I Became the Villainess in an Anticlimactic Novel - Chapter 10

“The purification of the people over here is finished.”

“You’ve worked hard.”

“How about you go back and rest for a while, Saintess? I heard that you had originally stopped because of motion sickness on the way, but couldn’t even sleep a wink because of the outbreak.”

“I’m fine.”

I quickly rejected their offer.

To be honest, even if I went back to my room now, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.

My mind only got more complicated after I gradually accepted the fact that I could be a saintess.

While my mind was complicated to death, the priests continued to follow me like trained soldiers. Wait, no, them being trained soldiers was frankly too docile of a remark. Rather, they were more like ducklings who were chasing after their mother duck.

“How could you have such a pretty face and a beautiful heart? To think that you can’t sleep due to your anxiety over the common people dying. Heuk heuk.”

“To think that I was the first priest who had the grace to see the Saintess first! Just where should I go to boast about this honor?”

“Were you the one who saw her first? It was clearly me who saw her first.”

“I was the one who greeted her first though?”

“Aha, no, well my hand was the first hand to be held by her.”

“No! If you think about it like that, then the first to hold her hand is clearly the high priest.”

“Fufu, I don’t care what number I am. I won’t ever wash this hand.”

…They were clearly just a group of hardcore fans. With me as their target. Although this sort of interest was rather troublesome.

“Ahem. Is there anything else I can do to help…”

“There isn’t!”

I asked to try and go back to what we were talking about before, but an answer came back quickly before I could even finish my question.

“It’s enough for you just to sit here and look pretty.”

Just sitting is fine, but what the hell do you mean by sitting and looking pretty?

When he saw the reluctant expression on my face, he quickly inserted how he interpreted my expression as.

“B-But of course, it this was handled by the Saintess herself, it would be sorted out immediately…”

He was the one who had looked at me with particularly sparkling eyes.

“But even if that will be the case, we still want to show that we’re capable people as well. So just leave it to us!”

“No just when on earth did this guy get so proactive…! Saintess! I’m definitely better than this guy! Just watch and see!”

The youngest looking one of them shouted in a loud voice, before running past me, the rest of the priests following after him.

“O-Okay… good luck…”

Left all alone after they rushed out, I sat on the simple chair they prepared for me, thinking it would be awkward for me to continue to remain standing. Kelber placed his three heads on top of my legs and began to doze off.

‘It’s embarrassing for me to be the only one doing this when everyone else is busy working hard.’

I looked around to see if there was anything I could do, my butt constantly lifting off the chair.

‘Should I help the doctors?’ 

The divine power from the priests could only cure the disease, but not the wounds that were caused by it, so the doctors were extremely busy.

At first, I had wondered whether or not it was because I didn’t have enough divine power to heal them. But when I asked Lydia, I found that that wasn’t the case.

“You could think that way since you’re so familiar with the divine power of Solarism. However, it’s not that we don’t, rather, it’s that we can’t.”

“You can’t do it?”

“The divine power of Lunarism cannot heal wounds. Lunarism’s divine power has the ability to ‘purify’, but not the ability to ‘restore’.

“What exactly does that mean?”

“For example… the divine power of Solarism is more suitable for healing bruises and fractures, while the divine power of Lunarism specializes in purification and the alleviation of mental illnesses.”

The more I listened to her talk, the more I once again realized how little I actually knew about Lunarism. The moment I thought that, the road ahead felt even more daunting.

‘Do I really have to be a saintess?’

I was meant to flee the country, but I suddenly became a saintess. 

If I kept going at this rate, in the event of a war, it was clear that I would become embroiled in ‘protecting the citizens of the Empire’. I’d really hate for that to happen though…

What sort of saintess is a self-centered person like me?’

I had never had any ties to religion in my lifetime. That was simply because I thought that if I ever had some sort of ‘corner of faith’, I would just continue to lean on it in vain. But to think that religion could be forced into my arms like this.

Although I hoped that the verification process would would make them come to the conclusion that I wasn’t one, but judging by the reactions of Lydia and the priests, it all seemed to be in vain. 

Should I just refuse and run away before they begin the process? But wouldn’t they be disappointed if the saintess who had appeared for the first time in a hundred years suddenly ran away…?

“As a saintess, just going your own way will be enough. We will simply follow after you on our own.”

Although that’s what they had said, I’m sure that it’d be extremely troublesome for them if I fled to another country and left the Empire behind.

‘But I really don’t want to die.’

That’s right, I really didn’t want to die. I really didn’t. To be more accurate, I didn’t want to be in pain. It was even harder to know whether I’d be able to die painlessly with a single stroke of a sword.

My whole body shuddered just imagining the difficult and arduous life I’d have to live if I was caught up in a war.

Choosing to remain in the Empire whilst knowing that the Demon King would clearly invade was really just stabbing a death flag in my future.

Lunarism must exist in other countries besides the Empire, so couldn’t I go to a safe place like that and become a saintess there?

But to be fair… the Empire was like the Vatican City of Lunarism, so the fact that someone like the saintess, who was revered like that of the Pope, was going to abandon a place like this and hide in another was… 

Sigh… Life really isn’t going my way… 

Just as I was lamenting over my meaningless situation, Linden suddenly approached me.

“Just what sort of situation is this?”

“Oh, Linden.”

“Are you really the saintess of the Moon God?”

“At least that’s what they’re all saying…?”

Though I’m seriously considering just turning a blind eye to it and running away.

“How…?”

“Although they still have a lot of things to confirm, apparently I’ve already met all the requirements that can be checked right now.”

Well, it feels like I’m talking about a product when I call it a ‘requirement’.

“But didn’t the High Priest two years ago already…”

Linden seemed to have the same question as me. Just how did I become the saintess when they had said I didn’t have the ability to?

I was able to answer it easily since it had also been a questions that I had asked.

“That was the High Priest of the Sun God. Apparently the divine power of Solarism and Lunarism are too different.”

I stretched out my palm. As soon as I thought of the image of taking a deep breath in and pushing out the air from my lungs out through my fingertips, a silver wind began to gush out from my palms. It was a wind that had the color of moonlight.

“How do I use my power?”

“You can use it just by thinking of it.”

When Lydia had explained it like that, I had wondered what sort of far-fetched nonsense she was spouting, but it really was like that. 

It was a unique power.

Unlike magic, which required both talent and effort, this power could be used just by thinking of an imagine my head without even having to learn how to use it separately. 

When it more leaked out of my fingertips, it flowed out toward Linden, ruffling his clothes lightly. Linden looked at the divine power that wrapped around him and disappeared with a confused expression.

“Oh, will this sort of energy make you feel uncomfortable since you’re a believer of Solarism?”

I felt bad for only belatedly remembering that he was a believer of another religion. Wasn’t this pretty much the same as sprinkling the holy water of Catholicism on a Buddhist friend?

“My bad. I’ll be more cautious next time.”

“No.”

He came a little closer and knelt down on one knee in front of me. Then whispered in an urgent voice.

“Please show me one more time.”

Since it wasn’t too difficult of a request, I channeled my strength back into the palm of my hand once again. Another ball of tranquil moonlight appeared once again.

Linden looked at it with a blank expression on his face, like a child who had seen a candle for the first time in their life.

I had made the ball a little larger. What used to only be the size of quail eggs now became the size of an egg.

“Can I touch it…?”

He asked me cautiously, as if he were asking to touch a newborn child instead. Why are you being so cautious about this? I burst into laughter since it was so cute.

“Of course.”

Linden cautiously reached out to touch the light once he obtained my permission. The light climbed up Linden’s fingers, as if it were happy that it touched something new, creeping up his hands and arms and finally burst into a smoky haze.

When Linden moved his hand again, the light scattered and disappeared with a ‘poof’, as if it were shy. I still didn’t know how this power behaved, so I looked at it strangely.

“Just one more time…”

As I followed the scattered energy with my eyes, I heard a voice, as if it were deeply immersed in something. When I looked down, I saw him grabbing my knee tightly, whispering to me with an expression that seemed as if he were about to collapse.

“Sorry. Can you show me… just one more time?”

He pleaded with me imploringly, as if he were a person who had experienced warmth for the first time on a snow capped mountain.

“Is that not allowed…?”

My heart ached for no reason at the sight of him, who looked like he would burst into tears at any moment if he didn’t see it. 

I didn’t know why exactly he was doing this. But I could still make a vague guess.

Just how barren and poor must his life have been for him to feel so desperate toward this small amount of tenderness? I felt sorry for him once again, and felt greatly shaken at the fact that he reminded me of myself in my previous life, who had lived a rather tenacious life. It felt as if a consensus of my own had started to form for no reason.

“You don’t have to be sorry.”

Manifesting power. Even though I didn’t know when I knew, now that I knew about my power, this was easier than opening a brand new water bottle for me. If only this could bring comfort to his lonely heart, even just for a little bit.

“I’ll show you as much as you want.”

Such a trivial thing was a piece of cake.

I placed his hand on top of my palm. It looked rather strange, since his hand was much bigger than mine, but it didn’t matter.

“I can show you until my divine power runs out.”

My divine power, which had a silver light to it, started to form once again. This time, it gathered over his palm which was in my hand.

“Did you think I couldn’t even do this for you?”

Linden’s eyes, which were looking at me, shook violently at my words. He lowered his gaze, his face becoming strange, one that was neither one of laughter or tears.

Seeing my power dancing softly on his hand, he finally relaxed, the tenseness eventually leaving his body. The balls of light blooming on his hand became one, then split into two, then for, and eventually became dozens, circling around his body. The light, which seemed to disappear in a fluster, seemed to get used to him over time, and stuck to him instead, continuously falling off, as if to act cute.

I recalled what Lydia had said.

“The divine power of Lunarism is rather unique. Although it’s an inanimate power, it has its own will, and as it assimilates with wielder, will be influenced by their thoughts and emotions as well.’

Just like children who tried to imitate their parents. 

So as I continued to use this power and accept it as mine, my emotions gradually began to seep into those lights, which were crystalloids of my power. So slowly, my perception of Linden had changed from, ‘who is this? who is this?’, to, ‘a person who is okay for us to be close to!’.

‘Even though divine power isn’t something that has life in it…’

It was fascinating just to see that they were moved by their own will and agitated by emotions.

I was watching happily when Linden suddenly moved that hand that was grasped in mine. At his movement, my lights buzzed, as if shouting, ‘he moved, he moved!’, and gathered around his arms and wrists.

Naturally, a lot of the children returned to me. Linden placed my hand, which was curled into a fist, back in his own. As if he were handling a precious chick, he gently placed it on top of my hand. With his head bowed, he whispered softly.

“…Th…”

Although it was a voice that was soft enough to be obscured by the noise in the background, I could still hear it clearly.

“…Thanks.”

That’s why I was able to smile broadly.

 “Mm.”

We spent a long time after that with the soft breeze that was created by my divine power.

***

At the same time Meliara was practicing how to channel her power, Lecht was quietly walking to the outskirts of the village with Kelber by his side.

Since that bastard was showing his presence so obviously, he couldn’t just let it go. 

Lecht, who had arrived at the end of the empty road, headed into a dark alleyway where even the moon didn’t dare to cast its light. Tanma followed closely behind him. 

At the dead-end of the alleyway, the sound of a snake slithering on the ground was heard. 

Lecht stopped at a reasonable distance away from the vaguely visible black figure.

With the sound of another slither, five pairs of red eyes shone from the ground. It was a five-headed cobra demon.

The black figure that had the snake wrapped around its legs and waist turned towards Lecht. The glare of those icy blue eyes pierced through the darkness.

“Long time no see, little brother.”

It was a soft voice that starkly contrasted those eyes which were full of vigor.