No, How Can an Atheist Become a Saintess!? – 104
EP.104 Stubbornness and Arrogance (16)
Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t all that shaken by the situation.
"Looking back, it makes sense."
I spoke while eating the breakfast Ria had prepared.
"Divine power isn’t really my own strength—it comes from a higher being. It’s a force from an entirely different dimension, one that exerts an immense influence on this world. The idea that summoning such a power wouldn’t come with any risks… well, that’s just unrealistic, isn’t it?"
"……."
"Collapsing after using divine power makes sense too. Normally, it’s a power meant to heal others, but the one using it ends up… like this…."
"……."
…Yeah.
Maybe I should just eat my toast in silence.
Ria was glaring at me as if she was about to murder me on the spot, so I quietly took a bite of the toast she had generously slathered with jam. A fair amount of crumbs scattered onto the small table on my bed and the blankets below, but Ria didn’t scold me for it.
Well, I suppose cleaning this up is someone else’s job anyway…
Still, she’s scary.
"Uh, Ria."
"What."
Crunch, crunch.
The toaster was right next to us, and the bread had been toasted to the perfect level of crispiness. …A toaster, huh? Seems like dwarves think the same way we do. Considering wheat has to be grown outside of caves, bread must be a luxury for them. The fact that they’re serving it to me like this means they must be treating me quite well.
And this isn’t just some factory-made loaf either. From the start, it was—
…
Alright, enough distractions.
"…Are you mad?"
At my question, Ria’s hand, which had been spreading jam, came to a halt.
She didn’t respond right away. Instead, she remained still for a moment before resuming her task.
"No."
She definitely seems mad. That attitude screams furious.
And judging by the ever-growing stack of toast in front of me, it’s only getting worse. It’s like she’s lost in thought, over-toasting bread as she piles it up in front of me.
"……."
Yeah. Best to just eat quietly.
Thankfully, I was pretty hungry, so in the end, I managed to finish it all. Though, the thought of whether Ria had eaten anything herself lingered in my mind.
*
Even after breakfast, Ria remained deep in thought, speaking far less than usual. I wasn’t stupid enough to tease her and risk setting off an explosion.
After finishing our meal, I followed her out of the room.
Dwarves had their own concept of buildings and open spaces, but in the end, everything was still within a cave. The place I was staying in was quite nice, but for that very reason, it was hard to tell whether I was stepping into a hallway or a street.
As I entered the open space, people walking by quickly moved aside upon seeing me. The atmosphere felt just like it had before I lost consciousness.
Some looked at me with fear, while others gazed up at me in something close to reverence. Given the height difference, looking up was inevitable—but those eyes of theirs… they seemed to shine just a little too much.
And yet, Ria didn’t say a single word about how it all happened. Still, I could guess. There must have been an incredibly intense light. A light powerful enough to erase all traces of magic.
Before I knew it, heavily armed dwarves and knights had formed a protective escort around us. As we made our way to see the princess, they surrounded us in a manner quite different from when I first arrived here.
Perhaps it was the king’s orders.
As a result, we didn’t head to the princess’s chambers but instead found ourselves in the king’s audience hall. Not by choice—the soldiers encircling us naturally guided us there.
Seated on his throne was the dwarven king, and beside him, seated slightly lower, was the princess.
As we entered, both of them rose from their chairs to greet me.
I felt like I had a hole in my stomach.
"Thank you, thank you very much."
The king was the first to speak.
"Uh… yeah."
Faced with such sudden gratitude, that was the only response I could manage.
"I regret not meeting you personally at first. As a king, there are far too many sensitive matters that must be handled carefully."
"Oh, no, that’s… The princess explained a lot to me, so it’s fine."
Though, honestly, I learned way more than I wanted to, which made things rather uncomfortable.
"As for your reward—"
"…I’d appreciate it if you could discuss that with the church."
I hesitated for a moment before adding,
"Oh, but there is one thing I’d like to ask of the princess."
The princess, who had been standing nearby, smiled gently.
"Of course. Please, go ahead."
I hesitated again.
It was the reason I came here, but asking so openly like this… Would they really agree?
Still, I couldn’t just stay silent.
It wasn’t quite a reward, but it was something I needed their cooperation on.
"I’d like to ask for access to your research on the Gate."
The princess glanced at the king.
The king nodded, as if he had already expected me to ask.
"The Saintess—"
"…Saintess Candidate."
"Ah, yes, of course."
The princess chuckled before correcting herself.
"Thanks to you, we now have some breathing room after expelling all that magic. At the very least, we don’t have to worry about the ceiling suddenly collapsing and burying us under a surge of magic."
Not to mention, there was no longer any reason to kidnap the princess. In truth, her safety had always been a bigger concern than the magic itself.
The princess possessed an immense reserve of magic within her body. Whether it was because she had inherited the best of both worlds as a hybrid of dwarves and gnomes, or simply because she was a royal prodigy with exceptional talent—
I wasn’t sure.
But that magic was undoubtedly beyond standard.
Even in the novel, after everything had ended and discussions about the dwarven princess arose, some details about it were revealed.
The research on the Gate had only come up while sifting through old records. It had been mentioned in passing—but Gloria had specifically requested to take those records, believing they might hold clues to reopening the Gate to the elves' sealed world.
And now, we had the means to skip several steps in that process.
If the princess came to our world and devoted herself to the research, it would be far safer. Gloria could handle the magic, and most importantly, we had an artifact that could store magic without needing to keep it inside a dwarven body.
The researchers would probably be overjoyed to hear this.
"Yes, I will cooperate with you."
"We’ll do our best to ensure that your research never harms the dwarven kingdom."
"I don’t believe you would ever let that happen. If you were that kind of person, you wouldn’t have risked your life to save our world in the first place."
The princess bowed deeply to me.
"Once again, thank you. Truly."
Watching both the king and the princess bow their heads to me side by side still felt incredibly surreal.
*
And just like that, I escaped that overwhelming meeting.
But there was still a little more to do.
Before we left, the dwarves were planning to throw a grand banquet.
This time, unlike the welcome ceremony—where they had hesitated to approach me because of my unsettling divine power—this would be different. Now, they would likely be eager to greet me.
"Anna."
As soon as we returned to our room, Ria spoke.
I flinched slightly in surprise.
Had she finally sorted out her thoughts?
What if she told me not to act like a Saintess? What would I say?
Of course, I wasn’t a real Saintess, but there were still many things I needed to do with this power. I wasn’t willing to lose my hands over it, but as long as I had it, I wanted to do what I could.
I had no delusions about saving the world, but I was stubborn enough to protect the things I wanted to protect.
Even if I died claiming there was no god.
That’s right.
I had prayed, but I had no intention of staying faithful.
I had saved them—wasn’t that enough?
Besides, hadn’t that higher existence itself told me?
A ray of light flickered onto my face.
Both Ria and I instinctively waved our hands, dispersing it.
"…What is it?"
After taking a moment to collect my thoughts, I asked.
Ria stared at me for a long time before speaking.
"Let’s dance."
"…What?"
"At the farewell banquet."
She met my eyes directly.
"Judging by your situation, I’m sure the dwarven nobles will be lining up to talk to you."
"…That’s probably true."
"So let’s just go all out and dance."
“The dwarves…”
Ah, right. They did dance.
Not ballroom dancing, though—more like a full-on dance battle.
With bearded old men.
“I’ll make sure you can move around and dodge them.”
Ria spoke with absolute confidence.
“That way, you won’t have to deal with any complicated conversations, right?”
“…What kind of plan is that?”
What a ridiculous strategy.
And yet, I couldn’t stop the grin forming on my lips.
Ria, too, was grinning just like me.
*
In the end, I went along with Ria’s plan.
For the entirety of the farewell banquet, we twirled and spun across the floor, dodging the dwarves who kept trying to approach us.
Gloria, Han Yu-ri, and Lee Si-yoon all gave us bewildered looks—but before long, Lee Si-yoon got caught between the other two and was forced into a spinning dance.
Ria and I never spoke about that higher existence too. And I was… oddly glad about that. It felt like, for a little while, it was just the two of us.