The Saint and the Hero at the Academy
The following is an academy setting. A versatile backdrop that features a wide variety of characters around the same age, regardless of whether the story leans toward male-oriented or female-oriented narratives. However, the academy here was quite different from the usual.
In typical stories, an academy was a place where young men and women of all social standings gathered to spark every kind of drama imaginable. Here, though, it served as a venue for high-ranking children of various nations to engage in socializing and diplomacy for the sake of international harmony. Even so, its importance was relatively low compared to other institutions with similar roles. As a result, most of the students were second or third sons from their families—those without any particular responsibilities back home. Since the boys were mostly spares, the girls naturally ended up being second or third daughters as well.
But this year’s intake was different.
“The rumor that the Saintess and the Hero would be attending spread quickly, so many eldest sons and daughters from prestigious families across the nations have arrived.”
Incidentally, the headmaster was the younger brother of the head of a massive trading company that did business with every nation in the world—a rarity in this era. I’d heard that power was rarely shared even between parents and children, so I wondered if merchant families operated differently here. It turned out the brother had simply poured a huge amount of capital into founding this academy and installed his otherwise useless sibling as headmaster to exert influence.
“How could this possibly be thanks to me? It’s all because of the headmaster, who has devoted himself to the academy for so long.”
“Haha, Your Holiness’s words touch my heart and bring me great comfort. As expected of the Saintess.”
Whether the academy itself mattered less than keeping the Crown Prince of Brien in check, or whether the headmaster needed to secure influence here to impress his older brother and secure his own future, there was no reason for us to be hostile. Our conversation flowed quite amicably.
What I fundamentally wanted from the headmaster was a connection to the trading company run by his brother. Normally, merchants and the Church wouldn’t form such a friendly alliance easily, but right now we needed to stand against secular powers. The Church had to build its own economic strength to keep secular authorities in check, and the merchants needed power beyond mere money to escape the endless exploitation by nobles and royals.
“Hmm. The company your brother belongs to… it was the Iron Alliance, wasn’t it?”
“Y-yes, that’s correct, Hero.”
The Iron Alliance. Even hearing it again, I had to admit they’d chosen an impressively strong-sounding name. Originally it had been a coalition of merchant groups dealing in iron ore, ingots, and iron goods. But it had grown rapidly and now spanned the entire world, handling transportation, finance, and pretty much any profitable venture short of outright loan sharking.
Yes. Anything that made money, they did it.
“I once raided a small market of theirs. It was in the brutal southern mountains along the Brien-Tel’laia border—extremely rough terrain. Honestly, at first I thought it was just a bandit hideout some thugs had thrown together.”
“U-um…”
The reason the Iron Alliance had pinged on the Hero’s radar of justice was exactly that. When you dealt in everything, this sort of thing was bound to happen.
“They were selling some very interesting things there. Humans, drugs… and most of all, they were selling elves.”
“Oh, that’s truly fascinating, just as Zieg said. I’ve never heard anything like that from the Church. What about you, Headmaster? Did you know about this?”
“N-no, not at all! E-elves? Slave trading? I truly know nothing about it! M-my brother wouldn’t know either! I’m certain of it! It must have been the work of some deviant within the Alliance! I will investigate thoroughly and have them expelled!”
I wondered how much of that was true. In ordinary politics, of course, the truth itself didn’t matter. What mattered far more was how far those in power could bend that truth to their will. And I could bend it as much as I wanted.
What a golden opportunity to saddle the Iron Alliance with debt and make use of them. How tremendously helpful this would be for the Church’s economic power.
Unfortunately for the headmaster, the Hero—Ziegfried—was sitting right here with us.
“My strength wasn’t enough to subdue all the evil in that place, so I withdrew. But I did obtain solid information. The current leadership of the Iron Alliance is deeply involved. It wasn’t just the branches—the roots themselves were rotten.”
He seemed to possess the abilities a Hero needed, and his sense of justice was clearly impeccable. Still, at this age, some immaturity in these matters was inevitable. But that very innocence was precisely why people trusted him as the Hero. Moreover, the fact that he could accurately gauge his own limits, gather information when things got difficult, and then retreat showed remarkable composure and patience. At least, that was my assessment.
“T-that is… actually, I didn’t mean to go quite that far…”
“By now, the captain of the Freewind Knights should have set out with the royal knights of Brien Kingdom. I hope the matter can be settled without too much chaos.”
“Ah, y-yes… Th-thank you. In that case, I suddenly have some urgent correspondence to attend to, so if you’ll excuse me…”
And so, on the very first day, the Hero accomplished the great feat of chasing the headmaster out of the room.
This guy… of course a Hero would be like this, but he’s even more extraordinary than I expected. Still, it was a pretty good opportunity, and I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of regret that it had been ruined so easily.
The Hero had no idea what I was thinking, but an interruption was still an interruption. Of course, having learned a few things as the Saintess since arriving here—and having gained some insights through careful consideration—I wasn’t about to just sit there lamenting the lost chance.
“The next headmaster will come from the Iron Alliance anyway.”
“…How can that be? The Iron Alliance sold elves as slaves. That alone is enough to justify dissolving the entire organization.”
“I know. I know that. But they’re far too big to collapse over this. They’ll thrash around desperately to survive, and many nations around the world will gladly help them do it.”
“Then… is the Iron Alliance going to escape any real punishment?”
“The current leader will step down. A few high-ranking executives as well. Among the mid-to-low ranks, quite a few will probably hang. It’s elf trafficking, after all—that much is the bare minimum. Depending on how long and how extensively they’ve been doing it, even some senior executives might end up on the gallows.”
“But the leader?”
“I told you, he’ll step down quietly. And while he’s at it, he’ll even name his own successor.”
This was reality. From what I’d learned about this world—often at the expense of proper etiquette—the Iron Alliance was simply too massive for the kind of clean punishment Zieg wanted. The elves would probably be satisfied just watching a long line of human necks swing from ropes.
When Zieg heard my words, spoken with considerable certainty, the refreshing confidence he’d shown earlier vanished. He hung his head, looking utterly dejected, as if it had all been an act.
I understood. He must have thought he’d blown it completely. After all, he’d mobilized the royal knights of Brien Kingdom—his own home country, and the very nation where I had been announced as the Saintess.
“In the end… the only option is to judge them myself.”
That conclusion made sense too. The Hero’s specialty was raw power; what other answer could he possibly reach? In fact, that was exactly how a Hero should behave—gathering a small group of trustworthy, skilled individuals and crushing every evil they could reach with sheer force.
Fortunately for the Hero, however, there was someone in this room who could offer him another choice.
And who might that be?
“There is another way.”
“Please, tell me, Saintess.”
Hmm. I could just tell him outright, but… it wouldn’t hurt to extract a small benefit here. Obviously not a financial one. What kind of economic gain could I possibly wring out of the Hero, of all people?
“Lucia.”
“Yes?”
“Call me Lucia. From now on. If you promise to call me that, I’ll tell you, Zieg.”
“Now that you mention it, you called me Zieg earlier as well…”
“Lu. Ci. A.”
It was best to buy the Hero’s favor while the opportunity was there. I’d already used my looks once before, so there was no reason I couldn’t do it again. After all, once people started calling each other by name in that intimate way, they grew close quickly even without physical contact. That was why they were called pet names.
“Please… tell me, Lu… Lucia…”
See? The same Hero who had been ruthlessly cornering the headmaster moments ago was now blushing bright red just because I was acting like this.
If our genders had been reversed, I would have seriously considered it. If I had been the male Saint and he the female Hero, it would have been a rather fitting pair, at least in terms of status.
“I’m acquainted with Baron Freewind. And I get along quite well with His Majesty William IV. So here’s what I’m thinking—we could swallow the Iron Alliance whole.”
“Swallow it? The entire Iron Alliance?”
“More precisely, we’d only swallow the leadership. We offer the current leader better terms for stepping down, and in exchange install someone who listens more closely to Brien Kingdom as the next leader.”
This could work. The Iron Alliance might call itself an alliance, but its internal bonds were surprisingly loose. There were plenty of candidates for the leadership position internally. If we made it a major incident that could actually dismantle the organization, we could easily seat whoever we wanted.
A loose alliance like this would leave the new leader and the remaining factions too busy fighting over the power vacuum left by the old leader and his faction to cause much trouble. That was simply how merchants operated.
“Then… will anything actually change? Won’t it just be a different face at the top?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? I said we would swallow the Iron Alliance. Brien Kingdom will be part of it, and the other nations will probably take some shares, but the actual control will be in our hands, Zieg.”
We were sitting side by side, opposite where the headmaster had been. I leaned closer to him, lowering my voice to a whisper.
“Just imagine it. We uncover information about the Iron Alliance’s crimes and the truly vile people connected to them—from the inside. Then we make sure they all pay for what they’ve done.”
Of course, I’d have to make sure the people I classified as “on our side” didn’t become targets. It wouldn’t be easy, but with my current position and with the Hero, it was entirely possible.
“Imagine it, Zieg. You and I together, carrying out justice from the shadows and eradicating such evils. How many times have you sweated and struggled, achieved results that astonished everyone, yet still felt unsatisfied? From now on, it will be much easier—and far more satisfying, don’t you think?”
There was no lie in my words. It still wouldn’t be perfect. It certainly wouldn’t be as easy as swimming with the current. But compared to what the Hero had experienced over the past year or so, it would be far simpler and more immediate.
It was easy to layer instrumental empathy on top of that. I genuinely disliked slavery and narcotics, and I had no desire to engage in elf trafficking—the kind of act that practically screamed “let’s start a war with the elves.”
“Saintess… you…”
“Lucia.”
“…Lucia is guaranteeing this?”
“Of course. I’ll stake my name on it. Slavery, drugs—at least within the scope that Zieg and I can control, they will be completely eradicated.”
“And outside that scope?”
His face was flushed scarlet and his eyes were trembling, yet he still maintained that sharp edge. It was rather impressive. I’d felt it several times now—he was clearly far from an ordinary sixteen-year-old.
“We can’t do anything about it right away, but we can gradually bring it under our control, can’t we? If you ever feel that even I am no different from the rest, you can act differently at any time. Though I doubt that will happen.”
Having said that, I offered him the gentle smile and soft eye-curving expression I was slowly getting used to. I leaned back, putting a little distance between us.
This is more fun than I expected. I shouldn’t get too carried away just because I’ve grown fond of using this Saintess body, though.
“…Understood. As the Hero, what should I do? Lucia?”
At his question, my smile deepened without me realizing it.
Good. This was turning out far better than trying to seize a weakness from the start.