Chapter 111: Saint Renee (1)
A few years ago, the Black Wizards had reappeared on the continent's surface and successfully enacted a vile scheme they had been preparing in secret. They managed to turn the monsters into their allies, unleashing a rampage that brought destruction to every corner of the land. Worse still, they had even summoned demons into this world.
In such a time of continent-wide crisis, who would be the busiest? If one asked the common people, most would point to the Saints, the few faithful chosen to act as the voice of their gods.
Divine power was the antithesis of the mana from the Demon Realm, and no one wielded divine power better than the priests. Among them, the Saints received the greatest investment of divine power from their deities.
While ordinary priests used divine power much like mana, channeling it to reinforce equipment or strengthen their bodies, Saints employed it through special techniques.
***
The Holy Land, Alcaeus Cathedral.
"Ku... kukukuku!"
A beautiful white-haired girl lay sprawled across a massive ivory bed, her eyes glued to a rectangular device.
One day, while patrolling the borders and creating a barrier of holy ground to block the Demon Realm's mana, Saint Renee and the paladins escorting her had entered a forest to rest. There, she had discovered this strange item.
Saint Renee hadn't initially known what it was, but its shiny exterior was so fascinating that she brought the object back to the cathedral without even trying to identify it.
It wasn't until later, during one of her daily prayers, that her goddess had unexpectedly visited her to elucidate the workings of such a device. It was a rare event, considering Saint Renee could count the number of such encounters on one hand.
The first time had been when she was chosen as the Saint. The next came just before the disaster that had claimed so many lives across the continent, when the Black Wizards first summoned demons into the world. Their last meeting had taken place when she received a warning that the demons were about to intervene directly in the war.
When her goddess had reached out to her, Saint Renee had immediately asked whether there were any further warnings about their ongoing battle against the demons, but her goddess had something else she wished to discuss.
—It's about that thing you found. It's called a tablet.
"A tablet?" Saint Renee asked.
—It's actually an item from another dimension.
"Another dimension?! Really?!"
—Yes. Haven't there been quite a few times when you found that the monsters you were hunting had already been defeated before you even arrived? That was all because of visitors from another dimension... Hmm, I suppose you could call them something like Heroes. In any case, they're the ones who defeated the monsters in your stead.
"To think there really were such Heroes!"
—Ah, but that's not the important thing right now.
"Huh? Is there something even more important than that?"
—Yes. It's about the tablet.
"No way... could this be a Hero's lost weapon?!"
—No. If I had to describe it in our words, it would likely be called a moving image recording device.
"A moving image recording! Then the Heroes must have surely recorded some vital piece of information onto this device."
—Ah, that's not really the case.
"Huh? Then what was recorded?"
—There should be movies and dramas stored inside there...
"Eh?"
—Ah! Of course, I'm fully aware that your dimension is in a dangerous situation, so you don't spend much time on entertainment. However, you can't just worry about the war and the future every day. You should work when it's time to work, and rest when it's time to rest.
"But that's... Yes, you're right."
—I will now teach you how to use the tablet. Fortunately, among the items the Heroes left behind, there's also a self-charging battery. I'll reveal its location to you.
Just like that, Saint Renee learned how to use this tablet that had come from another dimension.
Of course, even after learning how to use the device, it was still difficult for Saint Renee to understand the videos stored on it because of the different languages the otherworlders used. Fortunately, that problem was soon solved with the help of her goddess.
Her goddess granted her the Power of Tongues, a divine gift that allowed her to understand and read foreign languages.
Not only did this apply to the languages of other dimensions, it also proved invaluable during the war against the demons and Black Wizards, allowing Saint Renee to communicate easily with foreign tribes and nonhuman races whose languages had previously been a barrier.
"It's still pretty interesting, but it's slowly getting more and more boring," Saint Renee complained as her movie ended and the credits began rolling.
Lowering the tablet, she stretched her arms and legs out, lying spread-eagled on her massive bed.
There was a large number of movies, dramas, and variety shows stored on the tablet. However, because she turned it on whenever she had free time, she finished watching all the videos within just half a year. In the months that followed, she rewatched most of them five times over, some even more than ten times.
"Haaaah..."
Saint Renee knew that meeting the Heroes from another dimension was an extremely difficult task. Most of the places where these Heroes appeared were deep in the west of the continent, territory occupied by the Black Kingdom, and difficult to reach even with the help of the Continental Alliance's troops.
Only occasionally could traces of the Heroes be found in the east, where the Alliance's forces were concentrated. Even then, these traces usually surfaced in areas still controlled by monsters or in the "occupied land" overrun by monsters with help from the Black Wizards.
"Although there are a lot of items the Heroes left behind..." she muttered with a frown.
Recovering traces of the Heroes in the west had proven almost impossible. However, once the monster-infested lands in the east were reclaimed, finding the items they left behind became much easier.
The problem was that most of what they recovered were weapons or tools meant for battle. As for the rare non-combat items, they came with their own complications.
"Why do they have to go and set up something like fingerprint recognition?! Damn security measures!" Saint Renee cursed.
Saint Renee had been delighted when her goddess first introduced her to smartphones, small devices similar to the tablets she already knew. However, every smartphone she had found was locked securely behind fingerprint recognition and other security measures.
It was like gazing at a painting of a cake, knowing she could never take a bite.
Saint Renee sighed as she stared blankly up at the ceiling. "I really want to watch a new drama. It's been a long time since the last season, so the premiere of Wonder[1]'s new show should already be out..."
It would be great if the Heroes could leave behind a new tablet or one of their "notebooks."
As Renee idled away her free time, pondering these thoughts, there was a knock at the door.
"Lady Saint," a voice called.
Still spread-eagled on her bed, Saint Renee lazily replied, "Yeees, please come in."
The door opened with a soft creak.
"My Lady Saint," the visitor said.
In response to the call, Renee rolled over and pushed herself up, peering at the guest who had stepped inside.
"Oh hi, Knight Commander," she greeted cheerfully.
Sir Richard, the forty-year-old commander of the Holy Knights, responded to her frivolous greeting with a disappointed sigh.
Saint Renee responded with barely a hint of shame, "Just like you need to work hard when it's time to work, you need to rest hard when it's time to rest."
"I see your point. I even share your opinion. However, if someone else were to see you like this, it would be extremely embarrassing," Sir Richard warned.
"If someone outside the Temple Alliance ever sneaks into the Saint's personal room, you'll be the first person I call for help," Renee promised.
Sir Richard let out another heavy sigh and fell silent.
Before long, Saint Renee broke the silence impatiently. "So, what's going on?"
"We have received a request for support," he reported.
"Hmph..." After rolling around on the bed some more, Renee pushed her upper body back up and asked, "Where did the call come from?"
"It's from a city on the northern border."
"If it's the northern border, then..."
"Yes. The request for help came from the elven forces."
"But... aren't they extremely resistant to asking for our help?"
Before the Black Wizards first appeared in public, the elves had maintained a hostile relationship with humans. Although they had joined forces for the sake of survival against the Black Wizards and demons, neither race could fully trust the other, and neither had any real intention of forming a lasting alliance.
"It seems that Heroes have also appeared at the northern border," Sir Richard reported.
"Heroes?" she repeated, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Yes. After meeting the spirit of Lady Aylphirane, the Speaker for the World Tree who appears to have passed away, they accepted a quest from her."
"Please hold on," Saint Renee said, now with a serious look. "Did you really say Heroes?"
"Yes."
"Heroes, as in plural?"
"That's right. It seems hundreds of Heroes have arrived to assist with the revival of the World Tree."
"A tablet," Saint Renee muttered.
"Eh?"
"These really are the Heroes who possess laptops, smartphones, and portable gaming devices, right?"
"Uh, yes?"
***
News quickly spread that a real Saint, not a pretend one, would soon be arriving. The Hunters, still disguised as Heroes, felt extremely embarrassed at having agreed to Kim Ki-Rok's proposal, but the feeling didn't last long.
The High Elf Serena approached Kim Ki-Rok and started a conversation. "I've heard that you Heroes are usually summoned to very dangerous locations to exterminate all the monsters before quickly returning to your own dimension. So I was very surprised to hear that this time would be different."
Kim Ki-Rok responded with a small smile. "We were also surprised by the change in pattern. But as expected, it seems you also had some awareness of our existence, just as we have learned something about your dimension."
"Hm?"
"As you said, Lady Serena, we are often summoned to very dangerous places, and once we've subdued all the monsters or solved the problems plaguing that area, we return to our own dimension. The few inhabitants of your dimension we've encountered during our previous visits never seemed to have heard of us, so we weren't sure how much you knew. But it appears their unfamiliarity was simply the result of the isolation caused by the dangers surrounding them."
"I see. Fortunately, a few individuals who encountered you Heroes managed to reach the protection of the Continental Alliance. Thanks to the reports shared by the representatives of the various factions, all the high-ranking officials in the alliance are aware of the help you Heroes have been providing."
"High-ranking officials, hm... From the way you say that, would it be correct to assume that knowledge of our existence has been kept from the general public?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Is that because you don't want them to become dependent on us?"
"As expected of you," Serena said, shaking her head in disbelief.
Kim Ki-Rok truly is exceptionally insightful, she thought to herself again.
"Yes, that is correct. Knowledge that Heroes such as yourselves have appeared to aid us might give our people hope. However, it might also make them believe that you are the same as the Heroes from our legends."
Kim Ki-Rok continued her train of thought, "And the Heroes from your legends are the type who can single-handedly slay the Demon King and defeat all the demons. If the people believe those legendary Heroes have truly appeared, they might place all their hopes on us and abandon any thought of defending the continent themselves."
"Ah, yes, that's exactly right," Serena replied, taken aback by how perfectly Kim Ki-Rok had stolen the words from her mouth.
The other elves were also staring at Kim Ki-Rok in disbelief.
"You did the right thing," Kim Ki-Rok said decisively.
Serena blinked in surprise. "You... approve?"
"Yes. We have access to certain special abilities we call 'skills,' and we can grow rapidly by defeating monsters. But that doesn't mean we're strong enough to easily defeat the demons, like the Heroes in your legends. Let's see... by storybook standards, you could think of us as newly chosen heroes who have just picked up our swords and stepped out of the starting village."
Serena nodded slowly, taking that in.
"Of course." Kim Ki-Rok continued, "Among the Heroes I brought with me, a few are strong enough to defeat midbosses, the kind of enemies that appear early in a Hero's journey, such as one of the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings. But most of us are still at the beginning of our story, not the climax. If the public focuses only on the fact that we're Heroes, they'll be badly disappointed when the time comes to show our true strength."
She looked at Kim Ki-Rok and asked, "So you're saying... given enough time, you really can defeat the demons?"
"Yes," Kim Ki-Rok responded confidently.
By hunting monsters, Hunters could increase their levels, raise their physical abilities, and increase the size of their mana-holes[2]. Given enough time, they could even hunt demons.
Though the real problem is those guys lurking behind the demons...
For a moment, Kim Ki-Rok drifted into memories of the Hell Gates that had destroyed Earth during his previous Attempts. But he soon pulled himself out of the thought and cleared it from his mind.
"There's also one more thing," he added.
"One more thing?" Serena asked.
"We are humans."
"Ah, yes. But everyone already knows that. Thanks to the oracle, we knew a group of human Heroes would arrive to assist in the revival of the World Tree, so none of the elves will be surprised to see you."
"No, that's not what I meant. We are humans, the kind the elves once considered enemies."
Serena's expression hardened. "What are you trying to say?"
"You may call us Heroes, but among our number, you'll find both saints and villains," Kim Ki-Rok said.
The elves turned to stare at him in shock. Even the guild representatives, who had been silently listening to the conversation, reacted with visible surprise.
Unperturbed, he continued speaking, "We are not Heroes chosen by the gods of the Yuashiel Dimension. We were chosen by the gods of our own. That's why you must not place your full trust in us."
1. Parody of Marvel. ☜
2. This term hasn't been mentioned before, but it seems to be related to the mana capacity of a Hunter. ☜