The One Conviction She Could Never Compromise On

Thus, as Ariel savored the rather peaceful dawn air of the imperial capital and watched the people, a man approached her.

"Have you arrived, Saintess?"

"Ah, Sir Levan."

A man wearing black priestly robes, with a pistol engraved with a cross strapped around his waist.

He was a holy knight of the Church of Light whom Ariel had ordered to investigate the drug case that had occurred in the capital.

In ordinary circumstances, Ariel would have thanked the holy knight who had been running around hunting down drugs at her command, but...

The circumstances did not permit it.

"Shall we get moving for now?"

Saying this, Ariel looked around.

Her face was already widely known.

In the first place, it would have been strange for someone not to recognize the Saintess of the Church of Light.

That was why, despite choosing the very first airship of the day to avoid any unnecessary commotion, she smiled faintly as she felt the airport beginning to grow noisier and said,

"There are too many eyes here to receive a report."

.

.

.

Guided by Levan, she arrived at the hotel where the people of the Church of Light had gathered and immediately received a report on the current situation from the priests and holy knights assembled there.

"Hmm. I see."

After hearing reports on the progress of [Mirage] and the treatment of those addicted to the drug, Ariel smiled with relief.

"Fortunately, those who were addicted to the drug managed to break free of their addiction thanks to the swift response."

This was why the Church members Breck had mentioned had stirred up the drug case and exposed everything.

While investigating the drug, the Church members had gone beyond what was necessary by treating those addicted to [Mirage].

Abel and Breck had not particularly tried to save the existing addicts, since their goal was to eliminate the drug at its very source.

But Ariel was different.

No matter how addicted someone was, she believed that some of them must have been innocently addicted without even realizing it.

She had reached this decision based on what she had witnessed before her regression, when she had been born and raised in the slums, before becoming a count's illegitimate daughter.

'It was terrible...'

As Ariel thought of the scene she had witnessed before her regression, her gaze unconsciously began to darken.

She still remembered it.

The desperate cries of a man who, having fallen into drugs through someone else's schemes without even realizing it, survived from day to day.

[I didn't take this because I wanted to!!!!!]

His teeth had long since become badly eroded from his stomach acid refluxing.

If he could not take the drugs, he had to soothe the extreme pain he felt throughout his body with more drugs.

Like a zombie, he moved around, and whenever he returned to his senses for just a few minutes each day, he would always cry and sob those words.

The man's tears and desperate cries still rang vividly in her ears.

It was a vicious cycle of evil—and all the worse because it had been done at someone else's behest.

Someone might say this:

Your pointless actions have delayed the eradication of drugs.

Because you made the Church act more than necessary, you delayed the time when the source could be eliminated quickly.

Yes, that was probably true. It was an obvious criticism, and a perfectly valid one.

But Ariel did not bend her opinion.

An unshakable conviction, so firm it could never be broken? No, it was not that.

She was someone who listened to other people's opinions and knew how to bend her own when necessary.

But there was one thing—the only thing—on which she would never compromise.

'...'

If someone addicted to drugs was still in the early stages, a priest's divine power could cure the addiction.

But if that window was missed, it became impossible to cure the addiction ever again.

Leave those who could still be treated behind in order to eradicate drugs completely?

When it was obvious that drug addicts would have to live each day in nothing but the pain of being unable to die?

'I can't.'

They could call her shortsighted if they wanted.

But at the very least, she would never compromise when it came to saving a person's life.

If she had compromised on something like that and abandoned her convictions, she would have despaired and stopped doing anything long ago.

Regression.

The world she had returned to through the holy relic was not the world she knew, and because of the many restrictions that came with regression, it would have already fallen apart.

'Phew... My thoughts went off on quite a tangent.'

As her thoughts grew deeper, Ariel stopped upon noticing the priests' and holy knights' gazes fixed silently on her, then looked ahead.

"Did you send the letter I asked you to deliver to [White Shadow]?"

"Yes. It was the letter we found hanging on the entrance early this morning."

Saying this, the priest handed her a letter bearing the emblem of House Nebla's execution squad, [White Shadow].

"This morning?"

She had definitely sent the letter to [White Shadow] around yesterday evening.

And yet she had not expected a reply to arrive so quickly.

Rustle.

The letter the priest handed over contained a very simple address and time, along with a short message.

[Dale Newspaper] [Time: 7:30 p.m.]

One of the countless newspapers in the Empire, and the public face of the Nostra Family.

[We'll accept the alliance. - Abel]

A very dry phrase that brought the letter to a close.

Ariel fixed her gaze on those words, and especially on the name Abel at the end.

Abel.

A name she was hearing for the first time since her regression. And an illegitimate child of House Nebla whom she did not know.

'I don't know.'

Ariel had not met a person named Abel yet.

She had never faced him, and naturally did not even know what he looked like.

If so, why had Ariel known Abel's name and taken the initiative to request an alliance?

'What in the world is the Duke of Nebla thinking?'

When she had moved to find information on the person who had prevented the airship terror attack.

The head of House Nebla must naturally have noticed those movements.

But even though Ariel had guessed as much, she did not pay it much mind.

In the first place, before her regression, the head of House Nebla had never shown the slightest interest in his other illegitimate children.

At the time, Ariel had merely been the child of a concubine.

Even so, the Duke of Nebla's indifference at the time was famous enough for even Ariel to know about it.

'But...'

This time was different.

It had been only one day since she began investigating Abel.

In that single day, House Nebla's secret elite assassination squad, [Dark Shadow], had come to find her.

The sharpest blade of the ducal house, the subject of countless rumors.

When [Dark Shadow] entered her bedroom like that, she had prepared herself for death.

"..."

But as if mocking that resolve of hers, [Dark Shadow] had merely handed her a piece of information.

The information was very simple.

Rough information about the illegitimate children currently in House Nebla. And finally, a sentence that appeared to be handwritten by the head of the house himself.

[The illegitimate child of our family that the saintess is probably looking for is Abel.]

"..."

Thinking of the head of House Nebla once again made her head ache.

What in the world was the duke thinking?

Information manipulation? No, a threat? A warning? Reconciliation? No, none of those seemed quite right.

She did not know. She truly did not know.

A riddle with no answer, utterly impossible to solve.

If so, thinking about it any longer would only make her head hurt.

Thinking this, Ariel shook her jumbled thoughts away and looked around.

"All right. Then let's proceed as the letter says. Until then, let's make treating the addicts our top priority."

As she said this, Ariel pulled a hair tie from inside her clothes and tied up her long hair.

So that she could personally help treat the addicts as well.

Long hair like this would only get in the way when dealing with patients.

But in contrast to Ariel, who was preparing to get to work, the other priests and holy knights lingered, looking at her as though they had something to say.

Seeing this, Ariel smiled warmly and spoke as if she understood their feelings.

"I know very well that you all feel reluctant to join hands with the Nostra Family and House Nebla."

How could she not? Judging by the priest's reaction when he handed her the letter, his feelings had been practically written across his face.

"But remember. We must join hands with them and cut off the drug supply so that fewer people will suffer."

The priests and holy knights here stared blankly at Ariel as she spoke to them.

They were a criminal organization.

And House Nebla, of all families? Cooperate with that house, which was plagued by filthy rumors that never seemed to end?

It would have been strange for anyone to welcome the idea honestly.

"Now, then."

But the woman they followed—the Saintess—had said this.

Were they going to give up saving people because of such thoughts?

"Shall we get moving?"

The Saintess had never once raised her voice or used an aggressive tone toward others.

Nor had she ever forced her opinions on anyone else.

She simply voiced her thoughts and convictions, then put them into action.

But that was precisely why they followed Ariel.

""""May the blessing of Luminous, the God of Light, be with us.""""

They did not follow her out of blind fanaticism simply because Luminous, the God of Light, had chosen her.

Nor did they follow her out of obedience simply because she was the Saintess of the Church of Light to which they belonged.

They followed her because she was dazzling—because her convictions were so dazzling that she plunged in without hesitation to save others.

Remembering that fact once again, the priests and holy knights immediately began to move.

And it was precisely because of this nature that the holy relic had chosen her.

.

.

.

And so Ariel spent her time treating drug addicts, leading the effort, until the appointed time approached, when she changed into proper clothes and headed to the meeting place.

"This is the place."

After arriving in front of Dale Newspaper, Ariel opened the newspaper office's door and entered the building with the holy knight who had come along to guard her.

"Good evening."

As she entered the building, someone who appeared to be a secretary greeted Ariel politely.

"And you are?"

"Mr. Breck sent me to escort you, Saintess. Please just call me Secretary."

"Oh, aren't you going to tell me your name?"

Smile.

'He has no intention of telling me, does he?'

"Then this way. Everyone is waiting."

Ariel followed the secretary and walked slowly.

As they climbed the stairs floor by floor and reached the top floor of the building, Ariel began to grow tense despite herself.

Thump, thump.

"Everyone is waiting beyond this door."

The secretary said this, then stepped back as if to indicate that this was as far as he would go.

'Beyond this door.'

Abel. He was there.

The person who had changed the history she knew.

A person who had changed the future before she ever took action—in other words, an irregularity.

'What kind of person is he?'

Calm? Or hasty? According to the reports, he was supposed to be rather cold.

Thump, thump.

"Phew..."

Suppressing her heart pounding with tension, Ariel steeled herself.

Creak.

"Oh, you're here."

When she opened the door and entered, the man who appeared to be Abel waved and gave her a small smile.

A languid expression and decadent eyes.

He was a man with gray hair the color of strangely murky clouds.

'That person is Abel?'

As she stared blankly at Abel, a strange scent tickled her nasal passage.

'What is this?'

A strange scent, somewhat like the smell of leaves, yet somehow not.

She would learn later that this scent was the smell of a cigar.

But Ariel did not know that now as she looked at Abel, who was smiling with a slightly sly air.

"Come on, sit down. We have a lot to talk about."

Someone who looked a little dangerous.

That was Ariel's first impression of Abel.