It was something I hadn’t thought of before that there would be people who objected to inviting Saint Clare to the party.

The first reason was that I expected that no one would hate the fact that a high-price theology student came to the party.

The second reason was that all three of them nodded when they said they would recruit a theology student into the party.

Above all, in my previous life, it was also a party that was formed at once without such trouble, so I can’t help but think that there will be even more opposing opinions.

Of course, compared to then, the purpose of the party now is very different.

“In the first place, we’ve been doing well by ourselves until now! If you’re just an ordinary theology student, don’t you know, do you even need to call a saintess to make sure you win the hunting festival?!”

Compared to the purpose of forming the party in the previous life, to subdue demons, the purpose of the current party was, at best, to win the Academy Hunting Festival.

It was not so hard to understand why Lulu was flustered.

He had already won the hunting festival twice without Saint Claire, so he must be wondering if it was necessary to include the Saint in the party with the possibility of being stamped by the Orthodox Church.

Even in my opinion, to be honest, putting Saint Clair in after seeing only one victory in the hunting festival was excessive power.

It’s a story when the purpose is limited to ‘winning the hunting festival’.

“No, Saint Claire is the person we really need for our party. So I’m sorry Lulu, but I can’t listen to your opinion this time.”

Ultimately, we have to carry on to the subjugation party that drank these members as they were.

Although at this point, I was the only one who knew the purpose.

The few opportunities to act together before formally becoming a subjugation party could not be blown because of Lulu’s childishness.

So, since she refuted Lulu’s opinion with sincerity, her spirit, which seemed to be fiercely opposed, slowed down a little.

“Do you really need that much? So much for Conrad to say so important?”

“So far, we’ve been lucky and all battles have ended safely, but you know that the Demon Forest is a place where it doesn’t matter if someone gets hurt or collapses.

The same goes for the mutant monster that destroyed Xian-senpai’s party in the first semester of last year. Just because it’s our party right now, there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen anytime soon.”

“It is, but… .”

“It would be fortunate if we could solve it with the paralysis treatment like last time. What if the injury is serious enough that you have to take it to church right away? What if you might lose your life if you don’t immediately use divine magic?

Read at noblemtl.com

Just having Saint Claire in our party can solve all the treatments you can get at a decent church. I’ll vouch for that ability.

In the first place, the divine magic that Saint Clair can use also includes the heavenly shield, so it can prevent the situation itself from getting seriously injured from the start.”

“Ugh… .”

I’ve explained the reason for this point by point, so it’s probably hard to use the swarm anymore.

Lulu, whose expression was about to say something else, made eye contact with me once, realized that she would not be able to convince me, and quietly dropped her ears.

… It might be better to soothe him a little.

“And what we need for our party isn’t limited to St. Claire, it’s the same for you, Lulu.”

“… Huh, me?”

“The reason we can always return safely from the Demon Forest after our hunting training is, of course, because Lulu is doing her best to search and release traps.

In that respect, the recruitment of St. Claire was made to add more prudence to everyone’s safety and to prevent any contingencies. So, Lulu, I want you to understand too.”

“That, yes… . If that’s what… .”

Seeing the softly moving tail, it seemed that the mood was quite relaxed.

In the end, instead of further refuting my recruiting offer, Lulu presented me with a new question that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere.

“By the way, why does Saint Clare come to our party?”

“yes?”

“Of course, if the saintess joins the party, we should become better, but if we think the opposite way, there is no benefit to the saintess Claire, right?”

It was a sharp, pointed question.

If I had to say the reason, it would be because of my friendship, but it wasn’t something I would say casually anywhere.

“Just because we became a little close because of this or that?”

“What the hell is this and that? .”

Lulu asked in a smirk at my vagueness without explaining properly.

But I can’t help it.

It was because there was nothing I could say to Lulu right now out of the reasons I became close to Saint Clare.

The incident of digging into Professor Heims’ secret laboratory, and the incident of visiting the Great Church of Madea during mid-vacation.

Both of these actions were secretly done without the knowledge of other party members, and there was nothing good about revealing them.

“I just became close with Stella through similar circumstances.”

“Um… .”

“Would you like to ask me directly?”

“Uh, huh?!”

He grabbed Lulu’s arm, who still had a dissatisfied expression on her face, and forcibly dragged her in front of Saint Clare and had her alone.

“Saint Claire, this is Lulu, our party’s searcher and auxiliary combatant.”

I forcibly introduced Lulu, whose awkwardness was still not gone, halfway through.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Lulu.”

“Uh, uh, uh, uh… ?!”

“Lulu, you should say hello properly.”

“That, so, I, it’s nice to meet you too… .”

Lulu was flustered at the sudden introduction, unable to make eye contact with Saint Clare, and showed restlessness.

I didn’t even expect that I would be able to respond properly to the first meeting, since Lulu, who is normally shy, met a non-standard person like Saint Clare.

However, there was not much time left until the hunting festival to pursue natural encounters until they became close.

Since the first half of the hunting festival was only two weeks away, they would have to start training with five people from the day after tomorrow.

In order to do that, he had to somehow create a relationship between Saint Claire and Lulu today that was not awkward.

“Saint Claire, Lulu said she wanted to ask you something.”

“Hey, when did I… !”

“Oh my, is it really? What can I tell you?”

“They say they are curious about how I made friends with Saint Clare.

Apparently, Saint Clare is more talkative than I am, so could you tell me ‘knowledge’ how we built a relationship?”

“Did I ‘know’?”

“Yes, please.”

She already knew that I shouldn’t speak about Professor Hemes’ case openly, so the quick-witted Saint Claire must have immediately recognized the true meaning of my words.

Living among church priests would naturally teach me how to tell a good lie.

Maybe you can tell a more interesting story than I can make up.

“I’m curious too, Miss Claire!”

“… I’m a little interested too.”

“Huh, I get it. Then let the rest sit down at the table and talk.”

* * *

Looking at Saint Clare, who naturally sat everyone down and immediately told a story she had made up, her skill at improvising the story was certainly as good as in her previous life.

Even I, who knew that the story leaking out of her mouth was a lie, was rather curious about the ending later.

“That incident is the incident that made me trust Mr. Conrad, and it is the opportunity that gave me the opportunity to want to be close with him in the future.”

“That happened with junior Konrad.”

“As expected, you are Conrad-senpai!”

“Yes, it is you.”

“… … .”

Although it was a situation that made me feel a bit ashamed to be praised by other colleagues for something I didn’t do.

Much better than letting the events of the Dark Cult go public.

At that point, the place of friendship to introduce St. Claire deepened, and the empty wine bottles were filling up one by one on the table.

The contents of the bottle were emptied almost exclusively by me and Xian-senpai, and the curfew to break the seat was approaching.

By the way, Stella realized her drinking level after the last incident and was in the middle of showing sobriety in case she made the same mistake.

Lulu, who drank the same amount of alcohol on the same day as Stella and showed the same ugliness… .

“Ugh… pooh… .”

“So you should drink slowly.”

He had already drank to his heart’s content from the start and spread out, lying face down on the table.

Why did I insist on following Xian’s breath with me when I was weak in alcohol?

In the end, Lulu couldn’t digest the alcohol that had entered her body before she had even finished drinking a few drinks like last time and ended up in a knockout state.

It was up to me, Xian-senpai, and Saint Claire to dispose of the remaining alcohol.

By the way, Saint Claire, unlike me and Xian-senpai, set the amount of alcohol she could drink per day to just one.

It wasn’t because she was weak in alcohol, but because it was a doctrine that all priests from the Orthodox Church had to abide by.

It wasn’t that she became a saint because she wanted to, but anyway, she also belonged to the Orthodox Church, and it looked like she was faithfully following the rule of one drink a day, which is the dogma of the Orthodox Church.

It’s a problem because that one cup is very different in size from the cups others drink.

“What are you looking at, Mr. Conrad?”

“just… . It’s because I think that the saintess uses a slightly larger cup than we do.”

“It can’t be helped. Because the dogma of the Orthodox Church has laid down the definition of one cup a day.”

Maybe it wasn’t a doctrine that meant to increase the size of the wine glass.

As soon as the drinking party started, I will never forget the bewildered expressions of the other three people who saw Saint Clare pouring three bottles of distilled liquor into the largest ale glass in succession.

Well, I’ve seen it a few times in my previous life, so I wasn’t too taken aback, but I never thought I’d reveal my true nature even at a drinking party with three strangers.

Well, I’ve never seen a case where her divine power weakened by doing something like that, so it seemed that the doctrine itself was considered as being followed anyway.

Aside from that, if another priest witnessed it, it would seem that his faith would weaken enough.

“Conrad-senpai, I’ll fill your cup.”

“Thank you, Stella.”

I lightly thanked Stella for tipping the bottle and filling my glass.

Senior Xian, who glanced at her for a moment, held out a glass to Stella as well as me.

“Stella junior, will you fill my glass too?”

“Yes, senior Xian!”

“… … .”

She stretched out her arm to take the glass from Stella, then opened her mouth quietly, looking back and forth between me and Stella.

“You call Junior Conrad ‘Senior’ and call me ‘Senior’, Junior Stella.”

It was a truly keen observation.

It hasn’t been long since Stella started calling me senpai, but I would have noticed at once that her address to me had changed.

“Ah, yes. Conrad-senpai said the other day that the title senior seemed a little distant, so we agreed to call him Conrad-senpai from now on.”

“It seems that the juniors became quite friendly in a place I didn’t know. Hmm… .”

I don’t know, but it was something out of the ordinary.

What else do you not like today?

“Mr. Conrad, don’t you hate titles with a sense of distance?”

“It’s not really like that. I just thought it was not good to distance myself too much, since I and Stella have become quite close seniors and juniors through many things.”

“After becoming close friends over various things, I prefer a title that doesn’t have a sense of distance… .”

St. Claire, who was muttering over and over again what I had said, suddenly answered me with a suspicious smile.

“I understand, Brother Conrad.”

“… … .”

“… … .”

“… … .”

Due to Saint Clare’s unannounced title change, the atmosphere at the drinking party was enveloped in silence.

Saint Claire and I weren’t actually related by blood, so it was a remark enough to lead to various problems.

Not even an older brother, but an older brother.

It was a perfect title for someone to misunderstand.

“I was joking. Everyone seems to be taking it too seriously.”

“Yeah, that should have been a joke.”

“Ah, were you kidding… .”

“Don’t do it next time, Saint Claire.”

If she, the symbol of the Orthodox Church, were caught calling any man her brother, it would undoubtedly cause a great stir in the Orthodox Church and the theological faculty.

Even if it was a joke, it was a pretty dangerous joke just coming out of her mouth.

If it’s dizzy, I’ll have to refrain from doing it.

“Thank you in advance, Saint Clare. And the same goes for Xian-senpai and Stella.”

“eww… ah… .”

“yes. Lulu, you too.”

“I’ll take good care of you in the future too, everyone.”

After the final toast by Saint Claire and I, the first demon subjugation party was safely formed.

At the point where it was three years earlier than the Demon God Suppression Team created in the previous life.