episode_0035

“Do you… trust me?”

“Yes!”

It was my turn to be flustered by Cecilia’s unwavering confidence.

What on earth gave her the courage to act like this? Chris must have already informed her about my condition.

Instead of avoiding triggers that might bring back my lost memories, she was practically encouraging them. What was she trying to achieve?

“What exactly do you mean by that? You just… trust me? No sane person would say something like that.”

“Of course I’m not sane. If I could stay rational knowing all this, that would be madness.”

“Knowing what? Lady Cecilia, just what are you—”

“You know the future, don’t you? A prophet, was it? There have been others like you before.”

Cecilia continued smoothly, her voice gentle.

“I understand. Knowing the future is an incredible privilege—but also a terrible curse. That’s why I’m promising to stand by your side.”

“……”

I racked my brain, trying to decipher Cecilia’s intentions.

Fortunately, my mind hadn’t completely frozen in fear yet, and it managed to conjure up a few plausible theories.

From all those possibilities, I distilled one question that needed to be asked—no matter how my relationship with Cecilia unfolded from here.

“How did you figure it out?”

Cecilia was already half—no, fully convinced that I was a prophet.

If she had already regressed, it made sense for her to think that way. After all, everything I’d predicted had come true not long after.

Denying it now would be pointless. Instead, it was far better to ask why she had approached me in the first place.

“Figure what out? What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. You must have had a reason to be so certain I’m a prophet.”

“You predicted several disasters last semester and managed to stop them all. Isn’t that reason enough?”

“Predicting disasters and stopping them? You make me sound like some kind of hero. If you think my past outbursts were prophecies, maybe you should be talking to a priest instead of me.”

I decided to push a little harder.

“If not that, then… did you find some kind of proof that I’m a prophet?”

Cecilia’s warm expression finally stiffened.

Of course it would.

Right now, Cecilia couldn’t tell me the truth even if she wanted to.

The moment she admitted what she knew about me, my memories would become a ticking time bomb—one that could go off at any moment.

“W-Well, there is proof! Like the herbology lab you set on fire! That was the nesting ground of a high-tier magical beast!”

“How did you—”

“Research!”

Cecilia puffed up proudly.

“And that’s not all! The exam hall you blew up? There was another layer of magic hidden there! You knew about it and used your own magic to counter it, didn’t you?”

“You researched that too?”

“Of course!”

Now fully confident, Cecilia listed off every reckless thing I’d done—along with the hidden truths behind them—one by one.

“In the end, everything you did was to prevent even greater disasters! Sure, your methods were destructive and chaotic for mere prophecies, but they all turned out to be true. And historically, there have been prophets like you before.”

I hadn’t expected Cecilia to be this thorough. I’d done my best to cover my tracks, but… I suppose this is what you’d expect from the Hero’s party. Their persistence was terrifying.

“…Great prophets always go mad in the end. Either they can’t accept their own visions, or people refuse to believe them.”

“An old joke, but one that holds truth.”

“Many claim to be prophets. Telling the real ones apart from the fakes is no easy task. So why, out of all of them, did you choose to believe me?”

Prophets are only recognized in hindsight for a reason. But Cecilia brushed off my question with ease.

“Hmm. Let’s just call it… a saintess’s intuition? For some reason, I felt I could trust you in particular. A strange certainty, really.”

So that’s how she’s going to dodge it, huh?

No matter how much I pressed her about why she believed me, if she just insisted it was “intuition,” I had no way to counter.

But I wasn’t about to surrender to such a flimsy argument.

As someone who thrived on picking apart flaws, I quickly prepared my next move.

“Stop dodging the question. What I want to know is what made you suspect I was a prophet in the first place.”

“Suspect?”

“Your belief that I’m a prophet is based on your intuition and the research you did into my actions. Correct?”

“Yes. But what’s the problem with that?”

“That is the problem. From what Chris told me, the student council’s investigations aren’t usually this thorough. Especially when the cause and effect are obvious.”

Of course, that was a lie. But I did know how the student council operated.

Already swamped with the academy’s routine work, the student council had no time to dig deep into the antics of its troublemakers.

Sure, they’d investigate the damage and scale of an incident, but once the culprit was identified, they rarely cared about the why.

Especially since, in my case, I’d all but left a trail of breadcrumbs pointing straight to me. There was no need for an in-depth investigation.

“The investigations would’ve ended the moment I was confirmed as the culprit. So why did you go out of your way to dig deeper?”

“W-Well, that’s…!”

“Your intuition and evidence only prove I’m a prophet after the fact. They don’t explain how you knew beforehand. So I’ll ask again, Lady Cecilia. How did you know?”

Cecilia’s face twisted strangely.

“Haha… I really can’t outthink you, can I? And here I thought I’d tricked you so well.”

She staggered toward me, step by step.

“How did I know…? Isn’t it obvious…? Because I—”

“Lady Cecilia? You’re—you’re too close.”

Hmm, did I push too hard?

Caught up in the thrill of cornering her, I’d lost track of the mood.

“How I knew about Eric was…”

“My apologies. I’d love to continue this conversation another time!”

I turned to flee, but Cecilia’s next words froze me in place.

“Because I had a revelation! That’s why it’s obvious!”

“A… revelation?”

“Yes! I saw everything—who you are, what you’ll do in the future. The Goddess showed me.”

In a flurry, Cecilia closed the distance between us and grabbed my hand, as if afraid I’d slip away.

“You’re planning to bring down the Church, aren’t you? I can help. I may just be a saintess candidate, but that means I can come and go pretty much anywhere.”

“Lady Cecilia, please calm down and listen—”

“You want to expose the Pope’s corruption, sever the ties between priests and merchants, right? Don’t you?”

“Lady Cecilia!”

I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, but she kept babbling like a madwoman.

“Actually, I want the same thing! First, we should expose Father Eriko’s… unholy tastes to the public. Or maybe start with Father Girel’s embezzlement?”

Eriko’s pedophilia and Girel’s large-scale misappropriation of offerings—both were the easiest Church scandals to uncover, and the ones I’d planned to expose first.

Last time, Cecilia’s protection had given them both enough time to destroy the critical evidence.

Did that mean she was already prepared to take them down?

Without even consulting me?

Dangerous. Unlike artifacts or techniques that could be left to grow stronger on their own, human affairs were too volatile. Without my involvement, the chances of failure were too high.

Maybe it was that urgency that made my thoughts spill out unchecked.

“Wait. How did you even—ah.”

“Oh my. So you admit it? That you’re a prophet, Eric?”

The Cecilia who’d seemed ready to spill everything just moments ago now wore her usual serene smile as she gently stepped back.

“…That was an act?”

“I am a saintess. Acting is a basic requirement, you know? When people are cornered, the truth tends to slip out—even if it’s unrelated.”

“Haha… How much of that was real?”

“I won’t tell you.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because if I did, you’d figure it out next time.”