Don't Worry, Everyone! The Entat Parish Is Safe! (1)
The first floor of the Grand Entat Cathedral. The place where people offered prayers to the Goddess of Light, Lumentis. It was so empty that calling it a grand cathedral felt like a joke, yet for the past eight years, one person had visited without missing a single day.
That person was none other than Benika Arendia. Every single day, she came here to pray to Lumentis. At first, her prayers had been sincere requests for her father Dominic’s health and blessings on Levia’s path forward… but lately…
Benika’s recent prayers had become closer to complaints wearing the mask of devotion.
“Good heavens! What part of that room could possibly belong to a member of the clergy?! Barbells, dumbbells, and every mysterious magical tool under the sun!”
Benika had gone to tidy Levia’s bedroom just moments ago and witnessed a truly shocking scene. Normally, Levia would have stuffed everything into her oversized spatial pouch and kept the room relatively neat. But for some reason, today the room was packed wall-to-wall with training equipment, strange tools, and countless magical gadgets she had bought simply because they looked interesting.
The barbells and dumbbells were so heavy that even after casting body reinforcement on herself, Benika couldn’t move them. All she could manage was sorting the magical tools by size.
“And yesterday was just as bad! Tea-time etiquette is the absolute basics of the basics! Someone who can do it perfectly when she tries…!”
If she were being honest, Benika actually agreed with Levia’s opinion to some extent. In the face of the world’s impending destruction, something like tea-time manners or proper ladylike refinement really wasn’t necessary. However… people would definitely look down on her for it.
The vain nobles would praise her as the savior to her face while mocking her behind her back for failing at even the most basic things. There was no need to look that far into the future. Levia had already experienced it once before.
Some of the holy knights who had been escorting Benika had hurled vicious criticism at five-year-old Levia, asking how someone without even a shred of holy power could be called a saintess candidate. In the end, they had been punished so severely by Dominic, Levia, and Archbishop Carlo that they begged to be killed instead. They were stripped of their knighthood… but there was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again.
No one would dare disparage Levia for her martial prowess or holy power, but there would certainly be factions that tried to tarnish her image in other ways. Benika refused to let her benefactor—who had now become a precious friend—suffer such humiliation.
On that day when she had been betrayed by someone she trusted and nearly committed an unforgivable sin while consumed by despair, Benika had witnessed the true form of a saintess. Levia, who saved countless people in moments of crisis and crushed her enemies with overwhelming might, was the one truly worthy of being called a saintess.
If not Levia, then no one could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the hero who shared the same destiny as the world’s savior. That was why she had made up her mind.
She would repay the grace she had received by supporting Levia so that she could focus entirely on becoming a proper saintess. With that resolve, she had volunteered to become Levia’s personal maid… but there was one serious problem.
She had severely underestimated just how little she understood the people of the Entat Parish…!
In the Entat Parish, Levia was practically a god and invincible. The members of the Holy Front Knights were holy knights in name only—they were basically a band of lunatics. Despite having received their ordination in Lumentis’s name, they prayed to Levia instead. That tendency had only grown worse after Levia personally trained them. From what Benika had heard, their training under Levia had been more hellish than anything they had ever experienced before.
Even to Benika, Levia’s training style looked no different from that of a vicious demon. She would heal them when they collapsed, force them back up, and repeat the process—an utterly cruel method. The results were outstanding; every single member of the Holy Front Knights had advanced to a higher realm. Still, Benika had worried they might harbor resentment and try to harm Levia, so she had cautiously asked Vice-Captain Jacob about it.
His answer had completely shattered her common sense.
…
For some reason, Benika had felt a chill run down her spine at the time.
Archbishop Carlo was a complete granddaughter-obsessed fool, and Cheska, Levia’s escort knight, followed Levia’s every word without question. Cardinal Benedict certainly worried about Levia and cherished her, but… his faith in her was absolute. He offered occasional advice but otherwise practiced a hands-off approach full of trust. In short…
Everyone in the Entat Parish spoiled Levia rotten!
No matter how often Levia declared she would quit being a saintess candidate, the Holy Front Knights treated it as a joke, Archbishop Carlo and Cheska never opposed her, and Cardinal Benedict simply shrugged and said she would become one whether she liked it or not.
Benika felt that drastic measures were necessary. This environment was terrible for a child’s upbringing. If things continued like this, an arrogant, spoiled saintess might be born! As someone who owed Levia her life, as her best friend, older sister figure, and senior, Benika felt a heavy responsibility to shape Levia into a refined and mature person—no matter how difficult the process might be.
“Just who is behind this?! Those wicked people! I don’t know who they are, but because you keep sending assassins, Levia is becoming more and more twisted!!”
Benika’s prayers had now crossed the line from complaints into outright anger.
“Eliaque is rotten to the core! Lumentis, please strike those evil ones with divine punishment!”
The culprits were closely connected to high-ranking clergy. Without their help, the assassins could never have crossed the barrier surrounding the Entat Parish. Even though every assassin who came was immediately captured by the parish’s people and Levia herself, they showed no sign of giving up.
A threat that might destroy the world could be approaching, yet the true enemy was within. While Benika understood why Levia wanted to quit being a saintess candidate, she became even more convinced that no one but Levia could fulfill the role. If a saintess candidate supported by people who used such dirty methods took the position, she couldn’t even imagine what horrors might occur when a real threat finally arrived.
“Sigh… I suppose that’s enough praying for today. I really hope Levia doesn’t run away this time.”
Just as Benika finished her so-called prayer and was about to leave, a voice completely shattered her hopes.
“Levia already left the parish.”
“Kyaa?! Cheska? How long have you been here?!”
“Hmm… since around the part where you said ‘Eliaque is rotten to the core!’?”
“Please forget that part… Wait, no—hold on! You’re saying Levia left the parish again?! You should have stopped her, Cheska!”
“With what power am I supposed to stop her?”
Cheska’s words were perfectly reasonable. There was currently no one in the Entat Parish capable of physically restraining Levia.
“You should have at least said something!!!”
Benika stamped her feet in frustration as she scolded him. It hadn’t even been that long since the last assassin intrusion—how could she wander off somewhere dangerous?!
“An outstanding escort went with her, so there’s no need to worry so much.”
“Who? Captain Bout? Or Sir Jacob? Oh! Did the Archbishop go with her?!”
“There is one. A stalker-like bitch.”
“…?”
Benika couldn’t understand Cheska’s reaction. If even Cheska—who cherished Levia more than anyone—said there was no need to worry, then the person must be trustworthy. Yet the way he spat out that insult suggested their relationship was far from friendly.
“So did she at least say where she was going?”
“Hmm… it didn’t seem like she planned to tell me the destination. She said something rather meaningful.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she was going to bring peace to the Entat Parish…?”
“What does that even mean?”
“I have no idea.”
I had originally planned to execute my runaway scheme about a year from now, but I suddenly decided to move it up. The operation is now set for three days from today. That means the next three days are going to be insanely busy.
Money-wise, I’ve held back from buying magical tools for the past several months, so I should have more than enough for travel expenses and lodging until I reach my destination. I had a bad feeling and refrained from spending, but it turned out to be the right call. My “bad feeling sensor” really is reliable, huh?
Still, it’s a shame. I really wanted that magical tool that automatically shuffles cards.
Tomorrow, I need to do a second round of sorting through my luggage and organize the necessary items… Ah. I left a bunch of stuff out of my spatial pouch after the first round of sorting. I hope Benika hasn’t cleaned it all up yet. It would be nice if she just left it alone. There’s a lot of it, and it’s so heavy she probably couldn’t move it anyway.
The day after tomorrow, I just need to do one final check of my escape route.
“You are a fearless human. Still, I will praise you for coming all the way here alone.”
For now, I should focus on today’s business. I need to bring peace to the Entat Parish so I can leave without any worries.
“Nice to meet you? Are you the King of Magical Beasts?”
I asked the arrogant figure sitting on a throne made of bones from various magical beasts as he looked down at me.
“Show proper respect, you insignificant human.”
What is this beast doing, talking down to a person?
“Behemoth. I’ve come to make a deal.”
At least we can communicate, so let’s try talking this out.
“I do not make deals with mere humans.”
The negotiation broke down before it could even properly begin. Well, I guess there’s no helping it.
“You will make a deal with me.”
“Oh? What a bold little human child. Why do you think I would ever make a deal with the likes of you?”
“Because if you don’t make a deal with me,”
Why ask something so obvious?
“You’ll die by my hand.”