An Ancient Longing (2)
“Levia.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got something I want to ask you.”
“Huuuup~ Haa.”
“Don’t.”
“No, I’m seriously, seriously curious.”
“Don’t.”
“Huuuup~”
Curious my ass. Mint, if you’re going to twitch the corner of your mouth like that, at least stop pretending you’re asking out of genuine interest.
“When exactly did you debut as an idol?”
“I told you not to.”
“Haa~ Look at all those uncle fans you’ve got! Oh, do you sing too? With a voice like that, I bet it’d be amazing~”
“Do those people even look like fans to you?!”
And have you ever seen an idol beat her fans half to death? Huh?
“But that knight who’s always guarding you said it~ She worships you, apparently.”
“Cheska! So you knew! You knew these crazy old men were doing insane things behind my back!”
You knew and you hid it! Cheska! No, what the hell are these holy knights doing, secretly starting a new religion?! You lunatics!
I want to quit being a Saintess candidate, not get dragged into a heresy trial! One day that inquisitor uncle Dominic is going to show up with a bright smile and request a one-on-one meeting, and it’ll all be because of you guys! If that happens, I’m throwing loyalty out the window and claiming I knew nothing about it, so just know that!
Mint started poking at me even harder.
“Wow, you’re really popular~ I heard the Levia Knights already have over two hundred members. I’m so jealous~ You’re such an insider!”
“Kyaaaak! There is no such knight order!”
“Huuuup~ Okay, okay~ Then I’ll only ask one more thing.”
“…I have a bad feeling I already know what you’re going to ask, so I’d really prefer you didn’t.”
“That person who’s supposedly your guard knight. What exactly has she been doing since earlier?”
“Huuuup~ I am currently smelling Her Holiness Levia’s scalp.”
“…”
“…”
Cheska, I wish you wouldn’t say things like that so proudly. Besides, even if I look like this, my body is pretty much fully grown, you know? If we’re just talking appearance, I look like a woman who has only recently become an adult. So isn’t it a little weird to be sitting on someone’s lap like this?
Hmm. The cushioning used to be felt at the back of my head, but now it’s around the shoulder area. What a shame.
-Smack!
“Ouch!”
While I was quietly lamenting to myself, Mint launched a surprise attack.
“Why’d you hit me!”
“No reason. It just looked like you were thinking something incredibly perverted, so my hand moved on its own.”
How did she know? Have you also reached the level where you can read my inner thoughts just from my expression? Like Cheska and Skadi?
“Mint… have you turned into a pervert too…?”
Oh my god, not you too, Mint!
“W-what! What are you talking about! You’re the pervert! Sitting there with that stupid grin on your face while enjoying that… no, that grotesque… wait, that’s rude. Anyway, you were grinning like an idiot!”
“We’re both girls, so what’s the big deal!”
“Only when it’s convenient for you?”
What? Why? This is exactly what selective blindness looks like. You narrow-minded little girl.
“Her Holiness Levia has liked being in my arms since long ago. I don’t mind at all. In fact, I’m happy about it.”
Please don’t misunderstand. That statement has the order of events slightly reversed. What I mean is, it’s not that I willingly jumped into Cheska’s broad and generous embrace. It’s that Cheska forcibly pulls me into her arms. All to sniff the top of my head!
I simply enjoy the cushioning(?) as a bonus. It’s true. I swear it’s true.
But Mint, who had no way of knowing the background, seemed to take Cheska’s words at face value.
“Oh my god! I’m so disappointed! I had no idea you’d become such a pervert! Pervert! Trash! Corrupted Saintess!”
“Take out the Saintess part! I’m still just a candidate!”
“That’s the problem?! No, what kind of relationship do you two even have! You call her your guard knight, but she doesn’t act like one at all!”
Uh… I can’t really argue with that. Hmm. Looking at her behavior, I’d say at least eighty percent of the time she’s not acting like a guard knight.
“Even when you first met, it was suspicious! She suddenly appeared out of nowhere, said ‘You smell like Her Holiness Levia,’ and then hugged you and started sniffing!”
“…”
Am I… some kind of dangerously addictive species or something? The kind that causes withdrawal symptoms if you’re separated for a few months…?
The people of Entat Parish were already weird, but now they’ve gotten even weirder. When something strange encounters something even stranger, the result isn’t more strangeness—it becomes normal.
Anyway, my relationship with Cheska… it’s definitely deeper than just “Saintess candidate and her guard knight.” Our first meeting wasn’t great, but eight years was more than enough time to move past restoring trust and solidify it completely.
Yeah. If I had to put it into words, that would be accurate.
“Hmm… Mommy candidate?”
Come to think of it, has Cheska confessed yet? I turned my head to look.
“Uh… huh…? Eh?”
There was Cheska, face turned bright red like a tomato, making stupid noises. She still hasn’t done it. Tsk tsk.
“Ah, so you like your father-in-law. That’s fine then.”
Mint, why do you look so relieved? More importantly, please stop calling Benedict your father-in-law. Actually, maybe I should just let it slide? I’m suddenly curious what she’ll call my father from my previous life when she meets him. He was the previous Hero, after all.
Speaking of which, I suddenly miss my dad. Maybe it’s because I met Mom earlier. The longing has grown stronger.
What would I even say if I met him?
-I’m Levia. I used to be your son, Gu Gyumyung.
-Oh my god. But son—no, daughter. You didn’t die while still in that state and reincarnate, did you?
…Yeah, maybe it’s better if we never meet.
“By the way, you two seem pretty close. Weren’t you both running away from home because you didn’t want to get engaged?”
Cheska’s desperate attempt to change the subject—clearly trying to avoid my earlier questioning about why she still hadn’t confessed—came flying in.
I answered with a triumphant expression.
“Cheska, listen to this~ As you can see, Mint is a girl. Her family tried to disguise her as a boy to push the engagement through! Such a tragic story. After I told her that shocking truth and she heard it, we decided to just become really close friends instead.”
I said that both to prevent the engagement from happening and to hide the fact that we were reincarnators who shared memories from our previous lives.
However, Cheska’s reply was quite shocking.
“Hmm? The Church of Light doesn’t particularly prohibit same-sex marriage, though?”
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
“Lady Lumentis is the Goddess of Light, but she also governs life and love. Therefore, she does not discriminate when it comes to love and life. Ah, of course, pedophilia is naturally excluded.”
The moment of life’s birth shines brightly. When one loves, life becomes filled with light. That is why the Goddess of Light, Lumentis, also presides over life and love.
That was the explanation.
Mint and I stared at each other. Her eyes were clearly demanding an explanation. You knew and pretended not to?
“I… I didn’t know that?”
“Levia… aren’t you a Saintess candidate? How could you not know?”
“Do I have to?”
Why?
“No, the fact that you’re saying it so confidently is what’s ridiculous. If you’re a Saintess candidate, shouldn’t you at least study doctrine and things like that?”
“I didn’t?”
Why would someone trying to quit being a Saintess candidate waste time on that? I’d rather train my holy power in that time.
“Then what exactly were you doing all day in that Entat Parish place?”
“Training and subjugating magic beasts?”
“Are you a priest or a mercenary?”
Could you wipe that pitiful look off your face? I’ve learned plenty of the knowledge necessary to live in this world, you know? …Even if it was a bit one-sided.
“Hmm… still, you two seem incredibly close. Did you know each other in your previous lives?”
“N-no, we didn’t…?”
Cheska…? What are you even saying right now?
“The way you two act, it’s like you’ve known each other for a very long time. Yet Lady Chocolate said you’ve only known each other for less than half a year. In that case, there’s only one answer.”
Then a voice full of conviction followed.
“You are both reincarnators and possess memories from your previous lives.”
“No no no. People can become close in a short time, can’t they?”
Shut up, Cheska! Are you trying to turn me into a Hero candidate?
“But Her Holiness Levia is a reincarnator, isn’t she?”
“How… how did you know that… Cheska?”
“You told me yourself. That you are a reincarnator and that you used to be a man.”
Wait a second. You believed that?
That was something I said almost nine years ago now, back when I briefly stayed in Ravendi during the Benika incident.
“C-Cheska? Then… while believing that, you still went into the bath with me…!”
“The bath?”
“Ah.”
“Levia. Care to explain that in more detail? Going into the bath together?”
“Mint? Uh, that was… just the two of us…”
“Just the two of you?”
Killing intent began to bloom in Mint’s eyes. What? Why is Mint angry? And why am I starting to make excuses?
“Oho. Hehe.”
And why is Cheska looking at me and Mint with such a fascinated expression?
“This won’t do. Levia. No—Gu Gyumyung. It’s been thirty years, so let’s have a little sermon.”
“T-that’s…!”
N-no! Are you trying to bring back those horrible memories from my previous life?! Mintweed von Chocolate! No—Seol Bakha!
“Come here, you pervert.”
“L-let go!”
Mint grabbed me by the nape of my neck and started dragging me away. And who are you calling a pervert! I-It was unavoidable!
“Hey now. Aren’t you going to release that holy law?”
“Ugh… I’m not going! I won’t go!”
You crazy bear-like woman! You’re overpowering me even with my triple stack?!
“It seems you’ve found a wonderful partner, Your Holiness. I will cheer for you.”
“Don’t!”
“Levia, what does that mean? That you don’t like me?”
“No, that’s not…”
Damn it, this is a checkmate. If I say I don’t like her to get out of this situation, that sulky girl will definitely pester me for days on end. But if I say I do like her, it’ll sound like I’m the one confessing.
“I’ll hear your answer later. For now, let’s have a little talk. Levia.”
Mint’s sermon—also known as a powerful mental attack—was intense. Since it was based on physical force(?) rather than magic, there was no way to resist it. I want to say it was summer, but it was actually autumn.