Saint (10)

1.

“Haaa……”

I dry-washed my face and let out a long sigh.

A Saintess, me…!

No, me, a Saintess…!

I lifted my head and looked in the mirror.

My cheeks were puffed out in a pout.

My pretty face wore a disgruntled expression.

“Seriously……”

Standing in front of the mirror, I lifted the Nun’s Habit up to above my navel.

A crimson pattern was etched on my lower abdomen.

It looked like a butterfly spreading its wings.

“This thing… is supposed to be a Stigmata…?”

I might receive Divine Punishment from the Celestial God for saying this, but no matter how I looked at it, it resembled the Yin Gate of an Incubus.

If you examined the shape in detail, they were different, but the location was equally embarrassing to show to others.

The location where the Stigmata manifested was not fixed.

Some had it on their collarbone.

Some on their back.

As far as I knew, Saintess Aris had the Stigmata on the back of her hand.

But why me……?

Being branded as a Saintess was already upsetting, but even the location of the Stigmata was screwing me over.

“Sigh……”

I repeatedly sighed deeply and lay down on the bed.

It was noisy outside.

The Grand Cathedral was in a festive mood.

Well, it made sense.

A new Saintess had been born.

The Pope was overjoyed as soon as he heard the news that my Stigmata had manifested.

I thought I would die of embarrassment when he had me confirm the Stigmata in front of so many people.

Ugh… life.

Recalling that moment made me want to swear out loud.

As soon as I was confirmed as the Saintess, I received the utmost hospitality.

I was given a bath in a large bathtub with flower petals floating on the surface.

It was embarrassing to have nuns on both sides of me, scrubbing my body with foam, but the embarrassment was fleeting since I had been bathing with the nuns of the convent since I was young.

Above all, it felt good to have my shoulders massaged.

After the bath, a feast awaited me.

It had been a long time since I had filled my stomach with meat.

Of course, I ate a lot, but I barely managed to finish one plate of steak.

When I was on the battlefield, I used to eat a whole wild boar by myself.

After the meal, I was guided to my bedroom.

Not a guest bedroom, but the Saintess’s room, where traces of past Saintesses remained everywhere.

I tossed and turned.

The plushness felt like it was going to devour my body.

“……What do I do now?”

I had been averting my eyes, but it was time to face reality.

I had been hoping against hope, but in the end, it was as I feared.

I didn’t have to perform the duties of a Saintess right away.

I was only in the position of Saintess, and the real work would come after I received training as a Saintess.

If things continued like this… would I be entering the academy?

Considering the timing, it seemed likely.

One to two months from now.

When winter passed and spring came, the academy would be welcoming a new semester.

Whether it was a coincidence or fate.

My age was just right to enter the academy as a freshman.

“If I enter… would it be the Divinity Department?”

Studying the Bible.

Learning the words of God.

A place that was like attending worship for hours every day.

You want me to go there?

You’re crazy.

Crazy.

It’s like torture.

I had become accustomed to attending worship, but I still felt sleepy and bored during worship.

No, what on earth was the Celestial God thinking when he chose such a person as the Saintess?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand.

I felt like asking him directly.

……Could I?

Because I was the Saintess.

Because I was called the daughter of the Celestial God.

I got up and sat cross-legged on the bed.

I didn’t know if it would work, but I felt like I could do it because I was the Saintess.

I put my hands together over my chest.

“Oh God……”

I offered a prayer to the Celestial God.

My chest only filled with Divinity.

In the end, I couldn’t hear the voice of God.

It seemed that speaking to him was one-sided.

Tch… tsk.

“Let’s go for a walk.”

I opened the window.

I jumped out of the window.

Just before landing, I used Magical power to land softly.

I came out through the window because there were Holy Knights in front of my bedroom.

I wandered freely around the Grand Cathedral.

If I wanted to run away, I could do it anytime.

I didn’t think they could stop me even if they tried.

I had half given up.

There were several reasons.

The first was that I had been confirmed as the Saintess.

The Stigmata only manifested when the owner of the Stigmata disappeared.

In other words, when the existing Saintess died, the next Saintess would have the Stigmata.

So, whether I liked it or not, I was now the Saintess because of this thing on my lower abdomen.

“Heh, heh heh……”

The second was that the Holy Nation would not stand still.

If I ran away, I would live as a fugitive until I surrendered.

They would follow me wherever I went, and find me no matter how I hid.

The Saintess was important in the Holy Nation.

She was the symbol of the Celestial God Church.

She was the power of the Papal Authority.

She was the bridge connecting the Empire and the Holy Nation.

How could they leave such an existence alone……?

Living as a Saintess was disgusting.

It was a position that required me to take on all sorts of responsibilities.

I was fed up with it when I was the Sword Saint.

It would be one thing if I was the only one fighting.

When I went to the battlefield, there were hundreds, thousands of lives that I had to be responsible for as a commander.

Was being a Saintess any different?

It would be more, not less.

I wasn’t responsible for lives, but considering the entire Celestial God Church, the number was staggering.

The Holy Nation.

An empire that had the Celestial God Church as its state religion.

I was located at the very top of these two.

…But would anything change if I denied it?

Nothing would.

It might be more comfortable to just accept it.

What I wanted was to freely train my swordsmanship and roam the battlefield.

But still…….

Just because I was a Saintess didn’t mean I couldn’t walk the path of a swordsman.

It was just a little restricted.

“Still… a Saintess….”

I had never dreamed of it.

I had never imagined it.

It was too sudden.

I was walking around the Grand Cathedral when.

“What are you doing here?”

I heard a voice.

I turned around.

Louis was standing there with a sly smile.

He pretended it was a coincidence, but I knew he had been secretly following me for a while.

“Taking a walk.”

“Alone?”

“Is that not allowed?”

“There’s nothing that says it isn’t.”

It wasn’t allowed.

The Saintess sneaking out of her bedroom late at night to take a walk?

If the Cardinal or Holy Knight found out about this, the Holy Knights guarding the front of the bedroom would be disciplined for dereliction of duty.

Louis stood next to me and walked with me.

“So, you’re the Saintess now?”

“I feel like running away right now.”

“You hate it that much?”

“Yes.”

Louis chuckled.

“Honestly, my swordsmanship is too good to be just a Saintess.”

“Conversely, your Divinity is too good to be just a knight.”

“Tsk……”

I glared at Louis.

He was right, so I couldn’t say anything.

He had never contradicted me before, but he contradicted me now.

“Just because you’re a Saintess doesn’t mean you can’t be a swordsman, right?”

I sighed deeply.

“I know. That’s why I’m sorting out my feelings right now.”

“Ah. So, am I interrupting?”

“You know it well.”

“Sorry, sorry.”

Louis waved his hand and closed his mouth.

Silence.

The sound of footsteps crunched in the stillness of winter.

“Come to think of it, your master is Adrean Van Reiker, the Hero you mentioned before?”

“That’s right. He was a strict person.”

Me?

I was strict?

Heh heh, I always taught him the sword with love.

“As soon as the physical training was over, he would make me do swordsmanship training without rest, and he would suddenly burst into my bedroom at night to spar, and one day I woke up in a dungeon? He told me to survive with just a sword.”

I remember everything.

I discovered the talent of a young boy and enjoyed putting him through various training sessions.

“As soon as I returned from the dungeon, I woke up the next day and was in another dungeon. Seriously… that was the first time I cursed my master. I called him a damn old geezer.”

Huh?

This bastard?

He talked behind my back?

‘I’ll give you a chance. Tell me everything you want to say to me today. I’ll accept anything, even curses.’

‘Hey, how can I curse my master?’

‘Just try it.’

‘What is there to curse? I won’t do it.’

I remember it clearly.

But still.

I didn’t feel resentful at all.

I just smiled as I reminisced about the past.

“But…… it was fun. And thanks to that, I was able to grow up like this.”

“……”

“If it wasn’t for my master, I would have been living a dirty life.”

We first met when I cleaned up the underworld after the daughter of Count Dalford was kidnapped.

There, this guy boldly rushed at me with a sword.

I recognized his talent at that time and took Louis in.

And I taught him the sword, he became a Hero, and now he has come to this point.

“He was a good person… he was a good person.”

Louis stroked the sword on his waist.

“Speaking of which.”

Louis stopped walking.

“Please be friendly with my disciple.”

“Disciple?”

“He’s the Hero who will follow in my footsteps. He’s clumsy now… but he will definitely become a Hero who surpasses me. And when he graduates from the academy, he will form a Hero Party and head to the Demon King.”

Louis smiled brightly.

Ah.

I guess you could say like master, like disciple?

‘Please take care of my disciple, Saintess.’

I had said that to Saintess Aris once.

I remember it was when Louis was seriously injured and hospitalized in the temple.

At that time, I couldn’t always be by Louis’s side, so I made that request to the Saintess in preparation for the day I would leave this world.

Thank you, Saintess.

Perhaps she sacrificed herself because of my words.

But if it was her, she would have made the same choice even if I hadn’t asked.

She would have sacrificed herself to save the Hero.

Still, I’m sorry and thank you.

I greeted Saintess Aris in my heart.

“So, I have one request. No, I have one request to make.”

Louis bowed politely.

“Please take care of my disciple, Saintess.”

What did Saintess Aris say back then?

“Yes!”

She answered with a smile.

It was like this back then too.

This one word was enough.