Chapter 9. The Mission to Save the Saint

“It’s almost time for you to go out.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

In a VIP room beside the main arena where the baptism ceremony was being held, someone spoke while watching the screen on the panel.

A middle-aged man dressed in pristine white cardinal robes.

Sitting in front of him was a beautiful boy with snow-white hair.

“Go out there and encourage them, fulfilling your duty as the Saint.”

He was Dane Clenor, the one and only Saint of this country.

“If there are any children who particularly shine in your eyes, don’t forget to tell me about them in detail.”

“…Yes, Uncle.”

The Saint’s eyes briefly turned toward the brilliantly shining golden-haired child on the panel before quickly returning to their original position.

“Dane, you know this yourself. Discovering talented children and supporting them is an extremely important duty for a member of the Clenor family.”

The Saint’s uncle, Saverio Clenor, repeatedly emphasized this to the Saint.

The Saint’s eyes possessed the ability to see through a person’s talent.

It was a talent similar to that of the famous Archbishop Nagrim Hilloriven.

Even if a child stood out during the baptism ceremony, no one could tell whether it was simply because their talent had blossomed early or whether they possessed truly limitless potential.

The Saint could recognize those budding talents in advance.

If a talented child received their support and went on to achieve great things, Saverio’s position as their patron would naturally grow stronger as well.

‘Just a little more.’

His influence within the clergy was steadily increasing.

Naturally.

The families of the children he supported were gradually aligning themselves with him.

‘That brat’s abilities have been so poor lately that his eye for potential isn’t worth much anymore.’

Little by little, the Saint had become unable to properly use his abilities.

Now, as if it were a lie, the Saint had seemingly forgotten how to wield divine power.

They were doing everything they could to keep it quiet, but the rumors had already spread far and wide.

Saverio swept his sharp gaze over the Saint before turning away.

‘Tsk. Is it time to throw him away?’

A shell possessing nothing but the name of Saint.

Until his divine power returned, he was useless.

If the rumors spread any further, the resulting negative public opinion could eventually reach Saverio, who had been supporting him.

He had thought he would be able to make use of the Saint until the next Saint appeared.

What a shame.

But Saverio wasn’t the kind of man who held onto something useless.

A little while later, the Saint stood up.

The Labyrinth.

A fortress created by Elysian during the Holy War against the Demon God.

It had been designed both as a shelter to protect humanity and as a trap for imprisoning demons.

But what were we supposed to do in a labyrinth?

Flash—

The screen captured the children, all wearing completely dumbfounded expressions.

“Ahahaha! Everyone seems to have been quite surprised!”

Whoa!

I immediately managed my expression.

There was no way I could let that vacant expression appear on the screen.

“You must have been surprised when we suddenly mentioned a labyrinth! But this is the main headquarters of the Church! We make the most of whatever resources are available to us!”

What was this?

The MC Bishop was suddenly going all out.

“Hahaha! Enough joking around. Let me explain the rules for Carrying Holy Flames Through the Labyrinth!”

Flash—

The rules appeared on the floating panel along with an illustration.

A white flame attached to a small candle.

Anyone could tell it was a Holy Flame.

“Carrying Holy Flames Through the Labyrinth is a mission where you’ll form teams, face various trials inside the labyrinth, and transport your Holy Flame without letting it go out.”

“There are various trials set up inside the labyrinth. You and your party members will have to discuss how to overcome those trials together.”

“Of course, remember that if your Holy Flame goes out, your entire party’s score will be zero points!”

A team assignment?

Seriously?

‘Wow. They’re already telling us to form parties.’

With these five-year-old little brats we’d never even met before?

Back when I used to travel around exorcising evil spirits, I’d teamed up with a few people who were supposedly highly skilled.

Everyone had been a professional, so the results had been good.

But—

‘Ugh. I’m getting PTSD.’

Everyone had such strong personalities that coordinating their opinions had been a nightmare.

I had suffered like hell.

Literally like hell!

But these little brats were elite-course, prospective members of the clergy?

‘They’re not going to listen to each other.’

They were obviously going to do whatever they wanted.

Everyone knew, after all.

Team assignments were the absolute worst.

Maybe once they matured and their brains had developed a little more.

But trying to play a cooperative game with these five-year-olds right now…

‘Good grief. I feel like this is going to give me hair loss.’

Kyaa! Don’t say something so unlucky! Spit, spit!

The corners of the MC Bishop’s mouth were curled upward in an excited grin.

The spectators watching the panels in real time were probably wearing similar expressions.

‘They did this on purpose, didn’t they?’

These devilish people.

My eyes naturally narrowed into a crooked glare.

“Now then! Before we officially begin forming the parties, we’ve invited a special guest to help you put your parties together!”

As soon as the MC Bishop finished speaking, a beautiful boy who looked to be in his early teens stepped onto the platform.

Wow… w-wow, waaaah….

His snow-white hair, unlike anything I’d seen in this world before, was braided into a single long braid that hung down his back.

His clear amber eyes reflected the sunlight and shone like gold, giving him an extraordinarily precious appearance.

The moment he appeared, his sacred beauty overwhelmed the entire crowd.

It was an otherworldly appearance, as though an actual halo of light surrounded him.

The entire arena fell silent for a moment.

Even Ely was rendered speechless.

“Today’s special guest! His Holiness, Saint Dane Clenor!”

Huh?

The Saint?

‘That Saint?!’

Holy crap.

It was really him.

Five years ago.

When we had first encountered the Holy Flame and negotiated our contract, the Holy Flame had given us two conditions.

The first was to crush any Inphilum and demons we encountered.

The second was to meet the Saint and remove the restriction that Elysian himself had placed upon him.

“Greetings, candidates. It is an honor to participate in this baptism ceremony as a helper.”

The Saint was beautiful, but his face was clearly pale with illness.

‘Is he sick or something? Does the restriction Elysian placed on him affect his health too?’

Ely didn’t answer.

‘Hello? Ely? Ely?’

……

She was too distracted staring at his face.

Even the sunlight seemed to shine down upon the Saint as though blessing him.

It looked as though there might even be a light shining from the back of his head.

‘Could the amount of divine power someone possesses be related to their appearance?’

The more blessings one received from a god, the greater their divine power became.

And blessings generally made things better.

It seemed like a perfectly plausible theory.

‘He really does look like a Saint.’

Even from five hundred meters away, anyone would immediately know he was the Saint.

Every strand of his hair seemed to exude dignity and holiness.

‘No, scratch that part about being able to sense divine power.’

There wasn’t the slightest trace of divine power that could be sensed externally.

I could only strongly sense something hidden within him.

It was probably thanks to my spiritual eye.

‘Why on earth did Elysian place a restriction on him?’

At this point, I was genuinely curious.

Why create such an incredible talent, only to seal everything away?

The Holy Flame hadn’t told me anything else about the Saint.

But I could make one guess.

‘It’s more frustrating to have something and then lose it than to never have had it at all.’

That was probably what the Saint was feeling.

On top of that, losing the presence of someone he’d originally been able to communicate with regularly would have caused even greater emotional anxiety.

I wished I’d been able to help him a little earlier.

‘Still, meeting him at five is better than nothing.’

I never expected the Saint to appear at this baptism ceremony.

I’d heard he’d been secluded for quite some time for various reasons.

Regardless, this was the perfect opportunity.

“Wow…. I didn’t think His Holiness would come to see us this time. We’re really lucky.”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one surprised to see the Saint.

Whispers could be heard from nearby.

“Hey, did you hear about that?”

“Hear what?”

“They say His Holiness hasn’t been able to dream lately.”

“What? If he can’t dream, then he can’t see the future Elysian reveals to him, can he?”

“I don’t know the exact details, but apparently it’s been going on for quite a while.”

“Isn’t that serious?”

The whispers were quiet, but Lian, who was nearby, could hear them clearly.

The children chatted a little more about the rumors surrounding the Saint before moving on to another topic.

As expected of children, they changed subjects quickly.

‘The rumors have spread quite a bit.’

Well, even when I was still a baby, I’d heard the servants gossiping about it.

Five years was more than enough time for the rumors to spread everywhere.

The rumors probably had something to do with why the Saint’s complexion looked so poor.

I slowly opened my spiritual eye to properly examine his body.

‘The Holy Flame must have asked me because it judged that I would be capable of removing that restriction.’

The spiritual eye wasn’t an actual physical eye.

It was a third, mystical eye that existed within the world of the mind.

That was the spiritual eye.

When I opened it, I could see things that I normally couldn’t.

For example, the flow of divine power.

I slowly concentrated and examined the Saint’s body.

‘…? I can’t see anything.’

See anything?

Not even close.

I couldn’t see a thing.

It seemed that being a Saint wasn’t merely an empty title.

He was distinctly different from ordinary members of the clergy.

It felt as though his body was covered in layer upon layer of sturdy barriers.

The extent to which the god cherished him was painfully obvious.

‘What the hell? If I can’t even see it, how am I supposed to remove it?’

Hey, Elysian!

You never told me you’d wrapped him up this tightly!

Anyway.

To remove the restriction, I needed to examine the Saint’s body in detail.

But something resembling a thick fog was blocking my vision.

‘Sigh. Who am I supposed to blame? I should blame myself.’

One of the reasons I couldn’t see properly was my own lack of experience.

‘What do you expect me to do? I didn’t have a spiritual eye in my previous life.’

I grumbled inwardly as though making excuses.

I’d never used this eye before.

And to make matters worse, there weren’t many opportunities to practice in this world.

Maybe it was because this was a Holy Empire, but there weren’t any evil spirits around.

All I could practice was looking at other people’s divine power.

At first, I couldn’t even determine the range of what I could see with my spiritual eye, so I’d assumed everyone else could see the flow of divine power too.

But that wasn’t the case.

They didn’t see it.

They simply felt it.

‘Let’s just concentrate harder.’

I concentrated until my eyes began to ache.

Little by little, my vision became clearer.

The fog gradually lifted, and the flow of divine power became visible.

‘…What the hell?’

It was amazing that he hadn’t exploded already.

An enormous amount of divine power was packed inside him to the point of bursting, yet it was completely blocked off, swirling through his body like a storm.

If that were disturbed even slightly, it would explode.

One hundred percent.

‘I… I can do this, right?’

Meanwhile.

Liliard and Raylaik were sitting in the viewing area reserved for the parents of the candidates, watching only Lian.

They had both expected Lian to do well in the Holy Flame search.

He’d blown up a demon’s head by throwing a baby bottle infused with divine power at it.

Obviously, he should at least be able to distinguish Holy Flames.

It was only newly awakened children who struggled with it.

For a member of the clergy, distinguishing divine power from holy power was a basic sense that had to be honed.

After all, they needed to be able to sense it when Elysian personally bestowed a blessing upon them in the future.

‘But still….’

Even while watching a different panel displaying the other candidates, Liliard couldn’t stop thinking about Lian’s score.

‘This is way too incredible!’

They had expected him to achieve good results.

But who could have imagined this?

Their son had set a new record of 52, completely rewriting the records previously established by Cardinals throughout history!

Both Liliard and Raylaik were dumbfounded.

‘As expected, our son….’

‘Surely our son….’

‘He’s a genius!’

They were both thinking the exact same thing.

They had spent all this time excitedly praising Lian as a genius.

But this time was different.

After all, both Raylaik and Liliard had been recognized as “geniuses” from a young age themselves.

They called Lian a genius, but deep down, they had also assumed that, as their son, he should be able to accomplish something like this without too much trouble.

But now—

Lian had surpassed both of their achievements and recorded a result far greater than anyone had ever achieved before.

They were finally realizing just how much of a once-in-a-century genius Lian truly was.

‘And our son is a prophet on top of that!’

Raylaik tried to maintain his usual dignified composure, but there was nothing he could do about the streams of air puffing from his nose.

Ah, he wanted to brag.

He wanted to stand up and shout to the entire arena about how amazing his son was!

Raylaik’s insides were boiling with excitement.

Liliard was no different.

That was why both of them were eagerly anticipating the main event of the baptism ceremony: Carrying the Holy Flame.

Although the mission required teams, meaning luck with one’s teammates would matter, they had no doubt that Lian would be assigned a good team.

Those who received special love from the gods, such as Saints and prophets, inevitably possessed tremendous luck.