68. The Saint (3)
68. The Saint (3)
"Lea-nim."
"Hmm?"
"A guest has arrived."
"What kind of guest?"
"It is the Saintess candidate, Viviant."
"Ah, that Saintess candidate who said she was coming from the Holy Kingdom with the intention of subjugating the Ners?"
"Yes. That Viviant has come seeking an audience with you, Lea-nim. She says she has something urgent to discuss."
"Eh..."
Lea crawled out of bed.
"I don't want to grow... but I have no choice."
Before returning to her original body, she took out some pipe tobacco to curb her hunger.
"Please tell her to wait about five minutes."
"Understood."
Thinking she should smoke and get rid of the smell before going, Lea quickly inhaled the pipe tobacco.
==
Viviant was waiting in the parlor where she had been guided by Amber.
'Is Amber on the side of the creatures, or on the side of humans?'
The orphanage was quite large.
It wasn't just a renovated, crumbling church; a two-story building had been constructed around it.
A total of 300 children lived there, and the church, which had originally been used as the orphanage, had been converted into a space for items and food needed to run the orphanage, as well as living quarters for the adults.
The parlor was, naturally, in the church, not the building where the children lived.
While moving to the parlor, Viviant had checked everyone around her with her Status Window.
'Amber, Stacey. Everyone except those two was human.'
Among them, Amber was quite suspicious.
A human encroached upon by a creature.
From what she heard, it was like a contagion. But honestly, because of the child named Stacey, her resistance toward creatures had diminished significantly.
The one that had attacked Medherun City was, in fact, a creature called a Ners.
Amber and Stacey, who had guided her, were creatures, but they didn't seem that bad.
Stacey's alignment was shown as Chaos/Evil, but alignment was just like an MBTI.
The alignments of the people she had seen so far were somewhat accurate, but they didn't act exactly according to their alignment just because it was labeled as such.
Rather, alignments weren't fixed; they changed over time.
Stacey was listed as one year old.
She hadn't been born long, so perhaps she was classified as Chaos/Evil simply due to the characteristic of being a creature.
Why did she have this thought? Because were creatures really that bad?
This thought occurred to her.
Because just because one is human by race, it doesn't mean there are only good humans.
In this world, the most popular path, which many people challenge if they have mana or a Unique Ability, is that of an Adventurer.
One of the reasons why many of those Adventurers die is not because of monsters, but because of other humans.
This world already has information on most monsters, and their strength is categorized.
Now, except for dungeons or ruins, there are almost no deaths caused by monster subjugation.
However, disappearances do occur.
Many people would think those disappearances were because the Adventurers were killed by monsters, but if you investigate, the reason they fall victim to monsters is usually because of betrayal by their own party members.
Even among humans, there is a wide spectrum.
Corrupt nobles, mercenaries who don't hesitate to kill, priests who lust after women despite being clergy, and so on—there really are many different kinds of trash.
Then, couldn't creatures be the same?
They aren't monsters that can't communicate.
Looking at Amber or Stacey, she couldn't see any difference from humans.
The only difference was that their stats were on the higher side compared to humans. Aside from that, she couldn't see any particular difference.
Of course, she hadn't let her guard down completely.
"I'm coming in."
With a knock, the door opened, and as Lea entered, Viviant stood up to greet her, then froze.
The Saint was right in front of her.
Holy Power, which was difficult for even her to see with the naked eye, was flowing from her body, warming the surroundings, showing just how much she was loved by the Goddess.
Lea's appearance, which made that Holy Power seem even more sacred, was at a level that made even Viviant, a woman herself, feel like she wanted to be held in her arms and comforted.
'Crazy... I finally understand why people called this person the Saint.'
If this person wasn't the Saint, who would be?
Even though she herself was a Saintess candidate, Viviant, who thought the woman in front of her should be the Saint, came to her senses when she saw Lea looking at her in confusion.
"A-ahem. Hello. I am Viviant, who has come to Medherun City from the Holy Kingdom with the status of Saintess candidate."
"Hello. I am Lea, running the orphanage here. It must have been difficult coming all the way to the city. You said you wanted to meet me?"
"Ah, yes. Um, would it be alright if I used magic for a moment?"
"Hmm? Magic? Yes, that's fine."
"Then, just a moment."
First, Viviant used her Holy Power and mana to cast a spell that prevented the sound from leaking out of the room.
A translucent barrier formed around the round table where Lea and Viviant were sitting.
"Oh..."
Lea looked around at the barrier as if it were fascinating.
Viviant took that opportunity to use the Status Window on Lea.
<Information>
Name : ??
Race : ??
Affiliated Country : ??
Affiliated Organization : ??
Gender : ??
Height · Weight : ??
Alignment : ??
<Stats>
Strength : ??
Durability : ??
Agility : ??
Stamina : ??
Magic Power : ??
<Unique Ability>
??
Description : The target's rank is higher, so information about the target cannot be viewed.
Just like with that child earlier, she couldn't check Lea's information due to the rank.
As soon as Viviant realized she couldn't check Lea either, she let out a sigh of relief.
'Thank goodness. It proves that there isn't a problem with my Status Window, and that the child isn't a bad person.'
The fact that the rank was higher had felt negative.
It couldn't be helped; in the nearly three years she had spent in this world, she had never once seen a Status Window show something like that.
So, seeing everything as question marks couldn't help but make her feel anxious.
But since it said she couldn't view the information just like before for someone who was clearly loved by the Goddess, she felt a sense of relief.
'Then, what on earth is a rank?'
She suddenly became curious.
A rank is something that distinguishes a level or quality.
Like how Adventurers are classified from F to S.
'Does it mean there are ranks for existence?'
Actually, this wasn't entirely nonsensical.
In this world, humans are classified by rank from the start.
King, noble, commoner, slave. Like that.
But those ranks are just ranks created by humans.
What if the world is a single system, and that system assigns a rank to each existence?
After all, this is a world with magic and a Goddess.
'What on earth is the Goddess thinking?'
The Lea in front of her right now is clearly a Saint loved dearly by the Goddess.
Then why on earth is she holding Saintess selections?
"Viviant-nim?"
"Ah, I'm sorry."
"It's nothing else, but... do you know a child named Stacey at the orphanage?"
"Stacey? Yes. I know her well."
"Then, if Stacey is not a huma—"
"Wait a moment."
As soon as Lea heard the words "is not a huma—" from Viviant, she cut her off.
The word that was about to follow was something so blatant that anyone could understand it.
Not a human, but a creature.
There are few humans who know Stacey's true identity.
Aside from Gwen, who gave birth to her, and the humans in the Colony, there are none.
Yet, suddenly, a Saintess candidate named Viviant had come and, out of the blue, realized that the existence named Stacey was a creature.
"How did you know that?"
"Does the fact that you said that mean you know everything about Stacey and Gwen?"
She flinched.
At Viviant's words, Lea momentarily tried to gather her power, but released it before Viviant could notice.
'Wait a minute. She knows information that no one else knows?'
"Yes. I know. We are protecting Gwen."
"Protecting... Gwen was originally declared dead, so what happened regarding that?"
"I don't want to tell outsiders about the city's internal problems, but since you already know, I'll tell you briefly."
Lea organized her thoughts on how to explain it and opened her mouth.
"Gwen was severely injured while fighting creatures and went through a bad experience. We announced that she had died because we were told that if rumors spread about what happened to her, it would have negative effects. But in reality, there are many political issues involved."
"As I thought..."
Viviant nodded.
Lea smiled as she looked at Viviant.
Saying the words "As I thought" meant only one thing. She knew about the relationship between Gwen and Stacey.
And that Gwen had given birth to Stacey.
Stacey, a Mimic Creature, was in a state of perfect mimicry as a human.
There was only one way to notice such a Stacey.
'It's the Status Window. She definitely has a Status Window...'
Lea tried to smile with a brighter face than ever, but since the current situation wasn't one for smiling, she hurriedly covered her mouth with her hand.
'I finally found it. I finally found it...!'
Viviant, seeing Lea, thought she was sad and handed her her handkerchief.