20 – Saint Candidate – 1

 

Rosaria approached me until she was right in front of me. The smell of milk-like perfumed skin and a hint of shampoo floated in the air. Her slightly rounded arms pushed together her large bosom as if inviting me to touch.

 

I stretched out my arms. I crossed her wrists before her lower abdomen, taking hold of the intersection. Rosaria, assuming I had fallen for her seduction, didn’t resist at all.

 

I changed the posture by raising her grabbed wrists above her head. Instead of me, Rosaria was pressed tightly against the wall. As her back hit the wall with a light thud, a captivating smile crossed her face.

 

It was a smile fit for her provocative attire.

 

“Heh, a man after my taste, aren’t you? Rougher than you appear.”

 

“No. I have something to ask too.”

 

“What, my preferences? Erogenous zones? Breast size?”

 

“Why you’re doing this.”

 

The seductive smile vanished from her face. Our eyes met. Rosaria, who had been staring intensely at me, let out a sigh, possibly reading the emotions in my gaze.

 

“You’re not going to do more, are you?”

 

“If I had that intention, I wouldn’t be standing here like this. By now we would have overlapped somewhere.”

 

The woman in front of me was totally undefended. Her arms raised above her head revealing clean armpits, her breasts almost completely bare, as well as her private parts.

 

In such a situation, I’m not sexually exploring her but asking questions which made her realize my lack of interest.

 

“Are you castrated or perhaps you prefer men? How can you remain so calm when someone like me is completely undressed and making advances? Wow, even your lower body doesn’t respond.”

 

“Neither are the case, so stop the nonsense.”

 

Thinking of the prince who used to give me a teasing wink, I felt disgust. I tightened my grip around her wrists. Rosaria emitted a faint groan, frowning. Her body twisted slightly.

 

As a normal man with sexual desires, I can’t deny being attracted to that sight. But my caution towards the current situation was stronger. My lower half is something I can control.

 

“Understood. I won’t speak anymore. Can you let this go now? It’s starting to hurt.”

 

“I will if you promise not to goof around.”

 

“I won’t. I won’t do anything. Why would I attempt anything more with a man who isn’t even affected by seduction, with this attire? I know when there is a chance and when there isn’t.”

 

I let go of her wrist. Rosaria, still glaring at me, rubbed her wrist a few times and then placed her hand on her still exposed pink-tipped breasts.

 

White holy power poured out from her hands. The torn and drooping dress rose up and stuck together again. The sagging cloth hung horizontally.

 

A star was created at the center of the breast bone, connecting the two sides of the fabric. The pink tip, too, shyly hid behind a piece of white cloth that barely seemed wide enough to conceal it.

 

“It’s your turn to reply now.”

 

“Alright, alright. You’re so hasty. This isn’t a standing conversation. Let’s sit.”

 

At my urging, Rosaria sat down on the bed. Her still half-naked, large breasts jiggled significantly with the straightforward motion.

 

As if to emphasise her breasts, Rosaria, who was slightly leaning back, gestured towards me.

 

“What are you doing? Won’t you come?”

 

“I don’t need to sit. You can answer now.”

 

“Ah, you’re such a bother. Hmm… I’m not sure where to start. Yes, I have a secret.”

 

“A secret?”

 

“Yes. In fact, I have two personalities.”

 

This was a new piece of information. Surprised, I watched as Rosaria, with her unique provocative smile, continued.

 

“You’ve surely heard rumors about me, right? About how I enjoy torturing and tormenting nuns. Word spreads, you know.”

 

“I’ve heard.”

 

The sources might be a bit different from common people’s, though.

 

“It’s all true. And all the work of my other personality. You saw it in the forest. Remember how surprised I looked when I released the nun’s hair when I saw you?”

 

I remembered. She was dragging the nun with zest, wondering where to start. But as soon as we locked eyes, she looked surprised and hurriedly told the nun to leave.

 

“It’s sad to admit, but I have no control when that personality switches. Only after the maniac has had her fill of torture am I released. It was the same this time. That maniac had chosen a random woman and was about to have her turn when we ran into each other.”

 

“I see, then?”

 

“Dissipated immediately upon seeing you. And then I emerged. Can you imagine my surprise? She’s always had her fill of blood before fading, but this time, without any torture or anything, she just left. That’s unbelievable, right?”

 

“Dissipated?”

 

Now, this was news to me. Having the power to switch an alternate personality? Impossible.

 

But Rosaria wasn’t finished just yet.

 

“Yes. Even now, she has retreated within me and does not come out. Even though I have control over this body, I always felt a constant itchiness here, as if that crazy woman could spring out at any time. But I don’t feel that way anymore. I’ve never felt like this before.”

 

Rosaria placed a hand over her heart, although due to her ample chest, it just appeared as if she was resting her hand there.

 

“That’s why, I thought maybe you could help. Maybe that you have some special ability. It’s difficult to share when others are watching.”

 

“So is that why you attacked me when we got here?”

 

“Well, um, that is…”

 

Stammering, Rosaria was at a loss for words. Not out of embarrassment, but because she couldn’t find an excuse.

 

It was suspicious. Extremely so.

 

‘There are too many anomalies.’

 

Rosaria never mentioned that Priscilla was a multiple personality case. She just claimed she was crazy. If there was such a striking detail, she should have mentioned it.

 

From when the heretic’s brand was marked, Rosaria was a faithful companion. She couldn’t have just consistently shown an evil personality from that time to the end of the second part.

 

Even now, she was panicked, desperately looking for an excuse. If she was telling the truth, she wouldn’t be so exasperated.

 

There must be another genuine reason that she couldn’t speak to me about.

 

“So, uh, I just…I just liked you personally…”

 

“You put every man you like through this? Where do I rank then? One hundredth or so?”

 

“Are you crazy?! We just met for the first time! What the hell did you hear?”

 

Rosaria clamped her mouth shut as she realized the contradiction in her words, but it was already too late. Chuckling, we moved closer to her.

 

“You said that to become a saintess, one must be pure, yet you tried to do such things with me? What could be the story, huh?”

 

“…”

 

From noble mtl dot com

 

“Excuses should hold water for them to be believed you know, I can’t trust your words. There’s a person who gives me 100% reliable information, and there’s a lot that doesn’t add up between what they say and what you do.”

 

Rosaria, seemingly out of loopholes, hung her head.

 

“Starting from now, I’ll give you a chance. Please listen carefully, because this will be the last and only chance that you get.”

 

“…”

 

“Whatever secret you’re hiding, just confess. I won’t laugh, I’ll listen seriously. If you don’t want to, you can just go back, and never see each other again. Easy, right? The choice is yours, Miss Saintess Candidate.”

 

“…”

 

Rosaria, with her head hanging low, didn’t reply. Instead, she murmured quietly.

 

“How can anyone take a novel character’s confession seriously…how do I tell this to somebody else?”

 

“A novel character?”

 

Upon interrupting her murmurs to ask a question, Rosaria looked up in surprise.

 

“Y-You heard that?!”

 

“Yes. Very clearly.”

 

At last, the clues started falling into place – the other personality she spoke of and why she had persisted in her behaviors.

 

“…”

 

Rosaria looked totally defeated. Before panic could set in, I started speaking.

 

“Wait, so you’re a possessed one too?”

 

“What…?”

 

Her crimson eyes widened instantly, her lips struggled to form words and only managed a shrill scream.

 

“W-WHAT?!”

 

To jump to the conclusion, everything she just told was a lie.

 

That she exists in a romance novel world, that she’s a possessed character and that her confessions would never be believed at first glance so she tried to explain it by drawing metaphors.

 

She had been dragged into this world and suffered like Priscilla. Whenever she tried to step away from the original plot, her control would force her to witness the same novel end, dying and reviving again.

 

He had been repeating that process, and for some reason, he said that he had been able to regain a bit of control over his body from a week ago.

 

But it was really just a bit. Because every time he visited a place related to the original story, he ended up having to just watch as control was snatched away and the original owner of the body wreaked havoc, just like before.

 

The same was true of the incident in the Bellium Forest. The reason he had taken the nun with him was because he was immediately overridden and forced to act as the real Rosalia, as soon as they arrived at the academy. It was the real Yu-Ra Shin, a visitor, who has been acting after meeting me.

 

The reason he behaved so rudely from the first meeting was because it was his first time doing such a thing, and he was very flustered. Moreover, since he considered himself a character in the novel, he must think even if the relationship is wrecked, it can be recovered.

 

He came to apologize honestly, saying he was sorry, and I decided to forgive him.

 

‘So there was someone else like Priscilla.’

 

It was a description that made me think of Priscilla overall.

 

If there is a difference, it would be that Rosaria has only repeated the regression four times and she met me in a state where the constraints of her actions were slightly relaxed.

 

And although Priscilla is still very dependent on me, to the point of being almost shattered before meeting me, as if she were no more substantial than a doll, Rosaria is relatively sane.

 

“…So, let’s just quit everything else for now and first let’s knock down your position as a saintess candidate. I’m sick and tired of that damned church. I don’t even want to glance in their direction.”

 

“Does their attempt to cover me up have anything to do with you giving up your position as saintess candidate?”

 

“Of course. Do you think the Starlight Church will let me go so easily? They will use any means to prevent me from leaving. But what if I were to lose my virginity? Oops, that fouls up their plans, doesn’t it? Only pure virgins can become saints, as I just explained. How will the church handle someone who breaks the rule set by the Goddess? They’ll have to kick me out.”

 

Rosaria laughed as though she found it amusing to even imagine it.

 

“Oh, don’t worry. I was planning to keep who I did it with a secret. The church might retaliate if they found out I got Saint Ada to break her vows, you know? Those bastards are a lot more rotten than you’d think. I couldn’t bear to see my benefactor suffer because of that.”

 

Now I understood the whole story. Rosaria must have been pretty desperate too. Desperate enough to attempt such a thing with me, a stranger.

 

She had to watch as she ripped human flesh and broke bones with her own hands, and in the end, as her innards melted away while still alive, she had to thank the main character of the novel and die.

 

Trapped inside the body of Rosaria Leone de Michaela, a character from the novel.

 

“But I have to be honest, I never imagined you would reject me. So I didn’t think of any excuses. It’s a bit weird for me to say it myself, but I’m not just pretty. My body and clothes …”

 

Rosaria, who had little flick the star in the middle of her chest, began to tremble and could not continue speaking. Her face gradually turned red.

 

“Your clothes… your clothes…”

 

“You don’t mean to tell me you are wearing these because you want to?”

 

“Of course not!”

 

Rosaria’s body shot up as if sprung.

 

“Do you know what that damn Pope said to me? He gave me this crazy crap to wear and spouted nonsense about how I look like a goddess and that it’s pleasing to the eye! Pleased my ass! They just enjoy seeing me almost naked! You don’t know how many times I wanted to cut that son of a bitch!”

 

From the way she was breathlessly using vulgar words she never used before, it seemed she had a lot of pent-up anger. Rosaria was shaking her clenched fists and continued to vent her anger.

 

“It’s not just the Pope either! All these disgusting, dirty, and annoying old geezers would look at me every day and whisper to each other that if I weren’t a candidate for sainthood, they would … I’d hear these rumors, even though they knew I could hear them! And then what? Despite all this, they say that it’s natural for the saintess to dress like this? Is this considered normal?”

 

It seemed she recognized that her outfit was far from being considered ”normal’. It is disturbing to imagine the humiliation and embarrassment she must be feeling in such attire every day.

 

“Normal my ass! Even a cheap whore wouldn’t wear this outfit. Only a complete messed-up goddess would think this was appropriate dress, but such a crazy world does not exist! And there can’t be such a crazy goddess!”