Operation: Run Away
Time feels endlessly distant and slow when you're looking toward the future, but close and fast when reflecting on the past. The two weeks I spent unconscious after getting tricked by my other self feels like it happened just yesterday, yet somehow eight whole years have slipped by. I'm thirteen now. So much has happened since the day I regained my past-life memories. Really... so much. Enough to make me genuinely want to quit this whole Saintess candidate gig.
The Saintess is chosen alongside the Hero whenever a threat that could destroy the world approaches. It's usually one of the Demon Kings sealed away long ago breaking free, with the cycle happening roughly every hundred years. That doesn't mean the threat always refers to a Demon King, though. Some Demon Kings fought on the side of humanity, and a few previous Heroes even married them. There were also peaceful eras with no threats at all. The last time the world faced real danger was two hundred years ago, I think? There wasn't one a hundred years back, but the Demon King whose seal broke then was vicious and warlike, so it sparked a continent-wide war.
Regardless of whether they directly prevented destruction or were chosen as a precaution, the Saintess and Hero stood at the forefront to save humanity. Naturally, that meant noble and exalted status with overwhelmingly powerful authority.
To the people of this world, I must look like someone incredibly glorious and honorable. "She could become humanity's savior! What a noble position!" they'd say.
But as I've said a million times, I hate it. Saintess candidate, the actual Saintess—everything about it. Even if I bend a million times and somehow develop enough responsibility and sense of duty to become the Saintess and stop whatever world-ending threat shows up... the problem is that the enemy isn't only on the outside.
As the Saintess candidate herself, I have to focus on a different point in that sentence. Not on how the Saintess is "honorable, glorious, noble, and possesses immense power," but on the part that says possesses immense power.
In the eight years since my second round with the Clown, how many assassination attempts have there been against me just because I'm a Saintess candidate? Including the fresh one from yesterday, it's exactly one hundred. One hundred times!
Even families or kingdoms with cutthroat succession wars probably don't go that far. The imperial grandchildren in the neighboring Savior Empire get along so well as siblings that they don't even have succession disputes!
That's why I want to quit being a Saintess candidate.
"Eliaque is rotten to the damn core."
"...I agree with you completely, Lady Levia."
"A future Saintess shouldn't use such vulgar language."
The two women reacting to my bitter complaint about my tragic life. Cheska is the one agreeing with me, while Benika is the one calling out my swearing. Even though they've left their girlhood behind, they both still have somewhat youthful faces. They look like they could pass for teenagers despite being in their mid-twenties.
The only real difference from eight years ago was their outfits. Cheska, who used to specialize in speed-focused swordsmanship, reached the pinnacle of Master stage and ditched her light armor completely. Now she insists on wearing only that uniform. Benika was dressed in a maid outfit.
Oh, there was one more change with Cheska. Her heart had grown bigger. Aha! So that's why she stopped wearing light armor. Benika was... pretty much the same. She has a kind heart and is deep on the inside, but it doesn't show much on the surface.
"Why are you looking at my chest with such a pitiful gaze, Lady Levia?"
I didn't bother answering. I'd learned that some things are better left unsaid out of consideration for the other person. Instead, I picked up the teacup in front of me and took a sip.
Slurp. It's bitter. They call it high quality, but why does it taste so awful? It's not even coffee. Just like my life.
"Benika. Switch this to hot chocolate."
"No. Only by appreciating the original taste and aroma of black tea can one become a mature lady."
"That's all superstition and outdated nonsense. Change it."
Lady my ass. The person inside this body is a man, so there's nothing I can't say.
"Throwing a tantrum won't work either."
Stubborn Benika. No wonder your heart is so small when your tolerance is this narrow.
Unable to break Benika's stubbornness, I gulped down the black tea in one go.
Slurp! Ugh, it's bitter.
"That is not proper teatime etiquette, Lady Levia."
"Benika. I'm on break right now, okay? Look over there. The Holy Front knights are all lying down taking it easy!"
Where I pointed, every single member of the Holy Front Knight Order was sprawled comfortably across the training ground, resting. That's right. I was currently enjoying(?) teatime with Benika and Cheska. In the training ground!
Who the hell came up with the idea of setting up a tea table in the training ground anyway? It had to be one of the three of us. Bout, Jacob, or—most suspiciously—Benika.
"Why do I have to get nagged at while I'm resting!"
"A future Saintess must maintain basic etiquette! Besides, those gentlemen aren't resting—they're the ones you knocked out, Lady Levia!"
"Grr! How many times do I have to say it! I'm not becoming a Saintess! And those uncles didn't actually faint! They're just pretending!"
Twitch! See that? They're twitching! Uncle Chunbong, I saw everything. You'd better prepare yourself later.
"From the start, why would you need things like the proper way to drink tea or watching your speech and conduct to become a Saintess? If there's no world-ending threat, everything's perfect. And if there is one, what you need is strength, not etiquette!"
The mastermind behind the world's destruction isn't going to say something like, "Hmm... Let's have some tea first. I'm planning to destroy the world in such-and-such way. What's your opinion?"
"No matter how many times I tell you, becoming the Saintess means you'll have opportunities to converse with every powerful figure in the world. You must prepare for that!"
"I'm telling you I'm not becoming a Saintess!!!!!!"
"No! This Benika Arendia will definitely turn you into a Saintess to repay the grace Lady Levia showed me by preventing my destruction! As your maid!"
Benika clenched both fists, eyes sparkling as she spouted that horrifying declaration. Why does "repaying the favor" have to mean handing me a poisoned chalice?
"It's not too late even now, Benika. Can't you just go back to being the eleventh Saintess candidate?"
"No. I lack the qualifications. I realized it that day eight years ago! The only one truly suited for the position of Saintess is Lady Levia Leviathan!"
"That again? I only took on the request from Uncle Dominic! I even got expensive compensation for it!"
"Aren't you two tired of this? How can you keep fighting over the exact same thing every single time?"
Cheska took a sip of her black tea and pointed out our bickering.
Of course I'm tired, Cheska. Eight years ago Benika suddenly settled down in Entat Parish, declaring she'd become my attendant. Under the pretext of helping me become a Saintess with all her strength, she's done nothing but nag me about everything. No skipping prayer studies! No swearing! No wearing pants! No unauthorized outings! No secret financial dealings with Jacob! Forbidden, forbidden, forbidden!
It got so bad that Father handed all the nagging duty over to Benika, and even Cheska got depressed, saying, "It seems Benika would make a better mother for Lady Levia than I would..."
I was starting to suspect that after the Seed of Sin was removed, she'd evolved into the Nagging Demon King!
Of course, I never just nodded and said "Yes, I understand~" in response to her lectures. Every time, I'd fight back. I'd tell her to return to being the eleventh candidate, and Benika would insist she didn't have the qualifications and had given up, but then she'd burn with determination to make me a Saintess no matter what.
Damn it! Don't give up! The important thing is an unyielding spirit!
I even complained to Uncle Dominic whenever he visited periodically. I asked if he was really just going to sit back and watch his daughter become my servant, but he said he respected her choice. That he could entrust her to me with confidence!
Don't entrust her!
"Even if I wanted to return to being a Saintess candidate now, I can't. So please just accept it, Lady Levia."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I received word from Father yesterday. All the complicated procedures have been completed, and with His Holiness the Pope's approval, my qualifications as a Saintess candidate were revoked as of yesterday."
"!!!!"
What an enviable fate! Be honest, Benika. You're totally bragging about that! My dad won't do anything like that for me!
"Now then. Please sit down quickly, Lady Levia. Today I will engrave proper teatime manners into your very soul!"
"Grr! No way! I refuse!"
At least not today! It'll definitely twist my guts with jealousy. Absolutely not!
"Cheska. Help me stop Benika. She's worse than usual today."
I sent out an SOS to Cheska. At this rate I'd clearly be stuck with Benika all day. Since Cheska was my guard knight, she'd definitely take my side. Like she always had.
"Hmm... This time, I think it would be better to follow Benika's advice, Lady Levia."
But not today. Cheska had betrayed me.
"Thank you, Sir Cheska. This is incredibly rude of me to ask, but may I know why you're taking my side today?"
Cheska, you traitor! I trusted you!
"In my heart I'd like to take Lady Levia's side as usual... but given the circumstances, I believe you should at least learn proper teatime manners."
"Circumstances...? What circumstances?"
The traitor Cheska's answer was truly shocking.
"It's because of Lady Levia's engagement. The reason Lord Benedict is currently absent is that he went to retrieve your fiancé."
What... what did I just hear? Cheska, Cheska, what are you saying?
"Wh... what...? What did I do? Who did Father go to pick up...?"
"Your engagement, Lady Levia. Lord Benedict has gone to bring back your fiancé."
"..."
Run away right now, Levia Leviathan!
Deep in the Lockmihorn Mountains north of Entat Parish, in the dead of night.
I had slipped out without anyone noticing and was wandering around here. For someone who had just survived an assassination attempt the night before, this was an incredibly dangerous thing to do. But there was a reason I had to.
I had someone to meet.
"Skadi. You're there, aren't you?"
When I called her name, a human-shaped figure slithered out from the darkness. As if it had been there the entire time.
Copper skin and silver hair. A woman wearing hot pants, a tank top, and a jacket with quite revealing attire. The fact that she could stand so casually in the middle of the night in Lockmihorn Mountain—where magic beasts occasionally appeared—proved she wasn't an ordinary woman. The two daggers attached to her thick leather belt hinted at her profession, and her ears, two to three times longer than a human's, revealed her race.
An elf. And not just any elf—a dark elf with coppery skin.
"You called, Master?"
Her name was Skadi. She was known as the Assassin Master in the underworld. A dark elf who had once taken a request to kill me, only to be defeated instead and become my collaborator. One of the new connections I'd made over the past eight years.
I still didn't know why she called me Master, though.
"What about the ones from yesterday?"
"I destroyed their mana hearts and erased all their memories."
"Good work."
"Thank you."
"Who was behind it this time?"
"Not the follower faction. These were directly instigated by another cardinal."
"The eighth cardinal?"
"Yes. Most likely."
The "most likely" meant she wasn't completely certain.
"Then... my reward."
Skadi demanded compensation for handling the matter in my place. It was something we'd agreed on when forming this relationship, but honestly I still felt reluctant. Because that so-called reward was... well, it was something.
"Do we... really have to do that?"
"Yes."
"Can't we do it next time? I'll take care of it all at once then."
"Ugh... to torment me like this. I see. This too is a reward...! Understood."
...One thing I hadn't mentioned was that Skadi wasn't exactly normal either.
"It's not torment. I just don't have time. It took some effort to sneak out today."
"Yes. I'll take it that way."
She clearly didn't get it.
"To get to the main point, I think we need to move up the plan."
"Wasn't the original plan... around next year?"
"Yeah. That's right. A variable came up."
"Unfortunately I was busy dealing with the vermin this time and didn't hear about it. What variable?"
"They told me to get engaged."
"...Shall I slit the fiancé's throat?"
Don't pull out your dagger with such a bloodthirsty expression. It's scary.
"No."
"Then?"
"I'm moving the plan to three days from now."
As Skadi said, the original plan had been a last-resort option to execute next year. But Father had refused to allow the revocation of my Saintess candidate qualifications until the very end. And now he was forcing an engagement on me without even saying a word? An engagement I wouldn't have agreed to even if he had asked? You crossed the line first, Father. No—Benedict. If you've endured it for eight years, you've endured long enough, haven't you?
"I'll wrap up everything within three days and leave Entat Parish. Get ready, Skadi."