Reincarnated in an Otome game as the ugly character in the background

Chapter 98: Lily’s origin

Today was the last day with my girlfriends that we would date.

After today, Amy would face me.

I got up without a problem.

They were all eating breakfast.

I greeted them, but there was someone who got up and ran over to greet me.

She was wearing a white knee-length dress and her hair was up in a braid.

Lily gave me a kiss on the mouth.

"Razel-kun, I've been looking forward to this day."

"Really?"

"Yes. Today is a special day for me."

Lily's smile lit up my heart.

Lily told me we were heading to a special place, she wouldn't give me details.

We went to rent some bikes, the contract lasts 24 hours, if we don't return them before that time frame they will charge us double or triple the value.

The rental services are very strict.

After having breakfast and exercising a bit since pedaling without stretching your muscles is detrimental.

I had ridden a bike in my previous life but not like we do now.

"How much further?"

"Not long."

We've been pedaling somewhere for four hours.

Lily said the ride was long, but I didn't imagine it would be that long.

I saw a sign that said we were entering Viscount Grange's domain.

We left the county to enter another territory.

We passed through some small areas belonging to low-ranking nobles who must be associated with the empire or this viscount.

I asked Lily again how much farther and she stopped, I did too and there I noticed an old wooden sign that had a blurred name on it.

Nothing was visible.

Lily followed the direction where the sign indicated as she shouted at me.

"This way!"

She seemed excited, I followed her without saying anything as she accelerated rapidly.

Lily really is very energetic when you least expect it.

She turned around and just when I thought I lost sight of her, I found her.

She stopped, we were both breathing heavily due to all the tiredness we had.

She smiled at me and said.

"Welcome to my hometown."

Lily brought me to the place where she was born and raised.

We rested for a bit and entered Lily's hometown.

I am totally surprised.

In the game it was never revealed where she was born let alone her past.

I always thought it was a plot hole from those mediocre developers, but I heard it was left that way so the players could create their own story.

After all, Lily is the heroine of an otome game, such reasoning I see as questionable, but if that's what the players want, there's nothing you do but spit.

Lily was pointing out places to me as we walked down a large street connecting houses and buildings.

This place was in every word, a forgotten village.

"The house over there is where Mr. Erich lives who always brought us free fish when there was plenty left over."

"In that thing lives Grandma Roses, a lady who always yelled at us for picking grapes from her orchard, she once hit me over the head with her cane."

Lily seemed happy as she told me all about what she experienced here as a child.

I always wondered why she wouldn't reveal her past to me, it seems that today will be the day where I will know where she got her powers to be the saint.

We stopped at the end of the road, and Lily took a breath as she raised her arms to the sky.

"Razel-kun, this is my home. The Sisters' Monastery."

Lily told me that she grew up in a monastery... how to say it without being offended.

"This is a really old church! Where the heck is a monastery!"

The place was falling down, there were several parts showing that they are constantly making repairs to it.

Seriously, how come she calls this a monastery?

I thought it was either a huge place located here or this forgotten village was part of the monastery's territory.

Don't fuck with me, this thing is where the future saint grew up!

That's a totally anticlimactic turn of events!

"Look Lily, there's a chicken pecking at the orchard! This place is definitely wrong!"

"Hehehe, I was always getting scolded for sleeping for not tending the orchard. Brings back memories."

(Really?)

(How on earth did you grow up here to have such a sweet personality?)

(Does... Lily have a twisted sense of things?)

I freaked out at the thought that Lily might have a strange view of the world.

"Wait here, I'll go tell Mother Superior we've arrived."

"Sister Raquel!"

Lily ran to knock on the door, a boy in a torn but baked shirt opened the door and was astonished to see her.

She hugged him and they went inside.

I looked at this place.

I really couldn't believe that such a forgotten place is where the future saint was born.

Come to think of it, there are places in this country where there is lousy administration either from the nobleman of the territory or part of the palace.

Very incompetent.

The closed door opened, I walked to greet the person behind Lily.

A beautiful woman with red hair and long eyelashes came out.

She wore the typical nun's garb you'd expect to see in any church.

She even had big breasts.

She was a beauty.

... Or that's what I wanted to say since my brain actually created an image so as not to deceive me.

Certainly a nun was behind Lily... the problem was...

It was a guy!!!

And he's just as tall and beefy as the emperor to boot!

His muscular man boobs were more than his split beard with evidence of shaving!

It wasn't just one of them, it was several beefy guys dressed as nuns!

It was a bodybuilder's festival!

I was about to run away while squeezing my butt tightly, but Lily came towards me to say.

"Razel-kun, let me introduce you to the people who raised me."

"The one in the middle is Sister Raquel."

(They even have women's names...)

Lily introduced me to the biggest and sturdiest "nun" of them all.

"She" spoke to me in a very soft masculine tone, it was almost like listening to those girls pretending to be boys in anime.

"So you're the boyfriend our cute Lily-chan has told us so much about, we wanted to meet you so much!"

"Huh?"

What this person said left me more intrigued than being able to see his nose hairs.

"You wanted to get to know me? Me?"

"Yes. But talking outside is inappropriate so come inside."

The "mother superior" told me to go inside, I could hear Lily talking to the kids as I walked away.

"You've grown up a lot Sam."

"Dennis, your hair has gotten long, I'll cut it later."

"Martin, I have great stories to tell you about the capital."

She really was happy to be back home.

As I walked in I saw how the place was different from inside.

It was much cleaner, organized and above all very childlike.

There were books, toys and a small swing inside.

The "sisters" asked me to sit at a long square table.

They sat next to me and I could feel their strong arms squeezing me.

The huge guy... Mother Superior Raquel asked me.

"Would you like some water or tea?"

"W-Water please."

"Understood."

One of the sisters went to boil water in a kettle.

They were all smiling happily.

But suddenly his happy face darkened and one full of anger showed.

"Okay, let's get down to business."

He lifted his hairy foot and put it on the table. The other sisters got into a threatening stance similar to the yakuzas or bikers I saw in movies.

"Look brat, Lily-chan is a good girl. We've taken care of her since she was a baby, she always lit us up with her warm smile."

"I don't care who you are, even if you're an illegitimate son of the emperor. We will break your face if you have made Lily-chan, our angel, cry even once."

These guys were threatening.

But... I flashed my smile.

"Hoh? You think you can hit me? To me?"

Raquel looked at me like a lion watching its prey.

"Don't think you're a big deal brat. Our job is to protect these kids, and she's a child to us still."

(Lily, you have a great place where you were born. I understand now why this place you want to protect.)

I smiled and said.

"Let's have some fun for a while, you guys are the kind of people like Bellange who only understand after breaking your face."

"You said it! Go get him girls!"

My battle with the nuns began.

It ended faster than I thought it would.

All the nuns were scattered around the place.

Some had a bruise that grew like a baseball.

I didn't have any scratches because Blut was taking care of protecting me.

I smiled at the mother superior who looked like a puffer fish.

"You see. I'm strong... so you can rest easy."

"I will protect Lily with all my power."

Raquel's blank eyes flashed her light.

"So you knew this was a sham... even though you were very serious."

"You wanted me to show you if Lily deserved to be with me. Someone who could protect her, right?"

Raquel looked at me and then said.

"Sawyer how's the water."

"I-It's ready."

"Good. Let's have some while we talk."

The long black-haired sister poured water for all of us, Raquel used healing magic on everyone, including herself.

She touched her cheeks before answering me.

"You are very cruel, Razel-kyun. Ladies shouldn't be mistreated."

"A huge guy like you saying that gives me the creeps."

We all laughed at that joke.

Raquel looked relaxed and spoke.

"I'm sorry about what happened, but we've heard that a lot of scary things have been happening in the capital, including things connected with Duchess Rosenberg and her associates."

"We thought Lily-chan was in bad hands. We want that little girl to be happy."

I reassured them as their point of view was understandable.

"I understand your concern. The Rosenberg family's problems are related to traitors and corrupt people in the palace. I am sorry that you are worried about her."

"That's why I will protect her. Lily is one of my brides, I will protect them all with all my strength."

Raquel stared at me and then smiled.

"Despite the fact that you say you are a man with several women, including demi-humans and your own mother-in-law which should be a warning to stay away from her."

"Hey."

*Smile*

"From everything Lily has said about you shows that she values and appreciates you a lot. Even the other women, including that Elize-chan."

"As much as I'd like to go on all day about how cute Lily is, I'd like to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"... Why are you here?"

The cheerful mood darkened.

"You're a very observant boy. Well, this will be quick since we don't like to remember."

"We were part of an order of knights called the executor brigade."

"Our task was simple. To kill anyone who dared to speak ill of the palace or attempt against the safety of any of the ministers."

"We didn't question anything, one day... we were sent to kill a family, I will never forget that name, the Arcs family."

"We were ordered to kill everyone except the current head, to leave him alive to suffer."

"We went to ask the minister who sent us the execution order the reason for killing women and children, normally only adult men we killed."

"When we told him what we thought, the minister treated us as traitors. He framed us for crimes and threw us in jail."

"After leaving us there for several days, he came to tell us he was releasing us."

"If we told anyone about this he would kill us and our families."

"The reason for releasing us was because the prime minister was informed of inmates inside the palace which is rare to see."

"The minister was very afraid of the prime minister, so in order not to raise any suspicion he banished us to this place. Which does not belong to any nobleman."

"We were silent and would not say a word, but thanks to you we can now speak."

"Us?"

What Raquel was saying I didn't understand at all until she revealed the name of that minister.

"Last year, you defeated the criminal, the former minister Marquis Olgren."

"Olgren!"

(That name is a bad sign, that means the Black Crows were involved with several incidents in the past.)

(By the way, that name, "Arcs" sounds familiar, but I don't remember it.)

I continued to listen to what Raquel was telling me.

"When we arrived here, no one knew us, meaning they were never informed of our situation. The good thing about all this is that we were able to live in peace here."

"The previous mother superior gave us a home, food and above all she never asked us about our past."

"Many children came here because of their parents abandoning them in some church, by the way, this place used to be a monastery, but one day there was a tremor and it collapsed."

(Well, that explains everything.)

I said.

"I figure this place must be an abandonment point, right?"

"It is as you say, despite the fact that this place is a historic one."

"Historic?"

It was then that Raquel revealed something I never imagined in my life.

"This place was where the religion of the three gods was founded because of her, the founder, the saint of charity."

"You said the saint!"

I stood up and began to sweat.

(A saint.)

(And also the founder of the temple of the three gods.)

(This was never talked about in the game. This is really something I never expected to hear in my life.)

Knowing that this place was the origin of Lily's entire backstory.

Raquel said as she drank her water.

"It's normal to be this surprised. After all, the temple itself has never recognized or mentioned that saint due to macho problems."

"But in this place they talk about her as if it were the normal thing to do. In fact, there are cardinals who come to this place to find out if she really existed."

"You can ask Lily-chan about the details. You'll find it interesting why."

I heeded her and went out to look for Lily.

I went out the driveway and Lily wasn't there, the kids watering the plants and running around the chickens told me she was in the woods located in the back.

To follow a path of flowers and at the back I would find her.

I listened to them and as they said, a long path covered with flowers was visible.

I walked for at least five minutes and there I saw her.

Lily was looking at a large statue.

Upon closer inspection, it was the body of a woman wearing a dress and holding a cane in her right hand.

Looking at her face which was perfectly carved I said.

"Amazing."

I wasn't saying that because of her perfectly sculpted easy features.

It was because she, this statue of the saint, looks so much like Eli and Lily put together.

The face shape is Lily's, but the eyes and nose are Eli's.

Her hair is extremely long and reaches almost to the floor.

Lily became aware of my presence.

"Razel-kun. If you're here it means you're done talking to Mother Superior and the others, right?"

"Yes, they told me to come see this. It's real."

Lily nodded.

"Yes, the first time I went to the capital I was surprised too, but in your case it was because no one here knew about her."

"Saint Olivier is her name."

"The stories say that she came from a place called Grace kingdom where she was known as the saint of healing because of her high skill with healing magic."

"She lived at the time when the first emperor of the empire was not yet emperor. Her homeland was razed to the ground and she fled to the then Arklight kingdom."

"There she met the first founder and helped him stop the seven countries attacking him by bringing them all together."

"They say that to do this, she gave a forged sword to the first sword saint, she called him a saint since he was a warrior who fought for peace."

"They say the reason there are four sword saints is a tradition, the founder was accompanied by two people and the blessing of the goddess Alexia herself."

"Of course, they never saw her, but Olivier-sama said that the reason she arrived safely in this country is because of the voice of the goddess and the other two gods."

"She founded the temple and created the official religion of this nation. This town is named after her as thanks for being the first home of the temple."

 "Now that I remember, I also heard a voice on the day of the duel when that monster attacked, but I think it was just my head telling me what to do."

"It's a wonderful story isn't it?"

"Yes, it really is..."

(Did all that happen in this world?)

(This has generated a lot of questions for me.)

(Who is Olivier and why did she come to the empire?)

(How is it that she heard the voice of the goddess Alexia?)

(Why does her face look like Eli's and Lily's?)

(How is it that Lily could hear the voice of the goddess when it is not yet time? It's even weird that she doesn't think she heard a voice, although I don't think so either).

There are too many questions to answer and too little information.

While I was wondering why those crappy developers never put this in the game, Lily spoke to me.

"Mother Superior told me a long time ago, one night she was about to give the chickens their leftovers, when she opened the door she found a basket and a bundle in it."

"A newborn baby lay there, attached with a note that said 'Her name is Lily.' She told me before my prayer baptism."

The christening Lily speaks of is the same one I had when I turned ten.

"But before that, my life here with everyone was wonderful. I laughed, I played, and I always had an energetic morning... there was just one problem."

Lily ducked her head and touched her shoulders.

"Whenever nobles came to adopt children, none of them chose me. I always thought it was something I had, that they didn't like my face or I smelled bad."

"It was always the same, they ignored me and no one would talk to me."

"The kids who left never sent a letter to say how they were doing, I figured they were better off without us since we were poor."

"When they all left and only the sisters were left, they told me not to cry, I listened to them. Even when I went with them to sell fruit, I always smiled because there was nothing to be gained by crying."

Lily lifted her face and tears touched her cheeks.

"I always thought I'd be alone. Even if the sisters said they were my family, they have their own loved ones, I never had anyone."

"I don't know why my parents abandoned me as soon as I was born."

"Did they hate me before I was born?"

"Didn't they want to have me?"

"If they'd had a chance to know me, would they have abandoned me anyway?"

"I always thought that. That's why I liked the story of the saint. A woman who came from a destroyed place and became an important figure and loved by everyone... although at the end there is no mention of what happened after she founded the temple, they say she died of loneliness."

I walked over to her and hugged her.

"Is that why you didn't want to tell me about your past?"

"It's not something people want to hear. I asked you to come today because it was on this day that I learned to use magic from my mentor."

"Mentor?"

"Yes. A man came to do an inspection of the place, he found me using magic and said he was fascinated."

"He taught me how to use my powers since he also had healing magic."

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know, he said he would come back one day to see how I was progressing and left. Ah, he was also the one who sent me the recommendation to get into the academy, expenses paid and all."

"I tried to contact him through letters, but he never responded."

Strange.

A person who taught Lily magic and then disappeared.

In the game it was never mentioned how Lily got into the academy.

Maybe he really was a good man?

You never know what kind of people there are in the world.

There was something I wanted to ask Lily.

"Lily. Do you like living with the Rosenbergs?"

"The way you cry says there are things you keep to yourself."

She snuggled her head on my chest.

"I told Eli-chan this a long time ago, I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't find the words to do it until this day came."

"Do you hate me for lying to you?"

I smiled since Lily was a good girl.

"No. No way, you have things to hide, it's normal that way. You didn't want them to think you were a freeloader, that's why you never told us anything. I'm surprised you told Eli first though."

"Trust between girls and sisters is different than with boys."

"And I love being with the Rosenberg family. Despite the fact that I don't have the last name, they all treat me with love and respect and so I consider them my real family, the sisters and kids at the monastery too."

"If I ever see my original parents, I'll give them such a good slap that their jaws will drop."

"Hahaha. Shall we go back to the hotel?"

"I'd like to spend the night here. Can we?"

"Yes."

We went back to the sisters and played with the kids.

I learned a lot about Lily, there are many mysteries surrounding her life.

With this day I am done with dating all but one of my women, Amy.

Tomorrow I will confront her and talk to her.