Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Searching for Zeto

Thanks to Edward providing uniforms, they were able to create a far easier “disguise.”

Edward, who brought the uniforms, said there was no need to return them, and that they could keep them. After all, there was no way the Saintess would hand a uniform over to demons.

“Ugh... A skirt... a skirt...”

Eclin came out in uniform, her face flushed as she fidgeted with her tie.

Because Eclin rarely had occasion to wear skirts or dresses, it seemed she could not get used to the way she looked.

“Is this not too short...? Can anyone even fight wearing something like this...?”

Biting her lip and tugging down the dangerously short skirt, Eclin looked at me.

“It only looks good on you to me, Eclin.”

I stroked her face and smiled.

“Really...? S-Saintess, are you not uncomfortable?”

Eclin, glancing at me, stammered.

“It is a little uncomfortable around the chest... but that cannot be helped.”

I lowered my gaze and looked at the buttons that seemed ready to burst. No matter what, I could not expect even the size to fit.

“As for the skirt length...”

It was similar to the clothes I usually wore, so it did not bother me greatly.

Turning once in place to check my outfit, I looked at Eclin reflected in the mirror and laughed faintly.

“Huhut... Being like this with you, Eclin, makes me feel as if I truly became an academy student.”

Before I was chosen as Saintess, I used to spend all night talking about the academy with the children at the orphanage where I was indebted.

I had not formally enrolled, but to think a day would come when I could experience it in this way.

“I wonder if those children are doing well.”

After I became Bernice, Saintess of Innocence, rather than Big Sister Bernice, I felt I had not seen their faces often.

I could not give them special treatment simply because I had become Saintess, so I was sending money to every orphanage in the Holy Kingdom while asking that they be cared for well... but perhaps it would be better to go meet them sometime.

From the news I heard occasionally through the director, that “Rocky,” who used to do nothing but cause trouble, was now apparently trying to become a holy knight.

It was something to look forward to in many ways.

Just as I was sunk in old memories, Eclin approached beside me, looked at the mirror, and spoke.

“If you had attended the academy, Saintess, you would be a third-year now, would you not?”

“...I suppose so? I would be about to graduate this year. Then would Eclin be a second-year?”

“Yes, Senior.”

At my question, Eclin answered playfully and giggled.

“Pfft, Senior... Come to think of it, it would be better to call me that right now.”

“Truly...? Saintess, no, Senior?”

At my suggestion, Eclin’s eyes sparkled.

“...Hmm, let us think of it as part of the disguise.”

Leaving Eclin behind, I left the bathroom. From behind me, Eclin’s cry of “Senior!” came one after another.

Hearing that sound truly made me feel as though I had become a third-year student earnestly attending the academy.

If, only if... supposing that I had attended the academy, and if I had “by chance” become acquainted with Zeto, who would have enrolled this year.

Would he have called me Senior too?

“Senior.”

I naturally imagined Zeto speaking a word I had never once heard from him.

Would I ever be able to form a connection with him deep enough that I could hear such a word from him, even as a joke?

Would he have the leisure or time for that?

Even though it was nothing much, my thoughts deepened.

Like that, I was walking down the street with Eclin.

I had worried slightly, but just as Edward said, unlike when we wore costume heads, people gave us so little attention that my worries felt meaningless.

At most, I occasionally felt the eyes of male students stopping as they passed.

Then Eclin opened her mouth first.

“Sai...”

When I stared at Eclin, who had been about to call me Saintess, she shook her head violently.

“S-Senior. Can we find Zeto inside this city? The city is quite large, is it not? It is far too late for him to be at the academy...”

Eclin said this while looking up at the night sky, where the moon had quietly shown its face.

“Mm... How about we visit places where he might be?”

“Places where Zeto might be...?”

“There are places I learned of while he was introducing the academy to me.”

I answered Eclin, whose eyebrow had risen.

Soon, she nodded.

First, we stopped by a nearby training ground.

He had said he had not visited lately, but still, one never knew.

Unfortunately, Zeto could not be found at the training ground. Like that, we wandered here and there, searching for Zeto.

Even while walking down the street, I diligently moved my eyes, somehow trying to find him. Snow-white bandages, which could be called Zeto’s defining trait, should stand out immediately, yet I could not find them easily.

“I cannot ask where he might be either...”

I had no way of knowing who might be acquainted with him.

In truth, it had not even been long since I came to know Zeto.

It had been an extremely short time, and our meeting had been just as short.

Nevertheless, the man named Zeto was, in many ways, an existence that bothered me.

At first, I thought I had been drawn by his mystery, but judging by the Chief God’s revelation, it did not seem to be something as simple as being drawn to him.

I carefully looked back on what the Chief God had said.

If I missed him, the time would be too late.

A fate he chose to obtain for himself.

If I touched it carelessly, I would not be able to avoid great calamity. This would be bad both for me and for the Chief God.

Even looking back now, these were truly things that were not easy to understand. Even though the Chief God must have explained as much as he could... it was difficult to grasp his intention.

In particular, I could not quite understand the part about it being bad for me as well.

For what on earth had the Chief God told me these things?

Was it simply because he would be helpful in rooting out the demons on this land?

Would things happen in the future where his “sacrifice” was unavoidable?

My teeth clenched hard.

No matter what future awaited... the fact that I was powerless. The fact that, as an Apostle of the Chief God, I had to fulfill my duty.

The fact that I could not defy this.

“...Senior... Sen... Saintess...?”

At Eclin’s voice, I woke from deep thought and turned my head to find her staring at me.

“...I was lost in thought for a moment, I am sorry. So what is it?”

“I thought it might be around here.”

Eclin said this while looking around.

Around us, dense trees, thick grass, and one pond could be seen. Over there, the fence drawing the boundary between inside and outside entered my eyes.

Since we could not find Zeto no matter how much we wandered through the city, the answer was roughly split into two possibilities.

Either Zeto had already left the academy, or he was sleeping in the dormitory.

Thus, based on Eclin’s information, we had come to the forest presumed to be the path by which Zeto left the academy.

The forest sunk in darkness was quiet, and the only sounds were the cries of insects.

“Since this was an unscheduled meeting, I suppose it will be difficult to meet him today. If only I had at least given him a crystal orb...”

I said this while brushing the dirt and dust from a nearby rock and crouching down on it.

“Still... this time, we made sure to bring it with us so we can give it to him...!”

Eclin forced a smile and straightened one finger.

Had I not ruined the induction ceremony, we would have given Zeto the crystal orb as planned... but at the time, I felt I had barely been able to breathe properly.

“...All of this is my fault, so I should endure it. I am sorry for making you and Ines suffer more for no reason, Eclin.”

I said this and squeezed my eyes shut.

“I wanted to convey my apology before it was too late...”

Surely Zeto had not gone to the knight order tonight, of all nights.

I only hoped we had not passed each other by.

***

Before parting, Daidros gave me about two bottles of elixir.

That precious elixir for free...

...two whole bottles, no less.

Perhaps because of the effect of using Shady’s power, I bled a little while we were speaking. He told me not to recklessly use a spirit’s power, saying that if I died, the masterpiece he had created, “Sierra,” would also lose all meaning.

Since Daidros had lived for so many years, it seemed he instantly noticed that I was not using ordinary spirit arts, but Spirit Sealing.

This time had been a kind of test, so I had pushed things as far as possible... I would not deliberately create such a dangerous situation next time.

I carefully stored the elixirs inside the subspace pouch.

They were quite hard to obtain, so it was better to save them as much as possible. But if things grew urgent, I planned to drink them at any time.

Whether for internal injuries or external injuries, when stamina dropped rapidly, nothing was better.

“Well, they are not as good as divine power...”

Like that, after meeting Daidros, I was on my way back to the academy.

Perhaps because I had left early, it was dawn and the sun had not yet risen.

I thought it would be better not to use Shady’s power any further today, so I was not entering the shadows.

It was just after I crossed through a gap in the fence.

“Uh...”

The wave of Perception I had released out of habit touched completely unexpected people.

[ Has something happened? ]

At my doubtful sound, Sierra, who had been going ahead, turned back and asked.

“Master, I am sorry, but... I think you need to enter the cursed blade...”

[ Why are you suddenly saying that? It is not as if the Saintess has come. ]

“No... that is... she has? The Saintess...”

It was certain that Saintess Bernice and Vice-Captain Eclin were standing on the far side of the forest.

Perhaps because sincerity had seeped into my voice, Sierra realized I was not joking and immediately opened her eyes wide.

[ No, why would the Saintess be here...? ]

At her question, I shook my head.

I did not know either.

Why had the Saintess come?

Had she come looking for me?

No, more than that, how had she come all the way here?