The Saintess’s Transparent Body Was Only Meant to Be Fixed (Part 3)
The world of Fantasia Island had two great gods at its core.
One represented light and held the position of supreme deity, Lord God Atra.
The other embodied complete darkness and aimed to destroy all such deities, the Shadow Bert.
The eternal clash between these two forces of light and darkness had been the central thread of every story in Fantasia Island.
I was among the players who had once wished for that story’s ending to come true.
- [Hooh… You really are no ordinary player.]
“At the outset, only a handful of beings could possibly appear in this situation. When I weigh all the possibilities, it has to be either Atra or Bert.”
- […How interesting. Facing a god and still feeling no fear.]
Bert’s laughter echoed like genuine delight at my reply.
In Fantasia Island, even gods could have blurred lines between good and evil.
That was why there had always been hints that the Shadow Bert, as a divine proxy, might be someone one could actually converse with.
After all, he gave out OP skills simply for trusting him, and who would dare call that betrayal?
“After all, I’m not the kind of person who gets scared of things that easily.”
- [Insane… Atra really brought a madman to this world!]
Countless eyes that had once peered through the gaps of the frozen world vanished, replaced by a massive mouth that opened in laughter and let out a voice.
- [How did you guess that the saintess became transparent because of us?]
“She said it herself, right into my face. The Lord God took her appearance away in exchange for the enormous divine power.”
- [Hmm… You didn’t seem particularly interested in the saintess.]
“And once things reached this point, the real strangeness would have been not noticing something connected to the gods.”
In truth, I had always believed that even the biggest bug should have been fixable by now.
I had used the strongest glitch I knew.
Yet suddenly time froze, the world did not reset, and a god had simply burst through.
That meant this was no ordinary bug at all — the gods themselves had deliberately turned her body transparent.
- […Then I’ll change the question.]
- [What you call divergence is powerful enough to destroy this entire world.]
- [This is the result. The world slowed down until it stopped completely.]
“So, what’s the main point here?”
Somehow, the way Bert had started calling me had remained unchanged, and I figured that meant we could still make a deal.
The shift in tone after I mentioned the name was clear proof.
- [Will you keep poking at the world’s flaws until you reach the pre-determined ending?]
“I don’t have many choices left. If I could get strong without using glitches, I would have done so.”
- [Hahaha… You call the world’s defects that way?]
I found Bert’s laughter odd. No matter how spaghetti-code and engine-built this world was, he was still a being on the level of a god.
- [If the problem is that the Lord God gave the saintess too much divine power, removing the cause would be the solution.]
“You mean turn her back into an ordinary person? I thought it was just a rendering bug.”
- [No, that’s not it.]
Bert raised a finger to his lips in a quiet shush and shook his head.
- [You are the one who carves your own fate. Telling you directly would only bring harm.]
- [To fix the saintess’s transparent body, you must discover it yourself, step by step.]
Bert drew a soft arc on his lips as he spoke the impossible.
If taking the divine power away to return her to normal was off the table, then what exactly was I supposed to do?
- [And never let this world stop again. This is the first and last time I restore you out of pity.]
“…All right. I guess I really was too reckless.”
- [When we meet again, show a little more respect.]
With those words, the shattered gaps sealed like glass pieces mending themselves. The world snapped back into place.
Crack… Crack-crack-crack.
The training dummy returned to its original state, and the marble pillar that had been smashed by the aftershock crashed back down.
Time began to flow again. Everything around us started moving.
* * *
“You… What exactly did you just do?”
Her legs gave out and Astoria sank to the ground, trembling as she asked me.
Unfortunately, her body was already transparent again.
Since Bert said he would fix the cause, I decided to ask directly.
“I gave the world a little trouble, just as I mentioned earlier.”
“No, time clearly stopped! I saw you talking to some unknown person!”
“…How much did you hear?”
“I heard everything… Including how you turned an innocent girl into a vessel for the gods and made her transparent.”
Luckily she had not overheard the glitch part.
The words still made my face itch slightly, but I had no desire to watch gods casually ruin human lives.
It was more than enough that I alone had to live with that consequence.
“Brother is truly kind.”
“I only said what needed to be said. I wasn’t worried about the saintess… at all.”
“No. The first person in this world to treat me that way is you.”
Astoria’s tone had softened in a strange way.
In the medieval fantasy era, everyone would have seen the saintess as an untouchable representative of the gods.
Yet someone like her — gentle, never envious, treating her as an equal — was extraordinarily rare.
I had been reborn in this world for quite a while, but I still carried the lingering traces of living in a reality without class systems.
“Anyway, I think we found a partial answer.”
“A partial answer… What do you mean?”
“The Lord God gave the saintess too much divine power for a reason. Removing that cause would solve it.”
I let my mouth curve downward while staring at the half-shattered sword in my hand.
It had been a weapon I knew well, yet the rune-duplication glitch had broken it completely.
“…Maybe it was necessary for this world.”
“No. Having a god and then passing every burden onto the saintess is simply contradictory.”
The words tumbled out before I could stop them — words that would sound like blasphemy to Astoria’s ears.
“…Excuse me?”
“Ah, sorry. I slipped up in front of the saintess.”
This was a world where the true gods actually existed and the saintess was their real representative.
In such a place, a non-believer who did not even follow the gods stood out like a sore thumb.
If I drew any more attention, I risked being killed or labeled a heretic and dragged before the religious courts.
“Brother, the will of the gods is something no mere human can fully understand.”
“……”
I swallowed my protest and continued sweeping up the broken fragments.
If anyone in the swordsmanship training ground found out I had caused such a mess, the already-sharp stares would only multiply.
“Still… those words really moved me.”
Astoria helped me clear the rubble while she spoke.
“As a saint, I was always admired by others and thought I had to face every problem alone.”
Her voice was warm even though her expression remained hidden, and it sounded exactly like the joy she felt.
Was there really a squeeze of strength in me after all?
In truth, the saint I had seen at Grancia Academy had always seemed like an innocent child.
She asked me endless questions because she didn’t know how to swing a sword, and she practiced magic with all her heart.
…As a saint, she had been revered by everyone, so if something went wrong she would never have been able to ask for help.
“From now on, if you have any worries, please come to me!”
“No, that’s too much.”
“Why? This is the conclusion I reached after thinking about it so hard!”
I gently pushed Astoria’s friendly approach away and shook my head from side to side.
There was the political issue, but more importantly, Astoria’s figure was far too striking.
Her transparent body made the lines of her holy uniform stand out even more, and she still wore gloves and a veil over it all.
Any man would find it hard to keep his eyes off her when she kept getting so close.
* * *
The saintess Astoria remembered the events of moments ago.
Inside the completely frozen world, the words Theodore had spoken to the being that looked like a god.
- Has there ever been a time when you asked for permission from the saintess?
- Turning an innocent girl into a vessel for the gods and making her transparent was wrong.
Those were the only two lines Astoria had overheard, but she had realized something important.
Theodore treated her as an equal without envy or worship, even though she had been chosen as a saint.
Was this what friendship felt like?
Under the protection of the cardinal and the Lord God, Astoria had never formed deep relationships with anyone else.
“Brother, your steps are too fast!”
At this very moment with Theodore, a smile escaped her despite the current situation.
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