Chapter 2
Chapter 2
A Saintess’s Dream Is a Prophetic Dream
I’ll say it again because it’s important.
The dreams a Saintess sees are special.
That was because God granted only the Saintess the power of “prophetic dreams,” the ability to glimpse the future.
Of course, despite such a grand title, most prophetic dreams were trivial things.
For example, tonight’s dinner being disgusting oatmeal, or a passing priest tripping over a rock and scraping his knee. Petty little events like that.
But on very rare occasions, prophetic dreams warned of major disasters capable of changing the course of history itself.
In fact, hundreds of years ago, the Holy Empire of Sektia had supposedly escaped destruction thanks to the prophetic dream of a Saintess.
That was why a strict principle had been established stating that every single dream seen by a Saintess had to be recorded and preserved in detail, no matter how insignificant it seemed.
Naturally, even that rule had exceptions.
No matter how much of a Saintess she might be, she was still human before anything else. Recording every tiny detail was a waste of time, and describing dreams too embarrassing to even say aloud would damage the Saintess’s dignity while also being something she herself would strongly dislike.
If they irritated the Saintess by forcing the issue and she completely shut her mouth, the church could suffer losses too severe to handle.
Because of that, the church quietly overlooked things like omitting insignificant dreams or glossing over embarrassing ones. It was an unspoken agreement made to preserve the Saintess’s dignity and keep her satisfied.
Ironically, because a single prophecy could alter the fate of a nation, omissions and concealment in the records were tolerated under the name of flexibility.
A truly bizarre irony.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this:
Just by receiving the power of prophetic dreams, a Saintess could instantly rise to the position of second-in-command within the church. It was practically life on easy mode.
Then what exactly did a Saintess do besides having prophetic dreams?
Well, nothing all that remarkable.
Some volunteer work to maintain public support, a little missionary work on the side, dressing up beautifully during events and smiling in front of believers like some decorative doll.
Very occasionally, they accompanied expeditions into the Demonic Realm, but even then, they simply stayed in the rear under protection, healing the injured or casting a few support buffs. It wasn’t especially dangerous.
Besides, even those extra duties were optional rather than mandatory, so there was no reason to suffer unnecessarily.
A Saintess could simply enjoy privileges within the church and live comfortably for the rest of her life doing nothing but dreaming.
But I couldn’t do that.
Because the world I had reincarnated into happened to be the setting of a webtoon, and the body I ended up in belonged to “Beatrice,” the Saintess of the Eris Church, a supporting character destined to suffer every kind of misery before collapsing completely.
The original Beatrice had been a timid and fragile flower raised in a greenhouse.
That weakness made her the perfect prey for hyena-like people, and in the end, she was utterly destroyed in both body and mind by Cassian, a villain who hid his disgusting true nature beneath the title of hero of the Eris Church.
The moment I let my guard down, my future would collapse just as cruelly as the original Beatrice’s.
Thankfully, I had reincarnated into Beatrice while she was still young.
There was still plenty of time to prepare for the disaster waiting in the future.
Instead of becoming a Saintess with exceptional divine talent, I chose to grow stronger as a warrior capable of crushing every threat on my own.
Rather than reciting peaceful prayers, I roared in battle.
Instead of holding holy scripture, I picked up a spear.
Rather than remaining safely protected in the rear lines, I led Holy Knights at the blood-soaked frontlines and severed the heads of demonic beasts.
Fortunately, this body possessed extraordinary martial talent, and once desperate effort was added on top of that, I achieved countless accomplishments within the Demonic Realm.
The title given to me became this:
The Silver Holy Spear.
At this point, even if my position as Saintess were stripped away, my name alone carried too much weight for anyone to ignore me.
And if you added the authority of being the Saintess of the Eris Church, one of the Seven Great Holy Churches?
Even the king of a nation wouldn’t dare treat me carelessly.
Still, even I had a secret problem I couldn’t tell anyone about.
Recently, vicious dreams had been tormenting me relentlessly.
This time, the dream began with a peaceful scene.
A sunny afternoon.
As I rolled around enjoying the soft warmth of fluffy bed sheets, I felt the bed sink beside me as someone sat down. Gentle fingers stroked my hair, and I slowly opened my eyes.
“Did I wake you, Saintess?”
A low, sweet voice.
When I turned my head, a black-haired man sat beside the bed, looking down at me.
His gaze moved slowly across my face, sweet as though coated in honey.
Like a girl hopelessly in love, I smiled shyly and threw aside the blanket to welcome him.
“No. I wanted to see you.”
The coquettish voice coming from my own mouth sounded horrifyingly unfamiliar.
“…Saintess? What is this around your neck? Why are you wearing something like this?”
His eyes widened slightly as he looked at the leather collar wrapped around my neck.
Blushing in embarrassment, I carefully lifted the metal chain connected to the collar and handed the end of it to him.
“Th-That’s because… you’re my master…”
Words of submission I had never once spoken in my life slipped from my lips.
Because of the backlight, I couldn’t clearly see his expression after he took the chain from my hand, but he seemed startled.
“Saintess. Do you even realize what you’re doing right now? This is… basically a collar used on animals.”
“So what? This side of me is only for you…”
At my answer, he let out a low laugh.
“Really? Then I suppose I should live up to your expectations. Right?”
The kindness vanished from his face.
With a cold, low voice, he violently yanked the chain I had handed him.
Clank!
With the sharp sound of metal, my vision jerked upward.
As I choked from the force tightening around my neck, his face slowly approached mine.
And just as our faces became close enough to hear each other’s breathing—
“Uwaaaagh!”
Crash!
I woke up after tumbling off the bed with a loud thud.
My entire body was drenched in cold sweat, and my silver hair clung unpleasantly to my face like a spiderweb.
Even after waking up, the lingering sensation of the dream clung stubbornly to me, making my stomach churn.
“Ugh…”
I instinctively covered my mouth as nausea rose up.
After calming myself down with divine power, I touched my neck.
Instead of leather, all I felt was smooth skin.
Only then did I finally let out a faint sigh of relief.
“…These dreams are seriously driving me insane lately.”
I didn’t even have the strength to climb back onto the bed, so I simply lay sprawled on the floor while cursing.
I had occasionally dreamed about going on affectionate dates with men before.
Well, fine.
I hated that enough already, but my current body was female, and humans were basically slaves to hormones anyway. Dating was something I could tolerate a hundred times over… no, maybe even a thousand.
“But what the hell was that dream just now?!”
My head felt like it was boiling with rage.
Worst of all, the setting of the dream had been my own room inside the church.
Inside that familiar room, I had been lying naked on the bed.
From the glimpse I saw, my body had been covered in reddish marks.
There was no explanation besides signs of abuse.
The fact that I had apparently endured such treatment without resisting was horrifying enough, but even more unbelievable was the reaction I showed toward the man who had clearly done those things to me.
I had personally put a collar around my own neck and respectfully offered the end of the chain to him.
“You… you’re my master…”
The moment I remembered that sickeningly sweet tone from my own mouth, goosebumps spread across my entire body.
“Ugh… what the actual hell.”
My eyes in that dream had looked completely out of it. Either I had been drugged, or tortured until my mind broke.
“And that thing at the end… he was definitely trying to k-kiss me, wasn’t he?”
What was a kiss between a man and a woman?
Wasn’t it supposed to be a sacred and final ritual shared beneath God’s blessing by two partners pledging to spend their lives together before countless witnesses?
And yet I had not only offered my bed to some nameless bastard, but was even about to hand over my lips too.
Thank god I woke up before our lips touched. Otherwise, my soul might have suffered an irreparable wound.
Yeah.
This wasn’t just a simple nightmare.
It was a catastrophic dream capable of shaking not only my identity as a man, but even my moral values as a human being down to their very foundations.
But then, one fact I absolutely did not want to remember flashed through my mind.
A Saintess’s dreams were prophetic dreams.
A power granted only to the Saintess, allowing her to foresee the future.
“…Yeah, fuck off.”
I shook my head hard, forcing away thoughts about prophetic dreams.
Prophetic dreams weren’t absolute futures. They could be changed.
I would know. I had already altered quite a few prophecies myself.
The solution was simple.
If some bastard ever tried anything funny with me, I’d just split his head in half no matter who he was.
As long as I didn’t personally lose my mind and willingly throw myself at someone, there was no way that prophecy could come true.
Thinking that way made me feel a little lighter.
Still, the immediate problem was the fact that these damned dreams had kept me from sleeping properly for over a week.
Every single time I closed my eyes, that damn dream returned without fail. Waking up screaming had become exhausting.
After a week of forced insomnia, my body felt as heavy as though I were trudging through a swamp, while my mind drifted hazily like it was still trapped inside a dream. Even suppressing the fatigue with divine power was reaching its limit.
As I blankly stared at the ceiling, noise erupted outside, forcing me to slowly sit up.
“It’s an attack! Demonic beasts are attacking! Everyone form ranks and prepare yourselves!”
A demonic beast attack?
We were only at the outermost edge of the Demonic Realm. At most, a few low-level beasts should appear here. It seemed strange for the Holy Knights to make this much noise over it.
Just as I was about to lie back down again, the composition of the expedition crossed my mind.
“…Ah, right. We came all the way out here to let the trainee Holy Knights gain some experience.”
The fact I couldn’t remember that immediately probably meant sleep deprivation was finally frying my brain.
The beasts living around the outer edge of the Demonic Realm were little more than toys to official Holy Knights, but for trainees, they were dangerous enough.
Leonid, the vice-captain, was present, but things would probably be resolved faster if I helped.
“…I probably don’t need the Holy Vestments.”
I had no intention of wearing the Holy Vestments just to deal with weak trash mobs from the outer Demonic Realm.
Regardless of their performance, the design of the Holy Vestments reflected our goddess’s utterly perverted tastes far too well. Calling them clothes at all was embarrassing.
…And I had absolutely no intention of becoming eye candy for trainees while wearing that.
After letting out a faint sigh, I casually threw a knight’s coat over the light clothing I had worn to sleep.
Then I picked up Astra, my Holy Spear, which rested beside the bed.
The cold heaviness of steel touching my palm seemed to clear away the fog clouding my head.
I pulled open the tent flap.
Along with the faint sunlight of dawn came the disgusting stench unique to demonic beasts.
“Report the situation.”
I grabbed the back of a trainee Holy Knight’s neck while he ran around frantically relaying information.
“S-Saintess? Th-The thing is…! W-We were standing guard, and suddenly there was fog, no, some kind of sound…”
His words were incoherent, and his face was pale blue.
Had the attack sent him into a panic?
Impossible.
Even trainees wouldn’t panic from an attack by low-level beasts living on the outskirts.
Only then did I realize killing intent had begun leaking unconsciously from my body due to the prolonged insomnia.
I quickly suppressed it and lightly infused the trainee with divine power to forcibly calm him down.
“Hey, sorry. I startled you, huh? You’ve calmed down now, so explain the situation briefly.”
“Th-There was suddenly an enormous number of demonic beasts attacking. But the Holy Knights on watch responded quickly, and the people resting in camp are gradually joining the fight too.”
“Good. That’s enough.”
Just as I was about to move, the trainee blocked my path.
“Saintess! Your complexion looks terrible. No matter how strong you are, shouldn’t you leave this to us and get some rest—”
There was genuine concern in the trainee’s eyes.
The unexpected consideration made me let out a dry laugh.
“…For a green trainee to worry this much, do I seriously look that awful right now?”
Well, after barely sleeping for a week, maybe I really did.
Still, there was probably another reason behind his concern.
The Silver Holy Spear.
The title known throughout the world was the result of my achievements in the Demonic Realm, my own combat ability, and the church leadership’s carefully orchestrated propaganda.
The image of a noble and powerful Saintess fighting on the frontlines was perfect for inspiring believers and squeezing donations out of them.
Those who knew the truth understood the church’s strategy to some extent, so among outsiders and even new trainees, there were always some idiots who assumed my title was just image-making.
If they had ever once seen me fighting demonic beasts or beating official Holy Knights into the dirt during sparring, they never would have said something like that.
I lightly spun Astra once before resting it on my shoulder.
The trainee flinched as he watched me handle the heavy spear as though it weighed nothing.
“Hey.”
“…Yes?”
“…Yeees? Huh. What’s your name?”
“I-It’s Eric.”
Eric, huh. What a very unique name.
Once you become a full-fledged knight, I’ll personally take good care of you during sparring. You’re built big too, so there’ll be plenty of places to hit.
The thought made a grin naturally spread across my face.
“Right. E-Eric. Stop worrying about pointless things and go kick awake any idiots still sleeping.”
The trainee’s face turned pale as though he sensed an indescribable danger in my smile.
After patting his shoulder once, I immediately sprinted toward the battlefield.
Maybe slaughtering a few demonic beasts would help improve my rotten mood.
Sorry about this, guys, but you’re going to have to become my stress relief for a while.
Gripping the Holy Spear Astra tightly, I stepped toward the source of the filthy stench of demonic beasts.