Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I'm Telling You Now

I quickly made my way near the approaching horde of demonic beasts, then kicked off the ground and shot into the sky in a single bound. Gathering divine power beneath my feet, I stepped onto empty air and stood there.

The landscape spread beneath me was, quite literally, a colorless hell.

Twisted ancient trees devoid of any life jutted upward like the bones of some enormous beast, while eerie gray mist coiled like snakes between them, spewing foul-smelling demonic energy.

The sight of hundreds of demonic beasts surging through that fog like a tidal wave made me frown instinctively.

‘...Why are there so damn many?’

With this many demonic beasts attacking the outskirts of the Demon Realm, I could at least understand why the Holy Knights had been making such a fuss since dawn.

Had predators deeper inside migrated and driven the creatures on the outskirts out in droves?

If so, you could say they were unbelievably unlucky.

Ah, not us. Those demonic beast bastards.

They'd desperately fled from predators only to run into something even worse, hadn't they?

“Huuup...!”

Drawing air deep into my lungs, I poured divine power into the holy spear Astra. As though reflecting its master's mood, the silvery-white radiance contained within Astra surged violently.

Vice-Captain Leonid, who had been waiting on the ground, seemed to notice the ominous divine power gathering overhead and snapped his head up. His eyes widened in horror as he stared into the sky.

“...What are you doing up there, Sis?”

“Cutting down their numbers.”

“...Oh, fuck. Everyone, fall back! You'll die if you get caught in that!”

Had he realized what I was about to do? Leonid's shout from below sounded utterly frantic.

“I'm throwing the spear, okay?”

“Oh, come on! If you're going to do something like that, please warn us beforehand!”

“I'm telling you now.”

After confirming that the Holy Knights had retreated outside the range, I hurled the spear straight at the front ranks of the demonic beast horde.

Wrapped in a silvery-white flash, the spear tore through the air.

KABOOOM-!

The instant Astra buried itself in the ground, the earth screamed and overturned in an explosion.

The divine power packed inside erupted, tearing the demonic beasts apart so completely they lost all semblance of form, and soon chunks of mangled flesh and black blood came pouring down like rain.

I landed lightly amid the foul-smelling black downpour and pulled Astra from where it had lodged diagonally in the ground.

Then I lightly struck the earth with the butt of the spear shaft. With a clear, resonant clang-, silver ripples spread outward like waves, filling the Holy Knights' bodies with vitality.

“Woooah! The Saintess is here!”

The apprentices, who had been staring blankly at the carnage I'd created, finally snapped back to their senses and burst into cheers.

They really should've been cutting down demonic beasts instead of wasting time cheering.

But I suppose they were apprentices, so it couldn't be helped. Well... my role was to fight on the front lines and lead the Holy Knights anyway, so maybe there was no harm in it.

“Let's wipe these demonic bastards out.”

The moment I muttered those words, I charged toward the horde. I took the lead, with the Holy Knights following behind me.

Without hesitation, I plunged into the mass of demonic beasts and swung my spear.

The sensation of the spearhead slicing through flesh traveled from my palm all the way up my spine in a thrilling jolt.

Yes. This was it. The unpleasant scent lingering at the tip of my nose, that bastard's breath tickling my ear. Even the shamelessly coquettish way I'd acted.

Beneath the metallic reek of blood and the solid weight of steel, all of it scattered away like dust.

“Ha... yeah, this is it!”

Wild laughter burst from my lips before I even realized it.

I smashed the heads of the demonic beasts foolish enough to attack me with the shaft of my spear.

Using the recoil, I thrust without pause, punching a nice clean ventilation hole straight through one beast's skull.

Astra began to dance, tracing silver arcs through the air. Every thrust, slash, and strike severed or burst apart another demonic beast, spraying black blood in every direction.

My heart pounded as though it might explode, every cell in my body trembling with the exhilaration of battle.

Sweat ran down my chin. My condition was already poor, and swinging my spear more violently than usual had left me gasping for breath, yet my mind only grew clearer and clearer.

I wanted to enjoy the rush of battle a little longer, but unfortunately, the fight ended quickly.

My opening throw had already decimated their numbers, and the Holy Knights joining one after another from the encampment kept up the assault.

“Phew...”

Only silence and the coppery stench of blood remained around us.

I gave Astra a light swing, flicking the blood from its blade. As I caught my breath, I sensed someone approaching and glanced sideways.

It was Leonid, the red-haired, blue-eyed Holy Knight.

“...Would it kill you to give us a warning before doing something that ridiculous?”

“I told you.”

“What good is telling us right before you throw it?”

The bastard came over and started complaining before even asking how I was doing. Wasn't there something wrong with the chain of command here?

Still, it was fine. I was magnanimous enough to tolerate this level of whining.

“Anyway, you really massacred those demonic beasts. You've been in a foul mood lately. Something happen to piss you off?”

“Yeah. Still, beating the shit out of those beasts helped me feel better.”

“...There are a lot of rookies here, so how about saying something a little more Saintess-like? You need to preserve their fantasies about the Saintess if you want to keep them motivated, don't you?”

Leonid spoke with a sour expression as he sheathed his sword.

“Why bother when they'll find out what kind of person I am once they become full-fledged Holy Knights anyway? You think I don't know they talk shit about me behind my back after training and call me a fucking crazy bitch?”

“Huh? How did you know tha— Ack!”

“So you really were talking shit about me? Wanna die?”

I kicked Leonid straight in the shin.

Crack-! Leonid grabbed his shin with both hands and hopped on one foot in circles around me.

Seeing him like that made me feel a little better.

“Hey, Leonid. Stop exaggerating. I didn't kick you that hard.”

“You put divine power into it! Owww... I think you cracked the bone.”

“Want me to crack it for real?”

“...I'm sorry, Sis.”

I clicked my tongue as I watched him groan and offer a pathetic apology.

The future of the Holy Knights was truly bleak if a frivolous bastard like this was their vice-captain.

“Let's end the expedition here and return to the Holy Nation.”

Leonid's expression turned serious as well, and he nodded at my words.

“I agree. If this many demonic beasts are attacking even the outskirts, something isn't right in the Demon Realm. And... didn't the composition of the beasts seem a little strange too?”

“What about it?”

I'd pulverized them without giving it much thought, so I hadn't paid attention to what kinds of demonic beasts were among them. Had there been something strange?

“Don't you think we've been running into an awful lot of lust-type demonic beasts lately? More than half of this attack was made up of them too. Come to think of it, they seem to show up especially often whenever I'm with you, Saintess.”

“...Now that you mention it, you might be right.”

Thinking over Leonid's words, it did seem like I'd been encountering lust-type demonic beasts unusually often lately.

Now that he'd pointed it out, it was a little unsettling... Could this have something to do with my dreams getting worse recently?

When my expression darkened, Leonid lowered his voice and continued.

“Our Order's greatest enemy is Lilith, the Great Demon of Lust, so there's nothing particularly strange about the demonic beasts under her command attacking us... But it's true that both their frequency and numbers have increased abnormally lately.”

“We should report this to His Holiness and discuss it with him.”

“Yes. I'll submit the report myself, so you handle the meeting, Saintess.”

“Got it.”

After roughly wrapping things up, the two of us walked back into the encampment and wiped the demonic beast blood off ourselves with damp towels.

“Ah, Sis. One more thing.”

“Hmm?”

“Give us a chance once in a while too. You charge ahead and wipe out all the demonic beasts every time, so I can't even tell who's supposed to be protecting whom anymore.”

“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?”

I tilted my head at Leonid's out-of-nowhere complaint.

“Do you happen to know that one of the reasons Holy Knights exist is to protect the Pope, the Saintess, and the priests?”

“Probably.”

“What do you mean, probably? That's basic common knowledge. Study a little, Saintess.”

“I don't want to study boring scripture or doctrine.”

“I literally just said it was basic common knowledge.”

“Shut up.”

“...”

Clang-!

“Gah!”

The sacrilegious look in his eyes clearly screamed, ‘How the hell is this woman a Saintess?’ I dropped a divine-power-infused knuckle bomb onto the top of his head, then stood up.

“Anyway, we're withdrawing immediately. The blood feels disgusting, so I need to wash up.”

Being drenched in demonic beast blood had been exhilarating during the battle, but now it was simply unpleasant.

No doubt I was currently a mess of sweat and blood, reeking to high heaven. I needed to wash off, even if only briefly.

“Uggghhh...”

“Hey, keep whining and I'll hit you again.”

How much water was left in the bucket again? Thinking about that as I prepared to head back to my tent, I casually spoke to Leonid, who was crouched down rubbing the top of his head with both hands.

“No, seriously! Would it kill you to communicate without violence for once, Sis? Down with violence...! Down with the delinquent Saintess!”

Seriously, this guy just begs to be hit.

Clang-!

I launched a second bombardment onto Leonid's head as he spouted nonsense.

A new lump rose on top of the old one. He was now sprawled on the ground, twitching.

Leonid was shakily writing ‘The culprit is the Saintess.’ on the dirt with one trembling finger, so I rubbed the words away with my foot, then headed toward my tent while humming contentedly.

Preparations for withdrawal were finished in no time.

In the Demon Realm, it was standard practice to keep essential supplies packed so you could retreat quickly at any moment.

As a result, it took less than an hour to completely dismantle the encampment and begin the journey back.

If we hurried, we should reach the Order by late evening.

I rode at the very front, with a sulking Leonid beside me.

As soon as we crossed the boundary of the Demon Realm, the calm earthy scent of the forest and warm sunlight tickled my nose.

The exhilaration of victory gradually gave way to fatigue, and the quiet chatter among the Holy Knights began to fade.

Soon, only the clanking of armor and the rhythm of horses' hooves echoed steadily across the earth.

“Hey, are you sulking?”

I spoke to Leonid, who had been keeping his mouth firmly shut for a while now.

“...”

Normally the bastard would never stop running his mouth, so seeing him sitting there with that sullen expression made it pretty obvious that he was seriously upset.

“You're a grown man. You're sulking over a couple knocks on the head?”

“...You hit me with divine power. And you hit the exact same spot twice.”

Leonid answered in a disgruntled voice.

“Come on, don't you know getting hit with divine power clears your head? I'm doing this for your own good.”

“At this rate, my head's going to get so clear there'll be nothing left inside but water sloshing around.”

“Pfft.”

“Don't laugh. It seriously hurts.”

“I hit you because I wanted it to hurt, dumbass.”

At my words, he stuck out his lower lip and grumbled.

“Still, next time, give us a chance.”

“Seriously? That again?”

I stared at him incredulously when he brought it up again after grumbling for a while. He'd said the same thing earlier. Had someone been giving him shit about it?

“Do you know what the Holy Knights from the other Orders say about us?”

“What?”

“They say we're cowards who hide under the Saintess's skirts and tremble every time a battle starts!”

“Oh.”

A faint sound of admiration escaped me.

They did say rumors got distorted as soon as they passed through a single person.

Who would've thought me fighting on the front lines would get twisted into something like that?

“So please stay back and provide rear support once in a while. If anything happens to your precious body, Saintess, Archbishop Bartolomew will seriously kill me. Either him or the Captain.”

“Fine, fine. I'll hold back once in a while.”

No matter what, I couldn't just sit by and let outsiders badmouth our Holy Knights. I'm the only one allowed to insult these bastards.

So later, I'll just storm another Order and raise absolute hell...

“Don't go to another Order and start raising hell either.”

...This bastard?

How did he read my mind? I stared at Leonid with wide eyes.

Seeing my startled expression, Leonid gave me an extremely irritating smile as though he'd known exactly what I was thinking.

“Don't you always think the same thing anyway, Sis? It's already been over a year since your coming-of-age ceremony. Maybe it's time you fixed that habit of trying to solve everything with violen—GAAAH!”

Smack-!

See? I'm not violent. This bastard just constantly begs to be hit.

I dusted off my hands while looking at him twitching, slumped over his horse.

Did he pass out? Hmm... I did hit him a little hard.

Well, his horse is smart, so it'll deliver him back to the Order on its own.

With the atmosphere now considerably quieter, I gently held the reins and looked ahead.

The cool breeze brushing past the back of my neck felt quite pleasant.

The sound of horses' hooves, the clinking of armor, and the steady rocking of the horse tempted me toward drowsiness like a cradle.

But I couldn't fall asleep.

If I did, I'd dream again, and I'd obviously end up doing something ridiculous like screaming and falling off my horse.

I closed my eyes slightly and sank into memories of the past.

It had already been thirteen years since I'd fallen into this world. Just how the hell had a Korean man in his twenties ended up possessing the body of a Saintess in a webtoon?

Thinking back to when I'd first arrived here, I slowly closed my eyes.