Sister Lucia and May Flove
When Sister Lucia first crossed the threshold of the grand and sacred cathedral, she had believed it would be the warmest, most welcoming place on the continent.
To her, a place of worship had always brimmed with laughter and vitality—a space where people looked after one another.
But once she actually arrived at the cathedral, she found it colder and more desolate than the merchants in any common marketplace.
Even accounting for the Saintess election, her sensitive nature told her that this atmosphere had long since settled over the place.
“Helios...”
She clasped the rosary of the Sun God hanging around her neck with both hands and prayed. Calling Helios’s name in prayer from time to time had become something of a habit for her.
“Lucia, are you ready?”
At the kind voice of the priest waiting for her outside, Lucia took a deep breath and said she was prepared.
Today was the day before the Saintess election when the candidate nuns would hide their identities and experience the lives of the citizens of Vatian. The insights and experiences gained today would later be used both to appeal to high-ranking officials with voting rights—such as the Pope and the Paladins—and in speeches to introduce themselves to the citizens.
Lucia hurried over to the priest who had accompanied her from the convent and gave a small nod.
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Perhaps thinking she looked too tense, the priest smiled gently and offered advice.
“Don’t be so rigid. You’re wise, Lucia. You’ll go out and naturally gain enlightenment. Helios’s sunlight is illuminating the path ahead of you.”
“That’s right. All I have to do is follow His guidance.”
Smiling faintly, Lucia checked her outfit once more. A cheap dress and a wide-brimmed hat perched atop her braided blonde hair. At a glance, she looked like a student on a trip to Vatian or a village maiden. Especially since she had heard that students from Aeos Academy were also visiting Vatian on a field trip this time, it would be easy enough to blend in.
“Then I’ll be off.”
Stepping out boldly, Lucia felt the sunlight warming her more than usual and murmured to herself that it seemed like a day of good omens.
“Hm?”
It was exactly ten minutes later that she felt disillusioned with the streets.
Though she had arrived in Vatian a month ago, she had been confined inside the cathedral as a Saintess candidate and was seeing the streets for the first time, marveling at them. It was no wonder the place was called a holy land—so many religious items were for sale that even Lucia, who lacked material desires, found herself tempted by a few things.
Forgetting her original purpose and exploring the streets with a fluttering heart, she spotted some boys and girls in a passing alley. Seeing them around her own age, she thought they must be students from Aeos Academy.
“......Huh?”
The atmosphere was anything but ordinary. Large, rough-faced students glared at them while the students opposite stood locked in a staring contest. At the very front stood a girl with short reddish-brown hair, something clenched in her mouth, looking thoroughly irritated.
“You come all the way on a field trip just to pull this crap? Feel better now? If you’re gonna jump us, then hurry up and do it instead of skulking around.”
C-cigarettes and a street fight?!
Having lived as a nun since childhood, Lucia’s eyes spun at the succession of situations she had never seen before in her life.
W-what do I do? What should I do?
A fight seemed about to break out at any moment. Clutching Helios’s rosary tightly, Lucia cried out.
“S-stop fighting! I’ll call the guards!”
“Hmm?”
“Huh?”
The short-haired girl, May, and the fifth-year delinquent Telman both turned to look at Lucia standing at the end of the alley.
“You’re students on a field trip, right? What are your names? I’m going to go complain to your chaperone!”
With students fighting like this, where on earth was the chaperone? Once she had spoken up, Lucia felt strength welling up inside her. Among them, Telman flinched and scowled, while May grinned and pointed a finger at him.
“This guy’s one of our chaperones. He’s here as a fifth-year volunteer.”
“What? The chaperone is fighting? Hey, you!”
As Lucia pressed even harder, Telman finally spat on the ground, spewing a stream of curses as he led his gang and fled. Especially when he locked eyes with Lucia and said, “I’ll remember you,” but perhaps it was Helios’s protection—Lucia only grew bolder in response.
“Thanks.”
Having avoided a pointless fight even on a field trip, May raised a hand in thanks, but Lucia’s fight was not yet over.
“Y-you too! Don’t smoke!”
“Huh? This?”
She pulled the stick from her mouth with a pop, revealing a red candy.
“Oh?”
“It’s candy. Don’t go fretting over nothing.”
“I-I see. That’s a relief, but...”
Feeling a little awkward, Lucia scratched the back of her head. May chuckled and approached her.
“Doesn’t look like you’re from our academy. You live in Vatian? What’s your name?”
“Huh? Um, my name is Lucia. I’m eighteen... I’m here in Vatian as a tourist.”
Since she couldn’t reveal her identity, she lied, but even this light lie pricked her conscience.
“That so? I’m May. I was gonna ask if there was anything worth seeing, but you don’t know either, huh?”
“Yes, well... Are you all delinquent students, by any chance?”
A sudden silence. Then the students’ laughter rang out.
Innocent Lucia didn’t quite understand what was wrong with her question, but May patted her shoulder and said,
“These guys are, but I’m not.”
“Whoa, look at May cutting us off.”
“That’s so mean!”
“She’s our boss. They call her the Empress of the Back Alleys at the academy—she conquered the whole place with her fists alone.”
“Hey!”
May grumbled as if embarrassed, but Lucia felt as if she had been struck on the head.
A d-delinquent student!
The delinquent students she had only heard about secondhand were standing right in front of her! And a girl who ruled the prestigious Aeos Academy, no less!
“Helios has shown me the way.”
“Huh?”
May scratched the back of her head, wondering what she was talking about, but Lucia’s eyes sparkled as she declared,
“Today, I’m going to turn all of you into good kids!”
The warm sunlight pouring down on her sparkled around the nun as if it were the Sun God’s blessing itself.
While Sister Lucia and the delinquent student May were having what could be called a fateful meeting, a blonde girl stood before the door of a luxury hotel room—unlike the other students wandering the streets. Elise.
Even with Bertia behind her, she showed a tension she never usually displayed. The always-confident girl took a deep breath in front of the door.
Knock knock.
Having steeled herself, Elise knocked on the door at once. From inside came a man’s soft voice telling her to enter, and she turned the doorknob so carefully it almost looked deliberate.
“It’s been a while, Elyse.”
A blonde man sat in a chair, clad only in a bathrobe, half-naked, sipping wine. The fact that he immediately used her true name—Elyse de Frisia, the Third Princess—rather than Elise already meant he knew her identity.
Of course he would know.
“It’s been a while, Brother.”
He was the man who had first seized the right of succession to the throne. The youth closest to the golden throne after the current king. First Prince Oliver de Frisia.
He was locked in a rivalry with the Second Prince, Alois de Frisia, over the throne, but in truth the gap between them was so overwhelming that the public already considered Oliver the victor.
“What business did you have in summoning me?”
She had no choice but to be wary of her brother, who had contacted her through a maid the previous night. The very fact that Oliver was here was something that shouldn’t become known, yet he had called her while bearing that risk.
The Frisia Kingdom was a nation where the king held sovereignty and all authority, but religion was the sole exception. Long ago, the Holy Nation—once an independent country—had come under the Frisia Kingdom, naturally becoming one nation. Of course, much time had passed and the royal family’s power was stronger, but that didn’t mean they could ignore the Pope.
The fact that they still clung to the arrogant title of “Pope” even while watching the royal family’s mood meant they had no intention of easily yielding their pride. Due to the nature of religion, they enjoyed the full support of the citizens, so the royal family was reluctant to touch them lightly, and that history had continued to the present.
Even remaining here during the Saintess election period was because if even a rumor of royal intervention spread, the citizens would rise up at once.
“The reason I called you is obvious, isn’t it?”
Swirling his wine glass this way and that, Oliver lifted the corner of his mouth slightly.
“You are a truly clever and brilliant child. Unlike the others, you’re the only blood relative who pleases me.”
“......”
“Elise, what do you think of the title of Pope?”
Elise clenched her fist tightly. She could already see clearly what he was about to say and what proposal he would make, so she forced down the dizzying thoughts in her heart.
A proposal she must not refuse carelessly, and could not refuse—one that was as good as a royal command—spilled from Oliver’s tongue like a snake’s.