The Saintess Arrives at the Academy
A week had passed since Saintess Arie’s entrance ceremony. In that time, strange organizations had snuck into the Academy, monsters occasionally rampaged through the grounds, and all sorts of other incidents occurred. Still, I had been living a relatively peaceful Academy life. The regressor was handling most of the major crises on her own, so I hadn’t found myself in any real danger. Occasionally I would run into her while going about my daily routine. She would flash me a knowing smile or stare at me with those burdensome, endless eyes. Every single time, I desperately pretended not to notice…
Today I left the dormitory earlier than usual. Before heading to class, there was somewhere I needed to stop by. My destination was the Academy branch of the Church—the organization that worships the gods. Those with quick ears had already gathered ahead of me, waiting for someone. Most students who had enrolled under the Church’s name lived here. The support they received was on another level; the building was far larger and better equipped than the ordinary dormitory I stayed in. They even had a long-distance group teleportation magic circle installed. It was easy to see just how much money had been poured into the place.
“Huh? Over there…!”
Someone pointed toward the Church branch. At that moment, a sacred light leaked out from inside the building, and a figure stepped outside. A large number of attendants followed closely behind her, as if guarding her. It looked exactly like an escort for someone of high status. In an instant, the surroundings fell silent, wrapped in a heavy stillness. The mere appearance of her overwhelmed the entire atmosphere.
Hair so white and beautiful it was hard to tell whether it was platinum or silver. Everyone wanted to take her in with their eyes, yet no one could meet her gaze—whether because of her breathtaking beauty or the overwhelming divine power radiating from her. It was only natural. Among all the members of the Church who received the gods’ favor, she was the most sacred being. The divine power she possessed was on a completely different scale from that of other clergy…
The Saintess. The highest authority in the Church, known by that title. The one standing at the very peak of the organization called the Church had finally set foot inside the Academy.
The Saintess offered a faint smile toward the gathered crowd, then left with her attendants without another word. No one dared speak to her, let alone meet her eyes. I watched her from a slight distance, observing that she was no different from the previous round, and once again organized what I needed to do.
Two major incidents would occur at the Academy today. One was the arrival of the Saintess. The other was that someone would steal one of the holy relics she had brought from the Church… And the person who would steal that relic today was none other than me.
“Hehe, the air at the Academy is truly refreshing.”
“……”
“Oh dear, is no one going to answer me?”
“……”
“How lonely… Hehe. Yulia, do you think I’m being ostracized?”
“…Saintess, I have told you many times that smiling like that is not appropriate.”
The Saintess ignored her completely and simply kept smiling. The woman called Yulia let out a deep sigh.
“Goodness, are you worried about something? Haven’t you heard that sighing drives away good fortune?”
This is all because of you…! Yulia barely swallowed the words that had risen to her throat and handed the Saintess a book she had been carrying.
“What is this?”
“The school rules. You must familiarize yourself with them thoroughly.”
“……”
The Saintess accepted the book with a strange expression. Having spent a long time by her side, Yulia knew exactly what the Saintess was hiding behind that look.
“Saintess.”
“Hehe… Thank you, Yulia. Thanks to you, I think I now know what I should do.”
“…I don’t know what you mean, but I would prefer you not do it.”
“Hehehe.”
Please, just…! Despite Yulia’s earnest plea, the Saintess avoided answering and only laughed in that unsettling way. Yulia felt a headache coming on. It was always like this. Even before coming to the Academy, the Saintess had constantly tried to cause trouble back at the Church, watching the priests who came to clean up her messes with that same unpleasant laugh. It was behavior unbecoming of the Saintess, who was essentially the face of the Church.
Yet the reason her creepy antics never became known outside the Church was because she covered her tracks just as well as she caused the incidents. She would erase all traces with her immense divine power, or completely destroy the scene so no evidence remained… Somehow, even those crude methods worked. Of course, a long tail is eventually caught. Yulia and a few cardinals had inferred the culprit from the massive remnants of divine power left at the scenes.
…No, in truth, most who noticed were certain the perpetrator was the Saintess. Since beings with that much divine power were extremely rare, it was easy to figure out through process of elimination. However, who would dare accuse the Saintess… the very face of the Church, said to possess more divine power than any Saintess in history? For the sake of the Church’s dignity, everyone had no choice but to pretend they didn’t know.
But this was not the Church. This was the Academy. If she caused the same kind of trouble here and got caught…
No! For the sake of the Church’s reputation, Yulia could no longer simply watch.
“Saintess.”
Yulia gently grabbed the Saintess’s arm and spoke. In response, the Saintess gave a small smile as if to say there was nothing to worry about.
“Hehe, I will read the school rules carefully, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Arie, sister.”
“Oh…?”
“This isn’t the Church. It’s the Academy… So even for the sake of your own reputation, you must not cause any trouble. Understand?”
“……”
Yulia stared straight at her and spoke firmly. The Saintess, Arie, seemed momentarily taken aback and fell silent, but soon let out a light “hehe” and smiled.
“My, if my little sister says so, I suppose I have no choice. I will behave quietly for the time being.”
With that, Arie carefully tucked the book of school rules into her embrace. Yulia, who had been watching closely, noticed several magical tools hidden within her sister’s clothes in that brief moment. She thought it was impossible to let her guard down, but if she tried to confiscate those as well, she would only earn Arie’s resentment—and who knew what she might do starting tomorrow. So Yulia decided not to mention the magical tools.
Arie noticed where Yulia’s gaze had gone and gave an unsettling grin, but Yulia simply offered a bitter smile and looked away, pretending not to have seen anything.
Yulia was always worried about Arie, who seemed capable of doing anything at any moment. That was why she had volunteered to follow when Arie strongly insisted on enrolling in the Academy. Because she could not leave her sister-like Arie alone, she had promised herself she would stay by the side of the woman who was both Saintess and her older sister as much as possible.
Above all, Yulia believed that Arie was good at heart… that she was still a kind woman. Even if she sometimes played mischievous pranks that left Yulia in awkward situations… and even if, very occasionally, Yulia wondered whether a demon had possessed her… what idiot demon would possess a Saintess? Yulia told herself it was nothing more than a small act of rebellion from a Saintess tired of Church life.
“Hehe, the Academy… I’ve finally arrived…!”
“……”
“Ah, that’s right. From now on, no one except Yulia needs to follow me as an escort.”
“B-but…!!!”
“Anyway, even if all of you combined, I’m still stronger. I also brought the holy relics to use in case of emergency, so there’s no need to worry. Most importantly… I would prefer not to have my enjoyable Academy life interrupted. Hehehe…”
Please… let it stay at the level of harmless mischief.
Yulia let out a deep sigh as she looked at the Crucifix Necklace swaying at Arie’s neck.
Let me talk a little about the Saintess. First of all, although her personality is rather mischievous, she is a good woman worthy of the title of Saintess. If her heart had not been kind from the beginning, the gods would never have chosen her. Her mischievous nature also stems from a pure—if somewhat childish—dream… Once you get to know Saintess Arie well, her eccentric behavior can be taken as nothing more than lighthearted pranks.
However, the regressor from around the second round greatly disliked the Saintess. The reason was tied to the regressor’s first round—the time before she had died even once and gained the power of regression. It was the darkest round, the one in which the regressor had fallen into despair the fastest. The Saintess was deeply involved in it.
When the magic circles of Ruin had fully activated and the continent was being covered in death, what broke the regressor and the Hero after their long struggle was not only Ruin itself, but interference from a third faction. And the one leading that third faction was none other than the Corrupted Saintess Arie.
The faction led by the corrupted Saintess, who wielded an unknown power, attacked both the monsters of Ruin and the forces resisting it without discrimination. Both sides suffered heavy losses. However, unlike the endlessly pouring monsters of Ruin, the regressor’s forces had limited numbers to replenish their ranks. They gradually grew weaker. In the end, although they succeeded in defeating the Saintess, the already exhausted forces of the regressor and the Hero could not overcome Ruin and were swept away, annihilated.
With that first death, the regressor gained the power of regression and received another chance. In the second round, she planned to assassinate the Saintess and harbored deep resentment toward her. But in every subsequent round, the Saintess never fell to corruption. Instead, she always helped the regressor until the very end before dying. After that, the regressor only felt slightly wary of the Saintess and no longer resented her, seemingly lowering her guard.
This revealed one of the regressor’s major flaws. She never gave much thought to why the Saintess did not fall to corruption, nor did she try to find out. She only cared about the result—that the Saintess did not become corrupted. Did she not realize that neglecting human relationships caused her to miss far too much?
That was why I had to step in. From the second round onward, I had always been the one to remove the cause of the Saintess’s corruption. It was a certain object she carried. The Church had mistaken it for a holy relic and entrusted it to her, but in reality it was an extremely dangerous item that slowly eroded a person’s mind. The relic the Saintess had always worn around her neck in the first round—the Crucifix Necklace. Its energy was faint and similar to divine power, so it was understandable that the Church had been mistaken. But it was unmistakably an artifact from the Tomb.