Chapter 71: I Am a Beautiful and Noble Flower of Evil… Not Some Sparkly Symbol of Teenage Youth Like an Idol or Something!

‘Why do you only offer such tasteless tributes…?’

My unwanted patron sends me a whining telepathy.

As if watching me from her seat in the constellations above, she specifically requests the long, round, bright red grain dish I’m eating as a snack.

In other words, the tteokbokki.

“That’s also a combination of grain and fish, you know?”

Whether it was sardine pie or tteokbokki, they were both dishes made with wheat and fish flesh.

Of course, the taste was worlds apart, but tributes are about sincerity, not taste, right?

‘That’s not true! Taste is the most important thing…!’

A young girl’s desperate voice rings out in my head.

Well, even I have to admit that the sardine pie bombardment was a bit much.

“Sigh….”

If I left it like this, I felt like my head would be ringing all day, so I reluctantly pushed the bowl I was eating towards the center of the table.

“I offer this.”

‘Can you not pray more properly…?’

As I casually put my hands together and bowed my head, the tteokbokki on the plate disappeared with a small halo of light.

Thinking back to the inefficient folk belief of my past life, where a ceremonial table for ancestors would be set up so lavishly it could break the table legs, only for people to not be able to eat all that food and just dump it into a stew, it certainly felt like I was making an offering.

Before long, Astaroth’s humming echoed faintly in my head.

The sound of her slurping and smacking her lips while eating was a nuisance on par with the final evolution of ill-mannered humans.

Thankfully, as soon as I had this unspeakable thought, Astaroth’s one-sided communication was cut off.

***

“So that’s what happened.”

“So, in a word, you became a Saintess, is that it?”

“No, not quite a Saintess….”

The first transmigrator meeting after the Harvest Festival.

Cain, who seemed determined to fill all four of his wife slots, had been on a lovey-dovey harvest festival date with Ria instead of Heine.

He looked at me as if he couldn’t believe I had become a Saintess.

“No, no, no, a Saintess has to have divine power, right? But my body can’t even use magic properly, let alone divine power.”

“Not necessarily. Didn’t the original story explain it in detail?”

“…First I’ve heard of it.”

“Hah, this is why people who only read the dialogue….”

“I-I read everything!?”

Cain shook his head from side to side.

‘It’s unfair…!’

‘In the first place, the original story you and I read are different.’

‘I’m at a level where I can barely remember a few lines of information that you, the protagonist, mentioned in your monologues, and even then, only the parts that aren’t just walls of text!’

‘So you can’t compare me to you, who knows all the background settings that weren’t even mentioned in the original story…!’

“You haven’t read Part 2, have you?”

‘Sorry, Cain.’

‘The ‘original story’ I read didn’t have a Part 2.’

‘So I can’t read it even if I want to.’

‘Wait, there was a Part 2?’

‘The ending did feel a bit rushed….’

‘Maybe there were a lot of scrapped settings, or maybe the story was even longer.’

‘And only Cain, who read the story-within-a-story, knows that information.’

Anyway, I had no way of knowing about Part 2.

I awkwardly avoided Cain’s gaze and gave a slight nod, and he shot me a look that said, ‘I knew it…’.

“In Part 1, after Ria meets Michael, she soon awakens her divine power and receives a revelation from God.”

“Yeah, I know that part.”

“But in Part 2, it’s revealed that the god who appointed Ria as a Saintess is no different from the Seven Archdemons.”

Come to think of it, Astaroth’s butler did say something similar.

Cain’s explanation was almost identical to the one Astaroth gave when she forced the revelation on me.

The state religion of the Empire, the Solar Cross Society.

The one true God, their ‘Father,’ is actually the same as the demon regarded as the Archdemon of Wrath.

Part 2’s main plot, he said, was a religious war that breaks out when this fact is revealed.

For reference, the ‘Four Gods of Romance Fantasy’ I read, and the original story Cain read—which is a story-within-a-story for me—are both typical academy stories, just with different protagonists.

“I really wanted to drop it the whole time I was reading.”

“You managed to read it all. It sounds so boring.”

“Well, I was actually the only reader who finished it.”

‘Ah, right.’

‘Cain, you were transmigrated with that kind of setting, weren’t you?’

‘I never dreamed that the latter half he mentioned back then was actually Part 2.’

“…Wait. Then you didn’t even read it to the end?”

‘I did, though….’

But I couldn’t tell Cain,

‘You’re actually a brain in a story, and a crazy author is just giving you electric shocks.’

So I desperately kept my lips sealed.

“Anyway. It’s not like I’m getting in Ria’s way, right?”

“You will be. After the world is saved from destruction.”

“…Let’s think about that when the time comes!”

‘By the way, what’s with a religious war suddenly popping up in an academy story?’

‘I think this guy who managed to slog through it to the end is pretty crazy himself.’

“So. How do you raise divinity?”

After the long introduction, I ask the walking encyclopedia, Cain-aemon, for tips on raising divinity.

“Hmm….”

Despite all the back and forth, he’s a good kid who thinks about it seriously.

After pondering for a while, he glanced at my face and then spoke again.

“…I think if you just keep doing what you’ve been doing, it will rise naturally.”

“If you don’t know, just say you don’t know.”

‘He’s nice, but not particularly helpful.’

“Listen. Divinity isn’t as grand as you think. For example, the adventurer potions your company sells. Even if there are people who feel grateful for them, that raises divinity.”

‘Definitely….’

‘Astaroth said something similar.’

“It’s not just about worshipping a god. Feeling grateful for a product you made, or even the townspeople reading and enjoying the monthly town magazine, can raise divinity.”

“…Even something like that?”

“Well. I actually think the act of idolizing an idol is the most fanatical behavior.”

“Wh-who are you calling an idol!?”

“You.”

‘I am a beautiful and noble flower of evil.’

‘Not some symbol of sparkling teenage youth.’

“If putting up a huge pictorial photo in the town square, not to mention in the monthly magazine, isn’t being an idol, then what is it?”

“Th-those are just for advertising!?”

“Advertising? You’re an idol, all right.”

“Ugh…!”

“But I respect the sincerity you put into shooting with a different concept every time.”

His smug face was mocking me with all its might.

Whether it was actually true or not didn’t matter much.

What mattered was that it just seemed that way to me.

“Today’s meeting is over! I’m going to go teach alchemy, so you know!”

“Bring me a Melona when you come.”

“As if something like that exists in this world, you idiot…!”

“You made tteokbokki, but you can’t make that?”

“Even if I could, I’d never give it to you!”

And so.

Another transmigrator meeting ended with little to show for it.

“…Heine.”

“Yes. What is it?”

“Gather the dessert chefs and bring them to me.”

Still, I did manage to create a melon-flavored ice cream that was somewhat similar to my memory.

‘…Hmm?’

‘Did I offer the melon-flavored ice cream as a tribute?’

‘Of course not.’

‘I shared it only with Heine and Ria and ate the rest all by myself.’

---

“This sweet, sour, and spicy taste. This chewy texture is also endlessly foreign. But… why? I just can’t stop my hand…. What is this food…?”

“Ah, you don’t know? This is ‘tteokbokki’.”

“Tt-tteokbokki? As expected, it’s a food I’ve never heard of….”

“It’s an Abel Town specialty, approved by our very own young lady, with a yummy score of 126.”

“A-amazing…! Abel Town has a truly astonishing street food culture!”

Abel Town after the Harvest Festival.

In this town, Raphael Inc.’s new business item, the food division created to use up the overflowing grain, was generating enormous profits.

Among them, the most popular was the tteokbokki, which had won the Harvest Festival.

“Tteokbokki is an eastern dish. The young lady is a wonderful person, but you shouldn’t distort her origins!”

“Uhm… I’m from the East, but we don’t actually have this kind of dish in the Three Eastern Empires. We have a similar-looking rice cake dish, but….”

“What… did you say?”

And that tteokbokki, by using the fact that it was a fusion dish that appropriately mixed tomatoes invented by the people of the East and the Young Lady, was becoming another symbol of the Young Lady, along with tomatoes, unique to Abel Town.

“Ah, Young Lady! Good morning!”

“Huhu, everyone. Good morning.”

“The young lady looked this way! She just turned her head and made eye contact with me!”

“No! She was looking at me, not you!”

Lin smiled fondly at the townspeople.

Among them were a few of the fanatics Cain had mentioned, but she pretended not to see them.

The arduous farm work had entered a long period of rest.

It was a time when the forest animals and monsters were all fattening themselves up in their own ways to prepare for winter hibernation.

In the village after the harvest festival, both the farmers with their plows and the adventurers with their swords and spears were leisurely preparing for the coming winter, each enjoying the season of high skies and plump horses.

“It’s a nice, day.”

“Yes. It really is.”

“They say autumn is the season for reading. I feel like I want to leisurely read an herbal encyclopedia for the first time in a while.”

“You’re making up plausible-sounding things again, aren’t you?”

Watching the falling leaves, Lin felt the ticklish feeling unique to autumn.

“This month’s cover theme will be autumn and reading.”

In a safe forest area near the village, the two of them roughed out the composition for the cover photo, leaning against a tree trunk stained with autumn leaves, or sitting on a natural wooden chair made from a cut log, flipping through an herbal encyclopedia, and striking simple poses on the spot.

“Wooooooooooooooh!!!!”

“Huh? What on earth is that sound….”

However, the tranquility of autumn did not last long.

Suddenly, from the outskirts of the village, the aggressive shouts of people were approaching loudly.

“What’s going on!?”

An attack by humans, not monsters.

Could it be that some radical native tribes were attacking, aiming for the grain warehouse?

Lin, who had been quietly enjoying her thoughts, rushed towards the villagers she had to protect.

“Ah, Young Lady, it’s alright. It’s just the neighbors from the next village raiding us.”

“It doesn’t sound alright at all!?”

At the news that the neighboring village was attacking, Lin ordered Heine to call for additional guards.

Could they have had a bad harvest?

Strictly speaking, the entire continent of Albion was practically owned by the Rosegardens, so she had to prevent a fight from breaking out between her precious residents at all costs.

However.

The guards and escorts who checked the scene only safely escorted Lin away.

They seemed to have no intention of stopping the clash between the villagers.

“What are you doing now! If you don’t stop them soon…!”

“You don’t have to worry, my lady.”

“…What?”

The highest-ranking of the escorts spoke.

Dumbfounded by her subordinate’s calm reaction, Lin tilted her head, a question mark appearing above it.

Peeking out, she saw that the people from both villages had already clashed and were tackling and tripping each other, engaged in a full-blown brawl.

“Yes. That is the traditional commoner’s game of football.”

“…Football, you say?”

“That’s right. It’s a folk game enjoyed by commoners who are bored with nothing to do after the harvest. The side that gets the ball into the opposing village’s church first wins.”

Once again, Lin peeked out from behind her subordinate’s back.

…They were definitely using their feet.

Though they were kicking the opponent’s shin with all their might instead of a ball.

Anyway, they were actively using their feet.

“For football… isn’t there no ball?”

“The official rules are so, but most of them just want to throw punches.”

“Then, isn’t that just a simple brawl…?”

“That is true, but….”

Lin, who had just witnessed the traditional imperial folk game of football firsthand, was horrified.

She had the sharp-eyed Dinavel check, and it seemed they hadn’t even brought a ball in the first place.

For the record, the people of Abel Town who were fighting back also seemed to have no interest in grabbing a ball and running to the opposing village.

“We understand your feelings, my lady. However, if we don’t let the commoners release their stress in this way, they will also build up anger….”

The subordinate desperately explained the traditionality of the traditional game.

‘Well, there were people who threw rocks at each other across a river….’

Recalling a certain peninsular country from her past life, she surprisingly easily accepted the villagers’ brawl.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The fact that it must be banned.

No matter how traditional the game was, Lin could never tolerate her precious villagers getting hurt, so she fired her shotgun into the air several times.

“W-what was that all of a sudden?”

“Young Lady…?”

Startled by the loud gunshots, the football players from both sides stopped their kicking and turned their heads.

In the dead silence, Lin strode onto the field without any markings.

“Ah, my lady. Surely you’re not thinking of banning football….”

The captain of the escort team, who had hastily followed her, asked.

At his words, the elite football players looked at Lin with nervous eyes.

“If it’s football, there should be a ball. Where on earth is your ball?”

At Lin’s scolding words, the opposing players bowed their heads.

In reality, the ball was safely enshrined in their village church.

No one had bothered to bring it with them.

“S-sorry….”

“Heine.”

“Yes.”

At that moment, Heine handed Abel Town’s official ball to Lin.

This oval-shaped leather ball was also an item that was kept in the Abel Town village church.

“As I understand it, you’re supposed to get this ball into the opposing village’s church. But neither side seems to have any intention of doing so.”

Lin scolded the opposing players and then turned to her own.

Realizing that they were both in the same boat, the Abel Town players bowed their heads deeply.

“Heine.”

“Yes. Here it is.”

At that moment, Heine handed her master her personal broom.

As if she’d seen it somewhere before, she firmly held the oval leather ball between her hand and armpit and sat demurely on the broom.

“The fact that you all launched a surprise attack here….”

“…?”

“Means that your goal is wide open, doesn’t it?”

Whoosh, the broom carrying Lin rose high into the sky.

Lin’s necklace, which provided levitation magic, shone brilliantly.

“N-no way…!”

Lin grinned down at the flustered people below.

She then flew straight towards the opposing village at high speed.

“Everyone, protect the Young Lady!!!”

Simultaneously, a few quick-witted players tackled the opposing players to block the pursuers.

“Ah, by the way. After this match, football will be completely banned!!”

And so, Lin, while recording an unprecedented 100% win rate of 1 win and 0 losses, also completely banned the dangerous traditional folk game of the Albion continent as planned.