Who Is the Favorite to Win?
"Hey! Didn't the Saintess just ask who you are? State your identity at once!"
One of the contestants barked the demand while glaring straight at me.
"You there! Quiet down! No one is obligated to follow my every word. Everyone has the right to act as they please!"
Saintess Angelica scolded the contestant who had shouted at me.
"I—I'm sorry. I was so worried about you, Saintess, that I spoke out of turn."
"I appreciate the concern. But please don't do that again."
"I'll keep that in mind."
When the Saintess first entered the examination hall, my impression of her had been pure nobility and hauteur.
Now she felt more like an elementary school teacher.
"I got a little too excited and committed a breach of etiquette. I'm sorry."
She then bent one knee in a young lady's curtsy and offered me an apology.
Saintess Angelica's apologetic posture was unmistakably the one noble daughters used.
And yet…
That is spectacularly awkward.
Her curtsy was clumsy. It didn't look like a gesture worn into the body so much as a robot with bad coding, all creaks and stutters.
If she were truly of noble birth, something that basic would never look this stiff. So the rumor that the Saintess came from common stock wasn't a lie after all.
There was hardly a soul in the Empire who hadn't heard of Angelica Evangeline.
The Cariel Church was the faith of nearly every person in the Empire, and Angelica was the sole living Saintess of that church in this generation.
She might well have been more famous than the Emperor himself.
To most commoners, the Emperor is basically some distant middle-aged man they'll never meet in their entire lives.
An emperor's name only ever reached the common people in one of two cases: either he was a sage-king who raised the nation to glory, or a tyrant who ran it into the ground.
Usually, it was better if no one knew the Emperor's name at all.
A Saintess, on the other hand, traveled from village to village helping people. Of course she would be more popular than the Emperor.
"Ahem! Allow me to introduce myself properly! My name is Angelica Evangeline, Saintess of the Cariel Church. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Angelica cleared her throat and finished her self-introduction.
Once again, it sounded less like a noble young lady presenting herself and more like a simple country girl saying hello.
Silver hair, emerald-green eyes, and a face of exceptional beauty. Outwardly, she gave off the distinct impression of someone you approached only with great caution.
That haughty first impression shattered into pieces in less than ten minutes.
"I'm Rix. It's an honor to meet you, Saintess."
"An honor? That's far too much. I'm just one believer among the countless faithful of the goddess Cariel. I'm not anyone special."
Every contestant nearby was watching the two of us. Angelica, utterly unbothered by the attention, kept talking as if nothing were amiss.
"Which branch of the Church are you from, Mr. Rix?"
"Saintess Evangeline, I don't belong to any Church branch."
"Then you must have joined recently and haven't been assigned yet? I'll recommend you for the central branch!"
Angelica had already decided I was a member of the Church and was carrying on the conversation from there.
"Saintess. I am not affiliated with the Church."
"What…? Ah! H-how can that be!"
Angelica covered her mouth and let out a gasp of dismay. Her green eyes went round with shock.
Is my not belonging to the Church really something to be that heartbroken over?
"You have enormous potential, Mr. Rix. I can feel Divine Power from you. A force that's incredibly strong and pure!"
"May I ask what this Divine Power actually is?"
"Simply put, it's the power that lets you converse with the goddess Cariel."
The power to speak with a god.
I was starting to understand why Angelica sensed Divine Power in me.
Of course, I'm not talking to the goddess Cariel… but I suppose the essence of the power is the same.
I could do something similar with Yongwang-shin. That was probably what she was reading as Divine Power.
As I was sorting that out, something else struck me as odd.
"Saintess Evangeline. I more or less understand that Divine Power is the ability to converse with a god. But that raises another question."
"If you're curious about anything, please ask as much as you like! The desire to seek out the divine is a wonderful attitude!"
"What exactly is the healing ability that the priests of the Cariel Church use?"
Priests and clergy of the Church could perform healing arts that bordered on magic. They cured the sick and restored the wounded. In this world, the clergy filled the role of modern doctors. They were the physicians of the Middle Ages.
"Healing arts manifest in the process of conversing with the goddess Cariel."
"So you're saying the healing isn't the priest's own power, but something borrowed from the goddess?"
"Yes, exactly! You're so quick to understand! Just as I'd expect from someone with such tremendous talent!"
Well, of course I understood quickly. I was doing something similar myself, so I already knew the mechanism.
Borrowing a god's power to intervene in the human world. A shaman was essentially a middle manager mediating between gods and people. Priests seemed to occupy a similar position.
"Can all the priests of the Cariel Church make prophecies, then?"
"No, they can't. Priests and prophets are different. The goddess Cariel loves life and peace. That's why priests can borrow her power for healing arts—but seeing the future is an entirely separate domain."
"I see. Thank you for the kind explanation."
Cariel was a goddess specialized in life. That was why the abilities borrowed from her power were limited to healing.
Hmm. I don't have the Saintess's power to bring someone on the brink of death back to life. So our specializations are different, then.
Compared to Cariel, Yongwang-shin possessed a more general-purpose kind of power. Seeing the past and future was a given, and some degree of healing was possible as well. It wasn't fantasy-world healing magic that could regenerate severed limbs, but curing a cold or driving out disease was well within reach.
"I'm certain you could become an incredible priest, Mr. Rix!"
Angelica's emerald eyes sparkled as she edged closer to me, completely indifferent to the stares of the other contestants.
"Come with me to the Church. I'll raise you into a splendid priest myself!"
This is getting awkward…
This was a personal invitation from the Saintess herself. Flatly refusing could start any number of rumors.
That Saintess is far too naive. I don't think she meant to put me on the spot, but not understanding the power she holds is a problem in its own right.
People of high station could land others in trouble without even intending to. Angelica approaching me with pure-hearted innocence was plenty dangerous. Handle the response poorly, and the Church would mark me—and once that happened, there was no telling what might follow. If the Church decided to force the issue, they could charge me with insulting the Saintess and send inquisitors after me.
She's a walking landmine.
One wrong move, and she explodes.
"Mr. Rix. Come with me."
Landmine Angelica locked eyes with me and asked again. I was still scrambling for a natural way to decline when—
"Lady Angelica Evangeline. The examination is about to begin. Please save private conversations for later."
A guide stepped in at the perfect moment.
"Ah, I'm sorry! I got a little too carried away on my own. I'll be quiet now!"
Her cheerful voice rang through the waiting area of the examination hall. The declaration that she would be quiet was louder than anyone else's.
Thanks to the guide's intervention, Angelica finally took a small step back from me.
"We will now begin the first round of the main tournament! All contestants, please gather!"
The people who had been scattered across the examination hall waiting began to drift together one by one.
Sixty-four contestants had advanced to the main tournament. These were the elite who had survived round after round of preliminaries that had eliminated countless others.
"Contestants, we will now move to the examination venue!"
What? So this wasn't the examination venue?
The contestants around me, myself included, looked around in confusion.
"The examination will take place in the Central Plaza. Please follow me!"
The guide strode forward with confident authority.
"If the examination is in the Central Plaza, that means…"
"It means we're to become a spectacle for the public, doesn't it?"
"Ahem. It's a little disagreeable, but if it's His Majesty the Emperor's will, there's nothing to be done."
The contestants grumbled, yet they followed the guide without further protest. Having come this far into the main tournament, no one was about to quit over a scrap of wounded pride.
Together, we made our way toward the Central Plaza.
"Woooah! Who do you think will win among those people?"
"Obviously the Saintess!"
"Don't count out the Guildmaster of the Prophet Guild!"
"Shouldn't the head of the Imperial Prophets—the one His Majesty trusts—be the one to win?"
The spectators' chatter drifted over to us.
The favorites for victory seemed to be the Saintess, the Guildmaster of the Prophet Guild, and the head of the Imperial Prophets.
Not a single person expected me to win.