#092 Descendant
#092 Descendant
A few days earlier.
"Pleased to meet you. The Crimson Mage, Scarlet Craft, the Grand Mage of Flame. And now, I suppose I should call you the Sage who will lead the Hero."
"You know everything, I see."
"I did my research. It is a pleasure to meet you again. I am Saintess Yan Diere."
Saintess Yan Diere.
I found myself in a private audience with Saintess Yan Diere in the reception room of Regret Castle, the seat of the County of Odron.
"I thought something was strange back then, too. I had a hunch, and sure enough, I was right."
"Sure enough?"
"The Holy Sword Hero and his companion. I never imagined the Sage who awakened the Holy Sword for him was someone who came from five hundred years in the past."
That, certainly, was impossible to notice.
But she had clearly noticed most of the other elements.
The Hero Lucius.
And Witch Bel.
The clue that had allowed her to notice was, without a doubt, "Liliez."
"After all, since Liliez was a Holy Sword Hero, you would have known that a Holy Sword could be stored and carried by other means."
"Yes. Lucius kept fidgeting with a ring, but you weren't wearing one. So I thought it was strange."
"Hm?"
Why would that be strange?
"Hehe. A man and a woman together, yet only the man is wearing a ring? It's one of two things. Either the woman is sulking and not wearing hers, or there's something about the ring that needs to be hidden from the Church of the Goddess. And since you happened to be near the Hero Village, it wasn't all that difficult to deduce."
"Oh-ho."
She was sharp and quick-witted.
Since Lucius and I were not lovers or anything of the sort, it was only natural that a man alone wearing a ring would seem strange.
'If it were me, I'd have thought something else.'
A married man.
And a homewrecker wagging her tail to seduce him.
In fact, there were plenty of adventurers who committed such affairs.
Many adventurers left wives back home, formed parties to earn money, and ended up falling for party members they shared hardships with.
'I actually wrecked an adventurer party that way once.'
In that adventurer party, it was the woman who had a husband back home.
-I can't take it anymore. Grrr....
-No! Think of your husband back home!
-What am I supposed to do if I've come to like you more than my husband?!
-Are you insane! I'll tell your husband everything and leave this party! Get lost!
-S-stop! If that happens, I'll be abandoned by both sides, aaah...!! What have I done!!
Of course, I wasn't the one who seduced her; I used the woman's attempt to do such a thing to destroy the party. It wasn't me, but the reverse case was quite common back then.
'People really did run wild in the old days.'
Maybe because I'm from five hundred years ago, that's the first thing that comes to mind. But the fact that she connected it to the Hero—she truly is a Saintess.
"Setting aside your investigation of us. So, how did you find this place? Did you follow us?"
"No. Your whereabouts were so unclear that, honestly, I'd half given up. I came looking for a survivor of the Hero Village—Droniel Odron."
So it was a coincidence.
It was a bit shocking, but when coincidences overlap, that's fate.
Perhaps we were destined to meet Saintess Yan here.
"Coming here truly was a coincidence. Why did you come here, Sage?"
Is she probing me?
If so, I'll just tell her exactly how it is.
"...I came chasing traces of the Demon King Army's Acedia. By reverse-tracing the Demon King Army's Portal."
"Impressive. Though it might have been better to let at least one person know where you were going...."
Why did you leave without telling anyone and make people frantic with worry?
That's what her eyes were scolding me with.
It felt oddly novel, quite different from how Rosemas or Droniel looked at me.
"I didn't want to be followed. Too many people in Normance were trying to find us, so I wanted to move quietly. And I don't particularly like being praised in the first place."
"Hmm.... If that's how you feel, you made the right choice. You wanted to move quietly. I understand. If you'd stayed there, you wouldn't have been able to come here, and you wouldn't have been able to save those people, either."
"Excuse me?"
"Normance is preparing something called the 'Crimson Lotus Festival,' saying they must hold a festival for the three of you."
Huh.
"What did you say?"
"The heroes who saved Normance: the Flame Hero Bareness, Arthur Lucius who split a Sandworm in a single stroke, and Crimson Mage Bel, who flew across the battlefield blasting Sandworms and finally unleashed flames at the monstrous bird."
"What about Rosemas?"
"If you mean the elf...."
Saintess Yan smiled bitterly and shook her head.
"I'm sorry, but others performed just as well as that."
"Ah...."
How unfortunate.
'That's just how Hero Parties are.'
If our party is ever remembered in stories later on, our party members will inevitably receive relatively less attention for their contributions.
Because of the Hero.
In Normance, Bareness.
In the County of Odron, Liliez.
Because of that, ordinary people like Rosemas or Droniel, who aren't Heroes, are inevitably treated as supporting characters who make the starring Heroes shine.
'I actually used that to destroy a Hero Party.'
There was a mage serving as the healer in some Hero Party. He worked really hard, but I stirred up public opinion that he was useless and drove him out.
After that, he left believing he wasn't a true comrade, and the Hero Party was wiped out fighting the Demon King because they had no healer.
'The real winner in life was that guy.'
He went somewhere where no one knew him, opened a pharmacy, married an elf girl he met there, and after the Demon King Army fell, he lived happily ever after, or so I heard.
People so lacking in presence that even in the newspaper, they wouldn't make it into a small ad box on the middle pages.
That was the position and standing of those who were not Heroes.
But there was someone who could never be reduced to a supporting role even in a Hero Party....
'A Saintess has never once been pushed into a supporting role.'
A Saintess.
If a Holy Sword Hero has a partner, naturally it would be a Saintess.
In a way, Hero Liliez traveling with Saintess Yan could also be called a Hero Party.
Anyway.
"...Hoo."
I had encountered her once before, but I never expected to run into her in the County of Odron, too.
In appearance, she was a beautiful girl with blonde hair and blue eyes.
If someone asked who a Saintess was, I would unhesitatingly point to this woman.
'Though it seems like she's grown since the last time I saw her?'
I'm not talking about height.
Not her height—what I meant was her mindset as a Saintess.
Not as much as Rosemas the elf or Droniel, who could be called the final boss in this field, but Yan had certainly grown plenty, too.
"Let's save the bitter talk for later. So, um, you seem a little different from last time... hmm...."
Ah.
Right now I'm in a female body, so do I not need to beat around the bush like this?
"Your chest seems a bit bigger than when we last met."
"Back then, I was wearing something like a corset under my inner armor. The higher-ups don't care much for my body."
What?
A corset?
Why would she wear something like that?
"Why?"
"They said it doesn't suit the image of a Saintess."
"Is that so... I think it suits you perfectly well."
Five hundred years ago, the accepted wisdom was that a Saintess absolutely had to be big, but it seems today's Saintesses prefer them small and petite.
"Suppressing and confining something natural. How strange. A corset, of all things."
"No. It was a special directive from His Holiness the Pope, and I fully agreed with it, so I hid it."
"Excuse me?"
"A woman's weapon shines brightest not when revealed, but when hidden. It becomes most beautiful when revealed at the most important moment."
"......What do you mean?"
"He told me to hide my appearance for a moment, for that moment when the corset comes off and my body becomes natural, when the Goddess's blessing reaches its peak. Of course, he also said to hide it because everyone other than His Holiness is vulgar, but...."
This Pope fellow.
"He said that the moment the corset is undone to receive the full protection of the Azure Moon Goddess, that beauty would be doubled, both as a Saintess and as a woman."
This seems like someone I could actually have a conversation with.
"At first, I wondered what he meant. But after experiencing it myself, I understood. After that, well...."
"I get the gist. I don't like beating around the bush, so let's get to the point."
The mutual probing was over.
"...Weren't we just having a conversation?"
"Because I can see the purpose in your eyes."
"Hmm. That's true, but I do enjoy just talking with you, Sage."
Saintess Yan beamed and pointed at me.
"You took Liliez away from me, you know. The way Liliez looks at you, honey was practically dripping from her eyes."
"That's only natural. I'm the one who awakened her Spirit Machine."
"I don't think it's only that, but fine. Since you seem wary of me, Sage, I'll speak sincerely."
Finally.
After going round and round, we finally reached the destination.
"Please let me join your party."
"...What did you say?"
"I'll hide my identity and conceal my appearance as much as possible. I'll make sure no one recognizes me, so please take me with you."
"......The reason?"
Objectively speaking, there was no reason for a Saintess to join our party.
But.
"The reason, you ask."
Sometimes, an utterly absurd reason carries its own plausibility.
"The Hero Arthur Lucius. ...I fell for him at first sight."
"Accepted."
A Saintess is a must-have in a hero harem party.
There was no need to ask Lucius's permission, and no reason to press further here.
"But what did you fall for?"
"His face."
"Welcome, Yan. I look forward to working with you."
Whatever her true intentions.
At the very least, I felt sincerity from her.
This woman.
A so-called.
"Did you fall for him back then, when you first met Lucius in the cave?"
"Yes."
Ah.
So that's how she noticed.
The man she'd fallen for was calling the woman with him his master, so of course she'd find it strange.
"Very well. Yan, please become our party's Saintess. But keep this in mind. You're not the only one after Lucius."
"Hehehe."
Yan Diere simply laughed quietly.
"What's wrong with the Hero building a harem? It's doctrine acknowledged by the Goddess herself."
"......."
"It's not against the Goddess, and I'm the one who fell for Lucius, so you don't need to worry too much, Sage. Hehehe."
It was the appearance of a comrade with a suspiciously perfect motive.
"......."
Yan Diere.
Yan... Diere.
".......No way."
Yan Diere bore an uncanny resemblance to the Saintess I had known five hundred years ago.
-H-hmph! It's not like I'm helping you! It's for the humans you're oppressing!!
It seems.
...She's of Tsun Diere's bloodline.