Chapter 92
“Dana Arowell.”
At the Mother Superior’s call, a deep silence followed.
Then a burst of applause erupted.
“……Huh? Arowell? Oh? That’s me?”
The nuns around Arowell, who stammered in great confusion, congratulated her with benevolent smiles.
“Sister Arowell, please come up here.”
“Ah, yes!”
Arowell hurriedly climbed onto the podium.
She wore an expression that showed she had no idea why she had been chosen.
But since it was a formal setting, she couldn’t bring herself to ask outright.
“By God’s guidance, we appoint Sister Dana Arowell as the 87th Saintess of Briarflower Monastery.”
The Mother Superior placed a silver, gleaming cross necklace around Arowell’s neck.
That necklace shone with a quiet brilliance.
“With the heart of a Saintess, may you endure the thorny path barefoot, overcome hardship, and draw closer to God.”
Applause rang out again.
Bowing to the audience, Arowell brought the Saintess Succession Ceremony to a close.
After the ceremony ended, Angela ran to Arowell and hugged her.
“Congratulations, Arowell!”
“Ah, Sister!”
Angela’s face was filled with joy as if it were her own achievement.
But Arowell wore a vague expression, caught between joy and confusion.
“Sister, I think this is a mistake. I’ve only been in the monastery for two weeks.”
Before she knew it, worry spread across Arowell’s face.
“There are already many senior sisters far more virtuous than someone like me. Besides, the one most suited to be a Saintess is you, Sister Angela, who is always exemplary……”
Angela cut her off and shook her head.
“This is the choice God has made. You have to accept it, don’t you? Once again, congratulations, Arowell.”
“Thank you, Sister. But being a Saintess will be really difficult for me……”
Angela gently touched Arowell’s cheek and smiled softly.
“Don’t worry, you have me. If the Saintess’s duties become difficult, just ask me. I’ll always help you.”
“……Yes!”
Before long, the troubled look vanished, and like Angela, Arowell’s bright smile returned.
It was while I was chopping firewood at the livestock shed.
I heard someone’s footsteps.
I didn’t even need to look to know who it was.
“Good day, Brother.”
“……You came again today.”
When I turned my head, I saw Angela smiling.
“Well then, the story I’ll read you today is—.”
As always, Angela sat beside me and read from the Bible.
Though the words didn’t stay in my ears, her voice carried a gentle resonance that wasn’t unpleasant.
I continued my work, listening as if I were hearing birdsong.
The sky, once dazzling under the sun, was gradually turning cloudy.
Angela closed the Bible earlier than usual.
“Brother.”
Her voice carried a lower tone than usual.
“Suddenly, but from today, I’ll be ending our counseling.”
So she finally made up her mind.
I looked into Angela’s eyes.
Her lips bore a smile, but her eyes did not.
“Thank you for keeping me company all this time, and I’m sorry for being a burden.”
I already knew without her saying it why Angela stopped the counseling.
Since she had become a Saintess today, her duties would surely keep her busy.
I paid it no mind and spoke.
“Alright, you’ve done well.”
“……”
The last smile I saw from Angela.
Somehow, it looked lonely.
“Then, farewell.”
Angela bowed politely to Villed and turned to leave.
With each step she took, Angela’s smile gradually faded.
“……”
Before long, her expression was gone entirely.
The sky was filled with gray storm clouds, as if rain were about to fall.
No light entered her eyes, dark and clouded.
Drip, drip……
Raindrops began to fall one by one on Angela’s shoulders.
Swoosh……
A sudden downpour started.
Angela, standing alone in the rain, walked on with her head lowered.
Her face, soaked in rain, gave no hint of what she was thinking.
With tattered steps, she drew near the monastery.
“Oh my, how pitiful.”
A voice was heard.
Not through her ears, but inside her heart.
Though no one was beside Angela.
It whispered as if someone were right next to her.
“The thing you so longed for…… has been ‘taken away’ from you.”
A sweet voice.
It was the very thing Angela had wanted to hear.
Because Arowell, who had only been in Briarflower Monastery for two weeks, had stolen the position of Saintess.
Because it was unfair.
“……Seize it with your own strength.”
Angela held her breath in that instant.
“You are not stealing. You are merely reclaiming what was always yours.”
……Yes.
It had been mine.
Both juniors and seniors said the Saintess’s necklace belonged to me.
It was a fact everyone acknowledged.
If not for Arowell, surely I would have become the Saintess.
‘It is not stealing…… it is taking back what’s mine.’
Angela’s clouded eyes grew dimmer, turning to ash-gray, and dark currents rippled around her.
Yet Angela seemed completely unaware of it.
Flutter, flutter……
From somewhere, black butterflies flew in and circled her.
When Angela stretched out a finger, one butterfly gently perched upon it.
……And then.
“The true Saintess…… is you.”
That voice pulled the trigger, and black mana exploded from Angela.
‘……Looks like it’s going to rain.’
The sky had been gray for some time now.
Raindrops began to fall one by one, and thick storm clouds gathered.
‘I already set up shelters in the pasture, so the animals should be fine.’
There were trees planted here and there for cover, and I had also installed lightning rods to prevent strikes.
Even if it rained, no harm would come.
I was sitting in the storage room, watching the rain fall outside.
……Then I heard a sound.
Splash! Splash!
The repeated sound of footsteps running over wet soil.
Plop―!
Something splashed into a puddle of water.
“Argh!”
A short scream came with it.
Splash, splash……
The footsteps drew nearer, and soon blue hair appeared at the door.
“Ugh…… I’m soaked. Mind if I stay here for a bit?”
The sudden visitor, Karin, smelled of wet earth.
She shook out her drenched hair and wrung out her mud-stained uniform.
It seemed she had been caught in the downpour while heading to the dormitory after class.
I touched the hearth with my finger, igniting the fire. Warmth spread out.
“Dry yourself here.”
“Ah, thanks.”
Karin sat before the hearth, tilting her head.
“Hey, why is the flame here black?”
“……I used some natural materials.”
“Huh, I see. No wonder it feels luxurious. It even seems warmer.”
I brushed it off casually, and Karin accepted it without doubt.
As she dried her wet sleeves by the fire, she suddenly spoke as if she remembered something.
“Oh right, Villed. This is a secret, so don’t tell anyone.”
When I silently looked at her, Karin answered with an itching-to-speak expression.
“Do you know what I just heard? Don’t be shocked. Arowell became the Saintess.”
“What do you mean by that?”
When I asked back, Karin raised her eyebrows and answered.
“Such a lukewarm reaction. This is a huge deal. A first-year student has taken the top position among all the nuns.”
……Of course, I knew that.
‘Even in the game, entering Briarflower Monastery and becoming the Saintess was the goal.’
Any monastery trainee would dream at least once of becoming the Saintess.
Both in the lore and for players who chose nun characters, it was the same.
The Saintess was chosen by the Mother Superior, cardinals, and others of high rank, through strict evaluations, and only one was selected each year.
A position granted to but a single person.
The willpower, sacrifice, and responsibility required to reach that place were immense trials.
‘But…… Arowell became the Saintess?’
Out of all the countless nuns, it had to be Arowell.
The situation where Arowell became the Saintess instead of Angela was absurd.
‘The reason she said she wouldn’t do counseling anymore, wasn’t because she became the Saintess…….’
……It was the opposite.
‘How ominous.’
The worst possible scenario flashed in my mind.
Because it happened with such abysmal odds, the fact that I was completely unprepared made me uneasy.
“I heard it secretly from a senior I know at the monastery. They said it mustn’t leak out until the official announcement.”
The moment Karin finished speaking, I stepped outside the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to check whether the tents in the pasture are holding against the rain.”
“Ah, then I’ll help.”
“No, the wind is strong and your clothes are soaked. You’ll just catch a cold. Stay here and dry yourself.”
After saying that, I dashed through the rain toward the monastery.
When I clenched my hand in the air, Shurk’s card touched my fingers.
My uniform turned black, and a black mask covered my face.
It didn’t take long to reach the monastery.
Swoosh……
I stood in the rain and looked up at the monastery.
‘As expected.’
My prediction had been entirely correct.
♬~ ♪~ ♩~.
From inside the building, an ominous organ sound echoed.
‘……It’s completely changed.’
The reverence and sacredness I had seen just days ago were gone, and black currents filled the surroundings.
‘It hasn’t been long since it turned into a dungeon.’
At most an hour, or maybe just thirty minutes.
The once-white walls were now scorched black, and not a single person was in sight.
The colorful stained glass had faded into a gray light.
Clang―!
I pushed open the monastery door, and it swung wide without resistance.
Inside, it was so dark I couldn’t see a thing.
I had faced this very situation in the game.
‘……The monastery has turned into a dungeon.’
I clicked my tongue.
‘Very rarely, if you made the wrong choice, Angela would fail to become the Saintess and fall to corruption.’
The chance of that was one in 3640.
Practically impossible, yet here it was.
The miracle of one in 3640 had occurred before my eyes.
‘I do know the strategy for when Briarflower Monastery turns into a dungeon, but even in the game, I only experienced it once.’
I recalled faint memories.
Angela would dungeonize the monastery and take the nuns in the chapel hostage.
The problem was that among all those nuns, the key figure ‘Arowell’ was included.
If Arowell died or was harmed, the main story would risk collapsing.
I absolutely had to prevent that.
‘Normally you’d form a party, but…….’
Not only was there no time to form one.
I also couldn’t ask for anyone’s help.
‘No one else but me can know.’
Fortunately, the monastery was sparsely populated aside from the nuns, and it was somewhat distant from the main building.
The fact that the monastery had become a dungeon and Angela had fallen into corruption must remain known only to me.
That was the only way to keep the main story intact.
‘……I have to go alone.’
There was only one choice.
‘Information can’t be stopped from spreading.’
Especially if the trainee reporters heard that Arowell had become the Saintess.
Those lunatics for exclusives would sprint barefoot to the monastery without hesitation.
‘I must resolve this as quickly as possible before others catch on.’
Time was money.
I made my decision.
Without hesitation, I stepped inside the monastery.
Creak…… Bang!
Once I entered, the doors slammed shut.
Whoosh―!
Candles installed all around lit themselves.
‘……As if to welcome me.’
I pulled out the Heart of Ilawne from my bosom.
As I walked along the monastery’s hallway, the sound of my footsteps echoed back at me.