Continuing from the perspective of the rookie saint apprentice.

***

My name is Nina.

I’m a rookie saint apprentice in Tower City.


Several days had passed since the lord’s banquet.

Although the lord lost all his memories from the past dozen days or so, ever since the incident at the banquet, it was as though he’d awakened from a dream and returned to his senses.


As a result, the plan to subjugate the Dryad was canceled with a single order from the lord.

The reason, he explained, was because of something his late father had always told him while he was growing up.


“The Dryad of the eastern forest is the spirit who protects this town. Make sure to remain on good terms with her.”


The lord himself said, “I can’t believe I ordered the subjugation of the Dryad of the eastern forest. It was almost like someone had been controlling me.”


I’m certain the blue flower that came out of his body had something to do with it.
And I don’t think it was a coincidence that the seed wrapped around the flower’s roots was identical to the seed that was in my soup.

Together with the Alraune’s disappearance, I have a feeling that something is happening in this town.



I gazed out of the church window.
Watching the rain, I felt my mood dampen, as if the water had seeped into my heart as well.

As I absentmindedly stared outside, one of the sisters, a fellow Holy Honey enthusiast, called out to me.
Apparently, the priest wanted to see me.


Seeing that she was already here, I showed her a wooden tube filled with Holy Honey and asked her, “I still have some Holy Honey left. Would you like some?”
It was only the other day that she’d been lamenting the fact her supply of Holy Honey had run out.


“Holy Honey…? I don’t know what you’re talking about, but no thank you.”


The sister answered as she quietly backed away from me.
Did she get tired of Holy Honey?
I can’t imagine not wanting to drink it again after tasting it even once.


When I entered the priest’s office, the first thing that caught my eye was a strange flower I’d never seen before resting on top of his desk.


“Take a seat.”


Following his words, I sat down on the wooden bench next to him.


“Nina, what do you think about the plan to subjugate the Dryad?”

“I believe it was for the best that it was called off,” I replied.
Did the priest call me here just to ask that?


“You are too naive, Nina. Monsters are terrifying creatures. Keep thinking like that and you’ll learn your lesson the hard way.”


Several years ago, the priest went missing in the Forest of Dryades.
I heard he survived by fighting monsters while wandering through the forest, eventually making his way back to town a week later.
That was probably why he viewed monsters so harshly.


“Humans are foolish. They never understand until they experience it for themselves. Just like this.”

“Eek?!”


Branch-like tendrils suddenly sprouted from the wooden bench.
In the blink of an eye, they wrapped around me, leaving me unable to move.


“Nina… you’ve truly surprised me. I was delighted when I heard such a promising saint apprentice was being assigned to this town. But I never expected you would be this troublesome.”

“Father… what is the meaning of this?”

“It’s all your fault, Nina. Not only did you not swallow the seed at the banquet the other day, you even removed the forget-me-not I planted inside the lord.”


Father, what in the world are you even talking about?
I… I’m scared.
It’s as if you’ve become an entirely different person.


“I knew that forget-me-nots were vulnerable to a saint’s light magic. But I believed only the golden birdman or the Saint of the Lamplight in the royal capital possessed enough magical power to destroy them. I had no idea someone as talented as you had been assigned to this town, Nina.”


My body wouldn’t respond.
I tried chanting light magic, but for some reason, no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t activate. This never happened before.


“The flower sitting over there is a magical flower created specifically to counter saints. Once you inhale its pollen, it interferes with your ability to use light magic.”

“F-Father… wh-what’s with that woman’s face…?”

“This is our true body, This human body is merely a host.”


Unbelievably, a woman’s face emerged from inside the priest’s robes.
She was beautiful, with blue vines for hair.

As I stared at her in shock, she began to speak.


“This human died a long time ago. After he got lost in the forest, Lady Feagismeinnicht remodeled him into what you see now, a walking plant puppet.”

“…Who are you?”

“We are one of the Three Spirit Beasts who serve directly under Lady Feagismeinnicht, one of the Four Heavenly Kings.”


I couldn’t believe the priest was killed by one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army.
And yet, accepting that the person before me was no longer human came strangely easily.

That was because of the branches growing from the priest’s fingers, which forced my mouth open.


The woman’s face extended until it was right in front of mine.
When she opened her mouth, a seed was growing from the tip of her tongue. It was the same kind of seed that was floating in my soup at the banquet.

Her tongue transformed into a tree branch and started growing at an alarming rate.
The branch forced its way into my mouth.
With a gulp, the seed was pushed down my throat.


“Now the saint apprentice is a part of the Demon King’s army as well. Since the time to put our plan into motion is drawing near, shall we force the seed inside the lord again?”


My body instinctively rejected the foreign object, desperately trying to spit it back out.
But then, something crawled out of the seed that was lodged deep inside my throat.
Like how roots spread in soil, I felt it taking hold inside my body.

So that’s the true nature of the flower and the seed.
I instinctively knew it—when the blue flower bloomed inside someone’s body, it took control of them.
I might already be done for.


“Resistance is futile. Any creature implanted with a forget-me-not becomes a mindless puppet.”



────Huh? That’s weird.
It seems my consciousness is still intact.

The priest said that forget-me-nots were vulnerable to a saint’s light magic.
He must’ve meant that it was the weakness of this blue flower.
Perhaps the lingering aura of light magic inside my body was preventing the blue flower from fully blooming.
Because of that, it seemed my mind hadn’t been completely taken over yet.



“Now then, your first assignment, Nina, is to make the lord swallow this seed. If you go to him as a saint apprentice, he’ll surely let his guard down.”


The priest placed a seed into my hand.


“Understood,” I heard myself reply.


What’s happening?
My mouth and body are moving on their own, completely against my will.


“…Oh? Nina, you’d better hurry. Lady Feagismeinnicht has given the order to begin the operation. You’ll soon cease to be yourself. Once that happens, you won’t be of any use as a saint apprentice, so finish your task while you still can.”


As soon as I left the church, I began running towards the lord’s manor.
Along the way, I noticed some of the passersby had stopped in the middle of the street and were staring up at the sky.
Something felt terribly wrong about the town.



As I passed the honey shop, I saw a large crowd gathered outside.
The shop was being attacked again today.
The townspeople, now little more than a mob, were happily stuffing themselves with honey.


Just then, I bumped into one of the mobbers and fell to the ground.
The person I collided with completely ignored me and charged straight into the honey shop.
Things were getting out of hand.

Then, my nose caught a familiar scent.


────The smell of sweet honey.


The impact from falling must have knocked the wooden tube out from inside my robe.
Its lid came halfway open, and some of the Holy Honey spilled out.


The moment I saw the Holy Honey, still carrying Lady Iris’s aura of light magic, my arm moved on its own.
Before I realized what I was doing, I’d drained all the Holy Honey from the tube.
It wasn’t because of the seed controlling me. My body had simply reacted out of habit.
I supposed that, after making it part of my daily routine, my body became honest about what it wanted.


Then, I sensed something strange happening inside my throat.

My body jerked backward, and I vomited something from my mouth.
A blue flower, which was just beginning to bloom, and its seed fell onto the ground with a wet plop.


“…Huh? I can… move?”


It seemed I was free again.
I managed to escape the priest’s control.


“Could it be… Lady Iris saved me?”


The Holy Honey contained the aura of Lady Iris’s light magic.
By drinking it, the Holy Honey was able to wither the blue flower and purged it from my body.


“But more importantly, what do I do now?”


Tower City was being secretly controlled by the Demon King’s army.
As a saint apprentice, I have to do something about this!


“KYAAAH—!!”


Suddenly, I heard screaming.
And not just one or two.
Cries echoed from every corner of the town, mixed with the sounds of things being smashed apart.


Looking around, I spotted a troll across the street.
Why is there a troll in the center of town?


Before I even had time to think about why, more trolls somehow began appearing one after another.
They poured out from the road on the opposite side, and even from inside houses.


A troll’s weakness is fire.
But with rain like this, any flames would be extinguished immediately.
Its other weakness is light magic. But in this town, I’m the only one who can use it.
And there’s no way I can defeat more than ten trolls all by myself!


“Sister Nina!”


A sister came running towards me from behind.
She was the one who had called me to the priest’s office at the church earlier.


All of a sudden, her body began to swell.


I instinctively covered my mouth to stop myself from screaming.


Today alone, I experienced one unbelievable thing after another.
I honestly thought there couldn’t be anything left to surprise me.
But reality proved far crueler than I could have imagined.


Because, the sister had transformed into a troll.

Just as I was at a loss for words, wondering why the sister turned into a monster, the troll raised its massive arm, which was as thick as a tree trunk.


R-Run!

Even though I desperately wanted to, my legs refused to move.
My body was free now, but fear rooted me in place. I couldn’t muster any strength into my legs.


The troll grabbed my body and lifted me into the air.
Then it opened its mouth wide, preparing to toss me inside.


At that moment, I understood.

The troll was about to devour me alive.

***

Author’s Note:

This chapter ended up much longer than expected, so this is now a three-parter.

Next Time: Daily Report; The Rookie Saint Apprentice’s Tower City Incident Log (Part Three)