Via glanced around.
Sophie really wasn’t there.
All the other saintess candidates had arrived.
“Via, what are you looking at?”
A girl suddenly appeared behind Via and asked out of nowhere.
“Huh?”
Via jumped in surprise and turned to see a golden-haired girl with a faint smile on her face—though it was more of a professional, perfunctory smile.
She remembered this girl’s name was Janice; she ranked fourth among the saintess candidates.
“Let me guess—you’re worried about Sophie, aren’t you?” Janice narrowed her eyes.
“Janice, you…”
Via felt like her inner thoughts had been peeked into; her earlier concern had been overheard by someone else.
“Janice, are you using a sacred art right now?”
The serious saintess candidate questioned Janice sternly.
“You’re not allowed to use sacred arts casually in the Holy Land without permission!”
“Isher, I’m not using a sacred art,” Janice replied.
“Via was just so worried about her sister that her voice slipped through unintentionally—I overheard it.”
“Oh yeah!”
Nana remembered.
“Janice’s sacred art lets her hear people’s inner voices!”
“It’s Janice’s innate ability—that’s why she became a saintess candidate,” the one called Isher explained.
“If she channels it with holy power during a devout prayer, she can even receive divine oracles…”
“Exactly. If someone nearby is thinking about something intensely, I can pick it up passively without even trying,” Janice said, gazing at Via.
“Earlier, Via, you were fretting over your sister.”
“Urgh…”
Via averted her eyes.
She focused her mind, erecting a mental barrier to block out Janice’s attempts to listen in.
If she found out I’m the Demon King reincarnated, that’d be a disaster.
The saintess candidates all had some kind of innate special ability to one degree or another—something that set them apart from other clerics, which was why they’d been selected.
Janice could hear the voices of all things.
Sophie’s was inherited from their mother’s exceptional bloodline: she could purify abyssal aura, and on a scale far beyond anyone else.
As for Nana…
Via had never heard.
She didn’t know much about the other saintess candidates unless it was something widely known, like Janice’s ability.
“Oh my—Via, you’re actually shutting me out?”
Janice looked a little hurt.
“I was planning to listen to your troubles properly and figure out how to help; after all, guiding the lost is a saintess’s duty.”
“Janice, want to hear what I’m thinking?” Nana raised her hand.
“I wanna test if your power’s really that amazing!”
“You’re thinking about food,” Janice shot back immediately.
“You’re wondering what delicious thing to eat for lunch.”
“You saw right through me that fast?!”
“Because out of everyone here, your inner voice is the loudest, Nana.”
“Hee hee.”
Nana laughed, but she didn’t seem embarrassed at all.
“Nana, could you maybe think more about improving yourself instead of food all the time?” Isher said, clearly annoyed.
“Our shoulders bear the responsibility of guiding humanity’s future.”
“Okay, okay, Isher—it’s rare for us all to gather like this, so let’s skip the lectures and share something fun!”
Nana clapped her hands and dashed to the center, forcibly drawing everyone’s attention.
No one responded.
“Why’s everyone so shy? Fine, I’ll go first then. Recently, Archbishop Belon sent me out with the Holy Knight Order to purify a monster, but its abyssal aura was too thick—I couldn’t purify it. In a panic, I punched right through its magic core and accidentally spread the abyssal aura everywhere. Nearly turned the knights into demonized—ha ha ha!”
Nana dropped an utterly outrageous story.
Silence fell over the group.
But that was probably why Nana ranked second-to-last among the saintess candidates.
“I’m done—anyone next?”
Nana looked baffled when no one budged.
She truly had zero sense of embarrassment—practically the polar opposite of Via, a total social terrorist.
“Idiot.”
The saintess candidate hugging her doll murmured softly.
“Oh, I heard that, Ruby—it’s not nice to badmouth people behind their backs; if you’re gonna say it, say it to their face!”
Nana pointed at the petite saintess candidate.
“So, you’re next!”
“Nothing to say. Just like you all, I went with the Holy Knight Order to purify monsters—it’s not hard to get done.”
Ruby huffed.
“It’s basic training to become a saintess.”
“Oof, you got me there.” Nana didn’t argue with Ruby.
“If you can’t even manage that, you should reflect on yourself more.”
As Ruby said this, she shot Via a glance—as if her words were aimed squarely at the worst performer among them.
Via was the only saintess candidate who hadn’t joined the Holy Knight Order for training.
But she didn’t get it.
Ruby seemed overly fixated on her, harboring more intense hostility than toward the others.
Had she ever done anything to piss her off?
“Next up—Isher!” Nana dragged the momentum back to her.
“I refuse; I have no obligation to indulge your nonsense, Nana.” Isher shook her head.
“Why not? Sharing and bonding as a group—it’s great!”
“…Hey.”
The saintess candidate who’d been napping on the bench suddenly piped up.
“Don’t any of you find this weird?”
“What’s up, Mia? Something strange going on here?” Nana turned to the laid-back saintess candidate.
The girl named Mia stretched lazily and sat up slowly, a drowsy smile curling her lips.
She ranked second among the saintess candidates, right behind Sophie.
“Abyssal aura—you guys aren’t sensing it at all?”
“Abyssal aura? Where?” Nana peered around.
“Mia, don’t just throw out wild claims like that—this is the Holy Land; abyssal aura couldn’t possibly be here.”
Isher’s expression grew grave.
She probed the surroundings just like Nana and detected nothing.
The other saintess candidates were equally baffled by Mia’s words.
“Really? So no one else noticed but me. I figured you all knew and weren’t bothered by it. If anything, the fact that the abyssal aura’s clinging to her is what surprises me~” Mia yawned, looking ready to doze off again.
“Mia, quit with the cryptic stuff—we can’t follow your riddles! Just tell us: where’s the abyssal aura?”
Nana rushed over to Mia and propped her back up as she started to slump.
“Well…”
Mia’s gaze locked onto Via.
For a split second, her eyes sharpened.
“Via, don’t you want to explain this to everyone?”