Before She Was a Saint
"Are you insulting my mother?"
Hilde was Agatha’s daughter. For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, she felt anger flare at the saint who had dared to insult her precious mother as a loser. Besides, wasn’t this the first time they’d ever met?
As Hilde, worked up and about to lunge at the saint, Bridget threw her arms around her from behind.
"Hilde! Let’s just go. Okay? It’s the upperclassmen’s class now."
At Bridget’s earnest plea, Hilde turned away. If she thought about it calmly, it was only a waste of her energy to pay attention to someone so rude. A person with that sort of personality was probably exactly why the children in the beginner class had been trembling as they left.
"You’ve got a good friend there. Good thing you stopped before things got ugly."
Leaving the sneering saint behind, they walked out of the training ground. Bridget kept glancing around nervously as she and Hilde headed toward the beginner-class building. Once she was sure no one was close enough to overhear, she lowered her voice.
"That saint, though. Best not to get mixed up with her. She’s seriously prickly."
"How can someone like that hold the position of saint? She’s the saint who’s supposed to join the hero’s party someday, isn’t she?"
"I don’t really know either, but she must be unbelievably talented. Even the Pope seems to be watching her every move, because he hasn’t interfered at all."
Hilde let out a sigh. How had someone like that become a saint?
"Hoo. I’m starting to worry about the continent’s future."
After that, Hilde attended the basic theology class at the Holy School and returned to the room she used alone. She went over everything that had happened today. She had suddenly enrolled in the Holy School, then failed while trying to move the divine power gathered in her chest. After that, she had managed to coordinate a demonstration with the teacher, and while she was talking with the children, the saint had appeared.
If not for the saint, it would have been a happy day, one that promised she could start learning in earnest from the next morning. But then that woman had suddenly picked a fight for no reason at all, and even insulted her mother. Just remembering it made her stomach boil. No one in the world had the right to insult the woman she loved most.
This world is doomed too. So what if you’ve got tons of divine power and excellent abilities? There’s no way a party with someone that rotten in it can function properly.
Once she heard rumors that the hero’s party had been formed, she planned to run away with her mother. As she was thinking about where they should go, there was suddenly a knock at the door.
"Hilde. Are you in your room?"
At the gentle voice, she felt her emotions swell all the more. It still bothered her that she had failed to lash out and get revenge earlier. Lying on the bed, Hilde got up and opened the door.
"What brings you here, Mother?"
Ever since Agatha had returned to the church, she had been incredibly busy. From the first day, she had been buried under paperwork assignments and daily dispatch missions. The church was suffering from a severe labor shortage. Monsters, which had a habit of appearing without warning, had started showing up around these parts too, and there simply weren’t enough people who could deal with them quickly. From the church’s point of view, Agatha was a gift from heaven. Once inside the room, the two of them sat side by side on the bed.
"I’m sorry I suddenly sent you to school today."
Agatha felt apologetic for not asking for her daughter’s opinion. Hilde was the sort of child who would almost always agree to whatever was asked of her, but that only made her want to cherish her even more carefully. As Hilde looked at Agatha’s faintly sad expression—
"No, it’s fine. I actually wanted to go too. I didn’t know how to handle the divine power that suddenly appeared. Now I can learn how to use it, so really, I’m the one who should be thanking you."
"I’m glad to hear that. I know Hilde will manage well on her own, but if anything becomes difficult, don’t hide it. Come to Mom anytime, all right?"
Suddenly, the saint flashed through her mind. But she quickly dismissed the thought, deciding that woman would have nothing to do with her.
"I understand, Mother."
"Then I should get going. Work is piling up again."
Hilde saw Agatha off as she left, then immediately lay back down on the bed and drew up her divine power.
I need to learn how to control divine power whenever I have a spare moment.
Priests release divine power outward to use spells. The spell activates when they memorize the chant, including the exact timing and wording, in their minds. For high-level spells, the chant could be more than ten thousand characters long, so in the game it had simply been treated as a condition that said the spell would activate after a few minutes. But in this world, a priest’s actual ability was crucial to triggering a spell. The saint was probably exceptional in both memory and divine power.
For a holy knight to grow stronger, increasing the amount of divine power was important, of course, but the real key was how skillfully she distributed it where it was needed. Attacking and blocking both required careful control at the right moment. Right now, even moving it around her body took a long time, so the only path forward was steady practice.
Hilde trained while attending the Holy School with Bridget. Before long, six months had passed, and Hilde’s height had grown from 160 centimeters to 165. For Hilde, that was an encouraging change. She didn’t know how much taller she would get, but in battle, even a little extra height was an advantage for a woman’s body. She had also become reasonably adept at Nova Movement, the technique for freely moving divine power within the body.
Lunch time.
As always, Hilde was eating with Bridget. The boys kept sneaking glances at Hilde, who only grew more beautiful by the day, and whispering among themselves. Lately, Hilde had felt increasingly unsettled by her own growing body. Her figure was becoming more and more feminine, and with the memories of having been a man in her previous life mixed in, her feelings were complicated.
Bridget was eating when she suddenly looked over Hilde’s shoulder and gasped in horror.
"Watch out!"
Hilde turned at the sudden wet sensation on her head. There, standing before her, were the saint and Trisha, both of whom she hadn’t seen at school for quite some time. Trisha, the saint’s guard, had dumped an entire tray of school lunch over Hilde’s head. Bridget covered her mouth and stared wide-eyed.
"Oh, dear—sorry! Looks like Trisha’s hand slipped. My, my, what are we going to do about that pretty face getting all dirty? Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to give Trisha a proper scolding~."
The saint made a big show of herself as she spoke from behind Trisha. The corner of Trisha’s mouth crooked upward.
"My apologies. Still, it was only a mistake made by a senior from the sky-high advanced class, so why don’t you let it slide just this once?"
Drip. Drip. Broth fell from Hilde’s hair. It had been a childish prank, but the mental damage was considerable. Hilde picked up her own tray and walked toward the saint. Then she swung it at her face.
The saint flinched at the tray coming straight for her. The food was about to hit her in the face. But it never did. Hilde twisted the tray at the last second, sending the food neatly back where it had come from. It was a little stunt made possible through the Nova Movement she had practiced so often with her divine power.
Before the startled saint could recover and blow up in anger, Hilde spoke first.
"I made a mistake too. You’re a beginner-class underclassman, and none of it got on you, so please be generous and let it go."
The saint’s face turned bright red. It was a kind of treatment she had never received before. But twisted up with frustration, she couldn’t say a word. Hilde had answered perfectly by turning the saint’s own words back on her. Hilde then stepped outside to wash off the dripping broth.
How dare a beginner-class little freshman act all high and mighty and try to threaten me? I’ll make sure you regret it so badly you’ll be pounding the ground later.
A week passed since the fight between the saint and Hilde.
The Holy School had two semesters a year: the first semester and summer vacation in the first half, then the second semester and winter vacation in the second half. Because winter was so cold and made activity difficult, the first semester was longer to accommodate the students.
Hilde went to the training ground for the comprehensive end-of-term assessment and narrowly dodged a sword flying toward her. The children around her shouted in surprise, and Hilde looked in the direction the blade had come from. It was the saint and Trisha.
"Oh, sorry, sorry! I guess I lost control while working hard for the evaluation lately. But you dodged it without getting hurt, so it’s fine, right?"
If you two keep this up, I’m not a person if I don’t snap.
Without saying a word, Hilde walked to the corner where the polearms were stacked and picked up a sword. She approached the saint at a slight distance and drew the blade. Her eyes were burning with anger. Trisha, momentarily thrown off by the pressure, stepped in front of the saint and drew her own sword.
"How dare you draw your sword in front of the saint so disrespectfully? Do you want to die?"
The children watching the scene called for Teacher Sevie.
"What do you think you’re doing? Stop this right now and put down your swords!"
At Sevie’s words, both of them lowered their swords. But Hilde’s gaze remained fixed on the saint.
"I’ll choose Trisha, senior, for the one-on-one duel in three days."
At Hilde’s words, Trisha snorted and said, "A brat who hasn’t even been in the beginner class for a year thinks she can take me on? Are you out of your mind?"
The children and Teacher Sevie were flustered. A holy knight in the advanced class had completely mastered Nova Movement and was elite manpower soon to be deployed into real combat. No student from the beginner class, only just learning Nova Movement, had ever challenged an advanced-class student to a duel before. The result was obvious at a glance.
"Hilde. Think carefully. Even if you fight an advanced-class student, if you can’t do anything at all and lose, your evaluation will naturally be terrible."
"I know that too. But I still want to fight Senior Trisha."
Hilde was furious, yet her face was disturbingly expressionless. The chill in her voice made the saint flinch for a moment. The fact that she had been outmatched in sheer presence by a beginner-class student made anger surge in her chest.
"What a brat, sticking her nose up to the heavens. Trisha, you need to teach her a proper lesson. How dare she talk back to a saint? She’s a brat with her nose stuck all the way into the clouds."
Trisha answered with a confident expression.
"You’ll regret this day. I’ll chew you up and spit you out."