Dressed in an airy white dress with silver lining, white shoes that reflected the sun to an abhorrent degree and my hairs combed and tidied up to an degree I thought impossible on Solaris, I strode down a walkway in a rather familiar park. I honestly looked like a princess in this clothing which didn’t feel good, but also not as bad as when I had to wear the attire Mary picked out for me for the first time.
Nobody was with me as I approached the lone pope, sitting on a bench comfortably with a bag of seeds in his hand. The evening sun shone at his face, which was probably why he didn’t even recognise me until I sat down right beside him.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you again, my dear pope.” I said elegantly and patted my thighs to get rid of the pesky wrinkle on my dress.
“The honour is mine, your holiness.” The grey haired man said, bowing deeply while remaining seated.
“How have you been? I heard that cataloguing every skill is progressing smoothly?” I asked in an attempt to get the conversation rolling.
“It certainly is. We have managed to find numerous unlock factors for a multitude of skills already. I’m sure we can increase humanities strength using our research.” That was nice to hear. Especially the stalling frontline could use a few new skills on their soldiers.
“It’s good to hear that.” I replied with a smile on my lips.
“How have you been?” He asked casually.
“Actually, I had thought about enjoying a peaceful life for a little bit before I get overwhelmed with work. I have picked out the academy as the place I wanted to stay for the time being to gather all the information I missed out in the last two hundred years.” I revealed, even though he could know that already. I was involved in too many incidents to be impossible to find, especially because neither Hannah nor I changed our names.
“I heard there were some horrible incidents.” The pope revealed and looked over to me worried.
“I was involved in them. Heavily. I didn’t even change my name, so you are free to look at it yourself.” I explained, took out a few seeds from his bag and threw them towards the nearest doves.
“So you were the Lucy some were talking about. And I guess Miss Dove is Hannah?” The pope asked interested. Well, it did seem like nobody made the connection between me and the saint so far, which was quite surprising.
“That’s correct …” I undid the necklace around my neck and showed pope Urban the silvery dove. “… we both have this nice necklace, so we chose this as our name.”
“That’s a lovely story.” He said, smiling gently as I put the necklace back to where it belonged.
“Well, what followed afterwards wasn’t. The school and guards are aware that there is a demon hiding among the students and think a boy named Schwarz is the culprit.” I explained and fed the doves a second time. More and more of these animals came flying towards me until I stopped throwing seeds at them.
“It is sensible to assume that. As far as I am aware, he was caught red handed while trying to flee. Even worse, he used dark magic which nobody else has shown any interest in.” Slowly, the doves started to disperse again after they ate up all the seeds. Looking over towards the pope, I wondered how his intelligence picked that up, but not my involvement.
“I see you are well informed. But I disagree. What the others saw yesterday night was no person who used magic. It was an illusion. Something capable of tricking everyone on the site.” I explained and leaned backwards to let the sun shine on my pale face.
“What makes you so sure?” The pope asked in surprise.
“Saintly inspiration. I am a hundred percent sure that Schwarz isn’t the one to blame.” I said, closing my eyes and relaxed a little.
“If you say so, then it must be the truth. Sadly, saving that boy is not in the realm of possibilities for me. The king would take my interference in these matters very badly.” I knew that much. Since the church and state had somewhat merged, there was always an internal squabble between these two. And at that point, the pope couldn’t interfere in any crime not connected to religion at all.
“I know. And neither am I asking you to do so.” It took me a long time of closing my eyes and finding every bit of courage to say my next words. “Instead, I want you to ask the king if he is interested in meeting me.”
“You want to reveal yourself to him?” The sixty year old man asked completely surprised.
“I see no other option if I want to save Schwarz.” Well, we could also break into the prison cell he was currently rotting in, but that would only be a temporary solution, and not one I could take in all honesty.
“… the king will talk to his advisors. And they will talk to their families.” And in the end, everyone will know. I knew that much. Which was why we had to be faster than the king could be.
“I am aware about the nature of the current king, which is also why we have no other choice but to announce that I woke up today.” I said a bit unhappily. My free time would be over with this, that much was obvious. Taking off the glove on my right hand, I looked at the twinkling ring on my finger for a little bit. “It’s time to let sun shine onto the symbol of my marriage as well.”
“I am … I am delighted to know you are taking these steps now.” There was no blame in his voice at all that I didn’t do so directly, but he was still glad that I finally took the task of a saint upon myself.
“I assume you do know what needs to be done to herald a new era?” I asked with great interest. The church hasn’t made public how they would announce my revival, but I was sure it would be quite loud.
“Certainly. Please, do come with me.” The pope said, standing up with my help and strolled over to the nearest exit of the park. In front of it, a mostly white carriage awaited us which we directly boarded.
The pope shot glances at me from time to time as we traveled the first few minutes towards the central district.
“What can I expect?” I asked a bit interested, hoping I wouldn’t have to shake too many hands.
“A feast you have never seen before.” And there went my hope out of the window. Looking out of the window, I saw the gateway of the royal walls passing by quickly and shortly afterwards, the carriage stopped again. The door were opened within an instant and the pope stepped out of the carriage first, before me giving me a helping hand as well.
I didn’t need his help at all, but it was a symbolic gesture, so I gently placed my ringed hand on his and stepped out of the carriage. The first few priests were already quite confused about me, but couldn’t connect the dots right away. Giving them a bright smile, I strode majestically with the pope towards the cathedral where he helped me to climb the stairs once more.
As the massive doors were already open, we had no problems entering and strode through the aisle slowly, past a few praying nobles and priests. The pope opened a golden door for me shortly afterwards and led me to the back of the cathedral.
“These doors are always open for you, your holiness.” These were the first words he spoke to me in front of other priests, which directly looked at me stunned.
“It is relieving to hear about such a support from you.” I said and smiled as saintly as I could.
“This way please.” The pope said and guided me further into the holiest place on this planet … well, excluding wherever I stood of course. It didn’t take long for him to open the door to his study and lead me inside. “If you would excuse me for a while. I need to finish the preparations we made.”
“Take your time.” I said, already eying the rarer books in his collection. As soon as the door closed behind him, I went through them one by one and realised they were all religiously themed. Well, taking out a book of myself, I began reading a bit to fight the boredom.
Ten minutes later, he was back in the study and looked out of a window into the garden of the cathedral. “I hope you excuse the … exaggerations we made about you during your absence.”
“I don’t like lying. But I can also see the choices the church had to make to stay as one. I don’t blame you, my Pope. And neither do I ask you to rectify the lies the church spread about me. We have both inherited this issue and we both need to live with it.” I explained and thought about all the hilarious things I read about myself already. “But be aware that I cannot make wonders happen overnight. You might need to tone down the expectations a few have for me beforehand.”
“I will try. But I already know that it will be hard to talk to those who see you as a goddess.” Well, they closer to the truth than the pope could ever hope to be.
“Well, they hear me in their head … so it isn’t just their fault.” I explained and listened closely as a few bells in the distance began to ring loudly. Putting the book away, I stood up and leaned onto the windowsill right next to the pope. More and more bells chimed in throughout the city until the message had been delivered through all the temples and churches to everyone who could listen. In the end, the massive bell above our heads rang as well, confirming what the first bell at the sanctuary, the place I awoke, had started.
The saint has awoken.
And directly, the first few bishops sprang into action. I could already see someone in the garden heading back inside with hurried steps as the first person knocked onto the door.
“Your holiness?” A man with a very feminine voice asked through the door.
“Please, come in.” The pope said while I slowly strode away from the window and smiled towards the person entering the room.
“Is it … a-are you …” The poor man stumbled over his words so quickly that it was nearly funny. If I weren’t ruining my whole life with this.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Lucy.” I said and curtsied elegantly in front of him. He directly threw himself into the ground and kneeled in front of me, fingers interlocked with each other.
“The gods have listened to our prayers.” He praised while I went on one knee and gently lifted him up.
“There is no need to kneel in front of me. Your feelings reach me even without.” I explained, but didn’t see any change in his behaviour.
“I-I am honoured to meet you, Saint Lucy. M-My n-name is Teargarden … I am a bishop here.” I smiled gently at his nervousness and watched a bit surprised as he took my left hand and kissed it lightly, during which the next bishop stormed into the room.
He wasn’t the last one though. After the twelfth person entered the room eager to see me, we walked back towards the nave where I continued greeting everyone who came by. Which were a lot. Even though nobles were asked to wait, I allowed every priest or priestess whose feet could carry themselves towards me to meet me, which were at least a thousand.
It was no wonder I was tired hours later, still constantly surrounded by people of the church. They all wanted to talk to me, but most showed great restraint and understood that I couldn’t possibly be asked to listen to their life story. Most were happy with kneeling in front of me and kissing my left hand, which I presumed was because my right was reserved for the king … or whatever.
It was still stressful for me, which was why I was insanely happy as I had greeted the last priests as the sun went down. Shortly afterwards, I was gently guided away from the masses of believers into a rather spacey room which looked like a living room from someone.
Alone, I waited a minute until a blonde thirty year old opened the door and fell on her knees.
“It’s an honour to meet you, your holiness.” She said, looking down onto the floor until I touched her shoulders and helped her up a little.
“The pleasure is mine …” I said, looking at her face a little bit too intensely. I was good at remembering most things including faces, but over a thousand was a bit too much for me.
“Don’t worry, we haven’t met yet. I am Bishop Lausitz, but you can call me Jeanne if you wish.” She said and walked towards a drawer respectfully before taking out a little box.
“As long as you call me Lucy.” I said and smiled wryly. I always loved how nobles or church personal struggled with this demand.
“That is … a difficult request.” She admitted, probably not very keen on doing so. In her eyes, I was basically a holy being just one step beneath the gods. She couldn’t possibly call me by my first name.
“Then your excellency what does this box contain?” I asked and nodded towards the black mysterious box.
“It is everything I need to turn you even prettier. I am in charge of presenting the pope in the right light, so he had asked me to help you out a little. Can you take of your glasses? You don’t need them anymore, do you?” No, I didn’t. But it was odd to ask that.
“No …” I admitted and took my sunglasses off. The world returned to normal brightness instantly.
“What a beautiful face! Now then … how about we make your eyes a little bit greener?” A little greener? How would that be possible … except she knew I wore contact lenses.
“Excuse me?” I asked, feigning to be completely unaware.
“Oh … most of the bishops here know about your race. Your secret is safe with us, so don’t worry.” She said swiftly which made me sigh a little. I honestly didn’t know that and it could turn into trouble quickly.
Resigning to my fate, I turned to the sole mirror in the room and took out my contact lenses carefully. Worried about damaging them, I handed them over to the bishop who had more interest in my eyes than anything else.
“Are they glowing? They do seem so bright.” She commented, placing the coloured contact lenses onto a tray.
“My eyes do reflect more light than human ones, possibly because they are so sensitive. Just like cat eyes reflect more light as well.” I explained and satisfied her curiosity with that.
After taking out another bag, she put a bit of green powder upon my lenses and closed her eyes. “Fuse.” Apparently, she needed to concentrate really hard for the process which took over thirty seconds, but the end result was quite fascinating. My contact lenses seemed to reflect the light a bit more than they did before and made the green in them shine brilliantly.
As soon as she was done, I placed the lenses back on my eyes and looked at them intensely. Luckily, I couldn’t see a hint of red in them, otherwise I had to switch them out which wasn’t very easy considering I had leftovers either at the academy or inside Tom’s mansion.
“Now, onto your dress.” And I thought the whore did everything she could so that I didn’t have to go through this experience again. A bit frustrated, I endured the whole ordeal from beginning to end.
Dressed in an airy white dress with silver lining, white shoes that reflected the sun to an abhorrent degree and my hairs combed and tidied up to an degree I thought impossible on Solaris, I strode down a walkway in a rather familiar park. I honestly looked like a princess in this clothing which didn’t feel good, but also not as bad as when I had to wear the attire Mary picked out for me for the first time.
Nobody was with me as I approached the lone pope, sitting on a bench comfortably with a bag of seeds in his hand. The evening sun shone at his face, which was probably why he didn’t even recognise me until I sat down right beside him.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you again, my dear pope.” I said elegantly and patted my thighs to get rid of the pesky wrinkle on my dress.
“The honour is mine, your holiness.” The grey haired man said, bowing deeply while remaining seated.
“How have you been? I heard that cataloguing every skill is progressing smoothly?” I asked in an attempt to get the conversation rolling.
“It certainly is. We have managed to find numerous unlock factors for a multitude of skills already. I’m sure we can increase humanities strength using our research.” That was nice to hear. Especially the stalling frontline could use a few new skills on their soldiers.
“It’s good to hear that.” I replied with a smile on my lips.
“How have you been?” He asked casually.
“Actually, I had thought about enjoying a peaceful life for a little bit before I get overwhelmed with work. I have picked out the academy as the place I wanted to stay for the time being to gather all the information I missed out in the last two hundred years.” I revealed, even though he could know that already. I was involved in too many incidents to be impossible to find, especially because neither Hannah nor I changed our names.
“I heard there were some horrible incidents.” The pope revealed and looked over to me worried.
“I was involved in them. Heavily. I didn’t even change my name, so you are free to look at it yourself.” I explained, took out a few seeds from his bag and threw them towards the nearest doves.
“So you were the Lucy some were talking about. And I guess Miss Dove is Hannah?” The pope asked interested. Well, it did seem like nobody made the connection between me and the saint so far, which was quite surprising.
“That’s correct …” I undid the necklace around my neck and showed pope Urban the silvery dove. “… we both have this nice necklace, so we chose this as our name.”
“That’s a lovely story.” He said, smiling gently as I put the necklace back to where it belonged.
“Well, what followed afterwards wasn’t. The school and guards are aware that there is a demon hiding among the students and think a boy named Schwarz is the culprit.” I explained and fed the doves a second time. More and more of these animals came flying towards me until I stopped throwing seeds at them.
“It is sensible to assume that. As far as I am aware, he was caught red handed while trying to flee. Even worse, he used dark magic which nobody else has shown any interest in.” Slowly, the doves started to disperse again after they ate up all the seeds. Looking over towards the pope, I wondered how his intelligence picked that up, but not my involvement.
“I see you are well informed. But I disagree. What the others saw yesterday night was no person who used magic. It was an illusion. Something capable of tricking everyone on the site.” I explained and leaned backwards to let the sun shine on my pale face.
“What makes you so sure?” The pope asked in surprise.
“Saintly inspiration. I am a hundred percent sure that Schwarz isn’t the one to blame.” I said, closing my eyes and relaxed a little.
“If you say so, then it must be the truth. Sadly, saving that boy is not in the realm of possibilities for me. The king would take my interference in these matters very badly.” I knew that much. Since the church and state had somewhat merged, there was always an internal squabble between these two. And at that point, the pope couldn’t interfere in any crime not connected to religion at all.
“I know. And neither am I asking you to do so.” It took me a long time of closing my eyes and finding every bit of courage to say my next words. “Instead, I want you to ask the king if he is interested in meeting me.”
“You want to reveal yourself to him?” The sixty year old man asked completely surprised.
“I see no other option if I want to save Schwarz.” Well, we could also break into the prison cell he was currently rotting in, but that would only be a temporary solution, and not one I could take in all honesty.
“… the king will talk to his advisors. And they will talk to their families.” And in the end, everyone will know. I knew that much. Which was why we had to be faster than the king could be.
“I am aware about the nature of the current king, which is also why we have no other choice but to announce that I woke up today.” I said a bit unhappily. My free time would be over with this, that much was obvious. Taking off the glove on my right hand, I looked at the twinkling ring on my finger for a little bit. “It’s time to let sun shine onto the symbol of my marriage as well.”
“I am … I am delighted to know you are taking these steps now.” There was no blame in his voice at all that I didn’t do so directly, but he was still glad that I finally took the task of a saint upon myself.
“I assume you do know what needs to be done to herald a new era?” I asked with great interest. The church hasn’t made public how they would announce my revival, but I was sure it would be quite loud.
“Certainly. Please, do come with me.” The pope said, standing up with my help and strolled over to the nearest exit of the park. In front of it, a mostly white carriage awaited us which we directly boarded.
The pope shot glances at me from time to time as we traveled the first few minutes towards the central district.
“What can I expect?” I asked a bit interested, hoping I wouldn’t have to shake too many hands.
“A feast you have never seen before.” And there went my hope out of the window. Looking out of the window, I saw the gateway of the royal walls passing by quickly and shortly afterwards, the carriage stopped again. The door were opened within an instant and the pope stepped out of the carriage first, before me giving me a helping hand as well.
I didn’t need his help at all, but it was a symbolic gesture, so I gently placed my ringed hand on his and stepped out of the carriage. The first few priests were already quite confused about me, but couldn’t connect the dots right away. Giving them a bright smile, I strode majestically with the pope towards the cathedral where he helped me to climb the stairs once more.
As the massive doors were already open, we had no problems entering and strode through the aisle slowly, past a few praying nobles and priests. The pope opened a golden door for me shortly afterwards and led me to the back of the cathedral.
“These doors are always open for you, your holiness.” These were the first words he spoke to me in front of other priests, which directly looked at me stunned.
“It is relieving to hear about such a support from you.” I said and smiled as saintly as I could.
“This way please.” The pope said and guided me further into the holiest place on this planet … well, excluding wherever I stood of course. It didn’t take long for him to open the door to his study and lead me inside. “If you would excuse me for a while. I need to finish the preparations we made.”
“Take your time.” I said, already eying the rarer books in his collection. As soon as the door closed behind him, I went through them one by one and realised they were all religiously themed. Well, taking out a book of myself, I began reading a bit to fight the boredom.
Ten minutes later, he was back in the study and looked out of a window into the garden of the cathedral. “I hope you excuse the … exaggerations we made about you during your absence.”
“I don’t like lying. But I can also see the choices the church had to make to stay as one. I don’t blame you, my Pope. And neither do I ask you to rectify the lies the church spread about me. We have both inherited this issue and we both need to live with it.” I explained and thought about all the hilarious things I read about myself already. “But be aware that I cannot make wonders happen overnight. You might need to tone down the expectations a few have for me beforehand.”
“I will try. But I already know that it will be hard to talk to those who see you as a goddess.” Well, they closer to the truth than the pope could ever hope to be.
“Well, they hear me in their head … so it isn’t just their fault.” I explained and listened closely as a few bells in the distance began to ring loudly. Putting the book away, I stood up and leaned onto the windowsill right next to the pope. More and more bells chimed in throughout the city until the message had been delivered through all the temples and churches to everyone who could listen. In the end, the massive bell above our heads rang as well, confirming what the first bell at the sanctuary, the place I awoke, had started.
The saint has awoken.
And directly, the first few bishops sprang into action. I could already see someone in the garden heading back inside with hurried steps as the first person knocked onto the door.
“Your holiness?” A man with a very feminine voice asked through the door.
“Please, come in.” The pope said while I slowly strode away from the window and smiled towards the person entering the room.
“Is it … a-are you …” The poor man stumbled over his words so quickly that it was nearly funny. If I weren’t ruining my whole life with this.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Lucy.” I said and curtsied elegantly in front of him. He directly threw himself into the ground and kneeled in front of me, fingers interlocked with each other.
“The gods have listened to our prayers.” He praised while I went on one knee and gently lifted him up.
“There is no need to kneel in front of me. Your feelings reach me even without.” I explained, but didn’t see any change in his behaviour.
“I-I am honoured to meet you, Saint Lucy. M-My n-name is Teargarden … I am a bishop here.” I smiled gently at his nervousness and watched a bit surprised as he took my left hand and kissed it lightly, during which the next bishop stormed into the room.
He wasn’t the last one though. After the twelfth person entered the room eager to see me, we walked back towards the nave where I continued greeting everyone who came by. Which were a lot. Even though nobles were asked to wait, I allowed every priest or priestess whose feet could carry themselves towards me to meet me, which were at least a thousand.
It was no wonder I was tired hours later, still constantly surrounded by people of the church. They all wanted to talk to me, but most showed great restraint and understood that I couldn’t possibly be asked to listen to their life story. Most were happy with kneeling in front of me and kissing my left hand, which I presumed was because my right was reserved for the king … or whatever.
It was still stressful for me, which was why I was insanely happy as I had greeted the last priests as the sun went down. Shortly afterwards, I was gently guided away from the masses of believers into a rather spacey room which looked like a living room from someone.
Alone, I waited a minute until a blonde thirty year old opened the door and fell on her knees.
“It’s an honour to meet you, your holiness.” She said, looking down onto the floor until I touched her shoulders and helped her up a little.
“The pleasure is mine …” I said, looking at her face a little bit too intensely. I was good at remembering most things including faces, but over a thousand was a bit too much for me.
“Don’t worry, we haven’t met yet. I am Bishop Lausitz, but you can call me Jeanne if you wish.” She said and walked towards a drawer respectfully before taking out a little box.
“As long as you call me Lucy.” I said and smiled wryly. I always loved how nobles or church personal struggled with this demand.
“That is … a difficult request.” She admitted, probably not very keen on doing so. In her eyes, I was basically a holy being just one step beneath the gods. She couldn’t possibly call me by my first name.
“Then your excellency what does this box contain?” I asked and nodded towards the black mysterious box.
“It is everything I need to turn you even prettier. I am in charge of presenting the pope in the right light, so he had asked me to help you out a little. Can you take of your glasses? You don’t need them anymore, do you?” No, I didn’t. But it was odd to ask that.
“No …” I admitted and took my sunglasses off. The world returned to normal brightness instantly.
“What a beautiful face! Now then … how about we make your eyes a little bit greener?” A little greener? How would that be possible … except she knew I wore contact lenses.
“Excuse me?” I asked, feigning to be completely unaware.
“Oh … most of the bishops here know about your race. Your secret is safe with us, so don’t worry.” She said swiftly which made me sigh a little. I honestly didn’t know that and it could turn into trouble quickly.
Resigning to my fate, I turned to the sole mirror in the room and took out my contact lenses carefully. Worried about damaging them, I handed them over to the bishop who had more interest in my eyes than anything else.
“Are they glowing? They do seem so bright.” She commented, placing the coloured contact lenses onto a tray.
“My eyes do reflect more light than human ones, possibly because they are so sensitive. Just like cat eyes reflect more light as well.” I explained and satisfied her curiosity with that.
After taking out another bag, she put a bit of green powder upon my lenses and closed her eyes. “Fuse.” Apparently, she needed to concentrate really hard for the process which took over thirty seconds, but the end result was quite fascinating. My contact lenses seemed to reflect the light a bit more than they did before and made the green in them shine brilliantly.
As soon as she was done, I placed the lenses back on my eyes and looked at them intensely. Luckily, I couldn’t see a hint of red in them, otherwise I had to switch them out which wasn’t very easy considering I had leftovers either at the academy or inside Tom’s mansion.
“Now, onto your dress.” And I thought the whore did everything she could so that I didn’t have to go through this experience again. A bit frustrated, I endured the whole ordeal from beginning to end.
