Academy’s Curse Champion 5

Chapter 5 – 5. Goddess’ Blessing [Edited]

Time passed quickly.

Two years have passed, and Arthur and Aris have turned 10 years old.

10 years old is the right age to receive blessings.

At this time, in order to know what a blessing was, we had to look into the history of the distant past.

That was in ancient times when empires didn’t even exist. In other words, the era before blessings existed.

If we first want to talk about humanity at that time, it can be explained in one sentence.

They are the weakest race on the continent.

In reality, it can be said to be an accurate explanation, as they were a race whose only goal was to run away from demons and survive day after day like beasts. However, just as spring comes after winter, change has come to humanity. By a woman who calls herself an agent of the goddess.

The woman brings many people to the square, and she claims that if they believe in the goddess, she gives them the strength to overcome this situation.
It was clear that it was a difficult story to believe. Humanity, who had lost their home to demons for a long time and had no place to retreat, built a church with a deceived mind and prayed to the goddess.

Please help them so that they and their children can live dreaming of tomorrow.

Then, pillars of light of different sizes fell from the sky toward the people, and countless people began to gain strong strength through blessings.

That moment of destruction. With new power, humanity won the war against the demons and barely succeeded in driving them into the demon world.

Afterward, the ‘First Saint’, the representative of the goddess, toured the continent and announced the existence of ‘Atea, the Goddess of Creation’, the only god of mankind. Thanks to the blessing, humanity grew stronger and prospered, creating numerous human kingdoms on the continent, and as time passed, the current empire was born.

Therefore, all people living in the empire had to believe in a religion, and that religion was a goddess religion that believed in the goddess Atea.

* * *

“Arthur. “You’re 10 years old now, so you know you need to get blessed soon, right?”

Arthur, who was sitting at her table and reading her book, widened his eyes when he heard Hilda’s words coming from next to her.

“Of course! How long have I waited! Are you leaving today? “Hilia will come with you too, right.?”

It was the moment Arthur had been waiting for ever since he learned of the existence of the blessing.

Although it didn’t show on the outside. Arthur, who wanted to receive a blessing related to mana as soon as possible, was already holding Hilda’s hand and moving out of her door.

“I’m not going.”

“Yes? So you’re saying I should go alone.”

Arthur, who was embarrassed to see Hilda sitting still and answering bluntly, unable to move due to her own strength, began to notice her. It wasn’t until Hilda’s face suddenly burst into laughter when she saw herself like this that she realized she was playing a joke.

“Is that really true? I’ve talked to Millia, so she can go with Aris. Because they said they would leave tomorrow morning. “Don’t stay up too late today and go to bed early.”

“Yes!”

With a smile on her face, Arthur immediately ran to her room and lay down on the bed. Because I wanted tomorrow to come quickly.

The next day, early morning.

Rattling.

Millia set off with Arthur and Aris in the carriage. Her destination was Padun, the nearest city with a church.

“I. I want to ask you something.”

“What are you curious about, Arthur?”

“What if… I don’t get the blessing…?”

Maybe it’s because she’s been through a lot of bad things since she was young. Milia responded kindly to Arthur who was worrying about her for no reason.

“Do you remember that the Goddess gives blessings to anyone who believes in her? She’s not really testing your faith. She doesn’t have to worry about that. “Arthur.”

“That’s right! How kind Arthur is! The goddess knows that and will give you good blessings!”

“Then I’m glad…”

Arthur, whose anxiety was relieved to some extent by what Millia and Aris said, looked relieved, and Aris quickly changed the topic.

“Arthur. What kind of blessing do you want to receive?”

“Hmm… I think a blessing that increases mana would be good. Then wouldn’t I be able to use magic too.?”

“Hehe, I’m sure you will get the blessing you want, right? What if you don’t abandon me just because I become a wizard later? Then I will chase you around all the time!”

Arthur, who thought of himself as a wizard at Aris’s words, smiled and answered.

“Why would I abandon you? “You’re not leaving to become an adventurer later, are you?”

When she thought about it, Arthur had no intention of breaking up with Aris. Even though she really wants to be a wizard.
Rather, Aris, who often expressed boredom with her daily life in her rural village, was more likely to be her. That’s why Arthur asked as a joke,

“… “

“Aris… Why is there no answer… ?”

“Uh? Well, then there’s no way I’m going to leave you behind, right?”

Seeing Aris strangely avoiding her gaze and answering with an uncertain voice, Arthur made a promise to her.
She will never let go.

Afterward, Arthur and Aris spent some time chatting.

Arthur, exhausted from the 6-hour carriage journey, fell asleep in the carriage.

After confirming that Arthur was asleep, Aris went and sat down next to the driver’s seat to talk to Millia. After Millia turned around and confirmed that Arthur was asleep, she started whispering to Aris.

“Aris, so when are you going to confess?”

“Well, I will do it when I have more confidence.”

Milia said, finding her daughter’s clumsy appearance endearing.

“Daughter. I didn’t raise you like that.”

“Maybe you confess and then get dumped. “Once I make Arthur fall in love with me, it’s 100% okay!”

“From her mother’s perspective, it seems like she’s interested in you too, Arthur? “Can’t she just look at how kind Arthur is to you?”

“Arthur is kind to everyone. She confessed for nothing and then said, ‘I thought we were friends, but did you always think of me like that? You might say, ‘I’m disappointed!'”

In Milia’s eyes, everyone could see that they were interested in each other, so she continued to coax Aris. She shook her head, seeing her daughter being more of a coward than she thought.

“… Yes, do whatever you want. Ugh. She raised her daughter wrong. Such a coward.”

“Well, what? Mom!!!”

As she was talking and giving Aris love advice, she lost track of time and the carriage arrived in Padun.
While Milia was showing her identity card to her guards, Aris was waking up Arthur.

* * *

Arthur, who arrived in front of the church, let out an exclamation.

“Wow! Is this the Goddess Bridge? It’s so big!”

“Arthur. Let’s go in quickly!”

“Don’t run, go in slowly.”

When they went inside, a priest welcomed them.

“The little believers came today? “You came to receive blessings, right?”

“”Yes!””

“Then you can stand in front of the statue of the goddess over there. “We have to do it one by one, but who will do it first?”

“Aris!! I want to go first!!”

Before Aris could respond, Arthur was already running towards the statue of the goddess.

“Goddess… I listened carefully to what those adults said. Furthermore, I studied hard and didn’t do anything bad.”

As Arthur, with her hands folded, and her eyes closed, prayed, a large pillar of light fell through the hole in her ceiling.

“Hi!! It’s so bright-!!”

She rubbed her eyes for a moment because of the unexpectedly bright light. Arthur barely opened her eyes when she heard the priest’s voice next to her.

“Sir. “I think it’s done now, so could you come to where I am?”

The moment Arthur heard the priest’s words and was about to approach. Light came down from the sky once more. And that is incomparable to before.

Arthur, who had doubts about the incomprehensible situation, asked the priest.

“Huh!!! Well, what is it. Is it really like this.? “Priest, do you normally do this twice?”

“… No. This is the first time something like this has happened… I’ve never heard of receiving a blessing twice in my life. I think it’s probably the first time, and I’m really lucky to see something like this right before my eyes. And the pillar of light was so huge that I had never seen it in my life. It seems that the goddess cares a lot about her followers.”

Arthur, who realized that there was no exaggeration in what she said, could not hide the raised eyebrows and approached the priest.
Arthur could see him holding out a large crystal ball, but he was skeptical as he had no idea what it was.

“What does this crystal ball do?”

“It is a tool to measure the level of blessing. When touched, the better the blessing, the brighter it shines.”

“It’s amazing. Do you even know how blessed you have been?”

“There are no absolute standards. Since I have a lot of experience, I can tell the level at a glance. Shindo, the size of pillar of light number 2 is enormous, so you can probably look forward to it. It was said that during the time of the Pope, it was so bright that it illuminated the entire inside the church, so I think it might be similar.”

After hearing the priest’s words, Arthur snorted with excitement and stretched out his hand to his crystal ball.

“… “

But nothing happened.

It was Arthur who broke the silence first.

“Uh. Priest. There’s no light…? Isn’t this possibly broken?”

“Wait a minute. This can’t be like this.?”

The crystal ball has never been broken. Since he didn’t know, the priest put his hand on the crystal ball to check, and it began to glow brightly, like a lie.

“Uh? Why is this happening… Would you please raise your hand again?”

“… “

Arthur placed his hand on the crystal ball again, but no change occurred in the crystal ball.

A crystal ball that doesn’t shine. What it meant was so simple that the priest swallowed his saliva and carefully opened his mouth.

“Uh… Shinto? I guess I didn’t receive the blessing… This happens very rarely…? Still, the goddess cares for everyone. Don’t be too upset-“

The priest saw Arthur’s stiff expression and gave him words of comfort. Arthur, already distraught, quietly came out without saying a word and sat down in the empty chair.

“… Next believer? “Could you please come to the statue?”

Aris, who was waiting outside her, didn’t know Arthur’s situation. She was excited and ran in front of her statue.

“Goddess!! Please give me a very strong blessing. Lightning just flew out of my hand!! “I want to fly in the sky too!”

At Aris’ words, a light pillar of similar size to Arthur’s second light pillar fell from the ceiling.

Startled, Aris covered her eyes and screamed.

“Ugh… It hurts my eyes. Isn’t it too bright?”

Looking at Aris’ pillar of light, the priest thought to himself. She said it calmly earlier, but in fact, she had never seen such a huge pillar in all her years of giving blessings. But this time, two people came out at the same time, so I was really surprised.

‘Couldn’t it be that the light won’t shine again this time?’

“Hmm. Shindo? “Could you please place your hand on the crystal ball here?”

After hearing her words, Aris immediately raised her hand. At the same time, a tremendous amount of light emanated from the crystal ball, and the exterior of the church was softly illuminated.

“Wow! Very pretty. “Is this really what it is?”

“… By any chance, are you the next Pope?”

“Yes? I’m not like that.”

Aris left her priest who’s eyes began to roll, and she quickly got out and walked over to Arthur.

“Arthur!! As you saw earlier, you saw light leaking out ‘twice’. Didn’t the crystal ball shine very brightly? How do you think your mana has increased? Have you seen my light? It was so bright you thought your eyes were going blind. The priest inside said I was the next Pope! Hehe.”

“… “

“. Arthur? Is there anything wrong with you? Did I ride the carriage too long? “I’ll call my mom-“

At that time, the sound of Arthur sobbing reached Aris’ ears.

“Uh? Arthur, are you crying? Why is this happening all of a sudden? Did I receive a bad blessing? “I’m sorry. I just boasted about myself too much, right?”

Arthur answered in a truly sad voice.

“Aris… I wasn’t blessed. The priest said that this sometimes happens, but I wonder if I may have made a big mistake in my past life. I didn’t ask for much… I just wanted a blessing to be able to use magic once… Furthermore, I did something wrong…”

After she finished speaking, Arthur wiped his tears and stood up.

“Let’s go back, Aris.”

* * *

Milia said she had a hard time when her kids came out, and now she wants to go back. She tried to ask what kind of blessing she had received, but Aris quickly told her the situation in a whisper.
After hearing this, Millia could not say anything, and her carriage quietly set off. And none of the three said a word until the carriage arrived in the village.

After arriving in town. Arthur headed to Hilda’s house in silence.

Hilda was welcoming Arthur back by preparing freshly baked bread and fruit for him. She then asked if she liked the blessing.

“I didn’t receive any blessings…”

With those words, Arthur went into the room, and the food prepared for him went cold without any decrease.

That day, at Hilda’s house, the only sound that could be heard all night was Arthur crying under the blanket.