THE DUKE’S DAUGHTER AND THE NOISY REINCARNATIONS
“Fei, are you okay?”
“I’m fiiine. Sure, it was a bit of a surprise, but…even if that was one of my parents, it’s not like we ever met, right?”
“Gotcha. Make sure Yuri doesn’t find out about this, all right?”
“Good point. If she found out I have Taboo now, she’d probably kill me.”
“Hmm? Did someone say my name?”
“Huh?! I definitely didn’t!”
“Don’t pop up out of nowhere like that! It’s bad for my heart.”
“What do you mean? I just walked over here quite normally.”
“It’s all right. I’ll just have to scare you as compensation for the year I just lost off my life.”
“What?! Why?!”
“Oh hey, so are you giving Shun a pass on your missionary work today?”
“Oh, I already did it earlier.”
“You did, huh…?”
“Why, I couldn’t possibly abandon my mission to convey God’s greatness to others! Even if you don’t understand it now, I’m sure the time will come when you all recognize God’s glory!”
“Can’t wait.”
“I just realized, this whole blind faith thing is a bit like those ridiculous siblings.”
“Oh yeah, I think I know what you mean. Shun is a Follower of Julius, and Sue is a Follower of Shun.”
“Quite so! He treats me like a religious fanatic, but he doesn’t realize that he’s a hero fanatic himself! Isn’t that just awful?!”
“That’s rich coming from you.”
“I guess I kinda get what you mean, though. When it comes to Julius, that guy never shuts up.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard enough tales of the hero’s bravery to teach a class on it myself.”
“Like the one where a poor village couldn’t afford to pay for monster extermination, so he saved them free of charge?”
“How do you feel about that, as part of the Church the hero is supposed to work for?”
“Well, he isn’t supposed to do things like that, but…he makes up for it by donating to the Church himself, so the higher-ups can’t really complain.”
“That’s royalty for you. Is he loaded or what?”
“Yeah, he’s got the support of the whole kingdom behind him. If the hero were just a commoner, he’d probably be wielded like a weapon and sent out on all kinds of dangerous missions. But if anyone tries to force Julius to do too much, they risk making him an enemy of the Church.”
“Seems complicated.”
“Yeah, and apparently, Julius takes it upon himself to do dangerous work like that anyway.”
“He’s quite the hero!”
“I’ve actually met him, too, and he totally lives up to the hype. His existence itself is a miracle.”
“I guess with an older brother like that, you’d either rebel or end up worshipping him.”
“Maybe it’s better this than rebelling, then?”
“Sure, I think so. Wanting to follow in his brother’s footsteps is the manly thing to do.”
“I’m not sure how convincing that is, coming from a former man.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m still a man on the inside, thanks.”
“No you’re not.” “Yeah, right.”
“What’s with the instant rebuttals?!”
“Ah-ha-ha. Still, I’d love to meet Sir Julius for myself.”
“You haven’t? Aren’t you the future saint?”
“I’m still just a candidate for now. As long as the current saint, Lady Yaana, still lives, it’s strictly hypothetical. As a mere future saint, I have no relation to the hero. A new saint is only born when the current saint or the current hero passes away.”
“So if the hero dies, the saint gets replaced even if she’s still alive?”
“Of course. A saint only serves one hero. So if Sir Julius died, a new saint would be chosen even if Lady Yaana lived… Ah, but it’s improper to speak of such things.”
“It’s all right. Shun may be blinded by admiration when it comes to Julius, but nobody’s invincible. There was even a time when he fell into a demon’s trap and was poisoned. If a full-blown war with demons breaks out, there’s no guarantee even Julius would survive.”
“That’s true. We can’t talk about it in front of Shun, but apparently, fighting a real demon is quite difficult.”
“Yes, and the long-silent demon lord has started moving again.”
“Yeah. According to the rumors, it might’ve been right around when we were babies.”
“It seems like a lot happened around that time, doesn’t it? The religious war between the Word of God and the Goddess, the appearance of the Nightmare of the Labyrinth, and so on.”
“The goddess is a false idol!”
“Ah, sure, sure. The Nightmare of the Labyrinth… That was the spider monster that dealt Julius his first and only defeat, right?”
“I overheard him talking about it with Shun. It sounds almost like the demon lord!”
“What if it really was?”
“How could a spider be the lord of demons? I thought all demons were humanoid.”
“Yeah, but maybe it had a Humanification skill, like what you’re after, Fei.”
“You know there’s no such skill as Humanification, right?”
“Oh, so there isn’t…”
“There’s not. Although, I suppose it’s possible there are skills that could do something similar.”
“Well, they say demons look exactly like humans, so if a monster could disguise itself as human, it could probably mingle with demons.”
“That’s misleading. Demons really ought to at least have horns or something.”
“Wouldn’t that make it a devil, not a demon?”
“I’ve never heard any such distinction.”
“Hmm. Say, this is just a thought, but…a new demon lord took over right around when we were born, right? Could you imagine if the demon lord was one of us reincarnations?”
“Yo, don’t even joke about that. Besides, that’d mean the demon lord was a baby at the time, too.”
“Oh dear. I’m sorry.”
“I doubt a baby could become a demon lord so quickly unless it spent every waking moment from the time it was born moving around and leveling up.”
“Wow, talk about a horror story.”
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