A little while ago.
In the Slantania Kingdom a gloomy atmosphere engulfed a room at the royal palace.
"Well then shall we hear the report?"
The Prime Minister, Dominique Goltz said with a perplexed expression.
There were eight people sitting on the left and right of the conference table: the Defence Minister, the Interior Ministers, All Knight Order's Captains, the Court Mage Division's Head Magician and lastly, the King sat at the far end of the table.
It was Joseph Hawk, the Defence Minister who spoke next.
His low heavy voice echoed.
"The situation has not changed, it is still unfavourable. Each of the Knight Orders have been sequentially subjugating and we have somehow managed to withstand. But at this rate, the demons will eventually flood the forest."
Demons are born when more than a certain concentration of miasma is gathered. The stronger the miasma is, the stronger the demon born.
Miasma occurs relatively close to humans and it is still unknown as to why miasma occurs.
Miasma easily accumulates in dark places where people do not live: such as forests and caves.
It wouldn't have been a problem if it only accumulated but demons were born from it. Those demons migrate near villages and towns, causing harm to humans.
The miasma in the surrounding area became thinner when a demon was defeated. The thickening of miasma could be prevented by continuously defeating demons.
In peaceful times, it was possible to prevent the demons from flooding villages and towns thanks to the Knight Order's periodic subjugations.
However in this kingdom, once every few generations there is a period when the speed of the miasma thickening exceeded the speed at which the demons were defeated.
That was exactly what was happening right now.
The Knight Orders coped with it by raising the frequency of their subjugations.
However since the number of subjugation increased year by year according to the miasma, the Defence Minster and the knights agreed that they could only endure it for another year or two.
If they couldn't withstand then the demons will flood out from places that easily accumulated miasma and attack the surrounding villages and towns.
The Interior Minister, Alphonse Hummel, spoke after the Defence Minister.
"Various aristocrats have also reported that it has become increasingly difficult to cope with the miasma."
The Knight Orders subjugated the demons in the outskirts of the capital but regional aristocrats appointed people in their territories for subjugation.
Those appointed people are not farmers but mercenaries from various places.
The mercenaries gathered together to form mercenary groups. The feudal lords commission the mercenary groups to subjugate demons in exchange for a reward.
That was how they maintained the safety of their territories. But recently the rewards that the feudal lord gave out couldn't match up with the amount of demons and coping with them has become difficult.
Mercenary groups were also putting their lives on the line.
Even if it was somewhere they lived, if the reward was too low, they wouldn't work.
If the mercenary groups didn't work for some reason or if one mercenary group, alone, was not enough, sometimes the Knight Orders at the royal palace would lend a hand.
However since they had their hands full with the situation around the capital and weren't in any position to help out the other territories.
The Prime Minister further deepened the crease between his eyebrows at the response given by the Defence Minister and Interior Minister. Next Michael Huber, the Special Division's Captain, was asked a question.
"How is the search for Saint-sama?"
"…… I am sorry to say but we have yet to find her."
Huber's voice was also gloomy and heavy.
In times when the miasma thickened, a maiden called the【Saint】would appear somewhere in the kingdom.
The purifying magic used by the 【Saint】was powerful and made it possible to defeat the demons one after another.
Because of the【Saint's】appearance, they could overcome the period by suppressing the flooding demons.
From that continuous history, this time too, they anticipated the 【Saint's】appearance somewhere in this kingdom and so the Special Division searched in various places.
They believed that they would immediately find the 【Saint】but contrary to their expectations, three years had passed since they'd began their search and they still haven't found her yet.
The Special Division earnestly searched the kingdom around every nook and cranny before the steadily approaching time of destruction.
But they never found her, they'd thought she hadn't been born yet and visited the same places many times.
But still they couldn't find the 【Saint】.
A heavy silence fell upon the room.
"Would you like to rely on a legend?"
Yuri Dreves, the Court Mage Division's Head Magician, quietly grumbled.
His whisper resounded throughout the quiet room and everyone sitting at the table turned to look at Dreves.
Dreves glanced at the surroundings and slowly lifted the documents placed in front of him.
"There is a ceremony called【Saint Summoning Ceremony】."
"That is…… That certainly is a famous story but isn't it just a fairy-tale?"
"No, it is a true story. The contents of the ceremony are written in here."
"What did you say?"
"Amongst the books stored in the prohibited book chamber, there is a grimoire detailing the ceremony performed at that time."
"Are the contents reliable?"
"I do not know. The method is written in here but the procedure is quite complex. A number of mages will also be needed to perform the ceremony. There's a 50% chance that it would either succeed or fail."
"Something like that……"
"But I think that it is better to try it out rather than wait and do nothing as the demons overflow."
The【Saint Summoning Ceremony】was a ceremony constructed in ancient times when the 【Saint】did not appear no matter how thick the miasma got; just like now.
The sages in the past used all their knowledge to construct this ceremony in order to summon a maiden who would become the 【Saint】from far away.
It sounded like this ceremony was exactly what they needed right now but the ceremony had only been performed once, at the time of its creation and has since been dormant until today.
Therefore even if they performed the ceremony, they were uncertain about whether or not it would succeed.
Many mages and tools were needed for the ceremony so even just performing it was costly.
In peaceful times it wasn't worth it to perform the ceremony but since the limit was already approaching, such trifle things weren't a problem.
The King who was silently listening to the conversations, spoke.
"We will perform the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】. Court Mage Division, start the preparations immediately. Everyone else, continue with your duties."
Thus for the first time in hundreds of years, the Slantania Kingdom performed the【Saint Summoning Ceremony】.
The【Saint Summoning Ceremony】succeeded.
A maiden from a different world was summoned by the ceremony.
However a problem occurred here.
Two maidens were summoned.
According to the documents, up until now only one 【Saint】has ever appeared at a time.
Was one of them the【Saint】? Or were they both 【Saints】? Or were none of them 【Saints】?
The only person who could judge this was the Court Mage Division's Head Magician, who'd collapsed due to the backlash of the ceremony and was currently still sleeping.
More problems occurred.
The leaders of this kingdom only learnt about the existence of the two saint candidates on the following day after the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】was performed.
The success of the ceremony was immediately reported to the King by the first Prince, who had desired to supervise the ceremony, himself.
The first Prince had only reported that the 【Saint】had been safely summoned, he made no mentions of the number of people summoned.
At that moment the leaders of the kingdom thought that things were finally going to settle down but they were at their wits end when they were notified the next day.
They were notified that for some reason the first Prince only greeted one of the saint candidates and that he'd left the other candidate behind in the room.
Furthermore the other saint candidate was angry at the first Prince for ignoring her and leaving her there that she tried to leave the castle.
Fortunately because of the knights who were stationed there took action, they were somehow able to stop her from immediately leaving but the leaders could guess that her impression of this kingdom were considerably bad.
"I wonder what she's doing now……"
The King's tired and exhausted voice resounded throughout the place.
A month had passed since the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】.
At this time, the day had long faded and the outside of the room was enveloped by darkness.
Two men were relaxing and drinking wine at Earl Waldeck's detached house in the capital.
One of them lived here and was the second son of Earl Waldeck, the owner of this house. Johan Waldeck the Director of the Medicinal Herb Research Institute.
The other was Johan's childhood friend, Alberto Hawk, the 3rd son of the Margrave family and also the captain of the 3rd Knight Order.
Although they often drank together at the Waldeck estate, recently Alberto had been busy subjugating demons and couldn't make time for it. So it's been a month since they've met up at the Waldeck estate.
"Come to think of it, I heard that a new person recently joined the research institute."
"Mhm? Ah……"
It had been a month and a half since they've met and exchanged information so Alberto asked about the new researcher who'd recently joined the research institute.
Johan smiled bitterly as he remembered something upon Alberto's question.
Johan had guessed that this was the reason why Alberto had made time out of his busy schedule to visit the Waldeck estate as if it was nothing.
"What's she like?"
"Extremely normal."
"Normal?"
"She acts the same as the other researchers."
As not to stray far from the question, Johan replied to Alberto's question in a roundabout way.
Although Johan knew what Alberto wanted to know, he answered in a roundabout way like he usually did.
Just like this, Johan always made fun of the serious Alberto.
Since Alberto also knew this he returned Johan's answer with a bitter smile and urged him to continue with his gaze.
Johan was satisfied upon seeing that and gave the answer that Alberto wanted to hear.
"At present, she's had no complaints towards the royal palace and she's working earnestly."
"Is that so? It seemed that she was angered promptly after being summoned. Since she was excessively furious, it seemed that the interior affairs official who corresponded with Saint-sama went deadly pale upon angering her."
"Seems like it. Because of that, those guys who are always putting on airs are acting really humble this time."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
On the day that the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】was performed Alberto had left the capital to go subjugate demons do he'd only heard about what had happened afterwards from rumours.
He'd heard various rumours upon his return and that was where he'd learnt that one of the saint candidates was currently working at the Medicinal Herb Research Institute, where Johan was the Director.
So he'd thought that it would be faster to ask Johan directly instead of listening to rumours and made time out of his busy schedule to visit the Waldeck estate.
Johan explained how he came to look after the saint candidate, Sei, at the research institute.
Suddenly two weeks ago, a black hair, black eyed woman started coming to the research institute every day.
At first one of the researchers, Jude kept her company.
However since the research institute was an all-male place and there was a woman who was interested in medicinal herbs; in no time at all most of the researchers had kept her company.
Johan remembered that he'd felt uneasy looking at Sei, who had unusual coloured hair and eyes.
A few days before that, Johan talked with his older brother, who he'd met by chance at the royal palace and heard about the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】being performed.
He'd heard that two woman had been summoned one with dyed brown hair and black eyes, the other with black hair and black eyes.
When Johan remembered this he immediately contacted his older brother.
The next day after he'd told his brother about the black hair, black eyed woman who often visited the research institute; he was urgently summoned to the royal palace.
In the designated room at the royal palace, besides his older brother, there was a high-ranking officer.
Johan sat on the lounge suite set sofa and listened to the story. The woman who came to the research institute was indeed one of the summoned woman. If possible, they wanted him to look after her at the Medicinal Research Institute.
Why did he have to look after her at the research institute?
Although she was just a candidate, the 【Saint】was just as important as the King in this Kingdom.
No, since the Saint held the fate of this country in her hands, she was more important than the King.
What was the reason for keeping someone like her, who might be the 【Saint】at the research institute located at the corner of the royal palace?
When Johan pointed that out, the High Official wiped sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief and awkwardly replied.
Sei didn't have a very good impression of this country because of the first Prince's actions after the summoning.
Actually after the first Prince left, she also tried to leave.
Not from the room but from this country.
The people in the room had somehow managed to stop her and guided her to another room. After that thanks to the High Official's desperate persuasion, they'd somehow managed to persuade her into staying at the royal palace.
There has been no instances of two 【Saints】being summoned in the past. Since there has been no case of two 【Saints】being summoned by the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】, the people at the royal palace currently didn't know which one wasn't the 【Saint】.
However since there has been no case of this happening, both of them could also be the 【Saint】so it was dangerous to let them go therefore both were being kept at the royal palace.
Meanwhile Sei liked the herb garden at the royal palace and had recently been visiting it every day.
The High Official thought that if she deepened her relationship with the researchers then her impression of this Kingdom would improve.
"The point is that we're cleaning up His Highness, Kyle's mess."
"We originally planned to have her learn about this country from a teacher. Incidentally it seems that the saint candidate under His Highness, Kyle's protection is attending the Royal Academy."
"Perhaps, since you have made her angry you plan to curry her favour by letting her do as she pleases?"
"I guess so. We're not in a situation where we could take things slowly…… In any case, you've provoked the interior affairs many times right?"
"Of course."
Johan broadly laughed and raised the glass in his hand.
Having heard the High Official's story, as an aristocrat Johan understood what the people at the royal palace was thinking. There seemed to be no problem in watching over Sei at the research institute.
But Johan didn't like the High Official's attitude since he was completely entrusting everything to him.
So Johan made a difficult expression and gave many reasons for refusing.
Even if she came to the research institute during the day, there was quite a bit of distance between the royal palace and the research institute so it would be difficult to commute daily.
Some of the researchers were staying at the research institute for that exact reason so what will happen if she asked to stay as well?
Even if she said she would like to stay at the research institute, wouldn't it be a problem to make her stay at such a scruffy place?
They didn't have the budget to reconstruct the rooms at the research institute, and so on.
Johan also gave other various reasons for why he couldn't do it and finally things went the way he wanted.
After agreeing to support the saint candidate, Johan causally looked over the resources to plan for the improvement of the research institute. His brother who was sitting next to him stiffened but he ignored him.
Afterwards the renovations of the room that Sei would live in was given top priority. One week was an exceptionally short period of time but they managed to finish the renovations by the time she moved.
"But it's strange, no matter how much they wanted to gain the favour of the saint candidate, didn't the guys from interior affairs just leave her in her room?"
"Leave her?"
"According to one of researchers, she was complaining about it. She was summoned then guided to her room but after that they just left her alone so she had a lot of free time."
"What do you mean? It's different from what I heard."
Johan raised an eyebrow upon Alberto's words.
Alberto had heard at the royal palace that she had poor health after she was summoned and retired to her room.
As a matter of fact, there was a time difference between Japan and Slantania Kingdom. When she was summoned, it was late at night in Japan but in Slantania Kingdom it was still morning.
Because of that Sei was summoned after she'd returned home from work and was tired. Therefore after being guided to her room she immediately passed out on the sofa.
Because of that people didn't have a very good impression of her.
She looked like someone with poor health. Her skin was pale from working late day by day and she had eye bags under her eyes from many years of sleepless nights.
The court lady who had saw Sei passed out on the sofa sleeping like a dead person had rushed to inform the High Official. The High Official had panicked because he'd thought that the summoning had a bad effect on her body, which was so different from her angered state a few hours ago.
The High Official decided to give Sei time to rest and that was what had happened.
In addition due to these series of events, the information about two saint candidates was reported to the King a day late.
One of the reasons that the report was late was because even if just slightly, the High Official had been a little conflicted over the fact that he had to report their carelessness.
"I see. Her complexion was certainly bad when she first came to the research institute."
"What about now?"
"Now? Well…… Her complexion is considerably better now."
When Sei had first came to the research institute it was just like Alberto had said. Johan recalled that he'd concluded that she looked like she was prone to poor health.
Time had passed since then and although her skin remained white since she secluded herself at the research institute but the bags under her eyes had slightly improved. If people saw her now, they wouldn't think that she had poor health.
"I see. Is she eating properly……?"
"Eating? You sound somewhat like a father."
"…… Shut up. It seems that recently the candidate at His Highness, Kyle's place hasn't been eating and it's becoming problematic."
"Hoh."
"The chefs are trying everything they can but since she's lost her appetite, His Highness is worried that she'll collapse someday."
"The candidate at my place also doesn't have much of an appetite."
"Is it normally for people not to eat much in their country?"
"Who knows? I'll ask about it next time."
The food seasoning used in Slantania Kingdom was too simple for the two who had been summoned from Japan.
Little seasoning was used and many dishes didn't use any seasoning at all so it didn't suit their tastes.
Therefore it was only naturally that they didn't eat much. The first Prince was worried about the other saint candidate and ordered people left and right to solve the problem.
However nothing worked.
"His Highness is very enthusiastic this time."
"Well, in various ways……"
Alberto said evasively but Johan understood what he was implying.
There are three princes in Slantania Kingdom.
For generations the eldest son become the King so the first Prince is treated as the Crown Prince.
But the second prince was more brilliant and recently factions have appeared backing him as the Crown Prince.
It didn't pose much of a problem since the second Prince wasn't interested and the King negated it but the first Prince who'd always been aware that he was inferior to his younger brother, was concerned about the factions.
It was evident that he'd aimed to appeal to those aristocrats by offering to supervise the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】.
Unfortunately at that time, the first Prince had angered Sei and his plan backfired on him which added extra pressure on him.
"Is His Highness still in charge of the 【Saint】?"
"Ah. His Majesty is still concerned about His Highness's blunder but if he left it to other people the prince might become anxious so he's just going to wait and see for a while. Fortunately the candidate at your place considered staying, His Majesty is probably hoping that'll help His Highness recover."
"If there's a dispute over succession then the kingdom will lapse into chaos."
Johan sighed. If dispute over the crown happened on top of the miasma problem, he expected that the kingdom would definitely fall into chaos.
Although the first Prince was a bit prejudiced, he was straightforward and deeply passionate which many people found favourable.
In addition he had the support of his close aides and the second Prince so for the time being he'd have no problems when succeeding the King.
The first Prince's evaluation from the aristocrats had dropped because of what had happened this time but he'd avoided making the fatal blunder of losing the saint candidate and the King seemed to think that the first Prince could still recover.
"Even so there's two people…… Did the ceremony really succeed? Given the history it's weird for there to be more than one 【Saint】."
"There's no doubt that the ceremony was a success."
"What's your basis for saying that?"
"The appearance of demons have decreased lately."
Since the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】the knights who periodically subjugate demons realized that the demons were decreasing bit by bit.
The demons that have already formed haven't disappeared but the outbreak speed is getting slower. The knights felt that compared to before the number of demons have decreased.
Because of that the knights know that the ceremony succeeded and they were certain that the 【Saint】is at the royal palace.
Of course this was also reported to the leaders.
The Court Mage Division's Head Magician who could tell them who the 【Saint】is, was still unconscious and they couldn't tell which one was the 【Saint】or if they both were. But the tragic atmosphere had been casted aside.
"Is that so? It'll be good if your place settles down."
"Yeah. As expected, everyone's feeling fatigued."
"Your next subjugation is at the West forest?"
"No we're going to the East forest first then after the West forest is finished, I can take a long holiday. It's more troublesome than the East and South, but the demons aren't that strong so we should be able to finish the subjugation with ease."
"Well, should be simple for you but do be careful."
"Got it."
At this time, some kind of flag had risen but none of them knew about it.