Margarita and the Saints
“A mission? For me?”
On this day, King Souma had summoned Margarita, the former Amidonian soldier turned singer—but not lorelei, as she competed purely on her singing talent.
Souma greeted her with his elbows on the desk in a pose you would likely recognize from a certain bespectacled commander.
“I’ve determined you to be the most suitable candidate to undertake this mission. You have what it takes to see it to completion.”
“What it...takes? Do you mean as a soldier? Or as a singer?”
“As a singer, this time... All right, I think I’ve played this up long enough,” Souma said in a more relaxed tone, feeling too embarrassed to keep acting like a big shot when he usually didn’t.
He pulled a piece of paper out of the desk drawer and handed it to Margarita. It was a list of what were presumably people’s names.
“And this is...?”
“You recall the other day, right? When the saint candidates from the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State turned to Souji and sought shelter in our country? This is a list of their names.”
“Ah... I heard they formed a choir of some sort.”
Margarita had learned of this before. It seemed she didn’t know why they had formed a choir, but she assumed that since King Souma was the one to come up with it, there must be some meaning behind it.
“They’re helping me with a certain sort of magic research,” Souma said.
“I feel like I know even less about what’s going on now...”
“Well, have the researchers fill you in on the details later. I’d like you to meet up with the choir. You’ll be looking after them.”
“Looking after them?”
Souma nodded.
“Yes, they only just arrived in the country and hardly know left from right. Mary, who had been the one keeping them together, seems to be busy with assisting Souji now that he’s an archbishop too. I’m sure you can support the girls in her place,” Souma explained with a confident smile. “You’re a woman. And you grew a strong spine training in a paternalistic society. I doubt it will happen, but you’re someone I can count on to look out for the girls and keep people in line so that they’re not mistreated.”
“Yes, sir! If that’s what you need, you can count on me!”
Keeping people in line: that was something Margarita felt she could do.
However, she soon regretted how easily she took on the job.
“““.........”””
Sigh... What do I do about this...?
The researchers were investigating the effect of choir singing on wide-area healing magic. Margarita and the girls’ mission was to support that work. Their orders came directly from Souma himself, so none of the researchers dared look down on the former saint candidates. If anything, it was the girls who were the problem.
They had been taught to be loyal to their god and religion, but wouldn’t open up to other people at all. They lacked communication skills. Without Mary around to bring them together, they were more afraid of the researchers than they needed to be and couldn’t sing properly. This had slowed the research to a crawl.
Margarita crossed her arms. If they were a batch of fresh recruits, I’d shout at them and get them motivated, but... If she tried that with the former saints, she’d only intimidate them.
What can I do? Margarita was wondering when she remembered something.
“Do you mean as a soldier? Or as a singer?”
“As a singer in this case.”
That was what Souma had said back then.
That’s right... I was chosen for this job not as a soldier, but as a singer.
“All right,” she murmured, trying to get herself motivated.
Once she’d hit on that idea, she began tapping her feet forcefully on the spot. The loud noise made the saints all look at her in unison.
Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap!
She struck a powerful beat with her feet.
“La, la, la, la.”
Adding her intense voice to that powerful rhythm, she sang a hymn the girls all knew well. Normally, it was a more austere piece, but her rhythm and singing voice lent it power. Soon, the former saints followed suit.
“““La, lu, la. Lu, la.”””
One after another, they joined her in song. Eventually, the whole choir was singing. When the researchers recovered from their surprise, they gave directions to use Area Heal, and began recording results.
“““La, lu, la. Lu, la.”””
The former saints were enjoying singing with Margarita.
And on this day, their research ended with great success.
Later, the former saints would come to call Margarita “god sister” out of respect and adoration. Not being a particularly strong believer herself, Margarita wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
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