Chapter 114: Searching for Zetto
Shortest chapter of the novel so far but don’t worry we’ll be back to regular length from the next ch.
Edward made it easier for me to ‘disguise’ myself by providing me with a uniform.
He said I could keep the uniform and didn’t need to return it, after all there was no way a saint would hand over a uniform to a demon.
“Uh… skirt… skirt…”
Ecline, who came out wearing the uniform, blushed and fiddled with her tie.
She was not used to wearing skirts or dresses, as she rarely wore them.
“Isn’t it too short…? How can you fight in this…?”
She bit her lip and pulled down the skirt of the precarious length. She looked at me.
“I think it suits you well, Ecline.”
I stroked her face and smiled.
“Really…? Are you not uncomfortable, saint?”
She glanced at me and stammered.
“It’s a bit uncomfortable around the chest… but I guess there’s no help for it.”
I looked down at the buttons that were about to burst. I couldn’t expect the size to fit either.
‘The length of the skirt is…’
It was similar to what I usually wore, so I didn’t care much.
I checked my outfit by turning around and looked at Ecline in the mirror with a faint smile.
“Heh… It feels like I’m really an Academy student with Ecline.”
Before I was chosen as a saint, I used to talk about the Academy with the orphans I was living with all night long.
I didn’t officially enroll, but I never thought I’d get to experience it like this.
‘I wonder how they’re doing.’
I haven’t seen them much since I became a saint.
I couldn’t give them any favors because I was a saint, so I sent money to all the orphanages in the holy kingdom, asking them to take good care of them… Maybe it’s time to go see them once in a while.
I heard from the director that Rocky, who used to cause trouble, was trying to become a knight.
It was something I was looking forward to in many ways.
That’s when I was lost in old memories Ecline came up next to me, looked at the mirror and said.
“If you had gone to the academy, you would be a third-year student now, right?”
“…I guess so? I would be graduating this year. Then Ecline would be a second-year student?”
“Yes, senior.”
She answered with a playful tone and giggled.
“Pfft, senior… Come to think of it, it’s better to call you that now, right?”
“Really…? Senior?”
Her eyes sparkled at my suggestion.
“…Hmm, let’s think of it as part of the disguise.”
We left the bathroom and behind me, Ecline’s voice calling me ‘senior!’ followed.
It felt like I was really a third-year student who worked hard at the academy.
If only, if only… Under the assumption that I went to the academy, I had ‘coincidentally’ become friends with Zetto.
Wouldn’t he have called me senior too?
‘Senior.’
I naturally imagined him saying something he had never said before.
Would I be able to have such a deep connection with him that I could hear such words from him, even as a joke?
Would he have the time or leisure for that?
I was thinking too much about nothing.
I walked around the city with Ecline looking for him.
I was worried about it, but as Edward said, people didn’t pay much attention to us unlike when we were wearing doll masks.
Occasionally, I felt the eyes of male students who stopped walking by.
As we walked along, Ecline opened her mouth first.
“Sa…”
She tried to call me saint but turned her head quickly when I looked at her sharply.
“Se, senior. Can we really find Zetto? The city is quite large and it’s too late for him to be at the academy…”
Ecline looked up at the night sky where the moon shone faintly and said.
“Hmm… How about we look for places where he might be?”
“Where he might be…?”
“He told me about some places when he introduced me to the academy.”
I answered her and she nodded her head.
We first stopped by the training hall nearby. He said he hadn’t been there lately, but just in case.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find Zetto at the training hall so we kept looking around.
We walked along the street and tried to find him somehow. The white bandages that were his characteristic should have caught our eye easily, but we couldn’t find him easily.
‘I can’t even ask where he is…’
I didn’t know who he was friends with.
To be honest, I hadn’t known Zetto for long either and our encounter was very short. But still, he was a person who bothered me in many ways.
At first, I thought I was drawn to his mystery, but after seeing the revelation of the Lord, it seemed that it was not just that.
I thought back to what the Lord had said to me.
If you miss it, it will be too late. The fate he obtained by self-sacrifice. If you touch it rashly, you will not escape a great disaster. This is not good for me or for the Lord.
Even now, looking back, it was full of hard-to-understand things. The Lord must have explained it as best he could, but… I had a hard time understanding his intention.
Especially the part that it was not good for me either. I didn’t understand that at all.
What did the Lord want me to do by telling me these things?
Was it simply because he was a helpful being in rooting out the demons on this land?
Would his ‘sacrifice’ be inevitable in the future?
My teeth clenched and bit down.
No matter what future awaits…The fact is that I am powerless and that I have to do my duty as an apostle of the Lord.
I can’t go against that.
“…Senior… Se… Saint…?”
I woke up from my deep thoughts and turned my head, and she was staring at me blankly.
“…I was just thinking for a moment, sorry. So what’s up?”
“I thought maybe this is it.”
Ecline looked around and said.
There were dense trees, lush grass, and a pond nearby. On the other side, I could see the fence that marked the boundary of the inside and outside.
We couldn’t find Zetto anywhere in the city, so in that case there were two answers.
Zetto had already left the academy or was sleeping in the dormitory.
We came to the forest, which was assumed to be the way Zetto left the academy, based on Ecline’s information.
The dark forest was quiet, with only the sound of crickets.
“I think it’s better not to use Sheddie’s power today…”
I didn’t go into the shadows because I thought so.
That’s when I crossed the gap in the fence.
“Huh…”
I felt some unexpected people in the wave that I habitually used.
[Is there something going on?]
Sierra, who was ahead of me, looked back and asked me.
“Master, I’m sorry, but… you might want to go into the sword…”
[What are you talking about all of a sudden? It’s not like the saint came.]
“No… That’s… She did. The saint…”
It was clear that Saint Bernice and Vice Captain Ecline were standing on the other side of the forest.
Sierra must have realized that I wasn’t joking because of the sincerity in my voice and immediately opened her eyes wide.
[No, how did the saint come here?]
I shook my head at her question.
I don’t know why she came.
Did she come to see me?
No, how did she find her way here?