Chapter 10

. Carrying the Holy Flame

‘How am I supposed to remove that restriction?’

The Saint’s condition was far more serious than I had expected.

The reason his divine power was blocked was because of holy power. Tiny needle-like strands of holy power had been driven precisely into the pathways through which his divine power flowed, blocking them.

The hierarchy between holy power and divine power was clear.

Divine power was the power of a god itself. Holy power, on the other hand, was power that had been processed once by a god and bestowed upon humans.

If you wanted to compare them, holy power was an inferior version of divine power. Its energy had been suppressed to exactly the level a human could endure.

That was why holy power alone couldn’t remove the divine power that had been driven into the Saint’s body and was blocking the flow.

In other words, an ordinary human could never move it.

‘But I can.’

I turned my gaze toward Eli.

She was still staring at the Saint with her mouth hanging open.

Ahem. Hmm-hmm.

Anyway, I could do it.

‘Eli, Eli. Stop staring at the Saint’s face and say something.’

—Oh, right. Yeah, yeah.

Crack.

‘You said I was the most handsome, yet you can’t take your eyes off him.’

—Our Lian is heavenly too. If Lian is on the level of an archangel, then that guy is practically god-level!

‘Ah, whatever. Stop looking at his face and look at the other things too. Isn’t it amazing that he hasn’t exploded yet?’

—Huh? You’re right!

Only then did Eli seem to notice the tiny pieces of divine power embedded inside him, and her eyes widened.

‘Isn’t there any way to pull those out?’

Eli’s brow furrowed.

—We can remove them. It won’t be easy, though.

‘So it really isn’t easy?’

—A vast amount of divine power has been blocked by tiny, needle-like pieces of divine power. What does that tell you? The concentration is incredibly high.

‘He can’t explode, though. We can do it, right?’

—Of course we can! And we absolutely have to!

Eli swallowed audibly.

—We can absorb that!

Huh?

‘You can absorb divine power?’

—Yep!

Ah. Then this changed things completely.

Come to think of it, how was I supposed to get close to him? I needed to get near him first if I wanted to remove the restriction.

—If you keep coming in first, don’t you think you’ll have a chance to meet him?

Right.

I would have to bet on that for now.

“Wooooow….”

“This is crazy.”

“What do you think is going to happen?”

But what was this?

The atmosphere around me had suddenly become strange.

I looked up.

On the floating panel, my name and Corin Dallopes’s were displayed side by side.

‘I’m in the same Group 13 as him?’

While I had been distracted by other things, I had somehow ended up in the same group as the person who had come in last.

The groups were formed by the Saint personally drawing lots.

Once it was confirmed that Lian and Corin had been assigned to the same team, the crowd erupted with excitement.

“Wow. First place and last place in the same group. Is this for real?”

“Ah, damn it. I was rooting for Lian.”

“Group assignments are all about luck. What can you do~?”

The combination of first and last place was more than enough to set the spectators ablaze.

Some people laughed, saying it was hilarious, while others angrily questioned whether this was really fair.

But there was one thing they all agreed on.

“This baptism ceremony is getting really interesting!”

It was entertaining.

“Doesn’t this mean Lionel Rondo is going to take first place anyway?”

“Who knows? Lian might drag him by the collar and come in first again.”

“Come on! There’s no way he can take first place again while carrying the last-place kid!”

Opinions about Lian Ludersk, who had ranked first in the Holy Flame search, were sharply divided.

Most opinions were negative.

Most people predicted that he wouldn’t be able to take first place this time.

“I think Lian Ludersk can take first place again.”

But there was one man among the crowd who firmly disagreed.

He wore a bright blue handkerchief around his head—the symbolic color of the Ludersk family—and spoke in a forceful voice.

“Hah. Of course you’d say that. You’re a native of the Ludersk territory and a die-hard Ludersk fan!”

The man who challenged him wore a dark navy handkerchief around his head.

Dark navy was the symbolic color of the Rondo family.

“No. It’s not simply because I’m a fan. I’ve heard a rumor.”

“What rumor?”

“They say that when Lian Ludersk was still a helpless baby who couldn’t even crawl, he beat demons to death with extraordinary strength.”

“Even if he’s a Ludersk, does that make any sense?”

“It’s information with a fairly high level of credibility. And isn’t he the child of Lady Ludersk, who was famous during her active years? He’s certainly overflowing with talent.”

“Hah, I don’t believe it. I think Lionel Rondo is the one who’s going to reclaim first place this time.”

“Want to make a bet?”

“Sounds good!”

Bets were being made everywhere.

It was the very definition of a successful baptism ceremony!

‘This baptism ceremony is going great!’

Bishop Daniel smiled contentedly as he watched the crowd’s reactions.

The success or failure of the baptism ceremony was directly tied to his career, after all.

‘Young Lian! You absolutely have to shine again…!’

He prayed desperately before gripping the microphone.

‘Oh. This is pretty good.’

I was quite pleased with the members of my group.

<Group 13>

Lian Ludersk

Lumiel Ludersk

Adrian Berthe

Corin Dallopes

That was because I had ended up on the same team as two people I had been keeping an eye on.

“Ah! Why am I in the same group as you?”

Lumiel came stomping over, frowning.

The spirits gathered around him and tugged at a strand or two of his hair at a time.

-This kid’s mean!

-Should we mess with him again?

“Huh? What’s that? It’s ticklish.”

Lumiel got irritated and raised his hand, roughly shaking his hair.

‘Don’t bully him too much.’

-Okaaay~

-Yeeah~

It seemed Lumiel had become the spirits’ favorite toy.

The spirits flew around him in circles, attaching themselves to him and then flying away while giggling.

“Ah, hello? Nice to meet you….”

Next came the person I had been most curious about.

Corin Dallopes.

Perhaps because of what had happened during the Holy Flame search earlier, he greeted me looking completely shriveled up.

“Hello. You’re Corin Dallopes, right?”

“Huh? You know my name?”

When I asked his name, his already round eyes became even rounder.

But I wasn’t the one who answered Corin’s question.

“How could I not know the sixty-second-place guy? Your face was displayed huge on the screen.”

“Ah! Ahhh….”

Corin shrank even further at Lumiel’s blunt response.

‘I’m pretty sure that’s not because he came in last, but because Corin screamed like a banshee.’

Perhaps the memory of what had happened earlier came back to Corin as well, because his face immediately turned bright red.

Hmm.

Still, it would be troublesome if we crushed his confidence too much.

Should I tell Lumiel to stop?

Just as I was looking for an opening to intervene, more words followed.

“My goodness. Don’t worry. This Lumiel will make our team the first-place team in this mission.”

“…Huh?”

“I don’t care whether you’re sixty-second or whatever. My only rival is that guy over there anyway.”

Lumiel glared at me with narrowed eyes.

“Me?”

“Of course. Who else?”

“If we’re rivals, there’s a wall of seven whole places between our scores.”

This time, Lumiel’s face turned tomato-red.

“T-That’s only because the cage suddenly opened and I lost a Holy Flame!”

-Hehehe. We did that!

-Yep! We did it!

He had only lost one Holy Flame back then.

I considered telling him, but decided to stop here.

I’m an adult, after all.

Once the conversation ended, Corin’s expression had relaxed considerably.

Lumiel didn’t seem to have intentionally tried to encourage Corin.

Still, if Corin ended up feeling comforted as a result, that was a good thing.

“Ah, I guess I’m the last one to arrive. Hello! I’m Adrian Berthe.”

The final member to approach was a child I had genuinely never seen before.

‘How did I miss this guy?’

His presence was far too massive to overlook.

This was… five years old?

‘He looks about ten.’

He had short hair and gently drooping eyes.

His face looked incredibly gentle, but his body was practically built like a fortress.

With Corin, who was among the smaller children out of the sixty-two candidates, standing beside Adrian, who was clearly the largest, the sense of perspective became completely distorted.

“Hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Lian Ludersk.”

“Yeah! Of course I know you! It’s an honor to be in the same group as first place!”

He grabbed my hand with a friendly smile and shook it up and down enthusiastically.

Ow.

Where did this strength come from?

“Hah. He’s making such a big deal out of getting first place just once.”

“Huh? You’re Lumiel, who came in eighth, right? Nice to meet you!”

“Uh? Wha—?”

“I saw you on the panel too, Corin! Hahaha! Your voice was really loud!”

“Huh? Ah, nooo…. Aaah?”

Adrian was extremely sociable.

“Waaaah! Everyone in our group except me is famous! I’m really looking forward to this mission!”

Despite his enormous build, his personality was incredibly easygoing.

Thanks to him, Lumiel’s sharp complaints were smoothed over naturally, and Corin didn’t even have a chance to shrink into himself.

‘He’s a good mood maker.’

And a good tank, too.

He probably had a strong mental fortitude as well.

I had been worried because Lumiel had such a fierce personality while Corin was far too timid.

Thankfully, Adrian seemed capable of balancing things out between them.

That was enough introductions for now.

‘I should get to work.’

The sixty-two candidates were divided into fifteen groups of four or five.

We were Group 13.

Following Bishop MC’s instructions, we received our Holy Flame, and the groups began entering the labyrinth one by one, starting with Group 1.

‘Eli. I’m counting on you.’

—Okay, okay! Just trust me!

We were aiming for first place again!

The moment Group 1 entered the labyrinth gate, which looked like a portal, Eli zoomed inside after them.

-Me too! I’m going too!

-Looks fun~

The fire spirits followed her in as well.

‘Hmm. It’ll be fine, right?’

It should be fine.

All that remained was to wait for Eli and the spirits to observe the test and come back.

‘Understanding the patterns in past exam questions is important, after all.’

After waiting for a while, we received the most important item in Carrying the Holy Flame Through the Labyrinth.

The Holy Flame.

One per team.

“Other than being white, it just looks like an ordinary candle.”

“Yeah…. It looks exactly the same.”

The Holy Flame was currently in Lumiel’s hands.

Bishop MC had said that one person should carry the Holy Flame on behalf of the group, and Lumiel had strongly insisted that he should be the one to carry it.

‘More accurately, he insisted because his stats were the highest.’

During that process, Adrian, completely oblivious to the situation, had said, ‘But Lian is first place, isn’t he?’

That had caused quite an uproar.

‘If he wants to carry it that badly, an adult should know how to yield.’

—Lian is five years old too.

Oh.

Right.

Anyway.

The Holy Flame we had been given was completely different from the majestic scale of the one we’d seen during the baptism ceremony.

The Holy Flame transferred onto a small candle was nothing more than a tiny, insignificant flame, except for its white color.

There wasn’t even a protective cover.

All it had was a simple candlestick to make it easier to carry.

“What if it goes out while we’re carrying it?”

“Hey, just because it looks like a candle, you don’t think it’s actually a candle, do you? It’s a Holy Flame. A Holy Flame.”

Lumiel scolded Adrian for his concern.

“Still, it’s so small. It won’t go out if the wind blows, right?”

Whoooosh—

Adrian blew on the candle.

“Hey! Hey! Don’t do that!”

Lumiel smacked Adrian’s forearm repeatedly to stop him.

“Ow, ow. It didn’t go out, though. That’s a relief.”

“What’s so relieving about that?! Did you really have to blow on it to find out?”

I flinched too.

‘So it doesn’t go out from an ordinary gust of wind?’

If anything, that was only natural.

Instead, there had to be something inside the labyrinth capable of extinguishing the Holy Flame.

—Lian~ I’m back.

A short while later, Eli returned with the spirits.

-I’m back!

-Ta-da! Here I am!

The fire spirits returned in high spirits, flying in circles around the Holy Flame.

‘They really do like Holy Flames because they’re fire spirits.’

—That’s right. We can have them keep watch over the condition of the Holy Flame. They’ll probably react very sensitively to it.

‘Oh. That’s good. So what’s the test like? How difficult is it?’

While I’d been waiting, Group 7 had already finished entering, and Group 8 was now going in.

—It didn’t seem particularly difficult overall. There’s a maze, and you have to find your way through it. There are obstacles too.

‘Obstacles?’

—Yep. There are demons made from divine power too.

…?

What was that?

‘Don’t tell me we have to fight?’

I only had a fountain pen.

—Not exactly. They’re designed so that you can disable them by answering quizzes or solving puzzles.

‘…? A quiz demon?’

—There was a sphinx too.

Pfft.

What kind of test was that?

Then again, the candidates here were all chicks who hadn’t even undergone baptism yet.

There was no way they would put combat into the test.

The reason the baptism ceremony was so important was because of the Divine Power Crystal.

Baptism was the ritual that created this Divine Power Crystal.

You know how, in fantasy stories, mages form mana circles, dragons possess dragon hearts, and martial artists in martial arts novels accumulate internal energy in their dantian?

For the clergy of the Elion Holy Empire, the equivalent was the Divine Power Crystal.

‘It felt like an infinite engine.’

That was how I would describe it after learning more about it.

It was like a new divine organ that generated, stored, and released divine power.

In the first place, converting divine power into different attributes was impossible without the crystal.

‘And I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Eli, either.’

Only with a Divine Power Crystal did it become easy to concentrate and circulate the divine power scattered throughout the body.

In other words, it dramatically increased the efficiency of using divine power!

So there was no way they would require combat from trainees who hadn’t even undergone baptism.

But.

I pulled the fountain pen tucked against my chest and looked at it.

The writing on it glimmered faintly, and the nib was sharp.

‘But I think I can do it.’

If I wanted to come in first again…

I grinned as I looked at Eli.

‘I’ve got someone to test my new weapon on.’