No, How Can an Atheist Become a Saintess!?

No, How Can an Atheist Become a Saintess!? – 68

EP.68 Kindness and Calculation (2)

After hearing Ria’s cute grumble, I accepted her suggestion and reforged her sword with a new enchantment.

Now, it wasn’t just a regular enchanted sword anymore—it had become a magnificent holy sword, something that even gods would envy.

The sword itself, though, still looked like a mass-produced item rather than something worthy of a holy weapon.

As I placed Ria’s sword on my lap and casually ran my fingers across it, Ria shivered and glared at me, though she couldn’t bring herself to actually get angry.

She could touch others' cheeks like that, but when her own cheeks were touched, she became embarrassed and flustered.

It felt good to have secured an offensive tool.

Though, I couldn’t use it often. I’d need to set the right atmosphere, and most importantly, if Ria became too accustomed to it, it would lose its effectiveness as an attack.

There was Ria, sitting cross-legged on the bed, her elbow resting on one knee, chin propped up, glaring at me. But at this point, it didn’t feel particularly intimidating.

In the original story, she had even knocked Lee Si-yoon aside and climbed on top of him before—

"...?"

Hmm.

Suddenly, my mood soured.

It was undoubtedly a huge relief that Ria wouldn’t do something like that to me, but for some reason, I felt strangely down.

"...Huh?"

Noticing my sudden change in expression, Ria tilted her head.

Well, I wouldn’t tell anyone about this thought, no matter what other worries I had.

Imagine you have a friend of the opposite gender. You might not necessarily want to date them, but they’re incredibly kind, a little quirky, but a good person at heart. Plus, they’re really beautiful and in great shape.

"Isn’t she a little out of touch with reality? Doesn’t she look kind of like a girl?"

I bet other people would think that way.

That girl probably doesn’t treat guys like guys, either.

And then one day, she suddenly brags about having a boyfriend.

Her boyfriend is probably drop-dead gorgeous and amazing.

At that moment, everyone around her would sigh and think, "Ah, I should’ve confessed!"

The reason they didn’t confess wasn’t because she was out of touch with reality, but because they subconsciously felt she wasn’t someone they could date.

"...?"

No, wait, is this even comparable?

I’m not talking about an ‘opposite-gender’ friend here; I’m talking about a ‘same-gender’ friend.

I shrugged and stood up, walking over to Ria.

Then I handed her the sword.

"Do you think this is alright?"

"Uh, uh… Thank you?"

Ria received her sword, looking bewildered and tilting her head.

She probably had no idea why I was overthinking things.

What would she think if she ever found out? That the person she’d been living with was struggling with such peculiar thoughts?

Would she dislike me for having such a ‘mental barrier’?

Hmm, not sure. If this were a Japanese light novel, maybe one of the heroines would have an oddly high amount of physical contact with the protagonist.

But somehow, I feel like Ria would just punch me in the head if she knew.

I turned back to my desk.

I opened a drawer and pulled out a small bag.

Inside were small chocolates, each wrapped in foil.

"Here."

"Huh?"

I handed them to Ria, and she accepted them absentmindedly.

"I’ve enchanted each one. It might not be as strong as the last chocolate, but it should be useful as something like a healing potion."

"...?"

Ria blinked at me, looking bewildered.

"Take one whenever you need it."

"Uh, no, I know how to use them."

Ria gave me a confused look.

"When did you make these?"

"Whenever I had some free time. When you went to wash up, I didn’t have anything else to do, did I?"

These chocolates were also a gift from Ria. I carefully unwrapped the foil without tearing it, infused them with my divine power, and then wrapped them up again.

"And you?"

"Huh?"

"Did you not prepare any for yourself?"

"I'm counting on you to protect me."

"...?"

Ria opened her mouth in surprise.

"Besides, I know how to use my own divine power. It's better if the people who are at risk of actually getting hurt carry them, right?"

"Ah, yeah."

Ria replied absentmindedly to my words.

Even though there was more protection now, Ria was always the one who stuck close by my side. I didn’t want to change that. She was one of the few people I could truly trust.

"By the way."

As I sat back down on the bed, Ria called my name with an unusually cautious tone.

"You're not in any real danger, right? There's nothing urgent you need to do?"

Maybe because I had prepared so thoroughly, Ria seemed a bit uneasy.

"I'm just preparing for any possibilities."

...That's right.

It wasn't an academy-centered story, but originally, the novel was about crossing through gates.

And in nearly every civilization the protagonist and their group encountered, there was always some conflict on the brink of exploding, which would inevitably erupt when they arrived.

Even if my visit was ahead of schedule, I couldn’t afford to be careless.

"...Alright."

Ria seemed like she didn’t fully understand, but she made sure to take the chocolates.

*

After scheduling with the government, our visit to the Gnome civilization happened at the end of May, almost in June.

Gnomes, by nature, had adopted a republic system.

That meant the Gnome nation was a republic, but it wasn’t the same as South Korea. Gnomes didn’t have a president.

The tribes had united to form a nation, and because of that, representatives from each tribe were elected to form a kind of congress. The novel didn’t go into detail about how it worked, so I wasn’t sure exactly how it operated.

But no matter what kind of congress it was, there was always a leader.

"Our Gnome Tribal Federation warmly welcomes the Saintess Candidate Anna."

The person standing at the front had a certain... impression about them.

If I had to describe it, they looked like one of those gnome figurines often placed in the front yard of a house in Western movies, wearing bourgeois capitalist attire from the early 20th century.

Their short stature was about the height of my waist. A thick beard covered their chin, and their white hair had thinned out to the point that their scalp was clearly visible.

"...I am Anna. Thank you for inviting me."

I responded and gave a polite bow.

"I heard the gate leading to our country from your church is quite far. You've probably had a long journey, so how about you relax today and leave the real conversation for tomorrow? Oh, but we do have a welcome banquet this evening. It would be an honor if you could attend and grace us with your presence."

The gate wasn’t really that far. It was about a three-hour drive.

Still, there was no need to rush straight into business. We needed some time to size each other up first.

Especially the Gnomes.

"Thank you for your consideration."

I responded politely.

The Gnome leader nodded like a gentleman and escorted me, keeping a bit of distance.

He seemed to have a good understanding of what a 'nun' was, which made me think I couldn’t let my guard down.

...Not that I was sure what would happen if I did let my guard down, but still.

*

"The room... is small."

"For a Gnome, it's a large one."

Though there were two beds, they were forced to fit so closely together that if one of us had bad sleeping habits, it would be easy for us to invade each other’s space.

Moreover, the furniture was technically usable, but everything was slightly undersized.

There was no helping it. Not every Gnome had seen a human before. They probably just made everything based on the assumption that "this size should work for them." Small inaccuracies like that were inevitable.

I quickly started unpacking.

"By the way, a welcome banquet, huh."

"We're nuns, so we'll be attending in our usual clothes, nothing special."

"Yeah, I know that."

I wondered if they planned to throw something over their nun habits for the event.

If I were the Saintess, I’d have a special outfit for such occasions, but I wasn’t one yet.

"Are you going to dance?"

"...?"

As I was tidying up my things, I lifted my head and looked at Ria with a stunned expression.

Ria, who had been enduring quite a bit lately, was looking at me with an oddly excited expression.

"...Don’t."

I warned her.

"Why? It’s not like nuns can’t dance."

"...?"

Can’t they?

Wait, maybe not... I wasn’t sure.

"And learning social dances is useful. You never know when you might need them."

"What kind of crazy person would ask a nun to dance?"

That much was crystal clear to me.

Also, social dances? We weren’t in the medieval era.

"They’re gnomes, aren’t they?"

Ria shrugged, unconcerned.

"Plus, did you see their clothes? They looked straight out of the early 20th century. Or maybe the late 19th? If their civilization is at that level, they might still have ballroom dances."

"...?"

That didn’t seem right.

I was pretty sure the novel didn’t mention anything like this.

Seeing my bewildered expression, Ria snickered.

"...Anyway, no one’s going to ask a nun to dance."

"We’ll see about that."

Even though I said it seriously, Ria just continued to laugh.