Chapter 1: The Unexpected Encounter
On the unholy and ominous altar, when she regained consciousness, the baptism ritual had already begun.
If the ritual ended, she would be revered as the Saintess.
Therefore, Sugar’s choice was to flee.
Her soles were bleeding and throbbing, her breath coming short, her head spinning, but if caught here, there would be no more chances to escape.
She ran while praying. In both her previous life and this one, she couldn’t recall a more fervent prayer.
No matter what happened, no matter what she became, she prayed to avoid becoming the Saintess of the cult that worshipped the Evil God.
She was screaming at the world, at herself, at someone who might exist.
Then, rustling from the bushes, someone blocking her path. An unexpected person.
It was her childhood friend. Not the kind of person you’d expect to appear suddenly in such a place. And even more unexpected was that this person was panting while holding something ominous.
“Why… are you carrying that?”
The thing was more surprising than the person.
A grimoires emitting an ominous aura. An evil tool that couldn’t be acknowledged by society.
The one the villain in the original story carried.
One who committed all sorts of evil acts and even allied with the cult.
And finally, the one that would deliver the end to the already tattered Sugar.
After recovering memories from the previous life, every time she looked at her reflection in the water, she felt…
“…No matter how you look at it, you’re the Saintess.”
Even though it had only been a day, Sugar was already familiar with this face.
Pinkish-white hair. Sky blue and pink eyes depending on the angle.
The color combination of a heretical cult character from the RPG game she played in the magic school background.
Even if the face was the same, different eye and hair colors made different characters. In this world, color combinations were individuality and life.
Before knowing the truth in the original story, she was just impressed by how cute she looked, but after knowing, she was struck by the contrast with the evil cult that preached strange doctrines. Moreover, the original her was in a unique position.
Inside the cult, she was called Saintess, outside she was feared as a heretic, a fallen sacrifice, an Apostle of the Evil God.
The one who received the most love from the Evil God, revered by the cult, but just that.
Kidnapped, losing sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, losing her voice. Without power or personal will, she lived as the Evil God’s attachment doll, just breathing.
Even just looking at the rare paths shown in the original game, it was already tragic.
The Saintess of the Shadow Cult, not the orthodox religion loved by the whole continent, but a heretical cult where even the believers, executives, and members were all corrupted.
In the game, at the start, this process was already over, so it couldn’t be saved. She appeared as a soul body instead of the main body locked underground, silently helping the player and accepting the consequences of his choices. A pitiful character.
“How pitiful.”
Leaving the original story, now.
In this world she was standing on, the 11 years of memories as Sugar were clear. Her self was clear. She jumped with her own feet, ate food with her own hands. She didn’t spend the day dazed, wasn’t swayed by madmen, didn’t receive the Evil God’s embrace.
It was peaceful, but if she did nothing and rolled in the slums, she would meet the future like in the original story.
Of course, she wouldn’t stay still. She would struggle somehow. She had information from the previous life. She would avoid the pitfalls.
Fear of the unknown future, anxiety about whether she could avoid it, a sense of relief from the fresh peace all mixed up. Sugar, wiping away the tears she shed as an 11-year-old girl, stood up from her seat.
She died in an accident and was reborn. The only thing that entered this body was the memories from her previous life. No matter what, she was Sugar, but she had once been an adult. This small body was a foreign adult male.
Based on that maturity, she set her first grand step, her goal.
“Let’s grow my body first.”
She complained inwardly about her small body, using the excuse of “body size matters in fights. Body size matters in gaining initiative.”
The orphanage in the slums was more pitiful than the word “orphanage in the slums”.
Even in this world full of mysteries, the slums were like that.
“Line up properly! I hope the ones who line up after already receiving food don’t exist!”
It was the meal time at the orphanage where they waited and waited. The menu was always the same thin soup. No nutrition, just filling the stomach, but if even that wasn’t there, they couldn’t eat.
Since they couldn’t eat dirt, Sugar returned to her seat holding the soup bowl quietly.
Slightly glancing at the line, the staff was controlling the children. Checking if there were any who cut in line, if any who had already eaten and were lining up again. Honestly, the latter was more important.
Slurp. After a few sips, the bowl was empty, looking at it with regret, clicking her tongue. Recalling her previous life, it was tasteless anew, but somehow it went down after eating it for years.
Chicken. Pizza. Katsu.
“You’re pretty small too. You probably won’t get hungry anyway.”
“It’s not like I’m taking everything. Just a little, okay?”
There, school bullying was happening.
Since it was inside the orphanage, was it orphanage bullying? Thinking of irrelevant thoughts, looking at the guide teacher, she didn’t care. It seemed the guide teacher had no mind for anything but finding which worthless guy lined up twice to steal the precious food of the orphanage. They could hear the sound, but…
This place was like that. We gave you the food anyway. After that, you do as you please.
Shivering at the law of the jungle, Sugar picked up her empty bowl and stood up.
Approaching the scene of the orphanage bullying, she saw the members. Three big guys surrounding a small boy, demanding the soup for some reason that didn’t make sense.
The boy remained expressionless, no reaction. The gang, thinking it positive, smiled while putting the contents into their own bowls. They said “just a little” but took only a third each. Three thirds, and the contents were soon gone.
Even so, perhaps not feeling wronged. The boy just let everything flow without fighting back or crying.
At this time, the gang was full, the boy was starving. Because of the firm guide teacher, they couldn’t line up again.
Monstrous creatures. Sugar clicked her tongue and threw her bowl at the back of the gang’s head.
“Ouch!”
A clear sound, the hit one turned his head.
“What?”
“What’s going on?”
Then the other two turned their heads too.
There, Sugar was sticking out her finger with a grumpy expression. The next would be obvious.
“Damn! Stop! Stop hitting!”
She hit with the empty bowl. Using the advantage of being small and light, she clung to the opponent’s neck and hit again and again. Each time, the sound “clank, clank” was rhythmic.
The other one was knocked down by a punch to the solar plexus.
The third one was hit directly by the dust ball Sugar threw—piled up in the window frame—and was coughing with red eyes.
Sugar’s hair was pulled, lips busted, bruises everywhere, but before winning or losing, it wasn’t a big deal.
“We lost! We lost!”
Hearing that, she jumped down.
Even while fighting like dogs, she knew the value of food, and the soup bowls placed in a corner of the table were now hers.
Holding the spoils tightly, passing the children who had started eating their own food again after the commotion, she went to the boy, the rightful owner. The boy sat calmly in his seat, maintaining his position despite the commotion. His sharp eyes looked at Sugar quietly. Up close, his appearance was a bit messy, but his eyes were clear as water.
Sugar glanced and poured all the soup into the boy’s empty bowl.
A full bowl of soup.
“…”
The boy was about to say something, his lips trembling.
Sugar picked up the boy’s bowl and poured the contents into her own bowl. The one she had been hitting the gang’s heads with earlier. Exactly half.
“Hey.”
And then spoke familiarly.
“I’m better than those guys, right?”
“…”
She didn’t have any noble intention of helping. In a situation where she had to eat a lot to grow taller, she could accept cold reality and the law of the jungle.
It was natural that the strong and hungry ones ate more.
Yet, didn’t I leave at least half?
If she was going to be taken by someone else anyway, give it to me.
Sugar declared boldly to the boy.
The boy looked at such Sugar with a slightly furrowed brow, as if seeing a strange person.