The Hero, Louis
The Hero, Louis. My one and only disciple. Nearly twenty years had passed since I last saw him, yet that handsome rascal’s face had barely changed, though time had left its subtle mark. He had grown taller, that much was certain. The boy who once looked up to me now towered over me so completely that I had to crane my neck. His build had expanded until I felt positively tiny beside him.
…Though, to be fair, I really was small now. Or should I say, I had grown in other places?
I cupped my breasts from underneath, testing their weight. Soft, yet heavy. Among every woman here, mine were the most abundantly endowed. The other nuns often stole envious glances, but… was this truly something to envy? Large breasts offered no advantages at all. They bounced and swayed with every step, making even walking a nuisance. I had once gotten stuck trying to slip through a narrow gap, my chest literally blocking the way. They were no different from the iron balls chained to a prisoner’s ankles.
Still, if I had to name one good thing about them, it was the plush, yielding texture. Kneading them mindlessly while lost in thought brought a strange sense of mental relief.
Don’t get any strange ideas. It’s my body. What’s wrong with touching my own body?
“Hello?”
I was still lightly squeezing with my right hand when Louis, who had been surrounded by nuns and looking rather troubled, suddenly stood before me.
“Eek—uh, ahem! Ahem!”
I snatched my hand away from my chest and cleared my throat loudly.
“Are you Elia?”
My face burned. He hadn’t seen that, had he? I hadn’t done anything wrong, yet I felt strangely guilty.
“…Yes.”
I stood demurely and gave a small nod. I never imagined our reunion would happen like this. I had wanted to make a cool, dramatic entrance on some battlefield. Instead, here I was—my disciple catching his master groping her own chest. It was probably best to keep my identity hidden for the rest of my life.
“Who are you?”
I pretended ignorance. Knowing of the Hero’s existence didn’t mean one would recognize his face. In this remote village, how would I ever have met the Hero? He appeared in newspapers now and then, but I acted as if I had never seen him before.
“Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.”
Louis laughed brightly.
“My name is Louis. I serve as Commander of the Imperial Knight Order and also as the Hero.”
Isn’t it usually the other way around? He’s the Hero who also happens to command the Order. I swallowed the habitual retort.
Louis offered his hand for a handshake.
“…I’m Elia.”
I accepted. The moment our hands met, Louis began curiously kneading my palm.
“Wait…! What do you think you’re doing?!”
The sticky, almost perverted touch made me yank my hand back.
“It’s fascinating.”
“What is?”
“Your palm doesn’t have a single callus.”
Calluses—the very symbol of training. Proper sword practice naturally builds thick, hardened skin on both palms. Yet any calluses that tried to form on this body simply vanished. This physique rejected anything impure. It had been that way ever since my Holy Power began to manifest in earnest. Minor wounds healed overnight without any magic at all. As a result, my body didn’t feel like a warrior’s in the slightest.
“Your hands are as soft as a baby’s.”
I looked down at Louis. Hey now! I had never raised my disciple to become some flirt who sweet-talked nuns.
“What is this all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s just surprising.”
“So what exactly is surprising?”
“A Holy Knight told me you possess incredible swordsmanship.”
One face immediately came to mind. The Holy Kingdom truly was persistent. When the Holy Knight failed, they sent the Hero instead? Though perhaps the Hero was the better option.
“Yet there isn’t a single trace of training on you?”
Louis’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. Heh, as expected of my disciple. That intense interest in anything related to swordsmanship made it feel like I was staring at my old self.
“……Did you come here looking for me?”
Enough idle chatter. Time to get to the point. It was good to see him—truly good—but this wasn’t the place to show it.
“That’s right.”
“For what reason?”
“Come with me to the Holy Kingdom.”
“I must decline.”
Just as I expected. If they had settled it with a duel, they should have honored the result, that Holy Knight bastard. Instead they dragged the Hero all the way out here to force me back. How persistent.
Maybe I should just go and prove I’m not the Saintess? But I felt uneasy. What if I truly possessed the qualities to become one?
“Why?”
“Because I intend to join the Imperial Army.”
The listening nuns began to murmur among themselves. Even if they hadn’t expected me to become the Saintess, they had clearly assumed I would walk the path of a nun. I had never told them about my plans to join the Imperial forces. There had been no need.
“Is that so?”
Louis smiled gently.
“Then this time, I’ll be the one to decline.”
“Pardon?”
“By the authority of the Knight Order Commander, I reject your application to join.”
Though his tone was courteous, the meaning was anything but. This ungrateful brat? He must have fallen in with bad company. The Louis I knew was not this sly.
“Can the Hero even do that?”
Louis smiled and gave a small shrug.
“There’s no reason I can’t.”
“And you think I’ll simply follow you to the Holy Kingdom after that?”
“This is me giving you a chance.”
“What chance?”
“The chance to come along obediently before the Pope or the Emperor decides to use force.”
“Is that a threat?”
Louis merely shrugged again, not bothering to deny it.
“Haa……”
I sighed and swept my hair back. Honestly. Every single one of them. No one wanted to leave me in peace. I wasn’t even trying to disappear into the underworld—I simply wanted to become a knight and defeat the Demon King’s army. Was that truly something worth obstructing so fiercely?
Then a single thought flashed through my mind.
…Had something happened to the Saintess?
I recalled the Saintess I had last seen lying in her sickbed. She had been twenty at the time. By now she would be around forty—still in her prime. If the position of Saintess was vacant, that would explain their obsession with finding candidates. I couldn’t understand why the Holy Kingdom was so fixated otherwise.
Wait… vacant?
Now that I thought about it, they had mentioned a divine oracle had descended. If something had happened to the Saintess and the seat was empty, both the oracle and their obsession with me made sense.
Nothing official had been announced yet. If the Saintess had died, I would have heard. But I had never caught even a whisper about it.
“You look like you’ve realized something?”
I widened my eyes.
“Probably… that’s it.”
Louis wore a bitter smile. That confirmed it. Something had happened to the Saintess. She had either died or come close to death.
“Could we speak privately over there for a moment?”
“Of course.”
We walked to the convent’s rear garden.
“Catch.”
The moment we arrived, Louis tossed a sword toward me. Two blades hung at his waist. One was the Hero’s Holy Sword. The other was an ordinary iron blade. The one he threw me was the Holy Sword.
“What is this suddenly?”
I had been about to ask about the Saintess.
“A duel. You settled the last matter with a duel as well, didn’t you?”
Louis drew his sword. A well-polished iron blade. It was the very sword I had given him before I died. The way it caught the sky and gleamed blue told me how meticulously he had cared for it.
“If I win, you grant my request. If you win, I’ll grant yours.”
Heh. The boy had grown bold. The coward who once couldn’t even utter the word “duel” was now proposing one.
“…Very well.”
There was no reason to refuse. This was simpler for me too. Better to cross blades once than argue a hundred times. Besides, I was curious how much this disciple of mine had grown after so long.
“Before that, switch swords with me.”
“Why?”
“That one feels more comfortable.”
“A true swordsman does not blame his weapon.”
“I’m not blaming it. I simply want to use that sword.”
“Sorry, but this blade is precious to me. I can’t lend it out casually.”
You little… A warmth bloomed in my chest. It was oddly touching.
“The Holy Sword is fine, then?”
I drew the blade from its sheath. An iron sword with a soft golden luster. It looked ordinary, but in the Hero’s hands it would reveal its true sacred nature.
“How did you know that was the Holy Sword?”
Oops. Ordinary people couldn’t distinguish the Holy Sword. Normally one would assume the “precious blade” the Hero mentioned was the Holy Sword. Yet I had confidently declared the one in my hand to be it.
“Uh… um… well……”
Louis stared at me with wide, round eyes.
“Ah! This mark! I knew because of the mark on the sheath.”
I lifted the sheath. On one side of the white scabbard, Louis’s name had been carved in crooked letters. I had engraved it with a dagger so the forgetful boy wouldn’t lose his sword. The cardinals had scolded me back then, asking what if it damaged the Holy Sword. Hehehe.
“……”
Louis’s eyes grew even larger. Oh no. I had slipped up. A name on the sheath didn’t prove it was the Holy Sword. Besides, the engraving had faded over the years until it looked like nothing more than faint scratches.
“Enough talk. Let’s begin.”
I raised the sword.
“Huh…?”
“The first to draw blood wins.”
Let’s finish this quickly. At this rate I would be exposed.
I took a slow breath through my teeth and settled into stance.
“————?!”
It had been so long. The day had finally come when I faced this disciple with blades once more. A smile rose to my lips.
I attacked without hesitation. No mercy. I drew the sword back toward my chest and thrust it forward.
-Slice!
I cut into Louis’s side.
“……Eh?”
I stood in place, blinking. The duel was over. I had drawn first blood, so it was my victory. But this wasn’t right…? This bastard couldn’t even react to that? Instead of progressing, his skills had regressed. I looked up at him.
Louis was staring down at me with a stunned expression.
“Are you joking right now?”
I would have to scold him properly. That was when a single tear slid down Louis’s cheek.
“Eh? Y-you’re crying?”
Wait, was he crying because I cut his side? Oh dear, what a troublesome disciple. Just how much had he neglected his training while I was gone?
But the reaction Louis showed next was something I could never have imagined.
“……Master?”