Chapter 31
While Reina was gaining allies and solidifying her footing at the Grand Shrine and the academy...
Clael, who was in the frontier town of Eggbell, looked at a letter that had arrived from the royal capital and let out a deep sigh.
"......Rejected for another arranged marriage. What did I even do wrong?"
In the shrine's chapel, Clael held his head in his hands.
This was the fifth time. Yet again, the arranged meeting was canceled at the last minute.
He had no idea why.
He hadn't done anything wrong. In the first place, he hadn't even met the woman face-to-face... and yet, for some reason, he kept getting turned down.
"This is strange... Something's off... I mean, they were the ones who proposed the meeting in the first place..."
Why did it feel like he was the one being dumped when all he did was accept the proposal?
What had he done? Did he have some kind of repulsive flaw?
(I mean... it really feels like some invisible force is at work here. Maybe I did something bad in a past life?)
It's not like he was desperate to get married... but with this many failures, he was starting to worry that he had some fatal flaw when it came to marriage.
"Hey, Clael. You in here?"
"Hm...?"
The chapel door opened from the outside, and a familiar friend walked in.
The one who showed up at the shrine in the middle of a weekday was Roywood Belen, a friend from his school days.
Clael, still seated, raised one hand to greet his friend.
"Yo, Roywood. You need something from me?"
"Just here to guide someone. Brought someone who wants to see you."
"Wants to see me...? Who is it?"
"Me."
A woman peeked out from behind Roywood.
A woman of the same age with flowing red hair... it was the face of an old friend.
"You... Erika?"
"Long time no see, Clael."
The one who entered the shrine was one of his friends from school—Erika Jermie.
A daughter of the Count Jermie family, she had attended the academy in the same year as Clael.
"What brings you all the way out to this rural town? You need something from me?"
Clael stood up from the chapel chair to welcome the friend he hadn't seen in years.
"Like I'd come all the way to the frontier just to see you! It's for work, work!"
"Work, huh... Oh yeah, didn't you become an adventurer?"
Erika was a count's daughter, but even back in school, she had loved swinging a sword around.
Normally, she would have been married off in a political marriage after graduation, but she hated being tied down by her family and became an adventurer instead.
In practice, she had cut ties with the Jermie family and was rumored to be wandering around like a drifter.
"You're still working as an adventurer?"
"What do you mean 'still'? Of course I am!"
Erika, for some reason, crossed her arms and pouted in annoyance.
"I got promoted to A-rank recently, you know. I'm a veteran adventurer now!"
In this world, there were monsters, and adventurers who hunted them.
Adventurers were ranked from A to E, with A-rank being the highest rank.
"Wow, that's pretty impressive. You must be a celebrity in the royal capital."
"A celebrity, huh... Didn't expect that coming from you."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Clael, you're quite the celebrity in the royal capital too. 'The great priest who raised Saint Reina,' they call you."
"............Huh?"
Clael blinked in shock.
This was news to him. He had never heard anything like that.
"Right now, the royal capital is abuzz with talk of Saint Reina. Apparently, she's been telling everyone... 'I am who I am today thanks to Priest Clael Byrne.' At the Grand Shrine, there's even talk of appointing you as the guardian saint who raised the Saint—the patron of child-rearing and education."
"W-What the hell is that..."
He never imagined things had gotten to that point.
'Guardian saint' was the highest title awarded to exceptional priests and clergy, and receiving it meant one's name would go down in the shrine's history.
"You, who said 'I'll just live off donations in the countryside,' seem to have climbed the ranks, so I figured I'd drop by to see your face. Glad to see you still have that spaced-out look."
"Haa... I see..."
He muttered... then suddenly, Clael realized something.
"Hm? Didn't you say you came here for work? That you didn't come just to see me...?"
"I dropped by as part of the job! Don't nitpick every little thing!"
For some reason, Erika's face turned bright red as she stomped hard on the floor of the shrine.