Chapter 3 - Domain Expansion
Domain Expansion
Translator : Elizabeth
The Convent Director.
The person in total charge of the Cathedral Church’s convent where Saintess Candidates eat, sleep, and live; a being like a mother to the nuns.
Convent Director Mariana had a terrible headache.
The reason for the headache was obvious.
The Saintess Appointment Ceremony held today between the Dawnbringer Royal Family and the Church.
Just recalling that event again made her head throb.
“Haa, Saintess…… You are truly, as a person…….”
It was inevitable.
Originally, a Saintess is a being held sacred not only by the Church and the Royal Family but by all people, embracing everyone warmly with a beauty bordering on awe.
It goes without saying that she must be reverent.
She must naturally possess dignity befitting that station, surpassing even that of nobility.
The Saintess, too, had to be deeply aware that she was such a being, and there could not be even a slight mistake in her conduct.
Of course, considering she is still a young girl who has just awakened as a Saintess.
Everyone possessed the virtue to generously overlook the cute immaturity of that age, thinking of the expectations for the future and the days to come.
Whether it was the Royal Family or the nobles gathered there.
Even the Church officials who knew her past barbarities inside out.
But even so.
There is such a thing as a line.
“……Haa, haaaa…… Mr. King? Hahaha…… Saintess, yes? What do you mean ‘Mr. King’, ‘Mr. King’……! Is that a remark a person who has become a Saintess dares to tease the head of the Royal Family, who inherits the blood of the Hero, with?!!”
“Ouch?! Oww-ow-ow-ow! I-It hurts! It huuuurts, Director~!”
Louise was undergoing the punishment of the temples by the Convent Director.
The Convent Director’s two fists ravaged Louise’s temples like drills, and Louise could only flail about with a facial expression that was half-crying, half-laughing.
On top of that, although there was a happening just now, she had ultimately been acknowledged anyway; yet she possessed absolutely none of the dignity or grace she should show as a Saintess.
“It wasn’t just during the appointment ceremony! Alice Luminous, who was Saintess Candidate Number 19—I heard her broken ribs were all due to your schemes and plots!!”
“Oww-ow-ow! Th-That was probably, with a 95% confidence interval probability, because that Elnas or whatever-her-name-is tripped on the stairs on her own accord—Oww-ow?!”
“I have already received a full confession from Miss Mary, who used the same room as you when you were a candidate! That before you left the convent, on the night before, you secretly changed the height of the stairs Miss Alice frequently uses at will! I have already heard everything!!”
“Wow, as expected! Isn’t that really fascinating? It’s one of the interesting stories about stairs, but as already proven by Elnas or whatever, there is dark research that says most people will trip if there is a difference of just 2mm in the stair height—Oww-ow-ow-ow?!!”
“……Louise, you are truly!!”
Saintess Candidate Number 116, Louise.
And now, she was no longer a candidate, but a girl who had undeniably awakened as a real Saintess.
From the moment she first came to the convent, and even now that she had become a Saintess, Louise was still the convent’s problem child.
In theology class, she would often doze off, saying it was boring every time.
One day, when they thought she was finally repenting and praying faithfully,
If one listened closely, she was merely muttering strange words they had never heard before, such as 'Schrödinger', 'Uncertainty', or 'Electromagnetic Vacuum Fluctuations'.
When she was made to copy the Bible as punishment,
She wrote characters and numbers that no one had ever seen anywhere instead of the copy.
And today, having awakened as a Saintess, at the appointment ceremony,
In addition to the rudeness of calling the King of the Dawnbringer Kingdom "Mr. King",
She even declared she would disassemble the bestowed Saintess’s Staff to use for a strange experiment.
If this Saintess isn’t a problem child, then what on earth is she?
If one were to say more, what had been mentioned so far was so problematic that it wouldn't even amount to the dirt under a fingernail.
“Haa…… Blasphemy stating that God is like a demon playing dice is basic; you often distort the words of God and the Goddess with bizarre arguments and logic at will, and for someone who doesn’t show even a speck of faith, to think you are a Saintess…….”
Looking back at the records one by one like this,
It was not incomprehensible that other candidates had bullied her under the pretext of purification, claiming she was possessed by a demon.
“Do you truly have the self-awareness that you are a Saintess?!! Louise!!”
“Oww-ow…… Of course!”
Saintess Louise, more naturally than any other Saintess Candidate,
Without reciting a single word of prayer, used healing magic on her own temples,
And clenched one hand into a fist! She answered as if asserting strongly.
“I’m telling you, there is definitely no one else but me, across my previous life, present life, and the distant past and future combined, who follows and explores God’s truth as faithfully as I do, and seeks to uncover the true meaning of His will and God’s axioms contained in nature! Ahaha~♬”
Twirl~
Louise made her brilliant ceremonial Saintess robes dance on the spot.
“This world spun by God! And the past, present, and future across this world and the other world! This universe that exists as a myriad continuum through the relativity of simultaneity!”
The Saintess’s eyes shone more brilliantly than ever before, containing the universe.
“The truth of all creation! The truly human arrogance of wanting to know, understand, and read that truth solely through paper, pen, and the limited observations allowed to humans called experiments!”
—Voooom.
The universe Louise thought of and imagined naturally became a calculation,
And the sun and moon formed of light around her.
Planets and stars.
And as stars and nebulae unfolded in all directions,
A Domain was expanded.
It was a simplified outer space that Louise understood.
An example drawn with light, compressing that truth.
A virtuality and fantasy eroding reality.
A Grand Magic that only the Archmage Merlin, a hero of the Great War 500 years ago and a companion of the Hero of that time, was capable of.
And regarding which only unclear rumors were passed down that his disciple, Aldoras, had barely reached that stage in the present day.
The state of a Unique Domain.
“……?!!”
At the Saintess’s Domain unfolding before her eyes, Convent Director Mariana thought her heart would stop for a moment.
Not as a metaphor, but literally.
Although it was only for a fleeting instant.
Clearly,
Just a moment ago,
Right now.
The air had disappeared from this vicinity.
“Aha~♪ Ahahaha~♬”
Saintess Louise, without even realizing she had unconsciously deployed her own Unique Domain in an instant.
Still praised and sang hymns within her ecstasy.
“The world to enjoy! This universe! This place where we are setting foot right now, this other world where something called magic exists! There is truly a tremendous amount for us humans to research, more than in any other world!!”
—Shhh.
The group of lights that had been in charge of the sun, moon, stars, and planets.
They all decomposed into brilliant golden dust and scattered.
As if blessing the Saintess who was spreading her arms wide in the center of it all, golden snow fell.
“Therefore, that very fact! The very proposition that I exist here is truly a miracle granted by God!!”
“…….”
Saintess Louise’s round of cosmic speech finally ended.
Thinking that the Saintess’s Domain she had just witnessed firsthand was the most certain proof of all that Louise was a Saintess,
Convent Director Mariana had no choice but to let out a sigh heavily steeped in a bitter smile.
“……Why did you have to show something of that magnitude only when I was present…… If you had shown it during the appointment ceremony, the situation would have been much better than now…….”
“Hm? Yes?”
Louise tilted her head like a squirrel, seemingly unaware of the eccentric behavior and miracle she had just performed herself.
Then, soon puffing up both her cheeks like a squirrel with its mouth full of acorns, she complained.
“Well~ Director, you told me to refrain from useless talk~ So I was keeping my mouth shut and just smiling quietly somehow until that last mistake~ Hmph, hmph~!”
“What is that strange expression again…… Please, have some self-awareness as a Saintess, Saintess.”
Convent Director Mariana shook her head side to side.
“Considering the position you have within the convent and the Church, Saintess, and your heretical nature as a Saintess which was almost half…… no, completely discovered this time, things have reached a point where it is irreversible no matter what we do now.”
She decided to continue with the words of request she had intended to say at the beginning.
“You are aware of that much, right?”
“Yep! No, yes! Because for a genius like me, being a jagged stone is a standard specification!”
“Haa…… Anyway, therefore, at the Academy, you must necessarily be aware of and strictly observe the following three points.”
“At the Academy? Three things?”
“Yes, three things.”
—First.
“The reason you, having become a Saintess, must go to the Academy instead of immediately touring the world is due to a promise and contract with the Church that has continued from the Dawnbringer Royal Family, the family inheriting the blood of the Hero, since 500 years ago.”
“Promise~ Contraaact~ Yes, yes. And so?”
“……Therefore, please maintain a good relationship with the First Crown Prince who will be enrolling with you this year. It is known that he already has a fiancée, but if the First Crown Prince awakens as the Hero, you will have to keep the possibility of even marriage with him in mind.”
“Eww, marriaaage~? Well…… I know it would be a massive loss for humanity if the superior genius DNA like mine were to end only in my generation…….”
Louise pointlessly stroked her lower abdomen and lifted her head to ask.
“So, that person called the Crown Prince, is he smart? What’s his IQ? Even if I don’t hope for up to 180, he needs to surpass at least 150 to fill my castle~♬” (Note: "fill my castle" is a localized idiom for 'satisfy me' or 'meet my standards').
“……I dare not grasp the Saintess’s divine language regarding what ‘IQ’ is, but anyway, please judge the personal parts for yourself when you meet at the Academy. In short, whether he awakens as a Hero or not is the most important thing.”
—And, second.
“As long as you are enrolled in the Academy as a Saintess, considering the prestige of the Church, you must not allow a single casualty during your enrollment period. Perhaps if it were a commoner enrollee, it might be different, but attend with the mindset that you are responsible for the lives of not only the Royal Family but also influential nobles.”
“Mmm~ If it were biological physics, I might know, but I’m hopeless at medicine, so I haven’t properly investigated healing magic yet…….”
“Do it somehow. Since you have awakened as a Saintess, the only way our Cathedral Church side can help you is with the records of past Saintesses. We will move them to your dormitory and villa together on the day of your Academy admission, so you must do it yourself somehow.”
“Ugh…… Okay~ If the Director says so to that extent, it’s not my taste, but I guess I’ll have to newly establish Mana Biological Physics…….”
—Then lastly, third.
“Finally, the fact that you have awakened as a Saintess is synonymous with the saying that a crisis will soon befall our human world. According to the prophecy of the Archmage Merlin from 500 years ago, the time when the Demon God’s seal will be broken and the time according to the recent oracle of the Cathedral are gradually narrowing the error margin.”
“Demon God?”
“Yes, the Demon God. In other words, that is likely the reason why you, the convent’s problem child, were chosen by the Goddess as the Saintess. It must be so. If not…… Phew, I will not add unnecessary remarks.”
“Mmm, I roughly get it. To summarize: Crown Prince IQ, everyone’s Medic, and Final Boss Demon God. Yep! I have understood it properly! Honestly, I’m not really that interested, but since it’s homework given by the Director!”
“Haa…….”
Convent Director Mariana felt her head starting to ache already at the mess the Saintess would cause at the Academy, which was clearly visible to her eyes.
But she couldn’t turn back the Saintess Appointment Ceremony now.
Even if she was a Saintess whose head was heresy itself.
The qualifications as a Saintess that Louise had shown just now as the remnants of the Domain Magic were undeniably the realest of the real.
Anyway,
The relationship between the Dawnbringer Royal Family and the Cathedral Church, which is complicated in many ways,
The precarious tightrope walking with influential noble families for sponsorship and influence,
The scheduled resurrection of the Demon God, which no one knows when exactly but is practically confirmed, and the increase in demon activities due to this.
We had no choice but to trust that this heretical Saintess understood the meaning and role of this Saintess Appointment Ceremony, which is entangled with various political and periodic backgrounds, with that head of hers that she calls a genius.
Like that,
“……Anyway, the long story ends here. And, Saintess.”
“Hm?”
“Congratulations on your Academy admission. May only the Goddess’s blessings be full on the path you will walk.”
“Yep!!”
The Academy life of the Heretical Physics Saintess Louise had begun.