DIVINE BLESSING
Marian Delarossi has acquired a new Holy Magic: Soul Projection
'These crazy bastards, how long are they gonna keep this shit up?' Marian thought to herself as she listened to the moans spilling out from Allen's room.
She'd been waiting in front of the door for quite a while now, but there was no sign of Jena von Darius's bizarre cries letting up. What made it even worse for Marian was that after listening to those weird sounds for so long, she felt like she was losing her mind.
'Get a grip, Marian. You really wanna go back to Raksha Street for real?'
But Marian endured, holding on with sheer patience. High Priest Thomas had given her orders, after all—she had to convince Allen somehow to head into the imperial palace tomorrow. She couldn't just barge in and interrupt him while he was having his fun with Jena, though. She was the one begging a favor; upsetting his mood wasn't an option.
After standing there for ages, listening to their mingled cries, Marian's eyes gradually turned bloodshot. There was a limit to how much she could take. Allen and Jena's sex talk—filthy words that defied all common sense—started making her body react against her will. Her heart pounded inexplicably, her lower body itched in a way she couldn't ignore, and her inner thighs clenched tight for no reason. Memories kept flooding back too, of that guilty pleasure she'd felt rubbing herself against the carriage seat.
'Ah... I wanna see it.'
Marian stared at the firmly shut door to Allen's room, her face twisted with thirst.
Pathetically enough, what she craved wasn't to have sex with Allen like Jena was doing. She didn't have the confidence to fall that far, and she knew any merits gained that way wouldn't last long anyway. To be precise, she had no sexual experience whatsoever, and having watched her mother earn money that way since childhood, Marian couldn't help but feel repulsed by sex. Only those who've tasted meat know its flavor. She found Jena's blissed-out, drooling face erotic in a twisted way, but she still doubted whether being held in a man's arms could really feel that good.
That said, Marian wasn't completely immune to sexual stimulation. The moans from Allen and Jena sent shivers down her spine, a mix of goosebumps and that strange, titillating sensation washing over her entire body.
But our innocent saintess mistook all that arousal for the pleasure she'd felt while peeping on Allen and Jena's encounter. Sure, she'd rubbed herself against the carriage seat in something like masturbation, but even then, her mind had been replaying that scene over and over.
'I wanna see it again. I wanna watch. I really, really wanna watch. Jena's probably making that whore face again, right? Is Allen slapping that ass of hers? I wanna see it—I really wanna see it.'
Marian gazed desperately at the closed door, wishing with all her heart. But without x-ray vision or something, there was no way she could glimpse what was happening inside Allen's room.
"Haah!! Aaahhh!! Today—it's the last time! Use Jena more intensely!!"
"Hee-hee! Jena's cumming agaaaiiin!!"
Jena's lewd cries kept tempting her, flowing out endlessly. Marian's head spun, her mind growing hazy.
"So, how exactly does Holy Magic manifest, I wonder?"
Marian broke into a cold sweat as she gazed at the kindly smiling old priest. Sent to instill her with at least the basics of refinement despite her Raksha Street origins, the priest always posed a question before teaching her anything.
He never scolded her for failing to answer, but that didn't stop Marian from tensing up every time. She was always haunted by the fear that she could be kicked back to Raksha Street at any moment.
"W-Well? Isn't it that the Goddess bestows her grace upon us?"
The priest smiled faintly at her answer, looking her in the eye. Marian thought she'd nailed it and felt a spark of joy, but his questions didn't end there.
"Indeed, that's the kind of answer the high priests would love. Now, Marian, how did the very first Holy Magic come about?"
"...The, the very first?"
Marian's brief elation faded as she furrowed her brow at the priest's follow-up. The Gaiana Church's history stretched back further than the empire's, and naturally, its origins weren't clearly documented.
Come to think of it, it was always like this. Ever since starting her saintess training, she'd crammed her head full of book knowledge by force, but she could never easily answer the questions this priest asked.
"...I don't know."
"That's right. Truth be told, I don't know either."
"Huh?"
Marian stared at him, wondering if he was trying to joke around with her. But the priest wore an enigmatic smile as he continued his explanation.
"Interpretations vary. Some say the Goddess taught us, others disagree."
"Th-Then, didn't the Goddess teach us?"
"Who knows? There's no record of anyone ever witnessing the Goddess directly. And it's the same even now. Would the past have been any different? I don't think so."
Marian found herself utterly absorbed in the priest's words, as if entranced. In a church filled with people who saw everything as the Goddess's blessing, her arrangement, her grace, this was the first time she'd heard a differing view.
"Consider healing magic. Do you really think the Goddess said to humanity, 'From now on, chant "healing," and you'll be able to cure others'?"
"...That does sound kinda weird."
"Exactly. With so many kinds of Holy Magic, the idea that she taught us every incantation one by one is pretty laughable, don't you think?"
"...Yes."
Marian answered with a tense expression. The priest's words sounded plausible on the surface, but they also felt dangerously heretical. Having lived a rough life, she wondered if this was some kind of test.
"So what do you think, Priest?"
Clever Marian figured it was better to hear his thoughts than risk answering more questions herself, and she acted on it immediately. The kindly priest chuckled as if he could see right through her, but he didn't dodge the question.
"Here's what I believe: Holy Magic manifests from humanity's earnest desires. The wish to heal someone reaches the Goddess and becomes healing magic. The desire to aid someone becomes various buff spells, wouldn't you say?"
"...Is that so?"
"Yes. So, Marian, if you always wish and yearn fervently, the Goddess will never turn you away."
The priest spoke with benevolence, but Marian scoffed inwardly. She'd escaped Raksha Street, but everyone there yearned to leave just as desperately. She didn't think she was anything special compared to them. Rather than the Goddess favoring her, she'd just been a bit luckier than most.
Though skeptical of the priest's words, she kept her doubts hidden.
"Yes. I'll make sure to pray to the Goddess every day."
Just like she'd learned on Raksha Street—play the obedient role they wanted to see.
'That priest was right.'
But now, years after that lesson, Marian realized the kindly old man's words had been true.
Because her own desperate wish had birthed a brand-new Holy Magic that didn't exist before.
'Soul Projection, huh...'
Marian gazed wonderingly at her hands, then turned around. There stood another version of herself, blankly rooted to the spot.
No—that was her real body, and what she inhabited now was merely a soul projection.
She reached out tentatively and touched the door to Allen's room. Her hand passed right through without resistance.
'Why'd it have to be this power of all things?'
Marian tilted her head at her hand, which had slipped through the door like a ghost. What she'd desperately wished for was to peep on Allen and Jena. She should've gotten x-ray vision to see through walls or clairvoyance to view anywhere from her seat.
But the ability she'd gained was to separate her soul from her body. Sure, she could still spy on the room's happenings in this state, but she couldn't quite grasp why it'd manifested this way.
"Hah... haaaang! Allen, inside Jena, cum inside!!"
But Jena's voice echoing from within made Marian shove her doubts aside. She slipped straight into Allen's room.
And at the dizzying sight before her eyes, Marian finally understood why she'd gained the power to wander as a soul projection.
'...This is seriously an amazing ability!'
Marian—she was the type who needed to see it with her own eyes to be satisfied.