This is from the perspective of a rookie saint apprentice.

***

My name is Nina.

I’m a rookie saint apprentice in Tower City.


One day, while I was eating honey for lunch as usual, one of the sisters I often ate with brought up the topic of the honey.


“You really like Holy Honey, don’t you, Sister Nina?”

“You eat it every day too. Wait… Holy Honey!?”

“It’s all the rage in town right now. People say it’s delicious and that eating it feels like meeting the gods themselves. Apparently someone started calling it ‘Holy Honey,’ and the name just stuck.”

“…Why ‘Holy Honey’?”

“Sister Nina, weren’t you the first one to buy the honey? Everyone in town already knows that you, a saint apprentice, buy honey almost every day. Because of that, people started calling it the ‘Saint’s Holy Honey,’ which eventually became ‘Holy Honey’.”

“‘Saint’s Holy Honey’… Even though I’m still just an apprentice, hearing that is a little embarrassing.”


Rufé-chan’s honey business had become so successful that there was probably no one left in Tower City who hadn’t heard of it.

Even people who had never tasted it at least recognized it from seeing someone else eating it.


“By the way, Sister Nina, I heard the priest instructed you to join the monster subjugation force. Are you going to be alright?”

“Yes. I may only be a saint apprentice, but I still have my duties to fulfill. So please don’t worry.”


Rufé-chan gathers honey in the forest.
And the traces of light magic within the honey matched the place where that bird of light descended into the forest the other day.

Worried that Rufé-chan might be attacked by monsters while gathering honey, I requested an investigation from the adventurers.
But I never imagined it would escalate into something this serious…


Because of my request, the adventurers were attacked by a plant monster.
As more adventurers were sent to subjugate it, the plant monster only grew more violent, until it eventually became a named monster feared as the man-eating Alraune.


In the end, even I ended up joining the subjugation force.


I’ve gone through combat training countless times before.
But now my first real battle has finally arrived.

Lady Iris in the heavens above, please watch over me.
I’ll carry out my duties as a proper saint apprentice!


The force assembled to subjugate the man-eating Alraune was a large group of twenty-four people made up of knights, adventurers, and me from the church.

Sir Franz, the adventurer who had been accompanying Rufé-chan, was serving as my escort.
Being paired with someone I knew made me feel a little relieved.


But that peace of mind soon shattered, giving way to confusion.



The top-hatted adventurer walking at the very rear of the subjugation force was strange!


For some reason, he looked like a giant stuffed bear.


A human-sized bear-like creature walking around dressed in gentleman’s clothing.
No matter how you looked at him, he clearly wasn’t human, right!?

I’m on pins and needles wondering how everyone was acting so unfazed about that top-hatted adventurer!


“Sir Franz, that man at the very back, the one with the top hat. Doesn’t he seem a little strange?”

“Judging by the way he moves, he looks quite capable.”

“That’s not what I mean. Doesn’t his appearance seem…… off somehow?”

“Well, he’s wearing a monocle and a top hat. That obviously is going to look odd.”

“No, that’s not it……… never mind. It’s probably just my imagination.”


Apparently, Sir Franz sees the stuffed bear as a normal human.

Which means the other members of the subjugation force probably see the top-hatted adventurer the same way too.


Then why does he only look strange to me!?


I seriously can’t make any sense of this.

I was the only one seeing him as something other than human.
That fact felt horribly eerie, and more than anything, terrifying.

He was suspicious no matter how I saw it. Maybe I should quietly report him to the knight commander later.


Right after Sir Franz had handed me a firebomb out of concern for my safety, the subjugation force encountered a monster.

And there, I came face-to-face with something even more shocking than the stuffed bear adventurer.

A mysterious Alraune stood before us, bearing the same face and presence as Saint Iris herself.


“Why…?”


Why does this Alraune have the same face as Saint Iris?
Why is she surrounded by the same aura of light as Saint Iris?


I understood immediately.

This Alraune, a monster of the Demon King’s army, had devoured Lady Iris and stolen both her body and her powers.

I heard that Lady Iris’s body was never found.
Of course it wasn’t. This Alraune had eaten and digested her whole.


My body burned hot.
Blood rushed to my head so fiercely it felt like I was going to explode.

For the first time in my life, I realized just how furious I could become.


I didn’t care about the top-hatted adventurer anymore.
All I could think about was defeating the man-eating Alraune before me and avenging Lady Iris.


No matter what it takes, I will have my revenge.

With every fiber of my being, I swore to Lady Iris watching from the heavens that I would end this man-eating Alraune.



The knights and adventurers were all defeated by the man-eating Alraune.

I poured all my rage into my magic and challenged the monster.
But I was no match for the named monster.


In the end, I was pitifully captured by the Alraune’s vines.

My entire body was restrained, leaving me unable to move.
It felt as though my body had been completely placed under the plant’s control. The humiliation of it was unbearable.


At this rate, I’m going to be eaten by the Alraune just like Lady Iris was.
But if I’m going to die anyway, then I’ll take her down with me and avenge Lady Iris

In that case, there was only one option left. I would use the thing Sir Franz gave me, even if it meant blowing myself up too.


The moment I pulled the firebomb from my pocket, my body suddenly twitched in response to something.

A fragrant scent drifted through the air, so sweet it made my body feel as if it were floating.


“This scent… it’s that honey… why?”


Heat surged through my entire body.
The anger that had consumed my mind was now drowning beneath the scent of sweet, melting honey.


I want to eat that honey right now…!


I even found myself wanting to fall to my knees before the Alraune and beg her to share some honey with me.

Ngh… I never imagined something like this could happen.


To think the Alraune with the same face as Saint Iris would carry the scent of Holy Honey.
I should have realized it the moment I noticed that the Alraune’s presence matched the aura of light magic in the honey.


Don’t tell me…
Have I been licking the honey of my sworn enemy this whole time?


I can’t accept that!


But my body was honest.

The sudden craving for honey was becoming impossible to resist.


This man-eating Alraune really is despicable.

Using the scent of honey to tempt me like this is so unfairrrrr!!

***

Author’s Note:

This was from the rookie saint apprentice’s perspective.
Things that could not be understood from the other characters’ perspectives can now be seen through the eyes of the saint apprentice.

Next Time: Daily Report; The Rookie Saint Apprentice’s Named Monster Subjugation Log (Part Two)