Clang!
As I was about to enter the chapel, if the Chokugen Faction, which ended up as corpses, could see it, they would be beating their chests and mourning on the ground, while on the opposite side, the door opened far too easily.
After Lucia Bright’s speech, the bishops and paladins began voting in the assembly hall.
In the most tense moment, a woman with pink hair was running away in a pretty bad state.
As a suspect in the Demeter Nun murder case and the mastermind behind Lucia Bright’s kidnapping pointed out by Ares, she should have been arrested, but due to the special circumstance of the Saint Election, it was temporarily on hold.
Mikaela capitalized on that situation, starting to flee, convinced of her defeat.
I wondered how she managed to shake off everyone and run all the way here, but unfortunately for her, I was guarding the entrance.
“Wait! What the hell is going on!?”
As the bodies of the Chokugen Faction were blocking my way, rolling underfoot, Mikaela screamed in frustration. It was only natural that she would panic seeing all those who she had been waiting for to suddenly arrive at the entrance, now dead.
“You!”
As she seethed with anger, she tried desperately to wield her pink power, but it wasn’t working out well. Before I could even step in, a girl snatched her beautifully decorated pink hair from behind.
“Where do you think you’re crawling, Sister?”
I had instructed to protect Lucia, and May was executing the strategy that attacking is the best defense by taking down the enemy to protect her ally.
May immediately pulled on the pink-haired girl while punching Mikaela in the face with her other hand. Being a delinquent, she didn’t hesitate to deliver a cruel blow that most ordinary female students wouldn’t dare do.
“Let’s just sit and wait for now!”
With that, she kicked Mikaela’s knee, and all the powers except for the imprint of Aphrodite in her mouth seemed to vanish, causing her to collapse to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
“I’m not someone who gets treated like this!”
As soon as the pink energy surged back towards May, the power of Helios shining inside the chapel completely overwhelmed the Goddess of Beauty and Love.
“Just get some sleep for now. You’ll wake up in prison, though.”
May struck down again, fully subduing Mikaela.
The long disturbance in Batian was coming to an end.
*
‘I was a saint cradling the kingdom in my past life, and in this life I’m a criminal living in prison. Life really swings from one extreme to the other.’
On the last day of our field trip, I clicked my tongue reading an article about Mikaela being transported to prison to prepare for trial due to the co-conspirators revealed at the cathedral, despite the bloodshed.
Then on the next page, I read that Saint Lucia’s first moves were catching everyone’s attention, and a smile crept onto my face.
The newspaper showed Lucia in her saintly garb, beaming at people.
It seems the upcoming Saint Election had plenty of drama, so how Lucia acts going forward will be crucial.
“Are you just going to read the newspaper?”
Sen, swinging her legs on the edge of my bed, asked sulkily. Since we’d been through a lot, I had planned to take it easy on the last day.
“That’s what I’m saying. We’ve struggled so much, shouldn’t we relax a bit?”
May, lying on my bed and sucking on a candy, meant I had no choice but to sit on Diana’s bed across from her.
Diana was disappointed she couldn’t make a splash this time, but what could be done?
Thanks to the potion given by the witch to disguise her dragonkin traits, if she started doing anything rough like fighting, the potion’s effects gradually wore off.
This meant she couldn’t reveal herself and fight in the city, leading her to shred her nails in the room instead.
‘Of course on the last day she got dragged off by the professors.’
I heard that Talois, the 5th-year senior who took on the role of assistant professor, and his gang got caught by Madame, resulting in Diana unavoidably becoming the assistant professor.
Wait a minute.
“Hey, I heard it was a group tour today, why are you two here?”
I came to rescue Sen, not to join a field trip, so I was fine being absent, but those two shouldn’t be.
As my gaze fell on them, May conveniently changed the subject.
“By the way, what happened to Elise?”
“Hah, skipping lectures is one thing, but skipping the tour too? Consistency is admirable.”
“No, what’s going on with Elise?”
As I pressed further, May wouldn’t lose her momentum and shot back at me, so I sighed and explained.
“There’s no need to worry about her, at least for now.”
“Really? I felt bad thinking she was taken somewhere while helping us.”
“……”
Well, it’s similar.
There’s no immediate need to worry, but we should find Elise…
‘Should we even look for her?’
No, she just followed the 1st prince to the royal palace, so she could live a life as a princess there, right?
‘Of course, life in the royal palace should be better than at the academy.’
I wished for her happiness and peace while making excuses to myself.
Of course, even if I said that, Prince Oliver would continue to ensnare me, and I knew that would lead to meeting Elise again.
Just then, a heavy knock came from outside the door.
Not wanting to get caught with two female students in the room I shared with my sister, I told them to hide.
“Oh ho, it’s Jota.”
“Bang.”
May sprawled on my bed, while Sen made strange sound effects with her mouth, resting her head on May’s stomach.
The sight of them layered like paper dolls was infuriating.
I almost wrapped them in the blanket and threw them both out the window, but then May warned me with a mischievous smile.
“Are you going to start groaning now?”
“……Hey, wait a second.”
No way.
That’s definitely a no-go.
“Groaning? Huuh! Is this what you mean?”
Since Sen was completely devoid of emotions, I figured it wasn’t an issue and tossed her over to the opposite bed.
Meanwhile, May finished her preparations.
She subtly shrugged off her hoodie, letting her shoulders fall, and dashed to the corner of the bed.
“Don’t! Seriously, don’t do it.”
“Then don’t tell me to go out. And how about a date today?”
With a thwack, she hit the back of my head, and feeling wronged, I asked.
“What did I do wrong? What’s in it for you?”
“I don’t know who’s out there, be it professors or students, but we could definitely let them know we have a sticky relationship, right?”
“……You’re not serious, are you?”
May chuckled, shrugged her shoulders back into her clothes.
“I was just teasing. You looking all scared was pretty cute.”
“Phew, that’s……”
“Eek, big brother!”
In an instant, both May and I turned wide-eyed.
Sen, sitting on the opposite bed, was stroking her throat while making a sound we never could have imagined.
Receiving our piercing stares like arrows, she awkwardly scratched the back of her head.
“I learned a little of this type of thing in the Chokugen Faction.”
I was about to say that the Chokugen taught nothing but the most ridiculous things, but before I could, the door burst open, and a nun and a boy entered.
“What kind of disgrace is this, in broad daylight, with students while Helios is watching!?”
“I didn’t expect Daniel’s taste to be Sen’s……!”
Saint Lucia Bright, now a saint, and Ares Helias, who recently got the honorary Paladin title, kicked the door open, proclaiming divine judgment.
*
In the Batian crematorium, corpses lined up as if something was for sale. You’d think there was some kind of war, but these were all assassins.
It was the highly skilled members of the Chokugen Faction, but the owner of the crematorium had no way of knowing that.
“Did this many corpses really come from the cathedral? I heard there was a lot of work for this Saint election, but isn’t this a bit much?”
The crematorium owner’s wife asked with her arms crossed. The owner, shocked, looked around nervously. Upon confirming the coast was clear, he sighed with relief and warned her.
“My dear! Don’t speak carelessly! This is something secretly requested by the cathedral! We were paid well for the confidentiality, so let’s just enjoy the scraps.”
The fact that so many bodies came from a place that could be called the temple of the gods, the cathedral, and that these were the bodies of the assassins, desecrated the cathedral’s image significantly.
Especially in a situation like this Saint election which was rife with rumors and troubles, would people start talking about these corpses?
It would irreparably ruin the cathedral’s image, so they were secretly transporting and cremating the bodies.
“After the cremation, they told me to deal with the ashes thoroughly as well. I’m planning to bury them all in a pit.”
“Is that really okay? No matter how you look at it, it’s still honoring the dead properly…”
“Should we call a priest or a bishop? We’d end up dead too. They wouldn’t accept assassins anyway.”
“Then I’ll take them.”
A chilling voice cut through the couple’s banter.
The owner turned to see a girl with black hair wearing a soft smile.
As soon as they saw her, the sunny Batian seemed to plunge into darkness.
It wasn’t just darkness; it felt as if in the holy city, known as Batian, it was the only place where the gods had become silent, surrounding the girl.
“Who?”
Before the couple could say anything, the black aura around Rin began to envelop them, and they suddenly looked at each other, chuckling.
“Well, we’re done with the cremation, so shall we head back?”
“Today’s work finished early, huh?”
Their awkward demeanor had a strange theatrical quality, but the couple returned home.
What remained were Rin and the corpses of the Chokugen Faction.
What awaited them was not flames like a hellfire that would leave no trace of this life.
It was the touch of the girl accompanied by the God of Death.
“Now, rise.”
The bodies, which everyone thought would never rise again, stood there in line before Rin.
And right next to her.
A woman in dark robes, a tragic figure.
Having sensed her own death, she accepted it humbly, yet contrary to her will, she stood once again on this world.
“From now on, I’ll be counting on you.”
The numerous corpses transformed into darkness and soon melded together, absorbed towards the pattern on Rin’s chest.
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