A Letter from Teacher
Having lightly brushed off Professor Rahel's orders, Lete slipped out of the Mass hall and strode down the long corridor of the cathedral annex.
Murmur, murmur.
The Efnel students who spotted her began to whisper among themselves.
As Special Admission No. 1 and the most likely candidate for the next Saintess, Lete drew attention and gossip wherever she went.
"Sister Lete!"
Just then, a girl in the crisp white Efnel uniform came scampering up, calling her name.
"?"
Lete turned around, her face blank. It was a girl from her class, who came up beside her and made the sign of the cross.
"Laus, Sister Lete. May the Goddess's blessing be with you!"
"Laus. What's the matter?"
"Ah, well..." The girl flushed and spoke quietly. "This Visitation — are you going with anyone?"
At Efnel, the field missions students were sent down to the surface to perform were called 'Visitations.'
"Alone~"
"What? You're supposed to go in groups of four!"
"Can't be bothered. Whatever a group of four can do, I can manage just fine on my own."
"That's our Sister Lete for you!"
Oh right, it's Visitation season. This is going to be a pain.
Lete yawned, hands buried in her skirt pockets, an expression of utter boredom plastered across her face.
And sure enough, it very quickly became a pain. Efnel students came flocking toward her from every direction.
"Laus! Sister Lete!"
"Have you found a team yet?"
"Sister Lete!"
It was only natural — there was no safer insurance than having Lete in your group.
Of course, Lete could not have cared less.
"I'm going alone, so please, leave me alone."
She kept walking, answering with cold cynicism, when someone came toward her from the opposite direction — someone trailed by far more students than the ones clinging to Lete.
He was a boy who enjoyed extreme popularity at Efnel, where the male population hovered around twenty percent.
Blazing red hair scattering on the breeze, a face carved like a statue, a sharp nose that looked as though it could slice paper, and a smile soft enough to melt any girl's heart — he had everything needed to set hearts aflutter.
As he approached, he spotted Lete and smiled slyly, calling out to her.
"Laus! Top Rank Lete! Good morning!"
He raised a hand in greeting, but Lete walked straight past him.
"Laus to you, Second Rank Romain. It is a good morning, so keep on walking."
"Ahaha! Can't you spare a moment to talk with me?"
Lete ignored him and kept walking. Romain fell into step backward beside her, doing his best to win her attention.
"What is it? I told you, I'm doing the Visitation alone."
"No, no, not that. I was just curious how your holy relic project for Professor René is coming along."
"That's not your concern. Now if you'll excuse me."
"As it happens, I found a place where I can get 'Moon Pearl' — the material I need for my rosary."
At the words Moon Pearl, even Lete reacted, if only slightly.
Of course she did. A Moon Pearl was a top-tier holy relic — find one, and the highest score on the project was practically guaranteed.
He pulled out two tickets.
"I'm taking the train down to the surface this very evening. Want to come with me?"
Several girls nearby let out envious sighs, but Lete waved her hand coldly, as if the offer bored her.
"Congratulations in advance on taking first place in the relic project. And have you considered that if I take that precious pearl of yours, your ranking might drop?"
"That's quite all right, Top Rank Lete."
Romain winked.
"As your one and only rival, it's my small act of consideration. Let's go up together."
"Ha—"
Watching him still doggedly trailing behind her, Lete felt her irritation begin to boil over.
"I stayed quiet and behaved because Professor Rahel scolded me, and now you come crawling back out of nowhere."
"L-Lete? Top Rank?"
"What the hell do you mean, rival? You're so pathetic it's disgusting, so keep your bulls*** to a reasonable level."
There was no one in this school she actually considered a rival.
"Well, of course we're rivals — Top Rank and Second Rank, that's just how it works!"
Romain laughed and clung to her side.
"Besides, that white robe you wear every single day these days? It's a leeeettle bit tacky."
He rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Once we get down to the surface, I'll buy you a new—"
WHAM!
Romain suddenly felt his vision spin in circles. Then came a searing pain through his back and neck. By the time his senses returned, he was sprawled across the floor.
Screams and commotion erupted on all sides.
"Where do you think you're touching me with those filthy hands?"
Lete said icily.
At the same moment, Romain felt the last thread of his patience snap clean through. He shoved himself up roughly and swung his palm toward her cheek —
CRACK!
Her shoe slammed into his abdomen. He let out a strangled wheeze.
'C-can't... breathe...!'
Tap.
Lete caught the back of his head with one hand.
"There's one thing I love about Efnel."
CRASH!!!
She slammed him into the glass wall. The entire reinforced panel — supposedly unbreakable — spiderwebbed and split apart.
"No need to worry about killing someone by beating them."
Eyes glittering with menace, Lete seized Romain's head in one hand, dragged him along, and shoved his face into the wall.
"No need to worry about scars or wounds on the face or body, either."
SCREEEECH!
She simply clicked away down the corridor at an even pace. Romain's face ground along the wall with a horrific sound, and wherever he passed, a long crimson streak smeared the glass like paint squeezed from a tube.
"Even if I beat someone to within an inch of their life, Efnel's great healers will patch them up and bring them right back — so there's nothing to worry about at all."
She hadn't even used white magic.
Just rock-solid fundamental Holy Martial Arts, and overwhelming might that crushed everything beneath a colossal tide of divinity.
Romain, the so-called Second Rank, never managed a single act of resistance.
"As expected — a truly rival-worthy, evenly matched bout, Second Rank Romain."
She wiped his blood from her cheek with a fingertip and sneered.
"There are people stronger than you who know to keep quiet. You scraped second place by your own assessment scores, and yet your mouth never stops."
Romain lay face-down on the floor, eyes rolled back, his features a mask of blood.
A deep silence hung over the corridor.
When Lete turned around, the onlooking Efnel students hastily averted their eyes.
"Sisters over there. Take this bastard to the healers."
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
The students rushed over and hoisted up the fallen Romain, while Lete swept out of the corridor in a swirl of snow-white hair.
Click!
Arriving at her dormitory room, Lete opened the door and stepped inside.
"Laus~ Sister Lete!"
Her roommate, who had been scribbling away at homework at her desk, greeted her warmly with both hands waving. Lete answered with a small nod of her head.
"Laus, Lirinet."
"Did something happen at school? The whole place is buzzing."
"No idea what you're talking about."
Feigning total innocence, Lete first stripped off the robe draped over her shoulders and hung it up. The outside was a snowy white — but the lining was jet black.
"Oh, a letter came for you, Sister. I left it on your desk."
"A letter?"
"Yes, from that old lady who comes by every day—"
"!!!"
The life that had been absent from Lete's face all day long suddenly blazed back into it.
"No way—!"
She darted across the room and snatched up the letter sitting on the desk.
To Lete
That exquisite, elegant, unmistakably dignified hand. Anyone would have known at a glance who had written it.
Naturally — she had seen that handwriting thousands upon thousands of times.
"WAAAAAAH!! Teacher!!!"
At last — a letter from Anna had arrived!
Overcome with joy, Lete hugged the letter to her chest and hopped around the room.
Sending a letter from the Dark Alliance to the Holy Federation required a rather unofficial route — and the courier was none other than the old woman who had delivered it.
Lirinet flashed a mischievous smile.
"I wonder what people would say if they found out Sister Lete actually has a girlish side like this! I'm so curious!"
"Shut the h*** up, I'm in a good mood."
Her very first order of business was a bath. She wanted to read Anna's letter with a devout and reverent heart.
Clean and fresh, dressed in comfortable clothes, she set the letter down on the floor and knelt before it with ceremonial solemnity.
This was the fuel that let her survive the grueling life at Efnel.
A single ray of light.
Her heart pounded so hard at the mere thought of opening it that she thought she might lose her mind.
"But, Sister Lete~"
Lirinet spun her chair around with a creak and piped up.
"Who's the letter from, that you're this happy about it? A boy, maybe?"
"Am I insane? Quiet down if you don't want a beating."
As though performing a most sacred rite, she carefully broke the seal of the envelope and unfolded the stiff, crisp stationery.
Merely gazing at that elegant black script upon the white paper was enough to make it feel as though the world itself were drowning in happiness.
Hi, Lete? It's Teacher Anna. How has life at Efnel been treating you lately?
"Aaaahhh!"
Lete let out a sound of pure bliss as she read on, her face in full bloom with smiles.
Just then, in the middle of her pink-tinted world of letter-reading —
Flit.
Another letter slipped out of the envelope and fell to the floor.
As it turned out, there were two letters in all. Lete looked up in puzzlement and read the final line of the first.
And Simon wrote a letter he says you absolutely have to read. I've enclosed it here.
"......!!"
She blinked, her face frozen stiff.
'A letter from... that bastard?'
She was thrown into tremendous confusion.
Who does he think he is, sending me a letter?
I have to read it?
What is he suddenly going on about?
Flinching back as though staring at an unexploded bomb, she eventually, cautiously, reached out her arm toward the fallen letter.
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
Her arm was shaking violently. She hastily withdrew her hand and held it against her chest, flustered.
'Wh-what is this? Why am I so nervous?'
Her heart began thudding out of nowhere. Even beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
She hesitated, several times over, before finally reaching for the letter.
'Ugh! What is wrong with me? How humiliating!'
She bravely snatched it up and tore it open. Then she scanned the contents.
Hey, Lete. Been keeping well?
Thanks for helping out over the break! I'll consider you a benefactor for life. Give my regards to Lady Israfil, too. Is Ran doing all right? She crosses my mind now and then — I miss her.
'I miss her.'
I miss her.
I miss her, my a**!
Lete ground her teeth as she read down the page.
But then...
The further she went, the colder her expression froze.
You remember the evidence I got on the train? Check whether the name 'Judas' appears anywhere in it.
"GAH! That son of a b****!"
She flung the letter down with a smack. A token line of greeting up front, and then nothing but a pile of his own requests.
She was trembling with fury — then suddenly froze.
'Wait. Why am I hurt that the greeting was so short?'
While Lete stood there blankly, her roommate Lirinet slyly peeked at the letter she'd thrown down.
"Oh! It's a boy! That's definitely a boy's handwriting, right? Wow, what is this? 'She crosses my mind now and then'? 'I miss her'? Kyaaaa—!"
Lete raised her arm, her face ice-cold.
Brilliant light split the air open, and out sprang her Holy Beast — the baby dragon Ran — who coiled around Lirinet and pinned her down.
"KYAAAAAA!"
In an instant, Lirinet was subdued. Both arms bound and hoisted above her head, both legs lifted off the floor.
"Didn't I say?"
Lete picked up Simon's letter, her eyes smoldering with rage, and continued.
"Be. Quiet."
"Waaahh! Please forgive me! Sister Lete!"
"Forgiveness denied!"
Lete began gently tickling Lirinet's exposed armpits. Lirinet's face flushed bright red as she writhed, laughing uncontrollably.
"Hahahaha! Aaack! Hahaha! M-mercy...!"
"I have a request."
Lete stopped her tickle-torture. Lirinet, tears of laughter clinging to the corners of her eyes, answered at once.
"C-command me, please, Sister!"
"Your uncle Lirinet is an active inquisitor, isn't he? I need you to get in touch with him."
In the end, Lirinet was released from her bonds in exchange for contacting her uncle.
"But what do you need my uncle for?"
"None of your business. Hurry up."
Lirinet took out her communication crystal and called her uncle.
"Yes, yes, Uncle! I'm doing fine. Yes, a friend of mine has something to say to you."
"This is Lete."
Lete suddenly leaned in and snatched the crystal from her hands. A thick, hearty uncle's laugh rang out from the crystal.
"Hahaha! Lete? I've heard plenty about you from my niece!"
"About what, exactly?"
"That Efnel's Special Admission No. 1, living in the same room as her, is quite the little firecracker—"
"Ran."
"KYAAAAAAAAAH!"
Lirinet was seized by Ran once again, and Lete turned her back to shield the crystal — making sure the uncle never caught a glimpse of his niece's humiliating plight.
"There's someone I'd like you to find for me."
"A favor for my niece's friend? Of course. Who am I looking for?"
Her expression turned grave.
"A man named Metin. An inquisitor."