Chapter 12: A Miracle’s Cost, a Tyrant’s Fall

“So, what did you want to say, Teacher…?”

Arthur might have sensed something.

It would be suspicious to suddenly change your demeanor after meeting someone and then ask to talk.

Suppressing the urge to light a cigarette, I said to Arthur,

“Do you like Teacher Saintess?”

“…!”

Arthur’s eyes widened, and his face flushed.

Well, I didn’t even need to hear the answer, that’s a sure sign.

“…Yes, I do.”

I even got a verbal confirmation.

What should I do about this?

“Then, Arthur, how do you see me?”

Arthur asked with a bewildered expression.

His blue eyes were filled with confusion and surprise.

“What do you…”

“I’m asking if you think I like Teacher Saintess, too.”

Thinking about it now, it might have sounded like I was asking with a slightly strange intention.

I must have been a bit blinded at the time.

“Ah… Teacher, too?”

Arthur focused his eyes and looked at me.

Arthur must have been shocked at that moment.

His academy teacher likes the same person as him.

Moreover, that person is the health teacher, which puts him at a disadvantage as a rival.

Knowing that, I could say to Arthur,

“I won’t interfere.”

Arthur seemed relieved and relaxed his gaze.

However, he still seemed suspicious, squinting his eyes as he spoke.

“Why?”

There were several reasons.

Because the Saintess would feel uncomfortable if I interfered to win her over.

Because if I interfered, you, the hero, wouldn’t be able to concentrate on your studies or subjugations.

But the biggest reason is,

“Love gained through interfering with a disciple isn’t honorable.”

It’s despicable.

It’s truly despicable to gain something by interfering with someone weaker than you.

Therefore, there’s no way the Saintess, who saves and helps the weak, would like that.

In the first place, if I used my power to pressure and win her over, the Saintess would be dating the emperor by now.

I didn’t want to become such a bad person.

“Um, something’s running towards us at full speed.”

Arthur said, pointing behind me.

The Saintess was running towards us with all her might.

Her posture was great, but her speed was incredibly slow.

If only her physical abilities could keep up, she could become an amazing swordsman.

Hypothetically speaking.

The Saintess, holding a sign with her hastily scribbled handwriting, thrust it in my face with an angry expression.

“(It’s easy to catch a cold if you stay out so late in the park in the cold.)”

If we say that we have superior physical abilities, so we rarely get sick, and even if we do, it’s not a big deal, she’ll be angry, right?

“We’ll be fine even if we get sick.”

That day, I was hit by the Saintess until the sign broke.

It didn’t even hurt that much, but while pretending to be in pain, Arthur, the Saintess, and I talked all night and spent a happy night.

The next day,

The demon army attacked, however.

Annoying.

That was the thought I had at the time.

Thanks to the miracle the Saintess cast on me, I wasn’t injured, and I could easily sweep away the demons pouring in with their numerical superiority.

Since there were so many of them,

I was hit quite a few times.

A miracle this strong must have a price, right?

So I asked Arthur.

“This, will it really be alright even if I get hurt?”

Arthur said, swinging the Holy Sword,

“Let’s focus on the fight now! It’ll be fine!!”

Dozens of demons fell.

Since no one had good feelings towards demons, countless students swung their weapons as if it were fun.

While I was watching for a moment, the commander came and stabbed a spear into my eye.

The spear didn’t go in and bounced off.

Beelzebub, his huge body trembling, said,

“Damn it! To use such a miracle! Are you crazy to die!”

The commander’s spear attacks were relentless.

It was so intense that it could have been dangerous if Arthur and the students weren’t there.

In fact, I got cut on my right shoulder during the fight.

It would have been very painful in reality.

But it was okay because of the miracle.

I was just thinking about finishing quickly and seeing the Saintess.

Was.

Past tense.

Damn it.

As soon as the battle was over, I entered the infirmary.

It was to praise her, saying that this war was won thanks to her.

Arthur, thinking the same thing, headed to the infirmary with a smile.

Creak.

“Saintess! I’m…”

Arthur opened the door and tried to greet her cheerfully, but the smell that greeted him was a thick, unpleasant scent of blood.

It even seemed old, lingering in the infirmary.

And kneeling on the blood-soaked floor was the Saintess.

“…Huh?”

The Saintess, with blood flowing from one eye stained purple, looked at us.

And her right shoulder was deeply cut and hanging.

“…You’re here?”

And she spoke.

She spoke.

It was a beautiful voice that matched her face.

But even if I wanted to hear more, it was a voice that felt like it would be the last.

“Damn it, why isn’t it healing…”

At that moment,

Everything came into view.

The characteristic of the 1st Legion is that any wound they inflict turns purple and becomes a poisonous affliction.

The fact that she was injured in the eye and shoulder, where I almost got injured.

The places where Arthur was injured.

The places where Cynthia was injured.

The places where Erica was injured.

All of them.

“…As you might have guessed, it’s a miracle that transfers all wounds to me.”

I didn’t expect it at all.

I tasted blood in my tightly closed mouth.

Am I biting my tongue now?

I don’t know, I just know that tears are coming out.

Arthur, who told me it would be okay, was pale and dumbfounded, only opening and closing his mouth.

“S…Saintess…?”

He must be feeling shocked, regretful, disgusted with himself, and wishing he were dead.

At least you should think that way.

Thinking that, I hated Arthur from that moment on.

Even though she was on the verge of death, the Saintess forced a smile and said,

“It’s not…your fault.”

Cough.

The Saintess coughed up blood.

“Damn it! Don’t talk and just stay still!”

The Saintess, wiping the blood, supported herself on the bed and barely managed to get up.

“Since I’m going to die soon anyway, I should leave as many words as possible.”

My heart sank.

Will I be able to remember this voice?

Arthur, perhaps having the same thought, poured his magic power, specialized in attack and unsuitable for healing, into the Saintess.

It did heal, but it wasn’t enough to prevent death.

Rather, the wound reopened, only increasing the Saintess’s pain.

Seeing the Saintess’s face slightly contorted in pain, I pulled Arthur back.

“Don’t do anything useless and just talk.”

Arthur was dragged across the blood-soaked floor and hit the wall.

I didn’t want to think about his pain.

“…It’s not Arthur’s fault that I’m dying, Lenas.”

The Saintess said calmly.

That made me even angrier.

“Don’t bullshit, if I hadn’t been injured!”

“Even if you hadn’t been injured, I would have died from other students’ injuries.”

It was the truth.

It’s just that my injuries were noticeable.

Since other students fought without regard for their injuries, she would have died from that alone.

Still…

“It makes me feel like sh*t that I was one of the people who contributed to your death!”

The Saintess quietly bled from her mouth and walked towards me.

Then she quietly hugged me and Arthur.

“If…you meet someone with strange…clothes later…you should be nice to them, okay?”

Blood continued to flow from her mouth.

Perhaps because she lost a few teeth, her pronunciation was slurred.

“What do you mean… Say your last words properly…”

At that moment, the Saintess’s warm body lost its warmth.

The dying Saintess whispered to us,

“My name…Rei…”

So her name is Rei.

Does it mean stingray? Or garland?

But no matter how much I asked, Rei didn’t answer.

Not long after, Rei’s body disappeared.

People all said that the Goddess took her back.

If that’s true, I’m thinking of killing the Goddess who even stole her body.

“That’s my story.”

Lenas said, shedding a few tears.

Strangely, his voice didn’t waver at all.

“So how is that a reason to kill the emperor?”

Lenas put down his empty teacup and said, his eyes filled with determination and resolve.

“Because Rei told me to be nice to someone with strange clothes.”

I was about to say “for such a trivial reason,” but stopped after seeing Lenas’s face.

His lips were bleeding from being bitten, and his eyes were bloodshot, as if he was about to cry tears of blood.

I couldn’t tell such a person to change their mind.

“Indeed, then how do we create a justification?”

Lenas calmly composed himself and said,

“It’s possible if the politics are messed up, not necessarily the empire.”

Then Lenas placed documents he had prepared on the table.

“In the year 2700 of the Imperial Calendar, the day the Akio Empire was founded, there’s a record that the emperor didn’t participate in the festivities because he was busy creating the constitution.”

“The first article of the constitution states that the people of the Akio Empire have the right to depose or execute the emperor if he commits tyranny.”

Wait, does that make sense?

For the emperor to put in the law that his descendants could be killed.

Well, it makes sense since it’s a fictional world.

“The current emperor is taking any beautiful woman in the empire to the imperial palace, even married women, and confiscating all beautiful artifacts and jewels.”

Then Lenas’s expression as he read the documents frowned.

Did he really commit such evil deeds?

“…He buys all the jewels, only looks at the married women, and then sends them back after paying them.”

What, he’s a conscientious bastard.

Lenas put down his teacup and said,

“How should we screw him over…”

Lenas spoke my mind.