Bonus Story 2:
The Saint’s Soliloquy
Part 1
Lilyxila
FOR AS LONG as she could remember, Lilyxila had lived in the main cathedral of the Holy Land of Lialum. She didn’t remember life before that. The people around her called her the messenger of the Holy God, the saint, and so forth.
She could hear a mysterious voice in her mind that no one else could hear. How long she’d heard it, she couldn’t remember. When she became aware of it, it was already part of her. The voice was fickle and strange, but it listened to her grievances, gave her counsel, and taught her many things.
According to the church’s teachings, this voice was the voice of the Holy God. It was said that it belonged to one of the six Great Sages who had once sealed the Evil God Fallen away, thus saving the world.
This voice of the Holy God was the only friend the young Lilyxila had. As a sacred messenger of the Holy God, few felt comfortable speaking to her as an equal. The priests told her that she must become a heroine to lead the country to greatness, and as such she received a strict upbringing. The voice of the Holy God often spoke of the same thing. For Lilyxila, it was only natural for her to become the hero of the Holy Land; there was no room for doubt in her mind. She underwent her training with little resistance.
When Lilyxila was seven years old, she heard the sounds of a fight while she was walking in the cathedral’s garden. She rushed toward the noises and found a boy sitting on the ground alone. The boy had short blond hair and sharp eyes. His body and face were covered in bruises, and blood dripped from his lips from a cut inside his mouth.
“A-are you okay?” she asked. “Those injuries look serious.”
The boy looked at her. “One of the church’s apprentice mages?” he muttered. “I’m Alphis, and I’m an apprentice Holy Knight. One of the other apprentices was neglecting their training, so I reported them. Then the entire group retaliated against me. They’re all rubbish.” Alphis staggered to his feet.
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Lilyxila rushed over. “Wait! Don’t force yourself! Rest!” She raised her wand and Alphis was enveloped in a gentle white light that healed his wounds. “There. You should feel a little better now.”
Alphis looked down at his repaired body and touched his face with his hand in wonder. “That’s…amazing. You must be close to my age, but you can already use magic?” He stood, closed the distance to Lilyxila, then grabbed her hand and shook it. “I feel much better. Thank you.”
“Wh-wha?!” Lilyxila’s shoulders trembled, her face turning red.
“Oh! What’s wrong?” Alphis asked.
Lilyxila’s embarrassment stemmed from the fact that she’d rarely had the chance to interact with members of the opposite sex her own age. Many were far too starstruck by the saint’s presence to even approach her. This was the first time a boy had ever approached her and taken her hand.
Lilyxila pulled her hand back from Alphis’s and took a few steps back like she was about to run away. “Ah, um, f-forgive me. I…I do not have the chance to speak to many people my age, so I’m a little out of my depth…”
“Oh, really? Well, thank you for your help.” Alphis began to move toward the door.
“W-wait!” Lilyxila stopped him.
“Yes…?”
“U-um, would you…like to chat with me for a little while longer?”
The two of them sat down side by side on the stone staircase for a while and talked.
“All of those apprentices, they’re just jerks. All they think about is getting praised, avoiding getting in trouble, and slacking off. It’s like they don’t even know they’re candidates for the prestigious Order of the Holy Knights. I fear any of them becoming my peers in the future.” Alphis kept the conversation flowing with his complaints about the other apprentices. “Our country could be embroiled in war someday. They say a Demon King may appear somewhere in the world soon. We have to be prepared to face such a calamity. They don’t get that.”
Lilyxila looked at Alphis with shining eyes. “You are very admirable, Alphis.”
“I’m just doing what I think is right to protect my father, my mother, my relatives, and my friends. And now that I am an apprentice to the Holy Knights, I’ll be able to do that one day. I’m just doing what I want to do. There’s nothing admirable about that.”
Alphis seemed like a boy with a good head on his shoulders. Lilyxila quietly wished she could be more like him. It was then that she realized that she had no idea what she was doing.
Her whole life, Lilyxila had been told that she needed to train to become the saint who would rule over the Holy Land—and she’d obeyed those orders without question.
As she thought more deeply, she began to question her reasons for doing so—and realized she had none. This was the first time it had occurred to her. Lilyxila could not voice her own beliefs and goals without hesitation like Alphis did.
“You…really are admirable, Alphis,” Lilyxila sighed.
“Well, so are you. I didn’t think anyone could be that good at magic at our age,” he replied.
“Would you…fight by my side someday?” As the saint, Lilyxila would be assigned a retainer from among the Holy Knights to accompany her on a regular basis. She suddenly hoped that Alphis would be her retainer.
“Hm? Oh, well, I guess there will be times when the church mages and the Holy Knights fight together. I’d be honored to fight alongside you.” Alphis looked up at the clock tower that towered over the cathedral, frowned, and then stood. “I should get going,” he said.
“Oh! Um! Can we…chat some more later?” Lilyxila asked anxiously.
Alphis looked back at her and chuckled. “Sure. Let’s meet up again soon. By the way, what’s your name?” As he said it, he put his chin in his hands and tilted his head, squinting at her. “Wait… I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before…”
“Saint Lilyxila! There you are!” A priest rushed toward Lilyxila from the hall. “Oh, what a mess! They’ll be furious with me if you’re late for your lessons, you know! Come, this way!”
“Oh! I-I’ll be right there!” Lilyxila bowed her head at the priest, then stood up.
“Y-you’re…the saint?!” Alphis pointed at Lilyxila, his mouth agape. He’d clearly thought she was an apprentice mage of the church. Even if Lilyxila was fine with it, he would face harsh punishment from his higher-ups for speaking so casually with the same saint he would serve someday. “F-forgive me! I’ve only ever had the chance to see you once, and it was only at a distance, and several years ago! Please forgive my rudeness!”
His hasty switch to formality made Lilyxila giggle. “There’s no need for that, Alphis. You can just talk to me normally, like earlier.”
“I-I-I can’t! Even if the saint’s the one asking, I still can’t!”
“You…!” The priest rounded on Alphis. “How dare an apprentice Holy Knight speak to Saint Lilyxila in such a familiar manner! And you even pointed your finger at her! How disrespectful!”
“I-I didn’t know! I’ve never seen her face clearly before! I’m sorry!” Alphis, caught between the priest and Lilyxila, looked as though he were about to cry.
After that day, Lilyxila came to visit Alphis often. This was the start of quite a significant commotion. Saints were supposed to devote themselves to the Holy God, which meant they were strictly forbidden from engaging in any sort of romance. Therefore, when the priests caught wind of Lilyxila’s frequent jaunts to visit a boy apprenticing under the Holy Knights, they were eager to find him and put an end to it.
But no matter how hard the priests searched, they could not find a single male apprentice knight with whom Lilyxila was close. This led to the suspicion that Lilyxila was meeting with the apprentice boy in secret, which caused even more turmoil.
The reason for this confusion was simple. Thanks to Alphis’s cropped hair and androgynous features, young Lilyxila had assumed the apprentice knight was a boy. But Alphis wasn’t a boy; she was a girl.
The priests searched high and low, but could find no trace of Lilyxila’s fabled apprentice boy. To them, it was obvious that Alphis was female, so they assumed that she could not possibly be the one Lilyxila spoke of.
When the truth was discovered, both Lilyxila and Alphis were mortified. Lilyxila didn’t realize Alphis was a girl until a priest told her, and she was laid up in bed for three whole days from the shock—a rare occurrence for her.
Despite this misunderstanding, Lilyxila and Alphis grew close. One day, when they were together, Lilyxila said to Alphis, “You know, I’ve never felt like I had a real reason to fulfill my purpose before now… I was tasked with protecting Lialum’s citizens, but…I don’t know anything about them. So when I get older, I think I’d like to travel across the Holy Land and meet them.”
“That sounds like a good idea, my saint.”
“But…I don’t know when I’ll get the chance. So until I do, I’ll do my best to protect the people that my dear Alphis wants to keep safe.”