The Saintess and the Midnight Thief
Thanks to the strange sensation from my Authority, the Saintess opened her eyes. It was far too quiet. Considering how sensitive her senses were—she could even detect the faint scuttling of tiny insects—this was definitely abnormal.
Focusing her senses, the Saintess immediately noticed the anomaly. What in the world…? The barrier protecting the Academy had been shattered. The very same barrier that had guarded the Academy from countless dangerous Transcendents and demonic beasts now bore a gaping hole torn open by someone’s hand.
The Saintess rose carefully from her bed and gazed out the window. At this late hour, almost no one was moving about, yet a handful of sharp-eyed individuals had stepped outside to scan their surroundings, sensing that something was wrong. They possessed good instincts, but to the Saintess, whose eyes brimmed with vast divine power, far more was visible.
The Academy Director, whom she had met briefly during the day, was examining the breach. Though the distance was enormous, the Director seemed to notice her gaze and briefly turned her eyes in the Saintess’s direction. A wave of reassurance soon reached her—there is nothing to worry about—yet the Saintess could sense the Director’s underlying unease.
Beyond the shattered barrier, she felt powerful Transcendents from every corner of the continent staring at the Academy with wide, hungry eyes. Yet none of them made a move. They merely watched the broken barrier, too afraid to attack or even approach.
They were all terrified of the one who had smashed the Academy’s barrier and stepped inside.
The moment the Saintess’s thoughts reached that point, her vision suddenly contracted. The god-empowered sight of a Transcendent was reduced in an instant to that of an ordinary person. In a panic, she flung open the window and looked up at the sky.
The Saintess frantically tried to move her divine power, but it lay dormant deep inside her body. The supply had been cut off. She could no longer hear the gods’ responses, either.
In a single instant, the Saintess had become a mere mortal. Using not divine power but the unfamiliar flow of mana, she pushed her vision and hearing to their utmost limits. The resulting sight was far blurrier than when she used holy power, yet it was still enough to make out the Director and the broken barrier.
When she turned her mana-enhanced gaze toward the Director, she couldn’t help but catch her breath.
The Director, who had been inspecting the barrier, was plummeting toward the ground. She struck the earth with a loud crash. A Transcendent’s body would not be fatally injured by such a fall, yet the Saintess could not fathom why she had fallen at all.
Worried by the sight of the Director lying rigid with her eyes wide open, the Saintess was about to close the window and contact the Academy staff when—
BOOM!
A sensation like her heart dropping into her stomach made her turn around with extreme caution.
“……!”
For an instant, it felt as if her heart had stopped; no sound reached her ears. Before her stood a figure wrapped head to toe in jet-black darkness.
It was him.
The Saintess instinctively knew this was the one who had shattered the Academy’s barrier and intruded. It was equally clear that he was the one who had neutralized the Director in that brief span of time.
Calming her racing heart, the Saintess began thinking as quickly as she could about how to handle the situation. Should I call for support? But there’s no way he’ll simply stand and watch…
He was an existence who had subdued the Director in the blink of an eye. No one in the Academy could possibly be his match. Even if she summoned the Pope from the Papal Palace, he could not arrive immediately. It was uncertain whether even the Pope could face him, and even if he did, the greatest weapon—divine power—was no longer responding.
She had no idea what to do. There seemed to be no path of escape.
The Saintess decided her first priority was to discover the intruder’s objective.
“……Fufu……”
She let out a small laugh, pretending not to be flustered, but the figure before her showed no reaction whatsoever. Her anxiety only swelled.
“The fact that you have come looking for me… must mean the time has finally arrived, doesn’t it?”
“……”
“How fascinating. This is most entertaining. Fufu……”
The Saintess’s performance had begun. She would now embody the woman she admired most from her favorite books. She was no longer the Saintess of the Church, but the queen and boss of a sinister organization ruling the underworld.
“I always suspected a day like this would come.”
“……”
“That’s right. Everything you desire is right here, so take it all if you wish. But is that truly the wisest choice?”
Even she herself had no idea what she was saying; it was meaningless stalling. Still, in an attempt to spark some interest from the silent figure, she prepared to continue when—!
The being reached out toward her.
Don’t tell me what he wants is my life?
Startled, the Saintess stumbled backward, but he simply walked past her and picked up something resting on the small table.
To her frozen, bewildered self, he spoke in a low voice.
“I’ll be taking this.”
“……Pardon?”
“By the way, that was quite the interesting act. It was rather entertaining to watch.”
“……!!!”
Her face burst into a blazing scarlet.
He watched for a moment as she hung her head in shame, then turned to leave. In a rush, the Saintess called out to his retreating back.
“W-wait!”
“……?”
“Where—where do you think you’re going with my property?!”
“……”
“That is……”
Perhaps she had been too rude. She had confirmed that he could communicate, yet the Saintess still feared the being before her. Even so, she believed she absolutely had to ask, so she swallowed her fear and the lingering embarrassment from earlier.
“How exactly… did you intrude upon the Academy? What… what are you…?”
“Hmm……”
He seemed to ponder her question briefly before answering.
“A thief who steals valuables and flees… That’s all you need to know.”
“…? What does that even—”
The Saintess tried to stop him once more, but he had already vanished from sight.
WHOOSH!
“The divine power…?”
At the same time, she felt her vision return to normal. She quickly reopened the window and looked up at the sky. The stars that had lost their light were once again shining brightly. Her divine power moved without issue as well.
The Director, regaining her senses late, hurriedly began repairing the barrier. The gazes of the Transcendents who had been watching the Academy with hungry eyes slowly withdrew.
Once her body—previously no different from an ordinary person’s—regained power close to the level of a half-Transcendent, the tension finally drained away. The Saintess collapsed onto her bed.
She could sense the gods above, whose vision had been briefly blocked, stirring with agitation. With a short prayer, she calmed them and let out a deep sigh.
“Huu… Just what passed through here…?”
She tried to find any trace of the visitor, but there was nothing. The only thing she could confirm was that one of the holy relics—the Crucifix Necklace—had vanished.
Had that mysterious being taken the Crucifix Necklace when he said he would take “this”? She couldn’t understand why he would choose that over other powerful holy artifacts, especially one used only for decoration, but at least it was a relief.
After finishing the temporary repairs, the Director seemed to contact the other professors before sending a brief mental message to the Saintess.
Morning. Come to the Director’s office as soon as you wake.
The Saintess sent back an acknowledgment and fell onto the bed as if her strings had been cut.
If she finds out I lost a holy relic… Yulia is going to scold me.
She might even suggest returning to the Papal Palace. Her adorable little sister always worried more about her older sister’s safety as the Saintess than about her own youth… The thought of trying to persuade her already made everything look bleak.
“Fufu.”
Thinking of her sister, the Saintess let out a small laugh, then suddenly recalled the intruder’s final words.
A thief who steals valuables and flees…
Mulling the phrase over, she laughed again. There was no way he was merely that. She could not identify him, but he was clearly one of the absurdly powerful Transcendents…
Suddenly, a memory flashed through her mind. It was a self-introduction she had definitely heard before.
Valuables. Thief. Transcendent.
She had heard about the single existence that connected those three words a few years ago.
The realization struck like lightning. The Saintess bolted upright in bed. With a slightly trembling right hand, she gripped her left wrist.
If her suspicion was correct, then those Transcendents would begin to move.
“It can’t be…!!!”
No—it was certain.
A few years ago, while the ‘Great Pioneers’ were transporting treasures they had obtained from the Tomb, a being suddenly intervened. A Transcendent who overpowered every one of the ‘Great Pioneers,’ stole every hard-earned treasure from the Tomb, and left. His identity and even his name remained unknown. He was a mad monster who simply called himself a ‘thief.’ The enraged ‘Great Pioneers’ had placed an enormous bounty on that very existence.
Today, that being had stolen the Saintess’s Crucifix Necklace from the Academy.
Everything had gone smoothly. I had punched a hole in the barrier to disguise it as an external intrusion and successfully obtained the Crucifix Necklace. Having also enjoyed the Saintess’s ridiculous performance, it looked like today would end on a satisfying note.
BOOM!
“Ha, as expected, it doesn’t work well on her.”
“……”
“Stealth? It’s pretty sloppy for that.”
Damn it. The technique never works properly on that woman.
I clicked my tongue lightly and put more distance between us. The assailant before me didn’t lower her guard for a second and immediately dropped into a charging stance.
Yes. It had almost been a satisfying day.
Until the moment I naturally concealed myself in front of the Saintess, slipped out of her room, and stepped outside—right up until I came face to face with the ‘Regressor’ charging at me with a spear and terrifying momentum.
“It’s you?”
“……What nonsense are you talking about?”
“The one who intruded into the Academy today. The one who made off with that cursed necklace.”
“……What?”
“So you did know. That a curse had been placed on the Crucifix Necklace Arie wears around her neck.”
“……”
“At first I didn’t pay it any attention because I didn’t even realize it was a holy artifact… But the stolen relic was that necklace. Now I finally understand why.”
“I have no idea what you’ve been saying this entire time.”
……Of course I understood every word. But just when exactly had the Regressor learned about the necklace? In the previous round, she had never intervened like this. Until now she had shown zero interest in the Crucifix Necklace, and even the Saintess hadn’t seemed to value it much.
The Director’s announcement tomorrow would only state that an intruder had stolen a holy artifact without specifying which one, suggesting the Church itself didn’t consider it particularly important. So why had the Regressor—who had never once shown curiosity about the cause of the Saintess’s corruption—suddenly noticed the black Crucifix Necklace?
“Did you know?”
“……?”
“The one who gave that necklace to Arie was none other than a Cardinal. One of those arrogant bastards sitting directly beneath the Pope.”
“So what?”
“I must kill him, and that necklace will serve as decisive evidence.”
“……”
“So hand it over. Now!”
Listening to her, I roughly understood the situation. The Regressor seemed to have identified a traitor inside the Church. I didn’t know which round she had learned it in, but the fact that she even knew I had stolen the necklace suggested she might have heard it directly from the Saintess.
Hmm. She’s sharper than I expected.
Dodging the Regressor’s charging attack, I slightly revised my evaluation of her.
The Regressor was surprisingly thoughtful.