There are many power-hungry individuals who unrelentingly seek power in dramas, disregarding money or anything else. I really just can’t understand those people.
Power means that as you grow stronger, there’s more work for you to do.
Of course, I haven’t yet had to commute to the Central Church like a real government worker, taking full advantage of the ambiguous position of the Saint that I hold. Still, my obligation to attend important public duties hasn’t changed.
A holy site? A cathedral? The first time I heard those terms, I was so shocked that my vision turned yellow, but now that I think about it, it’s not really that important.
Well, I mean, it’s important from the church’s perspective, but from my viewpoint, it’s not.
Even if it’s designated as a holy site and people come to pilgrimage, those people won’t step into the convent where I live. The cathedral may get quite busy, but if I just try not to pay attention to it, it shouldn’t be an issue.
The cathedral named after me is going to be built in the Elven District, far from here anyway. No matter how big it gets, as long as I don’t visit, I won’t have to deal with anything related to that cathedral.
As for the order that bears my name… it might become a bit of a hassle, but as long as it remains a symbolic existence, it shouldn’t be a big problem. Even the Saint Knights don’t require me to handle any political affairs personally.
But then again…
If there were a holiday named after me, I think that would be a major issue.
“Excuse me…?”
When I asked, doubting my own ears, Father Nguyen kindly repeated it clearly once again.
“Isn’t the day you first came to our cathedral the same as the day you were born into this world?”
“Yes, well…”
The truth is, I wasn’t born here; I was directly born from the gods themselves, and the fact that I can casually speak with those gods is already well-known throughout the church. Fortunately, discussions about whether I’m a god or a prophet deserving of familiarity with gods have been widespread, so it hasn’t been officially announced yet.
Wait a second.
“I thought it hasn’t been concluded yet within the church what kind of being I am?”
I managed to stop the idiot who had been about to fly these absurd documents all the way to that holy site since early in the morning.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to look up to someone whose nature hasn’t been judged yet.”
As I said that, Father Nguyen’s face went pale.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Someone who would be 2.5 times older than me back in that world suddenly bowed his head. Despite having grown up listening to the saying that one should respect their elders, I was a bit taken aback.
“We didn’t consider enough. We will return this matter to the Central Church for reevaluation.”
“Ah, yes…”
I’m relieved he didn’t argue with me.
But it’s a bit scary how one simple statement can turn the church’s collective opinion on its head.
Then again, if I throw a fit, even the Pope has to back down.
I handed the documents back to the priest and said, “I’d appreciate it if you could do that. And I hope excessive idolization of me is avoided. The only ones who should be called gods are Goddess Ariel and Demon God Baal.”
“Understood. I will definitely pass it on.”
This time, Father Nguyen’s eyes sparkled with what seemed like a sense of mission, which made me feel uneasy.
“Well then, I must take my leave. It’s time for me to go to the academy.”
“Yes, I’m sorry to use up the Saint’s valuable time for such matters.”
“Ah, that’s alright…”
I hurriedly lowered my head and dashed out of the priest’s office before the conversation got too uncomfortable.
*
“Don’t hastily jump to conclusions about what you see with your own eyes…”
While staring at the door where the Saint had left for a while, Father Nguyen muttered to himself. Surely, they still didn’t know enough about Saint Clara Anderson.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that one can throw questions at someone deemed to be close to the gods. The Saint wasn’t comfortable with such conversations.
“That certainly could be considered rude.”
A being who had accomplished what no one else had, in less than a year since coming down to the world, was a girl with a purely innocent heart. And children around her age generally didn’t like adults trying to intrude into their lives too much.
How many teenagers come for confession? Perhaps he was idolizing the Saint—this girl—too much.
Someone might ask how one can avoid looking up to a being close to the gods, but looking at the Saint’s actions can make it somewhat understandable.
Rather than looking down from above, the Saint mixed in with those fighting, moving forward alongside them, always supporting them right by their side. When fighting witches, the Saint never retreated and constantly charged to the front with others.
Indeed, she descended among all those living on this earth, not in some unreachable sanctuary. Just earlier, she even said she had to go to school at the academy. If she ever wanted, no one would deny her calling herself a goddess and commanding people, yet she made a sincere effort to strictly adhere to human rules as if that were the way things were supposed to be.
It wouldn’t do to look from too far away at someone like that. There’s so much to learn from her every action and word, and to think of it as just something a “Saint” can do is no different from ignoring that very essence.
“I understand your reasons for wanting to distance yourself from idolization.”
It was not that the Saint was right beside him, but the priest muttered as if he had been taught, opening a drawer on his desk and pulling out a piece of paper.
Holding the pen, he briefly organized his thoughts before slowly starting to fill out the paper.
[The Saint has asked us not to excessively idolize her. Pushing away someone who has come down to live among us…]
*
Still, I managed to prevent a holiday being named after me somehow.
If I had left that alone, they might have even made a new era and named it after me at some point. Although it sounded a bit rude, I was satisfied that I stopped that foundation from being laid. Then again, I had already rolled on the floor and shouted that I wouldn’t accept it in front of the Pope. There was nothing to be embarrassed about now.
Just like usual, I arrived first in the classroom with Aurora and Linea, and as always… well, it seems I’ve been falling behind that lately, but anyway, I did my usual cleaning. Honestly, when I first started cleaning the classroom, I wondered what the heck I was doing, but as I saw the dust gathering in the places others don’t care about while we’re not around, I felt a sense of pride bubbling up. Yeah, who else would clean such places if not me?
…It weirdly reminded me of the time I justified the struggles I faced in the military, but anyway, that was that.
And just as always, once cleaning was done and I sat down after tidying up, suddenly—
Bang! The classroom door burst open like an explosion!
…Huh?
Normally, the first to arrive at this time would be Selena. Sometimes she’d walk in with Jian, but usually it’s Selena who enters first.
However, the head peeking through the door was definitely not Selena’s twin tails.
What caught sight of me was a wild, messy, pink-haired girl, like a sports car hood flung open and speeding into the wind.
Clearly dyed, but for her, that was actually her hair color, and she stormed toward my desk with a furious expression on her face.
“Rina, what’s wrong!?”
Before I could finish my words, Rina grabbed me by the collar. I was sitting sideways on my chair, and instinctively, her grip caused me to spring up.
“Um, could you let go of my hand first? If you do this, my skirt’s going to ride up, and it feels like anything I do will be on display.”
In the past, I would have been incredibly embarrassed, but having been grabbed by the collar multiple times in the Elven Village, I was starting to build resistance to Rina’s grip.
“You, you, you you you…”
Rina stared at me with wildly shaking eyes, talking like a broken radio.
She seemed seriously messed up.
“Rina, how about taking a deep breath? Here, let’s inhale deeply—”
“Are you kidding me right now?!”
Rina suddenly lifted my clothes up high. The collar part nearly reached my cheek, and no joke, my skirt almost flew up.
“No, I mean, can you please just talk? Let go of my hand!”
At the last possible second, I desperately pulled my skirt down. It had already stopped just at that… anyway, at a very precarious point. If it weren’t for Aurora next to me holding down my skirt, it might have risen all the way to my belly button.
“Is it you? No, it’s definitely you! Who else would do such a thing? Am I right?”
“No, I mean could you please just tell me what this is all about…?”
As I said that, Rina’s eyes, which had been shaking wildly, suddenly lost all strength. She looked as though she had succumbed to deep despair, and her grip relaxed on me, giving me a chance to pull away and adjust my clothes.
“The Saint.”
“Huh?”
“I received a letter from the Central Church saying they want to make me a Saint.”
Rina said in a deflated voice, pulling something crumpled out of her pocket and handing it to me. I carefully unfolded the paper, making sure not to tear it, and indeed, it contained such information.
Rina Hicks is meant to become the leader of a new faction and will lead many people under her, but since she currently holds no suitable position, they say they’ll substitute with the title of Saint.
And one of the grounds for this is that I’m the demon she rehabilitated.
However, it didn’t specify when exactly this would happen. Since creating an entire sect can take several years, and while that’s one thing, canonization is another issue. It could be that she could be elevated to Saint merely to build her credentials for a few years.
…It does sound suspicious when laid out like that.
“That’s not me.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. If I had wanted that to happen, it would have been done immediately with no need for all this. Well, at least the justification would be clear. There’s no law against having more than one Saint at a time.”
Sure, in principle, Saints and the like are on the same level as the Pope, but there’s no rule that says there can’t be two. However, it was highly difficult for two to exist in the same era.
If more than one truly came into existence, and both had extremely strong ambitions for power, things would get messy, but both Rina and I were somewhat distant from that ambition. Rather, we would prefer to push it off onto the other.
“This must have been planned from the start. Now it just seems like everything has been properly set.”
“Ah…”
Rina sank to the floor on her knees with a completely despondent expression, her hands pressing into the ground as if she had just heard an unavoidable prophecy that you will die tomorrow.
“Hmm? The door is open today, huh?”
Right at that moment, someone called from the classroom door.
“Hello~ today is another pious… what’s going on?”
As usual, Selena entered and looked over to see Rina kneeling in front of me with a shocked expression.
“…A confession of faith?”
“That was done ages ago.”
Of course, it wasn’t for me; she was trying to make me pay for something. She probably never expected it would roll into such a mess.
“This morning I received a letter from the Central Church.”
“And then?”
“It said they want to canonize Rina as a Saint.”
Upon hearing that, Selena’s expression grew even more confused.
“Um, that means… how do I say this… I’m sorry? Is that the appropriate response?”
With a careful guess, Selena looked at me, and I nodded quietly. Then I knelt beside Rina, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“Rina, don’t worry too much. I received a letter from the Central Church last night and this morning too.”
Rina, who had been sniffling, lifted up her head.
“…What kind of letter?”
“They want to build a cathedral with my name, found an order dedicated to my name, and designate a holiday named after me.”
“….”
Rina’s mouth gaped open at my words.
“…So what did you do?”
“There’s nothing I can do about the cathedral; I can’t stop that. The founding of the order just uses my name, so I couldn’t say much about it, but the holiday? No way, I argued against that.”
“And?”
“They accepted it as is. Actually, not long ago, the Pope offered to step down and pass the papal position to me…”
At that moment, I hurriedly lifted my head and noticed Linea, Aurora, and Selena staring at me, aghast.
“Um… is that a serious matter? Should I step aside?”
Selena asked seriously, and after a moment’s thought, I shook my head.
“No, it’s fine. It’s all in the past now.”
“No, but it feels like it shouldn’t be something an outsider hears…”
Leaving a visibly jittery Selena behind, I continued speaking to Rina.
“I tried not to tell anyone, but I’ll let this slip. If it turns out the other party tries to do something unreasonable, just act like I did when I heard from the Pope.”
“…How did you do that?”
“Well, first lay down flat on the ground, flailing your arms and legs, shouting ‘I won’t do it!’—”
“Are you kidding me!?”
Before I knew it, Rina lunged at me in a fit of rage!
I swear I’m serious!
*
…Even though I was enduring a school life accompanied by such somewhat unfair violence, I truly missed these ordinary days without any major disturbances.
No matter who I was, I didn’t want to dash around a battlefield. If it was necessary, then that was just how it rolled, but still, chatting with friends without a care was my true preference.
There was no reason for me to tussle with witches, no unexpected demon appearances to set everything ablaze, and no illogical actions from other races to get caught in.
Sure, the church keeps talking about strange things, but most can be ignored.
Anyway, this daily life was precious to me.
I know this won’t last long.
If the demons stop fighting among themselves and a unified Demon force begins to act, all humanity will literally fall into a state of emergency. It’ll be an all-out war where if we can’t win against that demon, we’ll lose everything we have, a true total war.
Still, I want to enjoy this daily life as much as I can.
…I wanted to, but,
“If I suddenly show up like this, do you think I’d feel good or bad? Huh?”
I asked the Demon God standing right in front of me.
The place where we were standing now felt almost familiar—a completely empty black space. To put it more directly, it was the realm of consciousness.
“I told you not to suddenly show up and take over my body, didn’t I? That’s why I came here to meet you like this.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that this is still my mind, right?”
“I considered that too. I had no intentions of stealing your body; thus, I waited for a time when you weren’t using it to create an opportunity for us to talk together.”
So you came while I was sleeping, huh?
“If you wouldn’t allow even this, then how should I converse with you? Are you literally trying to say not to speak to you at all?”
“…Well, I’m not saying that.”
In response to my answer, Baal shrugged his shoulders.
“This was also a method used to converse with those you call saints in the past. Of course, it was Ariel who employed it, not me. It puts less strain on the brain compared to when you’re awake, plus, when you’re asleep, your brain is less active. You can’t afford to kill a believer while granting them a revelation, can you? Ah, but you don’t need to worry about that. You, who can still talk to gods while falling from cliffs, need not.”
At that time, I hadn’t called for him either, but if it weren’t for him then, I would have really drowned, so anyway…
“So, what’s the reason for your sudden midnight visit?”
“I thought our conversation might take a while. I assume you wouldn’t mind being a little drowsy tomorrow since you’ve been sleeping during class?”
“…”
I couldn’t exactly retort and merely opened and closed my mouth.
And without caring about my circumstances, the Demon God continued speaking.
“First, let me bring up the topic of the demons.”
And Baal let out a light sigh.
“Right now, the holy site is teeming with demons.”
“…”
…Is this my fault?
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