Had I heard that wrong just now?
Or had my eardrums been damaged when I fought Arghalia?
But judging from the Holy Maiden before my eyes, it seemed I had heard her correctly.
The hands clutching the flag with both hands were trembling ever so slightly, and her golden eyes wavered in helpless confusion as well.
To the point that it was hard to believe she was the same woman who had casually blocked a Sword Master’s attack and scattered tremendous miracles around as though they were nothing only moments ago.
Fragments of the panic she was struggling to contain rode the night air and reached me in their entirety.
"So when you say you can’t leave Iris’s body, you don’t just mean the link can’t be disconnected—you mean you’ve completely settled into her body?"
At my question, she slowly nodded.
Don’t fuck with me.
Just as the Holy Maiden had said, I had assumed two personalities coexisted within one body. But I had thought it was merely a temporary arrangement, like [Spirit Unity], a skill that lets a spirit descend into one’s body.
Otherwise, it was too fucking overpowered.
How did that make any sense? With one click, she could go toe-to-toe with a Sword Master.
To be precise, it was not because I was bitter over how overpowered it was.
If anything, the more overpowered she was, the better for me.
It meant, at the very least, that she would not die—and that I would not have to suffer like hell.
I could just get carried, too.
What made me uncomfortable was the very fact that a Star of Knights who acted like a backseat adviser would now be permanently stationed beside me.
It was true that I had become stronger thanks to them.
The ridiculously powerful items I used as reliably as my daily bread, such as Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method, Carnwennan, and Prydwen, had all come from them. And I had been able to defeat Arghalia because of the Dream Ticket they gave me.
But it was also true that they had made me suffer like hell, as with the lion incident; that they made me take a long, difficult detour instead of an easy path for no reason; and that they made me play the embarrassing role of a knight. That was the problem.
Whenever I could take the easy way or avoid something entirely—
They would throw a chivalric trial at me as though telling me to go fuck myself. It honestly felt like the back of my neck was going to snap.
Of course, compared to them, the Holy Maiden was decent.
She apparently had not expected to become permanently settled in Iris’s body, but she had possessed her without hesitation in a dangerous moment and saved me.
Even when she asked my understanding about whether I would be all right with having to put up with a backseat adviser, she actively helped when I said I was fine.
She was also the one who gave me the one-time resurrection ring.
But it was also true that the woman before me was in league with those bastards who threw the [Oath of Chivalry] at me in the worst fucking situations.
That was why I had hoped that the Holy Maiden, one of those former backseat advisers, would not permanently settle into Iris’s body.
Fuck.
To think a backseat adviser would really take up residence beside me.
"I thought it would end with simple possession, but to think I would become trapped in this child’s body..."
The Holy Maiden trailed off. Her complexion had visibly grown haggard, and she let out a small sigh.
I was the one who wanted to sigh here.
"Then you can’t return to where you originally were?"
"Yes..."
Her voice trailed off, and her face grew gloomier.
"Huh? Then you can’t leave my body?"
In complete contrast to that dark expression, a cheerful, bright voice flowed from her lips.
Iris, the owner of the body, seemed completely unfazed, as though she simply found this situation amusing.
A gloomy face, yet a voice that came out in such a lively and bright tone.
Anyone else might find the sight so bizarre they would be unable to say anything, but that was not what caught my attention now.
What was the real reason the Holy Maiden could not leave Iris’s body and had become permanently lodged inside it?
She was someone who could turn an ordinary ring into a one-time resurrection ring merely by pouring holy power into it, and who could possess the body of Iris—barely in her early thirties in level—and fight a powerhouse in the seventies without being pushed back at all.
On top of that, she could hand out blessings and healing magic so powerful that calling them overpowered was still not enough.
It would not be an exaggeration to call her a transcendent being, one of those Constellations often found in web novels.
Then why could a being like that not leave Iris’s body?
Was it because Iris was special?
Unlike the other protagonists, who specialized in a single area, Iris was a well-rounded hexagonal character who even possessed the qualities of a Holy Maiden.
Even taking that into account...
It was strange.
Iris, too, could learn skills that brought outside beings into her body, such as [Spirit Unity].
She could even use a skill that allowed an angel to possess her body.
But those skills did not last forever.
They were not something she could switch on and off whenever she pleased, either. Naturally, they would be released after a set amount of time.
And Iris was no exception.
She had neither a unique trait that could imprison angels or spirits possessing her body, nor any way to obtain such a trait.
And while I did not know exactly what rank the Holy Maiden was, judging only by the abilities she had shown so far, she was on a level where she could treat mere angels and spirits as beneath notice, excluding king-class beings.
Which meant that no matter how I thought about it, the Holy Maiden being trapped in Iris’s body made no sense.
I wondered whether one of the two was lying to me, but judging by the tones Iris and the Holy Maiden had just used—
[Insight Eye activates.]
【Iris Floria】
◈ Level: 40
◈ ■■■■ is possessing the target.
◈ The target is extremely flustered.
And judging by the information visible through [Insight Eye]—
I did not get the sense that either of them was lying.
In any event, there was only one conclusion.
The Holy Maiden had completely settled into Iris’s body.
I truly did not know whether I should be happy or unhappy about this.
Then—
Wait. If that was the case...
Something flashed through my mind.
If she had settled into Iris’s body rather than remaining up in the heavens—
"Then does that mean you can no longer evaluate the [Oath of Chivalry]?"
She slowly nodded at that.
"Because I have become human after having been a star."
She had become human after having been a star?
"Since I can no longer watch over you from the heavens, I cannot render evaluations."
The words themselves were somewhat abstruse and hard to understand, but the conclusion was simple.
In short, she could no longer evaluate me.
Did that not mean I would not have to listen to her backseat advice?
That was fine, then.
Since we were both in the swordsmanship department, I could not avoid seeing Iris altogether, but our clubs were different, so we would hardly ever meet.
Aside from department events, there was absolutely no reason for our paths to cross, and I felt a secret wave of relief.
Department events could not be helped, but...
And if this woman was possessing Iris, Iris would not be killed or kidnapped, and Haede would not die either. There would be no more need to worry about Iris’s bad ending.
Iris in her current state was stronger than anyone.
She was probably stronger even than Angelica.
Yeah. Let’s think positively.
In a way, I had gained a story bulldozer.
As I gathered my thoughts and looked at the Holy Maiden, her expression remained far from good, as if her anxiety had not changed at all.
"It has already happened, hasn’t it?"
I could not understand why she was so anxious.
"Then why are you so anxious?"
I could not help worrying that perhaps remaining inside a human body for a long time caused some serious problem I did not know about.
"Is there some kind of problem...?"
"No, it is not that..."
She quietly placed her small clenched hand over the area near her solar plexus and looked directly at me. The clear golden eyes that met mine still trembled faintly, like gentle waves.
"I am simply worried."
"Worried?"
At my question, she slowly nodded and continued softly.
"Each of us reached our respective ends and became stars, so we cannot even set foot upon the earth. To be honest, the fact that I possessed this child and returned to reality is nothing short of a miracle."
"Isn’t that a good thing?"
"Yes... it is. But..."
She pressed her lips tightly together as though contemplating it for a moment, then stroked her right elbow with her left hand before continuing.
"But that would be a burden on this child."
A burden?
"Yes..."
The Holy Maiden sighed once, then continued in a quiet voice.
"I have already ended, long ago. Even if it was not an end I could be satisfied with... I am someone who saw her end and was preserved like a dream among the stars in the heavens."
Her voice, scattering into the night wind—
"But this child is different. She is someone who is only now beginning to run toward her future in the real world."
It was unbearably lonely.
"A remnant of the past like me should not hinder someone running toward her dreams. I worry that I may end up becoming an obstacle to her."
Beneath the streetlamp, the Holy Maiden’s gaze as she spoke through Iris’s borrowed body was intensely earnest.
A past that had already stopped, and a future only just beginning.
Within that strange coexistence, the Holy Maiden was concerned solely for Iris’s future.
...As expected.
The Holy Maiden was not called the Holy Maiden for nothing.
She was not angry at being dragged down from the stars and made human.
Nor was she rejoicing over the miracle of becoming human after being a star and walking the earth.
She was simply worried about Iris.
Worried that she, someone who had reached her end in the past, might hinder Iris as she tried to run toward the future.
But—
"I think you are worrying for nothing."
"Worrying for nothing, you say?"
I genuinely thought it was needless concern.
Simply put—
"Why not teach Iris your techniques?"
"Teach this child?"
I could not understand why she would worry about that. If she was concerned that Iris’s growth might stop, why not simply pass down every ability she possessed to her?
If she did that, I thought it would more than make up for the rent of occupying Iris’s inner world.
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