A Most Unusual Companion
When that man appeared before her once more, Alice had naturally intended to drive him away. There was no reason not to. Yet in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. All because of what Rita had said—that she was paying attention to him. It was an absurd claim. Of course Alice had immediately denied it. But she couldn’t refute what Rita said next.
“Exactly. Up until now, you’ve never shown enough interest in anyone to even bother saying whether you liked them or not.”
It was true. At her core, Alice wasn’t all that different from Julia. Their reactions might differ, but fundamentally, she held no interest in people. Those who approached her with obvious ulterior motives were met with sharp rejection and driven off, but never before had she interfered with anything that fell within Rita’s domain.
Of course, this situation was somewhat different. Even though Rita had brought him, if he was truly meant to serve as a guide, that meant he would be visible to Alice as well. She had every right to voice her opinion. And yet, despite knowing that, Alice couldn’t push her stance to the end. One particular thought had flashed through her mind.
Would I have reacted this way if it had been someone else?
At that question, Alice found she couldn’t nod right away. She wasn’t confident that she would have. …No, to be more honest, the stronger feeling was that she probably wouldn’t have.
Years had passed since she became a Saintess and joined the Goddess Church. This year, her existence had even been officially announced. Had there truly never been anyone around her whom she disliked? Of course there had. But even when such people existed, Alice had never bothered to pay them any mind. Unless they approached her overtly, she never went out of her way to chase them off.
Yet now, deviating from that standard to drive this man away would clearly be behavior unlike her. She wouldn’t have done it for anyone else. For example, what if the prince she had met upon arriving here had been the one Rita brought instead?
From the very first meeting with the prince, Alice had seen it in his eyes the moment their gazes met—he harbored impure intentions toward her. That was why she had personally issued him a warning and pushed him away. But if Rita had brought the prince instead? She wouldn’t have liked it, but she wouldn’t have driven him off either. Not as long as he only interacted with Rita.
And yet here she was, stepping forward to confront Rita about this man. Even though he hadn’t done anything yet. Just as Rita had said, it was an unprecedented reaction.
Having reached that conclusion, Alice finally stopped interfering and turned away. She changed her mind. She would simply ignore the man’s existence entirely.
And so, a rather strange companionship began. Just as Rita had said, the man named Kyle started following her around under the pretense of being her guide.
It was irritating. Naturally it was irritating. But she never pointed it out. She simply acted as she always had.
…Of course, as a result, her nerves grew somewhat sharper. Because of that, she sometimes treated others even more coldly than usual. However, she never let it show. She remained the same as she had always been—her original self.
The man, for his part, did nothing in particular. He simply followed quietly behind her, like a stray puppy that had been taken in. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing wasn’t entirely clear. On one hand, it meant she didn’t have to scowl at him unnecessarily, so it could be considered good. On the other hand, it was difficult to call it entirely good.
If only Kyle would approach her, she could use that as an excuse to drive him away. But there was no sign of him doing so. Even after quite some time had passed, the man showed no intention of making a move.
Eventually, Alice half-gave up on chasing him away and grew accustomed to this bizarre companionship. That was when Rita dropped a bombshell.
She said she would be stepping away for a while to handle some work.
…On its own, that wasn’t particularly shocking. While an assistant priestess was normally expected to remain at the Saintess’s side at all times, there were occasions when circumstances required them to leave. In fact, Rita had stepped away several times before for various reasons. So the fact that Rita would be absent for a while wasn’t shocking in itself.
The problem was what came after.
Rita declared that while she was gone, she would entrust Kyle with the role of assistant priestess.
It was nonsense. Appointing an outsider—let alone a man—as the Saintess’s assistant? It was something the Goddess Church could never accept, and something Alice herself could never tolerate. She immediately confronted Rita, demanding to know if she was serious. This time, she was determined to break Rita’s stubbornness.
But in the end, she couldn’t. Because Rita had threatened her.
The Bellinu Church was extremely sensitive about Alice’s safety. For that reason, they had long wanted to increase the number of guards escorting her during her frequent external activities. Alice, however, had continuously refused any additional personnel. The reason was simple: to avoid unnecessary hassle. If she allowed the church to increase the numbers as they wished, her surroundings would be constantly swarming with people. Dozens of escorts would follow her every step without ever leaving her side. Just imagining it was exhausting.
That was why she had rejected every request from the church up until now. Naturally, the church hadn’t easily backed down either, so the strange war of nerves between them had continued for quite some time.
It was Rita who had brought that tension to an end. Rita Alberix—a genius priestess whose holy power and personal abilities were among the rarest in the entire history of the Bellinu Church. By taking her as her assistant, Alice had been able to cleanly shut down the church’s demands. And that was possible purely thanks to Rita’s capabilities. Rita, who understood Alice’s personality well, had used every trick in the book to persuade the church leadership.
In other words, the current peace she enjoyed was all thanks to Rita. Because of that, Alice couldn’t coldly reject Rita’s request. If she made an issue of this and reported it to the church higher-ups, it was obvious they would leap at the chance and dispatch a massive number of personnel.
So in the end, Alice had no choice but to accept Rita’s proposal. She found it incredibly infuriating and was furious with Rita, but there was nothing she could do. If she didn’t go along with it, she would be the one to suffer in the end.
And so, just as she had declared, Rita really did leave her post, and the man—Kyle Berwen—took on the role of her assistant priestess. There was no need to ask how Alice felt about it. It was obviously irritating. She hated being forced into this situation by Rita, and she hated the man who had caused it even more.
At first, she tried to suppress her anger and ignore him as she had before. But at some point, a thought occurred to her. Do I really need to endure this? Instead of holding it in, wouldn’t it be better to vent this anger on the man?
Alice didn’t ignore that flash of insight. Before long, she began to take out her frustration on him. She started bombarding him with all sorts of errands and demands. Buy her a drink. Buy her dessert. She thought she’d left her textbook behind, so go to the classroom and get it. She wasn’t feeling well, so revise tomorrow’s schedule and come back. Every single one of them was trivial. They weren’t genuinely necessary—they were made up purely to torment him.
As time went on, the frequency of her demands only increased, eventually reaching a level that would be difficult for an ordinary person to endure. The Academy grounds were unnecessarily vast. Simply moving around to attend lectures was already quite taxing, but if he had to constantly run around inside without a moment’s rest due to endless errands? It became an ordeal so harsh it was hard to even call it merely difficult.
And that wasn’t all. Openly malicious harassment tended to gnaw away at the victim’s mind more than one might expect—especially when the tasks were meaningless. It was painful both physically and mentally.
While pouring these meaningless demands onto the man, Alice waited. She waited for his face to twist in agony. She waited for him to quit the role of assistant priestess on his own and run away.
But the result she wanted never came. The man stubbornly endured her harassment. It wasn’t that he wasn’t struggling. Physically she couldn’t be sure, but at least mentally, he looked quite battered. Even so, he didn’t give up. He didn’t quit. He continued to bear her errands and her malice.
Watching him, Alice felt irritated. The fact that this man was going to such lengths to bother her. The fact that he wouldn’t leave no matter how badly she treated him—it grated on her so much she couldn’t stand it.
So she asked him. What exactly was his goal? Why was he doing this? Did he think she was as easy to deal with as the other two?
To her half-irritated question, the man answered. That wasn’t the case. He held not a single impure intention. It was nonsense. There was no way she could believe him. If he wanted nothing—if he sought neither material gain, power, nor even romantic feelings—then what possible reason could he have for hovering around her?
It was the kind of answer that would normally have earned a scoff and a burst of fury. But Alice couldn’t do that. Because her intuition was telling her that it wasn’t a lie. The man’s eyes, his entire demeanor, were pleading with her. They conveyed a desperate sincerity. His gaze looked so genuinely earnest that Alice couldn’t mock or sneer at his answer.
Contrary to her original plan, she simply returned to her room in helpless silence. Standing there for a long time, biting her lip, she finally muttered to herself in the empty room.
Her voice was far less sharp than usual.