Chapter 134 : The Saintess Corps and Second Names

TL:SummerPeanut

Second name, nicknames, (unofficial/not listed in stats) titles refer to the same thing. But I will standardize with second name since nickname doesn’t really fit all. Clarice’s second name is nut crusher.

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4 November 2030.

I came to Lister Imperial School for the first time yesterday and it's no wonder that it’s famed as the number one school on the continent. ...I wonder if I went to the wrong school. ...I'm already a 4th year student next year but Alice is starting next year. ...Alice might be better off coming here than to a school in the Diadora Holy Kingdom.

“Big sis! There's a huge line today too!”

“Yes, I can see. I wonder what the line is for?”

When I said that, a staff member near the end of the queue shouted loudly.

“The handshake session for the first-year S class is about to close! Each handshake will last 10 seconds and cost one silver coin!"

What...? They're taking a silver coin to shake hands? I’m the one who's supposed to be taking the money if anything. ...okay! I, the famous flower of the Holy Kingdom of Diadora, am going to find out the truth! I got in line with my little sister Alice in the girls' queue, and the official from earlier stood behind Alice and said.

“The handshaking session for the S class is now closed!”

Just how amazing is a handshake session that closes at 13:00? ...on the opposite side queue for the boys are the five members of the ‘Shield of the Saintess’, which is affiliated under the umbrella of our sister group, lined up in the who were queuing on the opposite side. The queue is also closed.

By the way, I'm known as Sofia, the Beautiful Flower, and my sister is known as Alice, the Flash, and we call ourselves the Saintess Corps. The fact that we are self-proclaimed means that we are not yet 15 years old so we can't make a party. Of course, the five members of the ‘Shield of Saintess’ only proclaimed themselves as that too. While we are waiting in line, a group of three rather cute girls in front of us are having this conversation.

“After all, Sir Mars is too cool. Yesterday I only got to shake his hand once but with today, this will be the second time… I wonder if he'll remember me...”

Since she's this cute, well, she must have caught his eye...even with my Magic Eyes (Aesthetic Eyes), she's a B class looker. She is definitely the prettiest in her class.

“He probably won't remember you. Because he had shaken hundreds, no, thousands of hands, you know? You saw the girl in front of us yesterday, right? She was letting him touch her chest! If you want him to remember you, you have to do that at least! I was going to do it today too but I couldn't because Duke Regan is already standing next to Sir Mars, eyeing us all the time..."

What a rip-off! I can't let Alice hear this conversation. But we sisters have our ears dumbfounded by the conversation of the three girls in front of us. Then the third girl said,

“And you know what? Have you seen the faces of the females in Reimei? I mean, that's just outright foul play right? I've been told I'm pretty cute since I was a kid so I was confident but when I saw the female in Reimei I realized it’s impossible...”

That's not true! These three are B class beauties or above, they are beautiful girls! They are qualified enough to join my ‘Saintess Corps’. ...I'm interested in this guy Mars but I'm also interested in the female members of Reimei. If they're really cute, I'll try to recruit them to the ‘Saintess Corps’.

Finally it was our turn to shake hands. It's 14:50 and we've been in line for nearly two hours… The first person to shake hands with us is the Sword Saint of the Holy Kingdom of Diadora from the hanging a banner from the desk… I only know one man who is called so… I stood in front of him and shook his offered hand, then looked at his face....

“Dominic! It's been a long time!”

The man shaking my hand was Dominic with whom I used to play a lot. For a long time, Dominic was always running around with a sword in his hand.

Dominic's impression of me had changed a little since the old days. He used to be thin and slender but now Dominic looks robust. And you can clearly feel that his hand is a hand that holds a sword.

“It's Sofia! You came?!”

My first love remembered me. Well, I don't think any man would forget me.

“Indeed. I didn't expect Dominic to be here.”

After only saying this much, a never seen beautiful person said to me.

“It's time. Please move on."

She said to me in a clerical manner. What a woman...A-class beauty that I've never seen before ...So far I’ve only seen A- class which is myself and Alice… I answered 'yes' without effort and Dominic added.

“Teacher Sasha. Can I talk to Sofia when she finishes shaking hands with Mars? We haven't seen each other in ages, we're childhood friends."

Eh! This beautiful person is a teacher?!

“Well...these girls are the last and all...I’ll allow them.”

After shaking hands with Dominic, I went to the next person. As expected, there is a banner hanging on the next person's desk too. The hero of the North...I heard of him before. I think he was a promising young man from the Lister Confederacy.

“Dominic's childhood friend? I'm Baron. Nice to meet you."

He must have heard about me and Dominic. The refreshing, handsome man holds out his hand to me. Regardless of Dominic or Baron, you’re the best in this class. As I was admiring him, the teacher from earlier said, "It's time" again.

The next person is the last. ...probably Mars. ...the banner on Mars's desk has a lot of things written on it.

Sword Saint, Martial Saint, Younger Brother of the Strongest Ike, Ranked 1st in the first-year S class, youngest ever registered adventurer at 3 years old, youngest ever B-class adventurer...

How can this all be true...adventurer at the age of 3? I'm sure he's just a snot-nosed, wooden stick wielding, B-class adventurer who probably got there by money or some other force. ...I kind of wilted before I even saw his face. Too suspicious...

I lifted my gaze as I thought so and...something completely shot through my heart...My Aesthetic Eyes revealed an S-class beauty… I can't breathe…!

“So you know Dominic. I'm Mars. Nice to meet you."

Saying this, the handsome blonde shook my hand. My first thought is that he has no sword calluses...and he has such a beautiful hand. This proves that the Sword Saint and Martial saint mentioned earlier is a lie. I don't know what to think but Dominic's and Baron's hands are more rugged.

Maybe he manages to do everything with this face. ...No, I'm sure he does! He's so cool, I’m sure the guild officials were drooling over him, and he's even managed to entangle the teachers and become the first year S class!

After my thoughts reached here, I'm ashamed of myself for being so shocked that I couldn't breathe earlier. A man is not about his face...no, it's always better to have a good face...no, face is important...but I feel like this man is the only one I shouldn't admit defeat to.

I said nothing and released my handshake with Mars, and it is Alice's turn to shake hands with him. When Alice shook hands with Mars, Alice's eyes were completely in love shape.

Drool is dripping from Alice's beautiful face. I've never seen my sister like this before. T-this is not good...man's face is important but what's inside is important too! It's absolutely wrong for Alice to fall in love with a man who's been coated in lies like this!

As soon as Alice finished shaking her hand, I pulled her hand and left the venue. I really wanted to talk to Dominic but for Alice's sake…

☆☆☆

Finally, the handshaking was over. The last two people I saw seemed to be acquaintances of Dominic but they left in a hurry. Did they remember something they needed to do?

“Dominic, what's your relationship with those two?”

I ask Dominic.

“The first one to shake my hand is my first love. Her name is Sofia. She was quite pretty, wasn't she? And the last one you shook hands with is her sister, who's nine now and starting school next year if I’m not mistaken?"

Then Misha said.

“That's nine? I thought she was older than me."

"Yes. The sisters have always been famous for their beauty. The older sister is known as Sofia the Beautiful Flower and the younger sister as Alice the Flash.”

Dominic replied happily. But Misha.

“A flash and a beautiful flower...that's cool...I wish I had second name too....”

I never told her that she has an amazing second name of the Runaway/Berserk Elf.

“And that Sofia…even though I told her I wanted to talk in a little bit…”

As Dominic was mumbling and muttering, Karen, who had been listening to the
conversation, said

“Mars, you're not thinking that you're going to get not just the fifth person, but the sixth as well, are you?”

There's no way you can GET them as casually as a Pokémon like that.

“It's not like that… Just...”

When Clarice and Ellie heard my word ‘just’, they looked at me coldly. I stopped saying it because anything more I said would only make things worse.

“Hey Mars, give me a cool second name.”

Misha asked so we all decided to come up with a second name for everyone. When it came time to think of second names ourselves, it was hard to decide. It's strange that we had to think of them ourselves in the first place...

I immediately uttered 'runaway elf' and for some reason Misha seemed to be too happy about it. ...what? Is there supposed to be an element of praise anywhere?

In the end, after a lot of discussion.

Mars, Sword Saint.

Baron, Hero of the North

Dominic, Black Knight (Temp)

Clarice, Goddess of Dawn

Ellie, Imperial Guard

Karen, (Lady) Crimson Queen

Misha, Runaway Elf

Minerva, Sunflower

I’m Sword Saint as per before.

It’s not like there’s a need to advertise to the people around me that I can use magic so we go the other direction purposely. The girls gave me two terrible second names but it's not something I can tell everyone so I'll leave it out here.

Baron is the same hero from the north as before.

This has already been established so there's nothing we can do about it.

Dominic’s second name is Black Knight (temporary).

It's pretty cool but in the end it became (temporary) because the one he's equipped with now is from the Black Iron series and he plans to change it to a better one.

Clarice is Goddess of Dawn.*1

I was actually going to choose the Goddess of Reimei for her but this one just seemed to fit better. She was known as saintess a few years ago but I never thought that she would really take the title of saintess...and Goddess of Dawn would fit better, wouldn't it? As for these second names, please don't pry too much into them...

Clarice herself seems uncomfortable with the term goddess but Karen and Misha forcefully decided that it is more annoying to be compared to Clarice as a person any more.

Ellie is an Imperial Guard.

This was decided because she's always around me and she doesn't seem to be interested in anyone but me. However, Ellie actually cares about Clarice a lot, and although people may not realize it, she also adores Clarice a lot. Also, during battle, she is always looking for signs of her surroundings to ensure our safety. Well, I won’t say this because Ellie would have no problem as long as I understood her.

Karen is the (Lady) Crimson Queen.*2

It's up to the individual to call her with Lady or not. I think others should definitely address her with it. ...Karen seemed to like it a lot.

Misha is a runaway elf.

As I said earlier, she likes it for some reason....Is she still showing a disappointing trait?*3

And finally, Minerva is a sunflower.

To be honest, Minerva was the one I had the most trouble with. Minerva was also the one that got the most nominations. Bondage lady, mischievous lady, tortoise shell girl, and the likes, mascot of energy, bullet girl, reckless rusher, or high spirited person. I think Minerva is a girl who is not depressed and is single-minded and hard-working. I thought she’s similar to a sunflower so I chose sunflower for her second nickname and everyone agreed.

Well, it's no use deciding on our own… Thus, new second names have been decided? We started preparing for the maid cafe tomorrow.

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Author’s note:

Sofia's Aesthetic Eyes cannot see any stats or other information.

It only sees the beauty of people and things.

C is normal and there is no lower than C.

It is an ability to recognise only beautiful things.

Please note that it is not an ability to put someone down.

Only for certain things will you get a G but that's for another time.

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TL’s note:

1. Clarice's actual second name is Goddess of Daybreak which is the same kanji as the clan name. Mars wanted to give the second name, Goddess of Reimei(Dawn), based on the kanji word. I decided to leave it as Goddess of Dawn because it sounds better and daybreak/dawn in english is basically interchangeable.
2. The (Lady) doesn’t get translated well here but there's an implication of Karen being the S character.
3. Disappointing trait here as in appearance-wise is good but the personality-wise is not. One good example is konosuba’s aqua and her voice actress. Cute tho.