༺ Delinquent Saintess (2) ༻
“Heading to the Chapel?”
Someone outside her expectation spoke up to her.
“Miru?”
“Call me Miruam.”
Miruam Elizabeth El Rath – her step-sister limped her way across with a fancy walking stick in hand. Unlike the Saintess Estelle, who was of a beautiful and pure white color, Miruam had a countenance and an appearance that could easily give her the title of the ‘Villainess of the Century’.
A venomous serpent.
Her hair and eyes were ominously red, and each of her gestures – both her arms and her legs – gave off an evil yet alluring charm.
Facing her younger sister who was completely different from her own self, Estelle remarked with a nonchalant grin.
“My cute little sister. Did you miss me?”
“Your tongue is as light as always, Estelle.”
It was Miruam who opened her mouth first after a short silence.
“You are still poking your nose into the Tower of Mages, aren’t you? For quite some time now.”
“Oh? Are you worried about someone? Tell me if you have an acquaintance. I will make sure that person gets special treatment.”
“Hmph.”
The Tower of Mages was one of Miruam’s key supporting factions. Even though someone else was capturing them, it was Estelle’s job to punish the mages as heretics.
Despite what she said, Estelle was fully aware that Miruam wasn’t concerned in the slightest about her supporters to the throne.
It was simply inevitable for the two of them to try to hunt each other down.
As long as Estelle stayed as the Saintess of the New Faith, and as long as Miruam stayed Miruam, there was no other option apart from the two of them colliding with one another. That was already past the realm of forgiveness and concession – it was simply intolerable.
Even the ‘succession to the throne’ was but a trivial matter for them. After all, the throne was just a part of the procedure and not their final goal.
“What brought you here?” asked Estelle. “I assume you wouldn’t have come all the way here just to say hi.”
“What do you want in return?”
“…”
“You know me, don’t you? I can do whatever it takes no matter the cost.”
It was a sudden offer and an abrupt statement about her wish but… Estelle immediately understood what she meant. That was natural because for a very long time, Miruam had only been aspiring for one goal and one goal alone.
Ahh, it seemed that she had found out already – a lot earlier than Estelle had been hoping her to.
“I wonder what you mean?”
“Estelle.”
She glared at her with a crimson gaze full of insatiable madness… Ever since 12 years ago, the eyes of her step-sister had been ever so fiery and ominous.
“You shouldn’t have done that. You shouldn’t have forgiven them. You don’t have the right to.”
“…”
“You know, if you changed your mind today, I would have been more than glad to scrape out one of my arms for you.”
“What do you…”
Miruam cold-heartedly turned her back to her sister as if that was the last chance she had.
“Miru…!”
“…”
Hearing that, Miruam halted her feet for a while. Facing her younger sister who at least heeded to her call and stopped for a bit, Estelle gave the most considerate statement she could give.
“On the way of the escort… is the grave of the late queen. If you don’t mind… I would be glad to give a prayer there.”
“Hah.”
Along with a cold sneer, Miruam turned her head back and said with a chilling gaze.
“I don’t need your god.”
Accompanying her words was a cold scoff full of certainty.
****
The escort convoy of the convicts prepared and ready to leave.
Normally, it wouldn’t make sense for the Saintess to personally leave with the convoy for the relocation of convicts but that in turn proved the seriousness of the matter at hand.
The convicts included the elder of one of the 7 cults of the Tower of Mages, Elder Morushtan of the Black Cult, along with Kang Ryun who attacked the probationary nun Hua Ran who was under the protection of the New Faith… Even aside from them, there was also the Chargers of the Cross, the secret ops of the Old Faith and those who were captured due to their human experiments.
All in all, there were too many monstrous criminals that they couldn’t afford to lose.
“Saintess, we are ready to depart.”
A holy knight who was dispatched from the headquarters of the New Faith, the Grand Chapel of Zeon, said to her while wearing a silver full-plated armor that had received a divine blessing.
15 holy knights from the Grand Chapel of Zeon, 50 war priests and sisters, 30 Grade 2 guardians employed through the Alliance as well as knights and soldiers of the kingdom.
“Isn’t this way too excessive?”
There were far too many people for it to be called an escort convoy of criminals. In fact, even though it was partially in preparation for the ‘attack’ that could happen to save the bigshots that were being escorted, it was more correct to say that most of them were here to protect Estelle, the Saintess and the 1st Princess, to make sure no injuries were to be made on the noble body of the lady with the most significant status in the entire kingdom.
“Apologies. It’s all to protect the Saintess…”
“Ahh~ yes yes. Right. Let’s just say that.”
Judging from his words, the knight seemed to be a newbie.
Despite her noble status as the Saintess and the princess, Estelle was like a carefree delinquent that did not care about rules.
However, it was nothing new for her to be so carefree and relaxed so no-one was surprised by her conduct. Instead, the holy knight that was tasked with guarding her, continued staring at her with an expectant gaze.
“What are you looking at?”
“Ah, umm… I was just hoping that… Saintess could give a prayer for the departure…”
Finding it extremely tedious, Estelle was about to let it slip but there were a lot of eyes on her including those from the holy knights. Sisters, priests, knights, mages… and even the horsemen leading the horses.
The prayers of Saintess Estelle create miracles.
It was a famous story known throughout the continent which was actually proven to be true.
‘With this many numbers… the effect won’t be so strong but…’
The child of miracles.
The Saintess who can communicate with the god.
Although she had a carefree and unrestrained personality, she still wasn’t the type to turn down the expectations and hopes of everyone.
At the center of their gazes, she locked her fingers and raised a prayer.
“I pray that warm sunlight will always be shining on you from above…”
As soon as she started her prayer, a brilliant curtain of light started to rise around her. Those that were enveloped by that light felt like their faces were being buried by something incredibly warm.
“Ohh, the prayer…”
“The Saintess is praying for us…!”
A prayer leading to the miracle of the prayer being fulfilled.
Praying for a safe journey unto a traveler would grant them a safe trip; peace and curation for those suffering from illness; small fortune to those hoping for wealth and protection and courage unto those setting off for a fight.
Saintess Estelle Hadassa El Rath.
The prayers of the saintess blessed by the stars was ‘almighty’.
“Oh god.”
“God…”
A miracle was giving them a warm embrace. Like a baby embraced by the arms of a mother for the first time, they were granted with the warm miracle of a god that was full of love and benevolence.
The people naturally believed in their safe future before the almighty blessing of that light.
This trip will end without a problem.
No disease could ever harm them throughout this journey.
The lord will watch over this path.
Faced with her miracle, even the mercenaries that lived and died by the sword couldn’t help but believe in the existence of a god.
The heavenly god praised by the order – the king of gods written down in the scriptures and the one ruling over all the gods of this land. The Saintess was the very person who proved the existence of that god in this world, whom they didn’t know much of apart from the fact that he had to be referred to as the lord.
However, although it seemed extremely sacred and holy, the Saintess was indifferently continuing the prayer as her mind wandered off to somewhere else.
‘How should I combine the next few words? Maybe I should ask for good weather.’
Her prayers were carried by the wind with each of her phrases having different implications depending on how they were combined. After giving thousands and tens of thousands of prayers, praying became a tedious job where she had to combine appropriate words following her imagination.
Saintess Estelle believed in the existence of the god.
Princess Hadassa, however, doubted the sincerity of the god.
It was because she herself was extremely blasphemous and unfaithful. The perfect representative of faith according to the order had less faith than that of a mercenary living in the streets, but who would ever believe it even if she were to say that out loud?
Why was it, that she had been chosen by the god and not someone else?
‘I still have no clue why.’
………
……
…
Before long, they were attacked.
Spells were flying in from everywhere. Magic golems and chimeras were marching in along with the spells as well as several employed mercenaries.
“Haa~. I somewhat knew this would happen but…”
In the midst of the battlefield of clashing weapons, explosions and flames, Estelle heaved a sigh and continued talking to herself.
“Was that prayer not enough?”
There were a lot of people including Elder Morushtan that were from the Tower of Mages. Considering how there were so many heretics that were captured by that one junior from the Academy, it wasn’t strange for the Tower of Mages to attack them in an attempt to rescue their members.
However, Estelle was expecting it to be in the form of an indirect assault by hiring several mercenaries with a falsified mission. That was why they had dispatched holy knights and dozens of guardians to be a part of the convoy group but…
What she definitely wasn’t expecting, was that the mages of the Tower would blatantly carry out an attack like this.
‘I did think they were crazy when they tried to kidnap Lady Dunareff, but really? Do they not care about their future consequences?’
The Tower of Mages had already turned the Dunareff and the entire south against them. It was strange that the Dunareff was still staying quiet, but in the long run, it was inevitable for the two groups to enter a conflict.
Despite that, the Tower of Mages decided to attack the Saintess of the order and the 1st Princess of the kingdom, making the Zeon Order and the royal court their enemy. This was far beyond the level of what Miruam and the nobles with connections to the Tower could do to protect them.
“Saintess! Please wait inside the carriage! It’s dangerous!”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll head to where the important criminals are.”
“Saintess!”
Without paying regard to the dissuasion of the holy knight, Estelle jumped out of the carriage and headed to the large magic prison that was located at the center of the convoy.
Inside the magic prison were the key criminals of this trip, Senior Professor Kang Ryun of the Purple Hawk Academy in the eastern continent and the head of the Black Cult, Elder Morushtan.
They were the most important criminals here so Estelle had made sure that the prison was locked firmly but… when she got there, a familiar that had sneaked in in the heat of the battle was in the middle of opening the gates of the prison.
“Hoh~. Look who it is?”
“Saintess…”
“Hello? You guys seem to have a lot of fans, seeing how there’s so many to come see you.”
“Hmph! It’s not too late for you. Why don’t you run away by yourself when you can?”
“Me?”
Estelle scoffed in response to Kang Ryun’s jest.
Indeed, it was true that there were more enemies than what she expected. The escort convoy was definitely not weak by any means, but the Tower of Mages had gathered even more mages and mercenaries for the attack.
There were at least 3 elder-ranked mages as well as 10 mercenary groups. They must have used up a lot of human resources and materials for this attack.
“The Tower… is strong. Saintess. All of you… will die.”
“Probably. Except for me that is.”
“What?”
Morushtan was dumbfounded by her honest agreement, but that was when the Saintess pretended to be shocked after seeing them walk out of the prison.
“You just escaped the prison didn’t you?”
“Hnn?”
“…What?”
Covering her mouth with both hands, Estelle had a shocked look on her face as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Brothers… How could you possibly commit the serious sin of escaping the prison without following the right procedures? Let me pray for you. Let’s repent for our sins.”
Dropping down on her knees, Estelle locked her fingers.
“W, what kind of lunatic is…”
“Foolish nonsense.”
Morushtan waved his hand once as a black torrent of mana pounced at the Saintess. The sudden ball of mana from his mana heart turned into flames of curse that appeared to be moments away from scorching the feeble saintess to ashes.
However, that was not what happened next.
『The lord is with me; the weapons of my foes cannot dare harm me.』
“What?”
The black flames dissipated after surrounding the saintess, but she elegantly stood back up and dusted her clothes.
“Impossible…”
Morushtan looked at her with astonishment in his eyes.
She wasn’t hurt in the slightest.
In fact, that wasn’t all there was to it.
That spell just then was the flames of curse that scorched the opponent to ashes after sticking onto their flesh without leaving a single bone behind. It should have burned Estelle down unless she were to immediately cut off the part of her flesh that was struck by the flames.
However, there was not a single sign of damage even on her clothes.
Absolute defense at the level of an Unbreakable Vajra Body? Was that what she had?
That didn’t make sense either, because that applied only to the skin. At the very least, there should have been some changes made to her golden ornaments and her white outfit.
“So this is the prayer…”
I will never be injured.
The lord will protect me from illness, flames and steel chariots.
The prayers of the Saintess created divine miracles. At last, Morushtan witnessed the truth of that famous story.
“Right… I knew you wouldn’t repent for your sins.”
Estelle said with a smile on her face.
“A sinful soul is neither asking for forgiveness nor being regretful of their actions. O lord, please forgive this poor soul.
“The god of benevolence, forgiveness and mercy pities even the sinners…
“So brothers. The lord will definitely forgive you all.”
Tuk.
That was when a heavy mace of steel appeared from underneath the sleeves of her sacred outfit.
“But even if god forgives you for your sins, this guy won’t.”
“Huh?”
A mace that looked so hideous that they couldn’t even fathom how it was hiding in her sleeves—
“O lord. I will now do as I see fit.”
—It struck through the air at the two of them.
“Kang Ryun!”
“Kuuk…!”
Kang Ryun hurriedly created a formation to defend themselves from the flying mace. Although it wasn’t at the level of the Eight Gates Formation, it was still decent thanks to the preparations he had made beforehand after hearing about the attack.
His defensive formation created a stone wall that was reinforced by mana to stop the flying mace.
Kung!
A deafening thud echoed from the collision. He was the strongest formation expert of the east. His stone wall was truly marvelous and was at the level of a thick steel wall but—
“Lord is watching over us, so carry your metal stick and strike them down. Do so and your enemies will be crushed like the failed artifacts of a potter.”
– Kwang!
Suddenly, the mace broke through all lines of defense as it pounced on them with a radiant curtain of light behind it.
“Feel fear as you praise the lord. Tremble and rejoice. The lord will release his fury and lay you to waste.”
Unlike the vicious words of her prayer, there was a bright and adorable smile on her face.
………
……
…
The situation was slowly turning for the worse.
One by one, the sinners were being rescued from the magic prisons and the holy knights and guardians, who were forming a defensive circle, were slowly being pushed back with Estelle in the middle.
Well, it was fine though because two of the most dangerous ones had already been dealt with.
“Saintess! It’s getting harder for us to hold the line of defense! You should run away at the very least… Huhp!”
The holy knight who had come looking for her with a horse in hand gasped for breath upon seeing the two headless corpses.
“How is it going?”
Despite her pure-white outfit and her beautiful face being drenched with blood, she nonchalantly raised her head for the question. The new holy knight looked at her with disbelief but he seemed to be the only one that was lost for words – one of the other holy knights gave a report.
“The damage isn’t that big so far thanks to your blessing but at this rate… it is certain that everyone will be killed except for you, Saintess.”
Thanks to the saintess blessing their journey and her prayer for the safety of everyone accompanying the trip, most of the holy knights and guardians were able to stay alive despite the sudden ambush.
However, there was a limit to her blessings. It was impossible for her blessings to keep a hundred people alive from the attack of thousands of enemies.
“It can’t be helped. We will now give up on the criminals and fall back.”
“Saintess!”
“We can’t…!”
“Human lives are the most important. It’s my fault for not expecting the Tower of Mages to be this aggressive.”
“It’s all due to our incompetence…!”
“That’s right, Saintess! Let us stay behind and fight till our last men!”
Facing the holy knights and priests that were tearing up from humiliation, Estelle slowly looked through their faces one by one.
Jerry, Jackson, Rudy and Erisa… Estelle knew the priests around her very well.
Because of that, one of them, who was looking straight into her eyes with utmost sorrow in his gaze… looked extremely odd.
“How strange. I know everyone around me but…”
She raised her mace. When she lifted it all the way to the sky, Rudy… the young priest turned pale.
“Who are you?”
– Slam!
The mace crushed apart the head of the young priest called Rudy. Blood splattered and pieces of the broken bones scattered everywhere… or at least that was what everyone was expecting.
“Huh?”
However, what scattered from the head weren’t warm pieces of flesh nor blood but cold chunks of steel.
The large chunk of metal that used to be Rudy started to melt down as if it was in a pit of lava and soon turned into the figure of a strange person.
『How did you find out?』
It was most definitely not the voice of a human and Estelle immediately had an idea of who it was that she was talking to.
Great Mage Adelene of Gold, the Lord of the Tower of Mages. It appeared that he had personally joined in for this attack.
“Rudy is a shy boy. He couldn’t even look straight into my eyes. I don’t need to explain why, do I?”
『…』
“Do I need to say it myself? Of course it’s because he likes me. Objectively speaking, I’m unrealistically pretty, aren’t I?”
She sounded like and was very much a narcissist. It was hard to believe that the Saintess, who loved herself more than the god, had destroyed the head of another person just because of an intuition.
However, what most were unaware of was that the intuition of the Saintess and even her seemingly reckless actions were supported by something more powerful than the likes of luck.
『Saintess of the heretics. I am the great mage, Lord of the Tower of Mages, Adelene of Gold.』
Adelene’s voice echoed across the area as the surroundings started to wobble and shake. The ground caved in; metals soared into the air as the bodies of the golems and chimeras crumbled down before combining into one large chunk.
Great mage of gold.
In other words, he was the one sitting at the peak of alchemy.
The result of his magic engineering gazed down at the world in the shape of an enormous giant.
“…That’s not at the level of a golem anymore, is it?”
“Saintess! You must escape…!”
Looking back, she belatedly noticed that all the black mages that were caught experimenting in their secret laboratories were researching topics related to giants.
It seemed that the Tower of Mages had been conducting experiments that were far more dangerous than what she had initially thought.
“All of you, run away.”
“Saintess! We can’t do that…!”
“Ah, seriously! I’m sure I won’t die so you all should just take care of your own lives!”
At last, the infuriated shout from the Saintess caused all the holy knights to shut their mouths.
They knew very well why the Saintess had no bodyguards, and why she allocated all the funds she received to intelligence instead.
She did not need to be protected.
If she were to use all of her prayers to protect herself, she would be able to escape unscathed even if the world were to divide into two.
It was a different concept and power to the Unbreakable Vajra Body.
The Saintess could never be injured.
She would never bleed in her life.
That unbelievable concept was like a divine rule etched into the world thanks to her prayers.
“Kuhk…! We will definitely come back with reinforcements!”
Blaming themselves for their incompetence, the holy knights started to escape along with the survivors.
『Not happening.』
The giant started to move and by the time anyone could realize it, there was already a large stone in its hand. It was already far too late for Estelle to stop it and… the large stone was flung towards the group that was escaping from the battle.
That stone wasn’t a normal piece of stone. It was one that was compressed and reinforced by the mage of gold.
As soon as it landed on the target, the stone imploded on them.
– Kwaaaaaaang!!
A storm and a deafening roar was created from the explosion. It was only obvious that no-one could survive from that colossal explosion but…
『Hmm?』
The soldiers and holy knights were on the ground after being shocked by the sound of the explosion but none of them were hurt. It was a miracle… Seeing that unfathomable sight, Lord Adelene turned the gaze of the giant towards the Sainess and spoke to her.
『Impressive that you can fully protect a group that big.』
Estelle raised her mace and let out a prayer of self-sacrifice.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.You will be the lord’s friends if you do what he commands.”
O lord, please crush the enemy before us. With your blessings, I can smash a thousand heretics to death even with the jawbones of a donkey.
“In the name of the holy father, son and the spirit.”
Amen.
