Side Story - The Saintesses of Revelatio (7)
Fun, huh...
Honestly, I wasn't sure.
I did enjoy learning and mastering things, but whether even exhausting work could be fun — that, frankly, I doubted.
"Anyway, that's how it is for me. Sure, if fun is a 10, then 'not fun' is a 90."
"Hmm..."
"I should get going soon. I came here without telling anyone I was leaving, after all."
Angela rose from her seat without bothering to clear her dishes.
There was no need to, anyway. The maids had already swept in and whisked them away.
"Oh, and be careful around the other Saintesses."
"?"
"I'm a bit of an oddball myself, so it doesn't matter with me, but the others are rather... devout."
Devout.
Somehow, that single short word sent a nameless unease creeping through me.
"You'll hardly ever run into the First Saintess, so don't worry about her. But Marenia is a different story."
"In what way?"
"In the way that you're not an official Saintess."
A flinch.
Even knowing it all before I arrived, my body trembled on instinct.
That feeling of being guilty of something when you've done nothing wrong.
"Like I said, I'm not that devout, so I don't really care. If anything, I think it's a good thing. But what about Marenia? I'll leave it at that."
"Not telling me is even more nerve-wracking, you know."
"Good luck!"
And with that parting encouragement, Angela vanished.
It would take me two more weeks to understand exactly what she'd meant.
A month had passed since I entered the Holy Kingdom.
Ever since Angela returned, a portion of my schedule had come to belong entirely to her.
Basic magic lectures and physical training were a given — normally I would have spent my free hours in the library reading — but instead...
"Try reading this one too!"
"...I still don't get it."
Angela had appointed herself, of her own accord, my instructor in divine magic.
Granted, two weeks of diligent study had left me understanding absolutely nothing.
...Honestly, I couldn't even tell whether I was making progress.
But Angela just cackled, saying that was how it went for everyone at first, and pressed on with the lessons.
For her, it seemed having a friend her own age meant far more than any lecture ever could.
"Oh, right — I haven't told you this yet."
"?"
"I have to go on a pilgrimage tomorrow."
"A pil... grimage?"
"Yep. There hasn't been one in a while, so it's just my turn."
Ugh, time to put on the merciful-Saintess act again.
Muttering complaints as she scattered her books across the desk, Angela trudged out of the library, dragging her feet.
The books lay strewn across the desk in a messy heap.
If I just left them, the maids or the head librarian would clean them up — again.
Instead, I gathered them all up in one arm and slotted each back into its place on the shelves.
"Oh, right! There's something important I— wait, what are you doing?"
"Putting the books back where they belong."
"Huh? The maids do all that."
"We're the ones who read them. It's only right we return them to their shelves."
Pat pat. I brushed the dust lightly from my hands and walked over to Angela, who was poking her head through the doorway.
Even if we were loud, it didn't matter — we were the only two people in the library. And besides, this was Angela; her response to that would have been, "So what if we get a little noisy?"
"It's not heavy at all, really."
"...Somehow I feel like I've become the bad guy here."
"It's just how I'm wired. No need to take it so seriously."
If I pulled this back on Earth, people would have called it a public nuisance.
Then again, as a Saintess and an apostle of the goddess, this much was hardly an inconvenience to anyone.
"Fine, whatever. Anyway, I still haven't told you. Marenia will be coming back while I'm away on pilgrimage. If she picks a fight with you, remember it, and tell me everything. Promise me!"
Picking a fight, huh. That did sound a little scary.
"Understood."
Still, as long as I didn't do anything she could pin on me, I figured there wouldn't be much of a problem.
"So you're Lily Elbrit."
"That's correct."
In the middle of an intense spar with the Knight Commander, a woman with a distinctly unpleasant expression had come striding into the training grounds.
She was taller than me, her blue hair falling to her waist. Her sharp, slanted blue eyes gave her whole presence a cutting edge.
Wearing pristine white gauntlets, the woman extended her hand.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Marenia."
"I'm Lily."
"Right. So — how's life as a Saintess treating you?"
"Many people have been helping me, so I'm approaching it happily."
"Happily...? And what exactly is it that you do?"
Marenia withdrew her hand, slipped off the white gauntlets and sent them away to somewhere or other with a flick, then tilted her head.
I had been in the middle of a spar just moments ago.
"I was sparring with the Knight Commander."
"Ah, a magic test?"
"No. A sword duel, so—"
"What?"
A flicker of distaste crossed Marenia's face.
It was a different air entirely from the "you really are a weirdo" reaction Angela had shown me.
Her eyes said she'd seen something she wished she could unsee.
"Lily. What are you, a knight?"
"No."
"A street thug, then? Why are you fighting with your body?"
"......"
"If you were born bearing the blessing of the great Goddess, then you should naturally fight from the position that blessing demands. And you intend to spend the Goddess's grace on mere brawling?"
"......"
The training grounds froze in an instant.
As everyone stood there at a loss, the Knight Commander clanked over toward us in his armor.
"Th-that is, Saintess Marenia. It was I who insisted on Lady Lily's sparring. In an emergency situation, self-defense is also important—"
"In other words, you fed her an odd notion, is that it?"
A sidelong glance.
Those ferocious eyes bore into the Knight Commander.
"She should be drawing one step closer to the great Goddess's grace, and what you're teaching her is nothing but street brawling?"
"...That is—"
"If not that, then what? Did that ignorant brute of a training ground actually believe the Goddess's grace would answer to it?"
"........"
"Don't be mistaken. The Goddess's grace cannot be measured by anything of this world."
Whrrm.
"There is only a single path. One road, and one alone."
Brilliant white light spilled from Marenia's hand.
In response, the priests who had been standing around blankly dropped to one knee. Even the paladins flinched.
And I—
"What are you doing?"
Shing.
"I'm going to spar."
I raised my sword.
"Knight Commander. Shall we continue?"
"Wh-what? Ah, yes, of course."
"Lily. I asked what you think you're doing."
"It's sparring time right now. So I'm sparring."
"Did you not hear me?! I asked if you're a street thug!"
Marenia grabbed my shoulder as I turned away.
I looked back at her and thought it over, slowly.
Why is this woman being so hostile?
Marenia and I had met for the very first time, yet here she was, cutting me down at first meeting, being abrasive enough to make everyone around us uncomfortable.
Angela had said Marenia wasn't a broken personality.
Which meant there had to be some reason behind this behavior.
The devout Marenia.
Because I wasn't an official Saintess, my very existence must have grated on her — the Saintess who truly believed.
The problem was, it only grated. She had no grounds to actually say anything to me.
His Holiness the Pope and the cardinals had already recognized me, and Marenia was not the First Saintess — her position left her status ambiguous.
True, she was serving as the public face of the order in place of the First Saintess, who had essentially abandoned the Holy Sanctum and almost never returned — but even so, she couldn't just come out and condemn me outright.
"Why must a Saintess use magic, exactly?"
"...What?"
"Think about it. Isn't it strange? My physical abilities are outstanding, and though it's only been a month, I handle weapons quite skillfully. By comparison, my magic honestly has little talent to speak of."
I had talent for magic itself — but for divine magic, there was simply no hope at all.
"When it comes to saving people — to delivering salvation — I'd say abilities like these are needed too, don't you?"
"...You overstep yourself."
"Thank you."
I brushed the hand from my shoulder and gave a small bow of my head.
Marenia's face contorted.
Once my back was fully turned to her, a muttered growl reached my ears, as though she were chewing on something she couldn't swallow.
"......We should never have accepted a mongrel like this so carelessly."
"What did you—"
"Saintess Marenia!"
"What? Did I say something wrong? Everyone here already knows—"
"Mongrel?"
In that instant, my mood curdled completely.
Something buried deep inside me burst forth, and Marenia flinched, staggering back a step.
Something rippled outward through the training grounds like a shockwave.
"...?"
What was that just now?
"Th-that's right! A mongrel! Everyone here knows you became a Saintess without ever receiving a single revelation! A mongrel who can't use magic, so of course you'd fall back on your body!"
"Then would you care to test that?"
"Wh-what?"
"Your oh-so-precious magic against my fists. Let's see which one wins."
"...Are you truly certain about this?"
"Yes."
I nodded at the Knight Commander's question.
...Truthfully, I was nervous.
Fighting another person still frightened me, and even pointing a blade at the Knight Commander during our spar had been a considerable challenge in itself.
Pointing it — and then actually attacking — was harder still.
But.
"Still, I wanted to know. Whether this is really the right way of things."
Why couldn't I use divine magic?
Why were my physical abilities so far beyond the other Saintesses'?
What on earth was the difference between 'Lily' and the Saintesses of Revelatio, blessed as they were by the goddess?
"I suppose I'll find out by fighting."
"...Very well. First, let's choose your weapon. You've grown used to the sword, certainly — but there are several arms better suited to facing a mage."
The weapon storeroom was lined with row upon row of arms.
The familiar swords, spears, and maces... and beyond them, daggers, staves, bows, even crossbows.
The Knight Commander looked around for a while before handing me a cleanly forged spear.
"This should be the easiest for you to handle. You've used it several times, haven't you?"
"Ah, yes."
"It has solid reach, and Saintess Marenia won't be using power beyond a reasonable level, so you should be able to land a few solid strikes."
I accepted the spear.
It was certainly a good weapon, but...
What was that?
"There are thirty minutes left until the duel, so we can go over some additional instruction— Saintess?"
"What about this one?"
CLANG!!
"...Pardon? That's obviously out of the question— hm?"
Heavy. Yet at the same time, I felt something surge up from within, a rising pull.
A weapon that settled into my grip as if it had been destined for my hand all along.
"A hammer?"
A hammer it was.