The Saintess Arrives
Dairos Academy had always been a place where incidents and accidents never ceased, but lately things had grown far worse. Or rather, one could predict they would. After poring over the incident logs that recorded every mishap at the academy, Yuri was certain of it.
"Even last year there were quite a few large and small accidents recorded…"
Whether by coincidence or divine providence, not a single major incident had been logged this year. The records were so sparse that the only entry was something trivial like an art department student tripping while walking and breaking an arm. That absurd lack of entries was itself proof supporting Yuri's hypothesis: something at the academy was being deliberately concealed.
"There's no reason for the records to be this empty only this year. This must be…"
"Ah, Yuri!"
While Yuri was scanning the archives, someone called her name and came running over. Without flinching, she calmly slid the book she'd been reading back into the shelf and turned toward the voice.
"……Sera."
"What are you doing here?"
"What about you?"
"Me? I was just running an errand the headmaster asked me to do."
"—The headmaster asked you?"
Yuri's eyes sparkled at those words. Sera was the headmaster's trusted genius mage, second only to Yuri herself in the magic department. For her to personally receive a task from the headmaster…
"Suspicious……"
A strong whiff of something fishy hung in the air. Approaching Sera, Yuri eyed the document envelope in her hands with interest.
"What's that?"
"Hehe, it's a secret!"
"Since when do we keep secrets from each other?"
"Huh, wha—? When did we ever get that close…?"
Sera's bewilderment wasn't because she didn't consider Yuri a friend, but because this was the first time Yuri had ever acted so friendly. Ignoring the flustered Sera, Yuri smoothly snatched the documents from her hands as if they had always belonged to her.
"Ah, no!"
Too late, Sera snapped back to her senses and tried to reclaim the papers, but her sluggish movements couldn't possibly match Yuri's. Especially not when compared to Yuri, whose movements were aided by the inertia of her ample chest—something Sera had no equivalent for.
"Hmm……"
At a glance, the documents the headmaster had given seemed perfectly ordinary. Even if Sera had secretly opened them out of curiosity, she wouldn't have found anything strange. But Yuri, who knew the full story, could roughly guess what they meant.
"Destruction of the academy's rear hill due to magic experiments…?"
That couldn't be right. As the top student of the magic department, Yuri knew for certain that no magic experiments had taken place recently. No mages were conducting research without classes, and it was absurd to think the headmaster—busy with academy management—would be performing experiments. The documents themselves were a fabricated mess.
"What are you doing! Give them back!"
While Yuri was reading, Sera snatched the documents back. Still holding nothing, Yuri stared at Sera thoughtfully.
Now that she thought about it, there was something odd about this woman too. It wasn't strange that she had secrets, but the extent of them was suspicious. Not only had she discovered a hidden location within the sleeping academy where Double Casting was used—a technique even the headmaster didn't know about—but she'd also claimed to have learned it from the headmaster.
"Sera."
"……Even if you stare like that, I won't show you. This was entrusted to me by the headmaster."
"Do you know anything about Aria?"
"Aria? Yeah, I know her."
"How much?"
"How much…? That's a weird question. I know pretty much everything about her. Why?"
As expected. There shouldn't have been much contact between Sera and Aria, yet she spoke as if they were close friends. In that case—
Yuri carefully asked what she'd been wondering.
"—Do you also know what kind of ability she has?"
"Of course she— She doesn't have any abilities, does she?"
When Sera tilted her head in confusion, Yuri shook her head as if to say "I knew it" and left the archives. Watching Yuri walk away, Sera frowned as though she'd just seen something bizarre.
"……Huh?"
The next moment, Sera realized something strange. Aria supposedly had no abilities. So why did she remember her at all? After a moment's thought, Sera decided it probably wasn't important and brushed it off.
"Well, she's pretty, so maybe that's why I remember her～."
At that moment, the fact that Dairos Academy was a romance game aimed at women—and thus there was no reason for her, a female character, to remember Aria—was unconsciously ignored.
"O-Ooh— Saintess……!"
"It's been a while, apprentice believers. Have you been offering your prayers properly?"
The Saintess had descended upon the academy. Though the believers had already been informed of her arrival, the shock was no less intense. Not a bishop or cardinal, but the Saintess herself had come? And to an academy that merely sent apprentice believers for education? It was unthinkable, and they couldn't begin to guess what the Church had been thinking when it permitted this.
"Yeeees! I even offered prayers for three hours this morning…!"
"Time isn't what matters. As long as you don't feel ashamed before yourself, that's enough."
"Aaah, I'm sorry… I didn't know that…"
Yet priests were people who believed in phenomena and existences beyond understanding. Just as they blindly believed in a god whose existence was uncertain, they simply rejoiced at the fact that the Saintess had descended here. Seeing the priests welcoming her so purely, the Saintess also showed her joy.
"Everyone, there is something only you can do for me."
"Is that true!? Saintess!?"
"Yes, I have a favor to ask of you all."
As the apprentice believers' eyes sparkled, the Saintess held out the portrait she had prepared and spoke.
"Is there someone in the academy who looks like this?"
"Just a moment…… Hmm."
The believers took the drawing from the Saintess and began examining it closely. Short hair, large eyes, a straight nose, and glossy lips. It was the face of a typical handsome man. They wondered if someone this good-looking even existed at the academy.
"Who is this person……"
"He is the protagonist of the oracle given by Him. He is the one who will fight for humanity, so please find him for me."
"Ah—! Understood!"
At the mention of the oracle's protagonist, the believers grew excited. It felt as though they had become prophets delivering God's word. Leaving the believers who rushed off to become prophets faster than anyone else, the Saintess, Lagrisha, slowly began walking through the academy.
Inside the academy during class hours, not a single person turned to look at her. For someone who had always been under others' gazes, this was a rare moment of freedom.
"Hehe～."
Freedom felt good. Perhaps because she had lived a life of constant self-restraint, even this brief moment of freedom felt like a grand act of rebellion. While enjoying her deviation, the Saintess spotted Kyle swinging a sword with another student on the distant training grounds and widened her eyes.
Without needing to ask the apprentice believers, she had found him with her own power. If she'd known it would be this easy, she wouldn't have gone through the trouble of asking for help……
"I made them do unnecessary work."
Thinking this, the Saintess gazed at Kyle from the hilltop. The elegant sword paths he traced. Even she, having trained somewhat as the Saintess, could tell. Though it didn't look particularly impressive on the surface, the sword intent contained within was immense and majestic. If she stood before him, she wouldn't be able to withstand even a single strike.
Of course, battles weren't decided by swordsmanship alone, so if they actually fought, the story might be different……
"Oh my."
While watching the sparring, the Saintess saw Kyle facing off against a female student. It seemed he didn't care whether his opponent was a woman or not—his swordsmanship showed no signs of weakening. After swiftly defeating the female student, Kyle's demeanor struck her as exactly what one would expect from the hero she had chosen. A true hero should demonstrate chastity. The way he'd touched her chest before must have been a wise judgment to assess her vessel—
"……Huh?"
There had been a time when the Saintess thought that way too. Then, Kyle crossed swords with a blond man with a refined face. Unlike when facing the female student, Kyle gently subdued the blond and, with a bright smile, extended his hand. The blond, who had fallen after only a few exchanges, blushed and took Kyle's hand to stand up. No matter how she looked at it, the scene evoked thoughts of homosexuality.
"Don't tell me, the hero……?"
It was a sight that forced her to question his sexual orientation.