“Ace. Under the Goddess’s grace, you are hereby appointed as the personal holy knight of the Saintess Ariana Astraea, the brightest child of the Goddess.”
Kneeling on one knee before Saintess Ariana, I remain still and wait.
Standing beside Ariana is the former personal holy knight, officially naming me as his successor.
I’ll probably be shadowing him for a while to learn the ropes.
“With the blessing of the Goddess, I bestow upon you the surname ‘Adonis.’ Ace Adonis, do you accept it?”
“It is an honor, noble predecessor.”
After the former knight taps both my shoulders with his sword, Ariana steps closer to me.
“A blessing upon my sword. A blessing upon my shield.”
-fotot…
A sacred golden energy surrounds my entire body.
‘So this is a blessing.’
They say personal holy knights receive blessings from the Saintess, and now I truly feel how powerful it is.
‘I’m overflowing with strength.’
In the game, the effects of a blessing were surprisingly simple.
You grow faster, fight longer, and gain a stronger mental barrier.
But for someone like me, who has trained and exercised every single day, nothing could be a better buff.
I rise from my spot and turn toward the holy knights watching us.
“Ace Adonis! From this day forward, I proudly declare before the Goddess that I am now the Saintess’s personal holy knight!”
–Clap clap clap clap clap.
The holy knights sincerely congratulated me on my appointment, and the sound of applause filled the cathedral.
***
–Again. Again.
As her personal holy knight, I walked in step beside Ariana.
At some point, I had grown past 180cm tall, so of course our strides didn’t match.
After walking a long stretch down the cathedral corridor, we eventually arrived at Ariana’s private chamber.
‘Do I just wait here now?’
I haven’t received the full handover yet, but I know the basics.
When the Saintess enters her private space, wait at the door.
Always keep a weapon ready by your side, even when she’s sleeping.
Always stay alert to ensure the Saintess is never consumed by improper desires, no matter how unlikely.
Lust and love toward the Saintess are strictly forbidden.
Serve only the Goddess and the Saintess.
Since it was the first day, I thought maybe I’d get a day off—but unfortunately, that mindset didn’t exist in the medieval era.
Guess I’ll just wait at the door.
I turned and took my position beside the door, but even after Ariana went in, she left the door open.
As I reached out to gently close it, Ariana called to me softly.
“Ace, would you come in for a moment?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes.”
I was caught off guard for a moment, but quickly nodded as I recalled past conversations between us.
‘Well, there must be a lot to talk about.’
–Clack.
As the door closed, Ariana turned her head toward me.
A bright smile, like she was genuinely happy to see me.
Seeing that smile, I couldn’t help but grin like a proud dad.
“Ace, I knew you’d become my personal holy knight!”
“Haha, thank you for your faith in me, Saintess.”
Her face was so sincere, it was like the words “100% trust” were written across her expression—and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s all thanks to your grace, Saintess.”
If Ariana and the holy knights hadn’t recommended me, there’s no way I would’ve become a holy knight this quickly.
With that meaning in mind, I offered my thanks, but Ariana shook her head.
“That was all thanks to your own effort, Ace. I didn’t do anything.”
“Oh come now, how can you say the Saintess played no part—”
Ariana and I kept going back and forth, complimenting each other, until we realized how silly we sounded and burst out laughing at the same time.
“Hahahaha!”
“Ahaha! As expected, Ace is different!”
We hadn’t even talked for that long, yet Ariana treated me like an old childhood friend.
“Hahaha, haah… I don’t know what to do with myself, with the Saintess being so kind to me.”
“Fufu, don’t mention it. Honestly, I’ve been a little worn out dealing with the Hero lately……”
“…Excuse me?”
Wait a second.
What did she just say?
“Saintess, did you just say…”
“Hmm? Ah! I’m sorry. Saying I’ve been worn out by the Hero is a bit inappropriate for a Saintess, isn’t it? I’ve just been so stressed lately, it slipped out…”
“…You said you’re stressed?”
Unable to brush off such a loaded comment, I asked Ariana about the Hero.
Since a new personal holy knight had just been chosen, this must be the point in time when the protagonist and Ariana are just starting to meet.
That means the Hero has recently been summoned by the people of the Holy Kingdom, and the symbolic meeting between Hero and Saintess just happened not long ago…
And yet she says she’s being “worn out”?
All those questions were answered by Ariana’s next words.
“Hero Luin is currently throwing tantrums at the high-ranking officials of the Holy Kingdom. He keeps saying… that I belong to him, and demanding they bring me to him immediately.”
“…What is this.”
This world’s protagonist comes from a game with quite a bit of freedom—you could customize them however you wanted.
That meant the Hero’s appearance wasn’t fixed, and I never thought his personality would be a problem…
‘The protagonist’s personality is like that?’
It never crossed my mind that the Hero’s personality could be such a disaster.
“Wait, wait, didn’t you say he’s the Hero? A Hero should have a virtuous heart…”
“I thought so too, but apparently that’s not always the case. His skill is decent, but his personality… ugh, it’s the worst.”
“…”
‘I’m screwed.’
It goes without saying, but in this game, the Hero can’t save the world alone.
There are events that require at least two characters to clear, and moments when you escape danger through the trust of the Heroines.
That’s why the Hero must build favorability with as many Heroines as possible, deepen those bonds, and use the power gained through all that to defeat the final boss…
‘He’s gone down the delinquent route.’
Ariana is supposed to be one of the easiest Heroines to win over—her favorability goes up with just a little kindness.
And yet even she’s reacting like this?
The fact that he treats Ariana like his property means… with that kind of personality, even the easy route is probably out of reach.
When the Hero behaves badly and gains a bad reputation, the only people left he can raise favorability with are those with poor stats, characters closer to NPCs than Heroines… or actual criminals.
And the end of that route is…
‘The Hero’s Demon King transformation.’
Destruction.
Back when it was just a game, becoming the Demon King wasn’t so bad—you’d try it once or twice just for fun.
But now that I’ve actually fallen into this world, the Hero felt more like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.
Thinking that if I didn’t do something fast, the world would be destroyed by a Hero-turned-Demon King made cold sweat run down my back.
“Ace?”
Oh.
“You’re sweating… You don’t look well…”
“No, ma’am. Just… thinking that I’ve become your personal holy knight and am standing before you like this makes me a little nervous, that’s all.”
“Really…? You know, you can relax around me.”
“No, Saintess. As your shield and protector, how could I dare to act so casually?”
I thought I had smoothed it over just fine, but then Ariana’s eyebrows tilted at a 25-degree angle, and she bit her lip.
“Saintess?”
“I’m going to keep doing this until you start feeling comfortable around me.”
“Hahaha…”
As expected, she’s the heroine with the lowest difficulty.
Even though we’ve barely talked for an hour total, she’s already acting this adorably.
‘You trash protagonist.’
Tch.
Since marrying the Hero is her happiest ending, somehow, no matter what it takes, I have to reform that guy.
Honestly, I was going to give up on that method because I didn’t think I could pull it off—but after seeing Ariana act just now, I made up my mind.
Saintess Ariana Astraea.
Her dream is to marry a cool and righteous Hero, just like the ones in fairy tales.
‘I don’t know if I can pull it off… but I’ll give it a shot.’
Originally, I just needed to help the two of them meet properly, but somehow the difficulty level shot way up.
A VIP chamber within the Holy Kingdom’s Papal Palace.
“Your Holiness, what are we supposed to do…!”
“His behavior gets worse by the day!”
“Ahh, Goddess, deliver us…”
“L-Let’s all calm down for now. This too is surely part of the Goddess’s grace, is it not? Surely this trial has been sent by the Goddess herself…”
Several high-ranking priests were having a serious conversation with grave expressions.
Lately, the people inside the Papal Palace had been dealing with a major headache.
“Why must the so-called Hero behave so disgracefully!”
That headache… was the Hero, Luin.
Starting a few days ago, he had been making a scene in the Papal Palace, throwing tantrums and demanding they bring him ‘his’ Saintess.
Under the Pope’s strict order that the truth—that the Hero was a complete thug—not be leaked to the public, Luin had been allowed to stay within the palace.
And so the priests gathered in the lounge to try and find a solution.
–Bang!
Someone kicked the door in, hard enough to break it, and stormed into the lounge.
A strikingly handsome young man with black hair and red eyes.
But with a personality more rotten than anyone’s.
“I heard some damn guy got stuck to the Saintess now?!”
It was the Hero, Luin.