Absolute Villain Ark

aint, Teach’s body recovered, but he was still in the infirmary as a precautionary measure.
After the treatment, Absolute and his team left the infirmary.
At this point, Absolute cut to the chase.

“So, Saint, do you have any excuses?”

“What are you talking about? I have nothing to hide.”

The saint remains aloof without changing her expression.

“You’re so blatant.
You used your skills to strengthen the hero and intentionally set him up to run amok.
You were planning to use the hero to kill me at the last moment, right?”

Absolute questions the Saint.
The Saint’s guards may have taken this as a false accusation and tried to step forward to protect the saint.

“You, the saint would never do such a thing! Stop making false accusations!”

The holy knight was about to close in on Absolute, but he suddenly stopped moving.
He knew someone was behind him with a knife to his neck.

“Don’t move, Absolute-sama is still speaking.
And he said earlier that there would be no next time, didn’t he? You’ll get killed for real, so it’s best for your own safety not to interfere.
Well, he won’t harm the Saint, probably.
Isn’t that right, Absolute-sama?”

Mist stops the holy knight from getting in Absolute’s way.
Mist is  from the house that assists the Ark family in their shadow work.
He is also a shield for those who would harm Absolute, and he fulfills his duties without asking any questions.
Mist’s job now is to remove anyone who interferes with Absolute’s conversations.
He is used to this kind of work.

“I don’t know.
So what do you think, Saint?”

In some cases, it may look like hostage-taking, but it should work on the saint.

“It’s a terrible accusation.
And what if I did it? You have no proof, do you?”

The Saint stares at me as if she is offended.

(Taking a hostage has no effect?  She’s a pretty cold-hearted person, Isn’t she? And she’s a pretty good actor to lie so nonchalantly in this situation.)

Absolute analyzes the saint even as he speaks.

“Unfortunately, if it were magic, I might have been able to prove it by tracing the magic, but your skills are unique.
It would be impossible to prove it this time.
Perhaps you have anticipated this, but you are a damned woman.”

“You talk as if you know my skills which only the top class people in the church know about.
Since there’s no evidence, what will you do? Do you want to publicize that this whole mess is the work of a saint?”

(Even if I said it, no one would believe me, so there’s no point.
Besides, if I did that, it might affect the punishment of the hero, so I’m not going to do it.
It’s a chance to suspend him from school, if not expel him.
If the hero is suspended, he won’t be able to be involved in the events during that time.
There’s no way I’m going to miss it, and I’d hate for it to go the way the saint wants it to go.)

“Hmph.
If I do that, the responsibility of the hero will also be in doubt.
So this time, I’ll go along with your idea.
But you’ve made enemies of the Ark family, and you’ll have to pay for this sooner or later.”

“I told you I didn’t do it.
If you’re done talking, could you please let go of my escort?”

Absolute gives Mist a visual cue to release the holy knight.

“Thank you very much.
Well, we will go back first.
And I’d like to make up for the disrespectful comment that my escort made to you earlier about taking the escort hostage.”

The saint bowed lightly to Absolute and left, followed by her escort.

“Are you sure it’s okay? You can’t just let her go.”

Mist had his doubts about letting the saint go without doing anything.

“It’s okay, and we still don’t know if it’s just the saint or the church that’s the enemy.
If we let the saint live, they will move through the saint again when they make some kind of plan in the future.
By then, we will know who the enemy is.”

(In the original story, the saint may have been a naive girl who had never left the church, perhaps just hiding her true nature, but this time I sensed clear malice from the saint.
And her tactics were quite insidious, as she harassed me under the guise of a heroic outburst.
This may not have been the only time she did this…)

Mist asked Absolute, who suddenly fell silent and started thinking.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your thinking, but isn’t it simply that the hero asked the saint to strengthen him? Shouldn’t we not think too much about it?”

In order to beat Absolute, he asked the saint to strengthen him.
Mist thought so, but Absolute did not care about that.

“You are mistaken.
The important thing this time is that the hero and the Mirai family are at fault and that the saint has turned on us.
So it doesn’t matter whether or not the hero asked her to strengthen him or not.
 Let’s go back, Mist.”

As if to say, “That’s enough,” Absolute turned away and walked away.
Absolute and the others returned to the training hall after the saint.