Chapter 7: Saint Lena②

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Translator: Soafp

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The next day, still unable to calm my excitement, I headed back to the church.

As soon as I entered, I found the person I was looking for.

She was hanging laundry in the courtyard.

The same girl from yesterday, dressed in her sister's habit.

When she noticed me, she bowed her head.

“Um, thank you very much for yesterday. I heard you made a donation…”

Before she could finish speaking, I cut in.

“You're a saint, aren't you?”

At that moment, her body stiffened with a jolt, and she whispered:

“W-why…”

In her eyes were shock and an even stronger fear than the day before.

Damn it.

Watching her reaction, I realized my mistake.

The only reason I knew she was a saint was because of the Guide.

Normally, the only way someone else could learn that would be if a person with the Appraisal skill confirmed it, and only with the subject's consent.

Showing her the Guide would make things quick, but revealing its secret would result in black text—meaning failure was guaranteed.

As I panicked over what to do next…

“P-please! Please leave!”

She shouted, not so much in anger as in outright panic.

But at this point, there was nothing I could do.

Pressing the issue wouldn't improve the situation.

So I left, just as she asked.

When I returned the next day, she was gone.

And in the Guide, written in black text, was a single despairing line.

“Saint Lena has disappeared.”

In that cycle, I never saw her again.

The twenty-eighth cycle.

After the previous failure, I kept thinking about one thing.

“How can I keep Lena from becoming wary of me?”

And so that I wouldn't waste the previous cycle, I had already asked the priest about her background.

She had been eight years old when her parents were killed right in front of her by the Demon King's army.

After that, she was passed around among relatives.

Apparently, the shock of witnessing her parents' deaths at the hands of the Demon King's army left her unable to speak at all.

Her relatives couldn't handle her in that state, and in the end, she was abandoned at this church.

The priest had taken her in, and only recently had she begun to speak again.

Hearing that, several things finally made sense to me.

She was probably afraid.

Not only because her parents were killed by the Demon King's army, but also because she was confused by suddenly being given the Saint skill.

The moment people found out she possessed the Saint skill, she would undoubtedly be forced into battle.

From her perspective, just when she thought she had finally found a place to belong, she was suddenly being told to “go fight the Demon King.”

In fact, across all the cycles I had repeated, I had never once even heard rumors of a saint being found.

If one had been discovered, it would have become a major topic.

From that, I could infer that without my intervention, she would not tell anyone about her skill for at least the next five years.

“For now, I'll just have to learn more about her,” I thought.

After forming my party, I continued working as an adventurer while also visiting the church regularly.

While visiting, I guided conversations as if hearing things for the first time, drawing information about her circumstances out of the priest.

By the second time around, it wasn't difficult to do.

After six months of visits, Lena's initial wariness had softened.

We could talk normally now, and sometimes she even showed a small smile while we spoke.

Still, she hadn't told me anything about her skill yet.

Just as I was thinking it might be time to visit the church again, it happened.

“Damn… I messed up!”

“Are you okay, Erius?”

Lost in thought about how to completely ease Lena's guard, I ended up getting my arm bitten by a wolf-type monster.

Phalan immediately covered for me, and the monster was pierced by his spear and died.

Phalan peered at my hand, looking at the wound as he spoke.

“How is it? The injury?”

“It hurts a bit, but it's nothing serious.”

When I answered, Phalan let out a relieved sigh.

“Honestly, that was unlike you to let your guard down. Just to be safe, disinfect it, alright?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

I cleaned the wound and wrapped it in bandages.

“We've mostly cleared things out. Let's call it a day. We've met the request conditions, right?”

“That's not a problem… sorry.”

“It's fine.”

I accepted Phalan's suggestion and headed back to town.

We were originally supposed to camp out, but since we cut things short, we made it back to town by nightfall.

“Figures it'd be closed by now.”

The clinic I usually went to was already closed for the day.

The wound wasn't life-threatening, but since it was on my dominant arm, it would interfere with fighting to some extent.

I decided to come back in the morning for healing magic and headed to my usual inn.

There, when I checked the Guide—my habitual end-of-day routine—I found an unexpected line written in red text.

“Sustain an injury.”

“…What? What is this?”

Getting injured wasn't anything new.

I'd been wounded plenty of times before—and more than that, I'd died countless times.

This was a pattern I'd never seen before.

Was it because of the timing?

Feeling something nagging at me, I decided to leave the wound as it was and go to the church, then went to sleep.

“Ah, Erius!”

When I showed up at the church, Lena called my name with a smile and ran over to me.

She's really changed a lot compared to the beginning.

Feeling happy about that change, and at the same time hoping she would soon tell me about being a saint, I handed over the items I was carrying.

“Hey, Lena. This is the usual.”

When I gave her the food and money I'd prepared for the orphans, she accepted them and bowed her head.

“Thank you as always. We keep relying on your kindness…”

“No, it's fine.”

Honestly, I was coming here for Lena's sake, so being thanked only made me feel more guilty.

In all my past cycles, I had never donated to the church.

Even what I was doing now was for my own convenience.

As I waved my hand in front of me to say not to worry about it, Lena frowned as she looked at my arm.

“Um… that is…”

“Hm? Oh, this. I took an attack from a monster.”

The bandage wrapped around my upper arm must have caught her attention.

She gently touched my arm.

“Please… let me see it.”

“Hm? Alright.”

I held out my arm as she asked.

Lena removed the bandage, looked at the wound with a frown, then held her hand over it.

“Um… I'm still not very good at using it, but…”

With that preface, Lena began to chant.

“The Lord has eight fingers that hold power. The left hand, the ring finger, governs light. It is the power that nurtures and heals. Grant this person the strength to rise once more… Healing!”

Light poured from Lena's hand.

To be honest, it was clumsy compared to the magic used by the clerics at the clinic I usually visited.

Frankly speaking, it was several levels below.

It clearly wasn't something that could be relied on for quick recovery during battle.

But while I struggled not to let it show on my face, inside my heart I was shouting in triumph, thrilled by the discovery.

(So that's how it is!)

Yesterday, the words written in the “Guide” — “Suffers an injury.”

Most likely…

After becoming close enough to Lena, I had to visit her while injured and make her use magic to heal me.

That was the required condition.

Having her cast healing magic on me — in other words, it would let me bring up skills as a topic.

It was a way of thinking like a hunter making sure not to let prey caught in a trap escape.

“I've finally got hold of your tail.”

It was a savage, twisted sense of pleasure.

But…

“It's finished… how is it?”

Lena asked, watching my reaction, a slightly reserved smile on her face.

Seeing that, it felt as if cold water had been poured over my head all at once.

(What am I even happy about… that's not right.)

As the excitement in my chest settled, guilt welled up in its place.

Through countless repetitions, I'd grown shrewd with time, unable to accept Lena's kindness at face value, only capable of seeing it in a warped way — and I felt a bit disgusted with who I'd become.

She wanted to hide her power.

In truth, she shouldn't want to use healing magic on a complete stranger.

And yet, trusting the way I appeared to devote myself to the church, opening her heart to me to some extent, she chose to heal me when I was injured.

I was trying to achieve my goal by exploiting that pure goodwill of hers… dragging her into a battle she never wanted.

A girl who carried deep emotional scars, only just beginning to heal.

This situation was exactly what she feared.

If she were known as a Saint, she would be dragged onto the battlefield.

And yet I pretended not to know, drew close to her, and tried to use her for my own purpose.

Realizing that now, I almost felt consumed by self-loathing.

— And yet.

Even so, there was something I had to do.

“Kill the Demon King.”

That was the one line I could not cross.

“Lena, you can use healing magic?”

“Yes, um… well…”

Before she could figure out how to explain, I cut her off and took her hands, enclosing them in mine.

At my sudden action, her body stiffened.

Clinging to her, I spoke.

“I told you before… I'm fighting to defeat the Demon King.”

“Yes, that is…”

As she tried to avert her eyes, I tightened my grip just a little.

Startled, she looked back at me.

“Actually… I was injured in yesterday's battle, and I realized how indispensable a healer is. To defeat the Demon King, I need your power. That's why I want you to help me.”

“I… I…”

“Of course, I won't force you. I've heard about the circumstances you're carrying.”

“From Father… right?”

Nodding, I continued.

“I know you're afraid of fighting. But someone has to defeat the Demon King. I want to reduce, even a little, the number of children like us — children who lose their parents and are left grieving.”

“…”

“Please, help me. I'll continue donating to the church. And in battle, I'll protect you — I promise.”

We held each other's gaze for a while.

After a moment, Lena lowered her eyes, seemed to think, then looked straight at me and spoke.

“… Just one thing.”

“Not just one — say as many as you like.”

“No, one is enough. Erius-san.”

“Erius is fine.”

“… Erius, please, never abandon me. Don't leave me behind. Don't… leave me alone.”

She looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment, her trembling hands conveying her feelings to me.

She had lost her parents, been abandoned by her relatives.

Surely, more than anything, she feared loneliness.

I could feel that clearly.

As if our positions had reversed, Lena looked at me with eyes clinging for support.

Meeting her gaze directly, I made my vow.

“Yeah. No matter what happens, I won't abandon you. I won't leave you alone.”

“Thank you, Erius. If you promise me that… then I'll use my skill for you.”

“Your… skill?”

“Yes. My skill… ‘Saint.'”

The girl who should have been timid put all her strength into conveying her resolve to me.

Later, I would learn.

“I won't leave you alone.”

This vow was one made with the premise that it would be broken.

A false oath that I would repeat again and again, knowing that.

For the sake of defeating the Demon King, it couldn't be helped.

Telling myself that, I piled sin upon sin.

… And yet.

At least at that moment, I was sincere.

If I was going to drag her into a battle she didn't want, then I would protect her with everything I had.

I wouldn't leave her alone.

That — I truly believed I had sworn in earnest.

Thus, the long-awaited line was written.

Of course, it was in red.

“Saint Lena joins the party.”