I Got a Fake Job at the Academy Chapter 756

Chapter 756 - Side Story 29: Catherine Earnshaw (1)

Now that I think about it, Catherine wasn't really the type with a good personality.

No, rather than personality, I should say temperant. She was a saint, but that was rely a ceremonial title forcibly bestowed upon her by the Bretus Holy Nation.

It was a position she attained because of her exceptional aptitude and talent, not because she possessed the compassionate personality of a saint.

Of course, after becoming a saint, Catherine behaved as quietly as possible. She displayed conduct befitting the title of saint because she had been consistently taught to do so but Rudger knew Catherine's true nature.

She was a tomboy. And she had quite a fiery temperant. She had the complete opposite personality of Rudger, who was rely cold.

Perhaps that was why the two of them were able to beco friends during that brief encounter in their childhood.

'Though I didn't expect her to imdiately throw a potato at a friend she was eting after so long.'

Well, given Catherine's personality, if she really disliked soone, she would have treated them as if they didn't exist. This was probably her own way of expressing how much she'd missed him.

The thod was just a bit rough, that was the problem.

His thoughts had gone on too long.

-Thunk.

Rudger lightly caught the flying potato. The freshly harvested potato from the field was covered in dirt. What was she thinking, throwing it when dirt could get in his eyes?

"That's excessively violent for a first greeting. Or do people in this neighborhood greet each other with potatoes?"

"As if that would happen."

Catherine walked briskly toward Rudger with an incredulous smile. She wore boots for field work and even large overalls with suspenders. Her appearance was covered in dirt. It was attire that made it impossible to see her as a young lady from a wealthy family.

However

"You look much better than when you were a saint."

More than the white vestnts full of ornate decorations. These current clothes suited Catherine much better.

"And you're exactly the sa as you were before and back then."

"Does that an I'm still handso?"

"Bullshit."

"Your mouth has gotten foul. Is it okay for soone who was a saint to use such language?"

"I quit being a saint 3 years ago. And back then I only pretended to be a refined lady because of others' gazes, but I wanted to smash everything. I can't tell you how refreshing this is."

They say among people who let loose, none are scarier than soone who's quit their job—it was exactly like that.

"I heard you'd returned, but you ca pretty quickly. Was that all our relationship amounted to?"

"To be precise, we t long ago, but we didn't et often, right?"

"Oh my, is that so? I'm being too talkative with a busy person."

"Well, now I've also quit everything and am just traveling around, so you don't need to feel too sorry."

"You won't yield even one word. Anyway, you're as unappetizing as ever, both then and now."

Rudger smirked and shrugged his shoulders. It ant to judge for herself.

Catherine smiled contentedly at that sight.

"Still, it's good to see that you know how to smile like that."

"Did I?"

"When I saw you before, and when I saw you at the Holy War. You always had a dead look on your face like soone who'd lived through everything."

"Did I? I do know how to smile though."

"Smile my ass, you probably just sneered. When you were a teacher, the students were terrified of you. I know all about it."

Rudger couldn't deny that part. Though he didn't use corporal punishnt, Rudger could make students suffocate with just his atmosphere alone.

"So, you quit being a saint and now you're plowing fields in a place like this?"

"It's actually quite enjoyable. It's rewarding too. After all, I couldn't do anything for so long."

"That's true."

"I don't plan to lant the years that have passed. I don't expect any compensatory psychology either. However, I do plan to work harder to make up for the ti I was away from this place. That's why I'm doing field work too."

"Does your younger sister over there feel the sa way?"

Rudger's gaze turned toward the other workers. The workers, composed of beauties difficult to encounter in such a rural village, were people from Rudger's mories, the priestesses of the Bretus Holy Nation.

Among them, the most noticeable was Priestess Remia, who had the most acquaintance with Rudger. No, she was now just an ordinary girl nad Remia, no longer a priestess.

They had all stopped working and were staring this way.

"Are you taking care of all of them?"

"Not all of them. The ones who had sowhere to go left. Though they were only a minority."

"The rest chose to stay."

"They have nowhere to return to, and it's not easy to suddenly find sothing they want to do. Those girls beca priestesses partly because of too."

Rudger nodded. Those won held the high position of priestess in the Holy Nation, almost equivalent to cardinals.

However, priestesses originally only existed in the distant past and were a title that had nearly disappeared by now.

The one who revived it was Catherine, who had been a saint.

'Originally, the girls who beca priestesses were nothing but experintal subjects created for the birth of a saint.'

The Bretus Holy Nation injected the power they had extracted in the distant past into young children in order to give birth to a lost saint.

The power of the saint was so powerful that most children couldn't endure it and died.

However, occasionally, children survived with a very low probability, half-successes who didn't beco saints but didn't completely fail either.

They could glimpse the future at a glance, but they couldn't divine everything like a true saint. From the church's standpoint, it must have been ambiguous whether to keep them or dispose of them.

They worried that if they left them alone, what if a saint wouldn't appear because of the priestesses' existence.

Only one saint could exist in each generation.

If Catherine hadn't successfully awakened as a saint, the priestesses at the ti would have been disposed of.

'No, even though Catherine actually beca a saint, the church was reluctant about the priestesses' existence.'

They worried about what would happen if Catherine's abilities didn't activate properly because priestesses existed.

It was Catherine who protected them. She looked after the children who had been experintal subjects like herself and decided to protect the children as their older sister.

The reason half-success experintal subjects who should have been disposed of originally ca to hold the status of priestess was because of Catherine's efforts.

Now that all of that was over the sight of them still following Catherine was not strange at all.

To them, Catherine would seem more like a real family than the families whose nas and faces they no longer rembered.

'Family, is it?'

Family is a bond stronger than anything else in the world. Even if blood isn't connected, the bond of family doesn't break easily. It was the sa even if they were in a place that couldn't be reached, vastly beyond dinsions.

He knew that it was an illusion that didn't truly exist. He also knew that emotions directed toward sothing didn't last forever.

But the intense power arising from that montariness could be a more brilliant motivation than anything.

Because that's how it was for Rudger.

"Why are you looking so lancholic?"

Catherine, who had removed her dirt-covered gloves, tapped Rudger's chest lightly with her pure white fist.

"It's almost alti. You've had a hard ti coming from far away, so co and let's eat lunch together."

At Catherine's words, Rudger smirked and replied.

"I ca through space, so I didn't have a hard ti."

"Just say you did!"

Catherine imdiately returned to the field and spoke to the priestesses—no, now the family mbers living together.

"Alright! That's it for today! Since we have a guest, let's finish here. It's about ti we got hungry anyway."

"Yes. Understood, Sister."

They obediently nodded at Catherine's words. The sight of them gathering up their baskets was so modest that it was hard to recall they had once been priestesses.

'Did they know with their ability to see the future that they would later be plowing fields?'

They probably didn't. Even the first saint hadn't anticipated the future of the Holy War. The ti from the Holy War until now was a realm of the 'unknown' that couldn't be confird even with the power to see the future. And it would likely be the sa going forward.

But this couldn't necessarily be called a bad thing. Even though field work was physically demanding, the priestesses' faces showed no signs of hardship.

The reason they could be like this was probably thanks to Catherine, who led them.

"Co on, let's do the remaining quota next ti! We have plenty of ti left anyway!"

"Is there anything I can help with?"

Rudger approached Catherine and asked, just in case. He wondered if he was causing disruptions to their work because of himself.

"It would be nice if you helped, but is it okay to use high-level human resources like a mage for field work?"

Catherine said while gazing at the potato field.

"Even for soone like you, it won't be easy to handle a field this wide, will it?"

That was true, as magic to cultivate crops didn't exist in the world. It wouldn't be impossible to create if they tried, but there wasn't the ti to spare for that right now.

"So you don't need to say you'll help. You're a guest, aren't you?"

"Still, I can't go empty-handed as a guest."

"I said you don't need to help."

"I'm not the one helping. My friend will help."

"Friend?"

Catherine looked around. She wondered if Rudger had brought soone else, but no one was visible.

"Where's your friend?"

"Here."

Rudger pointed at the ground with his hand. Just as Catherine's expression was about to beco even stranger, Rudger spoke.

"I'd like to ask a favor."

As soon as those words ended, the ground heaved and a turtle's head suddenly popped out. Of course, not the main body, but a very small-sized fragnt.

Catherine's eyes widened.

"Huh?"

It was natural to be surprised since a turtle made of rock had stuck its head out from the dirt. What was even more surprising unfolded next.

Srrrrrrk.

The turtle buried its head back into the ground and disappeared. The dirt all squird as if moving alive. The entire wide potato field moved as if waves were crashing, and the crops inside popped out one by one.

It was as if the earth itself possessed a will.

"Wait. Possessed a will? You don't an..."

Catherine realized what Rudger had done.

"My god. You asked the Elental Lord of Earth for help? And not for anything else, but to plow a field?"

"Why? Is that not allowed?"

"No, well..."

There was nothing particularly wrong with it. There was no rule saying not to do it, nor could such a thing be illegal.

But still, shouldn't there be so sense of proportion? It's not like using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken, and even slicing radishes with a legendary sword would be more valuable than this.

"You're surprisingly shocked about a strange aspect. You don't seem particularly surprised that I'm friends with the Elental Lord of Earth."

"No, well, that could happen. What's stranger is a human using 8th Circle magic, right?"

For Rudger, who heard the voice of God and even used that power, was being close to the Elental Lord of Earth really such a big deal? At least to Catherine, calling upon the Elental Lord of Earth just to help with field work was more absurd.

"Well, what's good is good, isn't it? When the one who can do it best is nearby, you can ask for help."

"...But the fact that it actually helps is surprising too."

The Elental Lord of Earth, having finished all the harvesting, poked its head out from the ground. At those eyes that seed to ask 'I did well, right?', Catherine dropped her shoulders and nodded.

"Yes. Thank you for helping. Thanks to you, half a year's worth of work finished in one minute."

Catherine realized there was no point in arguing about it here.

Having finished work, Catherine headed to the Earnshaw mansion with Rudger. Naturally, the priestesses accompanied them as well. Now they were Catherine's sworn sisters.

"Oh my! Isn't that the young lady! Are you on your way back?"

"Haha. Yes, Uncle Thomas. I have a guest."

"Hehe! So that young man is that person. He's so tall and handso, it's like looking at when I was young!"

"Oh co on. Grandpa Boris is still handso."

"Oh my, our young lady is finally going to get married."

"Grandma May! It's not like that! He's my friend!"

On the way ho, villagers greeted Catherine. Catherine kindly responded to each of them. Seeing how she rembered all their nas and even asked about their wellbeing, it was clear why Catherine was popular in the village.

Of course, this affection wasn't monopolized by Catherine alone. Her sworn sisters following behind her also had various conversations with the villagers.

"Are you finding this fascinating?"

As he watched that scene, Remia approached and asked.

"Should I call you Priestess Remia?"

"Just feel free to call by my na. I'm no longer a priestess."

"I'll do that then."

"It's all thanks to sister. More than that, it's a scene you created. So I've always wanted to say this. Thank you."

When he first t her, Remia covered her eyes with a tiara to see the future. Unable to see ahead, she had to hide her inner thoughts and wear a masked smile.

But now it was different. Her two eyes were looking straight at Rudger.

The eyes that saw the future had finally seen reality.

"I can finally convey this face to face like this."

Freed from Bretus' shackles, Remia smiled brightly. Not a false smile, but one filled with sincerity.