The Saint Is the Bad One
The Saint Is the Bad One
After the procedure ended, the imperial family returned to the palace with joyful faces.
The empress held her daughters tight in her arms the entire way, kissing them without a shred of dignity, and the emperor gripped both princesses' hands firmly.
Even after returning to the palace, the four of them remained a single tangle, refusing to separate.
"My beloved daughters. My dear Iomene. Almene."
At the emperor's unrestrained declarations of love, the two princesses smiled gently.
"Saying 'I love you'—it's so nice."
"Please say it to Iomene often, Father. She must have been so lonely."
"I'll say it a hundred times. A thousand times more. I love you, Iomene. I love you."
Iomene gazed quietly at her aging father, then let herself fall into his embrace.
He was the one who for sixteen years had ordered that she be made to suffer.
But now that she had inherited Almene's memories, she understood.
How much agony the emperor had endured during that time.
And what it meant that the ruler of the empire had chosen her over even the empire itself.
Iomene nestled cautiously between her father and mother and indulged every childish need she had never been able to express.
"I want dessert."
"I will see to it that you may eat every dessert you could possibly desire."
"I want to walk barefoot through the garden."
"As much as you like. You may roam every garden in the palace until you're content!"
"Tell me you love me every day from now on."
"I shall, Iomene. This father will grant you anything you wish."
Holding Iomene tight, the emperor spoke with tear-soaked eyes.
Anything she wished.
At those words, Iomene looked wordlessly at Almene.
Almene's expression briefly flushed, and then she gave a small nod.
Having received her other half's permission, Iomene looked at her father with a blissful face.
"Father. There's something I really want to have."
Her tone was casual—the sort of speech a princess should never use.
Even though the words seemed undignified, the emperor's expression showed he did not mind at all.
"What is it, Iomene? Tell me anything."
"A husband. Can I pick him myself?"
With an innocent, expressionless face, Iomene said that.
And naturally, the emperor—
"Of course you may."
—smiled and granted his permission.
***
Iomene and Almene left.
The two of them would now live on in nobility, as both princesses and saintesses.
It was for the best.
It looked like I'd finally be able to prepare to slip away quietly on my own.
I still had a little time left while Magic Tower Master Oergen finished tuning my psychic amplifier.
The time in between was my last remaining moments as a saint.
In order to earn the goddess's forgiveness by piling up good deeds, I kept busy healing those who came to me injured or in pain.
As promised, Magic Tower Master Oergen visited me during breaks from tuning the amplifier, observing my treatments at my side before returning to his work.
"About how much time is left, Tower Master?"
"I'll manage it somehow within five days. I'd like to finish sooner, but this is such a delicate antique."
Five days.
That was enough.
During those five days, I spent my time searching for a city to disappear into—a major city with decent public safety and minimal influence from the orders.
Erpa didn't visit me anymore.
Why would she, when I'd basically dumped her right to her face?
Every time I thought of her my heart ached, but this was better.
She needed to dislike me so she wouldn't miss me after I vanished.
Now I really felt like I could leave with a light heart.
With a light heart.......
That was the plan.
"Saint! We're here!"
"Saint! We missed you!!"
One morning.
The twin princesses launched a surprise attack on me.
No His Imperial Majesty, no Her Imperial Majesty—just the two of them, with only a minimal escort.
"Your Highnesses. Are your bodies all right?"
Now that their egos were restored, I needed to fix the way I'd spoken to them like puppies before.
When I said it carefully like that, Almene and Iomene burst into laughter at the same time.
The two of them approached me quietly, then slipped right into my arms together.
"When it's just us, call us by our names."
"What's all this 'Your Highness' nonsense? Our names. Call us by our names."
They looked up at me.
Their expressions were full of mischief.
"Iomene. Almene."
I followed their request.
"I'm glad you're better. I hope only happy things fill your lives from now on."
At those words, they clung to me even more tightly.
But I carefully pushed them away.
"I'm busy with work today. I don't think I can stay with you. You must both be busy too—why did you come here?"
At that, Iomene silently pulled a bottle of alcohol from the bag she'd brought.
"Let's have a birthday party! Saint!"
"We wanted you to celebrate our birthday, Saint."
A birthday party? What did she mean?
"The day you saved me was our nineteenth birthday. I figured alcohol was perfect for a birthday party that doubles as a coming-of-age celebration. Right, Saint?"
It was something to celebrate.
But I was someone who would disappear in five days.
What was the point of making memories like this?
I didn't plan on ever returning as a saint after I vanished.
Sweet memories with someone you'd never meet again only left your heart aching and hazy.
So I tried to refuse their request.
With the coldest, most off-putting tone I could manage.
"Like I said, I'm busy with work today. I'd like you to return to the palace. A birthday party at the palace would be far more splendid and nice........"
I couldn't.
I'd looked into Iomene's eyes.
A sad expression, tears half-brimming.
I suddenly felt like an irredeemable piece of trash.
"No? Really?"
"We went through so much during the procedure, Saint."
"It's nothing grand. I just wanted to have a drink and talk. Saint. It's nothing grand, right? Just a moment is fine. I won't keep you long."
"Iomene has never had a birthday party once in sixteen years. This is the first birthday party she's ever had. Saint. And yet you still won't?"
The two princesses pressured me with incredible methodical precision, as if they'd prepared a script.
Damn it.
I shouldn't have been doing this.......
The words "never had a birthday party once in sixteen years" stuck in my mind.
And besides, didn't I know all too well how lonely Iomene had been in that detached palace, all by herself?
A child who had received nothing but loneliness and pain her whole life was asking to have her birthday celebrated, for the first time ever.
Worry.
Anguish.
Wandering.
And in the end, what came out of my mouth was this.
"Just for today. After today, don't come looking for me anymore."
Their faces brightened instantly.
"Saint, I really, really like you!!"
"I'm so happy!"
Looking down at the two of them tucked against my chest, I wound up smiling bitterly.
"You could have had a much bigger and more extravagant party if you'd held it at the imperial palace. His Imperial Majesty and Her Imperial Majesty would probably have thrown you a spectacular one. I didn't even manage to prepare a gift."
At my words, Iomene shook her head.
"Your very existence, Saint, is a gift to me. And besides, as time goes on, Almene and I are going to have to attend banquets until we're sick of them."
"Iomene's right. I want a modest party for just the three of us, too. It's so atmospheric and nice, isn't it?"
Well.
What could I do?
I would go along with what the two birthday-party honorees wanted.
"Fine. Let's do what you two want."
And so the drinking began.
Iomene and Almene had come quite thoroughly prepared.
Simple snacks—even drinking glasses were set out in an instant.
And the three of us began sipping a high-proof premium liquor.
"This alcohol is awfully strong."
"My throat feels like it's burning."
"My head's a little dizzy too. Ha-ha!"
Despite saying that, both Almene and Iomene looked perfectly sober.
By contrast, my face was growing red—the intoxication must have been creeping up.
I never took them for big drinkers, but damn, this stuff was brutally strong.
"I want to get to know you, Saint."
Inside the gentle atmosphere, after the glasses had been emptied and refilled a few times—
Suddenly, Princess Almene asked me that in a soft, plush voice, like she was making ASMR.
She wanted to get to know me, huh.
What was there to know about me?
I was a guy with nothing special.
"Jericho Amael. The powerless youngest son of a prophet family who can't even prophesy. One day I suddenly went to the slums and started treating sick people, and a lucky, unlucky bastard who ended up here. That's me. Nothing more, nothing less."
"I'm curious. Saint, isn't it hard treating and helping people? I think I wouldn't want to do it, because it'd be hard."
Iomene asked in a casual tone, distinct from Almene's.
Hard, she asked.
No.
It wasn't hard.
Actually, it was fulfilling.
Seeing people get better and look happy—
that part wasn't hard.
What was agonizing was not knowing why the goddess said she'd send me to hell.
"It's not hard. What's hard is having to be somewhere I don't want to be."
"Then where do you want to be, Saint?"
The polite speech was Almene's voice.
Their voices were identical, but you could tell them apart by whether they used casual or polite speech.
Anyway—a place I wanted to be.
"A peaceful place."
A place where I didn't have to worry about going to hell.
A place where I didn't have to worry about a future where the people bowing and thanking me would, the moment they discovered my secret, turn more vicious than anyone else.
I wanted to be somewhere like that.
"Isn't it peaceful here?"
"It isn't peaceful for me."
Before I knew it, the bottle had been emptied quite a bit.
Intoxication swirled.
I could have dispelled the drunkenness in an instant with Body Modification, but I didn't.
Alcohol entering my body for the first time in ages.
Conversation partners who listened calmly to what I said.
And the gloom of having to leave soon—leaving behind a woman who loved me, and whom I wanted to love too.
Because of all those circumstances, my tense and resentful mind felt as if it was being comforted.
"So you still have things to do?"
"Yeah. I have things to do, Iomene. Things I absolutely have to do."
Quitting being a saint, running far, far away, and living like a dead mouse.
That was the thing I had to do.
"That four-armed witch. Erpa, was it? Is she your lover, Saint? Through Iomene's memories, I saw you two kissing."
Maybe because they were nineteen-year-old girls—romance talk befitting their age came up.
At Almene's words, I had to give a bitter laugh.
"No. Erpa and I aren't lovers."
"If you aren't lovers, why did you kiss?"
Iomene asked, her voice tinged with a bit of emotion.
Why did I kiss her?
"Because I'm a coward."
"You're not a coward, Saint!"
A duet of polite and casual speech.
Almene flared up and interjected.
But you were wrong, Almene.
I was a bigger coward than anyone in this world.
"No. Almene. I'm a coward. I'm such a coward that I can't even accept the feelings of the woman I like, so I fumble around playing with her heart and then try to leave. That's the kind of coward I am."
I liked Erpa.
I wanted to spend a long, happy life with her.
But my situation wouldn't allow it.
Because if she were with me, she'd end up meeting an unhappy end in the end.
"I have to leave soon."
Was it the alcohol?
Or was it because, for the first time since coming here, someone had appeared who listened to my story this earnestly?
The things I'd been keeping inside spilled out.
"I have to leave here—go far, far away. So how could I accept Erpa's feelings? How much pain would she be in, left all alone? So I needed to push her away, but I didn't want to wound her. So I....... so I gave her a kiss. Because I didn't want her to be hurt. Contradictory, right?"
It was a contradiction.
Even to my own ears, it was a stupid contradiction that made me sigh.
If I really hadn't wanted to hurt her, I shouldn't have kissed her at all.
I should've acted cold and vicious so that her heart would turn away.
But I failed to do that.
I was a truly indecisive fool.
"I see."
"I see."
At their words, I smiled bitterly.
"I'm trash. Indecisive, weak trash. I'm a man who doesn't even deserve to be by Erpa's side."
Tears welled up and spilled over.
The two princesses came close and held me tight.
Exactly as I had once done for Iomene, they patted me gently.
"You have to leave to confront the evil that remains in this world, don't you, Saint? You're a Seer, so you must have foreseen the world's misfortune in advance."
"It's okay to rest a little, Saint. You're afraid because you have to leave to deal with the Evil God worshipers and demons, right? I understand. You can fall asleep comfortably right now."
It wasn't leaving to deal with Evil God worshipers and demons.
I was going into hiding to avoid being sent to hell.
Ah.......
My tongue felt thick and I couldn't form the words.
And on top of that, receiving comfort made all the feelings I'd been holding inside feel like they were bursting out at once.
Before I knew it, I was crying in their arms.
The fear of being sent to hell.
The terror that I'd be murdered by people.
Being held in someone's arms made me feel a little better.
Had I cried and cried for a long while?
After the combo of alcohol and the first comfort I'd received since reincarnation drained out all the emotions that had pooled inside me, a crushing wave of exhaustion hit.
"Here, Saint. This way."
"We'll help you."
Their hands pulled me toward the bed.
"Don't worry, Saint."
"You helped us, so we'll help you too."
"You can leave anytime. Go do what you have to do."
"Don't worry about the situation with Erpa either. We'll resolve it for you."
I couldn't fully understand what they were saying.
My alcohol-hazed, drowsy mind was simply telling me that this whole situation felt warm and comfortable.
From somewhere above, the two princesses' voices drifted down like a dream.
"I love you, Saint."
"And I'm sorry, Saint. We planned this today on purpose to get you drunk. The Stigmata of Dulanear—it's so convenient. We can use the miracle that dispels intoxication, so Almene and I kept it cast on ourselves the whole time."
"If we didn't do it this way, we felt sure you'd never accept our feelings, Saint."
"I'm sorry. But this is your fault too."
"You stole our hearts completely and then said you'd leave—it's your fault, Saint. It's all the Saint's fault."
Something soft, warm, and blissful began to register all over my body.
I was sleepy.
They must have covered me with a blanket.
"Wait, Iomene. If you put it in so suddenly like that....... ah♥....... uh♥"
"Our senses are shared, so it feels like I'm doing it with two Saints. This is amazing."
I was too exhausted.
I had been through so much emotional hardship all this time.
Goddess.
I had really worked hard treating and helping people all this time, you know.
And now I was trying to quit being a saint, quietly disappear, and live out my life.
So just for a moment—
could I please sleep, just a little?
With that thought, at last—
as if the film cut out, everything before my eyes went dark.