The Saintess's Ordeal
The hero candidate Cassian’s brief visit to the divine realm had been beneficial, yet it had also left a small seed of discontent in his heart. The mysterious curse Lilith had placed upon my body was broken, but in the process I had learned an uncomfortable truth about the Holy Vestments. The Goddess herself walked around wrapped up tight out of embarrassment, yet she insisted on forcing this shameful design on my vestments. Was it blasphemous to picture a gamer slapping an outrageous outfit on a character and grinning like an idiot? …No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a better comparison.
“I really want to punch her just once.”
Of course, if I actually tried, it wouldn’t be a meteor this time—it would be the entire Milky Way crashing down in front of my eyes. So I decided to let it go. In any case, if I had to describe my current mood, it felt like my faith had taken a massive hit. What if my divine power has decreased?
Divine power was rooted in faith. I checked my body just in case, and fortunately the total amount of divine power hadn’t decreased. While I was breathing a sigh of relief, a brutal chill suddenly pierced my skin.
“Ugh… Achoo!”
Only after sneezing did I realize I was completely submerged in freezing water.
“Water? Not holy water?”
It had definitely been a bath full of holy water. Had all the holy water turned back into ordinary water? Holy water was made by sealing clean water in bottles and having a high-ranking priest perform a long consecration. I wasn’t entirely sure, but if the divine power was extracted from holy water, wouldn’t it revert to plain water? Just like the Goddess had said about reversing the curse. If all the divine power contained in the holy water had been used up while breaking the curse after returning from the divine realm, that would explain why I was now in water.
“Eugh… so cold.”
And it was disgustingly clean, freezing water at that. I turned my creaking head and saw that the incense burner had gone out. Grandfather had told me to stay in the bath until the incense burned out completely, so it should be fine to get out now, right?
Shivering violently—trembling so hard it brought back unpleasant memories from my days as a vagrant—I tried to stand. But a body left in cold water in a near-catatonic state didn’t move the way I wanted. My knees buckled helplessly, my feet slipped across the slick floor, and my body shot upward into the air.
“Uwah?”
Losing my balance, I toppled backward. My hands flailed in vain, grasping at empty air, and with a splash I plunged back into the icy water. The water only came up to my waist, but with my legs drained of strength it might as well have been the deep sea. I thrashed desperately, but having already exhausted what little strength I had and fallen back into the cold water, I couldn’t get up no matter what I did.
Wait, just a second… If this goes wrong, I could actually die…!
Just as I was feeling a threat to my life in a bath instead of the Demon Realm, the tightly shut door opened with a creak. Peeking cautiously through the gap was Mari.
I’m saved!
I cheered inwardly and waved my hands frantically. Our eyes met. Hers weren’t filled with surprise, but with warm affection, as if she were looking at an adorable puppy.
“Saintess? Are you playing in the water? It seems I’ve interrupted you.”
No! This isn’t playing—I’m drowning! Save me quickly!
“Sarrryeobebuhreupreuyakwaeng!”
I tried to speak, but water kept flooding into my mouth, producing a bizarre sound completely unlike what I intended. My desperate flailing and scraping at the floor must have looked to Mari like joyful splashing. She leaned against the doorframe and smiled fondly.
“Hehe, you really do have a surprisingly cute side, Saintess. Is it that enjoyable?”
It’s not enjoyable! I’m dying! I’m going to die!
I stretched my hand above the water with my last ounce of strength, signaling for help. But Mari seemed to mistake my distress signal for a cheerful wave and shyly waved back.
“I’m glad to see you enjoying yourself too! Would you like to play a little longer before coming out?”
No. I couldn’t let Mari’s fond smile be my last sight as I drowned. I tried to do something more, but strength was steadily draining from my body. In the end, I sank to the bottom of the bath, bubbles rising as I went under.
Goddess. I’m coming to meet you now.
Just as my consciousness began to fade…
“Saintess!”
Mari hauled my body out of the cold water.
“Puhah! Cough, ptui! Haa, haa…”
Dragged out of the bath, I lay on the floor spitting out water.
“A-Are you all right?”
“Ugh… ack… I’m fine. Though it would’ve been better if you’d saved me a little sooner.”
I grumbled for no reason. Then I burrowed into Mari’s arms seeking warmth.
“I’m sorry. I thought you were playing around.”
“Huu… It’s fine. There’s nothing to apologize for. If you hadn’t saved me, I would’ve been found as a corpse in the bath.”
It was cold. My whole body trembled, heat rose in my head, and I had no strength left. Was this the aftereffect the Goddess had mentioned? In this state, I felt like I could barely manage a fifty-fifty fight against an ant. More than anything, it was too cold.
“C-C-Cold… I’m going to freeze to death.”
Mari quickly brought a towel, dried me off, and wrapped me in a large blanket.
“Goodness, I’d believe it if you said there was an earthquake.”
She looked at me with pity as I shivered, then hugged me tightly.
“Your body is like ice.”
“You should’ve warmed the water… It’s still February…”
“I tried, but they told me never to go inside. The door was sealed anyway, so I couldn’t enter.”
“R-Really…? Ah, it was probably better not to come in. That’s a relief.”
While my soul had been in the divine realm, the mysterious curse on my body had been lifted. Keeping everyone out had been the safest choice, both for me and for anyone who might have entered.
“I didn’t hear a single sound from inside for a whole week. I was really worried.”
“A… A whole week?”
A week had passed? I had only stayed in the divine realm for a little over an hour at most. It seemed time flowed differently between the divine realm and the human world. Or perhaps I had simply been unconscious for a long time.
“Did you wait in front of the door the entire week?”
“Yes.”
“Huu… Thank you…”
“Oh dear, you really are just a child sometimes. Let’s get you back to your room. You need to warm up and get some proper sleep.”
“Y-Yeah…”
Unable to walk properly, I leaned on Mari as we made our way to my room. Being submerged in cold water for a week in a catatonic state—if I weren’t the Saintess, I might have died of hypothermia. Couldn’t she have at least cast a spell to maintain the water temperature? While grumbling inwardly, I suddenly remembered something I had completely forgotten.
The hero candidate had come to the church.
“Huuu… Right. The… hero candidate… that bastard… came, didn’t he…?”
I had been absent for a whole week. If that bastard had caused any trouble during that time, it would be a disaster. With the Pope, the Grand Priest, the Knight Commander, and Leonid around, I doubted he could do much, but you never knew.
“Ah, that? I only heard the news myself, but the church arranged lodging for him outside the temple and asked him to wait until preparations were complete. After all, the Saintess can’t be absent when welcoming the hero candidate.”
“R-Really? Good… Then call him right away… I’ll split that bastard’s head open…”
“Oh dear, what do you think you’re going to do when you can’t even walk properly? You’d probably lose even if you fought me right now.”
“I… I can… Look. Astra…!”
To prove my health and soundness, I tried to summon Astra, but only sparks crackled in the air—Astra didn’t appear.
“Huuu… W-Why is this happening? A-Astra! Astra!”
The divine power inside my body wouldn’t move properly. Stubbornly, I forced the divine power within me to obey.
“Astra!”
With my shout, the previously quiet divine power surged through my body like a storm… and with a flash of intense pain, I passed out.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in my bed. The aftereffects the Goddess had mentioned were no lie—I had to endure a terrible fever and body aches. The unprecedented situation of the Saintess catching the flu and being bedridden threw the Eris Church into an uproar. In reality it wasn’t a cold but the aftereffect of a human soul visiting the divine realm, but since that couldn’t be revealed publicly, it was treated as a simple cold on the outside.
Lying in bed, receiving Mari’s care, I spent a hellish time gasping for hot breaths. Using divine power in that condition earned me a scolding about whether I had lost my mind. Whether because my reputation in the church was good, or because of my high position—or both—many people came to visit me.
“It pains my heart to see you bedridden, Saintess.”
The first to visit was the Pope.
“Huu… Grandfather. I feel like I’m going to die.”
The aftereffects of visiting the divine realm, combined with the internal injuries from forcibly using divine power in my worst condition, really made me feel like I was dying.
“Hoho, it’s merely the aftereffect of visiting the divine realm. There’s no need to worry. Once you recover, your body will be in far better condition than before. All the turbid energy accumulated in your body will have been expelled, leaving you in an ideal state for handling divine power.”
Ah, so it was like the bone-restructuring transformation from martial arts novels. Something like that? But it didn’t feel particularly reassuring at the moment, so I just groaned and grumbled.
“That’s nice to hear and all… but Grandfather, you could’ve warned me that the bath would eject my soul into the divine realm.”
“Hoho, if I had told you in advance, you wouldn’t have wanted to go, would you?”
“……”
Of course not. He definitely wouldn’t have told me. Grandfather really did know me well.
“And if I had told you beforehand that you might become an idiot after visiting the divine realm and that it would be unbearably painful afterward, it wouldn’t have been any fun, would it?”
“…Grandfather?”
You were this kind of person? I stared at him in disbelief.
“For your information, I didn’t hear about it from the previous Pope either.”
“……”
This was absurd. Utterly absurd! I would definitely eliminate this practice in my generation! …I thought, the kind of thought any soldier from the peninsula might have at least once.
The Pope stayed only briefly before leaving. He was already busy, and the hero candidate’s visit had made him even busier.
Next to visit was Leonid.
“Whoa~ So even Nuna can catch a cold? That’s a new fact I’ve learned.”
“……”
“Still, seeing you like this makes me feel bad. Get well soon.”
“Thanks, Leonid.”
Even if he was a bit of a rascal, Leonid was always like this, and the concern in his voice felt genuine, so I thanked him.
“But lying there so quietly, you really look like a proper saintess.”
“…So I didn’t before?”
“Think about it. Who would see someone who beats up trainees in the training ground like dogs on a hot day, slices monsters to pieces with a spear, then laughs happily covered in blood, and think ‘saintess’? A blood-crazed witch, maybe.”
“Hey, you. Once I’m better, see you in the training ground.”
Leonid, who had been teasing me while I lay sick, turned pale as a sheet at my threat. Then, after a moment of thought…
“How about we train right now? No matter what, even in your current state I think I could—”
“What nonsense are you spouting! The Saintess is a patient, Leonid!”
“Ow! Aack! It hurts! It hurts, I said, Mari!”
“I’m hitting you because it’s supposed to hurt!”
After spouting nonsense, he was beaten on the back by Mari and chased out.
Next came Grandfather Bartholomew.
“Excellent.”
He examined my pale complexion while slicing an apple, then suddenly said,
“It sounds to me like you’re saying it’s good that I’m bedridden, old man.”
“That is correct.”
“?”
Wait, this old man too?
“Though your mind may be hazy while bedridden, be sure to remember this posture.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“I mean you should always speak in such a quiet, gentle voice, even normally.”
“……”
“A forlorn expression, a docile attitude, a soft voice. This is the first time since I met you that you’ve looked like a proper saintess.”
“……”
After lecturing me about my conduct as usual, he wished me well and left. Still, the fact that his scolding session was shorter than usual suggested he was worried about my health. …Probably.
Last to visit was Knight Commander Vargas.
“…Unbelievable.”
“Huh? What is?”
“To think such a quiet Saintess could exist. It’s truly remarkable.”
“……”
The blunt and rigid Knight Commander left after saying only that, silently tending to me before departing.
After he left, I seriously pondered. Just what had my reputation become within the church? I had clearly been living well, hadn’t I?
That was the question on my mind.
Anyway, after nearly a week of groaning in bed, I finally regained some strength and was able to get up.
“Wow, are you feeling better now?”
Mari clasped her hands together in delight upon seeing me rise from bed after a week.
“Yeah, I feel much better now. I really thought I was going to die.”
I answered while looking at my reflection in the mirror. After barely eating for a week, I had lost some weight, and my face looked quite haggard. My body still felt chilly, I had little strength, and digestion was difficult, so I could only eat thin soup, but at least I could move. That was something.
“Tomorrow, right? The verification ceremony for that hero candidate guy.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Since we couldn’t delay the hero candidate’s verification any longer, it had been set for tomorrow. Looking outside, darkness had fallen. Less than a day remained until the ceremony. I needed to recover my condition as much as possible and gather information about him while I was at it.
“Mari.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know anything about that guy? Where he’s from, what his name is, that sort of thing.”
“Ah, so you don’t know, Saintess?”
I nodded silently. It might not even be Cassian. Since our church’s actions had diverged significantly from the original story, the hero candidate might have changed as well.
“Black hair and red eyes. I heard he’s a former mercenary… and apparently incredibly handsome!”
“…Skip the useless information like that last part. Just his name and background.”
“His name is Cassian, and he’s from Kinosa, the capital of the Orphan Kingdom. He’s a commoner, so he has no surname.”
“I see.”
Yeah, as expected, that part hadn’t changed. But it didn’t matter. All I had to do was overcome this one obstacle to prevent the future where the church was destroyed by demons, just like in the original story.
“For now, I should just sleep without doing anything unnecessary.”
My body itched to move, but I held back and flopped onto the bed. Recovering my condition was the priority right now. Rather than staying up all night tense or swinging my spear once, getting proper rest came first.
“I’m going to sleep. Wake me up on time tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
Listening to Mari’s reply, I closed my eyes. Fortunately, I didn’t have any nightmares that night.