Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: A Name for the Saintess
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That night when our party took down the 44th-ranked Demon King.
To the party members, Demon King hunting had become routine by then, and with such a grueling battle that day, we all crashed without any fanfare or celebration.
A shadowy figure visited my room that night.
"It's Chris. May I come in?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure."
Chris... or rather, none of the party members had ever come to my room before.
Back then, I was a pretty solitary leader.
Even after entering my room, he couldn't settle down, fidgeting restlessly.
How could I tell, when I couldn't see him? He just stood there rigidly, without sitting in the seat I'd offered.
"What's up?"
"I have a favor to ask."
"A favor? What is it?"
"After taking down the 44th Demon King this time, I'm convinced. If I stick with you, I'll definitely achieve my goal."
Chris must have suspected that one of the Arch Demon Kings had kidnapped his little brother back then.
God's Mirror would have shattered at that time too, and whether before or after my regression, only Arch Demon King-level beings could destroy it.
Meanwhile, I had no idea Chris was pursuing an Arch Demon King, or that his brother had been taken by one.
So I listened without much reaction.
Chris continued.
"The rankings of the Demon Kings we're taking out keep climbing... Do you plan to target the Arch Demon Kings someday?"
"Not unless someone who knows the Erosion Demon King's whereabouts shows up first."
"Will you hunt all the Arch Demon Kings from 20th place and up?"
"No intention of climbing the ranks step by step like that. I'll go after the ones whose locations are known, starting with the closest."
"Why not take them one by one, methodically? 20th, 19th, 18th..."
I shook my head.
"You know there are Demon Kings whose whereabouts are unclear. The so-called wandering types."
"..."
"Tracking and dealing with those takes an indefinite amount of time. Priority goes to Demon Kings with confirmed residences, to learn the Erosion Demon King's location."
"..."
"Was that your favor? What's with the long face?"
Chris didn't answer for a long while.
Or maybe he did—in his expression.
But to me, who couldn't see faces, silence was silence.
Finally, Chris spoke.
"No, sorry for the intrusion."
I didn't dwell deeply on the meaning of that conversation back then. Not until now.
'He realized that sticking with me doesn't guarantee finding his brother... That's what must have hit him then.'
Of course, there was no other party out there exclusively slaying Demon Kings, so for him, it was still the best option.
But he couldn't shake that sliver of unease.
To quell it, he'd come to me and made his plea.
And I'd turned him down.
"Why didn't you just say it?"
"Pardon? What do you mean, Dai-il?"
"Nothing."
I barely suppressed a rising sigh.
Why hadn't Chris asked me before the regression, 'Please help me find my brother'?
The answer was obvious.
He didn't trust me.
'Because I was always going on about the Erosion Demon King whenever I got the chance.'
My life's mission was killing the Erosion Demon King.
(Or so the party thought.) Dai-il Magnus was the guy who bulldozed ahead solely for that goal, heedless of his comrades.
Hard to ask someone like that for an open-ended time sink.
He figured it'd be rejected anyway, so no point in asking.
A sharp pang twisted in my gut.
That's when I heard Chris mutter.
"It's all gone wrong now. The Despair Demon King is 9th place, after all."
"..."
"From the top 10 inward, there hasn't been a single rank change since history was recorded. They're on another level entirely. At this rate, finding my brother is impossible..."
He was right.
In fact, before my regression, the four Arch Demon Kings our party killed were between 12th and 20th.
Sure, I'd soloed the 11th—Absence Demon King—after the party disbanded.
But I cut in almost declaratively.
"Don't worry. I'll help you."
"Huh?"
"I'll lend a hand in tracking the Despair Demon King... and straight-up killing the bastard to find your brother."
Chris's eyes went wide.
He couldn't muster a reply, and in the meantime, Rennel cautiously asked.
"You sure about this?"
"About what?"
"You have to chase the Erosion Demon King. We don't even know if the Despair Demon King has any info on him..."
"It's fine."
I pressed on firmly.
"My party members' problems are the leader's problems too."
"...!"
"Not just Chris. You too, Rennel, and even you, Saintess... As your leader, I'll take full responsibility for you all. So..."
So please, stick with me from here on out.
Don't disband the party like that night before the regression.
Suddenly, the Saintess's words from that night flashed through my mind.
-We're not your tools, Dai-il.
I finally voiced the sincerity I'd failed to express back then.
"You're not my tools. You're my precious comrades."
Silence fell at my words.
But only briefly.
"Sniff."
Suddenly, Chris made a weird noise.
Tears welling up, he lunged toward me like he wanted a hug.
"Dai-il, thank you so much. Really..."
"Hug me and you're dead."
"Ah, y-yes sir."
Rennel lightly dabbed her eyes.
"I was this close to tearing up, but Chris ruined the moment."
"Were you about to cry?"
"Saintess, why are you grinning like that?"
"I just love these vibes. This is straight out of the hero tales I read. I knew picking you all was the right call."
"Picking us? Wasn't it a divine revelation?"
"Oh... yeah! A revelation, of course."
Then Chris spoke up.
He looked calmer now, but his eyes were still pretty red.
"Originally, I planned to identify the Demon King who took my brother and head back to my family."
"Yeah, you said that."
"But I'll put that on hold. I'll stick with you from now on, Dai-il. Looking forward to it."
"You sure?"
"Yes. Even if I went back, my family couldn't touch the Despair Demon King. No one could."
He grinned brightly and added.
"Except you, Dai-il."
"..."
"No matter what anyone says, teaming up with you is the fastest way to find my brother."
A faint smile tugged at my lips unbidden.
It spread like a contagion, soon curving everyone's mouths into smiles.
We sat there grinning at each other for a moment.
Like total idiots.
Clop-clop. Clop-clop.
We were riding in a carriage, leaving Bardlin behind.
Chris still held the reins of the nameless coachman's prized family member (his horse).
Chris grumbled.
"For some reason, I have this ominous feeling I'll be stuck holding the reins forever."
"You lost rock-paper-scissors, didn't you?"
"Only to you, Dai-il."
"Can't be helped. Can't trust Rennel with the reins."
Rennel nodded proudly.
"He's right. I don't know how to drive a horse. We always went on foot."
"No thought to learning?"
"Someday."
"Learn now."
"Now isn't someday."
I cut in between them.
"Rennel, we'll start lessons tomorrow. Just tough it out today."
"For real? You want me to drive?"
"Yeah."
"Y'know, I'm not the bootlicking type, but in every party, mages get treated like premium talent with all sorts of perks?"
"Is that so."
"Well... if you're teaching me personally, I'd consider it."
Rennel fidgeted with her fingers as she said it.
Suddenly, someone shot up a hand.
"Me too! I wanna learn!"
It was the Saintess.
Chris sighed deeply in response.
"Way too risky to hand the reins to Her Holiness."
"We're fellow adventurers now. Treat me casually."
"Someday, maybe."
"Now."
The Saintess huffed, clearly miffed.
I chuckled at the sight of her.
Did we have chats like this before the regression?
Back then, all conversations came through as Quad wrangle voices, so I missed a ton.
No matter how hard I focused, grasping the gist was all I managed.
Couldn't tell if the mood was upbeat or gloomy, warm or tense.
'Feels kinda nice.'
With that thought, I rummaged in my pocket and pulled something out.
"Here."
Whoosh.
I lightly tossed it to the Saintess.
She caught it reflexively and tilted her head.
"Did you just say 'here'?"
"Yeah."
"If I'm not mistaken... that was casual speech, right?"
"It was."
"I'm the Saintess, though?"
"I'm the party leader, for now. If you hate it, I'll switch back to polite."
"No no no, I love it. Wow... hehe."
The Saintess really is one of a kind.
But Rennel eyed me like I was the weirdo alien, saying.
"You're seriously going casual with the Saintess too."
"You're casual with your leader."
"That's the same?!"
That's when it happened.
The Saintess's voice rang out.
Trembling slightly, brimming with all sorts of emotions.
"This is an adventurer registration card."
That's right.
Before the regression, the moment she joined our party, the Saintess got her adventurer card first thing.
The alias she picked was Arwen Wagner, right?
'Name of a famous fairy tale heroine, she said.'
I'd never read fairy tales, so no clue.
Anyway, this time around, Bardlin cleanup kept us too swamped for her to make one.
So with time on my hands, I figured I'd handle it for her.
'Rennel told me before the regression...'
When she first got it, she hugged it tight like something precious.
Squeeze.
See, just like that now.
The Saintess clutched the card I'd given her.
Looking like she was composing herself.
None of us—me, Rennel, or Chris—could say a word.
'It's just a little booklet.'
Why get so emotional over it?
Then, as if to rein herself in, the Saintess forced her mouth open.
"B-but... Can you make these without the person present? How's the management work?"
"Officially, no. But the world doesn't run on rules alone. Slip 'em some cash, and anything's possible."
"True. Money rules the world, after all."
"Pipe down. Anyway, I set it to B-rank. A-rank? No amount of money sways 'em."
"Not enough cash."
"I said pipe down."
The Saintess finally released the card from her bosom.
She flipped it open delicately, like treasure.
The first page would have her portrait and name.
-Arwen Wagner.
To me, it was just a name borrowed from a fairy tale heroine, based on pre-regression memory. Nothing special.
So I casually said.
"Picked a fairy tale heroine's name at random since you didn't have one."
"..."
"What's wrong?"
"Th-this... this name..."
"Yeah?"
"No way. It can't be."
But her reaction was off.
Emotions she'd barely contained exploded anew.
Her whole body trembled, and soon tears streamed down.
"Sob."
"Huh?"
"What's wrong?"
"What happened?"
A moment later.
"Wahhh! Waaah! Uwaaaah!"
Arwen suddenly wailed at the top of her lungs.
Not even someone of her noble station—no, no grown woman her age would carry on like that.
Mouth agape, practically showing her uvula.
Crying as thunderously as a newborn.
I was more flustered than at any point since regressing.
Rennel hurried to her side and took her hand.
Chris halted the carriage and turned.
"What's wrong? Talk to me."
"Calm down. I'll teach you to drive."
"Euu... huu."
Tears and snot smeared across the Saintess's face.
She kept wiping it with both hands.
How many minutes passed?
A bit calmer, she peered at me with puffy eyes.
"What's that fairy tale called? I wanna read it."
Her words struck me odd.
Borrows a fairy tale name but doesn't know the title?
Hiding my confusion, I answered.
"Forgot the title."
"Too bad."
"...You ever read it?"
"No. Locked in the Papal Palace, fairy tales were banned. Only stories my nursemaid told me orally."
A bell rang in my head.
So her pre-regression claim was just a cover.
Why lie back then?
The Saintess rubbed her eyes furiously, grinning with reddened, bunny-like eyes.
Her voice thick, she continued.
"Call me Arwen."
"Huh?"
"Don't call me Saintess anymore. Call me Arwen."
In that instant, I realized.
Probably only me in the party.
The Saintess had no original name.
Couldn't slap a human-made name on God's chosen Saintess.
'But she was a fake.'
This woman before me wasn't the Saintess.
So maybe she did have a real name.
But unable to reveal her fake status, she hid it her whole life.
Pre-regression, she couldn't tell us, so she brushed it off as a fairy tale name.
'Meaning the alias on her adventurer card back then...'
Wasn't an alias—it was her real name.
Realizing that explained why she'd held it together then but bawled now.
Pre-regression, she'd written her own name herself.
Thrilling, sure, but still self-bestowed.
This time, I wrote her name for her.
It must've felt like the first time someone else acknowledged it.
I couldn't help pitying her deeply.
But keeping my emotions in check, I asked coolly.
"Like the name that much?"
The Saintess beamed like a sunflower in full bloom.
"Yes. I love it."