Chapter 309 - Backyard of Stray Priest ⑫
This is a story during the subjugation of the Demon Lord. It's the full picture of the part I briefly wrote in Chapter 9, Episode 26.
"Hey, hey, what kind of person is Jennifer-sensei?"
After defeating the Behemoth and seeing off Fiona, we had some time to rest. During that time, Beatrix and Mary spoke to me.
Actually, who Jennifer-sensei is is one of the greatest mysteries for the Nakanohara orphanage students.
Even though she's someone who can consecrate Holy Water, she never uses magic.
Someone like Katherine-sensei seems to think Jennifer-sensei can't use magic. However, since you can't consecrate Holy Water unless you can use high-level Holy magic, Katherine-sensei probably just doesn't know.
Together with the Headmistress, who is called a hero, she practically rebuilt the Nakanohara orphanage from scratch, including the buildings. After all, the Headmistress is someone who became a stray and had no money, sleeping outdoors. So, there are rumors that Jennifer-sensei's family might actually be wealthy.
Whether it can be called evidence or not... when I was invited to the royal palace dinner, the bigwigs mainly told me to give their regards not only to the Headmistress but also to Jennifer-sensei.
Unlike the rule-breaking Catherine, who shows her emotions openly, she always treats us with a smile and is gentle, but on the other hand, she scolds the Headmistress and is a very strict person, as represented by Jennifer's Wall.
She's a mystery.
"She's not even a hero, yet she's participating in the Demon Lord subjugation unit, and she's using magic that even the Headmistress can't use."
What Mary is saying is likely about Hand Over and Enchant. They are Holy magic, but almost no one uses them. I had never even heard their names until I actually saw them.
"I'm sure she built the current orphanage together with the Headmistress."
"She came to Nakanohara before we were born, right?"
"Yeah. Five years ago."
It's in the orphanage records. I'm sure Marcelo-san is a first-term graduate. The orphanage at that time wasn't a place for job hunting like it is now, but was a place to select priests, and Marcelo-san, who suddenly learned the mid-level magic Teleport, apparently became a church priest to hunt monsters. He must have thought there would be many opportunities to hunt monsters in a team with a Holy mage. Based on that experience, he apparently succeeded in many surprise attacks in a team with Angelica-san during the war.
The Headmistress and Jennifer-sensei started the major reform of the orphanage after Marcelo-san's graduation, taking on monster subjugation on the condition of donations, and they apparently teamed up with Marcelo-san several times.
"The Headmistress can use Over Flow, yet she was defeating monsters with staff techniques?"
"Is that really true?"
"But, look. They say she was pouncing on boars with just a single staff."
What Mary is saying is likely about when Jennifer-sensei chanted the Enchant magic.
If you're going to hunt boars, Holy is definitely easier. Only the Headmistress and Matilda would try to beat them to death with a blunt weapon.
I tried asking Paul-san secretly.
"Bishop Catherine and Jennifer-sensei back then were the bane of the town's hunters."
I thought he would dodge with something appropriate, but he answered with a serious face. Twenty-some years ago would be when Paul-san and Hans-san were about twenty years old.
"After all, Bishop Catherine is one of the heroes who defeated the Demon Lord. She'd go to various villages and ask around if monsters were appearing. Well, they'd say they were. They actually were, after all."
They would be. She's someone who was doing monster subjugation alone. She must have asked knowing they were there.
"And then, she'd say she'd subjugate them, so please exchange the caught prey for various foods of equal value."
In other words, no capital was involved at all. You can do it even if you're penniless. Normal orphanages trade with designated merchants who have contracts with the Church. The operating costs themselves come from the state—usually in the form of a donation in the name of the Queen—but of course, the upper limit is fixed. It's originally a Church operation. You can't be extravagant. They must have left the children to the assistant priests and secured food to use other expenses elsewhere. Being the bane of hunters means they must have hunted so much you could say they were thorough.
If you continue for a year, the saved food costs would be a non-negligible amount of money.
Next, I tried asking Marcelo-san.
"Hmm. It's a fact that she was using a staff. After I graduated from the orphanage, I became a priest, but my first job was making scrolls for Bishop Catherine and supporting monster subjugation."
Scrolls would be Holy or Heal scrolls by Holy mages. While low-level magic is one thing, when it comes to mid-level magic and above, the users are overwhelmingly priests. The prices of the products are also decided by the Church, and they earn the most money among the businesses the Church conducts.
"Bishop Catherine is one of the few ultra-high-level mages and one of the heroes who defeated the Demon Lord, after all. Even high-level Holy and Heal, which are already expensive, are traded at several times the price."
Although the upper limit of the daily production count has dropped, the price itself hasn't changed even now. The Headmistress's Over Flow is twenty gold coins per scroll. For Heal, it's thirty gold coins per scroll. The buyers are mainly the state and great foreign nobles.
Of course, if many are on the market, the price will drop, so the number of scrolls to be supplied is decided by the Church's instructions. Also, high-level and above scrolls are managed by the state in every country. They are stockpiled in preparation for war or disasters.
"Bishop Catherine knew very well the value of the scrolls she made and negotiated with the Church. She said she'd use the full amount for the orphanage, so increase her share."
Probably behind her was Eleanor-sama, who was the Queen and the commander of the Central Army Magic Infantry Corps at the time. She probably even put pressure on the Royal Capital Great Church. And it was accepted. However, the Church's profit wouldn't change, or rather, it should be higher than if an ordinary high-level mage made them.
"Didn't Jennifer-sensei make scrolls?"
"No, Jennifer-sensei also made the scrolls themselves. But I remember only Bishop Catherine put the magic into them."
I mostly understood from the answer to Mary's question.
Normally, scrolls are delivered to the Church once a week. I know this because I helped during the waiting period.
The Headmistress didn't put magic into the scrolls bit by bit every day. She put a week's worth into them all at once in one day.
Even an ultra-high-level mage has an upper limit to the number of times they can cast. And after she finished putting the magic in, she probably went boar hunting. Of course, she could have used it several times. But she probably finished them off with a staff without using magic just in case.
In other words, she made a fortune from scroll-making and monster subjugation and raised the renovation costs for the orphanage. Marcelo-san, who was helping, didn't cost labor because he was attached to the Church. She must have dragged him in by putting pressure on him.
"But Jennifer-sensei uses amazing magic, right?"
This time Beatrix asked.
Beatrix herself has the experience of having Jennifer-sensei cast Hand Over on her to recover her energy when she collapsed after using up her magical control during the martial arts competition.
"Well, yes, but it's not common. For example, Enchant gives the attribute of the magic being overlaid to whatever it's cast on, but even if you overlay magic other than Holy, it's not very useful except when subjugating dragons. If you have a sword with a powerful fire attribute, you'll get burned if you hold it with bare hands."
Well, that would be so. It would be a problem if the fur of the magical beast you went to the trouble of defeating got scorched.
"Hmph. Then, why did she start the orphanage together with the Headmistress?"
When Beatrix brought out the core question, he laughed and said, "Please ask her yourself."
If she would answer if we asked directly, we wouldn't be asking other people.
As the third person, I tried asking Harris-sama. Age-wise, he's the same as Jennifer-sensei, and both started their careers as priests at the Royal Capital Great Church. He might know something.
"Priest Jennifer? Sorry. I can't answer personal matters due to my position. Could you ask her or Bishop Catherine?"
He was curt. That's why I'm saying if I could ask, I wouldn't be having a hard time.
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I tried asking when I was a waiting priest."
It was because the Headmistress and Emily-sensei learned Holy magic. Katherine-sensei was a former mercenary, and she answered that it was because she hated killing each other.
"And?"
"She said, 'I think it's the same as you.'"
"Then, isn't it simple? Why did Jeanne become a priest?"
"I, I..."
Actually, it's because I wanted to become like the Headmistress.
She doesn't discriminate against anyone, subjugates monsters, and brings peace of mind to many dying people, including my mother, and sends them to the side of the Goddess. And she takes care of orphans and makes children smile. She doesn't think about personal money-making and is always thinking about the orphanage. Isn't she the ideal priest?
Of course, I have no intention of becoming such a heavy drinker.
"In other words, didn't Jennifer-sensei also want to become like Bishop Catherine?"
Is that so?
She's always smiling, but I also feel like she's the Headmistress's overseer.
"I wonder. I feel like Bishop Catherine is the overseer, though."
In terms of rank, that's how it is, but looking at their usual behavior, no matter how I think about it, it's the opposite.
Speaking of people to ask, excluding the latecomers Wilson-san and Robinson-san, and Angelica-san who was a child then, the rest are the two delinquent old men and the Headmistress. The two delinquent old men are out of the question because they are royalty. When I asked the Headmistress before, she replied, "Ask her yourself." Even if I ask, it's just going in circles.
In the end, let alone Jennifer-sensei's true identity, I didn't even really understand the reason she started the orphanage with the Headmistress.
Considering their ages, the Headmistress and Jennifer-sensei are close to being parent and child. Come to think of it, Henry-sama and the others said before that during the period when the Headmistress was the tutor for the King and Roberts-sama, Jennifer-sensei also received the Headmistress's teaching. At any rate, when I attend the royal capital dinner, her name comes up as much as the Headmistress's. Maybe the Headmistress invited Jennifer-sensei, who had achieved excellent results.
Together with Beatrix and Mary, we decided it was fine, but Jennifer-sensei's astonishing true identity was revealed in an unexpected place.
That was, of all things, during the battle between Roberts-sama and the seven others against the Demon Lord.
◆◆◆◆◆
While the seven led by Roberts-sama and James-sama were unfolding their confrontation with the Demon Lord, the Megiddo Fire released by catching the Demon Lord off guard seemed to have captured the Demon Lord. But the Demon Lord was releasing magical energy to block the magic. However, Roberts-sama's spear had already pierced the Demon Lord's flank.
A moment of silence. The movements of the eight inside the barrier seem to have stopped.
"Roberts! Be careful!"
When Eleanor-sama shouted, light like a pitch-black mist began to rise from the Demon Lord's body.
The moment Roberts-sama and Gladys-sama jumped back and stood as shields in front of everyone, black light was released from the Demon Lord's entire body, and the seven were blown away all at once.
A sound like glass breaking echoes, and the barrier is shattered.
The black light reached us just like that, a shock like my whole body was paralyzed ran through me, and I was blown away.
It suddenly becomes bright. The Demon Lord must have deployed the barrier again. The groans of the seven could no longer be heard.
It was then.
"M-Mother!"
Jennifer-sensei's scream rang out.
Looking, Eleanor-sama has fallen, her face covered in blood.
"Headmistress! Eleanor-sama! Quickly, Heal! M-Mother is!"
Jennifer-sensei is running toward her.
Mother?
Eleanor-sama is Jennifer-sensei's mother?
Which means, Princess Anne, who is said to be a priest at the Royal Capital Great Church, is...
While everyone was watching in a daze, Jennifer-sensei, no, Princess Anne, was cradling Eleanor-sama and calling for the Headmistress through tears.
The Headmistress, for some reason, walked up slowly and...
"Jennifer, look at Eleanor's right hand."
Eleanor-sama's right hand, which was in Jennifer-sensei's blind spot, was firmly making a guts pose.
Jennifer-sensei's expression clouded.
The Headmistress took out a water bottle and wiped Eleanor-sama's face with a hand towel wet with the water inside. The person herself has unexpectedly raised her upper body on her own. There's a wound on her right cheek. Blood flowed, but it was easily healed when the Headmistress cast Heal. Well, it's not an injury she'd die from.
"It's alright. I just smeared some blood that came out a bit on my face to make it look like a major injury because I wanted Jennifer... no, Her Highness Princess Anne, to call me 'Mother' while she was cheering for Roberts. Rest assured."
Eeeeeeeeeee!
Everyone on the spot froze!
No, Harris-sama is bursting out laughing. The two from the Nakanohara Great Church and Marcelo-san are smiling.
It seems that among the priests here, I was the only one who didn't know. Captain Lewis must have known, as his expression hasn't changed.
"Eleanor-sama. Please stand up. I'm glad you're safe."
"Anne. Well, don't say that. Since everyone has found out now. Just one more time, 'Mother'..."
Suddenly, letting out a groan, Henry-sama fell down with a thud after taking a proper fall.
"Uwaaaa! I'm already done forrrrr!"
He's shouting with full energy while looking at Jennifer-sensei. He hadn't thought about where he was hit, as he's pressing here and there on places that don't have a single tear. It's obvious he's faking an injury.
"Yes, yes. I understand. Father, Mother, please stand up. Let's cheer for our Roberts."
Smirking, he stood up easily, saying, "Is that so?"
From then on, the three of them began to cheer.
Um...
"Well, isn't it fine. We found out her true identity."
"That's right. Let's cheer for now."
It's just as Beatrix and Mary say.
The Headmistress and the others have already resumed cheering.
"I don't care. Let's join in."
Matilda said, and the Class of 175 also returned to cheering.
The fact that Jennifer-sensei was actually royalty.
It goes without saying that this shocking fact was strictly kept secret with a Vow of Silence.