Chapter 57
Ariel, the Pure White Saintess.
This title alone was enough to draw attention, and her fame had risen even further because of the heresy hunt over the necromancy that had occurred in the Empire.
What would happen if someone like that boarded this train?
"Haha..."
Ariel gazed at the enormous crowd gathered around her, then looked ahead with a bitter smile.
"Saintess Ariel, might I have a moment of your time?"
"Saintess Ariel, I've also been interested in the doctrine of the [Church of Light]..."
"Saintess Ariel..."
Saintess Ariel!
Countless people were calling her name.
Ariel roughly realized why this was happening.
Everyone aboard this train had already heard from their parents that Ariel would be entering the academy.
And the special order they had received:
[Become friends with Ariel.]
Of course, even if they became close to Ariel, using that relationship politically was impossible.
Under an ancient warning from God that faith and politics must be kept separate, that principle had been upheld to this day.
However, while she couldn't be used politically, Ariel was the sort of person with whom it could never hurt to become acquainted.
She had been chosen as a saintess, traveled to various places, and helped the poor.
She had even won the popularity of the common people through this heresy hunt.
Being on good terms with such a saintess was, in a sense, an extraordinary weapon that could not be exchanged for anything else.
Having roughly grasped all of this, Ariel slightly bowed her head and asked the gathered people for their understanding.
"I-I'm sorry. I have something I need to do right now..."
At her request, the people gathered there began to withdraw little by little.
Since they had been educated from a young age, they realized that clinging to her now would only make her more uncomfortable.
"Phew..."
Having finally escaped the crowd, Ariel slowly began moving toward the place Mist had mentioned.
'She definitely said Room 12-3, right?'
"Huh?"
A group of female students gathered in a peculiar cluster caught Ariel's eye.
It was a somewhat unusual group composed of several races, not just humans.
Looking around, Ariel saw that they stood in stark contrast to everyone else, who was busily moving around to expand their connections.
Swish.
Let me make one thing clear first.
Ariel had absolutely not approached that group of female students on purpose.
It was simply that she naturally had to pass near them to reach Section 12.
And the fact that, as she passed by, she noticed them gathered around something and checked what had drawn them together was all merely a coincidence.
"Huh?"
However, when Ariel saw why they had gathered, she involuntarily opened her eyes wide and let out a nasal exclamation.
At the center of the group was a familiar man in a crew member's uniform, visible through a crystal orb.
'Abel?'
His face was slightly different from the one she knew.
Perhaps thinking his youthful face would get in the way, he had disguised himself to look somewhat older.
Of course, even as a disguise, Abel's face had not been altered all that much.
If his original face had looked like that of a young man who had only just reached adulthood, this disguise made him look like a man in his late twenties.
But that had caused an unexpected side effect for Abel.
In his original appearance, his youthful face had not matched the aura he already possessed.
But now that his face had matured, he had been reborn as a handsome man whose looks matched his naturally relaxed, decadent aura.
Naturally, his face was one that would sharply divide opinion.
There were surely plenty of women who preferred handsome, sun-bright prince types to decadent beauties.
But conversely, saying that a face sharply divided opinion also meant that, to those who liked it, it appeared irresistibly attractive.
"Look at this. That awkward smile!"
"Kyaaaah!! Oh my god, he actually let me take a picture of such a decadent handsome man making an awkward smile!"
"Ohoho. Look at this!"
Saying that, a female student of the Heavenly Wing race proudly held out a crystal orb containing a photograph.
It showed Abel roughly taking off his hat and glaring at the camera.
All the other female students let out cries of delight at the sight.
Eek! Eek!
In response to the students' questions about how she had taken it, the Heavenly Wing student began showering them with shrieks of admiration, saying that Abel granted almost all of their requests.
"..."
Watching from a short distance away, Ariel couldn't help stopping in her tracks for a moment at the doubts blooming in her mind.
Abel had been aboard this train for only two days, counting today.
He had traveled to the train through a deal with the chairman on the first day and boarded it the next day, after all.
Of course, Ariel didn't know that, but she knew one thing.
Abel had become the subject of conversation to an extent beyond her comprehension.
Something was strange.
"..."
But she immediately shook off the odd sense of déjà vu that had arisen in her mind.
She had something else to deal with first.
Thinking that, Ariel smoothly slipped past the group of female students discussing Abel and entered the corridor leading to Section 12.
[This is Ariel. I'm almost there. Are there people nearby?]
[I've checked. No. I put up a sign saying "Cleaning in Progress," so no one will come in.]
[Understood. I'll be entering shortly, so please open the door.]
Just as Mist had said, a "Cleaning in Progress" sign had really been hung in the corridor leading to Section 12.
Ariel stepped past the sign and began walking between the compartments.
Compartment 12-1.
12-2.
Her final destination, 12-3.
After checking her surroundings once more, she carefully opened the compartment door and entered.
The compartment was pitch-black.
Ariel carefully pressed the light switch near the entrance and turned on the lights.
Only then did the inside of the compartment come into view.
"..."
Yet something was strange.
Even after entering the compartment and turning on the lights, she couldn't see Mist, the collaborator who had told her to come here, anywhere.
"Phew..."
Momentarily flustered by the unexpected situation, Ariel fell into thought, then began releasing a faint divine power with a sigh.
Vroooom.
A power that anyone could plainly recognize as divine energy began to glow brightly around her.
It was not something crudely imitated with mana, but the true divine power of a saintess.
Swish.
"My apologies, Saintess. I know you're a collaborator in this operation, but we have to prepare for the possibility that an impostor might come."
Hearing the voice from behind her, Ariel turned around with a sigh of relief, reassured that her guess had been correct.
There stood Mist, wearing a somewhat tight crew uniform and quietly looking at Ariel.
'Thank goodness.'
My guess had been right.
Ariel tried to consider things from Mist's perspective.
She had called Ariel because she seemed to have found a clue, but there was no guarantee that they weren't being bugged.
Or it was certainly possible that someone might have been switched with an impostor along the way.
In that case, she would need to take precautions, right?
She had to determine whether the Ariel who came here was real or fake.
That's why she had shown her divine power.
Abel had probably given Mist some general information about her.
If so, Mist must have thought that seeing divine power to prove she was Ariel would make it possible to trust her.
Fortunately, that idea had hit the mark.
"Your security is thorough."
"You flatter me."
Mist bowed her head gracefully in response to Ariel's words, showing proper courtesy.
'This person is definitely...'
Ariel had seen her before. She was the woman who had appeared to be a maid attending Abel when they first met.
She had already judged that, as Abel's maid, Mist couldn't be an ordinary person, but that concealment technique just now...
Ariel quietly thought about Mist's unusual nature.
And, just like Ariel, Mist also looked at her with slightly sunken eyes.
'...'
The saintess who was growing close to her master, Abel.
'Why?'
Mist found it puzzling.
The relationship between her master and Ariel had begun when Ariel approached him first.
She had approached him first and even given him a magic core that allowed them to contact each other personally?
If her master had made the first move, Mist would have understood.
Although Abel would never do such a thing, men approaching women to express interest was nothing unusual.
But a woman approaching a man first?
'A fox...'
The thought escaped her before she knew it.
In Mist's mind, Ariel had just been recorded as one of the highest-ranking figures among those requiring special attention—a historic moment.
"..."
"..."
A brief standoff.
It was Mist who broke that standoff.
"First, could you examine this that I discovered? I'm afraid I haven't studied heresy professionally."
As she spoke, Mist held out a piece of wood that she had carefully removed without damaging the magic circle.
There was no need to engage in a war of nerves right now.
Mist was not a clumsy assassin who would delay a public matter for a personal one.
"Yes, just a moment."
After carefully accepting the piece of wood Mist offered, Ariel closed her eyes and began slowly sensing the power she felt in her hand.
'This is...'
Most powers classified as heretical were fundamentally those that stole what belonged to others and made it their own.
Necromancy had been classified as heresy because it played with other people's lives, regardless of whether they were good or evil.
'No way.'
The church provided thorough education on heretical powers as a matter of course.
If a priest mistakenly declared something that was not heretical to be heretical, there was no greater way to disgrace God.
About once every six months, they were even given tablets containing various heretical powers.
And now Ariel was certain.
She knew what the heretical power engraved into this piece of wood was.
"Possession?"
A technique for transferring the caster's consciousness into another person's consciousness.
It would be nice if that were all, but there was a forbidden art classified as heresy, a power derived from this possession technique.
There was no way she could have sensed it incorrectly.
The distinctive power of possession remained in this piece of wood, after all.
"Oh no..."
Having reached that conclusion, Ariel closed her eyes and let out a lament.