Fake Saint of the Year
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Kiro
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter AF27 – The Reason She Hates Red
――At a supermarket in Japan.
That day, Yamoto Tamagame had gone shopping at a nearby wholesale supermarket to buy a few days’ worth of food.
With movement that showed she was already used to it, she put things she needed into a shopping cart, but stopped midway when she saw a certain item.
They were frozen strawberries, a great bargain at less than 300 yen for a large quantity.
When she saw it, she was reminded of the face of a troublesome person who had caused her so much trouble when she was known as Propheter of Fiori… It was the face of the First Saint, Alfrea.
She thought to herself as she put the frozen strawberries into her basket.
Come to think of it, I wonder if she still hates the color red……
◇
From Yamoto ―― Propheter’s perspective, it happened over a thousand years ago.
Saint Alfrea, who continued her journey to defeat Witch Eve, wasn’t in position to receive blessings from people, unlike modern-day Saints.
Because she was the first, the existence of Saint wasn’t recognized at the time, and people merely thought of her as “another Witch.”
Naturally, they couldn’t openly approach human towns and struggled everyday to secure food…… Members of the group whose faces weren’t well known or sometimes Alfrea herself would disguise themselves and enter town to procure food while hiding, but they would still be found out sometimes.
Because of this, it wasn’t uncommon for the group to be unable to secure adequate food for long periods of time.
What helped Alfrea’s group very much was wild animals and sweet red berries that grew everywhere at the time.
Alfrea’s group hunted animals and dried their meat, and preserved the berries by freezing them with magic.
These preserved foods were a great help during the journey and the berries in particular helped to replenish vitamins that were often lacking (although the group had no such knowledge) and the sweet taste also helped to reduce the stress of the long, difficult journey.
But there was a problem that was bothering them. There were frequent problems regarding these berries.
It happened on a certain day.
When Gonzales, one of Alfrea’s companions, checked the frozen berries that were to be distributed to everyone, he found that for some reason, those berries had all disappeared.
“Oi, the berries disappeared again!”
“What?! Could it be……!”
Upon hearing Gonzales’ words, everyone immediately looked at Alfrea.
She was sitting with her back turned, so her expression wasn’t visible.
There was a moment of silence…… and eventually, Alfrea spoke in a displeased voice.
“Hey…… What? Are you doubting your comrades?”
“Well, that’s not it……”
“It just…… you know?”
It wasn’t okay to suspect their comrades without any evidence. Indeed, even if she had a previous offense.
For Alfrea’s group, who didn’t receive blessings from the people of the world, their comrades were the only people they could trust in the world.
That was why, if they doubted their comrades, they wouldn’t be able to continue their journey.
But Propheter didn’t seem to care about that and spoke to Alfrea in a cold voice.
“Alfrea, look over here.”
“…………”
“Come on, turn your face toward us. If you have nothing to hide, you can do it, right?”
At Propheter’s words, Alfrea turned her head slowly.
Sure enough, what was there was Alfrea with a goofy look on her face with her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel.
As soon as the group saw this, they grabbed Alfrea and confiscated the berries she was holding.
“Eeih, not again! You did something like this again!”
“Uwaaahhhn! I’m soooorrrryyyy! It was so tasty! It was so sweet after all!”
Alfrea began crying while making an excuse that didn’t sound like one.
This was a recurring problem.
Alfrea had been frequently seen snacking on berries and consumed them incredibly quickly.
Logically speaking, it was a case that would definitely result in the perpetrator being expelled from the party.
And yet Alfrea was barely, just barely, allowed to stay because she was the core of the party.
The group was gathered around Alfrea in order to defeat Eve, and Alfrea was the only one who could defeat Eve.
Therefore, if they drove her out, all that would remain was a riffraff mob. The moment Alfrea was driven out, defeating Eve would become impossible.
So they had no choice but to forgive her, but her behavior was really outrageous.
Worried about this problem, the group approached Propheter for advice on what could be done.
“U~hn…… I honestly don’t know if it will be effective…… but I guess we can try to scare her a bit.”
If things continued like this, the party could end up in a ridiculous situation of being broken up because of someone snacking on berries.
Thinking this, Propheter, while feeling fed-up, took action to do something about Alfrea.
◇
That night, while they camped around the campfire, Propheter suddenly began to speak up in a low voice.
That wasn’t an unusual thing.
After all, there was nothing that could be called entertainment. In that case, conversations with comrades were the only thing that provided relief, and it was common for someone to bring up a topic or speak without any context.
“Come to think of it, have you heard of it? The story of the ‘Disemboweling kaijin’ that appears around here.”
“Hm? What is that? A monster?”
“No, it’s not a monster. It’s a ghost.”
As Alfrea asked with a puzzled look, Propheter met her gaze and gave her a faint smile.
The eeriness of its expression was accentuated by the firelight in the darkness.
“There was a man who was born into a poor family. He had a cute sister who loved bright red berries.”
“Oh my, that’s similar to me.”
“That’s right. But they were persecuted by the village because the brother was so ugly that he was seen as a monster.
Even so, the siblings worked together to survive, but one day, the sister fell ill. Facing death, she asked her brother if she could eat her favorite berries, so the brother went outside to pick some.”
Propheter looked at Alfrea.
She looked genuinely concerned about the sister in the story and seemed to be listening carefully.
Although Alfrea was stupid and thoughtless, she was highly sensible and took things at face value.
That might be one of the few good points about her.
“But he couldn’t find any berries. The people in the village had eaten all the berries in the area to spite them.”
“That’s terrible!”
“In the end, the sister died without ever being able to eat the berries, and the brother chose to follow her by committing suicide.
But the story didn’t end there. A month later…… a young man from the village was found dead with his stomach ripped open. And every day, more villagers died, all with their stomachs ripped open.”
“Err…… all of them died?”
“No, one person survived. He was a villager who didn’t like berries and didn’t eat them.”
A villager who hadn’t eaten any berries.
Hearing this, Alfrea looked at her hands.
There, she was tightly holding a handful of her favorite red berries.
“The surviving villager saw it. Their friend, who had been the leader in harassing the siblings, had his stomach ripped open by something. It was the man who was supposed to have committed suicide with his face red with blood. He kept muttering, ‘Where are the berries? Where are the berries?’ as he ripped open the villager’s stomach and removed its contents.”
“Pi.”
“Even after he died, he continued to search for berries for his sister…… Since then, the kaijin has been appearing here, searching for berries…… or so the rumor goes.”
When it finished speaking, Alfrea’s face was pale.
Then she gently placed the berries back on the plate and didn’t eat them.
Seeing this, Propheter became convinced that its plan was a success.
――Of course, there were no rumors about the disemboweling kaijin.
It was all an improvisation by Propheter. It was a fabrication to stop Alfrea from snacking.
The effect would only last for a few days at most, and after a while, Alfrea would forget about it and go back to snacking, but if it made her behave better, it meant it was worth telling the horror story.
◇
However, Alfrea’s appetite exceeded Propheter’s expectation.
Propheter during this era didn’t yet possess the precognitive power that it would later acquire. 1
That said…… it probably never thought the fear would wear off in just two days.
Alfrea had completely forgotten what she had heard two days ago, and when everyone had gone to sleep, she approached the bag filled with food for the party in order to steal some berries.
“Huh?”
On the way to the bag, she stepped on something.
It was hard to see in the darkness of the night, but from the sensation, it felt like a person.
Beneath the moonlight, she squinted at it, and wondered what on earth she stepped on.
――There was someone whose face was bright red.
“…………Eh.”
As Alfrea’s thought became rigid and her body went stiff as stone statue, the person who had been lying in front of Alfrea slowly got up.
The person was staggering along, searching for something with a voice that sounded like it was coming from the depths of the earth.
“Where are the berries…… Where are the berries……?”
“Piiiiiieeeeeeeehhhh?!”
Alfrea screamed and fled the scene with incredible speed.
The scream woke up her comrades and they immediately grabbed their weapons, looking around to see what was going on.
One of them quickly chased after the fleeing Alfrea, while the rest looked at the person with red face.
They cautiously lit a torch and confirmed the identity of the person.
And when they found out who it was…… they all had fed-up expressions and dispelled their wariness.
“You…… Gonzales, huh. What the hell are you doing, with your face all red?”
“Ah, everyone…… sorry for waking you up.”
――The true identity of the kaijin with a red face was Gonzales.
He bowed his head apologetically and wiped his head with the towel he was handed.
“I was checking the number of frozen berries to see if anyone had been stealing any, but I got sleepy and my face slammed into the bag…… I’m so sorry! I ended up ruining those berries……”
“Ah~……”
Seeing Gonzales cowering and apologizing, Propheter, who realized the general situation, looked in the direction Alfrea had fled.
After thinking for a bit, it came to the conclusion it wasn’t a bad result.
“No, I’d say it was actually a good result. I’m sure Alfrea won’t even think of snacking on them anymore.”
“Eh?”
After that, as Propheter predicted, Alfrea stopped stealing berries.
Apparently, her encounter with the berry kaijin (lol) was an extremely scary experience for her.
That was fine but……
“Hey! I told you not to put anything red on my plate!”
“Ah, sorry…… I forgot.”
――This time she developed an extreme dislike for the color red, which in turn caused headaches to those around her for different reasons.
Author Note:
Hello everyone, author here.
The 4th volume of the Fake Saint comic will be released on December 27th!
I plan to release another chapter on the comic’s release date, so if I hadn’t forgotten to upload then, I will see you again then.
Want early access to Cannon Fodder, Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer, and I Was a Man Before Reincarnating, So I Refuse a Reverse Harem? Support the translator on Patreon!
