Life in Another World With Narration

4 – Saint Sistina

The next day.

The response came faster than I expected.

As I was cleaning the exterior of the church as usual, a little kid hurried over to me and handed me something.

“This is for you, big brother.”

What was handed to me through the kid was a neatly folded note.

Since I obviously had no acquaintances in this world who would send me something like this, it was clear who it was from.

─I need to consult about a clothing matter. Meet me behind the general store this lunch.

Clothing, huh? It must be about underwear.

Perhaps worried that someone else might see the content of the note, the sender didn’t write their name.

Writing about clothing at the front seemed to be a way to let me know who sent it.

It’s cute that she was too embarrassed to say ‘underwear’ and instead euphemistically wrote ‘clothing’.

No, this isn’t the time for such thoughts.

Although we’ve managed to set up a one-on-one talk, it’s too early to relax.

She needs to accept the fact that Bishop Xavier, essentially the head of this church, is planning to kill the hero and the saint.

The biggest risk is the lack of physical evidence.

Knowing about her secret underwear situation is not enough to convince her.

If Sistina doesn’t believe my words, I can’t imagine what will happen next.

But somehow, I want to save Sistina.

If she hadn’t reached out to help me, I might have died on the streets.

I have to do whatever it takes.

With countless possibilities in my head, I waited for lunchtime to come.

* * *

“The back alley of the general store, huh… where is it……”

A bit early for lunch.

I was heading to the back alley of the general store as the note indicated.

Since I had never been there before, I struggled to find the alley.

Good thing I left a bit early.

The alley was almost hidden behind wooden barrels stacked up by the general store.

Clearly, it was an inconvenient path for people to use, so it was unlikely anyone would pass through here.

Just from the choice of location, I could feel how much my words had unsettled Sistina.

Meow-!

As soon as I entered the alley, a group of cats huddled together mewed shortly and scampered away.

It seems this secluded spot was a gathering place for stray cats.

But where was Sistina?

Even though I had walked quite deep into the alley, I couldn’t see her.

But then, from the opposite end of the alley, I saw a person in a black hood walking straight towards me.

Their head was bowed so I couldn’t see their face, and a long robe concealed their body, making it impossible to identify them.

“The person hidden in a black hood and robe, approaching Yunoa, seemed like an assassin coming to plunge a knife.”

I was startled by the sudden narration.

An assassin? Could it be that Sistina sent an assassin to keep her underwear secret?

“But the person concealed in the hood and robe was none other than Saint Sistina herself.”

Of course.

Is the narration now trying to trick me? Ridiculous.

Anyway, the black figure, now confirmed to be Sistina, stopped right in front of me.

Up close, it was clear she was slightly shorter and smaller.

“…Yunoa.”

Sistina raised her head to look at me.

Her cherry blossom-colored hair was almost completely hidden inside the hood, probably tied up.

But even covered up like that, her beauty was unmistakable.

“What did you mean by that? Are you trying to blackmail me? What do you want?”

Sistina asked with an uneasy expression.

I spoke to reassure her.

“First, I’m sorry for bringing up that topic. I had no intention of blackmailing you.”

“…”

Sistina shut her mouth tight and bowed her head again in response to my words.

After checking no one else was around, I continued with what I had prepared in my mind.

“The truth is, after you showed me kindness in the church, I started having strange dreams.”

I could have cut straight to the main point, but I decided to lay some groundwork.

There was no one else in the alley but us.

Now, I had to focus my soul and tongue on convincing her.

She must be confused right now.

First, I needed to make her realize that I am firmly on Sistina’s side.

She remained silent, listening to me, so I thought a conservative approach would be better to convince her.

“In the

dreams, a bright light appeared and told me various things. At first, I thought they were just dreams. But gradually, I realized the things I heard in my dreams matched reality.”

I spoke with trembling eyes, feigning disbelief.

I said it was a dream, not a narration, because that seemed more convincing.

I deliberately set the start of the dreams after I began staying at the church.

That way, I could hide the existence of the narration and maybe make her perceive it as a kind of religious experience.

The problem was whether I could make her believe Bishop Xavier’s plan based on just the content of a dream.

No matter how much I claim, ‘Everything from my dreams matches reality!’, convincing her is not easy.

“Yunoa, are you saying you see the future in your dreams?”

Finally, Sistina raised her head and asked me.

Seeing the future, I wish I could.

“It’s hard to believe, but everything that came out of the recent dreams has matched reality. Not a single thing has been wrong. If not, I wouldn’t dare talk about such a thing to you, based just on a dream. Think about it. How could I do such a thing unless I was quite sure?”

It feels like trying to convince someone that a bean is actually a pea.

Come on, my tongue.

“And when I saw in the dream that your life was being targeted, I didn’t know what to do. I had to tell you, but I knew you wouldn’t believe me. So I had to mention something that no one else knows, something only about you.”

“…Honestly, I don’t understand.”

Sistina looked away from me and said.

Was it too much?

If I mention Bishop Xavier’s name now, the situation might turn against me instantly.

Is there anything, anything else to gain her trust?

Another card to play besides the underwear…

As I was thinking, a voice echoed in my head.

“Even at this moment, Yunoa can’t let go of his thoughts about the saint’s underwear. Last night, he made all sorts of perverted guesses. But contrary to his shameless imagination, the reason is that Sistina doesn’t want to be a saint.”

No, I wasn’t that fixated on the underwear.

I was curious, so I did imagine a bit last night…

Wait, what? Sistina doesn’t want to be a saint?

“The role of the saint was arbitrarily assigned through the church’s oracle. Sistina didn’t want the role of the saint, which comes with heavy duties imposed without her will. But she couldn’t openly refuse the already determined role of the saint.”

—

“Yunoa?”

“Just a moment. It will only take a moment.”

I asked Sistina, who was looking at me with a puzzled expression, to wait a little.

I was focused on not missing any part of the narration.

“However, if a saint fails to find the hero within a year, she loses her status, and the church selects a new saint. For a saint to receive the Goddess’s revelation, her purity must remain unshaken. Thus, Sistina decided to forsake her purity to naturally escape her duties as a saint.”

So that’s why she didn’t wear underwear.

Understandably, openly refusing the role of a saint would cause troublesome issues with the church.

While outwardly playing the role of an ideal saint, she secretly avoided wearing underwear to prevent the Goddess’s revelations.

By enduring a year, she could step down from her position as a saint, giving the impression she did her best but couldn’t help it.

“However, Yunoa, oblivious to her circumstances, was indulging only in vulgar fantasies.”

Now I understand.

This silly narration.

But I’m thankful.

It provided the perfect weapon to use in this situation.

“Lady Saint. Let me guess one more thing.”

I spoke with confidence, looking at Sistina.

“The real reason why you didn’t wear underwear.”

“……!”

“Is it because you wanted to stop being a saint? To deliberately avoid receiving the Goddess’s revelations, hoping to be naturally replaced as the saint?”

At that moment, with a gasp and her eyes widening, Sistina was taken aback.

“How did you… know that?”

“Can you trust me now?”

I asked, looking straight into Sistina’s eyes.

She might think it was a coincidence the first time.

But if I correctly guess a secret twice, she has to believe it, even if she doesn’t want to.

Sistina looked at me with noticeably shaky eyes and then quietly nodded instead of responding.

And then, I finally told her the truth.

“Bishop Xavier is planning to kill you. We need to escape from here immediately.”

* * *