EP.118 The Worst First Encounter Without Room for Doubt (3)
In truth, it was hard to say he was at fault.
After all, her act of giving up her share of the meal had been nothing more than a charitable act.
Hoping for something in return for kindness was a misguided attitude for a Saint, and that was also a teaching of the order she belonged to.
There was no prior agreement that she must be protected in exchange for sharing her meal, so blaming him in this situation was absurd.
But the feeling of having been wronged was unavoidable.
After all, a proper saint should never overlook a child in trouble.
Moreover, she was someone who had shown him several small graces.
It was only natural that tears welled up in her eyes, feeling that at the very least, she could have been there for him, even if she couldn’t actively help.
Of course, she understood this sentiment well enough.
Unlike herself, who had no real talent or charm, Sister Raiza was a person with beauty and reputation rivaling her own sister within the monastery.
No matter how much she owed a favor for breakfast, any sane person wouldn’t dare to confront such a great individual for someone as inconsequential as herself.
Sniffle. Huuu. Uugh.
At that moment, as she tried to stifle her endlessly flowing tears with her tiny fist, a cheerful voice flew at her like a bouncy rubber ball.
“Sister!”
The girl’s glistening eyes slowly slid in the direction of the sound.
“Sister! Come here for a moment!”
“Ugh…!”
Just after she had acknowledged the identity of the sudden caller, her soft cheeks visibly puffed up.
The audacity of that wicked man, who had run off when help was needed but showed up now to shamelessly greet her, felt extremely annoying.
For a split second, she considered ignoring him and going on her way, but changed her mind instead.
She wanted to hear whatever excuse he had to offer.
Thud thud.
Finally, the heavy emotions behind her furious footsteps reached the male figure squatting in the corner of the dark corridor.
Clack.
A peculiar cracking sound echoed from his hand.
Following that strange signal, an inexplicable wind swept through the eerily quiet corridor.
Bam!
“Ahhh!”
“Uh! Are you okay!?”
The girl, who had suddenly lost her balance, was about to fall on the hard floor, but thanks to the man who swiftly leaped forward to catch her, she avoided the disaster.
“I’m sorry for startling you. This is an unfamiliar tool for me, so I’m just not used to handling it. Haha.”
“Um?”
The man awkwardly scratched his head for a moment before holding up a few curious sticks engraved with complex runes right in front of her nose.
“By the way, how about this? Isn’t the wind magic just amazing? It’s an invention from my academy classmate. Just by snapping one of these sticks with the spell inscribed on it, even a person with absolutely no magic like me can use magic for a short time! Well, most of it is just trivial magic like what I showed you earlier, though.”
The girl stared at him in a daze for a while, watching him excitedly tout his whimsical toys like a child.
“This one is a magic to relax muscle cramps! This one is a magic that binds eyebrow hairs together! And this one turns trash into wood…”
“Wait, hold on! F, first! L, let go of this! let go and talk!”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Only when the boy’s nonsensical lecture was interrupted as the girl desperately pushed him away with both hands did it finally come to a halt.
She knew he was an unpredictable person, but she never expected him to be this extreme.
Whether he wanted to brag about his unusual tools or just tease her, she had no idea. But she could say for certain that he was more thoughtless and ungrateful than she had assumed.
“Spit out all the breakfast I gave you!”
The girl barely swallowed her bitter resentment and was about to reprimand the man for his rude behavior when he interrupted her.
“Y, you! W, what are you doing?!”
“Sister. Other Saint candidates have been bullying you, right?”
“Ugh!”
Her loud yell, pulled from deep within her, was cut off helplessly by his nonchalant remark.
Having toyed with her body and heart, was it now her turn to be mocked about her unfortunate circumstances?
As dark thoughts clouded her expression, the man suddenly said, “I’ll help you. As payment for all those breakfasts.”
“Huh?”
After hearing his incomprehensible words followed by his cheerful smile, the girl found herself lost in a swirl of emotions that she couldn’t quite identify.
◈◈◈
Days later, just as he promised, the bullying from the surrounding candidates seemed to disappear like a lie.
It was hard to believe.
Those who envied and were jealous of her sister had picked on her, who was the least protected person—even her sister couldn’t do anything about it.
The strict atmosphere of the monastery made it common practice to uphold order, and the pretext that it was to correct her wrongdoings became a disastrous product of their actions.
As a result, the girl had to live with the shame of being called a bedwetter because of a single mistake and had no means to resist but to cover her ears and pretend she couldn’t hear the taunts.
“Bulling is a deeply ingrained instinct in social creatures. It’s a natural phenomenon when someone in a large group is ostracized. Even the gods can’t intervene.”
When he scoffed after saying that, the girl never once thought he could solve her problem.
Instead, she was furious, thinking he was just mocking her too.
But,
“However, while it’s impossible to eliminate bullying against an individual, it’s possible to dilute it by creating more ‘odd’ people.”
His cryptic smile and shocking idea were enough to twist her previously doubtful expression into one of sheer horror.
“Hey, did you hear that rumor?”
Recently, the monastery had been buzzing with unprecedented gossip.
The shameful rumors were spreading, firstly about the sisters who took care of the Saint candidates, then about the priests who shielded all of them.
“I heard that Sister Hatena smells like a six-month-old sausage from the top of her head!”
“Of course I heard! But that’s nothing compared to Sister Citria! I heard it’s said that Sister Citria has some thick sideburns from a middle-aged man growing right under her ears!”
“Haha! Even so, that’s nothing compared to Sister Raiza, who one day suddenly threw off her clothes during morning worship with all the clergy gathered! They say she claimed it was the wind that blew through the sealed chapel and made her clothes come off! What the?! Does that even make sense!? I think she has an exposure disorder!”
Hatena. Citria. Raiza.
Those were the main perpetrators of the malicious rumors targeting the girl.
Incorporating that they developed some dark secrets they could not share with others, it seemed like the stories had spread like wildfire through the monastery to the point where no one was unaware.
Yes, to the extent that even the tale of a certain Saint candidate who had been a failure was fading away.
“Hahaha! How about that? Am I right?”
“Oh, even so! Y, you went too far!”
The man, tossing the sticks he had used for his ‘plan’ back and forth like a baseball, burst into hearty laughter, and while the girl had initially tried to stop him, she honestly felt relieved.
When he said he would use those bizarre magical tools to get back at the endearing Saint candidates who tormented her, she honestly wondered what would happen.
But as he turned those who mocked her into objects of ridicule, completely dispelling her own bullying, she was so shocked that her jaw dropped wide open.
However, what surprised her most was his confidence.
Even if he was just a candidate, if discovered by those holy beings who could potentially become Saints in the future, such actions would surely lead to a terrible end.
If she had been in his position, she knew she wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night out of anxiety.
Where on earth did that reckless confidence come from?
Her curiosity got the better of her, and she asked him several questions, but every time, he would playfully brush her off, leaving her disappointed without the answers she sought.
When he started to humor her by saying that he had memories from a previous life, she lost all desire to question him further.
“No, I’m serious. Suddenly, my hair started turning completely white one day, and strange visions I had never seen before flooded into my head.”
“D, don’t lie! I’m not falling for it! That story is all made up by you, I know you dyed your hair! Don’t treat me like a child!”
“Haha, if you keep doubting me, you’ll see me become a first-class priest in the future! And then! I might get scouted by a Hero Party, and I won’t even acknowledge you anymore, Sister!”
“If you join a Hero Party, does that mean I’ll become a Saint? P, please say something that makes sense!”
“Hahaha, that’s actually true.”
When she finally came to her senses, she realized she had become so familiar with him that they weren’t just exchanging idle chatter but honest conversations.
“I think I’ve paid you back well enough. At this point, can’t you just call me ‘Onii-chan’ like we promised? Sister Welna?”
“Again! That’s another lie! When did I ever make such a promise? Priest Regis!”
Yes, looking back now, it had clearly started from around then.
His presence had gradually begun to grow within her heart.
“R, remember this! Even if the world crumbles, I will never call you ‘Onii-chan’!”
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