The Saintess Iris
The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky on Saturday as I finished a grueling training session, showered, and headed back toward the dormitory.
“Hoo… my growth rate isn’t bad at all.”
Alissa’s brutal sparring sessions were working far better than I expected. Just two two-hour beatings had let me catch up to over thirty hours of solo training. The only complaint was that I’d taken so many hits my stats were heavily skewing toward durability. As someone who always played damage dealers in games and even built full-damage items on newly released tanks just because they looked cool, seeing my durability stat skyrocket wasn’t exactly welcome. Sure, a little was necessary, but not enough to completely ignore everything else. At this rate, it would soon surpass my strength.
“Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Perfectly controlling the direction of growth was impossible, so it was easier on the mind to just be satisfied with getting stronger quickly. If I kept progressing like this, the number of times I got hit during sparring with Alissa would naturally decrease, and my stats would balance out on their own. There was no need to worry about it until I reached at least level 50.
That was when I finally arrived back at the dormitory.
“Big scoop! Big scoop! There’s been an incident in the underground waterway beneath the shopping district!”
“An incident?”
“Yeah! Apparently there was a fight down there. And ratmen came swarming out too. It’s total chaos!”
The shout came from a character famous in the game as a reliable source of information. The male students who had been lounging around immediately swarmed over. I stopped in my tracks, unable to ignore such valuable intel.
“Who was fighting?”
“No idea. But it looked like two people. Maybe they were on the same team and betrayed each other over ratman treasure?”
Ratmen were rodent-type monsters with a habit of hoarding shiny objects in their nests.
It was a pretty sweet farming spot.
The underground waterway in the shopping district was especially well-known as an early-game dungeon that dropped useful artifacts. I had been considering a visit once I grew a bit stronger, but I never expected something like this to happen. While it wasn’t certain, I suspected that other transmigrators had entered the dungeon, run into each other, and clashed. If I went to check, I might find traces that would let me identify them.
I need to head there right away.
Solias Academy had strict rules requiring an exit pass to leave campus, but rules only mattered if you got caught. I left the dormitory behind, moved to the outer wall, and began feeling along the ivy-covered barrier.
A short while later, I finally found my target.
“Here it is!”
There was a hole in the solid wall just big enough for a person to crawl through. It was a legacy left behind by previous academy students. At first glance it might seem like terrible security, but dozens of different magical spells were engraved into that seemingly simple hole. It made sense once you knew the current Yellow Tower Master was the one who created it.
I squeezed my body through and passed beyond the wall.
“Ugh, damn it. Why is it so narrow?”
The person who made the hole had been a mage, so the dimensions were built to their standards. My large frame, even without much muscle yet, made it a tight squeeze. After grunting and struggling my way out, I looked around and hurried toward the shopping district.
“Fresh apples have arrived! Come take a look!”
“Hey, miss! How about this necklace? It would look amazing on you!”
A wide road stretched between various shops, while stalls lined the outskirts, their owners calling out to passing customers. The main targets were academy students who had come out for the weekend. After watching the lively scene for a moment, I soon reached the entrance to the underground waterway, which now had a “No Entry” sign posted. As expected, two soldiers stood guard in front.
Can’t just walk in, huh.
I briefly considered using Luan Priulri’s notorious reputation and status to force my way through, but quickly shook my head. That would cause unnecessary commotion and might leak the fact that I had been here. So how could I get rid of both guards at once?
While I was racking my brain, the older-looking middle-aged soldier spoke to the younger one.
“Hey, Hansen. I need to step away for a bit. Hold the post alone.”
“Huh?”
“My bladder’s about to burst! I’ll be back in five minutes.”
The middle-aged soldier didn’t wait for a reply and simply vanished down the alley. Hansen stood there with a sour expression, grumbling under his breath.
Now’s my chance.
After thinking for a moment, I approached a group of children playing nearby. Sharp, wary eyes immediately locked onto me. I smiled in satisfaction and pulled a silver coin from my pocket.
“Kids, will you do me one little favor?”
“…What is it?”
“See that soldier over there? Distract him for a little while, even just a few minutes, and get him away from the underground waterway entrance. If you do, I’ll give you this silver coin.”
When I proposed the deal, the boy who seemed to be their leader glanced at Hansen.
“Make it two silver coins and I’ll think about it.”
The little brat already understood the value of money and was counter-offering. Realizing polite words wouldn’t work, I resorted to extreme measures.
“How about this instead? Cooperate with me, and in exchange I won’t beat the crap out of all of you right now.”
“…Wouldn’t you get arrested by the soldiers if you did that?”
“Not at all. This big brother here happens to be the eldest son of a marquis family. Beating up a few kids like you won’t get me in trouble. You’re the ones who’d have to deal with the consequences. So what’ll it be? Take two silver coins and live in fear every day? Or take one silver coin and be done with it, nice and easy?”
“…We’ll take one.”
“Smart choice. Get moving right now. You stay behind.”
At my command, the children left their leader and rushed toward the soldier all at once.
“Mister! It’s an emergency!”
“Hm? What’s wrong, kids?”
“A ratman appeared in that empty lot over there!”
“R-really?”
“Yes! This way! Hurry!”
“T-this is bad! I have no choice!”
Soldier Hansen looked back and forth between the alley where the older soldier had gone and the underground waterway entrance, then made up his mind and followed the children. The entrance was now completely clear.
“Good work. Here you go.”
I tossed the silver coin to the boy and slipped into the underground waterway without looking back.
“Ugh, the smell.”
The underground waterway reeked horribly, as expected. The stench of filth mixed with the unique ratman odor was enough to turn my stomach. I quickly pulled a handkerchief from my subspace pouch and pressed it over my mouth and nose.
Everything about this was miserable, but at least the layout of the waterway was very familiar. My steps never faltered as I headed straight for the ratmen’s nest. Before I reached it, at a junction where several paths converged, I discovered clear traces of the clash.
Sharp sword marks were carved into the walls, and parts of the stone were blackened by fire.
“One fire mage and one swordsman.”
My knowledge was still too shallow to glean more details, but identifying the type of magic and weapon used was a significant gain. While I searched for any other useful information, I suddenly sensed a presence.
When I looked up, a familiar face greeted me.
“You perverted weirdo. It’s been a while.”
“Why are you here….”
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be? On the contrary, I’m the one who doesn’t understand why you’re here. How did you even get in? There were soldiers guarding the entrance.”
The Saintess, Iris, stared at me with suspicious eyes, as if she had finally caught onto something. With every step she took toward me, her ridiculously massive breasts swayed heavily.
Of all people…
To think I would run into the Saintess here. Looking back, I should have anticipated this possibility. There was no way the Saintess, who knew about the existence of transmigrators, would ignore an incident like this. Even if she wasn’t as certain as I was, she would have come to confirm it just in case.
Finally, she stopped right in front of me.
“You… you’re a transmigrator!”
Thud!
It felt like my heart had dropped to the floor. Faced with such a direct question, I desperately maintained my composure and acted out the most ordinary reaction possible in this moment.
“Huh? A transmigrator? What’s that?”
“Don’t play dumb! Why did you come here?”
“……”
“You can’t answer, can you! So I was right after all?”
My suspicious silence seemed to have led her to half a conclusion. The Saintess signaled with her eyes to the holy knight standing silently behind her. The knight’s hand moved to the hilt of his sword.
What exactly was he planning to do with that? Surely he wasn’t going to cut my head off right here?
All sorts of complicated thoughts swirled through my mind. But I couldn’t let myself get dragged into this. I continued the suspicious act until the very last moment, then finally pretended I could hold out no longer and confessed.
“Haa… The truth is, I came here to meet you, Saintess.”
“W-what? Me?”
“Yes. Ever since I saw you that day, I haven’t been able to get you out of my head… When I heard the rumor that you were here, I came running.”
“H-huuuh… M-me?”
It wasn’t a direct confession, but the implication was obvious to anyone. The Saintess’s face turned bright red and she grew visibly embarrassed. The words “transmigrator” and everything else seemed to have been completely forgotten.
It worked, just as I thought.
People’s thoughts don’t change easily. To change them, you need either extremely logical arguments, clear evidence, or a shock so powerful that logic and evidence become meaningless. That was why I had chosen this method.
Fortunately, my confession had worked exactly as planned.
“I-I need some time. I’m grateful for your feelings, young master, but I’m not ready yet…”
The problem was that this kind, prejudice-free Saintess took even the confession of the infamous Luan Priulri, whose name was synonymous with every ugly rumor imaginable, completely seriously. I was starting to worry she might actually accept it.
Time to hit the brakes.
“I understand. Hearing something like this so suddenly must be confusing. Please take your time and think it over. For the sake of those breasts, I can wait as long as it takes.”
“H-huh? What? Breasts?”
Just when things were going so well, I suddenly yanked the steering wheel and sent us plunging off a cliff. The Saintess snapped back to her senses and asked again, looking dazed.
I gazed at her chest with an expression that could only be described as borderline madness and lavished it with praise.
“That’s right. The Saintess’s breasts are a treasure of the world. Anyone who sees them even once cannot possibly deny their beauty. If I could one day touch them, I would have no regrets in this life.”
“…So what you’re saying is, you don’t care about me at all. It’s only my breasts that interest you. Is that it?”
“Yes. Isn’t that what I’ve been saying from the beginning?”
I deliberately shrugged my shoulders in a cheeky way, as if asking what she had been listening to all this time. The Saintess’s body trembled. Her face cycled rapidly through disbelief, shock, humiliation, and rage before finally twisting in pure fury.
“You pervert, die!”
Whaaam!
Along with her shout, a holy fist slammed into my solar plexus. I rolled helplessly across the ground.
“Cough! Cough! W-what are you doing?!”
“How dare you reveal such filthy desires right in front of me? If you ever do something like this again, I won’t let you off so easily! Hmph!”
She snorted loudly, stomped past me, and headed for the exit. There wasn’t a shred of lingering attachment in her departure.
“Isn’t she a bit too nice…?”
I had openly sexually harassed her and even made her misunderstand my intentions, yet all I got was one punch to the solar plexus. That was exactly why she was the Saintess.
I rubbed my stomach a few times, then pushed myself up from the ground. After taking dozens of hits to the same spot from Alissa over the past week, this level of pain barely registered anymore. Once I recovered, I followed the path the Saintess had come from and entered the nest.
“Not much here.”
The artifacts had already been taken by the Saintess, and the transmigrators hadn’t even reached this far, so there were no meaningful traces left behind. After a quick look around, I turned away without any significant gains.
When I returned to the entrance of the underground waterway, I ran into the Saintess once again.
“Saintess? What are you doing here?”
“Ah, perfect timing. This is the person who was tailing you.”
“Huh? Tailing me?”
My gaze shifted to the young man of similar age standing in front of the Saintess.