The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent Vol. 1

  Table of Contents

  Color Inserts

  Table of Contents Page

  Title Page

  Copyrights and Credits

  Prologue

  Act 1: The Research Institute of Medicinal Flora

  Act 2: Potions

  Act 3: Cooking

  Behind the Scenes I

  Act 4: Skincare Products

  Act 5: The Royal Capital

  Act 6: Enchantments

  Behind the Scenes II

  Act 7: Magic

  Afterword

  Newsletter

  Prologue

  ONE DAY, I was unexpectedly summoned to another world by the Saint Summoning Ritual.

  The hour was late. I had just returned home from work and was slipping off my shoes in the foyer when it happened: an incandescent white light suddenly spilled out around my feet. It was so blindingly bright that my eyes shut tight on instinct.

  When I dared to open them again, I was no longer in my familiar apartment kitchen but a vast room built of stone.

  “It worked!”

  “Ooooooooh!”

  A crowd of people burst into cheers. I had no idea what to make of them and tried instead to understand my surroundings.

  In front of me stood two types of people: some dressed in surcoats who looked like knights and others who wore long robes that brushed their ankles.

  The knights were in an uproar; they clapped one another on the back with a celebratory air. Meanwhile, the people in robes remained seated on the ground, though they were all smiling faintly as if they had just seen some kind of difficult task through to its end.

  I turned my attention to the floor. It was as black as the stone walls, but when I peered closely, I noticed that someone had drawn strange dark lines directly beneath where I sat. The lines connected to each other in a way that reminded me of a magic circle.

  To my right was one of those massive stone walls. To my left, however, was a girl. She was the only other person in this room dressed anything like me. Granted, I wore a full suit while she was wearing a more casual knitted top and a skirt. Nevertheless, we definitely looked like we came from the same modern era.

  Everyone else, though…with all that armor and all those robes, I almost wanted to ask if we had tripped into some kind of video game.

  The girl beside me seemed to be in her late teens, and she had a dazed look on her face. I suspected she and I had been brought here without warning in much the same way.

  Honestly? A part of me wanted to start screaming my head off. I desperately kept a grip on my alarm while I tried to comprehend our situation.

  Just as I was beginning to process what had happened to us, the doors on the left side of the room flew open and several people swept inside.

  In the lead was a devastatingly hot guy with crimson-red hair, whose attire made him look like a noble of the Rococo era, though without a wig. Behind him was an equally hot black-haired knight, and yet another unfairly hot guy with navy-blue hair brought up the rear. He was also dressed like a noble, though his finery was plainer than the red-haired guy’s.

  At a guess, the handsome red-haired man was a prince, the gorgeous knight was his personal guard, and the beautiful third guy was some kind of official.

  But, dude, if you keep dying your hair that bright shade of red, you’re gonna be bald in the future!

  As I tried to escape reality in my hot-guy reverie, Red Hair knelt before the younger girl beside me. With a wide smile on his face, he asked, “Are you the Saint?”

  What in the world?

  Act 1:

  The Research Institute of Medicinal Flora

  IT HAD BEEN A MONTH since my summoning. The warmth of spring was close at hand, and I was sowing herbs in the royal palace’s garden.

  Why was this my responsibility? Because I now worked at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora, which was located right next to this garden. In fact, I slept there, too.

  Yup, that’s right. I no longer resided in the royal palace. I lived in a research institute.

  ***

  The day I, Sei Takanashi, was summoned to another world by the “Saint Summoning Ritual,” I learned it had been passed down since antiquity here in the Kingdom of Salutania.

  I also learned that something called “miasma” was manifesting all across the kingdom. It always appeared relatively close to where people lived and had a detrimental effect on humans. Furthermore, though the reasons were yet unclear, when the miasma reached a certain density, it churned out monsters. The more concentrated the miasma, the stronger the monsters. In turn, defeating monsters dissipated the miasma. As such, it was necessary to hunt and kill the unholy beasts to stop their source from gaining strength.

  However, every few generations, the growing density of the miasma far exceeded the speed at which the monsters could be slain. Fortunately, during these eras, a maiden who would become the Saint always appeared in the kingdom.

  The Saint’s magic was so powerful, she could annihilate the miasma’s monsters in the blink of an eye. In so doing, her magic instantly balanced the rate at which monsters were slain versus the rate at which the miasma condensed.

  According to one theory, once the Saint had appeared, the miasma could no longer condense at all, at least in her divine presence.

  Incredible, right?

  The Saint was generally supposed to manifest all on her own, but at one point in ages past, despite the rapid growth of miasma, she had failed to appear. The sages of that time desperately experimented with all types of magic until they devised a ritual for summoning the maiden who would become the Saint from a faraway land.

  And so, most annoyingly, the sages of the present era summoned me.

  The ritual itself had only been performed that one time long ago; the current sages hadn’t known whether it would work until they actually tried it. Luckily for them, those sages of the past were as clever and powerful as they seemed, because the ritual did indeed manage to summon the Saint—two of them, in fact.

  Up until now, there had only ever been one Saint at a time. “How did we wind up summoning two of them?” the sages asked. “Maybe it’s because the present state of the miasma is so exceptionally dire, we require another Saint to drive it back?”

  The mystery remains…unsolved.

  Anyway, that was all anyone had told me in the month since I had been brought by the Saint Summoning Ritual.

  As for how I wound up living at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora, well…

  After the ceremony, that red-haired lordling who swept into the room was unmistakably the crown prince of the kingdom. He didn’t spare even a glance for me; his sole focus was the other girl, Aira Misono. It wasn’t long before he swept out again, this time with Aira.

  Honestly, I wasn’t too surprised. I was in my twenties, while dear Aira was in her late teens—she was obviously closer in age to the prince than I was. Not to mention, she had fluffy brown hair, perfect skin, rosy cheeks, doe eyes, and a certain soft sweetness that just made you want to protect her.

  Whereas I, who had just come off of multiple rounds of late-night overtime, had my hair up in a messy ponytail, unhealthy skin, thick glasses, and permanent dark circles under my eyes. Compared to Aira, I looked ridiculous.

  So, you know, I couldn’t say I didn’t understand why the prince only had eyes for Aira. But it was still pretty rude of him to summon someone without their permission and then just completely ignore their entire existence!

  On the other hand, the other people in the room were equally taken aback by how the prince blithely dismissed me. They were even more alarmed when they realized I was going to be left behind. They had no idea what to do with me.

  Really, I was even more bewildered, but it was pointless to just sit there. So, I smiled at one of the robed guys—then I grabbed him by the collar and began to interrogate him. “I have a few questions, if you don’t mind.”

  “Wh-what would you like to know?” he croaked.

  Since I was taller than him, his wary grimace and panicked look made me feel like I was actually bullying him. Normally, I would have felt bad, but considering the situation, I couldn’t be bothered with shame.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “This is the royal palace of the Kingdom of Salutania.”

  “Kingdom of Salutania?” I had never heard of such a place. Given how many countries there are, it could have slipped through the cracks of my education, but a part of me knew that such rationalizations were just attempts to escape my unnerving new reality. “I see. So, why am I here?”

  “Well… Um…” The robed guy hesitated, but a stern look from me squeezed a frantic answer out of him. “W-we called you here using the Saint Summoning Ritual!”

  “The Saint Summoning what?”

  That was when they told me about this Saint Summoning Ritual, which I previously described.

  “So…this is actually a different world…from the one I was in before,” I murmured.

  “Yes, I believe that’s likely the case…”

  Stuff like miasma and monsters simply weren’t a thing in the world I came from. Although, perhaps they actually were in my world, and I just never found out about them? A small part of me hoped that was true. But the robed fellow quickly dispelled those hopes; he talked about these horrors as if they were a common, inescapable fact of reality here in the Kingdom of Salutania.

&nbs
p; No matter how much I didn’t want to admit it, I had definitely been summoned to another world.

  “Okay.” I breathed in and out. “I get that I was brought here by this Saint Summoning Ritual, but how do I get back to my world?”

  My thinking was, if the Saint appeared in order to balance the density of the miasma, maybe once everything was back to normal, the Saint would no longer be needed. Then I could go home.

  But in a small, regretful voice, the man in robes simply said, “You cannot.”

  With that, my hopes were extinguished.

  He explained that this was only the second time the Saint had been summoned from another world and that the previous Saint lived out the rest of her days in the kingdom. As of this moment, no one knew a way to return the Saint to the world she came from.

  I could never go home. That realization shocked me to my core. As if scrabbling for a distraction, my mind fixed on the red-haired prince’s utterly tactless behavior. I decided then and there that I knew all I needed to know about this Saint-summoning and miasma-monster business, and that I was going to get the heck out of this kingdom.

  First, I’d get out of this room—then the palace, then the capital, and then I’d make my way to whatever country was neighboring this one!

  Thinking back on it, I realize this plan was rather boneheaded, but at that moment, I couldn’t stand to be with these people a second longer. I released the robed man and marched out of the room. Everyone—from the robed guys to the knights—came chasing after me in a panic.

  “Lady Saint! Where are you going?”

  “I’m leaving.”

  “You mustn’t! Please, wait!”

  For some reason, I thought I’d be able to just see my way out, but I quickly realized I was in a true palace. The hallways seemed endless, and I had absolutely no idea which way to go. I was pretty worked up at this point, so I just kept bulling down the halls, no matter where they led. Eventually, though, a knight caught up to me and blocked my path.

  I glared at him, immediately peeved that someone was trying to stop me. The knight grimaced in the same way the robed man had when I menaced him. He said, “Please, wait a moment.”

  “I’m pretty sure I already spent plenty of moments in that room, especially if you factor in the moments I wasted talking with one of your robed guys.”

  “I realize that, but please. Just one moment more.”

  The knight was crouching and using his massive body as a wall, as if trying to keep me in the palace no matter what it cost him. For some reason, his desperation made me calm down a bit. I nodded reluctantly. The knight melted in relief.

  “This way, please.” To my chagrin, he led me away, back into the depths of the palace. Then he left me in a room somewhere in that labyrinth, but not before saying, “Someone will be with you shortly.”

  Once he was gone, a maid entered, pushing a tea cart complete with a tea set. Despite my misgivings, the warm tea she poured soothed my irritation. For one, it was absolutely delicious, as I supposed you would expect from a place like this. With my newly clear head, I tried once more to process everything I had been through.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite concentrate. After the maid poured my tea, she didn’t really talk to me or anything; she just stood close to the wall, though it seemed she was standing at the ready to attend my needs. Maybe she assumed she was doing me a favor by leaving me to my thoughts. However, with nothing to do but spin my mental wheels, I wound up feeling wildly uncomfortable.

  Just like that, an hour went by. Back home in Japan, leaving an angry client stewing on their own for a whole hour would absolutely lead to a severed contract.

  Right as I was starting to fume again, someone finally knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” I replied.

  At my invitation, the official-looking blue-haired man I had seen with the prince entered.

  While the tea was still quite good, and I was thankful to have had the time to compose my thoughts, the hour-long wait had pushed me right back to my limits. So, of course, I wound up glaring at him without even thinking.

  The guy flinched in surprise and wiped sweat from his brow, but he nevertheless dedicated himself to telling me even more about the kingdom and the circumstances I had found myself in.

  According to the blue-haired man, the capital was surrounded by grasslands through which monsters freely roamed. Furthermore, it took no less than a week by coach to reach the neighboring kingdom, and there was a good chance of being assaulted by bandits along the way. For someone like me, who knew nothing about this world, it would be pretty much like trying to beat an impossibly difficult video game.

  Given all that, I was suddenly grateful for the knight who stopped me from leaving.

  “I have heard that you expressed the desire to depart, but you cannot, realistically, live outside the royal palace.”

  After everything this milquetoast official described, I was forced to agree.

  While I was pretty sure that I could eke out some kind of living in the royal capital, I doubted I’d ever recover the same sense of security that I had back in modern Japan. At the very least, so long as I was in the kingdom, I needed to maintain the same kind of vigilance I relied on when traveling abroad.

  If I’m going to be stuck in this world, I suppose I’ll live in the royal palace for now. I’ll get my bearings here first, and then, when I’m ready, I’ll get out! I thought as I relented. I would follow this official’s advice and live in the palace. For now.

  ***

  After the official took his leave, the maid who had served me tea brought me to the chambers where I was to stay from now on.

  My new home was far bigger than my one-bedroom apartment back in Japan—it was more like a suite in a hotel, since it had a living room connected to two bedrooms. The interior design was done up in an extravagant Rococo style. It reminded me of those outlandishly expensive hotels in Europe that advertise themselves all over the internet.

  I collapsed on the sofa in the living room, thoroughly exhausted. The yellow light streaming through the window told me it was afternoon, but when I was summoned from Japan, it had been the dead of night. Not to mention, I had only just gotten home from work. I supposed there was a time difference between the Kingdom of Salutania and Japan.

  Seeing as I was running on empty from all those days in a row of killer overtime, not to mention the abrupt change in my entire world, I don’t remember what happened after I collapsed. I assume that I fell asleep.

  When I woke, I found myself on a luxurious bed. Someone must have carried me to it. By then, it was the following morning. I had also been stripped of my coat and business suit, and stuffed into a white dressing gown.

  Eep! Who the heck changed my clothes?

  I assumed (hoped) the culprit was the maid who brought me to this room, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit, you know, alarmed.

  I thought about putting on something else, but I was unsure if I had license to hunt around for more clothes without permission. I figured there might be someone in the living room, so I made my way there.

  When I opened the door, I found the same maid from yesterday waiting for me. Tentatively, I told her I wanted to put some more substantial clothes on. She guided me right back into the bedroom, where various kinds of dresses hung in a closet. They were all way too gaudy for me, though. Not to mention, they looked incredibly expensive—the type of clothes I’d be afraid to move in because I’d definitely get them dirty.

  Because I had no plans for going anywhere or doing anything, I asked for something modest and comfortable. The maid could only find one dress that matched my description, though you could probably still call it fancy.

  While I was changing, I nervously asked the maid if she’d been the one to change me out of my clothes the night before. She confirmed, so I thanked her sincerely. She responded, “It was my pleasure, milady.”

  Honestly, I felt like she was being overly attentive. But I suspected pointing it out would only make her offer more profusely humble protestations, so I tried to stop worrying about it so much. I had already put up with quite enough of that fluff.

  And then, somehow, two weeks had gone by. All in all, I had way too much time on my hands.