The Thinking Star
A throng of clergy filled nearly half the room, packing it tight in both the figurative and the literal sense.
I surveyed those faces still poorly mimicking humanity, suppressing my revulsion as I waited for the words they were about to speak.
Knowing a Hero had appeared, and that they had come lumbering straight to the Saintess’s chambers to announce it, made it easier to wear a natural smile.
With the corners of her lips gently lifted and her eyes curved, the Saintess’s face—seemingly detached from all things—held a certain allure for most men.
Some of them flushed red, unable to hide their emotions to a degree that made one doubt they were truly clergy.
How can a human who doesn’t even realize how shameful it is to feel that way toward a young girl be a priest?
At least try to hide it.
Strictly speaking, the Saintess had just come of age, so calling her a young girl was a stretch, but right now I just needed a reason to curse them.
And honestly, the age gap was considerable, wasn’t it?
One of them, looking like the representative at the front, pulled a rolled paper from his robes and unfurled it.
As that massive body moved, I almost imagined the sound of thudding footsteps—thud, thud.
"Hear this, Saintess. A Hero has been chosen; fulfill your duty."
Being ordered about and having duty forced upon a young girl was enough to sour my mood, but knowing it was the only hope of returning to my original world, I simply gave a weak nod of assent.
In most of the stories I’d seen, the basic motivation was to slay the Demon King, have one wish granted, or be sent back home.
There were odd ones where the protagonist was eventually moved and lived happily ever after in newlywed bliss, but I was certain that wouldn’t happen to me, and I steeled my resolve once more.
I didn’t know exactly what the duty was, but I figured it would be a hassle, so I rose from my seat.
They parted to either side as if bidding me to follow, forming a path, and I walked slowly between them, one step at a time.
I don’t know the way.
I had memorized every location that appeared in the game, but aside from the Small Church that was the key stage for meeting the Saintess, the places I knew in the Holy Kingdom were few indeed.
It claimed to be an open-world RPG, yet there were many buildings you couldn’t enter, and the Central Church where the Holy Kingdom’s high-ranking people resided was one of them.
Thinking someone would take the lead, I walked even more slowly, until at last one stepped forward to guide the way.
The throng of footsteps filling the corridor raised a clamor in the once-quiet Small Church as they led the Saintess away.
Stepping outside the Small Church for the first time, the wind-stirred grass greeted me.
Gazing at the broad, blue-tinged open ground that was hard to believe was the heart of the Holy Kingdom, a faint sense of liberation slowly welled up from somewhere.
Was it the heart of the girl who, until the Hero appeared, had spent nearly all her time repeating the same routine like a machine inside the Small Church? Or the feeling of a modern person who had lived busily all their life staring only at forests and trees of concrete in the city? No one would ever know.
The stone path led unnaturally toward the massive church that occupied one corner of my vision.
Walking on the cobblestones produced a tapping sound and stimulated my tender feet.
Though I hadn’t walked for all that long, I felt a tingling sensation gradually rising from the ends and moved my creaking body.
The throbbing in my head subsided once I was outside.
As I blankly followed the path, one of the clergy beside me spoke.
His back was straight, his eyes sharp with spirit, and though aged, he had quite a handsome appearance.
His bishop’s robes, the same color as his snow-white hair and embroidered with gold thread, showed he was quite high-ranking in the Holy Kingdom.
Perhaps because the developers had little knowledge of actual religion, distinguishing bishops from priests was simply a matter of white versus black clothes and the presence of gold embroidery, so it was easy.
"If you leave the Holy Kingdom following the Hero, do not return."
I glanced around at the slightly raised whisper, but it seemed only I could hear it—perhaps some special method.
Judging by the suspicious looks a few cast from the side, it was likely a holy art.
Yet because he held more authority than I had expected, they didn’t dare speak up.
I felt no malice in his words.
He seemed almost the only trustworthy person among them; judging by appearance was a bad habit, but in this game world, such prejudices held true to some extent.
Thinking I had understood, he closed his mouth and looked ahead again.
Whether I died or slew the Demon King, there would be no returning to the Holy Kingdom anyway.
I too looked ahead and walked on.
My legs tingled unbearably, so I silently recited the skill.
Heal
Feeling the dissonance of mental fatigue while my body was fine, I moved my legs again and walked.
At last reaching the Central Church, I gazed at the massive white doors.
The Central Church was so lavish it seemed closer to a palace than a church, and the countless patterns engraved in gold made it easy to guess how much donation money had flowed here.
As I was clicking my tongue at the extravagance, the great doors began to open slowly.
As if refusing to allow the others entry, the doors closed right after I entered—quite curious.
Thinking of an automatic door with that much mass made the reality of having come to another world sink in strangely.
The interior was like a palace of mirrors, reflecting the Saintess’s face in several places.
And seeing the Saintess’s face for the second time today, a question arose in me.
I didn’t know why I had forgotten until now, but originally the Saintess had pupils that shone in the shape of a cross whenever she used holy power.
Those eyes were the symbol of the first Saintess who first met the stars, and the portraits of subsequent Saintesses as well as Theas who appeared in the game—this body—also had those peculiar pupils that shone whenever holy arts were used.
It was explained as peculiar pupils that appeared when using holy arts, so on a hunch I tried using a holy art.
Heal…
There was no change in the pupils.
…What?
The peculiar black pupils that shone in a cross shape when using holy arts were practically a symbol of the Saintess, so my memory couldn’t be wrong.
The chain of questions that followed one after another led to an instinctive sense that something would happen in this place.
From the empty pupils, the sound of clicking footsteps began to approach.
The hall of mirrors was clearly reflecting him.
The Pope.
It was famous that there were only three named NPCs and companions in the Holy Kingdom.
The Pope, the Saintess, and one Holy Knight.
There were NPCs or companions exceptionally strong even within the world setting, and they were called Stars.
The Saintess had the epithet of the Star that ■■, the ■ Star (■星), and the Pope was also one of those who had reached the stars.
The trait of those who reached the stars was that a random part of their body shone with starlight, making them easy for even newbies to distinguish.
But the Pope was hard to distinguish, the reason being…
Because the shining body part was his brain.
I never imagined that when I dug into the files, they’d even modeled the inside of his head.
I briefly lost myself in memories of when I was in reality, but now wasn’t the time.
With hair gone completely white contrasting a very young face that exuded a playful atmosphere, that human was clearly an old monster who had lived a very long time.
With an androgynous appearance and small stature, wearing large robes that contrasted with it, he created countless images in the mirrors as he descended the stairs, looking at the mirrors as he came down.
The Thinking Star, Star of Wisdom—Sedes.
Grinning as if something was so delightful, he approached me and finally opened his mouth.
His long bishop’s robes dragged on the ground.
In the images formed in the mirrors and my eyes, strangely, a bizarrely twisted young boy’s form appeared.
"So you’re this generation’s Saintess."
"Nice to meet you."
His way of speaking as if meeting me for the first time was questionable, but the thought that it was possible for that human came first.
I knew the Pope was a very strange human, after all.
An extreme mood-swinger, a human whose mood is the sole criterion for judgment.
The Pope’s specialty was mental domination, but he had never shown any abuse of it, and in fact you couldn’t find any instances of him using it in the game either.
Still, no harm in being careful.
That the Pope had never sought out a Saintess chosen directly by the god was to my advantage.
It meant that since I wasn’t the Saintess, I didn’t need to put my heart into acting.
"This Saintess couldn’t speak, right."
"I had forgotten."
A question of Is that something you can just forget? arose, but given the person, any behavior made sense.
With a snap of his fingers in the air, a paper and a fountain pen appeared.
"Shall we have a little chat?"
Cold sweat ran down.