I'm Not an Angel, Though
Alicia had prepared herself for death.
No — more precisely, she had prepared herself for a fate far worse than death.
Her vision blurred. Her mind grew foggy. Her body burned from within.
As the Saintess of the Holy Radiance Church, she had purified countless curses and poisons in her time. But the aphrodisiac now coursing through her veins was something no prayer of hers could touch.
Lord, hear me.
She bit down on trembling lips. She tried to recite a prayer, but her tongue refused to move. She tried to draw upon her divine power, but not even a fingertip would obey her.
Then she heard someone laughing.
A filthy, sticky, repulsive laugh.
If this is how I'm to be defiled, then—
The very moment she reached for her final resort—
KWAAAAAAM!
A thunderous roar split the world apart. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and the rotten wooden planks shuddered. Something came flying in — and blew everything apart.
Beyond her hazy vision, she saw it.
A small shadow. A tiny girl with black hair and black eyes, draped in ragged, threadbare cloth.
"Haahk, ugh... than... you..."
Alicia squeezed the words out through ruined vocal cords. The girl quietly approached and laid a hand on Alicia's forehead.
Ah...
It felt like clear water was flowing all the way down into the depths of her soul. The heat defiling her body vanished, and her scattered mind found its way back to center. Alicia blinked, dazed.
The girl raised one hand. It was a strange gesture — neither prayer nor blessing. Palm held upright, the girl spoke.
"Are you back with us?"
The sight was so holy, so sacred, that the words slipped out of her before she knew it.
"An angel?"
"Huh? A-an angel? That's a bit..."
The girl shuffled awkwardly. Looking closer, despite her wretched appearance, she was an extraordinarily cute child. Alicia wanted to worship her — and at the same time wanted to scoop her up, small as she was, bathe her, and feed her.
For the first time in her life, Alicia experienced the strange sensation of feeling maternal love toward a divine being.
"Um, hello?"
The girl waved her hand awkwardly.
"Ah... yes!"
Alicia answered belatedly and tried to rise.
"Ugh."
Her legs wouldn't hold her. Her body pitched forward — and the girl caught her in an instant.
Thump.
Such a soft impact. She had been the one leaning on the girl, and yet somehow it was the girl who wobbled slightly.
"Oof."
The girl let out a small groan. Alicia swallowed hard.
She's tiny.
Truly tiny. She couldn't believe that this little body had produced that monstrous strength.
She steadied herself once more and bowed her head to the girl.
"Thank you. Truly."
At those words, the girl scratched her cheek.
"Aw, it was nothing, really."
"Um..."
"Yes?"
"Are you hurt anywhere, by any chance?"
"I'm fine. This isn't my blood, anyway."
The girl rubbed at her face with her sleeve, but the dried blood only smeared across the ragged cloth — it was never going to come clean. If anything, her fine features just ended up in a worse mess.
Something stabbed sharply at Alicia's chest.
No.
She couldn't leave her like this. Forget grand words like savior or angel — right now, this child needed a bath. She needed warm water. Clean clothes. Soup and soft bread. Somewhere proper to rest, not this crumbling shack in the middle of a forest.
Alicia pulled off the cloak draped over her priestess robes and wrapped it around the girl's shoulders. It was already stained, but it beat that horrifying rag the girl wore.
The girl flinched.
"N-no, I'm fine, really."
"You are not fine."
The words came out of Alicia firmly, before she could stop herself. The girl's eyes went round. That expression looked so innocent that Alicia's heart ached strangely all over again.
"You saved my life. I can't leave you sitting bloodied in this abandoned house in the woods, dressed like that."
"Hmm..."
The girl's face clouded with hesitation.
"There's... kind of a situation."
"All the more reason to come with me, then."
"Where to?"
"To the Holy Radiance Church."
The moment the church's name left her lips, the girl's expression stiffened, ever so slightly.
"The Holy Radiance Church..."
"Yes. The order I belong to. You'll need a purification, but it won't take long."
"Purification?"
"Yes, it's a thing we do."
Because the ones who had fed her the aphrodisiac — and Bishop Casimir, whom she had trusted like a father — had to be punished.
"Mm, I'll come."
"Might I ask your name, angel?"
"Uh... it's Nirvana."
"What an unusual name."
"Is it...?"
"It suits you."
Alicia meant it. Nirvana. It was a name she'd never heard before, and yet somehow it fit the girl in front of her perfectly.
"If you stare at me like that, it's kind of a lot of pressure."
The girl awkwardly looked away. Even that reaction was adorable. Alicia reached out without thinking — then froze.
She wanted to stroke her hair. She wanted to lie down beside her in bed and tuck her in.
Whether it was her duty as a Saintess, maternal love, or the blind awe a saved soul feels toward her savior, she couldn't have said.
Only one thing was certain.
I absolutely cannot leave this child alone in this forest.
Alicia tucked the cloak more snugly around the girl. The girl's small shoulders disappeared completely inside it. The chest hung far too wide. The sleeves were far too long. The Saintess's cloak swallowed her up like a blanket.
"It's a little big on me."
"It's fine."
Alicia said firmly.
"Because it's cute."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"N-nothing."
The words had slipped out. Alicia belatedly pressed her lips shut. What was she saying, a full-fledged Saintess, in front of the person who had saved her life?
The girl had clearly heard. Her small face took on a strangely unimpressed look.
Alicia carefully took the girl's hand. This time, she didn't pull away.
"We need to get moving."
"To the Holy Radiance Church?"
"Yes. There's a monastery nearby under the care of the White-Winged Maiden Society."
"The White-Winged Maiden Society?"
The girl tilted her head. Alicia strained with all her might to suppress the thought that even that reaction was cute.
"It's a monastery under my command, as Saintess."
***
Having heard Alicia's explanation, I rested my chin on my hand and thought.
The White-Winged Maiden Society, huh?
As a player of The Lunatic X Fantasia, there was no way I didn't know that name. A militant order of nuns who cherished their purity above life itself and devoted themselves to the sacred star arts. Alongside the Silver Maiden Corps, who practiced divine martial arts, they were one of the factions that invariably showed up in the corrupted-Saintess Alicia route.
Hiding my thoughts, I clasped Alicia's hand tightly and pushed through the long forest path. The cloak she'd lent me was comically oversized for my petite frame, and with every step the hem dragged and flapped against the ground.
"Angel? Your clothes look so big they're hard to walk in... if it's truly too much, may I carry you?"
As if she'd read my mind, Alicia asked, her face flushing red.
"I'm fine."
No self-respecting man whines about something like this.
We must have walked for about an hour. When we finally passed through the dense thicket of thorns, a towering barrier of white marble came into view, a pattern of white wings carved vividly into its face.
DONG-DONG-DONG!
A nun keeping watch from the bell tower spotted us and rang the bell in urgent alarm.
RUMBLE—
The iron gates of the White-Winged Maiden Society monastery swung open, and a dozen or so nuns came pouring out.
"Lady Saintess!"
The nun at the front nearly screamed. The faces of the nuns following behind her went dead white.
An understandable reaction, really. A disheveled priestess's habit, a gaunt, haggard appearance — and one tiny little kid trailing behind her. Anyone could see she'd been through something terrible.
"Lady Saintess, what in the world happened—"
"I'm fine. First, we must bring the angel inside. Prepare a bath of hot water blended generously with holy water, and the softest silk garments you have. Ah — and food for the angel as well."
"...The angel?"
"This is she. The one who saved my life."
"I'm not an angel, though..."
"Light the fires of the great bath at once and prepare to receive the holy angel!"
The nun who appeared to be their leader bellowed over everything. Naturally, my protest was drowned out without ceremony.
The iron gates slammed shut, and I was escorted into the monastery in an instant, under the nuns' tight guard. Well, "escorted" — in truth, Alicia simply scooped me up like a rag doll and made a beeline for the great bath.
My power was only effective against evil and the enemies of lewdness, you see. Against oppression rooted in pure goodwill like this, I was hopelessly weak.
Deep within the monastery, the great bathhouse housed an enormous stone bath inscribed with a sacred magic circle. Warm steam and the faint scent of lavender-laced holy water filled every corner of the room.
"Now then, angel. Let me undress you."
Alicia's eyes sparkled as she lifted the cloak from my shoulders.
"Can't I just wash myself?"
"Please, allow me to serve you. I beg you..."
Begging all the while, Alicia stripped off every last piece of my clothing. At last, my slender little figure stood fully revealed.
The moment it did, a low gasp broke out from the nuns stationed around the bath.
"Ohhh..."
"How can someone be so small... and so pure?"
Skin so white it looked almost translucent, and a tiny frame that practically begged to be protected. Sure, the smears of bandit blood here and there made for a grotesque contrast — but in the nuns' eyes, I was filtered through a lens that showed nothing but a young saint wounded from battling the world's evil.
Alicia, the tip of her nose already going flush, dipped her hands in the warm holy water and began gently wiping my cheeks.
"Ohh, angel..."
"...You can just call me by my name."
"I could never presume to speak an angel's name so casually."
Of course not. This was a character who was certifiably insane whenever her unromanceable obsession mode kicked in. Nothing I said was getting through.
"This way."
Alicia guided me toward the holy water bath. I quietly lowered myself into the steaming water.
"Haaah."
The filth that had caked my whole body dissolved into the clear water, and with it, fatigue melted away as if by magic. A month of rolling through the wilderness and sleeping curled up like a shrimp on a cold shack floor — it all dissipated in a single moment.
By the time even the dried blood had been washed clean from my face, my reflection in the water came into full, unflinching view.
Black hair clinging to my cheeks, soaked with water. Soft, marshmallow-white skin. Big, clear eyes like polished obsidian. Long, delicate limbs with no strength in them whatsoever.
I really am tiny.
SPLASH—
Just as I was clicking my tongue bitterly at my own reflection, a strange sound came from behind me.
"Angel, allow me to wash your back."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
I turned my head — and froze solid.
Alicia, who mere moments ago had been waiting dutifully behind me, had at some point stripped off her priestess robes entirely and was stepping into the bath.
