Former Warrior Turns Into A Million-Dollar Actor [EN]: Chapter 194

[Side Story] Saintess Aria – (1)

* * *

“Saintess.”

A nun’s soft voice drifted from outside the stone chamber. The bed, carved directly from stone, was cold, imbued with the chill of dawn.

Aria Riverot opened her eyes.

“Saintess, the bird has cried three times.”

The nun outside repeated patiently. Aria replied, infusing her voice with a touch of divine power.

“I’m awake.”

“The Archbishop seeks you.”

“Does that old man never sleep? Summoning people every dawn.”

Such words and actions were hardly befitting a nation’s saintess, but the nun remained silent, betraying no surprise, well aware that their saintess was anything but conventional.

“…It seems he summons you regarding the hero summoning. He said the ritual will begin soon.”

“I know. The coolest secret chamber just before the sun rises to its zenith. I’m tired of hearing it.”

Today was an auspicious day chosen for the great undertaking. They would tear open the gap in another dimension with forbidden secret arts and summon a qualified hero from there.

Stepping one foot off the bed, the saintess grimaced at the chilling sensation.

‘It’s called summoning, but it’s no different from kidnapping.’

The secret art created by the now-vanished Archangel, Obiel of Space-Time, was not magic that should be allowed to humans.

Even Aria herself, praised for possessing the most powerful divine power, could barely attempt it with the help of dozens of selected nuns.

If they failed? The uncontrollably growing dimensional rift would swallow the Iron Kingdom.

“…It might have been better if that happened.”

“Pardon? Did you call me?”

“No. Let’s go to the summoning circle.”

And the saintess knew.

That this day,

Would be repeated hundreds of times over.

“We greet the Saintess.”

On the way to the stone chamber with the nuns, knights with swords bowed their heads in greeting in the long corridor. The knights maintained their respectful posture until Aria, having received their greetings, passed by.

Here, in the Iron Kingdom, the saintess held invaluable importance.

The ultimate weapon in preparation for emergencies.

Along with a few heroes, a force capable of partially deterring the power of the Great Demon.

Miraculous divine power and healing magic that restores even near-fatal injuries.

And, the only being capable of summoning the hero, who was virtually their only hope.

“Finally here!”

Therefore, such hospitality was natural. Upon entering the massive stone chamber, King Orcus de Lazarus of the Iron Kingdom and the Archbishop greeted her as if they would jump for joy.

“Yes, how is your energy?”

“What energy?”

“It’s the day the world’s essence gathers in our kingdom, so of course, it must be the most auspicious day! I’ve been talking with the Archbishop since dawn…”

“Could you please just be quiet?”

The king, cut off mid-sentence, merely blinked. Turning her gaze away from the incompetent monarch, Aria suppressed her loathing and contempt.

The roots of this country are rotten.

Even though the demon army endlessly swarmed, the Iron Kingdom’s situation would have been better if the king had been wise and the military strong.

As seven fortresses fell and the walls of the Tarasque Mountains were breached, countless people were trampled by demons.

While mountains and fields, coastlines and mainland fortresses burned, the Iron Kingdom’s leadership did nothing. Like frightened rats, they hid within their walls, merely awaiting the approaching end.

‘And among them…’

A massive man clad in a pure white cassock. The Archbishop, boasting a corpulent frame, was the very trash that had driven the people into misery.

Noticing her displeasure, the Archbishop subtly intervened between them.

“Understand, Your Majesty. It seems the Saintess did not sleep well last night.”

“It’s alright, it’s alright. Isn’t it the dimensional secret art created by Obiel? It’s natural to be nervous.”

“I’m not nervous. I slept well too.”

Aria retorted as she walked into the center of the stone chamber.

Sixteen ivory pillars and eight magic stones. Conditions to amplify divine power and a small safety device to sustain the dimension even after opening the rift.

The Archbishop, who had followed busily, lowered his voice and coaxed.

“Saintess, what is wrong? Is there really something wrong…”

“Get lost.”

“Pardon?”

The Archbishop’s plump cheeks turned red, then white again. Aria repeated clearly.

“I can’t concentrate, so get lost. Will you take responsibility if I fail the ritual because of you, Archbishop?”

“…”

Even as the Saintess, it was difficult to disrespect the Archbishop, who was the King’s favorite.

However, today was the day of the ritual. No one dared to touch her, no matter what she did.

The Archbishop, grinding his teeth, whispered as if spitting out the words.

“You must succeed. If, by any chance, you fail to summon the hero, I will personally hang my neck on the ramparts.”

“Suit yourself.”

There was nothing more to argue about with her sullen reply. The Archbishop stomped out as if leaving footprints on the stone chamber.

Soon, other nuns entered and dismissed everyone else. In the silent stone chamber, only the Saintess’s soft voice echoed.

“Idiot, how many times have I died?”

Was it the seventh time now? Or the eighth? Perhaps it could be more.

When the hero she summons, God, dies, all time in the world reverts to the past.

The dawn of the day the hero is summoned… to this very moment.

-There is no need to fear.

When the archangels first appeared before her. Asruel conveyed that.

-We have stabilized the dimensional rift. The transfer will succeed.

-I obey.

-And…

The Archangel of Scarlet Light rarely distorted his wavelengths. Just as she, kneeling, was wondering, she heard an enigmatic story.

-The secret art of memory is becoming obsolete day by day. Check from close proximity to the summoned one whether something is wrong.

-Pardon?

-It means to sense the hero’s changes. You too will realize it in due time.

At first, she didn’t know what he was saying. She thought it meant to watch over the hero so that he would not fall, and she forgot about it.

But after the hero was summoned, the truth she realized was far more shocking than she had thought.

‘Could it be that it was a secret art that endlessly revives unless the Great Demon is killed…’

She knew that the archangels, those gloomy absolutes, had arranged something.

Because the lofty heavens she had seen were never just noble.

But she had never imagined that it was the hero’s infinite resurrection and that the world would continue to repeat until the Great Demon was killed.

So when she opened her eyes in the stone chamber for the second time, she was seized with instinctive worry.

‘…Will the hero remember?’

Contrary to her worries, the re-summoned hero was not flustered or riotous. He simply faced the holy war again with the same attitude as the first time.

And Aria realized.

That the hero – God had not lost his memory.

“Then, is everyone ready?”

“Yes, Saintess.”

The nuns, standing in various places around the pillars as if surrounding Aria in the middle of the stone chamber, kneel.

As she expanded her senses, she felt the presence of the Archbishop, the court mage, and King Orcus lurking outside. Aria shook her head with a worm-eaten expression.

“Even if I tell them to leave, they don’t understand. They’re always unhelpful.”

“Pardon? What do you mean…”

“I wasn’t talking to you sisters. Now, let’s begin.”

Rustle.

As she took off the clothes she was wearing, two nuns approached and draped her with a blessed cloth.

This thin cloth would act as a medium to keep the Saintess’s soul and body bound to the Iron Kingdom while searching for the hero in the dimensional rift.

“I offer this to the glorious beings of the high heavens. Beyond the world and dimensions, grant your grace so that this staff of God may safely return.”

The moment she began chanting, the nuns also began praying, pouring divine power into Aria.

KWAH-AH-AH―

It starts now. Feeling the ritual moving far away from her body, Saintess Aria Riverot thinks.

20 years ago.

The Ortzurk Fortress that was destroyed by the demon army. The last sight of that burning watchtower.

She was an ordinary orphan.

She doesn’t remember if she had parents. Nor how she ended up drifting to Ortzurk Fortress, the northernmost part of this continent.

She only vaguely guessed that she was the offspring of one of the prostitutes who roamed the Iron Kingdom in groups, selling alcohol and laughter.

“Aria, wake up Jameson and kick him out. It’s almost time for the guests to arrive!”

“Leave it to me. I’ll break his head, even.”

“Just don’t bash him too hard with the dipper. You break everything, and there’s nothing left in the store, you.”

Of course, she had no particular complaints about that fact. The innkeeper, who pitied her, often gave her work and food.

Desperately surviving in the harsh winters and grueling summers of the fortress, amidst the rough mercenaries who went to and from the battlefield, was the girl’s way of survival.

After finishing her daily work, Aria went down to the stream and nudged the back of a boy sitting alone.

“Hey. Why are you being so gloomy again?”

“Oh, Aria…”

Hans, the stableman’s son, was her closest friend among the few children of her age.

Aria sat down next to him, frowning when she saw that her friend’s face was covered in tears.

“What’s wrong, did someone hit you? Who was it?”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it? This is blood!”

Hans looked down at the scab of blood dried on his hand and burst into tears again.

“My, my dad…”

The two boys and girls hurriedly ran up the riverbank. As soon as they entered Hans’s shack, a fishy scent of blood wafted out.

On the bed, which was a mess with bloodstains, Hans’s father, stableman Bill, was breathing heavily with bandages wrapped around him.

“Yesterday at dawn, heuk… Joshua and Father Elden brought him, but they were attacked by demons while scouting… keueuk.”

After hearing a few words of Hans’s intermittent story, she could guess.

A few days ago, the fortress’s forces went over the palisade to subdue the demon army loitering right in front of them.

But it was a trap. The demons, who lured out the advance party, surrounded them with more than twice their numbers, and barely managed to escape back into the fortress.

It seemed that Hans’s father was among those who had been drafted as guides.

“But why are you doing this? You have to call other people, adults!”

Hans shook his head, dropping his head.

“The doctor is at the barracks. There are many other injured people… It seems there are not enough hands to treat the soldiers. When I said my dad was hurt, they told me not to bother them and get lost.”

“Damn bastards, they took people and then…”

Aria gritted her teeth, but there was nothing she could do. Weren’t they children who weren’t even ten years old?

If they dared to anger Gluth, the fortress’s leader with the double axe, they might all be kicked out together.

“We don’t need those kinds of people. I’ll bring Anna, at least, so let’s change his clothes first.”

Fortunately, Bill’s injuries were not so deep that they were immediately critical.

While drawing clean water and disinfecting the wound, Hans screamed a moment later.

“Aria, there’s light coming from your hand… !”

Ortzurk Fortress.

The divine power of the Saintess, whom King Orcus de Lazarus of the Iron Kingdom was desperately searching for,

is manifested in this remote watchtower.

* * *