“A great many things happened. Have you calmed down a little?”
“Yes. I'm all right.”
The Saint came into the room as though it were natural and sat down on the sofa.
'Elly, what exactly is this situation?'
-How would I know. But the Saint really is a jewel. Not a rough stone, a finished jewel! You know what I mean?! He's on another plane. Wooow.
Ah, the praise-time cooldown is up.
I had been meaning to meet the Saint anyway, so this is good news, but.
'Why has he come.'
I had no idea why.
The one with a reason is plainly me. Could the Saint have received something like a mission too?
'Isn't he sealed right now and unable to hear anything from Elysian.'
What is this?
Surely Elysian didn't tell him in advance through a dream, before I came over here.
'Hahaha, surely not.'
Well, the reason will become clear in time. The problem lies elsewhere.
'This is demonic energy, isn't it?'
-Yuuup.
'Why does the Saint have demonic energy on him?'
From somewhere on the Saint's body, the black aura of demonic energy was seeping steadily out.
It was plainly visible with my newly acquired 'left eye.'
“You look very curious. About what business brought me to you, young Lian.”
“Uhh... yes. Ahaha.”
Damn. I must have been talking to Elly too much.
But the Saint's gaze was odd. Oddly glad to see me, so to speak?
“In fact, I have known of you since before you were born, young Lian.”
“Sorry?”
At my dazed face, the Saint let a smile onto his own.
“I was born a Saint. A Saint's duty is to protect people in the god's stead.”
To that end, Saint Dane Klenor received revelation from Elysian by indirect means. In his case that means was dreams.
“From very early childhood I dreamed a great deal. Many of them dreams I could not understand.”
Until the god vanished from sight, Dane had dreamed every day. Ceaselessly.
Among them was one dream that repeated with particular persistence and stayed in his memory.
“At first I thought I kept having the same dream because I had failed to grasp the god's intent.”
Dane's gaze wandered the air for a moment.
“...But today. Only after seeing you, young Lian, did I realize that was not it.”
“Was I in that dream?”
“I cannot be certain. The face was covered. Only.”
This time the Saint's eyes rested squarely on the place where Elly was.
“You are the only person accompanied by a mystical being, young Lian. Though the small ones who were with you at the Baptism Rite are not visible now.”
-Huh! He can see me?
Elly, delighted, went circling round and round the Saint.
'The small ones would mean the spirits.'
Having spirit-sight open is remarkable enough, and this fellow saw me in advance in a dream.
'Why is this real?'
Elysian. Exactly how far ahead did you see.
'The Saint's spirit-sight opening is probably because of the divine power lodged in his body.'
There were rare cases of spirit-sight opening through contact with a god. In this world the story was a little different, though.
'And here that's very nearly zero.'
This place is structured so that spirit-sight is hard to open in the first place.
The Saint had broken through a vanishingly slim possibility and brought his spirit-sight into bloom!
In any case, the cause is not what matters right now.
“I still do not know the reason the god guided me to you, young Lian. But I thought I had to meet you.”
I nodded and agreed. An excellent choice.
We had to meet in order to undo the seal anyway.
But before that.
“Your Holiness. Have you encountered a demon anywhere recently?”
“Sorry?”
There is something I have to check.
“I sense demonic energy on your body.”
“No, that... that cannot be.”
The Saint was visibly flustered.
“I have not left the Holy Emperor's Court at the central seat these past three years.”
Sorry?
“You attended together with Cardinal Saverio, didn't you? Did His Eminence say nothing at all?”
“Since you returned from the labyrinth, young Lian, I have been acting alone. He is busy with the cleanup.”
Then the demonic energy attached itself very recently.
'But this is the Church's central seat too, isn't it?'
Raellum, capital of the Elion Holy Empire, where the Baptism Rite was held, is sacred ground.
Which is to say the concentration of holy power there is vastly higher than in other regions.
And someone capable of attaching demonic energy is operating here?
Who? From where?
-Isn't there a collaborator on the inside?
Oof... a collaborator at the central seat is the worst case.
“Let's get rid of the demonic energy first.”
Just as I was about to move my holy power.
[-That is not merely demonic energy.]
A voice rang inside my head.
'Who is this.'
[-Do you not even remember the voice of the one who bestowed the prophet's mark upon you a short while ago?]
It was the wing-angel.
[-Henceforth I shall convey your missions through the prophet's mark.]
'So THAT is what it meant.'
To announce it would be working me remotely in a manner like that. My expression went sour all on its own.
[-Ahem. What clings to the Saint now is not mere demonic energy but the residue of black magic.]
'You mean it wasn't picked up somewhere just now?'
[-Correct. That is the trace of black magic accumulated in layers over a very long time.]
That changed the story.
'Does that mean it won't come off easily?'
[-Not so. The black magic used on the Saint is not so complex a curse. The process is merely tiresome.]
Aha.
[-Because black magic was being used to brainwash the Saint, it was neutralized by a seal made of divine power. However...]
The reason for the Saint's seal was finally laid bare. It had been a seal carrying the meaning of protection after all.
'So I mustn't recklessly undo the seal without properly dispelling the black magic.'
Merely erasing the demonic energy on the Saint's body would hardly erase the black magic's curse in full.
The angel's hurried appearance makes sense too.
The work has grown. So what do I do now.
The Saint was watching blankly as I conversed with an angel.
“One moment, Your Holiness.”
“Yes.”
In the middle of all this, Elly had gone over to the Saint's side and was pestering him energetically. The Saint, unable to hear her voice, was simply bewildered.
'So what do I have to do?'
[-Black magic requires a medium. For a low-grade black-magic curse like this to take proper effect, the subject must keep it on their person continuously. Purify the medium completely and the black magic is dispelled.]
Find the black magic medium. Okay.
[-Next, the holy power of the Saint, once the black magic is dispelled, must be perfectly concealed. The one who contrived all of this will still be circling near him.]
Conceal the Saint's holy power...? That vast quantity of it?
[-Do not be concerned. There happens to be a holy relic suited to precisely that purpose.]
Surely not.
'Do I have to go and fetch it?'
[-Mm. It is a sacred item long forgotten and buried.]
Haha? Oh, damn it.
[-Ahem. Still, it is not in an entirely random place. The very center of the sacred ground. It is buried where holy power is most abundant.]
The place where holy power is most abundant? Isn't that here?
[-And within that, the academy where the children gather. Search there. I wish you fortune.]
'W-wait, hold on!'
The angel finished saying what it pleased and left.
'Fortune, my foot! If it's the academy I can't even go there yet!'
There's a year until enrollment!
I glanced at the Saint, spacing out under Elly's pestering. Still a body in a precarious state.
For now, let's do what can be done.
“Your Holiness. I spoke with the angel a little, and it says the demonic energy on your body is the trace of black magic.”
“How did you speak with an angel— no, more to the point, black magic?”
Surprised? I was surprised too.
“Yes, apparently they attempted to brainwash you with black magic. And your sudden inability to use holy power was to restrain that black magic with divine power.”
The Saint's expression looked complicated, learning the reason for the seal.
Understandably. After all the heartache the seal caused him, to learn it was in fact meant to save him.
'He's much younger than me. That's cruel.'
“Is there an object you always keep on your person?”
“Mm... yes, there is.”
Oh, luckily it looks like the black magic's medium will be found quickly.
“That is most likely the medium that activates the black magic. It has to be purified, so would you take it out?”
“......”
The Saint lost his words. And something like anger showed within them.
'Wh-what? Did I say something wrong?'
-I-I don't know!
“...The only thing I always keep on me is my mother's keepsake.”
Oh. Damn.
Clink—
A small pendant necklace came out from inside the Saint's robes.
-Wow.
'Wow.'
We both exclaimed the moment we saw the pendant.
-They've planted demonic energy in it so subtly, so finely. Is whoever planted this even human? I don't think so.
'We don't know who planted it. Could be human, could be a demon.'
-Either way, at this level ordinary humans wouldn't be able to tell.
'Cardinals either?'
-Are they half-angel or something?
'Ah.'
-You detect all sorts of things, Lian, because your soul is connected to mine. It's hard for anyone else.
I see. In that case it makes sense that even the Saint, with his spirit-sight open, failed to notice.
“May I take a look for a moment?”
“Yes.”
I turned the pendant this way and that and opened my spirit-sight.
Previously I think I would only have seen where the demonic energy was.
Now I could clearly see a circuit of demonic-energy lines tangled messily this way and that.
'Not a circuit, a magic circle.'
Calling it a circuit when there's no electricity involved. Five years living here and the modern brain still hasn't drained out.
At a glance the magic circle looked as though its lines of demonic energy were all severed.
But as Elly said, the lines were faintly connected and complete, on the verge of breaking without ever breaking.
The magic circle's own power was weak. But on the Saint, who would have kept it on his person continuously, its effect would have been considerable.
“There is a black magic circle inscribed on your pendant, Your Holiness.”
“Is that so.”
The Saint's expression is very bad.
“Dismantling the circle shouldn't be too difficult, so I think it's best to do it right now.”
“...Yes. Please do.”
The Saint, who seemed to consider it a moment, soon nodded.
'Don't worry. I'll remove it cleanly, without straining the pendant.'
It was my first time doing this work, but I was confident. Purification had always been one of my main events.
The angel said 'purification' would do it.
I gathered holy power at my fingertip. Since the holy power crystal formed, my control had improved and it was easier still.
'I may not need the fountain pen anymore.'
With my finger I inscribed letters of holy power onto the pendant.
As the first stroke of Purification was drawn, Elly breathed divine power into it. Elly's divine power was held inside the letters I wrote.
“I have never seen a method of purification like this.”
I'm sure you haven't.
Strictly speaking this was an application of talisman arts. Unimaginable without Elly beside me.
The Saint watched the letters being inscribed as though fascinated.
'Is this a magic circle? No, it's different... what is it?'
It was unlike the circles used by those who handle holy magic.
'He spoke with an angel a moment ago. Could this be an ancient holy magic circle the angel taught him?'
Unaware of the misunderstanding unfolding inside the Saint's head, Lian concentrated on the letters.
'With a holy power crystal the efficiency is absolutely insane.'
Before, I did inscribe letters, but honestly they didn't look like letters.
Lines that wouldn't hold straight and wobbled, the light-bleed that came with every use, and terrible definition on top.
But the letters of Purification I'm inscribing now clearly have proper form.
'Ahem. Very much to my liking.'
If I can make more holy power crystals, I could probably get back to my old talisman-arts skill.
I poured my full attention into completing the letters to the last. The instant I drew the final stroke.
TSSSSSS—!
The letters shone and burned away the black magic circle's demonic energy. When the demonic energy had completely vanished, the letters of Purification vanished along with it and dissolved.
There was nothing wrong with the pendant. Only the magic circle had been cleanly dispelled and purified.
“You should be all right now.”
I returned the pendant and examined the Saint's body. The demonic energy was still on him, but it would no longer worsen.
“The demonic energy on your body will be difficult to remove right away.”
“Why is that?”
“The demonic energy has to be removed before the seal is undone... and then it would become obvious that your seal had been undone.”
“You are taking the spy at the central seat into account.”
“Yes.”
The Saint was clever and understood at once.
“Fortunately, the angel told me of a way to conceal your body's condition.”
The flaw being that we have to wait a year.
Having finished a rough explanation.
Once the Saint seemed satisfied, I called out the spirits.
-Hup!
-You called?
At the small beings popping out of thin air, the Saint's eyes went round.
“You have seen them before, haven't you, Your Holiness? These children. If anything happens while they are with you, just ask them to pass word to me.”
“Yes, I shall.”
-So I follow this white one?
-There's something a bit grubby on him, but his aura is so clean it's fine!
Two spirits stuck themselves firmly to the top of the Saint's head and settled in. The Saint seemed to find it awkward.
“Then I shall be waiting.”
At last I had carried out roughly half the mission concerning the Saint.
'All that's left is the academy, then.'