Continuing from the perspective of the rookie saint apprentice.

***

My name is Nina.

I’m a rookie saint apprentice who’s just been assigned to Tower City.


One day, just as I was finally getting used to my new life, I encountered a mysterious food that felt almost like the blessing of the Goddess herself.

It happened not long after a strange incident in which various preserved foods were stolen from a food shop in the middle of the night.


In the town square, I bought some strange honey from a girl wearing a hood.

At first, I spoke to her because I felt sorry seeing how no one even spared her a glance. But almost immediately, my eyes became fixed on the honey in her bucket.

To my surprise, the honey was giving off a radiant, almost divine glow.


My good eyesight has always been my one redeeming trait.
But it wasn’t just that my eyesight was good.
Through my training as a saint apprentice, I eventually learned to see the aura of light magic with my own eyes.


Because of that, I could sense a sacred radiance from it, as though it were brimming with light magic.
It felt mystical, like some kind of divine honey blessed by the Goddess herself.

Somehow, the aura also reminded me of Lady Iris’s light.

Suddenly, I remembered the bucket the bird had been carrying when I came to Tower City the other day.
Come to think of it, the bucket that girl was holding looked a lot like the one the bird had carried. Well, buckets like that probably exist everywhere, so it must just be a coincidence.


The glow of the honey made me curious, so I ended up listening to the girl’s story.
And after hearing about her circumstances, I couldn’t help but feel moved.

Apparently, she was working all on her own to support her one-year-old little sister, who had no legs and couldn’t move.
Even though she was only ten, she was such a responsible older sister.


Back in my hometown village, I had five younger brothers and sisters.
So I understand the hardships of being the eldest child all too well.

Feeling touched by her story, I decided to buy all of her honey.
I bought a jar from a nearby stall and had the honey poured into it.


That glowing honey, which looked and smelled delicious, had a sweetness so rich and smooth that it hardly seemed like something from this world.


“What is this honey? It’s way too delicious!”


It tasted so good that I ended up eating it with my hands without thinking.

By the time I realized how unbecoming my behavior was of a saint apprentice, my hands were already sticky.


But honestly, I didn’t care. The honey was so rich and enchanting that it was like tasting heaven itself.

As I licked the honey, I felt as though I could sense the Goddess of Light herself.
Before I knew it, the jar was completely empty.


The next day.
I bought honey from the girl again.
Now I could enjoy that blissful experience once more.


“Sister Nina, what do you have there?”


At lunchtime, one of the sisters from the church who was sitting with me asked about the honey.
She must have found it strange when I walked into the dining hall carrying a jar.


“It’s honey. When you spread it on bread, it becomes wonderfully sweet and melts on your tongue. Would you like to try some?”

“Well then, I shall gratefully accept your offer, Sister Nina.”


Blushing shyly, the three sisters spread the honey on their bread.

At that moment, I realized something. It seemed I was the only one who could see the light magic glowing around the honey.


“S-Sister Nina… what exactly is this honey?”
“It’s incredibly delicious.”
“I feel like I might become completely captivated by it.”


The sisters were happy too. It had been a long time since any of them had something sweet.

In truth, Tower City has been facing a food shortage lately.

The cause was the severe cold wave last winter.

Because of the heavy snowfall, the price of ingredients had gone up, and sweets had become especially expensive. As a result, everyone has been holding back from buying anything sweet.


And yet here I was, able to buy honey so cheaply, and for it to be this delicious. It’s like a dream!

At the current market price, this honey was incredibly cheap. I wondered if that honey-selling girl was really alright with selling it for so little.
Then again, my salary isn’t very high, so being able to buy it for such a small amount of money was definitely helpful.



On the third day of becoming a regular customer of the honey-selling girl, I happened to see her shuffling slowly through the plaza with a face that looked like the end of the world had come.
Concerned, I decided to call out to her.


“What’s wrong? You look troubled.”

“W-well…”


Apparently, her one-year-old little sister had fallen ill.

And she needed medicine to recover, but the girl didn’t have enough money to buy it.

As a saint apprentice, I couldn’t just ignore something like that.
So I decided to donate the money for the medicine to the honey-selling girl.

She looked surprised, but it wouldn’t do for her to be shocked by something like this. After all, I’m aiming to become a saint.
Besides, this was also my way of thanking her for selling me the honey so cheaply.


While I was at it, I asked her where that honey was produced.
Honey infused with light magic was simply too mysterious not to be curious about.


“I-I make it… in the forest……”


The honey-selling girl hesitated before answering that she gathered the honey in the forest.
But the forest is dangerous. Monsters live there.

And I had also heard from someone at the church here that, fifty years ago, the Hero of that time was killed by the forest spirit in The Forest of Dryades.

When I told the honey-selling girl that, she looked completely taken aback.
She must have finally realized just how dangerous the place she was going to actually was.


But if the honey-selling girl stopped going to the forest, then I wouldn’t be able to eat her honey anymore. That would be pretty sad.

While I was worrying about how I might keep getting honey in the future, the girl had already disappeared.


“Ah… I still had more to tell her about the forest spirit…”


The western forest is a dangerous, forbidden place where humans cannot venture safely. But the eastern forest is relatively safe, since people can still come and go there.

I just hope she doesn’t wander into the western forest.
Well, I can always tell her next time we meet.



Still curious about the honey-selling girl’s story, I climbed up the Goddess’s Tower to get a better look at the forest.

For religious reasons, this tower has been expanded again and again for hundreds of years.
Because of that, it has become incredibly tall, offering a clear view of The Forest of Dryades at the top.


The view from the tower revealed an endless expanse of forest.
Near the edge of the woods, I could see a small cluster of light.


I’ve always had good eyesight.

Not just physical vision, but the ability to see through sacred power as well.
I can perceive beings that possess light magic.


Based on everything I’d experienced up until now, I believed only saints could use light magic. But judging from the cluster of light in the forest, it seems that isn’t the case.


That light looked like a tiny point, smaller than a person.

Yet it shone with an incredibly sacred brilliance.
It felt deep and mysterious, as if it possessed an extraordinary, unfathomable power.


I felt like I had seen an aura like that somewhere before.

Ah… that’s it, I remember now.
The late saint Lady Iris also radiated an extraordinary aura like this.


What could possibly be in that place?
I didn’t know, but I had a strong feeling that the honey-selling girl must be gathering her honey there.


“I want to eat that honey again…”

Just as I murmured that to myself, something appeared from beyond the forest.


High in the distant sky above the woods, I saw a large mass of light.


That flying light gave off a sinister radiance, yet its aura also felt strangely familiar.

Compared to the small light in the forest, it was somewhat larger.
And for some reason, the light seemed to overlap in several layers.

It was as if a single body contained multiple kinds of light energy within it.
Just what is going on?


I only realized that the light was actually a bird when the flying mass of light began approaching the eastern edge of the forest.


That reminded me of something I had heard. A nearby fortress had been captured by a member of the Demon King’s army that took the form of a giant bird.
Come to think of it, wasn’t there also a rumor that this monster was one of the Four Heavenly Kings?


That bird was somehow carrying light magic within its body.


Now that it was closer and easier to see, I could tell that the bird was giving off an evil light, as if it held deep resentment within it.
It was a truly dreadful glow.

The bird, filled with that sinister light, began descending toward the forest.


By coincidence, it landed in the very place where the small light had been.
The same place where I had guessed the honey-selling girl gathered her honey.


Two masses of light, both containing light magic, had now met within the forest.


The two lights remained there, neither moving away, as if waiting until one of them disappeared.


After some time passed, one of the two lights vanished.


From where I stood, I couldn’t tell which one had disappeared.

Was it the light in the forest…

Or the light of the bird?

***

Author’s Note:

And so concludes the story of the rookie saint apprentice in Tower City.
It gives us a small glimpse of what was happening in the city, something the protagonist living in the forest could never know.

Next Time: The Demon King’s Army in the Forest and Their Master