Eliminated in the tournament semifinals

And so, I was eliminated in the tournament semifinals.

Well, thinking about it now, winning would've made Karina-chan's reputation absolutely insane!

"Good work out there, Master… Are you really okay with not winning?"

"It's fine, the Goddess promised me a reward. So anyway, let's hurry up and head to the church."

If I don't get out of here fast, General Garou or someone will probably come barging in to chew me out.

I created the Healer persona specifically to avoid standing out too much, so why was I just casually trying to win as Karina anyway?

Well, even if I did stand out and something happened now, I have the Five Elders' protection, so I could just hole up in Tessin and be fine. Wait, wouldn't that actually be good enough? Spending my days in decadent debauchery with a loli harem sounds super fun, doesn't it? Seriously, wouldn't that be amazing?

… No wait, that would be bad for Dea-kun's education!

I need to show her what a proper adult looks like.

Huh? Dea-kun is more put-together than me? That argument's off-limits, you know.

"So Onee-san, what was that last match about?"

"It wasn't like that."

Dea-kun's innocent head-tilted question made me accidentally slip into Kansai dialect.

Before I could even begin showing him what a proper adult looks like, Dea-kun had of course been watching that match.

"The Goddess told me to, um, do that to Misha-senshu. It was probably, like… exorcism? Something along those lines?"

"Ah, I see. Exorcism… so that's what it was."

Hm? Sorry, what does that mean? I'm the one who said it, but still.

"So you mean you needed to treat Misha-senshu like that, right there in that moment… is what you're saying! Otherwise, Misha-senshu was destined to become a Demon Lord who would destroy the world someday. And the divine statue was glowing too."

"Mm, well, it wasn't strictly necessary, but it was definitely the most efficient approach. I needed to thoroughly break her spirit like that, you know? Yeah. The divine statue was glowing too."

The Goddess said it was okay, so it's all good! I'd been thinking 'why is that statue glowing for no reason,' but thank you, Goddess.

By the way, one reason we were able to smoothly regroup in the waiting room was because everyone was in a commotion over the divine statue glowing.

Having somehow sold my excuse to Dea-kun, I teleported away with him and Aishia, fleeing the footsteps approaching the waiting room.

And then we rushed to the church!

"Oh, Siesta really does have bunny ears. Cute."

"My, fellow compatriot. Welcome."

Bunny-eared Siesta smiled warmly.

"Huh? Onee-san, you knew the Sister here?"

"Hm? Well, yeah. Actually—"

—Actually, there are multiple Siestas but they're one person, I was about to tell Dea-kun when Siesta gently covered my mouth.

"She came to pray in secret the other day. A devout believer indeed."

"Ah, is that so."

"Um, yeah, that's right."

While going along with the story, I asked Siesta with my eyes: what's this about?

"… The system is set up so that people of this world cannot comprehend it. To put it in terms a fellow compatriot would understand, touching the world's truth causes instant SAN death."

"Ah. Yeah."

So it's the kind of thing where if you understand it, your SAN gets chipped away and you temporarily go insane.

I should probably come alone when visiting Siesta from now on.

Anyway, I offered a prayer to the Goddess. Alrighty then, here's my delivery～