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 ?”
The nuns around Arowell, who stamred in great confusion, congratulated her with benevolent smiles.
“Sister Arowell, please co 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, overco 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 achievent.
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 soone like . 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 ……”
Angela gently touched Arowell’s cheek and smiled softly.
“Don’t worry, you have . If the Saintess’s duties beco difficult, just ask . 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 soone’s footsteps.
I didn’t even need to look to know who it was.
“Good day, Brother.”
“……You ca 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 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 company all this ti, and I’m sorry for being a burden.”
I already knew without her saying it why Angela stopped the counseling.
Since she had beco 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.
Sohow, 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 soone 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 rely reclaiming what was always yours.”
……Yes.
It had been mine.
Both juniors and seniors said the Saintess’s necklace belonged to .
It was a fact everyone acknowledged.
If not for Arowell, surely I would have beco the Saintess.
‘It is not stealing…… it is taking back what’s mine.’
Angela’s clouded eyes grew dimr, turning to ash-gray, and dark currents rippled around her.
Yet Angela seed completely unaware of it.
Flutter, flutter……
From sowhere, 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 so ti 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 co.
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―!
Sothing splashed into a puddle of water.
“Argh!”
A short scream ca 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, slled of wet earth.
She shook out her drenched hair and wrung out her mud-stained uniform.
It seed 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 fla here black?”
“……I used so natural materials.”
“Huh, I see. No wonder it feels luxurious. It even seems warr.”
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 rembered sothing.
“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 beca the Saintess.”
“What do you an 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 ga, 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 sa.
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 imnse trials.
‘But…… Arowell beca the Saintess?’
Out of all the countless nuns, it had to be Arowell.
The situation where Arowell beca the Saintess instead of Angela was absurd.
‘The reason she said she wouldn’t do counseling anymore, wasn’t because she beca 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 uneasy.
“I heard it secretly from a senior I know at the monastery. They said it mustn’t leak out until the official announcent.”
The mont 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 ga.
‘……The monastery has turned into a dungeon.’
I clicked my tongue.
‘Very rarely, if you made the wrong choice, Angela would fail to beco 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 ga, I only experienced it once.’
I recalled faint mories.
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 hard, the main story would risk collapsing.
I absolutely had to prevent that.
‘Normally you’d form a party, but…….’
Not only was there no ti to form one.
I also couldn’t ask for anyone’s help.
‘No one else but can know.’
Fortunately, the monastery was sparsely populated aside from the nuns, and it was sowhat distant from the main building.
The fact that the monastery had beco a dungeon and Angela had fallen into corruption must remain known only to .
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 beco 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.’
Ti was money.
I made my decision.
Without hesitation, I stepped inside the monastery.
Creak…… Bang!
Once I entered, the doors slamd shut.
Whoosh―!
Candles installed all around lit themselves.
‘……As if to welco .’
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 .
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