Chapter 2. Encounters and Opportunities (9)
Chapter 2. Encounters and Opportunities (9)
Ria grabbed my arm and pulled me away, putting a little distance between us and Lee Si-yoon.
The area near the Gate had been leveled and finished so that heavy equipment could be brought in, so there wasn't really any secluded spot to speak of.
The gazes that had been fixed on me shifted to the back of Ria's head, but Ria didn't seem to care much.
"Hey."
The look on Ria's face as she said that was a little frightening, unlike her usual expression.
Well, now that I thought about it, Ria's face wasn't exactly the soft or gentle type. If anything, it was sharp—the kind of face that wouldn't have looked out of place among a school gang if this had been a school setting.
And since I'd been the type in my Past Life who never fit in with gangs or popular crowds, that expression on Ria, who was taller than me, felt a little intimidating.
"Wh-why?"
When I asked, shrinking back a little, Ria shook the arm she was still holding and said,
"What are you doing right now?"
"What do you mean, what am I doing?"
When I asked with wide eyes, not understanding what she meant, Ria's expression shifted. She looked less angry than as if she were dying of frustration.
Still, this expression was better than the one from a moment ago that had looked ready to explode.
"Do you remember why you're here?"
"Well, to heal the wounded if there are any—"
"No."
Ria cut me off cleanly.
"It's not just because you have the ability to heal. You're here right now because you're a Saintess Candidate."
"I—"
"I know. You don't want to be called that. But what can you do? Among those affiliated with the Church, that status can't be completely stripped away. Holy Power is a power bestowed by God. They can take away your rights, but they can't make that proof disappear just because you ran your mouth, can they?"
"......."
"You look like you've got a lot to say, but hold it in for now. The reason you ended up spending another year at the convent is because I became your escort, isn't it? For now, I'm the escort assigned to protect a Saintess Candidate. Look over there."
Ria stretched out her thumb and pointed behind her.
The place was swarming with people.
There were Hunters who had just come out of the Gate, but there were also Saintess Candidates who had rushed over to heal the wounded.
Those Saintess Candidates weren't directly visible to me, apparently because they were blocked off by people I assumed to be from the Knight Order.
"You've lived inside the convent all this time, so you probably don't know, but people called Saintess Candidates are absolutely not low-ranking people."
"Uh......."
"Don't tell me you know. You might as well not know. If you did know, you wouldn't have jumped out like that and gotten all friendly with some individual who isn't even Church-affiliated."
"......."
Uh,
Hm.
As I stood there unable to say anything to that, Ria let out a deep sigh.
"Even if you don't think of yourself as a Saintess, you do think of yourself as a nun, don't you? Even when you help people during worship, you keep your distance, right?"
That was true.
It wasn't that we were physically separated, but we left a few rows empty in between and sat behind them, keeping a little distance from the laypeople in front.
They weren't full-fledged soldiers like the Knight Order, but older clergy had also been policing people who tried to talk casually to the nuns.
"It's already problematic for a nun to strike up a conversation, so do you think it makes any sense for a Saintess Candidate to jump out like that and talk to a man?"
"That's......."
Damn, I had nothing to say.
Sure, I'd had all sorts of thoughts running through my head, but they weren't the kind of thing I could explain to anyone else. At best, I'd just be treated like a lunatic. I was already officially treated as half-crazy by the Church, so creating more of that image here would be a highly inappropriate response, considering what little social standing I had left.
When my shoulders slumped, Ria let go of my wrist.
"Well, I'm not blaming you. You might have things you want to say. But just because you thought something doesn't mean you should go charging off. People think it's strange."
"......I'm sorry."
I answered, feeling a little dejected.
"......No, it's not something you need to apologize for."
Ria sighed deeply, scratched her head, and said,
"For now, I'm supposed to be under you, right? Normally, you'd have someone like a chaperone at your side, and you'd move around with knights forming walls on all sides. But since you don't have that, you can just speak through me."
"So you mean if I tell you something, you'll relay it to the other person?"
"That's right."
Ria nodded.
In the distance, the Mother Superior and the priest were approaching cautiously. Apparently, the trouble I'd caused wasn't as minor as I'd thought.
Well, why else would it be called a convent?
I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"So, what was it you wanted to say?"
Ria asked casually. She seemed to want to hear the gist of it before the Mother Superior and the priest arrived.
Should I tell her?
Actually, I'd wanted to tell them not to go back into the Gate. If it was about following the blood trail, they could already assess the situation from this entry alone.
But how should I put it—I lacked a justification.
Actually, there was one method. To spout nonsense about receiving a revelation from God or something.
I thought of it as nonsense, and I'd never actually received any revelation, but the people of this world considered the Being Above to be God no matter what, and for some reason believed they had to follow it with their lives.
On top of that, that being cunningly gave real power to such people. Seeing how it kept showing me light, it probably intended to make me acknowledge its existence too.
If that hadn't been its intention from the start, my entering this world at all would have been impossible.
.......
Well, when had I ever done things while weighing all that? Just about a month ago, I'd said something like that to Ria.
Does a dying person survive on their own just because they cling to their pride?
If someone's life is on the line, isn't it basic human decency to swallow your pride and lie through your teeth if that's what it takes to prevent that situation?
As I steeled myself and opened my mouth, the light was somehow a little dazzling.
"Ah, come on!"
What was with shining light in my face like someone trying to wake a sentry who refused to get up? The moment I decided to swallow a little pride, it got excited again.
No, more than that, doing this in broad daylight means the light is really strong. Just how excited is it?
Honestly, it stung quite a bit, but I waved my hand in front of my face and brushed away that Holy Power.
And just as I was about to speak—
"......Is this something related to God?"
Ria asked first, figuring it out on her own.
I didn't miss the opportunity and quickly nodded.
"Ah~ well, about that."
I rolled my eyes around, then looked back at the people behind us.
The people who had been watching the two of us talking separately had apparently lost interest and gone back to their own tasks. The Hunters who weren't injured were heading toward the building in groups, and the Saintess Candidates were still tending to the people lying on the ground, with faint light visible.
Apparently, no one had seen the light shining on my face.
"Among the people who entered the Gate today, how many Rank 7 Hunters do you think there are?"
Ria blinked at my question.
Phew, still, it seemed like this had been the right thing to say.
I'd felt like if I singled out Lee Si-yoon specifically, Ria would get angry again, so I'd just referred to all the Lowest-Rank Hunters collectively.
"Probably quite a few? Normally, the Lowest-Rank Hunters in an association of this size are practically half-trainees."
As expected of a proper association.
I'd heard there were quite a lot of Rank 7 Hunters who operated independently. People like that were never called "trainees." They might be Grade 7, but they were still Hunters through and through.
Normally, saying something like that to someone below your own grade was no different from dismissing them...... but well, this place had "affiliation," so that was that.
"Even just to learn the system, they go and haul equipment and do that kind of work, right? They also stay behind to guard the supplies. I've heard there's a base right outside the Gate, but usually they build another headquarters deeper inside. In this case, the incident probably happened after going deep inside."
The Hunter Association was fundamentally an organization that operated for profit.
Even if it was dangerous, if they could search with affiliated Hunters, they searched as wide an area inside the Gate as possible. If they could eliminate threats and take the gains inside, they did so.
The reason governments usually commissioned Gate searches to associations was because of that. It was far more efficient than sending civil servants, and it was mutually beneficial.
But in the case of this Gate, they needed to be far more cautious than that.
The reason was, of course, because of the "protagonist" and the "heroine"—
"......I have a bit of a bad feeling. How about excluding the Low-Rank Hunters from this search?"
"So, that's—"
I nodded.
Still, I couldn't bring myself to outright lie and call it a revelation from God.
Well, if they really didn't believe me, I'd have no choice but to bring that up.
I turned my gaze back toward the Gate for no real reason, and my eyes met those of a nun who was starting to leave.
Only for a very brief moment, through the gap between the shoulders of the knights standing around her.
The nun who saw me smiled slightly, as if scoffing.
Ah, so she must be the other Saintess Candidate they said had come in addition to me. Apparently, the Church didn't regard me very highly.
Well, if the Church was going to disregard me, I was grateful for it.
I shrugged and looked back at Ria.
"Could you pass on a message for me, my knight?"
At my words, Ria blinked as if a little flustered, then let out a short laugh and thumped her chest once with her fist. If she'd been wearing armor, it might have looked like a knight's oath, but, well.
Honestly, watching that large chest move was a slightly awkward sight to stare at too intently.