Chapter 27: The Swordsmanship Prodigy Saintess

Academy Entrance Exam (8)

1.

Thud. Thud.

The demon’s severed heads hit the ground.

“Uh… wha…?”

Holt’s jaw dropped.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again.

The demon’s body, now headless, was dissolving into smoke.

“…Another fake, huh.”

Still staring blankly at the rising smoke, Holt turned toward the voice he heard.

Standing there was the Saintess.

She tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear with calm grace.

It was a picturesque scene.

Only one thing clashed with the beauty of it:

The sword in her right hand.

That crude, brutal weapon seemed jarringly out of place.

And yet, the way she held it with familiarity and ease somehow suited her too.

At a glance, she looked like the last person who should be holding a sword.

Soft curves.

Slender fingers.

Nothing about her resembled a warrior.

Even when he first met her, she didn’t give off the slightest aura of strength.

But the girl was strong.

With a single swing of her sword, she had taken down a demon.

Even if it was just a projection, considering how hard it had been for the two of them to handle just one earlier, her feat was incredible.

“Oh no… you’re injured.”

The Saintess approached Holt.

For some reason, she looked bigger now.

It wasn't just her large breasts bouncing with every step.

Rather, the Saintess's presence, which had felt small before, now felt gigantic.

“Let me heal you.”

“Ugh…!”

“It might hurt a little, but please bear with it. It’ll be over quickly.”

The Saintess placed her hand on Holt’s shoulder.

A warm energy flowed into the spot where the greatsword had torn his flesh.

It felt like molten metal being poured onto an open wound.

But it lasted only a moment—

As the heat subsided, so did the pain.

“This is just emergency treatment. Until you can get proper care at the temple, don’t use that arm. Got it?”

The Saintess smiled sweetly.

Holt shook his head, stood up, and reached for his hand-axes.

“There’s still a real demon somewhere in this forest. Until that thing’s dead, I’m gonna use this arm, even if I have to push through it.”

“Brother, that wound could get worse.”

“Wounds are a warrior’s badge of hon—agh!”

“I said it could get worse.”

She gripped his shoulder.

Despite her delicate appearance, her grip felt strong enough to crush bone.

“If you get hurt again, it’ll hurt my heart too.”

“Ow ow, m-my shoulder! Shoulder!!”

“So please listen to me, okay?”

“O-okay! I get it!”

The Saintess finally released his shoulder.

Holt backed away, clutching it protectively.

This bear-like man, who’d just butchered a demon, now looked like he’d been scolded by a bunny-like girl.

“Sister Leine, you’re not hurt, are you?”

“N-No…!”

Leine had the same blank, stunned expression on her face as Holt.

“Hmm… You both look like you have a lot of questions. But please, don’t ask.”

The Saintess raised her index finger to her lips.

“What you saw here is our little secret, okay?”

They both nodded.

She was clearly smiling as she said it—

But it felt like something bad would happen if they didn't keep the secret.

“Anyway, taking down the real demon comes first.”

While they stood around like this, someone else might accidentally wander into the barrier and become the demon’s next prey.

To prevent more victims, they needed to find the demon’s real body and defeat it quickly.

“What should we do?”

Leine hugged her staff to her chest as she asked.

“Hmm…”

The Saintess tapped her lips with her finger, pondering.

“Please follow me.”

To be honest, having them tag along was going to be a burden.

The safest thing would be for them to leave the forest entirely.

But since they were already inside the barrier, escaping wasn’t an option.

The second-best option was for them to stay put until the real body was defeated.

But if they just waited around, the demon might target them again. That carried its own risks.

So despite being a burden, it was better to keep them close.

Even if they were a hindrance…!

“Alright! Let’s go take down that demon together!”

Holt raised his axes, burning with enthusiasm.

“Hey—!”

Leine immediately understood that the Saintess had meant “stay back quietly”, and tried to stop Holt from charging ahead without a clue.

She didn’t want to admit it, but…

They’d only get in the Saintess’s way if they jumped in.

“Sure, let’s do our best together.”

The Saintess smiled sweetly.

She knew there was no point trying to stop them, so she just rolled with it.

“I’ll do my best to keep the pace slow, so try to keep up, okay?”

“Nah, I’ll match your pace. You just run.”

“Can you keep up?”

“Don’t let my size fool you. I’m fast.”

After a moment of thought, the Saintess nodded.

“Alright. Then please make sure Sister Leine keeps up too.”

“Got it.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth—

–Boom!

The Saintess took off through the forest like a magic bullet.

The mana blast she triggered as she moved sent a gust of wind roaring outward.

Holt stumbled as the wind slammed into his face.

“You think you can keep up?”

Leine looked up at Holt as she asked.

“…Are all Saintesses like that?”

“No.”

Leine shook her head firmly.

It went without saying—

What they were witnessing right now was absolutely insane.

Until now, there had been Saintesses who dabbled in swordsmanship as a hobby, but none had ever reached this kind of level.

Just cultivating divine power alone was difficult enough.

Where would she have found time to master mana too?

And yet, Saintess Elia had clearly reached a high level in both.

“She said she was from the Celestial God Church, right?”

“Why?”

“If I believed in the Celestial God… could I get that strong too?”

This time, she could answer that question with certainty.

“No. Not a chance.”

That wasn’t a level you could reach by faith alone.

*

2.

Elia glanced behind her.

“...As I thought.”

They’d spoken so confidently, so she had been a little hopeful.

But as expected, they couldn’t keep up with her speed.

She gradually slowed her pace.

At that exact moment—

A massive greatsword came flying straight for her slender neck.

Elia bent her body backward, dodging it just in time.

“Ah…!”

A few strands of her golden hair were cut off.

Her expression twisted into a scowl as she swung her sword sideways.

The blade rammed into the abdomen of the demon who had tried to take her head, and with an upward slash, she split its torso in half.

Another fake.

As its head split opened like a blooming flower, the demon’s form vanished into smoke.

…

It dared to cut my beautiful hair?!

Elia twisted her lips into a grin.

Now she was definitely going to beat that demon to a pulp.

“Haa… ha… There you are!”

Just as Elia was staring at the dissipating mirage of the demon, burning with a desire for revenge—

Holt came stumbling in, panting hard.

“Put me down!!”

He had Leine tucked under his arm.

She flailed her limbs helplessly as she was being carried like a sack of potatoes.

“This is even more than I imagined… cough!”

As soon as Holt met Elia’s gaze, he choked as if something caught in his throat.

“W-What happened…?”

A chilling aura was swirling around her.

“Nothing.”

Elia replied with a gentle smile.

That smile made Holt flinch.

It was undeniably beautiful, but it had the feel of a predator quietly seething with rage.

“Let’s go. I’ll run slower this time, so try to keep up.”

“S-Sure…”

They resumed searching the forest.

Thirty minutes had passed as they followed behind Elia.

And not once in that time did Holt get a chance to step forward.

The demons kept appearing.

Some charged at them head-on.

Others leapt out of the underbrush.

Sometimes they even surrounded them like a trap.

‘I’ll take the rear…!’

‘Please step aside.’

‘Then I’ll handle the flank…!’

‘I said, step aside.’

Each time a demon’s mirage appeared, it disappeared just as quickly.

—Slash!

Elia swung her sword only once.

A golden line traced through the air, severing the demon’s neck.

Their heads dropped like fruit falling from a tree.

One at a time?

No, she cut down everything in sight with a single stroke.

…Just what the hell is she?

Even Holt, watching it happen firsthand, couldn’t make sense of it.

Leine, beside him, was having the same thoughts.

No matter how talented someone might be in swordsmanship, how could a woman barely twenty years old take down demons singlehandedly?

And she’s supposed to be a Saintess?

They wanted to ask what she really was.

But they couldn't bring themselves to ask because she had told them not to.

It was known that Elia had been raised in a rural convent until she became a Saintess.

But maybe… she’d actually been an adventurer all along?

Judging from her extensive combat experience, it was entirely possible.

Or maybe—

She was a reincarnated hero from the past?

Like the great Sword Saint?

Leine immediately shook her head.

No, that’s absurd.

A dead person being reborn? That’s impossible.

“There's no end to this.”

The number of the fakes was increasing.

Now, four at a time appeared as a baseline.

“If it’s pushing this hard, that must mean we’re getting close to the real body.”

Elia’s lips curled into a smirk.

Seeing that sight, Holt flinched again and coughed.

Something about her smile was just terrifying.

It stirred fear on an instinctual level.

“Found it.”

Another demon appeared—identical in form.

Its arms were long and it held greatswords in both hands.

But this one was different—

A glowing magic circle hovered behind its back like a shield.

The magic circle flickered.

Mist billowed outward, and over ten mirages materialized, surrounding them.

“Trying to overwhelm us by sheer numbers, huh.”

Elia lightly twirled her sword.

“But trash mobs are still trash.”

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