The Scent of Sin
“W-what are you saying?! Calling me smelly out of nowhere!”
The eleventh Saintess candidate and Cardinal Dominic’s adopted daughter. After racing such a long distance for roughly two weeks, my first impression of Benika Arendia was the absolute worst.
Appearance was clearly part of the Saintess candidate selection criteria, because Benika was undeniably a beautiful girl. Her blue hair and eyes gave off a pure, refreshing feel, and the long bangs that covered one eye added an extra layer of cuteness. Yet no matter how lovely she looked, an absolutely vile stench poured off her body.
It was an indescribable odor so overpowering that you couldn’t stand it without pinching your nose shut.
“I washed yesterday and again this morning! What smell are you even talking about?!”
“Don’t lie. You just rinsed your face and called it a day, didn’t you?”
“I did not!”
The holy knights lined up behind Benika muttered things like How rude! but I ignored them completely. I had zero interest in becoming a Saintess candidate, so I didn’t need to care about their opinions, and I couldn’t exactly pretend someone who reeked like that didn’t smell.
In fact, I wanted to give them a round of applause. How could they keep completely straight faces while staying around a Saintess candidate who smelled like this?
“Levia, Saintess candidate! No matter how young you are and how little you understand the world, this is far too rude for a first meeting!”
“I only spoke the truth?”
“I said I washed!”
Such an obvious lie. Watching her puff out her cheeks in anger was pretty cute, but I wasn’t falling for it.
“A Saintess candidate telling lies? Oh dear.”
“Aaaagh! I am not!”
“All right, all right… let’s wrap up the greetings here. We can have a proper conversation later. Benika, isn’t it about time you headed out for your healing support?”
Cardinal Dominic stepped in as mediator the moment he sensed the mood turning hostile.
“…I apologize. I became a little excited. I will see you this evening, Father.”
Having calmed her emotions, Benika led the holy knights past the checkpoint and into Ravendi. She didn’t leave quietly, of course. She shot me one sharp glare, let out a loud “Hmph!” and turned on her heel. The holy knights following her didn’t exactly give me friendly looks either.
Once Dominic’s own escort knights—following his orders—had driven the automatic carriage into Ravendi, Dominic muttered as if making sure I heard.
“The nominal purpose of fostering interaction between the Saintess candidates has officially sailed away.”
“It’s not like I wanted to get close to her anyway.”
“You… just what kind of fight were you trying to pick?”
“It wasn’t a fight, I was stating a fact… wait a second.”
Did that mean I was the only one who could smell the horrible stench coming off Benika?
“Just to be sure—none of you can smell anything strange on Benika?”
“Levia, what smell are you talking about from the eleventh Saintess candidate? This old man couldn’t detect anything.”
“Wait, you weren’t actually picking a fight?”
“She smelled rather nice, actually? Though of course you smell far more fragrant, Lady Levia!”
Every single member of the Entat Parish gave the same answer: they couldn’t smell it.
“Haha… god damn it.”
I scratched my head roughly with one hand, irritation boiling over.
“Uncle Dominic.”
“You… you noticed something, didn’t you?”
Cardinal Dominic’s senses were as sharp as ever.
“Part of me wants to renew our contract, but since I also misjudged the situation, I won’t push it.”
“That sounds like you’re saying my daughter doesn’t have the seed inside her body. Am I right?”
“Yeah. There’s nothing in Benika’s body. If there were, I would have seen it. Like I did with Cheska.”
When Benedict explained the Seed of Sin, he had definitely said it could take many forms and appear in many ways.
“You said you could sense the seed, Uncle Dominic. You told me Cheska became the same way.”
“Can you still feel the seed’s energy?”
Dominic nodded, and Cheska followed up.
“Yes. I did feel something sticky and unpleasant.”
After confirming both their answers, I spoke with roughly half certainty.
“It’s an object. The Seed of Sin is embedded somewhere among Benika’s belongings.”
Ravendi was originally a small village on the western edge of Eliaque. But once it became the point where the Savior Empire to the southwest and the Adventurer’s Union to the northwest met at the border, the town steadily grew into a proper city. The reason could be called both economic and religious.
The Adventurer’s Union wanted a steady supply of holy water. The Savior Empire, which had only just stopped its seemingly endless territorial expansion across the continent, wanted to soothe public sentiment and dispatch priests to heal the empire’s citizens. Ravendi was chosen as the single location that could solve both problems at once.
Because of that background, any priest with skill and ambition supposedly begged to be posted to Ravendi. After all, it was the perfect place to gain more experience and connections.
According to Cardinal Dominic, Benika—the Saintess candidate—spent her days crossing over to the Adventurer’s Union side for healing support for similar reasons. On days she didn’t go, she helped produce holy water inside Ravendi.
Just like back in Tamia Village, we sat in the dining hall on the first floor of the lodging that Cardinal Dominic had rented out entirely. The owner had been sent away, and we occupied the largest table as we listened to Dominic’s rough explanation.
“Adventurer’s Union? Is that the place where adventurers are kings?”
“The Adventurer’s Union is not a country. It is simply managed by the larger adventurer parties and the Tactica Company.”
I had asked Jacob after a question popped up during the explanation, but his answer only created more questions. I decided to save the detailed explanation for later. That wasn’t what mattered right now.
“Now that we have the general information, let’s move to the main topic. Levia, why do you think it’s an object?”
“Uncle Dominic asked me because I can see and remove the seed. But there was nothing inside her body. Yet I was the only one who could smell that stench on Benika.”
If the person suspected of carrying the Seed of Sin had no seed inside her, and only I could detect the smell… then it had to be affecting her from the outside. It was possible the person herself was the seed, but my gut told me that wasn’t the case.
“It doesn’t seem to be the person, and it’s not the land. So the only thing left is an object.”
Ever since I met Benika my trusty stench sensor had been working overtime. It should have kicked in sooner, damn it. Guess the sensor doesn’t come with future-sight capabilities.
“I suspected an object too. That’s why I burned every single one of Benika’s belongings… but the smell remained.”
“And Benika just let you…?”
“It was right after she had become a Saintess candidate, so I persuaded her that burning everything for a fresh start would be best.”
In that situation she would have…
“She hid it. It must have been something incredibly precious to her.”
“…It appears so.”
“Any idea what the object might be?”
“…None. What a pathetic father I am, knowing so little about my own daughter.”
“Then that’s what we need to find out first.”
Or we could just storm the place where Benika was staying right now, find it, and destroy it. That actually sounded like a good idea. If it was an object, it had to be somewhere in her lodging.
“She’s out doing healing support right now, isn’t she? How about we sneak in before she returns and destroy it?”
Cardinal Dominic readily agreed to my suggestion.
“I will take responsibility for any problems that arise afterward. Let’s go at once.”
Dominic, who desperately wanted the matter resolved quickly, wished to carry out the plan immediately. The ones moving were me, Dominic, and Cheska.
The only person currently at the lodging Benika was using was her escort knight Riolk. If we could just divert his attention, sneaking inside would be no problem.
The plan we came up with at high speed was simple. Dominic would use his position as Benika’s adoptive father to lure Riolk away by inviting him for tea. Meanwhile, Cheska and I would sneak into Benika’s room through the window, locate the object with the Seed of Sin, and destroy it.
But life never goes according to plan. Variables always exist, and this operation was no exception.
“Strange. I don’t see Sir Riolk anywhere.”
Even when we heard that the knight we were supposed to lure away was missing, I thought something felt off but still believed things would go smoothly. After all, we managed to slip inside without any trouble.
That was as far as “smoothly” went.
No matter how thoroughly we searched Benika’s room, we couldn’t find any trace of the Seed of Sin.
“Maybe it wasn’t an object after all?”
“No. It is an object. It was definitely here.”
It really had been. The proof was the small box hidden beside Benika’s bed. Even though the object itself was gone, the exact same stench that clung to Benika’s body still wafted from it.
“She took it with her. Either Benika or someone else.”
With no other choice, we decided to wait for Benika’s return and headed back to our own lodging. That evening, however, Benika did not come back to Ravendi.
“This is terrible! Saintess candidate Benika…!”
“What happened? Did my daughter get hurt somewhere?”
What returned were the holy knights who had been escorting Benika, along with a single piece of news.
“She has gone missing.”