Continuing from the perspective of the rookie saint apprentice.

***

The sister turned into a troll.
Honestly, I could hardly believe what I was seeing was reality.


Thinking back on it now, she had been acting strangely when we spoke at the church.
After all, she didn’t even spare a glance at the Holy Honey despite loving it so much.
She must’ve already been under the priest’s control by then.


At this rate, I’m going to be eaten alive by the sister, who was now transformed into a troll.


“Please stop! Don’t you recognize me? It’s me, Nina!”


Whether it was because she couldn’t recognize my voice or simply didn’t care, the troll opened its mouth wide.
Realizing I was about to be eaten alive, the priest’s words came rushing back to me.


When he took control of me and sent me out of the church, he’d said, “You’ll soon cease to be yourself.”
He also said, “You won’t be of any use as a saint apprentice”


Could this have been what he meant?
Were people with the blue flower blooming inside them first manipulated, then transformed into trolls?

How horrifying.
But if transforming into a troll worked by the same principle as the blue flower’s brainwashing, then there still might be a chance.


If I could get her to drink this Holy Honey, infused with Lady Iris’s aura of light magic, I have a feeling it might be enough to get me out of this.


The Holy Honey I’d just drunk was meant for myself.
But I still had another tube, the one I intended to give to the sister.


I pulled a wooden tube from inside my robe and poured the Holy Honey into the troll’s open mouth.


And then, I witnessed the Holy Honey’s miraculous power accomplish something far beyond my wildest imagination.


The troll let out a deafening scream and began thrashing wildly.
I was released from its grasp and landed on the ground.


As the troll howled in agony, its body gradually began to melt.
At the same time, the troll coughed up the remnants of a seed from its mouth.

Soon after, from within the troll’s dissolving flesh, the sister emerged.


“This honey is incredible, Lady Iris…!”


As expected of Lady Iris-sama, a saint regarded as one of the strongest in history.
I never imagined her Holy Honey could purify a troll’s body and rescue someone who had been transformed into a monster.



As I tended to the sister, a realization struck me.
With this Holy Honey, the townspeople who were turned into trolls could be saved.

The priest seemed to think I had removed the seed from the lord myself, but he was wrong.
It wasn’t me, but this Holy Honey, infused with Saint Iris’s aura of light magic, that could neutralize both the blue flower and its seed.

There wasn’t much Holy Honey left.
Even so, should we manage to find Lady Iris, we might be able to resolve this crisis.


What worried me the most was the priest’s true objective.
Judging by how many townspeople were already implanted with the seeds that turned them into trolls, it was clear this had been a carefully orchestrated plan.
Their goal was probably to seize control of the town. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it than that.


Someone standing nearby suddenly pointed towards the sky, saying, “Look.”


When I looked across the town, I saw columns of smoke rising everywhere.
Then I noticed it. The castle atop the town’s highest hill engulfed in glowing crimson.

The lord’s manor was on fire.


Why…?
Before I could even process it, fires began breaking out all over the town.
As I stood there in stunned silence, a passerby spoke with a tone of admiration.


“So the adventurers of this town have chosen to fight to the bitter end. They’ve started using fire against them, exploiting their weakness… though in this rain, I wonder how long the flames will last.”


I’ve heard that voice before.
Turning around, I saw a man with blue hair.


“Oh? Why, if it isn’t Nina? Looks like you made it through safely.”


The one who called out to me was Sir Holger, an adventurer.
He is the leader of the Dragonwater Crystals, a dragonslayer who specializes in water magic.
We fought together in the Alraune subjugation force the other day, so we became acquainted.

Holger and his party are the strongest adventurers in this town.
With him and his party on our side, we might be able to overcome this hopeless situation.


“Still, I never imagined the town would be attacked by such a massive horde of trolls. A terrifying monster only just appeared in the forest as well. I wonder what’s going to happen to this town.”

“Sir Holger, what do you mean when you say a monster appeared in the forest?”

“Ever since the subjugation force was defeated, our party has been searching the forest every day for that Alraune. We wanted our revenge, you see. We were searching again today when a huge dragon suddenly descended from the sky.”


Saying that I had not heard the most surprising part yet, Sir Holger continued.


“And guess who was with that dragon? The Fallen Spirit Princess. A Dryad with blue vines for hair and horn-shaped branches came leaping down from the sky on the back of a giant land tortoise. I’ve seen her face countless times on the Adventurer’s Guild’s wanted posters, so there’s no way I could’ve mistaken her for someone else.”


A woman with blue vines for hair… the woman who was parasitizing the priest earlier also had blue vines for hair.
She said she served directly under one of the Four Heavenly Kings, so maybe the Fallen Spirit Princess was the very Heavenly King who killed the priest.


“Sir Holger, that Dryad is the one behind everything! We need to defeat her right away… but we can’t just leave the priest alone either. What should we do?”

“If you mean the priest from the church, I saw him walking into the forest a little while ago.”

“Really?!”

“Without a doubt. We were hurrying to report to the town’s Adventurer’s Guild that the Fallen Spirit Princess had returned to the forest. Along the way, we encountered a group of trolls, and I could’ve sworn I saw the priest among them.”

“The trolls are heading towards the forest too?”


The priest had gone into the forest together with the trolls.
Considering that one of the Four Heavenly Kings also appeared there, something important might be going on in the forest.
Maybe that was the true reason the Demon King’s army had attacked this town.


“Sir Holger, please! Take me to the place where you saw that Dryad!”

“What?! But shouldn’t we be fighting the trolls in the town first…?”

“All of those trolls were originally human! The person responsible for this atrocity is plotting something in the forest. As a saint apprentice, I can’t stand by and let it happen!”

“…If Nina, a saint apprentice, feels that strongly about it, then there must be something happening in the forest. Very well. Let’s leave the town to the other adventurers and head into the forest to defeat the Demon King’s army. As the leader of the Dragonwater Crystals, I will lend you my aid!”


Together with Sir Holger and his three companions, we set off for the forest.
I was worried about having left the sister in the care of some nearby townspeople, but I was probably the person who knew the most about the Demon King’s army currently attacking the town.


That means I have to do something!

I can’t drive back a massive horde of the Demon King’s army by myself the way Lady Iris could, but if I joined forces with Sir Holger and his party, the strongest adventurers in the town, I’m sure we’ll find a way through!



We made our way deeper into the forest.
The rain had turned the ground to mud, making it difficult to walk.


After a while, the roar of a massive beast echoed from somewhere ahead.


“That was a dragon’s roar,” Sir Holger told us.


We hurried in the direction of the sound, and before long, a massive shadow appeared through the trees.

It was a dragon.

A blue dragon was facing off against something.
It seemed to be fighting someone.


Following the dragon’s gaze, I saw, to my astonishment, an Alraune.
The Alraune who was supposed to have disappeared was back!


But the sight left me confused.
The Alraune looked like Lady Iris, but she seemed much smaller than before.

She was too large to be called a little girl, yet far too small to be considered an adult.
The Alraune in front of me looked almost exactly how I imagined Lady Iris might have appeared as a child.


Which means this Alraune might not be the same one as Lady Iris.

I could understand if she grew larger, but I never heard of someone regressing in age and becoming younger.

Even setting aside the fact that she turned into a monster, I couldn’t believe that the Lady Iris I knew and this Alraune were the same person.


After all, the Alraune had the appearance of a ten-year-old girl.

***

Author’s Note:

And that concludes rookie saint apprentice Nina’s perspective. This shows us what was happening in the town shortly before the Alraune returned. Next time, we’ll return to the Alraune’s point of view!

Next Time: The Battle for the Sanctuary (Part One)