Lilith Lafine, now known as Lilith, was the princess of the Lafine Kingdom, the closest to the Demon King’s territory.
Due to this, the kingdom was attacked by the Demon King’s forces, who sought to expand their territory, resulting in its complete conquest.
During the invasion, her family was scattered.
In the end, she fled to Rubetia to survive, hiding her identity as a princess and living in a convent.
She awoke as a saintess after using light magic.
When she learned that Divine Force could defeat the demon king, she decided to put aside her goal of finding her scattered family.
Of course, she wanted to see her family, but more than that, she yearned for revenge against the Demon King’s forces who took her homeland.
But knowing she was still lacking, she enrolled in the academy with the goal of gaining strength first. That was the beginning of Lilith’s story.
However, the situation now was far too different from what I knew.
She wasn’t hiding in a convent, nor did she seem to be hiding her identity as a princess, as shown by the pendant she wore with her kingdoms’s emblem.
To begin with, seeing her appear at the entrance exam was something I’d never heard of before. Normally, she would suddenly appear during the semester break in the first semester after awakening as a saintess… What was going on?
While I was caught up in all sorts of thoughts, Lilith said something that sent a chill down my spine.
“My specialty is light-attribute magic, got it? So things like curses won’t work on me.”
Curses were illusions and sneaky tricks achieved through sorcery.
Additionally, the origin of sorcery itself was close to a malevolent nature, so it had the characteristic of being easily nullified by light magic.
But was the game system sorcery? That couldn’t be. It wasn’t even in the same league as simple sorcery.
Even if it was, it wouldn’t matter. Did she think my Excel chart on evasion timing didn’t include light-attribute skills?
She’s looking at me as if I’m some kind of con artist. She’s completely disregarding my career, which I’ve built through honorable battles.
Saintess or not, she needs to be put in her place. If she’s a newbie, she should just say, ‘Wow, you’re so strong. Amazing,’ instead of daring to doubt me.
“Shall we start right away? You attack first.”
I allowed her the first move.
Perhaps she saw my confidence as arrogance, as she smiled and activated her magic.
“Don’t regret it.”
The light magic began to fill the space, brightening the surroundings.
It was the Barrier of Purification. In other words, it was a field expansion… Ahem. Anyway, within this barrier, any kind of evil sorcery would be completely nullified.
And then, she launched another spell in my direction.
Swish!
A spear of light.
A staple skill with increased piercing power based on the caster’s magic power.
The attack power was decent, the speed of the spear’s flight was fast, and it even had piercing power, so anyone who specialized in light magic would know it.
However, the Spear of Light had quite a few flaws for a staple skill.
Due to the nature of the skill, which involves launching a spear, the attack range was narrow, and it flew strictly in a straight line.
This meant that I didn’t even need to evade; a slight sidestep would be enough to dodge it. But if I dodged now, she’d really think I was using sorcery or something, wouldn’t she?
Not wanting to let her think that, I dashed forward instead of sideways. The spear of light pierced through my abdomen and passed right through.
Had I failed to evade, I would’ve had a hole in me, but my abdomen was intact when I checked, just to be sure.
She was boasting that curses wouldn’t work on her, but look at this—it’s working perfectly!
“How… can you use sorcery in this space…?”
“Then I guess it’s not sorcery.”
“Impossible.”. How pathetic, Lilith. Just admit it already.
I’ll concede that it might look a bit like sorcery at first glance… but just because it looks that way doesn’t mean you can just make assumptions! Appearance-based judgment is dangerous… Or does she not know that because she’s pretty?
Anyway. Since I showed that even her light magic didn’t work on me, the others wouldn’t think badly of me either. Could this situation actually be alright?
“Grr!”
But Lilith, perhaps feeling insulted that her magic had failed, suddenly enveloped her entire body in a glow and charged at me.
She has quite the range of light magic variations, huh? Could it be… did she already awaken as a saintess?
“Die!”
With an aggressive choice of words unbefitting a saintess, she threw her fist toward me. I dodged it, and as I evaded, divine energy surged from her fist… Hmm, no, that’s not magic power. That color is definitely divine power.
Divine power. Other than the restriction that it can only be used with light-attribute techniques, it’s not much different from magic power. However, as its name suggests, it’s like a deadly poison to anything related to demons—such as monsters, demon races, and the Demon King’s forces.
The condition to unlock divine power is awakening as a saintess. It’s a stat that the protagonist, who is locked as a male character, could never obtain.
But for Lilith to be using divine power means she’s awakened as a saintess, which doesn’t make sense.
As far as I know, there’s no route where she awakens without going to the convent…
Even as I kept dodging Lilith’s relentless attacks and pondering, the very fact that I was meeting her at this point in time was already unheard of. No amount of thought could bring any answers.
In the end, this only meant that the story was diverging completely from what I knew.
As I reached this conclusion, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Hmm, could it be that?”
An update preview that had once appeared in the developer’s notes.
[We’re currently developing Heaven difficulty, the next level after Hell difficulty. Experience a new story with faster-growing characters and uncover previously hidden truths.]
They had kept repeating the “in development” line for several months, then quietly scrapped it and replaced it with other new content.
The content they added back then was so entertaining that the new difficulty was completely forgotten, but I’d been somewhat looking forward to it, so it was a bit disappointing.
Well, reminiscing aside, the important part here was this line:
“Experience a new story with faster-growing characters.”
So, in this difficulty, the characters would grow faster, which would, in turn, alter the story.
Since this game’s story strictly follows the cliché that hardships make characters stronger, it would make sense that Lilith, the only one who’d faced hardship by now, was the one most affected.
I couldn’t be completely sure yet, but for now, it seemed right to judge things based on this assumption.
If I observe the growth rate of other characters, it’ll become clearer.
“Anyway, everyone will grow rapidly after enrolling in the academy. I might be able to confirm it sooner than I thought.”
“Grr! What the heck! How is your body just passing through things? It’s seriously creepy!”
“Ah, but if everyone’s growing faster, how am I supposed to keep up? The balance is completely messed up.”
“What are you mumbling to yourself about since earlier? We’re in the middle of a sparring match! Focus on the fight!”
For now, I’d just entertain this noisy one until she got tired. Her varied patterns actually made dodging kind of fun.
But seriously, shouldn’t a princess from a royal lineage be a bit more refined like Seria? She looks exactly like a classic saintess, so why does she act like this?
Many people liked her because of this gap, but the dissonance between her appearance and behavior was a bit odd.
In the end, she rampaged recklessly until her magic power was depleted and collapsed from exhaustion, being carried away.
“…It really teaches you not to judge a person by their face.”
“She really is pretty… but this is just too much.”
Lilith’s exploits that day were later nominated in the “Top 10 Conversation Topics for Awkward Situations” and continued to be discussed for a long time, with her earning the nickname “Mad Dog” for a while.
Even former royalty can’t escape being mocked; it’s a terrifying world indeed…
The rest of the duels went smoothly. Honestly, ever since I acquired the ability to dodge, there was no way I could lose in a one-on-one duel like this.
Even if the protagonist eventually reached their peaks, I was confident that in a one-on-one, I wouldn’t lose. Not that I’d win either, of course…
Thanks to this, I managed to hold my ground in the arena until every character finished their test.
“…Is it over?”
“Yeah. At this point, it’s not even impressive anymore.”
“Aren’t you some kind of monster? How can you fight for hours without even breaking a sweat?”
I was becoming certain at this point—my stamina seemed to be affected by the [Irregular] trait as well.
No matter how much stamina one has, enduring so many opponents, letting them go all out before defeating them, was beyond what could be explained by having lots of stamina.
Parrying, dodging, dash-canceling, automatic stamina recovery…
Just listing what I had now was ridiculous, and it felt like this wasn’t even the end, which was even more frightening.
Thinking back, the game system truly was the pinnacle of absurdity…
I felt a bit guilty about possessing it as it was… but while you all grow, I have to just sit back and watch, so cut me some slack.
I won’t even be able to keep up with you when you’re fully powered.
The thought of that made my motivation suddenly drop.
Sigh. The future seems bleak. I guess I should head up now that the tests are over.
“…Hm?”
At that moment, someone stepped into the arena.
Was there someone who hadn’t taken their test yet? I turned to look, and I saw a familiar face.
“Rudion!”
It was her, my first duel opponent. Seria had come down.
The famously shy Seria had walked into a place like this, filled with people watching. What was going on?
‘Oh, no way.’
The sin I’d committed flashed through my mind. The grave sin of elbowing her and knocking her out.
And now Seria, who held a grudge, was standing in front of me… If she’d come out like this in front of everyone, she must really be angry.
Could she be planning to execute me in public? Well… I suppose I have no choice. I was in the wrong, after all.
Without hesitation, I lowered my head to the ground in apology.
“I’m sorryyyy!”
“W-Why are you doing this all of a sudden?! Wait… Why are you pressing your head to the ground… Please stop! I said stop!”
A heartfelt apology with my head on the ground! Not enough? Then the only thing left is a full prostration!
“What on earth are you doing?! It’s embarrassing, so stop it and get up already!”
She started hitting me on the back, but with her strength being only 4, it wasn’t quite a real hit, just enough to feel it.
“Are you forgiving me?”
“What are you even apologizing for, and what do you want forgiveness for? I don’t understand at all… Sigh, fine. There are too many eyes here, so just follow me for now.”
Seeing her worry about the people watching was a relief—it seemed her anger had subsided quite a bit.
I knew it—when you’re in the wrong, just bow your head first.
But she wants me to follow her… Where could we be going?
I was terrified, but I had no choice but to obey her since I’d committed a sin.
With Rudion following Seria out of the testing area, the spectators began to murmur.
“…Are they dating?”
“No way. Do you know who that girl is?”
“Yeah, I know… but why does it look like a girlfriend struggling because of her clueless boyfriend?”
“Honestly, Rudion? He’s cool, so they’d make a good match.”
“Didn’t they spar alone when we first arrived here?”
“…Now that I think about it, they did, didn’t they?”
“Maybe they were secretly dating all along?”
“Nah, can’t be. But if they are, that’s juicy. I love secret relationships.”
It seemed the memory of Seria getting elbowed and knocked out had already faded from their minds.
If Seria had heard this conversation, her face would have turned bright red.
But that’s something we’ll never know.
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