The Saintess Who Returned a Step Ahead

The revived Alka headed straight for the central plaza, the place where the stream had been broadcast.

Ignoring how heavy her freshly revived body felt, she reached the plaza and was met with applause.

"Saintess-sama! Good work out there!"

"Thank goodness, you're alive! So to revive, you have to die first, huh…"

"Come, come, this way to the front! Hey, everyone! It's the Saintess-sama, let her through!!"

The crowd gathered in the plaza parted to the left and right of their own accord, opening a path, a flower-strewn aisle leading toward the stream monitor.

"Everyone… thank you."

And when she had advanced all the way to the front of the monitor, there was Narikin, smiling on the screen.

"Oh, Alka. Looks like you made it back safe and sound."

"I died, though, so I wasn't exactly 'safe and sound'?"

"? You're the Saintess, so you'd be fine, wouldn't you?"

"That's true, but I still died, you know!"

She puffed out her cheeks in a pout. Not resentment, exactly, more like a bit of sulking. The level of complaint Alka was lodging.

Which only went to show that, for the Saintess Alka, death was no more than "that level" of a thing.

If she ever found out that her head had been blown off and the cross-section of her neck had been caught on the stream, she'd probably find that more embarrassing than the fact she'd been killed.

"Oh, right, Narikin-sama! What about Kyou-sama!? Where's Kyou-sama!?"

"Kyou-dono went home a little while ago."

"Grr! To think she'd suddenly come at me to kill me! I never saw it coming! Honestly!"

"She did say she finished you off in an instant so you wouldn't suffer."

"Thank you ever so much for the consideration! It really was in an instant. If it hadn't been me, I'd have died without even realizing it and turned into a ghost!"

Heartwarming, or maybe not. The viewers couldn't help feeling on edge at this squabble that sounded like a walk along a tightrope.

But Narikin was all smiles in his own way, and the Saintess Alka, for her part, was airing her complaints having judged that "this much spoiling ought to be allowed."

In other words, it was all a farce. Banter not so different from a normal stream.

"Well, never mind all that. Alka, go on and make the report to Barakdo-dono a step ahead of me. You're surely tired right after reviving, so it can wait until you've rested."

"Yes, yes, understood. So this is essentially a wife's household support duty, then."

"Hm? The deemed-married status shouldn't have gone through, should it?"

"I'll get a marriage to go through by some other route eventually, so I'm essentially your wife!"

Even after coming this far, Alka still wouldn't give up the seat of "wife," and at last the viewers were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"By the way, Narikin-sama."

"Hm? Is something the matter?"

"Oh, nothing, congratulations on your marriage to Kyou-sama. I never did say it, did I."

"…Huh? Wh, ho, hold on a moment, Alka. What are you talking… eh?"

"Um, I heard about it on my way here. Apparently the two of you broke a Dungeon Core together?"

The Saintess hadn't been present for it, busy as she'd been with harvesting the dragon at the time.

"E-er, indeed. …………Ah."

"Is it coming back to you, Narikin-sama? That's right. For a man and a woman to destroy a Dungeon Core together is the 'joint work of a married couple,' performed even at weddings, nothing less than a marriage rite. Granted, as a ceremony it's more often done with a white pot modeled on a Dungeon Core, but still."

And the two of them had done it with a genuine Dungeon Core.

In other words, there was nothing for it but marriage. Marriage was the only possibility!

"…Ngh. All because I let myself be dazzled by that dragon's materials…! I was the one who wanted to break it with him! All because I let myself be dazzled by that dragon's materials…! I wanted to! Together!"

"E-er, you needn't say it twice for me to grasp that you were dazzled by the dragon's materials. Perhaps we should call this being saved by that dragon?"

Because otherwise, she'd have been aiming not just for "deemed married" but for marriage through the joint work of breaking the Core.

"But your marriage to Kyou-sama is established, you know! Congratulations."

Hearing that, Narikin's face turned troubled. He cast a glance off to one side as if pleading for help, squeezed his eyes shut, and then heaved a sigh.

If he hadn't wanted it, he should have broken it man-and-man rather than man-and-woman. The Saintess had caught wind of this on her way here as well: Kyou had apparently confessed to being a man.

She'd surely disguised herself with a sex-change magic potion, but since they'd been a man and a woman at the moment they broke it, that was the fact, the reality, the truth.

Witnesses there were by the mountain-load, no shortage of them.

"…Mm, thank you."

Narikin forced the words out as if wringing them from himself.

"You're next, you know?"

"That, I cannot promise."

"Narikin-sama, you let your guard down surprisingly easily, so I'm certain I can pull it off."

"…………If that's what you think, then I suppose that's how it is. In your head, anyway!"

"Yes, yes. Well then, Narikin-sama, do hurry on home yourself."

"Mm. …Hey, Alka, that exchange just now has nothing to do with marriage, right?"

"This much is just an ordinary greeting, so it's fine."

"I see. Then — ah, no. By 'fine' you mean 'has nothing to do with it,' don't you?"

"Ufufu, I wonder?"

"Oi, Alka?"

"I'm only joking. Yes, it has nothing to do with it, Narikin-sama. I'm tired too for today, so I won't play at any such maneuvering."

Once he'd confirmed that much, Narikin finally let out a 'phew.'

To begin with, streaming, this sort of exchange conducted through a magic tool, had no precedent in the history of the Church of the Light God, and — ah, no, there was the chance the precedent for letters could be applied.

Unable to stop fretting along those lines, Narikin warily brought the stream to a close.

After that, it was just a matter of going home. Today marked the end of the dungeon-clear streaming, too. Would the people who'd bought tomorrow's tickets get a refund? Well, that was no concern of Alka's.

"Everyone, good work today as well. High Priest Barakdo's verification is still pending, but next time — if there is one, perhaps it'll be the Papal inauguration ceremony?"

To the viewers whose excitement hadn't yet cooled, Alka bid her farewell and left the park.

On the way out, one of the viewers put a question to her.

"Saintess-sama, how do you intend to win Narikin-sama over!?"

"…Fufu, that's a secret."

It's easier to catch someone off guard when you keep your hand hidden.

That wasn't a teaching of the Church of the Light God, but simply a fact born of Alka's own experience.