Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Full Moon Festival (1)
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One of nature's greatest and most amazing qualities was that morning always came, no matter how many things happened.
Someone who didn't fear the arrival of morning would possess a type of optimism utterly foreign to me.
I was afraid to open my eyes.
Especially lately, when everything was just getting worse and worse.
"Is today the Full Moon Festival...?"
In the end, the day of the festival had arrived without us knowing who would take the role of Saint Johanna.
Our guess was Adrian Nel Elman, who had the second-highest grades after Makina.
Of course, Adrian was the quintessential scholarly type, holed up in the Silver Chalice Hall without ever venturing out, so it was doubtful he'd willingly step up for such a role.
'I don't think I've ever even seen his face properly.'
It wasn't as if we could drag him out by force when he spent one day on some research project, the next on another.
But if he were to take the role of saint at this Full Moon Festival, that would change things.
Just as Shirley had tearfully accepted the role of Aegis's incarnation out of obligation, the role of Saint Johanna was an exceedingly sacred and honorable duty with no right of refusal.
*Knock knock knock.*
As I took the burial shroud I'd hung in the closet and draped it over myself, someone knocked on the door.
It was a knock that felt extremely cautious and polite.
"Yes. Who is it?"
Out of habit, I slipped the loaded pistol from my pants pocket and opened the door.
The figure visible through the crack was, unexpectedly, someone surprising.
"Enoch?"
"Good day, Cadet Arma Kruz. It's been a while."
"Likewise. What brings you here?"
Every time Enoch had come to my room, I'd ended up being dragged off by Makina.
This time I hadn't done anything wrong (and thinking back, I hadn't really done anything wrong before either), but his sudden appearance made me tense up anyway.
"You haven't heard?"
"Don't jinx me like that—please just go back—"
"I can't do that."
The moment I tried to close the door, sensing some ominous conversation was about to unfold, Enoch swiftly wedged his sword into the gap.
It was a valuable blade with green gems embedded at both ends of the guard and on the round pommel at the hilt's end, yet he handled it like this.
As the son of a merchant, it made my eyes widen, but I didn't bother pointing it out.
Had he not anticipated I'd treat him coldly?
Enoch looked troubled, his face creased in thought.
'This guy's pretty strong, too.'
My attention slipped for a moment, and I tried to push the sword away and shut the door, but the blade jammed in the gap didn't budge an inch.
To think someone with this kind of strength got called weak by Shirley—it was downright unfair.
"Sigh, I never should have opened this door. I'm yielding especially because you look cold."
"...Thank you."
Enoch bowed his head politely in response to my quip, then slowly entered the room.
He refixed the sheathed sword to its baldric, examined me and the shroud I'd prepared, and said,
"It'll go well with a stole."
"A stole? You mean the long cloth draped over priestly robes?"
"Yes. You'll be wearing one soon enough."
As he spoke, Enoch mimed draping something around his neck like a scarf.
A stole did basically look like a scarf, so that was the right way to wear it.
The problem was that I, not even in the Crown of Thorns Class, had no reason to wear one.
"Sigh, looks like overwork's making you delirious. You haven't forgotten my major, have you?"
"The role of Saint Johanna goes to the most outstanding cadet of the year, regardless of major."
"..."
What was this? My conversation with Enoch felt strangely like it was going in circles.
Why bring up an unfamiliar proper noun like 'Saint Johanna' specifically while talking to me? It was unsettling.
"Of course, the most outstanding this year is Cadet Makina Kristy, student council president, but she's currently confined."
"Wait a minute..."
"The next candidate, Cadet Adrian Nel Elman, ran away."
"Ran away...? To where? No, before that—what's the reason for telling me this?"
"Come along, Saint Johanna."
"Huh?"
Enoch grabbed me in an outright arrest-like hold and started dragging me along.
Pulled along a couple of steps without knowing what was happening, I finally snapped to my senses.
"Saint Johanna—!?"
***
The grand finale of the Full Moon Festival was the event where one outstanding cadet, chosen for the honor, climbed a wooden tower ablaze with fire and kissed the Star Cross at the top.
That was [Saint Johanna's Ordeal].
And I, Arma Kruz, had been selected as this year's Saint Johanna.
"...No matter how I think about it, this just doesn't feel right."
I never should have opened the door for Enoch.
I'd been dragged here in his grip and was now confined to the preparation room behind the chapel.
"What's not right about it? Oh, don't step on the hem. It's soaked in holy water, so it'll be damp."
The moment we arrived at the preparation room, my shoes were taken, and cadets from the 'Full Moon Festival Preparation Committee' doused me with buckets of water from both sides.
It was a treatment to add fire resistance to the shroud, since I'd have to climb a burning tower.
"I have no idea what's going on here. Is this really okay?"
"Perfectly so~."
Moonlight filtered softly through a cross-shaped window high in the ceiling.
At my feet lay an array of flower-decorated candelabras, oil burners for incense, colorful silk ribbons, and lace embroidered with gold thread, all scattered about.
"Johanna, dear~ Could you lift your head a bit?"
The cadet with a voice like rolling jade beads and hair the color of beach sand was Eugene Scale, a vocal major.
Eugene wasn't particularly gifted in magic, but she was famous for her devout faith and was a member of the chapel choir.
"Come on, let's talk this out. Where's President Makina?"
"I heard she's confined? But she did participate in the festival."
"—Yes, there's something I wanted to ask her briefly—"
"Don't lower your head~"
"......"
Eugene was comparing me to a painting hanging behind my back, trying various adornments on and off.
The saint's makeup changed every year, so she was matching me to illustrations cataloging the looks.
"No, really—is this okay? As you know, I'm..."
"You're resisting quite a bit, Cadet Arma Kruz~. Lord Aegis is the god who descends upon all things. That means He is present even in the heart of Cadet Kruz, who claims to have no religion."
What a magnanimous Lord Aegis that was.
I had no choice but to humor Eugene as she went through trial and error, placing an ornate coronet shaped like a halo on my head, then a gold crown modeled after a laurel wreath, then a silver crown mimicking the Thorn Crown.
"Ah, this one's the best. It matches the bracelet on your arm, too."
Eugene finally found a look she liked and cleared away all the pinned-up illustrations except one.
'It looks like a nicely dressed skull.'
The doll in that faceless drawing wore a silver Thorn Crown, a Star Cross necklace of twisted silver and gold thread, and upper-body decorations woven from silver thread over the shroud.
The silver thread upper decoration was a kind of belt: once draped around the neck and fixed at the waist, the sagging threads resembled eerie ribs.
"Isn't this... a bit much?"
"This is barely a fraction of what President Makina wore last year."
"Well, that's true, but."
Her words brought last year's Makina to mind.
Back then, Makina had worn dozens of accessories, from the halo-shaped crown and necklace I'd tried first (and quickly removed) to rings connecting down to her fingertips.
Every time the gems caught the moonlight and sparkled, Makina looked like a mosaic pieced together from shattered jewels.
'Compared to that, at least I look human...'
Since my fists were clenched and I hadn't spread my fingers, I could skip the five silver rings meant for them. The earrings had scared me the most—she'd tried to pierce my ears on the spot, saying we could just seal them up after. I'd nearly fainted.
It wouldn't really strain my heart that much, but claiming my chronic condition let me dodge that bizarre ordeal of piercing my ears for the saint role.
"Haa... Is it finally over?"
"Let me see."
Eugene leaned back, slowly scanning me up and down as if appraising.
A satisfied smile soon bloomed on her face.
"Perfect. You should dress like this all the time."
"If I went to class like this, the weight would make my head topple right off."
"Ahaha, such exaggeration!"
Sorry, but it was no exaggeration.
The silver Thorn Crown on my head was surprisingly heavy—I was still startled by it.
Eugene gave my ornate robes and accessories a final check, then cleared away the incense burner and unused baubles.
"You remember the order of events?"
Despite insisting Lord Aegis had descended upon me, her faith in me apparently wasn't that high, as she quizzed me on the ritual sequence.
Ten years in, and she thought I might not know this? I lightly recited the order as she wanted.
"After the song ends and all the candles go out, exit through the chapel's main doors."
"And then?"
"As the candles relight one by one, arrive at the park with the fountain, where the fire will be lit on the wooden tower by the cliff."
Eugene nodded in satisfaction, clapped her hands once, and said,
"Excellent. And the finale?"
"...Are we really doing this whole Q&A? Climb barefoot to the top of the burning tower, kiss the Star Cross, and meditate."
"With that perpetual deadpan look, I thought you weren't paying attention."
Even the best-intentioned event feels that way when you're forcibly conscripted.
But that wasn't something to say in front of the devout Eugene.
I gave a vague smile and stood up.
"The moon's out. It starts soon, right?"
"Yes. Everyone's already begun praying. We just need Saint Johanna to enter."
From the moment I stood, I had become <Johanna>.
Eugene's tone shifted—no longer playful, but grave and solemn.
*He creates, He creates.*
*Faith in that holy One shall not waver. He shall soothe our weary hearts.*
The hymns leaking through the slightly open door had reached their peak.
But dressed in this shroud now, with the hymns and my ornate garb, it was hard to shake the feeling that it all resembled a lavish funeral parlor.
"Let's go."
The circumstances of becoming Johanna were absurd, but since I'd been chosen, I figured I might as well do my best.
*Creak.*
The moment I steeled myself, opened the preparation room door, and stepped onto the long path to the chapel—
*I am not, afraid, of the star, cross.*
A voice, vivid enough that I couldn't tell if it was real or fake, rang in my ears.
"......[Guardian Angel]."
I ground my teeth without thinking.
But Eugene, walking ahead, heard nothing and simply strode forward with light steps.
*Now, let's dig, in—*
In that instant, ravenous hunger hit me like madness.
Something was wrong.
As I crossed the chapel threshold, a strange anticipation built that this hunger would be sated.
The candles went out all at once with a whoosh.