Chapter 1. Candidate and Candidate (6)

"Huh? Huh? Why can't you answer, our dear Saintess Candidate?"

But even in the middle of that fluster, there was one thing that lodged itself right in my ear.

Well, not that it lodged itself there in any positive sense. More like the opposite. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The words I truly hated.

"......Excuse me."

"Huh?"

"I'll put up with everything else, but I'd rather you didn't call me that Saintess Candidate thing."

When I, who had been flustered, said that with a straight face, Ria looked up at me standing there, flustered for the first time today.

"Don't tell me you actually hate being called a Saintess?"

"Of course I actually hate it. Would I fake-hate it? Haven't you heard a word I've said all this time?"

"So you really were trying to make me commit Apostasy?"

"No, not that. It's true I was trying to make you get closer to the Church."

"No, wait, hold on."

As if her head had started to hurt mid-conversation, Ria pressed a hand to her forehead and spoke.

"So, you're saying you are a Saintess Candidate, but you think God doesn't exist."

"Correct."

"But it's also true that you wanted me to get closer to the Church."

"Exactly right."

As I answered, I sat back down on the bed and crossed my arms.

"And the method you used to deepen my faith was badmouthing God in front of me."

"At least it's worked so far."

Strictly speaking, rather than for the sake of the other person's faith, I'd used it to get rid of someone who kept getting on my nerves.

I mean, even if someone normally has a bad relationship with their parents, if you curse those parents in front of them, the person ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠listening is bound to lose their temper. That's also why the phrase "you parentless bastard" works on both people who have parents and people who really don't.

Well, though it's also a fact that it doesn't work on someone who "thinks they don't exist." Same goes for someone so rational that they know the person doing the cursing is the pathetic one.

......Not that I'm saying I'm pathetic. Obviously.

"Why? If you hate the Church, you could just wait until you're old enough and leave. If you weren't Church-affiliated, you'd hear a lot less of that Saintess Candidate this and that. Well, considering the Church stuck you and me together, it seems like their goal is the same as yours, but if you're going to leave anyway, there's no reason for you to work so hard convincing me, is there?"

Ria tilted her head and asked.

"That's......."

I thought it over this way and that, and in the end let out a deep sigh.

"......Fine. Then I'll tell you. This is a very serious and important story about reality, so listen carefully. Don't laugh."

"......No, if I hear it and it's funny, I'm going to laugh."

"You're already thinking about laughing when someone's trying to talk seriously?"

"Whether it's serious or not is for me to judge."

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again.

Then I took a few breaths and spoke.

"Fine. Since things have come to this, there's no other way but to negotiate with you directly."

"You've been openly using 'you' with me for a while now. If you're going to follow the rules, shouldn't you be calling me Sister?"

"......Then I'll tell you."

When I spoke, ignoring Ria's words, Ria made a face like she was holding back laughter again.

It was a really infuriating face.

*

"......."

But when my story ended, Ria didn't laugh at all.

Not that she looked serious, either. It was more like, how should I put it.

A 'complicated' expression.

A face that said she couldn't tell whether I was running a con, being sincere, or just messing around.

To show her I meant it, I spoke with an endlessly serious expression.

"I mean it."

"So, you're saying there are several people waiting to confess to you the moment you undergo Laicization, and that you're staying inside this Church to avoid those confessions — that's the truth?"

"To be precise, seven people. And yes, I mean it."

Only after hearing my words did Ria's expression turn serious.

Seeing her face staring fixedly at me, I let out a long breath.

As expected, she's pretty and has a nice figure, so she understands.

"So, my proposal is—"

"On what basis?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, on what basis did you conclude that those seven people are waiting to confess to you?"

Chewing up my proposal mid-sentence, Ria looked at me and asked.

"Basis?"

"Yeah. Basis."

"You can't tell?"

"What do you mean, can't tell?"

"I'm asking if you can't tell by looking."

"......If I could tell, would I be asking?"

Ha.

I let out a hollow laugh. Ria's expression as she looked at me turned strange again. It looked exactly like the expression someone makes when looking at a sick person... Well, I wasn't sick, so I must have been reading her expression wrong. People's expressions varied, and everyone expressed themselves differently, after all.

I had no choice but to close my eyes and let out a big breath.

Then I extended the index fingers of both hands.

With those two fingers—

Tap.

I pointed at my own face.

"I,"

And I said, opening my eyes wide.

"Am pretty."

With a perfectly serious expression.

"......."

Ria, who had been staring at me silently for a while with an equally serious expression—

Smack.

Slapped her own forehead with her palm.

Huh.

That gesture is clearly something people do when they've seen something utterly absurd.

*

That weekend.

In this world's religion, the seven-day period no longer held any particular meaning, and so, strictly speaking, Sunday being a day of rest no longer carried any religious significance either.

But that didn't mean they could completely overturn a time-honored tradition passed down for thousands of years in a mere decade or two.

Besides, there were still quite a lot of people who associated that something up on high with the Christian God. It wasn't an interpretation the Church officially recognized, but they couldn't completely deny it either. They couldn't simply discard the billions of related believers in the world, after all.

It was best thought of as a very long-term process of observation and gradual integration. They were leaving the possibility open, too.

Worship every Sunday remained unchanged as well.

Poke.

For one thing, I did attend worship. More precisely, I took part in almost all religious activities.

It was like holding a memorial rite. Some people may genuinely believe their ancestral spirits come and eat the ritual food, but many others simply respect tradition and, for the household's well-being, follow along without making a fuss.

No matter how much of an Atheist you were, if you enrolled in a Christian university of your own accord, you couldn't exactly skip chapel, could you?

Well, it's not like I chose this life and ended up here, but since I'm eating and sleeping here, I'll at least follow the schedule — that was my thinking.

Poke. Poke.

"......What ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is it?"

Very quietly, I answered Ria, who was standing beside me and kept poking me in the side.

At my voice, the other nuns sitting around us glanced at me.

Up front, the priest was in the middle of sharing various good words, and in front of him were the faithful.

Even though the country now had a State Religion, church attendance wasn't mandatory. A weekend was still a weekend.

Devout people still came, but apparently their proportion wasn't much different from before the State Religion was established.

Sure, if they forced it, there'd be an uproar.

"Is the person you mentioned among them?"

"......There is one, but why?"

"Who?"

"......That skinny guy in the suit over there, third row."

Ria raised her head and checked the spot. The man turned his head slightly, met our eyes, and hurriedly looked forward again. Seeing that, Ria quietly opened her mouth.

"Let's see him after the sermon ends."

"See him after the sermon ends?"

There was no answer.

The priest's words were treated as a kind of lecture, so the nuns at the convent who were still in training had to attend.

Of course, they sat apart from the faithful....... Well, still, male parishioners weren't invisible, so it couldn't be helped that the nuns giggled and chatted.

The Mother Superior was glaring hard at those nuns, though—

Yikes.

A glance came this way too, and I quickly lowered my head.

No matter what, I don't want to get nagged. I'd won other things through my own struggles, but I'll pass on being nagged over unnecessary things.

I heard an enormous amount of it over the past fifteen years.

Fortunately, Ria didn't try to talk to me any further.

At least, not until the lecture ended.

*

"Hey, wait a minute!?"

But the moment the lecture ended, Ria grabbed one of my wrists and sprang up from her seat.

Seeing her drag me along toward where the faithful were, several nuns gasped and whispered.

"Sister!"

Naturally, the Mother Superior was horrified.

The priest, who had been leaving, also opened his eyes wide and looked this way.

I slapped at Ria's hand, but I was nowhere near strong enough to resist her well-trained strength.

"No, wait, this is against the rules—"

"No, you haven't followed the rules at all until now, so why?"

There are still lines, you lunatic!

Without any time for the people around us to intervene or anything else, I found myself standing in front of a skinny middle-aged man.

When two young nuns— one of them, no less, the daughter of an incredibly famous Hero— stood in front of him, the man blinked.

Well, though the problem wasn't just that they were famous, but that both of them were openly delinquent nuns.

When I shook my hand hard, Ria finally let go of me.

"Excuse us."

Unlike the rather rough way she'd dragged me over here, Ria greeted the man lightly in a comparatively polite voice.

"Ah, yes, Sister. It's a pleasure."

The man answered far more politely than expected, too.

"There's one thing I'd like to ask you."

"Ah, yes."

The man looked back and forth between the two of us with a baffled expression. I felt the blood draining from my face.

No, why is she—?

Was she like this in the original?

In the original, she was a relatively reckless character, and she was someone who nitpicked Church doctrine and frequently pissed off the Saintess. That was also why her father kept blocking her from leaving the cathedral.

But she hadn't gone this far—

"You kept looking back at this Sister today. I came over because I wondered if you had something you wanted to say. Brother, what is it you want to say so badly?"

"......."

I opened my mouth to try to make some excuse, but I couldn't say anything, just gaping like a fish.

What could anyone say in this situation......!

"Ah, yes......."

Visibly overwhelmed by the attention gathering around him, the man glanced at the people nearby. The faithful were already whispering among themselves.

No, even so.

The man reached into the inner pocket of his jacket.

Don't tell me,

Don't tell me—!

And what he pulled out was—

A wallet.

Taking a business card from the wallet, the man politely handed it to me with both hands.

Having accepted the card in a daze, I read its contents.

[Hunter Association 'Cheongsan'

Talent Recruitment Team Leader Kang Sang-cheol]

The luxurious card bore that name, and below it, in smaller print, were the association's address, the email of 'Team Leader Kang Sang-cheol,' and a cell phone number.

"Well, I didn't expect to be saying this in such a manner...... You're Sister Anna, correct? The one who is also a Saintess Candidate."

"......Uh, yes."

Too flustered to immediately deny the Saintess Candidate part, I ended up answering like that.

"But from what I've heard, it sounds like you'll be undergoing Laicization soon."

I had no idea where the word had leaked from, but it seemed he'd heard the news.

Well, this convent is a modern convent, and it's not just orphans like me here — there are also young ladies from quite famous families.

Even if names are hidden, there are already plenty of people like Ria who know everything.

Those nuns, even if not by phone, have family visits once a month and keep in touch by exchanging letters.

It must have leaked out mixed in with that information.

The blood that had drained from my face slowly began to return.

But this time, it seemed to be returning a bit excessively.

To the people around me, I probably looked bright red.

Ria was grinning at me.

"Even if you do not rise to the position of Saintess, I have heard about you healing wounded and sick people many times. If you plan to find work immediately after Laicization, please visit our association. We will provide all necessary facilities and equipment free of charge. Naturally, the salary as well—"

"Hey, that's against business ethics!"

But before the talent recruiter could even finish speaking, another man shot up from over there.

"We agreed to give her the card after she undergone Laicization!"

The man who shouted that was a bit older-looking than the skinny man in front of me, with a belly that bulged slightly even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through his suit coat.

That man, who came running with a briefcase in one hand, shoving his way through the faithful—

Poke. Poke.

Ria poked me in the side.

I felt like I knew without even looking at her face.

'Is this guy one of those stalkers you mentioned?'

Because that voice was already playing automatically inside my head.

Ignoring the grumbling of the faithful around him, the man who came running transformed into a polite attitude right in front of me and held out a business card.

[Hunter Association 'Paik & Park']

Both Cheongsan and Paik & Park were quite famous private Hunter Associations.

In terms of stability, they were closer to 'corporations,' somewhat less secure than places directly registered with the state, but if you had the ability, you could probably work there for a long, long time without getting fired.

"......."

But I couldn't give either man a proper answer.

In fact, five more people came huffing toward me after that, but by then the Mother Superior was already dragging me and Ria away to the back.

Listening to the whispering around me, I thought.

Ah, what now. No matter how friendless I am, there are a ton of kids whose faces I have to see every day.

What do I do starting tomorrow.

.......

Should I just drop everything and undergo Laicization?