The Saintess and I Are in the Same Class

The Crucifix Necklace Saintess has been assigned to my class. There are probably several reasons for it, but the biggest one is obviously because the Hero is in this class. The Academy’s higher-ups and the Church seem to want the Hero and the Saintess to build a close relationship, but in an Academy where most classes are electives and students move between rooms, I’m not sure how much being in the same class actually means.

The classroom was already buzzing with talk about the Saintess.

…I have no idea who they heard it from, but the Academy really needs to tighten up its information security.

More time passed. The professor should have been arriving soon, yet the classroom was still noisy. This time it was because several students were asking the Hero about his relationship with the Saintess. The Hero answered as sincerely as he could, but since he and the Saintess had never met before in this round, there wasn’t much to gain by asking her either.

In the previous rounds, the Hero and the Saintess never seemed particularly close. I don’t know the exact reason, but surprisingly, it felt like they didn’t think very highly of each other. Thanks to the regressor’s mediation, I had never seen them fight seriously… but the looks they gave one another weren’t friendly. Still, in the end, they had fought against Ruin while watching each other’s backs. Maybe making them get along required pushing them into an extreme situation first.

“Hehe…”

Suddenly, a strange laugh came from behind me. There was only one person in the entire Academy who would come all the way to the very back of the classroom and pull something like this, so I gave her the reaction she wanted and pretended to be lightly startled.

“Whoa! You scared me—who are you?”

“…Hmm? What an interesting person.”

“Ah, could you be the Saintess…?”

“Hehe, nice to meet you.”

She… no, the Saintess said that with a mysterious expression, then walked past me toward the front of the classroom. Her escort, who had been following behind her… what was her name again? Anyway, the escort gave me a small, apologetic bow.

The students who recognized her at the front couldn’t hide their shock and swallowed hard. Still, unlike the students earlier who couldn’t even meet her eyes, they were reacting normally. Was it because her divine power had decreased significantly? It seemed the Saintess was holding back the massive amount of divine power that used to leak out of her as a form of consideration.

Finally, the Saintess standing at the lectern opened her mouth.

“My name is Arie. I’ll be with you starting today. Please take care of me.”

“I am Yulia, here as the Saintess’s escort. If you have any business with the Saintess, please come to me first.”

Ah, right. Yulia—that was her name. I remembered that most of the trouble caused by the mischievous Saintess was usually cleaned up by Yulia. She’s going to have a hard time from now on, so hang in there.

The Saintess waved with a warm smile, and the students clapped as if enchanted. I clapped along while glancing toward the Hero. She was also clapping as if welcoming the Saintess, but she still didn’t seem particularly interested.

At this point, I was starting to get a little curious. They didn’t seem interested in each other yet… so when exactly did their relationship go sour? I should observe them carefully this time.

Soon the homeroom professor entered, gave a brief introduction of Arie and Yulia, and began the class. I took out my book and sneaked a glance at the Saintess. Arie and Yulia were sitting side by side a little toward the back from the middle of the room. Yulia’s expression was blank so I couldn’t read her, but Arie was already grinning from ear to ear, clearly finding something amusing.

Yeah. Since the Saintess won’t fall into corruption this time… it would be nice if both she and Yulia could keep smiling like that.

Before long, the sun began to set. Arie and Yulia, who had been busier than the other students, finished all their duties for the day and headed back to the dormitory. Yulia was thinking how admirable it was that her older sister Arie had behaved so well today.

“Hehe, Yulia? Is there any snack you’d like to eat?”

“Saintess, you don’t mean…”

“As if~. How could I, a Saintess, commit theft… I would never do anything so vulgar, would I?”

“…I didn’t say anything, though?”

“Hehe~.”

“……”

Arie seemed to be in a better mood than usual. Well… when it was just the two of them, Yulia could at least tolerate this kind of light banter. And since she really was a little hungry, just as Arie had said, Yulia bought some suitable snacks—at a fair price, of course.

While they walked and ate the snacks they had bought, chatting about trivial things because the weather was nice, Arie suddenly spoke as if something had just occurred to her.

“Ah, now that I think about it, there’s one thing I’m curious about.”

“If you’re asking how to skip class without the professors noticing, I obviously don’t know. And even if I did, I would never teach you.”

“Hehe, that does interest me too… but I was talking about the person who was sitting in the very back of the classroom before we greeted everyone. Do you remember?”

“You mean when you suddenly appeared through the back door during class—not even during class, actually—just to startle people? Who exactly are you referring to?”

“You know. The one who shouted ‘Whoa, you scared me!’ at me. I saw you bow your head apologetically too.”

“Hmm……”

Yulia thought for a moment, then let out a small “Ah!” as if she had finally remembered.

“Huh?”

“The one with black hair and black eyes. Isn’t that who you mean?”

“…Yes. When we quietly opened the back door and entered, didn’t he glance our way for a moment?”

“Ah, did he?”

“And when we arrived at the Academy by teleportation, I think he was among the crowd…”

“Was he? I don’t really remember…”

“Didn’t you clearly tell me that you remembered every face of the people who were there at that time?”

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Arie narrowed her eyes slightly. Her younger sister, who was always sharp and quick-witted, seemed a little strange today. If it was the Yulia she knew, she would have memorized the names of all her classmates before even arriving at the Academy.

“Yulia, do you remember the name of the student sitting in front of me?”

“You mean Pascal Myers? I heard that the head of the Myers family passed down the family’s ancestral dagger to him. And…”

“That’s enough.”

Arie cut Yulia off and sat down on a park bench. She looked at her sister, who sat down beside her, and fell into thought. As expected, there was nothing wrong with Yulia. And Arie didn’t think there was anything wrong with herself either. Which meant it wasn’t them, but…

“Hehe, tomorrow is going to be fun.”

“Saintess…?”

That clever Yulia couldn’t remember properly, and the person had acted surprised as if seeing the Saintess for the first time even though it was their second meeting…

‘Just who is that person whose face I can’t even picture in my head?’

Arie glanced at Yulia. Her sister was chewing on a salted pastry or whatever it was, grumbling about how it wasn’t any different from regular bread. Arie gave a mischievous smile. Maybe she had just found the perfect subordinate to help her tease her adorable little sister.

The sun had completely set, and the night sky was so dark that even the moon was invisible. Someone wearing a black robe stood on the roof of a building, looking down at the Church dormitory. No matter how many eccentrics there were at the Academy, this suspicious appearance would definitely warrant a report… and that suspicious person was me.

I was currently waiting for an opportunity from this excellent vantage point. I was waiting for the Saintess… no, more precisely, for her escort Yulia to fall asleep. The place where the Saintess kept the item she considered a holy relic—the Crucifix Necklace—was obviously her own room, the place closest to her. And Yulia’s room was right next door, separated by a single wall.

If I broke into the Saintess’s room and Yulia suddenly burst in… or worse, if the two of them tried to fight me together… then I would have no choice but to subdue them by force, even if someone got hurt. So I planned to move as safely as possible, only after Yulia had fallen asleep.

The reason I wasn’t considering the Saintess falling asleep was simple: every time I had broken in before, she had always been awake. Even if the lights were off, she was always awake the moment I entered. The first time I met her eyes in her room during the second round, I was so startled I almost screamed. At the time I thought I had simply been unlucky and entered while she was awake, but after seeing her awake in every subsequent round, I had come to think of it as “Ah, today must be one of her sleepless nights…”

Even so, I didn’t put off the theft for another day because I had never failed or been caught by anyone other than the Saintess so far. If I changed the day and failed, security would only get tighter and make things more difficult. Above all, it was better to retrieve that ominous necklace as quickly as possible.

The Crucifix Necklace was an item from the Tomb. The Tomb referred to the dangerous land that covered half of this world, a place so infested with monsters that it was said to be the origin of every monster on the continent. It was practically a demonic realm. Occasionally, unidentified objects were discovered in the Tomb, and the Saintess’s black crucifix necklace was one of them.

Items from the Tomb were usually so mysterious that it was difficult to even identify their abilities, yet many of them possessed truly powerful effects. That was why the strongest people on the continent searched for them with burning eyes. In fact, a few years ago, a group called the “Great Pioneers” had succeeded in bringing back a large quantity of treasures from the Tomb. The items they brought back were quite impressive… though in truth, since the Tomb was as vast as the entire continent where humanity lived, the area those so-called Great Pioneers had reached was barely more than the skin of a watermelon.

Anyway, to talk a bit more about the Saintess’s Crucifix Necklace, although it was an item from the Tomb, it was more precisely an item that an Outer God had infused with power. Because it contained divine power, it was easy to mistake it for something holy. I didn’t know exactly how the power of an Outer God had entered it, but my guess was that one of the Outer God’s apostles had found the necklace first, imbued it with that power, and then handed it to the Saintess.

If my guess was correct, there was definitely a traitor inside the Church who had passed her that necklace… but that was a problem for the Saintess or Yulia to solve later, so I would ignore it for now. Right now, I only needed to focus on the necklace.

Finally, the light in Yulia’s room disappeared. She must be going to bed now.

‘Time to get moving.’

The Church dormitory’s security had been greatly strengthened because of the Saintess’s presence. A large number of elite Church soldiers were guarding the area, and I had to slip past all of them and reach the Saintess’s room without anyone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠noticing. At first glance it seemed impossible, but I had an ability that made all of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it possible.

First came the barrier. To make it look as if an intruder from outside had stolen the Saintess’s belongings, I created a hole in the barrier that covered the entire Academy.

My authority was the power to manipulate recognition and perception. It was the ability to deceive and fool the world itself.