The Saintess of Calamity and the Puppeteer
I have a feeling that if I don’t rip out Seria’s tongue today, my ears are never going to know peace again. Thankfully, today’s class is an outdoor field trip. Which means it’s the perfect chance for me to secretly bury her alive with magic.
“If that mouth of yours flaps one more ti—”
“Quiet over there. Don’t forget that today we’re exploring a dungeon.”
Of course, the one who actually got scolded was me. I was standing right behind Adran, so the warning landed squarely on my head. And of course Seria was right next to me. I shot her a glare, but she just shrugged. The best way to deal with her is to ignore her completely.
“Professor?” Seria raised her hand and called out to Adran.
“What?”
“This is completely different from what I know about Attelina’s curriculum. Isn’t dungeon practice supposed to start next year?”
Seria asked the exact question the other students were probably wondering about. That was normal. Attelina had a lot of noble students, after all. Dangerous activities like dungeon practice were usually reserved for third-years.
“That was the plan until a few days ago.”
“Is there a reason for the change?”
Seria really does seem like the type who has as many things she wants to eat as she has questions. She’s insatiable.
“All the nobles failed and dropped out. What’s left are you lot. The weak ones have been weeded out. Only the strong remain.”
That was true. After kicking out all the central nobles, only the capable ones were left. But there was one problem with that. If they suddenly changed the curriculum like this, what were the commoners who were weaker than the central nobles supposed to do?
“But aren’t there still commoners here besides the central nobles?”
“That’s your problem to figure out.”
Wow. What a messed-up education system.
“Excuse me?”
“I hear many of you come from provincial military families. Naturally, you should already have decent combat experience. So here’s today’s assignment. Those entering a dungeon for the first time must complete it without sustaining any injuries. Those selected as party leaders will guide their teams safely through the dungeon. In short, if you all make it out safely, you’ll get good grades.”
So that’s how they’re grading now. Well, at this point, it was probably the only way to raise Attelina’s standards again. They’d completely shifted from the typical noble education system based on status to practical, hands-on training. Maybe this was exactly what the dean had been aiming for.
“Then are the other departments doing the same? Switching everything to practical training?”
“Not entirely wrong. Think of it as learning third-year material right now.”
“Dungeon practice, huh.”
Wow, this really brings back memories. The image of tossing my twelve-year-old little sister into a dungeon is still fresh in my mind. Her face back then was priceless. She looked utterly betrayed. But I had no choice. Noel and I were already orphans at the time. We needed to get stronger.
When Eugene once asked me about my little sister, I told him the story.
—You cursed me out for everything under the sun, but you’re the one who abandoned your own sister in a dungeon. And not just any dungeon—one in the Land of Destruction. Weren’t you basically trying to kill her?
—What the hell are you talking about? I went into a dungeon when I was eight. I actually waited four extra years for her.
—You crazy bastard.
Eugene had called me trash for abandoning my sister. But now that I think about it, why the hell was I the one getting cursed out?
“Is there a suitable dungeon nearby for us to explore?” This time I was the one asking the question.
“Back when the Demon King was still active, the Demon King’s army used dungeons near the imperial capital to sabotage the empire, which was supporting the kingdom.”
“Ah.”
Wow. So that’s when it happened. A year ago, the Demon King’s forces had targeted the imperial capital. They planned to use dungeon terrorism to prevent the empire from intervening. Shockingly, the plan worked, and the empire couldn’t get involved in the kingdom’s affairs while they were busy suppressing the dungeons. At least the major battles in the kingdom ended when I drove out the Four Heavenly Kings.
“The hero’s party has already subjugated it, but there are still plenty of monsters spawning. It’s perfect for training.”
“I see~”
That wasn’t bad. Honestly, I’d been wondering when they’d use that dungeon for education. The fact that they were putting it to use right after the central nobles fell suggested the nobles had previously opposed it.
“And since this is the first practical lesson, we’ll go as one large group. As I said earlier, both Olivia and Seria must properly lead the students.”
“Since the Saintess is here, wouldn’t it be better if we split up?”
Seria really does have as many things she wants to eat as she has questions.
“That’s exactly why we’re being extra careful. The two of you—the Saintess and the mage—will lead the students together and clear the dungeon.”
What? Me and Seria? Together? I’d rather do it alone. I already have a history of kicking out the hero’s party. There’s no way I can stand being in the same space as this noisy, puppet-obsessed woman.
“Ugh.”
“Please don’t show your dislike so openly.”
“Would you like it if you were in my position?”
I shook off the clingy puppeteer.
“What if you thought of me as a friend instead of a rival?”
“That makes even less sense.”
Who does she think she is, acting all chummy?
“Then what if you thought of me as another woman?”
“That’s still difficult.”
If I had to choose, I’d rather be paired with that insufferable brat from the Rivelt family. At least if I didn’t interfere, we wouldn’t have to deal with each other. Since this was just a training dungeon and I could clear it alone anyway, Rivelt would have been fine. But this…
“Maybe this is fate for us?”
“No, just shut up already.”
She really knows how to be annoying. Still, she does her job properly, so we’d have to cooperate inside the dungeon. That was probably the point of this exercise anyway.
We soon arrived at the dungeon entrance. Just looking at it made my chest feel tight—it was that imposing. Adran scanned us once at the entrance before speaking.
“Today’s purpose is strictly practice. The monsters here should be manageable. It’ll be a good fight. I wish you all good luck.”
“We’re starting just like that?”
Seriously, jumping straight in. This was exactly my style. Yeah. This kind of thing, you just dive in and figure it out.
“Seria. Do I really need to say more? The Saintess is standing right next to you and she’s staying quiet.”
“Hehe. Sorry.”
This girl Seria really is no help at all. And so our dungeon practice began.
Dungeon Practice has begun.
I led the students into the dungeon. At first I thought they’d give me a hard time, but because I was the Saintess who had defeated the succubus in Ashtar, they were actually following me. Even the provincial nobles were obediently trailing behind. Considering the relationship between nobles and the church, I suppose that made sense.
“Wow. This is my first time in a dungeon like this.”
It really did have the clean, maze-like structure of an artificial dungeon.
“Really? Don’t you go to them often from the Magic Tower?”
“We do. But the dungeons near the imperial capital were created because of the Four Heavenly Kings.”
To be precise, they were made by Jerato, one of Clanice’s subordinates. Jerato wasn’t that skilled, but he still managed to create several dungeons that drew the empire’s attention.
“That’s true.”
“Artificial dungeons and natural ones feel completely different, don’t they?”
“They do.”
In artificial dungeons, the difficulty is raised by the dungeon master’s power. So once you clear it, the difficulty drops, but—
“Then let’s explore together.”
But something felt off here.
“Wait a moment.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s strange.”
This was the exact dungeon I had cleared before. Something didn’t feel right. It was as if someone had tampered with it. It was possible Attelina had modified it for training purposes, but the flow of mana felt different.
“What is?”
“This dungeon has a very unusual shape.”
I couldn’t tell Seria everything, so I decided to keep it vague.
“Huh? Oh, well, that makes sense. The mages probably modified it. You can feel multiple flows of mana.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
As far as I knew, the one who had modified this dungeon was a single court mage. Adran. After I cleared it, I had ordered him to do it. At the time, Jerato had gained power from the traitor Clanice. It was before his mana circuits were destroyed. Even though we cleared it, we couldn’t just layer multiple mana flows recklessly. There was a risk of it going out of control, so I had only the highly skilled Adran overlay his mana to remodel the dungeon.
“The empire wouldn’t do something so stupid.”
Especially during the time when the Demon King was still around. There was no way the empire would waste mages on something pointless when they needed them to support the kingdom. Besides—
“Huh, Saintess? The path shape here looks weird, doesn’t it?”
“It does.”
Artificial dungeons tend to reflect the dungeon master’s tastes. In Jerato’s case, they had a rugged, wild-dungeon feel. But the path from the entrance up to here felt neatly paved. It was obvious Adran had organized it while layering his mana. The problem was—
“It looks like someone dug everything up to do construction.”
“It really does.”
The shape felt slightly different.
“Maybe another mage came and did construction work?”
Seria said it with a rather perceptive, intrigued tone. The other students’ eyes sparkled with curiosity at her words.
“I’m not sure. I don’t think that’s it.”
“Aww, even the Saintess doesn’t know everything. This is clearly a trace of someone else coming to do construction.”
Come to think of it, Seria hadn’t been there at the time. Since it wasn’t something good to spread around, I hadn’t mentioned the dungeon remodeling. And there were fresh traces of it being covered again. In Jerato’s style, no less. If my eyes were playing tricks on me, that would be great, but even after becoming Olivia from Noah, I didn’t think my senses had changed. In other words, there were traces of Jerato. Or Jerato himself was inside.
“This is the worst.”
“Pardon?”
“The demonic energy here is too thick.”
Because of that, I could feel dense demonic energy rising from deep below. There was a high chance Jerato was really here. This crazy bastard still couldn’t let go of his obsession with the empire.
“It does feel ominous, but it’s still just for practice, right?”
She was saying that because it had already gone beyond the level of a simple training dungeon.
“If we go down there, all the kids will die from demonic energy poisoning.”
“Is it that bad?”
Seria would probably survive. She was one of the top mages in the Magic Tower. The problem was the other students. The ones who remained after the purge had some combat ability, but the demonic energy sleeping down below was far too dense.
“So we need to do something right now.”
“Can’t you just purify demonic energy?”
Yes. If it were normal demonic energy, purification alone would suffice.
“I’m saying this because there might be something else down there in the worst case. Even if there isn’t, mixing multiple mana flows in a structure like this will cause it to go berserk.”
Whether Jerato was here or not, we couldn’t just leave this as it was.
“Then…”
“The imperial capital’s defenses are solid, but with the current political climate, if a dungeon explodes now, there could be complaints against the council.”
The reason the council—mostly made up of Attelina graduates—was still holding together was because the dean and the council had moved quickly to contain the situation within the current student body. But if the dungeon exploded now? It would be proof that the council had failed to properly suppress the previous dungeon terror incident.
“Let’s go back.”
There was no need to take unnecessary risks. There were plenty of other dungeons. We could just pick another one. Thanks to Attelina’s quick handling of the situation, we still had some leeway.
“What? But… I don’t think it’ll be that easy.”
“What do you mean—”
“Look over there. The kids are already going wild.”
When I turned my head, the students’ condition looked serious.
“If I accomplish what those noble bastards couldn’t, my parents will be proud.”
“With this many people, it’ll be over in no time.”
“Alright, let’s sweep all the monsters away!”
These crazy idiots.