Did you know?
The nun outfit I’m wearing is actually mass-produced.
Of course, that was to be expected. The number of nuns in the convent is always fluid. Basically, they take in orphans to care for, and sometimes kids are temporarily placed there due to parental issues, or they scout talented individuals based on their holy power—people can come and go at any time.
Also, modern convents in this world aren’t the same as those in the past where once you committed, you had to live there for life.
You can’t leave until you reach adulthood, but there are exceptions when a child thought to be an orphan finds their parents, or when the parents of a nun brought in from scouting come to take them back, or when someone turns eighteen and decides to leave the convent on their own—there are plenty of reasons the number of residents can shrink.
In a place where the number of nuns constantly fluctuates, making customized nun outfits or replacing them for each individual would be inefficient. It’s not impossible, but there’s no good reason to. It would be better to spend that money on something meaningful.
So, most nun outfits are off-the-shelf, and when leaving the convent, they are usually returned to be passed on to newcomers.
My case was no different. It’s not that the nun outfit I’m wearing doesn’t fit me, but it doesn’t fit perfectly either.
It’s a bit awkward to say this myself… but, compared to the other girls my age, I have a much larger chest, and I found myself in a somewhat baggy nun outfit. Yet, even so, it was a bit tight around the chest, while the waist was definitely loose. That just means I have a unique body shape.
But I didn’t dislike the baggy clothes. If anything, I felt more comfortable wearing them this way. I liked that it didn’t draw too much attention. The reason why I was able to adapt to wearing what was essentially a mini dress was because of this very thing.
So, how about the saint’s robe?
The design is quite similar to the nun’s outfit. However, the main difference is that the ‘white’ color worn only by important figures in the Church serves as the base for the saint’s robe, whereas the typical nun’s outfit is predominantly black.
Even though I’m a saint who has received the power of miracles, I haven’t been formally ordained yet, so I was bestowed with a different form of garment than the female priest robes that Andrea wears.
All priest robes are tailored. They aren’t all made by hand stitch by stitch, but they do get measured for size during their ordination to receive a robe that fits them.
In my case, it wasn’t a priest’s robe, but it was still tailored. There’s no way a saint’s robe could be a mass-produced item.
Additionally, because the “saint’s robe,” currently only has one wearer, it was made with meticulous care, hand-stitched, and included subtly lavish embroidery with sanctified golden thread, making it a rather luxurious garment.
The problem? Well, yes, it was that ‘tailored’ problem.
As I mentioned earlier, my chest is large.
And my waist is slim. Plus, it flares out nicely below.
If I wear a tailored outfit that perfectly suits this unique body shape, naturally, the waist would pinch in nicely, while the chest and hips would pop out.
On top of that, it’s a white base with golden embroidery.
…As a result, the saint’s robe I wear emphasizes my chest quite prominently.
Well.
Why.
What.
I feel wronged!
I never designed such suggestive clothing as a saint’s robe!
For that matter, there were never any saints in the novel I wrote. Not to mention saints, there weren’t even any holy figures. That was because later the goddess would be entering Lee Ji-An’s harem. There was no need to force one in.
Well, if I had to nitpick, I could say that Lina, who called forth the goddess’s miracle and died in the end, could be considered a saint, but since Lina was literally dead, there was no way she could wear such clothing.
In that sense, this outfit’s design is entirely the fault of this world.
The person who first designed the saint’s robe must have been some kind of hopeless pervert.
Of course, if I had introduced the saint’s robe, I might have made it look like that.
Honestly, if it weren’t on me, I’d have been thrilled.
Ah, anyway, it’s not my fault.
…Anyway, the Pope I met at the canonization ceremony didn’t bat an eyelash at my outfit. Is he remarkably mentally strong, or is it just age? Or maybe he’s enduring it through religious fervor.
Anyway, the Pope seemed to say a lot about things, but standing in front of cameras from the world’s leading media outlets wearing an outfit that clung to me, often described as “dressed, yet provocative,” left me with no memories at all.
I probably got through the canonization ceremony without causing any issues thanks to Goddess Ariel’s blessing.
If only my figure had been a little bit closer to slender…
…But all the novels I read before coming here were of that type, so I can’t say much. Maybe I should have read harem novels instead. No, with Lee Ji-An around, no matter how well I did, it would just end in a netorare or bad ending. Guess this is better.
So, while I don’t remember much, the canonization ceremony that I somehow managed to pass went down as such.
The problem was that this saint’s robe wasn’t a ceremonial outfit, but daily wear.
Uniforms and outfits issued to government forces officers or soldiers are typically split into ceremonial dress and military uniforms, with daily wear being completely separate. But the church doesn’t have that nonsense. Its motto, “A cleric remains a cleric no matter the occasion,” applies to priests, clergy, and nuns alike—wherever they go, they wear the same clothes: daily wear + ceremonial outfit.
Yeah, I will confess honestly, that was my fault. I set up the nun’s robe without distinguishing between daily outfits and ceremonial attire.
That said, the saint’s robe is good in elasticity and is comfortable to wear, but…
“Hello! Today’s pious…”
The day after the canonization ceremony, as I entered the school, Selena greeted me but stopped in her tracks when she saw my outfit.
She gulped unintentionally.
Slowly, I raised my hand to cover my face with my palm.
“No, no! It’s okay! It suits you well! I’m not sure if it’s pious or not!”
It’s probably scandalous, right, yeah.
“…But it looks very religious. Like a saint.”
After a long deliberation, Satsuki comforted me like this. Yeah. It probably looks like a saint. Like those saints from those 19+ light novels sold as e-books.
“But it still looks-”
“Ah, stop! That’s enough!”
In an attempt to comfort me, Selena hurriedly clamped a hand over Jian’s mouth. Then she leaned in and whispered something into his ear, and Jian nodded gravely. I don’t want to know what they said…
“…”
“…”
Aurora and Linea, who knew how embarrassed I had been since yesterday, simply gave me a wry smile.
As the awkward atmosphere lingered…
The door opened with a creek.
It was Lina, who usually arrives at this hour.
As she walked in, she turned to where the noise was coming from and locked eyes with me.
For a brief moment, she stared at me blankly, almost as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, then…
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”
She burst into laughter.
Clutching her stomach with her right hand and pointing at me with her left, tears welled in her eyes from laughing so hard.
“…”
I silently covered my face with my hand again.
I was the one who commented on the outfit just a little while ago.
I have no rebuttal here.
*
Time flies by quickly.
The chaos we stirred up was at the end of April, and it was already early May.
In the meantime, nothing much happened.
The saint’s robe was still embarrassing, and strangely thin—after training with Lina, it would stick to my skin due to sweat. For some reason, more male students have been sticking around to watch the after-school training, but I decided to overlook that.
Still, there was one positive change: Lina no longer charged at me like a madwoman.
Unlike before when she seemed to be fighting for her life, now it felt more like genuine ‘skill competitions.’
Of course, no one was going easy on me. They took every opportunity to hit me hard and blocked or dodged my attacks. Still, there was a lightness to it rather than desperation.
Something like enjoying it, maybe? She’d never admit it, though.
Thanks to that, after our sparring sessions, I no longer dragged my legs around.
Another positive change was that my status within the Church had risen higher than the priests and the Mother Superior at the cathedral.
That meant I could come back after wandering around after school without receiving many admonishments. Not that I planned to stay out late or step over both figures because I once knew that kind of super arrogant Kwon In-Soo.
Ugh, how annoying.
Ironically, Aurora was the one who was happiest about this situation.
“Shall we stop somewhere else on the way back?”
When Aurora asked this,
“Wow, really? For real? Where shall we go!?”
She bounced around like a little child. Linea saw her and pinched her brow but peeked at my face, which was beaming, and said nothing.
After sparring, sweating, changing into clean clothes, then stopping by a café to sip cold drinks felt sacred in itself.
Moreover, every store I visited offered something extra when they saw my saint’s robe. One time, I even signed my name upon request, and they generously gave me slices of cake.
…That was the only positive use for my saint’s robe.
Aurora, and while she didn’t want to show it too much, even Linea seemed to have barely gone out like this before.
Having only eaten rather bland food from the convent, when they bought and tried things like chocolate shakes, smoothies, or gelato—things they wouldn’t eat inside the Cathedral—they had expressions that looked like they would melt from delight.
Watching their faces while achieving such a daily life with my life on the line made me think that enduring it wasn’t so bad.
Thus, that after-school tea time became a larger group including Selena and Lina, who came along with a sulky expression but had her eyes wide open after tasting strawberry smoothies.
And among that group, there was only one guy—Lee Ji-An.
Lucky bastard.
*
“Starting next week, we will have joint training with the government’s army officer school for three weeks.”
That’s right.
The joint training event with the military officer school that was scheduled to run from the second week of May until the end of the month.
Originally, this event was created to introduce a heroine from the officer school, but it had never been featured in the story.
That’s because it was shortly after Lina’s death, and many of the academy students were injured, making joint training impossible, which led to it being postponed, indicating where I had left off in my written novel.
There were character settings, backgrounds, and explanations of various plot points, but that was it. It was impossible to respond knowing the story in advance, and who would live or die among the new characters was still unknown.
They better not die, but you never know in this world, right?
“The things I’m asking are just two: First.”
Seo-A, the head instructor, spoke while holding up a finger.
“Under no circumstances should you engage in combat. Whether it’s the government forces or us, we’re all part of the same government. We might have to collaborate later after graduation, so there’s no benefit in getting all worked up about it now.”
But that might be impossible. After all, the students of the officer school are written to dislike the academy students.
They’ve been set up as rivals, but with a sense of friendly competition established.
And beneath those layers, various settings exist.
In this world, there are police, soldiers, churches, and heroes. They each have their roles, but some of them do overlap.
For instance, the military personnel and the church’s forces work together almost like 100% of the time, so there’s hardly any reason to fight. The military is primarily responsible, while the church helps fill the gaps where they are short on numbers, provides medical support, or raises funds for soldiers, so there’s no reason to dislike each other.
It’s the opposite, especially in places with scarce human resources; they look forward to having the church dispatched to them so they can have 4 shifts instead of 3.
Similarly, police and heroes often have overlapping duties. But in this case, there’s a principle that if something is beyond the police’s capability, the heroes will step in, avoiding clashes altogether. Having heroes intervene drastically reduces the police’s casualties, and since the investigation authority doesn’t belong to the heroes, they are allowed to perform only ‘support’ duties as per the law.
Problematic is the relationship between heroes and soldiers.
Actually, heroes don’t have much reason to go into combat. The firepower of the government forces is genuinely formidable, and the church’s forces can supplement the infantry. Generally, it is more beneficial for heroes to maintain public safety within cities.
However, once in a while, ‘individuals who are too good to waste’ appear.
Heroes possess powers that ordinary humans cannot match. They’re the elite, so to speak. Sometimes they have abilities unrelated to magic and can create huge rocks to drop like meteorites or can wield weapons to slice through dozens of enemies with their vast magical energy.
From the perspective of the government, wasting someone with the ability to take out hundreds on merely apprehending criminals is inefficient.
Furthermore, since heroes are selected for their exceptional talents, they tend to stand out more. Not even using standard-issue equipment makes it easier for them to gain popularity.
Therefore, the government sends some of those heroes off to war to create actual heroes and use them for propaganda. Naturally, this boosts the heroes’ fame, and talented individuals are inclined not to flee to other lucrative jobs but come to the ‘academy’ run by the government.
Of course, more than half of them eventually find other jobs rather than becoming heroes after learning various things and hearing reality from seniors, but for the government, it’s welcome to have exceptional talents pooling in with them.
And because of this—
“Secondly, if, by any chance, things come to blows with them-”
The officer school students aren’t necessarily elites from birth. Although they are exceptional in their own right, they typically lack any crazy powers or abilities to cause massive destruction.
They often enter the academy because they admire soldiers or, at the very least, ponder how to make a living. In any case, they usually join the academy through effort rather than being born talented.
Because of that, students there often possess a competitive spirit towards the hero academy. It may be unlikely to win, but they want to defeat those arrogant heroes and crush their pride.
It’s not that heroes don’t die in battle either, and when fighting for their lives together, they often become comrades, but there are many students who haven’t experienced that reality yet and still hold onto naïve sentiments.
“-Never lose. For the name of St. Ariel Academy, for the goddess’s name, you must win.”
And certainly, the academy characters wouldn’t simply roll over if their competitors played rough.
Even Seo-A, the class instructor, had that expression on her face, let alone the kids.
I’d bet that the teachers on the military side are saying the same to their students.
*
Well, even if the teachers say that, the academy students don’t seem overly concerned.
And it’s no surprise; there’s no need to feel rivalry in the first place.
After all, they were all exceptional students, so why would they deliberately look down on other school kids? Moreover, the Hero Academy is precisely that—the Hero Academy. Naturally, they scrutinize character closely during interviews. They hardly dismiss soldiers.
Although there are a few bombs among them.
For example, there’s Ramihi Kihmuhir from E-Class, a pure elf.
Her name might sound very strange from a human perspective, but to elves, it’s a noble name.
I had intended to set her up as Satsuki’s rival character, but I had never properly utilized her beyond that.
It was a given, as the best theme to use was the conflict of mixed blood vs. pure blood, so she was quite proud of her pure elf lineage. While she didn’t openly look down on humans, she did have considerable pride in her capabilities as an elf.
Having passed two months since enrollment, she must’ve realized she has ‘humans’ or ‘beast-people’ who are on par with her in her class, so she’s unlikely to feel contempt solely based on race.
However, she probably looks down on abilities.
After all, Kihmuhir was a student ‘brought in’ by the government to foster friendly relations with the elves.
She likely doesn’t view those merely ordinary humans in the officer school with much admiration. Besides, she probably doesn’t even get why they’re training alongside them.
Coincidentally, we were standing in the auditorium, facing each other as part of the welcoming ceremony for the officer school students, and Kihmuhir was standing right in front of me. It was customary for the officer school students to march in facing the academy students lined up on opposite ends.
And I stood alongside Kihmuhir at the front of both lines.
There’s no concept of an academy president here; they merely choose representatives as needed, often selecting the student who garners the most attention.
And that spotlight was currently on me.
It had been nearly two weeks, but I was the one who closed the magic point and smashed the beasts.
By the way, the concept of high-ranking demons has been concealed. The fact that a student, Lee Ji-An, managed to catch it is also hidden. That I crushed the demon’s head is also hushed up. It was still too early to reveal. It was merely something I testified about, claiming it was a high-ranking demon.
Lina, who knew that precisely, didn’t divulge what conversation she had with Andrea that day. For whatever reason, it got covered up due to the vague nature of the claims.
As a result, the spotlight turned to me—the newly canonized saint…
Oh, I just made eye contact.
Kihmuhir gave me a charming smile. A saint who possesses powerful abilities and can use the goddess’s miracle—certainly worthy of her respect. She had perfect blonde hair cascading down to her waist and long ears even more beautiful than Satsuki’s; she embodied what being an elf meant.
Kihmuhir came from a high-status elven family. Modern times have diluted the meaning of that lineage, but it’s still there in the setting.
A potential bomb about to explode, but there’s no reason to trigger it early. I merely returned her smile with a similar one.
[The entrance of the military officer school students is now commencing.]
Even though that announcement was made, the typical fanfare usually accompanying it didn’t sound.
A moment of silence.
Academy students murmured as the auditorium doors creaked open.
What followed was the sharp beat of a drum roll.
A marching band of several dozen military cadets stepped in with precise drumming that resonated. They played fast and slow, expertly maintaining a steady rhythm.
And around a hundred male and female students in uniforms reminiscent of military dress marched in with a serious demeanor.
All of their expressions were solemn.
Honestly speaking, it felt as if they exuded a bloodthirsty aura.
And the academy students, not used to such a killing intent, were bewildered.
As the once-calm students began to chatter in confusion, some cadets from the officer school added a sly smile upon hearing the commotion.
…They’ve certainly sharpened their blades.
And naturally, Kihmuhir, standing directly in front of me, was becoming more rigid as well.
The mood had shifted.
Judging from the instructor’s words, this event won’t just pass peacefully.
…Well, what can I say? I wrote the settings, so I’d just have to endure it.
You may also like Mesugaki Tank Enters The Academy
