22. Astraea, The Red Saintess

Valerian answered Rose’s wink with a vicious growl, as though he were returning it.

“A brat? Don’t make me laugh.”

There was real anger wound up in his voice, and by now it was plain that these two knew each other and didn’t get along. But Rose wasn’t scared in the least, and she shot right back.

“Is it my fault you keep flunking? Why are you throwing a damn tantrum at me?”

The mighty Valerian had no comeback. He just seethed without a word, so Rose sneered and kept going.

“What’s the point in winning the war? You kill every enemy and bury all the hidden truths inside them right along with the bodies — so try a hundred more times, you’ll still get ‘fail.’ This is your third year of retrying, isn’t it about time you switched up the pattern?”

I thought so too. She was no ordinary character. Inside House Arne, Valerian’s authority was absolute, with only the head of the house above him, and yet Rose was treating him with an attitude of what do I care?

So to let some of the heat out of the room, I turned to her with a question.

“In the Trial of Arms, you earned the proof of qualification by defeating a hero of the past. So what are we supposed to do here?”

The result of my Trial of Arms was still on hold. Normally you passed Arms first and sat Wisdom after, but on hold had never happened before, so the head of the house had given me permission to sit the Trial of Wisdom anyway.

Or so Seraphina had given me a heads-up.

When Eve tried that fusion of ours during the Trial of Arms, it had wrecked my whole body. Seraphina had brushed all that aside as if it were nothing and forced me into the Trial of Wisdom in a wheelchair. I’d been thinking that this woman had neither blood nor tears in her when —

— There may be more to it than killing.

It was a loaded remark, so while I was stuck in bed I’d put Leo to work gathering information, and I’d come away with something quite useful.

“I’ve heard the Trial of Wisdom sends you into a history recorded in a book. And that you go in by possessing a figure from the past.”

Rose’s eyes went round.

“Hoho? You’ve done your homework, and thoroughly at that.”

With that confirmation, I swallowed a dry laugh. So it was true. The Trial of Wisdom was possession. I’d already possessed Arden, and now I was going to enter a book and possess someone all over again. In genre terms, an isekai inside an isekai, or something like that.

“Correct. For our little bandage Young Master, physical limitations and all, there’s no better trial.”
“Bandage Young Master?”
“What else am I supposed to call you, looking like that?”

Rose swung her staff, and the gigantic three-meter tomes around us shrank with a whoosh down to the size of a palm. Dozens of books now drifted weightless through the air.

“Pick out whichever of these strikes your fancy.”

Without giving it much thought, I caught one that had floated over to me, a book with an old leather cover.

“…Surviving One Hundred and Eighty Days on the Battlefield?”

The moment I read the title aloud, Rose’s eyes flashed.

“That one? You’ve got a good eye! It covers the very beginning of House Arne — the founding head’s early days settling the land! A fascinating story!”

The chic witch of a moment ago was gone. What came out of her mouth now was the rapid-fire rap of an otaku who’d just run into the object of her obsession.

“Truth be told, the founding head was originally a Mercenary King from the south, you see? And then one day, out of nowhere, he threw away all his wealth and glory and came all the way up to this barren edge of the North. The history books say it was a ‘pull of fate,’ but in academic circles there’s all kinds of debate. Why here, of all places, where there’s nothing but blizzards? There’s the theory of a secret lover, there’s the theory that he came hunting for a legendary treasure… and oh, by the way, the field-ration description on page one hundred and thirty-five is truly —”

“…”

She didn’t stop to breathe. When the long synopsis finally wound down, she paused for a beat and spoke again.

“The point is, within that history there is one — single — unsolved mystery.”

Her voice had suddenly dropped.

“Why, all of a sudden, did he settle in this frozen land where there is nothing? What is the truth of that day? Your job is to investigate that truth and bring it back.”

The excitement drained out of her as she wagged her index finger.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. You’re not here to become a hero and write a new history. The history already exists, and the ending is fixed. It does not change.”

Elli, who’d been listening beside me, cut in cautiously.

“Um… so, you don’t change the ending — you find the secret hidden along the way… like a detective mystery?”

From somewhere came a Pop!, and fireworks burst above Elli’s head.

“Ding-ding-ding! That’s it exactly, you cute little maid girl!”

Rose nodded vigorously, then glanced sideways at Valerian and lobbed a barb.

“Try to bulldoze history with brute force, and you’ll end up like somebody — stuck looking at me for over three years.”
“Hmph.”

Valerian snorted in displeasure, and from that alone I could roughly guess why he kept failing. He’d most likely been smashing his way through with that overwhelming swordsmanship he’d polished. When you possess someone the body changes, after all, but the skills and reflexes you’ve spent a lifetime honing don’t go anywhere.

Told to dig into the underside of history, he’d literally dug into the solar plexus of his enemies instead.

So a hundred more attempts wouldn’t have made any difference.

I looked over the drifting books. On the back of each one was a short synopsis, like a game-quest blurb.

A Caravan’s Tale of Survival, Stranded on the Northern Snowfields
The Attempted Poisoning at the Palace Banquet Hall

“I’ll go with my usual.”

Plenty of the subjects were intriguing, but Valerian didn’t even look at them. He plucked a single book out of the air without hesitating, and when I stole a sideways look at the cover he’d reached for so easily, I almost choked.

Turns Out the Peaceful Farmer’s Life I Was Living — I’m Actually the Empire’s Strongest Knight?

Anyone could see it was a hidden-power protagonist premise, where the hero cracks his enemies’ skulls open with the same hoe he tills his fields with. It looked exactly like one of those archetypal munchkin novels that once swept through the Korean web-novel market.

That signature power-fantasy rush of the genre is dangerously addictive.

Anyway, the moment Valerian set the book afloat, a black portal yawned open again between the giant tomes. He was just about to step in with practiced ease when —

— Clack.

The tome that had been hanging open snapped shut and slammed the portal closed with a thud. One slip and Valerian would have been squashed flat.

“What are you playing at?”

Valerian’s brow twitched, but Rose, unfazed, gave her staff a casual swing.

“This time, the two of you have to go into the same book together.”
“What?”
“That’s the rule of the Trial of Wisdom. And honestly — instead of pulling another one-man-hoe-warrior routine in some farmer’s body, just go in together and tag along after bandage-boy.”

Rose thumped her chest as if exasperated.

“I sent you in to learn the origins of the now-lost Imperial Style of Hoe-Combat, and what did you do? Spent the whole damn day every day swinging a hoe and beating people half to death with it! Is that head of yours just for decoration?”

Valerian’s face twisted into something ugly, and as if he couldn’t hold it in any longer, he laid a hand on the scabbard at his hip.

The menacing aura sent Elli into a panic, and she shoved my wheelchair as far away as she could and bolted with it. But Rose didn’t so much as blink. She held her ground against him while the bloodthirsty atmosphere dragged on, until Valerian lifted his hand off the scabbard and it looked like things were winding down. Then, just as abruptly, he clicked his tongue and came striding right toward us.

Elli, pale as a sheet, started to ask something, but I didn’t answer her. I waited for Valerian, who stopped directly in front of me, looked down, and spoke.

“You choose.”
“Are you sure?”
“It makes no difference.”

I nodded, and he stepped aside as if to say get on with it.

“Let’s go.”

At my word, Elli glanced nervously at Valerian and pushed the wheelchair, and there we were at the center of the archive, with dozens of history tomes floating weightless in the air. Rose watched me with clear interest.

“And what kind of novel — pardon me, history — does our bandage Young Master prefer?”

Without hesitating, I pointed at the largest red book, the one Rose was sitting on.

“Astraea.”¹

At that, Rose flinched.

“The story of the greatest, yet most mysterious, Saintess in the entire history of House Arne. That is where I will go.”

For a moment she stayed frozen, and then a thick smile spread across her lips. She got up from where she’d been sitting and shifted onto her broom, and the instant she snapped her fingers — snap — the gigantic red book shrank in a flash to palm size and landed plop in my hand. Gold-leaf letters on the cover spelled out the title.

Astraea, the Red Saintess

Rose circled me, explaining as she went.

“This isn’t all that old a history. Only a hundred and fifty years back.”

And her explanation went on.

“Today, House Arne has sworn fealty to the Empire and lives out its days as the sword that guards the North. But House Arne did not bend the knee from the start. Quite the opposite — during the Empire’s unification wars, the very last house to keep resisting, the one that inflicted the most bitter defeat of the entire campaign, was none other than House Arne.”

I listened in silence.

“At the time, Arne was holding even against the Imperial army — no, more than holding. Arne was winning. Because at the heart of its forces stood the greatest Saintess in the entire continent’s history — Astraea.”

Holy power that came close to the infinite. Miracles that could bring a dying soldier back from the brink. So long as she was there, the army of Arne was effectively immortal, or so the story went.

Elli tilted her head at all this.

“Huh? That’s strange. With someone that incredible on their side… how did the house end up losing to the Empire?”

It was an innocent question, but Rose answered it in a voice heavy with meaning.

“That is the mystery of this book.”

She tapped the book on my palm, tap, tap.

“She disappeared.”
“What?”
“Not in the middle of a battle. Not by assassination, either. And she didn’t betray the Empire and defect.”

By then Eve and Elli were both listening raptly.

“One night, just like that, she vanished into thin air. No body, no trace.”

Having lost the one who held them together, House Arne came crashing down fast, until it was finally forced to its knees beneath the Empire’s hooves. Or so the story went.

“The goal of this Trial of Wisdom is simple.”

Rose smiled brightly.

“Find out where Astraea disappeared to, and bring back the truth of that day.”

Valerian, who’d been listening behind us, came striding back over.

“There’s nothing complicated about it. Go in, comb the place top to bottom, and that’s that.”

I agreed with him on that one. You only really run into problems by running into them, after all.

Rose checked how the two of us were taking it, then spoke.

“So you’re going in without an attendant again this time?”

Valerian cut her off in a single stroke.

“Anyone weaker than me is just baggage.”

She gave him an unbelievable look and turned to me.

“And what about bandage-boy?”

I pretended to mull it over for a moment, then looked up at someone behind me, someone whose hands were clamped tight on the handles of my wheelchair. Those hands were trembling like a leaf in the wind.

“…W-Wait just a moment! This is the first I’m hearing of any of this. An attendant comes along?” Elli’s voice quavered. “D-Don’t tell me… I have to go?”

I gave her a bright grin.

“Of course. With you by my side, what have I got to worry about?”

And I shot her a thumbs-up.

Elli’s face went white, and the purple of Rose’s eyes glittered with mischief.

“Is our little maid girl mentally prepared, hm?”
“M-Mentally prepared for what…?”
“The book you’re about to go into is set in an age of war.”

Rose covered her mouth and snickered as she added:

“Inside a wartime army camp, the gender ratio is — appalling. Which is to say, there are practically no ‘female bodies’ for our little maid girl to possess.”
“D-Does that mean…”

The blood drained from Elli’s face. They say don’t tell me is what gets people killed, and Rose didn’t forget the finishing blow.

“The odds are very good… that you’re going to end up possessing some sweaty, muscle-bound male soldier.”
“…!”
“If your luck’s really bad, it could be some bushy-bearded middle-aged man. Well? Doesn’t that sound like a refreshing change of pace?”
“Hiiiiiek?!”

Elli let out something like a scream and stumbled backwards. For sweet, simple country-girl Elli, a muscle-bound, sweat-reeking middle-aged man —

It was practically a death sentence.

She looked down at me with tears brimming, a pleading look that begged please leave me behind. But I just grabbed her by the wrist.

“Elli. Even if you turn into a middle-aged man, you’re still my exclusive personal maid. It’ll be fine!”

— KU-WAAAANG!

The red book in my hand, Astraea, the Red Saintess, blazed with a powerful light.

“May you arrive at the true truth.”

A vast vortex of mana swallowed me, Elli, and even the tongue-clicking Valerian whole in a single instant.

“NoooooOOOO—!!”

Only Elli’s despairing wail echoed off the walls of the chamber.