The Power of the Saint is All Around (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 4.1

Behind the Scenes II

A FEW DAYS after Sei joined Grand Magus Drewes to see a play, Johan, the head researcher at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora, heard a certain rumor. Johan distanced himself from high society, so the rumor had to be rather significant to reach his ears.

The rumor pertained to Sei. It said that Sei and Grand Magus Drewes had swiftly become intimate.

The rumor stemmed from the events that had occurred when Sei went to see a play in the capital a few days prior. Yuri had invited her, and they had become drawn into a conversation during the performance.

The people who saw them had begun to speculate wildly about their relationship. Those who heard the tale had embellished the story, and it had continued to spread as a rumor. The rumors varied a great deal, with some saying that the two were simply good friends, while others said it wouldn’t be long before their engagement was announced. What all the rumors had in common was the claim that the Saint and the grand magus were very close indeed.

When these whispers reached Johan’s ears, he thought, I could have told you this would happen.

Johan had predicted this rumor would pick up as soon as Sei told him that she was going to the theater with Yuri.

I thought it was odd that the marquis had given the tickets to Yuri of all people, Johan pondered as he filled out documents in his office.

When he heard the gossip being circulated in the corridors of the palace, he thought back to what Sei had said when she told him she was going: that Yuri had invited her because none of his family members could go even though they had tickets.

This claim had immediately aroused Johan’s suspicions.

Yuri was exclusively interested in magic. He never wasted his time doing something that had nothing to do with the arcane. He even had his second-in-command acting as a secretary and doing his paperwork so he could better focus on his research. He simply wasn’t the kind of person who would go to the theater just because his family had given him tickets.

Furthermore, Marquis Drewes wasn’t the kind of man to act on his emotions; he was a logical fellow who was careful with every resource. He certainly wasn’t the sort of person who would let premium box seat tickets for a popular play in the capital go to waste.

Nevertheless, the marquis had given the tickets to Yuri, who very likely would have let those tickets molder in a corner. Then Yuri, who ordinarily would not have gone to the theater, had invited Sei to join him. The intersection of two unlikely events made it difficult to believe that there was no ulterior motive.

Johan believed that ulterior motive was these rumors in themselves. I suspect the marquis aims to have them wed.

It was easy to imagine why Marquis Drewes had spread the rumors if one considered the situation they had brought about.

As the Saint, Sei was of a rank equal to that of the king, so the palace was being careful in its selection of her future spouse. They were behaving no differently than parents of a noble house selecting a spouse for their daughter. However, in Sei’s case, they were prioritizing her personal feelings, so her closeness with a person contributed a great deal to the likelihood of their selection.

Naturally, if there were rumors that Yuri had grown intimate with Sei, his name would rise to the top of the list of potential matches. At present, Knight Commander Albert of the Knights of the Third Order claimed that spot for himself. Johan believed that Marquis Drewes was trying to manipulate the situation in his favor and steal Albert’s natural advantage.

Although Yuri was adopted, he was part of the marquis’s house and of good parentage. He was even the grand magus of the Royal Magi Assembly—the foremost position in his field. He was furthermore close in age to Sei, so no one would be surprised to see him become the most favored candidate if he grew closer with her.

But rumors are just that—rumors. And I doubt Sei feels that way about Yuri.

Johan believed that even if Yuri rose to the top of the list, Albert wouldn’t be toppled. After all, Albert was the only person for whom Sei had romantic feelings. Sei never voiced them out loud, but it was obvious in her behavior toward Albert.

Besides, Johan had heard a rundown of the real events of that night at the theater from Sei herself. It might have looked like she and Yuri were having an intimate discussion, but nothing romantic had transpired, nor had there been any talk of engagement. People were just inventing entirely made-up nonsense and running their mouths.

Nevertheless, he worried what his friend might think when he heard the rumors.

Johan sighed as he finished the final document. “Sorry for the wait,” he said to the attendant he had summoned.

“Did you need something, sir?”

Johan divided the documents based on their destination, then he instructed the attendant to deliver them where they needed to go.

“What about this one, sir?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll bring it myself.”

The document by Johan’s hand was to be submitted to the Knights of the Third Order. Ordinarily, he would have asked the servant to take it as well, but this time, he decided not to. He would deliver it himself so that he could check on Albert.

“Very well, sir.” 

Johan did occasionally transport important documents himself, so the servant accepted his decision ­without comment and left the room.

After the servant was gone, Johan picked up the document and stood.

“It’s Valdec, from the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora. Is Sir Hawke in?” Johan asked the knight standing in front of the door to Albert’s office. He had come unannounced, so he wasn’t sure his friend was available.

“My apologies, but he has yet to return from the training grounds.”

The way the knight phrased that made it sound like Albert was overdue and that he would arrive very soon. “I see,” said Johan. “Would it be all right if I waited for him?”

“Indeed. In that case—oh, sir!”

Just then, Albert appeared. He was a little ways away, but Albert broke out in a grin when he recognized his friend. He raised a hand in greeting and seemed to be acting like his usual self.

I thought the rumors might have depressed him, but it seems I didn’t need to worry. Johan gave Albert a crooked smile as he raised a hand in turn. Perhaps he was being overprotective.

“What brings you here today?” Albert asked as he approached Johan, still smiling.

“There’s something I’d like to address personally.” Johan raised the document in his hand. Albert likely assumed that it was something important, just as the servant had.

“All right. Come in.” Albert welcomed Johan into his office and ordered everyone else to leave. “So, what is it you wish to discuss?”

“The veracity of the rumor I keep hearing.”

“Rumor?” Albert looked puzzled, unsure of what his friend was referring to.

“Yes.” Johan grinned. “The one about Sei and Lord Drewes. Do you want to know?” 

Albert suddenly understood. His smile disappeared and he heaved a great sigh as he shot Johan a somewhat exasperated look—not because of the rumor itself but because of his friend. Johan often teased him about his relationship with Sei, and he was sure Johan had come to tease him yet again because of all this.

And here I came because I was worried about him, thought Johan. Although Albert’s attitude was fairly unexpected, Johan knew he was getting a side eye because of how he usually behaved around his friend. Thus he didn’t voice his inner thoughts and instead only responded with a wry smile. “Not that there’s much to say, in the end.”

“Really?”

“Indeed. Sei told me what happened. The gossip is blown out of proportion.”

Counter to Johan’s fears, Albert appeared unbothered by all this talk. It made Johan feel a bit foolish, having come here all worked up as he had, and he relaxed, the tension easing from his shoulders. Then he began to regale Albert with the tale Sei had relayed to him of her experience at the theater.

“In the end, they wound up completely ignoring the performance in favor of discussing the Light spell.”

“I see. I’m surprised Sei talked that much about magic.”

“Well, she was with Lord Drewes. She was probably focusing on the arcane as a matter of courtesy.”

“Oh yes, that’s quite possible.”

Johan told Albert the whole story in order, from how Yuri had invited Sei to the play, to how they had accidentally become so fixated on their conversation, to how Sei had been depressed after she got home because she couldn’t remotely remember the contents of the play.

Just as the rumors said, Sei and Yuri had talked a great deal. To an onlooker, they had probably looked like they were discussing something private. However, Johan ­clarified that no matter how you sliced it, the conversation had been that of two researchers.

Johan couldn’t speak for Yuri, but at the very least he knew Sei had no feelings for the grand magus. He could tell as much from the expression she had worn while describing the experience.

After Johan finished, Albert, who had made out like he wasn’t bothered, laughed quietly with something like relief. However, in the next instant, his expression grew somewhat miffed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking that it’s surprising that Sei went to the theater.”

“I was surprised as well. I assumed she didn’t care for such aristocratic venues.”

“Me too. If I had known she might be interested, I would have invited her.”

“What? You wanted to be the first to take her to a play?”

“Yes. You got a problem with that?” Albert remained unperturbed by the teasing and glared defiantly, which made Johan burst out laughing.

Once Johan recovered himself, his expression grew serious as he laid out his theory regarding the situation. “This was likely Marquis Drewes’s idea. The grand magus was no doubt only following orders.”

“I believe so as well. I’m sure the marquis is trying to remove all obstacles by spreading rumors about Grand Magus Drewes’s relationship with Sei in order to have him claim the title of her fiancé.”

“You thought so too?”

“I did. There’s been some talk of how he’s trying to take a stand against House Hawke by claiming not only the seat of grand magus but the Saint as well.”

“I see. That does sound like the sort of thing the marquis would do, considering his hunger for power.”

Johan and Albert were of the same mind. Marquis Drewes had ordered Yuri to invite Sei to the theater in order to further his ambition to declare Yuri her fiancé.

Albert’s older brother Josef, the Minister of Military Affairs, shared this theory about the marquis’s motives. Johan could easily imagine how Josef had come to this conclusion, given the way high society viewed the marquis.

In any case, since the subject of Sei’s engagement had been brought up, Johan decided this would be a good opportunity to voice something that had been on his mind of late. “Say, I know I might be poking my nose into something I shouldn’t, but now might be the time for you to make your move.”

As the Saint, Sei held a very high position in the Kingdom of Salutania. She was also held in high regard by the domain lords for slaying their monsters and devising recipes that featured the specialties for which their regions were known. The skincare products sold by her company were exceedingly popular with not only the nobility but well-off commoners, and she was doing very well for herself as far as profits went. Furthermore, her herb research—her main occupation—had led to the concoction of a miraculous potion called a panacea that could heal any status abnormality. On top of all that, there was talk of how the royal family would award her land rights in the form of her own personal research institute.

Some of that was classified information, but the publicly available information alone had led a multitude of people to pursue some kind of relationship with Sei, and that number was only growing. There were many ways to establish a relationship with the Saint, but the best one would be to win her hand in marriage. Therefore, even though Sei could only marry individuals who ranked as high as a count or greater, many people had put their name forward to be considered a potential match for Sei.

Naturally, people from the inner marquisdoms—families of higher rank than Albert’s borderlands family—had also named themselves as potential matches, and they beat Albert’s claim by lineage and assets alone.

Yet Albert still stood above the rest because Sei’s feelings played a significant role in the crown’s decision. If anything, if her feelings were to change, Albert would immediately lose his superior position. Many sought just that sort of opportunity, and Johan feared someone might take them by surprise. This was why he was finally encouraging Albert to secure his place by her side.

Both Johan and Albert knew that Sei was a late bloomer when it came to romance. As such, Johan had merely watched over their relationship while poking fun at them as they slowly grew closer. However, Johan wasn’t the only one who felt that the time limit was fast approaching—Albert did as well.

“I suppose you might be right,” Albert agreed, his eyes cast down and a humble look on his face.

***

That night, after Johan came to speak to him about Sei and Yuri, Albert found himself lost in thought in his quarters at the barracks. He was thinking about Sei. Albert didn’t remember their first meeting, which had been after his expedition into Ghoshe Forest to the west of the capital.

He had gone on expeditions into Ghoshe many times before, and he assumed the sally that day would be like all the others. The forest spawned monsters of higher levels than the eastern and southern forests, but none of the beasts had ever been more than Albert could handle. He wasn’t being careless, per se, but he lowered his guard. The thing that became his downfall appeared just as they were about to finish their expedition.

A salamander would ordinarily never have spawned in the Ghoshe Forest, and when it did, only a few out of over a hundred soldiers, including Albert, were able to react in time. The flames the salamander breathed were scorching hot, and those near to the fire were instantly burned.

The surrounding area was enveloped in heat and the flames closed in. Albert threw up a wall of ice, saving the people nearby. However, everyone far away from him was consumed by the blaze.

Salamanders were usually black lizards about ten feet long, but this one glowed red once it turned hostile and radiated immense heat. No one could get close due to the heat waves it emanated, so they had to rely on the fallback strategy of attacking it at range with magic. However, as the party had been nearing the end of their expedition, the mages and knights were low on MP, and they had few means of recovering, so slaying the salamander proved extremely difficult.

The salamander’s flames consumed not only the knights but the forest. Some of the mages split away from the battle to focus on using Water Magic to prevent the fire from spreading.

Somehow, despite the serious burns he had sustained, Albert managed to pierce the salamander with a finishing blow—at which point he lost consciousness.

Where am I?

When Albert next awoke, he was in a chamber within the palace. He didn’t recognize the upholstery, but he realized that he was no longer in danger, so he absentmindedly tried to recall what had happened. The last thing he remembered was finishing off the salamander. He had no idea what had happened after that.

He glanced at his right hand; the burns he had expected to see were completely gone. Someone had healed him.

My hand is completely whole… Is my face healed as well? Albert sat up in the bed and peered into the chamber’s mirror. What should have been a face covered in burns looked entirely back to normal.

No ordinary potions, not even the high-grade variety, could have so cleanly healed his scars. Albert naturally concluded that one of the mages who could use Healing Magic had restored him. Whoever it was must have been exceptionally skilled.

Albert’s injuries had been so grievous that he had assumed it would be difficult to remain at his post as a knight even if he could be healed. He had resigned himself to this fate at the time, but now he felt as hale and hearty as he had before the expedition. He had been restored to the point that he would be able to continue serving as a knight without any lasting problems.

The next day, Johan came to see how Albert was doing. “No, actually it wasn’t Healing Magic. It was a potion.” 

Albert was beyond shocked. “Really?”

Johan shrugged and didn’t deny it. “Really. I saw it with my own eyes.”

Albert knew the institute bought high-grade potions from outside companies. He had drunk these alchemist-­made potions before and knew their potency. Yet he felt like the high-grade potion he had consumed had been far more potent than those. If such effective potions existed, then he wanted to procure some for his order.

“Who in the world did we get such potions from?” Albert murmured as these thoughts ran through his mind.

“Us,” Johan answered flatly.

“Us? You mean the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora?”

“Indeed. One of my researchers made it.”

According to Johan, a member of his institute was capable of brewing extremely potent potions.

“Is that so? One of yours… Listen, Johan…”

“Yeah?”

“Could I meet him? I’d like to express my gratitude.”

“That so? Sure,” Johan readily agreed.

From there, it appeared as if things would proceed smoothly.

They didn’t.

Albert took some time to recover from the expedition, and it wasn’t until about a month later that he finally managed to meet the person who had brewed the potion that saved his life.

The day he was to meet the potion’s maker, Albert and Johan waited in Albert’s office. The potion-maker hadn’t come with Johan because Albert wanted to not only thank the fellow but give him a gift as well, so they were meeting to discuss that in advance.

As a result, Albert had settled on offering not a physical gift but an agreement to escort the researcher into the forest to pick herbs. They had some time before the fellow would arrive, so while they waited, Albert tried to find out just what sort of person he was.

“So who is this man anyway?”

“What do you mean? A researcher is a researcher.”

“I know, I know. I’m asking what he looks like, what’s his personality. That sort of thing.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure that out soon enough.”

“I suppose.”

When Albert wouldn’t give up, Johan opted to pretend he’d just remembered something. “Oh, didn’t you receive some one-on-one attention with that potion? My employee was purportedly the one who made you drink it.”

“That so?” Albert had no problem with this. He nevertheless did have a problem with what Johan said next.

“Indeed. In an act of profound charity, you were fed mouth-to-mouth.”

“What?!” Albert raised his voice in surprise, still burdened by his misconceptions.

“You just don’t remember because you were unconscious at the time.”

Johan’s teasing tone and smirk finally made Albert realize that he had fallen for another one of Johan’s pranks. He shot his friend an exasperated glare just as they heard his subordinate announce that the researcher had arrived.

When the researcher entered the room, Albert stared in wonder. The person he had assumed was a man was actually a woman, but more than that, he was taken aback by the color of her hair and eyes.

Her hair was black, as were her eyes—an unusual combination in the Kingdom of Salutania. Albert could think of only one woman who worked at the institute: one of the potential Saints who had been summoned using the Saint Summoning Ritual.

She’s… But she’s so much different from what I’d heard.

Everything Albert had heard about the potential Saint said that she was gaunt and taken by illness. Furthermore, according to the gossip of the maids who had waited on her while she lived at the palace, she disliked dressing up in luxurious gowns, preferred plain clothes, and carried herself like a woman from a farming village. He had also heard from Johan that she was like the other researchers in that she appeared not to care much about her appearance.

However, while the woman before him was dressed simply, her appearance was tidy, and she didn’t at all resemble the rumors about her. Though she had pale skin, it wasn’t as sickly as the maids had claimed; she had a healthy complexion and there were no traces of dark circles under her eyes.

Sei had been living a much more comfortable life than she had in Japan, and her homemade skincare products had done their work. Her ivory-white skin and cherry blossom lips appeared fresh and youthful. Even her waist-length black hair had a lovely sheen.

Albert had heard that the Saint wasn’t preoccupied with skincare like a typical noble lady, yet her natural beauty captivated him.

When he thought on the moment later, he suspected he had fallen in love on the spot.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.” She must have been called here under the pretext that she was to deliver a document.

“It’s quite all right. Thank you for bringing this.”

“Well, I’ll get back to the institute then.” She handed over the document and made to leave right away, but Johan quickly stopped her.

“Wait.”

Albert was taken by surprise for the umpteenth time that day. 

He was the third son of the lord of the Hawke Borderlands. House Hawke had been a military family for generations and led the Kingdom of Salutania’s army. On top of that, as they held the rank of borderlands lord, they had more practical power than the average marquis. Furthermore, his grandmother, the previous lady of the Hawke Borderlands, had been the older sister of a ­previous king. She had been so beautiful that they’d called her “the Frozen Rose.” The three brothers of House Hawke had inherited her beauty and received a slew of marriage offers since they were very young.

Everyone in high society knew the tale of how Erhart, the second son, had begun to loathe women after seeing his older brother Josef swarmed by girls. Albert had likewise been on the receiving end of many amorous glances while he attended the Royal Academy. His aversion to women wasn’t as bad as Erhart’s, but he preferred not to associate with them. Thus, Albert had adopted an expressionless look to keep the swarms at bay.

However, despite that impassive expression and the icy gazes from his frigid eyes, Albert continued to be an object of admiration for many women due to his good looks. Although he tried not to allow them to get close, some remained undiscouraged and continued to try to approach him. Once they managed to latch on, they were never easy to dislodge.

Therefore, because this had been Albert’s experience with women thus far, he was shocked to see Sei immediately try to leave. What surprised him even more was that he wanted to stop her from going.

Albert and Sei introduced themselves to one another, and as she looked at him, he detected no hint of the zeal he was accustomed to seeing in the eyes of other women.

That was when Albert became aware of his own heart. He found he wanted Sei to look at him in the way those women did—the very same kind of gaze that he had until now shied away from.

Having become aware of those feelings, Albert was quick to change his behavior. He treated Sei kindly, inadvertently making it seem that this was the way he treated all other women and that he had never behaved in any other way.

Sei, who had no experience with love, was the perfect match for Albert, who was fed up with the advances of other women. He was sure that Sei would be angry if she learned this, but when she grew flustered at his teasing, he realized that she was beginning to feel the same for him. That made him happy.

It was an immature way to flirt, when one took their ages into account, but it was…cozy. Albert wanted to continue enjoying the time he spent with her.

However, Johan was right—if Albert didn’t make his move soon, that cozy relationship would likely come to an end.

Fine. No more delays. It was finally time to act.