CH 321

The Mushroom Eating Saint, Princess Mia

“Princess Mia has been the perfect example of a saint through this whole thing. Do you not see how honest and good she was in how she lived her life?”

“…Eh?”

Mia looked at Rafina, then at Santeri, and then back at Rafina.

It didn’t work, so she just kept blinking.

“A-A saint? What are you saying?”

Santeri asked, which turned out to be good for Mia as well. Rafina looked at the confused man for a moment and then spoke in a quiet voice.

“Santeri, do you really think Mia did what she did because she was selfish? That she did those things to help herself?”

“Are you saying that she didn’t do it?”

Rafina nodded solemnly.

“Of course, yes. Mia, don’t you think so?”

Mia’s first reaction when she heard her own name was to copy Rafina’s serious nod and agree with what had been said.

Honestly, she had no idea what Rafina was talking about, but that didn’t matter. She liked to ride waves, and there was no doubt that this was a wave. In typical Mia fashion, she gave up control to the forces around her and let them pull her in any way they wanted.

Rafina smiled with satisfaction when she saw Mia’s weak smile of agreement.

“Just as I thought. Mia would never do something so self-centered and stupid. She didn’t say it as a joke or prank, either. Consider it. Don’t you think it’s strange that she took us mushroom hunting and then found poisonous mushrooms in the forest? Not only that, but she chose a slightly poisonous one to bring back with her, dropped it into the pot of stew without any of us noticing, and then ate it herself. What are the odds of that happening, hm? Should we think that all of these things happened by chance? Does that even sound a little bit possible to you?”

“W-Well, I suppose not… When you look at it that way, it seems…planned.”

“Intentional. In other words, she did it on purpose to get sick. Does that sound like something people usually do?”

“N-No, I don’t believe so…”

Santeri said that Mia’s strange behaviour was strange, so Rafina gave him one last push.

“Then why? Why would she do something so out of character? She needed a reason. She had a goal, an objective.” she said with complete certainty.

“An… objective? What was it?”

Santeri and Mia both asked the same question, though Mia asked it in silence. Mia waited with bated breath for Rafina’s big reveal, which would be the first time she found out her own secret goal.

“Her goal,” Rafina said, “is to change how we handle security for the Holy Eve Festival.”

“What?! What exactly do you mean? What’s wrong with the way we protect ourselves?”

Santeri yelled angrily, and his tone showed that he was sure of the quality of his own work.

“I think Mia already gave you an answer to your question. She got poison on an island where it shouldn’t be possible, added it to a pot of stew, and then ate it. Do you not think this is a security issue?”

“It…”

He thought for a moment, then shook his head quickly.

“Very well. I will admit that what she found was important. We didn’t think the island would have poisonous mushrooms growing on it. But even if you could get poisonous mushrooms here that could kill you, getting past the guards and rules we have on the day of the festival to actually use the poison is a different story. I don’t think they’re the same thing.”

Santeri’s counterargument didn’t change Rafina’s mood, which remained grave.

“True… It’s probably not possible to add poison to the banquet feast. Our students will eat the food there, and we have put in place strict rules to make sure they are safe. But what about their helpers? Is their food safe?”

Rafina’s eyes were fixed on Santeri as she thought.

“Which food, the food we got today as student council members or the food that will be served to people at the Holy Eve Festival, will be looked at more closely?”

Possible killers didn’t just try to kill people on the day of the festival. To make up for this, strict security measures were always in place to make sure that people like Rafina and the people on her council were safe every day. So, Santeri had no choice but to say that the security around the food that was served to the attendants was less strict.

“But… Hm, attendants, you say?”

He made a puzzled face at the idea.

“I guess it would be possible to put poison in the food served to attendants, but why? What kind of killer would bother to do that?”

“You would be right if the assassin’s goal was to kill powerful people in order to cause chaos in a country. It wouldn’t make sense to aim at attendees. What if, instead, their goal was to make the academy look bad? To do, as you put it so well, ‘irreparable damage to the reputation and legacy of Saint-Noel’?”

In fact, Santeri himself said that a scandal like this would make the student council look bad for a long time.

“Let’s say that several guests from different countries were killed here in Saint-Noel,” Rafina said. “Then what would happen? Belluga is currently trying to get people nearby to help fight the Chaos Serpents. Such a big mistake seems like it could break us up a lot, doesn’t it?”

She shut her eyes. Her voice grew quieter, but firmer.

“Mia could see the risk, but she knew she had to show it. Demonstrate it. So she did it herself.”

“What? Impossible… A princess of the empire wouldn’t go to such trouble to…”

Santeri turned towards Mia with wide-open eyes. Mia didn’t expect the conversation to turn so quickly towards her. She stood still for a moment while she thought about what to say. She thought it was better to be honest than to lie, so she started to wave her hands to say “no,” but Rafina spoke up instead.

“Yes, she did. Since her name is Mia. She would rather hurt herself than someone else. That’s just how she is.”

As someone who was definitely not like that, Mia thought she should say something like, “You give me way too much credit. I’m nothing like that.”

But what she really did was keep her mouth and hands to herself. After all, Mia’s whole strategy was based on being pulled along by forces stronger than her.

If Rafina said that’s how she was, it must be true! No ifs, no buts, no maybes!

“As I’m sure you know, Santeri, the Holy Book of the Central Orthodox Church says that there is no greater love than giving up your life for a close friend. We teach this every day, but how many people are able to follow it? How many people, if they knew there was a security flaw that could lead to poisonings that could kill, would eat a poisonous mushroom to show how dangerous it was? And who for? Attendants. Commoners. Who, Santeri, are those people whose needs are so often ignored? Who’d do that?”

Mia felt like she should get off this dangerously high wave because her reputation for being good and honest was going to new heights.

But what she really did was hold her tongue still and close her mouth. If Rafina said that’s how she was, then by golly, that’s how she was!

Mia is the kind of person who would gladly eat poison mushrooms to protect others. She doesn’t care about herself and is kind.

Rafina told me that I have this side, so I guess it must be true.

Mia started self-hypnosis so that she could keep her thoughts on Rafina. She wasn’t very good at it, but she tried her best.

“Santeri, the truth is that I did bring up this issue with the student council. I told Mia that I was worried about safety at the Holy Eve Festival. She told me to leave it up to her. She suggested that we invite you to our stew party as soon as we got back from our trip, so I asked you to join us in the kitchen.”

Rafina put her hand on her chest near her heart. Her voice took on a tone of quiet acceptance.

“That’s why…I’m to blame for the whole thing. If anyone should be blamed, it should be me.”

Selflessness, huh… Now, that’s a word that makes me think of…

As Santeri felt himself being pulled back into the past, Rafina’s voice became less clear.

He started to remember things from when he was in the army. He had been a strong believer in the Bible since he was a child. People around him were very impressed by how religious he was, and they thought he would make a great priest one day.

But the path he chose in the end was to become a guard in the Belluga army. He thought that the guards, whose job it was to use their own bodies to protect important people from harm, were the perfect example of what the Holy Book said about the spirit of self-sacrifice.

So, he worked hard at his job, and because of how hard he worked, he was eventually given the important job of chief of security on Saint-Noel Island. He could say with a clear conscience that he had strived for excellence every single day for the past few decades.

He took pride in his work. But when? When did that pride start to sound a little bit like cockiness?

I get it…I can see what I did wrong. I’d always thought that my job of keeping people safe was a way to follow God’s rules. But what started out as a way to get to the goal is now the goal itself. I used to see my work through God, but then I started to see my work as God.

Which, much to his dismay, led Santeri Bandler, a true believer in the spirit of selflessness, to force a young girl who hadn’t even turned 18 yet to give up her health for their sake.

The shame I felt when I realised this was crushing.

He hung his head under its weight.

He looked at Mia and said, “I see now that I’ve been a stubborn fool, and that my stubbornness has caused Princess Mia a lot of pain. There are no words to describe how sorry I am.”

Then he turned to Rafina and bowed just as deeply as she had.

“Lady Rafina, I want you to officially fire me as chief of security… I am also willing to take any punishments you think are fair.”

“I’m sorry, Santeri, but nothing like that will happen. Your request is denied.”

To his surprise, his serious promise to deal with the consequences of his failure was turned down.

“…Why? Princess Mia had to eat the poisonous mushroom because of what I did. I have to take the blame for that—”

“It’s good that you’re willing to take responsibility and quit. If you feel bad about what you did, it makes sense that you would want to get punished. But Mia punishment is not what Mia desires.”

Rafina then turned to look at Mia.

“Huh? Uh… That’s right…”

Mia felt scared, even though she had no idea what anyone was talking about. She was so far behind in the conversation that its shape had long since faded into the horizon of talk, leaving her with no idea where to go.

She picked up the cup of tea in front of her and took a slow sip to calm herself down. The soothing liquid helped her scattered ideas come together.

Well, I suppose I would feel bad if this guy lost his job because I ate a poisonous mushroom… Even more so if they found out I did it for a pretty dumb reason. That would make me feel very bad…and look even worse.

Coward Tactics 101: Always plan for the worst. There would be…consequences if Rafina ever found out that there was no grand plan of selfless altruism and she had to fire one of her loyal subjects because Mia did something stupid.

Angry Rafina consequences. That was a nightmare come true! She felt sick again just thinking about it.

I need to set things up so that if I get caught, it won’t be too bad. If I don’t stop worrying, the stress of it might kill me. At the same time, I’d like to keep the whole thing quiet if I can. Still, if I can avoid getting caught in the first place, that would be even better…

After doing some quick math in her head, she smiled like a saint.

“Miss Rafina has forgiven me for my sin, which was to eat a poisonous mushroom on my own free will.”

First, she used a classic “done deal” opening. By saying ahead of time that she had been excused for her behaviour, she hoped to make it clear that it was true and take away any reason to dig deeper into why it happened.

“Even though I don’t think she’s done anything wrong to me, Miss Rafina seems to feel bad about herself. So, I think it’s important to formally address this matter. I forgive Miss Rafina for anything she thinks she may have done to hurt me.”

Next, she started making it hard for her opponent to move. She especially wanted to make sure Rafina didn’t spend too much time thinking about her supposed mistake and come up with some strange ideas as a result. The matter was done. It was dead and buried. It should never be dug up again to be examined. It was like sweeping the elephant in the room under the rug, but she was going to do it! Mia was the best at hiding the truth when it was inconvenient.

Then, as the third and final hit in her three-hit combination…

“And if Miss Rafina and I are to be forgiven, it is not fair at all for you to carry your sins alone and not be forgiven. I think we should all be a part of this forgiveness.”

Putting all the blame on Santeri at the end of this situation was a great way to start trouble. Those who had to take the blame would feel angry. It would grow inside them, feeding those bad seeds until the time was right for them to grow. Then, their old anger might make them want to find out the hard truths from the past.

In other words, it could come back and bite her, and she didn’t like the feeling of teeth on her soft behind.

What she didn’t want was clear explanations of the truth. Mia’s dream was for everyone to lie together and hide the truth with so much buttery nonsense that no one could tell the truth from the lies even if they tried.

She sat on the elephant-shaped bump under the rug and gave herself a satisfied nod.

Then she looked at Santeri and saw that his face looked…different. Like the rare melting of snowy permafrost, his cold face gave way just a little bit, revealing the soft earth underneath.

Mia quickly added a few more words because she could smell a chance.

“However, I’d like to make one thing clear. I have nothing but the highest regard for the work you do.”

First, a compliment. Always start by being nice.

“And I’m looking forward to seeing how hard you work to reach even higher levels of excellence.”

The seeds came next. Not seeds of worry, but of hope.

Mia’s life was directly linked to what Santeri did for a living. It couldn’t be stressed enough how important it was. The more he cared about it, the better her chances of survival.

Right now, it seems like he’s a little more willing to listen. I think I might be able to persuade him to keep looking out for the safety of the island. In fact, if I can get him even more fired up, he might be able to stop me from being killed…

Cowardly Strategy 102: Prepare early and prepare extensively.

She did everything she could to increase her chances of making it through the Holy Eve Festival.

“You… look forward… I see…” Santeri’s face was far away and almost blank for a long time.

Then he said, “I can see that you are worthy of being called a saint. I will remember what you said and use it to help me do my job better.”

He got down on one knee in front of her and swore this.

Santeri Bandler spent the rest of his life making sure that Saint-Noel Island was safe. Even though he was old, the head of security was known for being eager to get advice from his younger coworkers and always giving what they said serious thought.

“I’ve learned that there are people who are smarter than me. I also know that at my age, experience tends to make people’s minds more set in their ways. That’s why I need to ask the young for help. Even though they have less experience, they have more open minds, and what they say is worth thinking about. By thinking about every point of view, I can see more. Only then can I hope to be ready for everything that could happen.”

The old man’s belief became the guiding principle of Saint-security Noel’s force, making the island safer and more peaceful than ever before.