Chapter 20
“May the blessing of light be with you.. What brings you here?”
As soon as we entered the cathedral, an elderly nun nearby approached us and asked with a benevolent smile.
“We’ve come to see the Saint.”
“Ah.. Could it be..”
“Yes, I’m the Hero.”
Saying that, the Hero drew the sword from its sheath and pulled a document from inside his coat.
It was apparently a royal certificate, covered in writing and bearing the royal seal at the bottom, certifying that he was the Hero. Even when I was playing the game, as long as you had that item, practically anything was provided free of charge.
On top of that, he had brought the Holy Sword, so there was no way they could do anything but conclude that he was the Hero.
“I’m sorry, but could you wait in the reception room until we bring the Saint?”
“Yes, understood.”
“The reception room is.. Sister over there!”
Just then, a woman in a nun’s habit with its hood pulled deeply over her head happened to be passing by. She turned toward us when the elderly nun called out to her.
“Could you guide these people to the reception room?”
The nun who approached us at the old nun’s request nodded.
“Please.”
The young nun who had approached us walked off on her own, as if to say that we should follow her. Some might have considered it rude, but neither the Hero nor I was the sort to worry about things like that, so we let it go.
How long had we been walking like that?
“Excuse me..”
Perhaps the Hero had begun to find it strange as well, because he called out to the nun walking ahead of us, but she still gave no answer.
Huh.
No, wait a second.
Could this have been today?
Even in the game, there was a way to skip the tedious ceremony in which the Hero and Saint vowed to travel together by arriving at the right time.
Could that have been exactly what was happening now?
I looked at the nun walking ahead of us, just in case.
As soon as we finally reached the outskirts of the cathedral, the Hero, growing frustrated, asked whether this really was the reception room. At that moment, the nun walking ahead stopped dead, then slowly turned her head.
“Good grief, why is the Hero so impatient?”
Her voice was almost refreshingly bright.
It was exactly the same as the voice I had heard in the game.
She had a confident and cheerful voice that was unlike what one would expect from a Saint, yet she always fulfilled her duty as a Saint and sacrificed herself when facing monsters or standing before suffering commoners. That contrast had made her the most popular heroine in the game.
“Ah, seriously.. I was already feeling cooped up, and he was so overprotective that he practically kept me wrapped in cotton. I can’t even go outside whenever I want.”
Saying that, the nun raised her hands over her head and grabbed her hood.
“I borrowed these clothes and came out pretending to be an ordinary nun because I wanted to go out for a bit, but then I ran right into you.”
The nun—or rather, Cecilia.
The nun tossed off her hood and revealed herself to us as the Saint.
“Nice to meet you, Hero. And you, too.”
With elegant hair that looked as though it had been painstakingly spun from silver silk, clear blue eyes that shone with clarity and resolve, and finely sculpted features so beautiful they seemed crafted by God, a Saint straight out of fiction stood before us.
“And I’m counting on you for the journey ahead, too, all right?”
The Saint—or rather, Cecilia—said that and gave us a broad smile.
.
.
.
.
This wasn’t how meeting the Saint normally went.
I, too, was one of the players who fell for the Saint’s charm because of the gap between my first impression of her and her true personality.
However, after seeing the ending and learning that the true heroine was the mage Lumia, I switched sides and became a Lumia supporter.
In other words, I knew every last detail about Cecilia, the character I had originally pursued.
Normally, when meeting the Saint, the story had us meet her in the reception room, attend a ceremony acknowledging her as a member of our party, then hear from the cathedral personnel about a place where traces of the Demon King’s army had been discovered and head there.
The place where those traces had been found was a small village inhabited by elves who believed in God. They had left the neighboring Elven Kingdom and settled in the Holy Kingdom, building a village there.
After the traces of the Demon King’s army were discovered, the Hero and Saint went to save the village, which was about to be subjected to an inquisition. That tutorial marked the point where the real open-world game began.
In other words, the process of recruiting a party member was itself a tutorial, as well as one of the important steps in protecting the future.
It would take too long to explain here, so to put it simply, that was where we met the next heroine, Luril.
But it would be a disaster if we couldn’t reach the village where Luril was supposed to be from the very beginning.
Of course, there was no need to worry about that.
If we met the Saint this way, the Pope would appear at just the right moment after learning that she had slipped out, give us the information, reunite with his daughter, and then send us off on our journey.
Essentially, the storyline in which Cecilia secretly slipped out of the cathedral was created to give her more life and character, while ensuring that it wouldn’t be strange if we failed to meet her. Of course, the Holy Kingdom would be thrown into an uproar, but the Pope would calm things down.
In other words, as long as we met the Pope, there was no need to worry.
It should have gone that way..
It definitely should have gone that way..
‘What..?’
The Pope wasn’t coming..?
Around this point, the Pope was supposed to suddenly appear and help the newbie so the story could continue properly, but for some reason, he wasn’t showing up?
“Come to think of it, this worked out. Do I call you Hero?”
“Yeah. I never expected you to be the Saint, though..”
Apparently, the previous Hero had traveled with her only after properly completing the Saint ceremony.
It was obvious from his stammering that he had never expected to meet her like this.
“What, are you saying I don’t seem like a Saint?”
“No, it’s just.. You fooled me completely. Yeah..”
“Hehe, right? Even so, I’ve been fooling people my whole life.”
Good heavens.
It wasn’t impossible, but still..
This cathedral had so many nuns that it lived up to the name Grand Cathedral, and telling them apart one by one was no easy task. Even if a stranger infiltrated the place disguised as a nun, it would be difficult to verify her identity properly.
So I’d heard they usually distinguished them by whether they were wearing approved nun’s habits.
I didn’t know the details, but considering no incidents had happened so far, there must have been some security measure I didn’t know about that kept things under control.
Even so, was fooling everyone for her entire life really plausible?
No, right now, figuring out how to get us to that village—and what to do about the Pope, who would cause an uproar over the Saint’s disappearance—took priority..
“The Pope might be worried. Wouldn’t it be better to go back?”
That would be the best option.
If we were merely going out for a bit and coming back today, that would be one thing, but I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if we set off on an adventure without properly informing the Pope. He might put not only the Hero but me on the wanted list for daring to take his daughter away without permission.
No wonder Cecilia trembled whenever she called him overprotective.
Right, she had every reason to act that way.
“Couldn’t you at least accompany me on an outing today?”
“Huh.. What?”
“Since you’ve already told the cathedral that you came as the Hero, they’ll already be preparing a festival.”
They were preparing a festival?
They hadn’t looked particularly busy.
“I want to see the people of this country preparing for the festival. It’s a festival for me.. I hate the thought of leaving without getting to enjoy any of it.”
The Saint made a plaintive expression as she said that.
“If I participate in the festival as the Saint, I’ll have to leave the Holy Kingdom as a member of your party without getting to enjoy anything.”
Come to think of it, that was true.
On the regular route, the Saint’s affection started at 0.
Most heroines started at 0, so there was nothing particularly strange about that, but if you took the secret route I mentioned earlier, you started with a whopping 30 affection.
That was the difference..
“So, could you?”
The Saint looked at the Hero with an expression that sincerely pleaded with him.
No, wait.
Wait.
Starting at 30 affection?
“..!”
No!
I had to stop that!
Anything but Cecilia’s route!!
I couldn’t let it happen to me, but I also had to keep it from happening to the others, too, if I wanted to drag things out as long as possible..!
But the Hero had apparently already fallen for the Saint’s insidious scheme, as he sighed with a pitying expression.
Of course the Hero had to be stupidly kind to a fault..!
“If you’re going to put it that way, I suppose I have no choice.. Sigh..”
Ah.
No, wait.
You really shouldn’t do that..
“Thank you, Hero~!”
Cecilia said that, beaming as she held out her hand.
It seemed she was asking for a handshake.
The Hero reluctantly took Cecilia’s hand.
In the end, the promise was sealed.
Hey, you idiot!!
Aaaagh!!!