Chapter 29
Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Saintess
The sky was dark.
Rain fell from the pitch-black clouds tainted with darkness.
Looking back, she had been nothing more than an ordinary country girl.
Just a mana awakener, the kind you might find in any village.
Thinking of her younger self made her want to retch, and she lacked the courage to confront her current appearance.
Because she was blatantly going back on the vows she had sworn never to break.
The priest who had taken her in, the ordinarily happy days.
Then, into those days, a demon came crashing.
The cause was a criminal fleeing the gaze of the Magic Tower. Of all things.
Out of all those rural villages. Right beneath the one she lived in, a madman conducting experiments had twisted her life. Terribly so.
The invading demon slaughtered her mother before her very eyes, and her father went missing—she only learned three years later that he had barely survived that hell. Well, she caught a glimpse of his face in the coffin after he rose to Knight Captain and died fighting in a war.
How she had been chosen by God, received his grace.
She had been fortunate enough to survive alongside her two younger siblings.
But that was the end of it.
Escaping the razed village and reaching another settlement took fourteen days on foot.
Back then, with a younger brother and sister she had to protect, she had desperately scoured for food and set off to survive by any means.
Naturally, mere commoners who knew only farming had no way of wielding mana, and the endless road was nothing but grueling trials.
There had been no day when she prayed more fervently.
But then.
Your bond with the Final Boss (Yuria) has deepened further!
An astonishing achievement!
Affection rank reward distributed.
Trait: Vassal Dominion (S+) acquired.
It was an eerie voice.
Just tilting her ear toward it felt like primal terror surging up.
It was a single question.
An answer from the heavens.
Yet it was not the voice of the god she so desperately longed for. It was the voice of a demon.
No.
Die. Please.
At first, she had vehemently rejected it, shoving the demon away.
But even now, she couldn't forget its smile and mocking laughter.
[Do you really think God will hear your voice like that?]
-Shut... up.
[Huhuhuhu, fine. Let's see what becomes of you. I swear to my god—you'll regret this choice.]
Exactly three days after the demon quietly vanished.
As time dragged on, their pace slowed. There were many days of frequent camping and going hungry all day, and since the area had been attacked, nothing passed through.
The carriage she had hoped was aid from the count's family turned out to be bandits'.
And just like that, she lost her most precious siblings.
Pointlessly.
In a cruel manner, their heads and bodies torn apart right before her eyes.
She was to be sold into slavery solely because her looks were decent.
[Kikikik, huhuhuhuhu... Kah, God never disappoints me. How about it? Do you regret it now?]
[Unlike others, I can help you.]
....
She denied it.
No.
She must not cross that line.
[You want to save others too, not just yourself, right?]
"..."
Back then, she had clamped her mouth shut tight.
Looking back now, it was nothing but disgusting hypocrisy.
Before her eyes, a hulking brute drooling lewdly eyed her with sinister intent.
She was moments away from being violated, forced to yield everything to this unwanted man.
Beside her wafted the rotting stench of blood from her siblings, who had brimmed with life just months before.
Yes.
So that nothing like this would ever happen again.
She had deemed it justified.
Isabella, who forged a pact with the demon,
truly became a righteous saintess.
Theoretically a flawless schemer, a rational saintess.
To safeguard a city, she ordered a mere village left to the bandits' ravages.
Hundreds driven to ruin, slaughtered, subjected to every vile act imaginable.
But she rounded up every last one of those bandit scum and prevented further harm.
The politicians around her all chimed in unison.
Sacrificing one village to thwart bandits who could have targeted an entire city was victory.
Yes.
Civilian lives were expendable.
The few sacrificed for the many.
The natural order.
Wiping out every last one, even those in hiding. No loose ends.
A saintess doesn't foresee the future.
She wanted to rush to the village under attack right that instant.
She strove to make it possible.
But she knew it was futile.
The demon laid it out in stark terms.
[Do that, and even slaying the leader won't come cheap. Fail to eradicate the bandits here, and they'll swell their ranks to hit another village soon enough. The ones clustered here are practically begging to be caught. Weigh the scattered small villages doomed to greater losses from botched raids against those sacrificed as bait.]
She wanted to argue back.
But not once had she drawn a proper response from the demon on this.
It merely smiled, scrutinizing her face.
The saintess rested her hand quietly on the windowsill, gazing silently at her reflection in the raindrops.
A gray world.
Her fall from grace, the saintess exalted in the Holy Kingdom. A life imprisoned in eerie silence, severed from the lively clamor of children.
And a future where she must forcibly wed and surrender the virginity she had guarded her whole life.
Her partner: a dragon hunter wastrel from the Britna family, a total stranger.
The dwindling aid and the village's wretched conditions made it plain enough.
At a glance, they meant to sacrifice her for political gain.
With each passing day like that, sighs escaped her lips in succession.
This wasn't why she chose this path.
"..."
She had sacrificed herself to create a world where those around her were happy and children laughed.
Yet now she had changed, become one who exploited others, and reality crashed down hard.
Violet Isabella, hailed as the Saintess of Justice.
As always, she retrieved a pill from a box brimming with unidentified medicines and swallowed it with water.
"Ugh."
Outwardly unscathed, yet her body was frail like any other woman's.
The robe felt heavier than usual, its shoulders laden with a crushing sense of duty and responsibility.
There was no one she could confide in honestly, no one trustworthy amid the political fray.
Her parents had been murdered or perished in accidents.
She hadn't even protected her younger siblings, who had believed in her wholeheartedly.
Now, it hardly mattered.
All that remained was the resolve to face reality.
"Where do you intend to go?"
The knightess who had served her since childhood blocked her path.
Anger surged in an instant.
"...I'm just stepping out to clear my head. Are you afraid of me now too? Afraid I'll... I'll go mad and slaughter everyone...?"
"..."
It was a question laced with lament.
The knightess fell silent. Perhaps placing her hand on her sword hilt had been too much.
The saintess, drained of all vigor, turned her head to avoid the knightess's gaze.
The distance to that refreshing resolve felt impossibly far now.
Seeking a place to be alone, the saintess clasped her hands and murmured.
"Die."
Please.
Just let her die on her own.
"Do it..."
Unlike her earnest clasped hands, the "something" in her heart demonstratively twisted the iron dagger, refusing utterly.
She had condemned thousands of civilians to death with pointed fingers and a few words.
In turn, she had saved hundreds more.
And ascended to a figure worthy of saintess acclaim.
Those around her showered her with praise.
"Is this... is this the form I so longed for?"
In her desperation, she even wished that wastrel would kill her.
...
Yuria's favorability is at its peak.
The vassals I can control are limited to wolf-form lobels or mid-tier demons.
Even Yuria can't properly handle dragons corrupted by ma, which surpass top-tier demons in power.
'...She definitely said you need to surpass the pinnacle to control those.'
In other words, a transcendent being beyond level 9, reaching 10.
Imagining getting there already means by chapter 6, Yuria alone chews through the stats.
Add middling traits, talents, potential, and she grows even stronger. Weaknesses dwindle.
It was laughable in its absurdity.
It had taken three days from the family estate to the Holy Kingdom's disclosed saintess location.
"We'll arrive soon."
The coachman's voice rang out.
Yuria, who hadn't detached her soft lips from my neck at every chance, finally pulled away, clearing her throat and wiping her mouth.
Since squeezing out that week after that night, she hasn't shown jealousy.
What to call it? The leisure of possession?
Like she'd claimed center stage, Yuria matter-of-factly demanded kisses and sips of blood whenever we were alone.
"Yuria, what about the investigation I requested? How's this fief?"
"The village where the saintess resides is a disaster. From what I sensed, a monster assault is imminent, yet the soldiers are lax and unskilled, with scarcely any competent knights to be found even if you scour the ranks. The risk mounts daily, while supplies and aid from the Holy Kingdom arrive tardily, if at all. Yes, in short, the Holy Kingdom regards the saintess as a discarded pawn."
"...Hm, so they called me here for one last gambit?"
"It appears so."
Yuria's expression darkened ever so slightly. She clearly wasn't pleased with my poor treatment. To soothe her, I stroked her head.
"Your info-gathering skills have improved a lot."
"...Still a long way from the best... Hnngh, M-Master. Stroke more. No, give it to me..."
Yuria's vassal-based intelligence had become exceptional. Where she learned such things, I dreaded her daily demands for odd rewards...
As I pondered that, we reached the village entrance.
A figure in pristine white caught my eye—a woman in robes screaming "I'm the saintess" who called out to Ian.
"You're from the Britna family, correct?"
The woman regarded me with eyes brimming with hostility.
Gleaming silver hair and lifeless golden pupils.
Her appearance... I vaguely recalled seeing it once in the original illustrations.
Isabella.
Come to think of it, didn't she side with Dillon in the latter half?
At least, judging by her tone, her impression of me was sour.
I scanned her from top to bottom. Befitting the so-called J-cup saintess, her bust commandeered my gaze.
Silver hair a touch brighter than Yuria's, eyes of decadent gold.
A profane bosom radiating ominous energy, contrasted by an astonishingly slender waist.
But her attention snagged more on Yuria behind me than on myself.
My maid, blinking her red eyes, merely watched without a hint of malice.
A silence followed, like ice water doused over us.
"..........Insane human."
Before I could utter an excuse, she spat the curse.
A tiny whisper, yet unavoidable for one with properly honed mana sense.
Clearly meant for our ears.
Did she spot the vampire? No, Yuria wouldn't make such a basic slip.
Then it hit me. Ah.
Lip marks. Right there on my neck. Blood wiped clean, thankfully, but I'd forgotten to conceal that scorching night's evidence.
"..."
And then, another issue erupted here.
One maid present who absolutely couldn't have missed it was suppressing her killing intent.
[Saintess Isabella - Favorability -100]
Damn, please.
Let's keep this amicable... The final boss might kill you...
A chill already prickled down my spine.