episode_0240

*The Saintess Who Devours Vitality*

“….? Ugh… My… my head…. Ugh….”

Thanks to Cecilia’s magic and Merzel’s divine power, Remie, who had been freed from Camilla’s divine power’s influence, regained consciousness and sat up, clutching her head. Cecilia, who had been resting and catching her breath nearby, spoke to Remie.

“Haa… haa… Are you awake? How do you feel, Remie?”

“Ugh… Where in the world is this…?”

“Huh….?”

“I was clearly protecting the kingdom….? Wait… whose voice is this…?!”

As the now-conscious Remie seemed to have lost her memory, not knowing where she was or what situation she was in, the three were perplexed by her reaction. At that moment, Remie opened her eyes and looked around, seeing a demon, an angel, and a woman inside a box, which made her jump in surprise and shout.

“Wha… what is this…? Who… who in the world are you people…? A demon and an angel… and… a mon… monster?! Why are such beings in the kingdom?! Wait… this isn’t the kingdom, is it…? Whe… where in the world is this place… Ugh…. Why… why can’t I feel any strength in my body…?”

“You… you don’t remember anything until now, Remie…? Even what you did…?”

“…? What do you mean… Ugh… Why does my head hurt so much…? Ughhh….”

Seeing Remie’s memory loss, Merzel was perplexed. Then, as Remie groaned, clutching her head with both hands from a severe headache, Rapien became flustered by Remie’s state and worried if Cecilia and Merzel had caused any side effects when they had just expelled Camilla’s divine power from Remie.

“Excuse me, both of you… Were there any side effects from the abilities you just used…? Like memory loss…”

“Memory loss…? What did you do to me…!! Wait… I clearly remember… a certain light…. I was protecting the outskirts of the kingdom when I saw a light approaching me… After that, I don’t remember anything.”

“….!! Indeed… Cecilia, it seems we’ve discovered another characteristic of Camilla’s divine power.”

“Another characteristic?”

“Yes… Remie. For a moment, I will explain everything that has happened to you… no, to you, and how you were. So, please trust us and listen.”

“What….?”

Having realized another characteristic of Camilla’s divine power through Remie’s reaction, Merzel asked Remie to trust them as they would explain everything they had witnessed of her. Remie was bewildered by Merzel’s words. However, thinking that understanding her current situation was paramount, Remie quietly listened to the explanation. Afterward, Remie was greatly perplexed by the fact that she had become a subordinate of a goddess named Camilla and gazed at her own hands.

“It’s unbelievable… I swore allegiance to a being other than the kingdom… and even used powers I never knew I had…”

“Lady Cecilia’s magic and my divine power created a properly conflicting reaction, expelling Camilla’s divine power from your body. No matter how strong Camilla’s divine power, it couldn’t overcome the antagonistic reaction emitted by the opposing magic and divine power.”

“I had divine power in my body…?”

“Yes. But it seems… Camilla’s divine power was forcibly controlling your emotions, which affected your memories. When the divine power disappeared, those memories disappeared with it.”

Merzel speculated that Camilla’s divine power had forcibly manipulated Remie’s emotions, making her worship Camilla against her will, and as a side effect, Remie’s memories from when she was under the divine power’s influence had vanished the moment the divine power left her. Remie then felt complex emotions, thinking Merzel’s words might be true, and scratched her head, saying:

“Haaaaa… That might be true. But it doesn’t seem to be entirely the case… I have some strange memories… a few fragments. Like memories from when I wasn’t myself… fragmented memories… Haaaaa… So, does that mean I was forcibly injected with divine power by that goddess Camilla you spoke of long ago and betrayed the kingdom…? Fortunately, it seems Camilla and I didn’t attack the kingdom, and I just leisurely left it… Still, thinking that so much time has passed, I worry if the kingdom I dedicated my life to protecting is still alright…”

“So much time has passed, you say? If you remember that, it seems your memories weren’t completely erased. But how much time has passed for you to be so worried?”

“If there were a kingdom that had stood strong for a thousand years without crumbling, I would never be this anxious….”

“A… a thousand years?! Don’t tell me you traveled through different dimensions with Camilla?!”

Cecilia, realizing that Remie had been under Camilla’s influence a thousand years ago, was startled, asking if Remie had also traveled through other dimensions like Estur. For a human to live longer than their natural lifespan, they would have to either travel through other dimensions or, like Akada or Kelly, receive powerful energy from the World Tree and forcefully disrupt their life’s timeline. Since Remie might have achieved super-longevity through one of these methods, Cecilia and the others couldn’t help but be flustered by Remie’s testimony. Remie then sighed deeply and explained to the three.

“Haaaaa… Camilla once forcibly granted eternal life to those she cherished, or whatever she called her ‘children of light,’ saying they must be with her forever… And now, after a thousand years, I’ve regained my sanity thanks to you… It feels truly awkward… If only this long life could have allowed me to protect my kingdom forever…”

“Where is that kingdom? Once this battle is over, we can take you…”

“Don’t bother… At this point, after a thousand years… whether the kingdom is fine or destroyed, all the sights would be awkward to me… And it’s located on a distant continent, so getting there wouldn’t be easy.”

“Anyway, Cecilia. It’s fortunate that Remie was able to regain her sanity, just as you wished… Rapien, we couldn’t have achieved this without your help.”

“Ehehe… I wouldn’t have been able to gather enough power if you all hadn’t bought me time~! This is a result we all achieved together~!”

After hearing Remie’s entire story, Merzel expressed gratitude to Rapien, who had helped her and Cecilia. As Rapien scratched her head shyly, Remie, who had been staring at Rapien as if curious, scratched her own head and spoke.

“There are truly many strange things beyond the continent…. In my kingdom, angels and demons are known to be arch-rivals, so they don’t stick together like this… And I never knew there was a woman living in a box beyond the continent…”

“Ah~! I’m not a human, but a monster~! What you’re seeing now is me changing the organ I use to lure prey into a human form so I can talk like this~!”

“…?! We have monsters on our continent too, but none that speak and are this friendly…. Ugh… The world after a thousand years truly has changed a lot…”

When Rapien revealed she was a monster, Remie, who was already flustered by Rapien’s appearance, was now horrified by her true identity and sighed in disbelief that she was from a thousand years ago. Then, as if remembering something important, Remie startled and spoke to Cecilia and Merzel.

“Ah, yes… There was one important thing in the fragments of my memory. Something that might be related to you…”

“Something important? What is it?”

“Before, Camilla, in her arrogance, explained her plans to us. From what I heard… she intentionally made strong individuals hate the world to cause chaos, and then turned them into Saintesses…”

“Ah, that? It’s not surprising, Remie, we already suspected it. Even though we committed many wrongs because of Camilla… we don’t hate everyone who was controlled. So, don’t worry about the harm you might have caused us.”

“…. How did you know I was bothered by that…?”

“Well… because we were in a similar situation, too? Right, Merzel?”

To Remie’s question of how they knew she felt sorry towards them, Cecilia replied that they had similar experiences and sought Merzel’s agreement, and Merzel also nodded in affirmation. Then, as Cecilia patted her shoulder, Remie gave an awkward smile, scratching her head, seemingly a bit uncomfortable. As the four rested and chatted inside the barrier, as if forgetting the recent battle, Arvina was deflecting all the divine power projectiles Kate fired at her with her spear. Then, Kate stopped attacking and asked Arvina.

“What incredible power. To deflect even my divine power transformed into a Holy Radiance… What exactly are you?”

“I told you… I am a wolf beast-kin and… Arvina, the village chief of Kartun, who came to this battlefield to save everyone in Kartun… I absolutely cannot retreat…!!”

“Hmm… I can’t help but admire your courage. Since I haven’t introduced myself yet… in admiration of your courage, I will briefly introduce myself. My name is Kate. I am a Saintess who holds the glorious position of receiving the closest light from Goddess Camilla, one of the Children of Light. Therefore, I am tasked with the grave mission of eradicating all heretics like yourselves from this world.”

“Grave mission…? Is killing people a grave mission? What an utterly foolish judgment, Kate… Do you really think paradise will come after you carry out such a foolish mission…?”

As Kate proudly stated that her grave mission was to exterminate all living beings in this world, Arvina gripped her spear tightly with both hands and refuted Kate’s words. However, Kate smiled at Arvina’s rebuttal and giggled as she replied.

“Ahahaha…!! Paradise, you say…. I am not hoping for paradise, Arvina. Goddess Camilla truly knows everything well. She knows very well that there are many impure things in this world. Dirty demons were purified by angels because of that, and just as justice executes evil… I am merely cleaning, you see?”

“Cleaning…?! Are you saying everyone in the world is destined to die because of your ‘cleaning’? Are you insane!? Even if there are dirty things, you intend to clear away everything, even the clean things, and make it completely blank…!! Are the living beings in this world nothing but mere dust to you?!”

“You don’t have to understand… no, it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. Because in our eyes, this world truly… has so many dark and unpleasant things. To see a pure world, it would be the right thing to clean away all those unpleasant things, wouldn’t it? And… utilizing those unpleasant things is also quite a good method.”

“What do you…!!!”

As Kate said that removing impurities was the right thing to do to make this world completely pure, but also that utilizing those impurities was a good method, Arvina instinctively sensed danger from Kate and startled, about to ask. But before she could, Kate created tentacles made of divine power from her hands and wrapped them around two nearby resistance fighters. Then…

“Aaaaaaaagh!!!”

“Aaaaah…!! My… my strength…. Aaaaaaaagh!!!”

“….?! Th… this!! Stop it, you damned Saintess!!!”

As both resistance fighters, enveloped by Kate’s tentacles, began to wither as if Kate was draining their vital energy, Arvina frantically rushed at Kate and swung her spear. Kate immediately retracted the tentacles wrapped around the two people, dodged backward to avoid Arvina’s spear, and Arvina, recalling Kate’s recent actions, startled as if realizing something, and asked.

“That ability you just showed… it didn’t seem like a human ability…. Lady Cecilia once told me about a certain race…. That beyond this dimension, there are beings identical to demons, and unlike the good demons, that race is entirely ferocious….”

“Oh my? Do you perhaps know what my race is? Wow… that’s truly impressive, isn’t it? To even notice that I’m not human…”

“You… aren’t you a Lugra, a race from another dimension?! Also known as Bodicher…!!”

Arvina, recalling the Lugra race she had heard about from Cecilia previously, realized that Kate was not human but a Lugra. The Lugra, a race Estur had also told Zeke and Aria about before. Beings resembling demons, a vile race that, since ancient times, had shifted all their hatred and wrongdoings onto demons who resembled them. Recalling this, Arvina asked Kate if she was a Lugra, and Kate, with a meaningful smile, exuded an evil aura as she replied to Arvina’s question.

“That’s truly amazing. For you, merely living in this Elum dimension, to discern my race…. There are plenty of humans in this world with the ability to drain vital energy, so how did you figure it out?”

“The ability you just used felt less like divine power and more… somewhat similar to the magic Lady Cecilia showed me before…. So I wasn’t certain, but… to think you were a Lugra…”

“Hahahaha… Goddess Camilla once made me an offer. She said she would give me the opportunity to ‘deal with’ people if I worked for her… With such an amazing offer, why would I refuse?! To be able to freely drain people’s vital energy and use it as nourishment…!! And to be able to freely witness a pure world…!! It was a truly incredible offer…!!”

“Does that even make sense?! To think countless people died because of this damned Lugra race…!! Hyaaaah!!!”

Arvina, realizing that Kate wasn’t influenced by Camilla’s divine power but voluntarily followed Camilla because she desired slaughter, became greatly enraged and charged straight at Kate. Kate then extended divine power tentacles from her hand towards Arvina to entangle her, but Arvina dodged sideways with incredible physical prowess, avoiding Kate’s tentacles, then immediately picked up another spear that had fallen nearby and threw it at Kate. However, Kate repelled the spear Arvina threw by releasing a mass of divine power from her hand, then smirked and said.

“My, you’re quite enraged, Arvina. But no matter how enraged you are, the outcome won’t change.”

“How can you be so sure…? I could charge at you right now and cut off your breath, couldn’t I…?”

“Oh my~! You’re truly dreaming big, Arvina. Even though you don’t properly understand the current situation…”

“The current situation….!!!”

When Kate said that Arvina was being reckless without properly understanding her current situation, Arvina was perplexed by her meaningful words. Then, Arvina saw the many resistance fighters fighting the cult around Kate, intuiting something, and froze on the spot. Kate, seeing Arvina’s frozen expression, realized that Arvina had grasped her intention, and smirked, saying.

“So, Arvina~! Then… what will you do? Puhuhuhu…”