.
For me, an ordinary daily life where I can make use of the power I have would be more than enough. Of course, I'd be happy if that life still allowed me to use the magic and swordsmanship I'm learning at the Academy, but at the very least, I have no desire to live in constant peril, gambling my life on every moment."
After all, the original Lilith had only become the Saintess because her old life was so wretched — her appointment was less a calling than an escape. Her mother had died of illness, and her father was a gambling addict, human trash who had sold his own daughter off to cover his debts.
For that Lilith, becoming the Saintess and bettering the world alongside the Hero may well have been the better option — but for me, who had lived an ordinary life in my previous one, none of it applied.
As I'd said before, there were far more people better suited than someone like me to claw out a living in the Hero Party.
"A life of living ordinarily while putting what you learned at the Academy to use… A condition that sounds simple, yet isn't quite so simple at all…."
"I'm sorry? What was that you just said…?"
"…Nothing. Anyway, I understand why you don't want to be the Saintess, Lilith. So let me ask the opposite. This method you mentioned — is it actually possible?"
"You mean transferring the saintess's power I possess over to Saintess Serista?"
"Yeah. That."
"Yes, entirely possible. It was possible in the future I saw, after all."
Granted, that future was, in practical terms, a distant one some seven or eight years away. But since it wasn't necessary information, I saw no reason to add it.
After all, so long as I relinquished the saintess's power and Serista came to truly wish to become the Saintess of her own will, this power would seek out an appropriate master on its own accord.
"In the future? Ah, right — you said you saw various things of the future when you received the saintess's power."
"That's correct."
"…I'm asking just in case, but of all the futures you've seen so far, could you tell me a few of the things I already know about?"
"The most prominent example would be that Prince McHeart had already joined hands with the demons. The profanity that slipped out of me at the banquet, too — that was a momentary outburst precisely because I knew what Prince McHeart was truly like."
"Fair enough, you did seem a bit flustered at the time. And what else?"
"The fact that Miss Luke is actually a woman who dresses as a man, the fact that Miss Agnes has poor spirit affinity and would struggle with her spirit contract, and also…."
To convince Serista that I could genuinely transfer my saintess's power to her, I went on to explain the things we had experienced together thus far.
How I had known the monster's weakness the first time we faced a Hookmnial years ago, and how I had grasped the layout of the imperial palace on my very first visit without getting lost — upon hearing these things that would have been impossible to know without glimpsing the future, Ethan nodded in understanding.
"All right, I get it. Going by what you say, it seems certain that you saw a future where Serista receives your power."
"That's right, Young Master Ethan."
"But can you be so sure that future will arrive unchanged this time as well?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Because I've never once heard of such a thing. A saintess who, as prophesied, passing her power on to another saintess — I've never heard of it in my life."
"B-but in the future I saw, it most certainly…"
"Seeing the future doesn't guarantee the future will unfold exactly as you saw it. Surely there were futures you glimpsed that ended up diverging from what you saw. The Hookmnial that appeared in Blackwood Territory being captured without any other casualties, and Miss Agnes safely managing to contract with her spirit — those were futures *you* changed, weren't they? Am I wrong?"
"…No, you're not."
Faced with Ethan's airtight logic, I could do nothing but nod along, unable to offer a single rebuttal.
Just as he said, the knowledge I possessed amounted to mere 'things that could happen' at a handful of branching points — futures with no guarantee of actually coming to pass.
Even Ethan sitting here, chatting with me like this, was the product of a future I had changed. Which meant a future where Serista failed to receive the saintess's power from me was entirely possible as well. After all, out of my twenty-five playthroughs, I'd only succeeded once, when the conditions happened to align — I'd never run repeated cross-verification on it.
"What I'm asking about is that 'what if it doesn't work out,' Lilith."
"……."
"If you end up unable to transfer the saintess's power to Serista, then before long the Aurelia Church will start moving to find the true saintess. From what I understand, the saintess's aura is a special presence that high-ranking priests cannot hide even if they try. The reason Serista has had her qualifications tested over and over is precisely because that 'aura of the saintess' can't be properly sensed from her. Am I wrong?"
"…No."
"Then if you fail to transfer your power to Serista in time, and the Aurelia Church comes to take you away so they can raise you up as the Saintess — what's your plan then, Lilith?"
It was information I'd intended to share anyway, but being grilled like this left me with a strange sense of guilt toward Ethan. Handled this way, it would look as though I'd been deliberately hiding the last part and gotten caught red-handed.
Still, having resolved not to hide anything more from him, I went on to explain the 'conditions' the Hero had demanded as well.
"Regarding the future you're worried about, Young Master Ethan — I can keep it from ever coming to pass."
"…How?"
"Everything will be resolved if I join the Hero Party of Hero Gehmajoshigi-gwat."
"…………."
…Wh-what was that? Just now, for some reason, I felt a sudden chill run through my body.
Wondering if Sei was playing some kind of prank, I turned my head toward her, but Sei simply drifted there in the air, limp and listless as always.
"Lilith. Say that again, from the top."
"Th-the thing is, if I join the Hero Party of Hero Gehmajoshigi-gwat, then something like Saintess Serista's life being put in danger probably won't…"
"Why?"
"B-because if I travel with Saintess Serista in the Hero Party, no one will be able to tell which of us is the real saintess…"
"…Why?"
"Be-because the public already universally recognizes Saintess Serista as the saintess. No one would ever suspect that I, who came out of nowhere, is the saintess. A-and even if it did come to light that Saintess Serista isn't the real one, the situation becomes easier to resolve."
"…So I ask again — why?"
"Because I can claim that she was merely posing as my shadow, risking her life to protect me from the demons who would come after the real saintess's head. If I become active in the Hero Party, the claim that Saintess Serista served as my shadow would carry credibility…"
"Lilith."
"Y-yes?"
"Do I seriously look like someone who keeps asking you the same question over and over because he's worried about that fake saintess's life?"
"……I'm sorry, what?"
…Hold on. When did he get this close?
He'd clearly been speaking from across the table just moments ago, yet somewhere in the middle of our conversation, Ethan's face had crept up right before my eyes without me noticing.
He was leaning in, pressing close as though something genuinely displeased him, interrogating me — and my flustered body rose from its chair all on its own.
-CRASH!
"…Lilith. Where do you think you're going?"
"N-no, I wasn't… It's just…"
"I asked you a question. Do you really look that angry because you're worried about that priestess Serista, whom you barely even know?"
"Ar-are you angry…? Young Master Ethan…?"
"…Right. You didn't even notice I was angry — let alone why."
-THUD!
His back to the wall, with no room left to retreat, my wrist was seized by Ethan, who dragged me across the room — and then, pulling my hand hard, he flung my body onto the bed as if tossing me down.
-Plop.
"Yo-young Master Ethan?! Wh-what are you suddenly doing…?!"
"You said it yourself, just now, with your own mouth."
"…I did?"
"That if you can't make Serista the real Saintess, you'll have no choice but to join that damn Hero's party."
"Th-that's only if things go wrong. If I remain in possession of the saintess's power, those problems I mentioned will inevitably arise. And besides, I absolutely refuse to suffer through years of hardship in the Hero Party—"
"Yes, yes, I know. But listen, Lilith."
"……."
"…I have a vague feeling I once heard that there's another way to lose the saintess's power."
-Sliiide.
"HYAAAAAK?!"
The moment Ethan's hand slipped beneath my skirt without a shred of warning, a girlish shriek burst out of me — because my instincts had told me exactly what he intended to do, the very instant that serious face started talking about ways to lose the saintess's power.