Chapter 62: Chapter 59: Meeting Again after a Thousand Years
After undoing—or rather, crushing—Alfrea's seal, my next ordeal was figuring out what to do with the naked saint in front of me.
I could technically craft her a set of armor with earth magic, but wearing armor on her bare skin was bound to be uncomfortable.
For the time being, I created a thin barrier that would isolate her skin from the outside and wrapped it around her body and feet. She still looked naked, but she was essentially dressed...in a way. Obviously, I couldn't stop there, so I used light magic to create the illusion of clothes.
I decided to name her new outfit "clothes even idiots can see." In Alfrea's particular case, she looked like she was wearing clothes, but she was still stark naked.
Alfrea was patting her body with a mix of admiration and marvel. The feeling had to be off. After all, all she had on was a barrier. No matter how good at magic I was, I couldn't make it feel like fabric. This was a makeshift solution, though—I'd have her wear a proper dress when we got home.
Alfrea and I walked to the entrance of the cave. As soon as the walking armor saw her wearing (fake) clothes, he crumbled down—the shock must've been too much.
I knew it, this guy was only sticking around to stare at Alfrea's body.
Layla closed her eyes and offered a prayer to the fallen warrior. "He's gone to rest after accomplishing his duty. That man continued to protect his master even after death. He's truly worthy of his title... He will be remembered as a most exemplary knight."
I'm sorry, but this guy was probably a piece of shit, Layla, I thought. I really wanted to say it out loud, but I didn't want to burst Layla's bubble, so I kept my mouth shut.
Everyone's attention soon shifted from the armor to Alfrea.
She looks so smug.
"Lady Ellize, is she..."
"Indeed. This is Lady Alfrea, the first saint. She was trapped in this cave by the witch a thousand years ago."
Everyone here knew Alfrea's name—she was the first saint, after all. Without her, there'd be no Training Institute for Magic Knights, no fighting back against the witch, and certainly no reason for us to be gathered here today.
It was quite something for the others to suddenly meet such an illustrious figure. Alfrea smiled gently and brought her hand to her chest.
Oh my, she does look like a saint now.
"I'm glad to make your acquaintance, brave warriors. I'm Alfrea. I was the first person to be entrusted with the position of saint. The witch sealed me, and I spent the past thousand years trapped in this cave. Thanks to Ellize's help, I was finally able to break free."
She'd spun the story to make it sound like she'd done most of the work while I only "helped her." She probably wanted to show off a little, since she was meeting them for the first time. To be honest, I didn't really care. In fact, I simply wondered how long such a clumsy girl could manage to sell the whole perfect image.
"The first witch...sealed you? How does that work? And how come you haven't turned into a witch, Lady Alfrea?" one of the students asked.
"Allow me to recite the epic tale of my mother and I," she started. "Sing, O Muse, of how this tragic cycle came to be...and, more importantly, of how we can come to end it. As for the circumstances surrounding my state of being—that is, why I have yet to turn toward the path of darkness—I suppose one could say it was a cruel twist of fate. Chance, destiny, love, and hatred... All of these factors intertwined in a laden web of the highest complexity and led to this..."
God, do you have to speak in such a convoluted way? None of it was even "complex" to begin with! The witch bamboozled you, caught you off guard, and sealed you up! That's all there was to it!
Profeta was the one to say what I'd been thinking out loud. "None of it was complex—Eve tricked you by pretending to be dead, then attacked you by surprise. You were so drunk you didn't even put up a fight when she sealed you."
"Hey!" Alfrea exclaimed. She couldn't hide her surprise and bitterness at being called out.
I got the feeling that our resident turtle didn't like Alfrea much. Leaving that aside, I'd just learned something new—Alfrea's mother was called Eve. It was my first time hearing about the first witch's name. It didn't come up in the game or on the official website.
"How do you even know that I'd been drinking?!" Alfrea screamed before looking around. "Oops..."
Alfrea's dignified gold plating had peeled off in less than two minutes. Verner and the others were staring at her, flabbergasted. Alfrea put her saintly smile back on and pretended nothing had happened, but I could see her lips twitch in annoyance.
That's one sloppy job, Alfrea...
Not that it really mattered. Even without a layer of plating, Alfrea was still a saint. I supposed that explained why she was so terrible at acting—unlike me. I had to be careful not to slip up, but Alfrea was gold itself. Was there any need to cover gold in another layer?
"B-Brave warriors, do not let yourselves be fooled. There is absolutely no way I—the first saint, the saint of saints—would ever partake in alcohol so much that I'd end up blind drunk, sneak out of the party to sell my comrade's sword in order to buy another bottle, and be caught by the witch. Do trust me when I say something like that could never happen!"
I think you shared a little too much here. No one ever said that.
Layla looked like her world had come crashing down. She looked at me helplessly, begging me to do something, but I simply shook my head wordlessly. I knew it was hard to believe, but that was what the first saint was like.
Look reality in the eye, Scotterbrain.
"Who are you, anyway?!" Alfrea exploded. "You're a turtle, why are you acting like you know me?!"
"I see you don't remember the pet you threw in a ditch while you were drunk," Profeta retorted coldly.
So that was why the turtle disliked her so much—they knew each other. Throwing a turtle in a ditch is a bit much, though...
"P-P-Profeta?! It's not my fault! What else was I supposed to do? You were so damn big I didn't know what to do with you. The neighbors were always bugging me about how you scared the kids or something! I just thought you'd be happier living in a big river..."
"Oh, shut up! Even if you couldn't keep me, there are ways to do this! Besides, you didn't put me in a river—you threw me in a dirty ditch! Do you even know how much I suffered after that?!"
Image here:
Dumping turtles in the street just because they're bigger than you'd envisioned is animal cruelty and an absolute safety hazard. Don't do that, kids. Although I suppose this isn't Earth. People may view this differently here...or not. Verner and the others were looking at Alfrea in disgust.
"That's on you! Why did you have to become so big, huh?! And you didn't even come to see me after I got sealed! I can't believe you're so ungrateful when I took such good care of you!"
"Oh, so using me as a living shield every single time you fought monsters was 'taking good care of me' now, was it?"
Verner and the others were watching Alfrea and the turtle bicker. For the peanut gallery, it was like it was the end of the world. As I'd mentioned earlier, Alfrea had always been depicted as an illustrious ancestor. Since they studied at an academy that had borrowed her name and carried her legacy, Verner and his friends were even more sensitive to that image. They'd always pictured Alfrea as the perfect saint. They couldn't believe their eyes now that they were faced with the real deal.
"Excuse me, Lady Ellize... Could it be that this lady only happens to share a name with Lady Alfrea? No, I apologize... I know you, of all people, wouldn't mistake someone else for the first saint. It's, um, simply hard to believe..." Aina said.
"I understand why you don't want to admit it, but I'm afraid she truly is the first saint. I can guarantee it, young lady," Profeta answered, crushing the students' last hope.
Aina and the others looked even more depressed than before. After all, there was no doubting the words of a person—um, turtle—who'd lived a thousand years.
"I apologize if I crush your delusions, but saints are simply humans," Profeta continued. "They're not anything special, nor are they the embodiment of miracles or lofty ideals. They're simply people on which the world dumped the power to kill the witch. Beyond that, they're just like any of you."
She stopped to sigh. She looked at Eterna and me before continuing, "I've seen plenty of saints up until now. If anything, only a handful of them were what you'd call 'saintly.' Some of them ran away, terrified by their heavy mission. Some even hid until their death so that they wouldn't have to fight. I remember a muscular girl who fought by swinging a battle-ax around, and there was even one saint who couldn't speak because she'd been raised by wild animals."
As for the current generation, we had a village girl and a fake saint that was nothing but a pile of turds in disguise. I knew full well that saints were never meant to be perfect. I simply pretended to be that way because I didn't think anyone would believe me otherwise. I was a fake so I had to do more. I had to seem more real than the real deal, or else I'd be found out.
"But Lady Ellize is—" random dude started.
"Ellize is an exception in more ways than one," Profeta cut him off, then let out a strained laugh. "You shouldn't compare her to other saints or assume she's the standard. That wouldn't be fair to the others."
Profeta wasn't wrong. I was an exception in every way since I was a fake. There was no point in comparing me to other saints since I wasn't even part of that group.
"Ellizeeeeeee! Profeta is bullying me!" Alfrea whined, clinging to me.
I didn't really know what to do, so I patted her head once more. She closed her eyes, the picture of pure bliss. Most people would get mad if someone younger than them started patting their heads, but Alfrea must've been in serious need of human contact after a thousand years of being stuck inside that crystal. Her big breasts were pressed against me, but I was absolutely not complaining. The perks of looking like a girl.
"Don't indulge her, Ellize," Profeta said. "She'll only act even brattier."
The turtle was really cold toward Alfrea, but I didn't really have an issue with her. Bratty beauties were always in demand.
"Lady Ellize, I'm truly proud of being your knight," Layla said very seriously.
I felt bad now.
I'm sorry, Layla. I'm so sorry for being a fake. I'll be a master you can be proud of until the very end, so please forgive me.
With all that out of the way, I explained to everyone how sealing the witch could prevent her grudge from passing to the next saint and that Alfrea was capable of performing the spell.
(1.9k word count)
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