A Secret Outing
“Wow! I never imagined there’d be a passage like this!”
Lana, her hood pulled low, spoke with unmistakable excitement in her voice. I watched her back with a distant gaze, still unable to fully accept the situation. How could anyone remain calm in a moment like this? I was secretly slipping out of the Academy with one of the Saintesses who currently held the continent’s undivided attention.
How had things come to this? To understand that, I needed to turn back the clock a little.
After the treatment ended, Lana responded to my promise to repay her kindness with an unexpected request.
“Then… would you grant me just one favor?”
Surprised, I hesitated for a moment before nodding. She had done me an enormous service; the least I could do was fulfill a single request. Even without that debt, I would have agreed. If it was Lana asking, I would do anything—without expecting anything in return.
When I accepted, her face lit up with a radiant smile.
“Really? I’m so happy!”
That smile alone felt like more than enough repayment.
“What exactly is this favor?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
“Ah, well…” Lana replied, “Would you leave the Academy with me?”
…What?
. . .
Time passed, and here we were.
At first, her request had caught me completely off guard. I couldn’t make sense of it. Leave the Academy together? What did she mean? Fortunately, it didn’t take long to understand. Lana wasn’t suggesting we run away—she simply wanted to go on an outing together.
Once I grasped her true meaning, I agreed. That was how we ended up sneaking out like this. Though “sneaking” was the operative word.
‘She wants to go out without anyone knowing…’
Lana wished to leave without being noticed. When I asked if outings were forbidden, she shook her head.
“It’s not that. We can leave whenever we want.”
Her status required certain procedures, but leaving itself wasn’t prohibited. As long as she informed the Church properly, an outing was possible. So why go to the trouble of sneaking out?
The question lingered, but I didn’t need to voice it. Lana seemed to sense my confusion and explained on her own.
“If we did it that way… it would cause quite a commotion.”
Her explanation made perfect sense. A Saintess going out was no small matter for the Church. The Saintess was their most precious and important figure—more valuable than gold or jewels. If she were to leave and get hurt, or worse, the Church would consider it an unprecedented disaster. That was why they assigned every available person to guard her whenever she ventured outside. Not figuratively—literally every capable hand.
With that many escorts, she would inevitably draw attention. Everyone would know the Saintess had arrived, and the outing would cease to be an outing at all.
I asked if she could request discreet protection, but Lana shook her head again. The Church refused such arrangements because they couldn’t guarantee her immediate safety in an emergency. A quiet outing was structurally impossible.
And so we had arrived at this solution: sneaking out through one of the Academy’s secret passages.
“How fascinating. I had no idea so many passages existed.”
Lana’s eyes widened as she looked around, even though we hadn’t left the Academy yet. I asked carefully,
“…What if someone finds out you slipped away like this?”
That was my real concern. If word got out that Lana had vanished, chaos would follow. And it would. Her ever-present priestess attendant would notice if she was gone too long.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Lana said, easing my fears. “I already told Anne.”
Anne. The context made it obvious—she meant her attendant priestess. Still, I couldn’t immediately accept the answer.
“She’s just letting it slide?”
Protecting Lana was Anne’s duty. If something happened to her because Anne had turned a blind eye, the blame would fall squarely on the priestess. Yet she had allowed this?
Lana gave an awkward smile.
“Anne always looks out for me.”
…I see. It seemed a genuine bond had formed between Lana and her attendant. That was a relief. Knowing Lana had someone she could truly trust was comforting.
‘From what I saw, Anne cares about her too…’
Anne had already become something of a celebrity at the Academy. Her striking contrast—smiling brightly while delivering merciless verbal barbs—made her impossible to ignore. She didn’t treat everyone that way, though. Only those who approached Lana too aggressively or harbored ill intentions received that treatment. Regardless of how others felt about her manner, I found it reassuring. It showed a clear will to protect Lana properly.
She felt different from Iona, the priestess who assisted Julia. Iona worked diligently, but her dedication seemed more professional than personal. Of course, one could never truly know someone’s heart. Still, on the surface, Iona came across as strict and businesslike. In contrast, Lana and Anne clearly shared a close relationship. For me, that was a welcome sight.
“Since we left through the room, no one else will notice either.”
At her added explanation, I nodded. Only Anne could enter the Saintess’s quarters. With her cooperation, no one would realize Lana had gone out. Only then did I feel the tension leave my shoulders. I wanted to grant Lana’s request no matter what, but I hadn’t been eager for a major incident.
Eventually, we reached the end of the passage and stepped out of the Academy completely.
“Wow!”
Lana gasped at the sight of the city spread before us. A smile naturally formed on my lips as well.
“I take it you’ve never had the chance to explore Ardentis before.”
“No. After arriving here, I went straight to the Academy.”
That explained her reaction.
“Then shall we take a walk through the streets first?”
I already knew Ardentis like the back of my hand. I’d prepared a plan once I learned our destination was the city, but there was no need to follow it rigidly right away.
“Yes!”
And so Lana and I began walking through Ardentis. We didn’t speak much. I didn’t lead her anywhere in particular. We simply strolled at a leisurely pace. Yet even that small act was enough.
“Wow…!”
Lana was delighted. Though her face was hidden beneath the hood, I could tell—her eyes, taking in everything around her, were sparkling.
‘Come to think of it…’
During the two years I’d spent with the children, including Lana, they had rarely left the forest. It was to prevent any information from leaking. The Dark Cult’s intelligence network was terrifyingly efficient; even the smallest clue could alert them. So the children had lived almost entirely within the forest. They never complained, but I had always felt guilty about it. Life confined to the woods must have been terribly dull.
That was why I had held onto a wish. Someday, once everything was resolved and we escaped the Dark Cult’s grasp, I wanted to show the children the city—the world. In the end, I died before that dream could come true. Still, walking through the city with Lana now, even if it wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined, made me feel as though that wish had been partially fulfilled.
Without realizing it, a smile spread across my face—one mixed with equal parts joy and bitterness.