What Do You Mean by That?
“What does that mean?”
“Saintess.”
“Ye~♡”
“...Wouldn’t it be better to get separate rooms from now on?”
We were heading toward the borderlands after leaving Athens. We stopped at a village and checked into an inn.
“Hero-nim, you’re so rich~?”
“I have the money I saved last time. Honestly, staying in such a small inn for one night isn’t that expensive. Why do we need to share a room?”
To be honest, I’d been getting too little time alone lately.
No, I wasn’t some weird guy. People had this thing called desire. If you couldn’t satisfy that desire because of lack of time or opportunity, you went crazy, right? And that was exactly where I stood right now.
Plus, the person beside me... if you just looked at her appearance, she was genuinely beautiful. In that situation, how hard was it to sleep while holding back?
The Saintess tilted her head slightly and asked.
“...Is there any reason we have to rent a separate room, Hero-nim?”
“...It’s because of men and women, isn’t it?”
...I had no excuse. Just let me go, you devil.
“I don’t care if the Hero and I sleep in the same room.”
“...You’re not a goblin, you know?”
“It’s not that. Really.”
Said differently, it was basically saying I lacked manliness. Huh? Why were there tears forming...
“...No way, Hero-nim.”
“...Yes?”
Why was she trying to spark another bullshit conversation, this girl?
“Do you feel embarrassed about sleeping with me~?”
“...Eh?”
The completely unexpected question made a weird sound come out of my mouth. What the hell was she even saying?
The Saintess seemed to have misinterpreted my reaction.
“You’re only embarrassed about sleeping together~♡ The Hero-nim is still so childish~♡”
“...Where do you get off calling such a big person childish?”
“It’s because the Hero-nim is a virgin, right~♡ You pervert♡”
...You bitch. You know that too and still tease me.
“The Saintess doesn’t do anything and keeps teasing me about being a virgin.”
It was a joke, but I got annoyed and snapped. I was just about to say something when...
...Wait, this is sexual harassment. Damn it!
I hurriedly corrected myself.
“Ah, no. I didn’t mean it like that...”
“...S, s, s, s, s...”
“...Saintess?”
The Saintess broke. Her face flushed bright red, and she couldn’t even speak properly because she was so embarrassed.
Thinking about it, the Saintess was, for some reason, a ‘mochall’ who hadn’t even dated a man. It made sense for a Saintess, but still, choosing such a manly word?
...But this girl called me ‘x-bap’ all the time. Why wasn’t she embarrassed about that?
I wondered.
“Saintess.”
“D, d, d...”
“Calm down. It was a joke.”
“Ha...”
The Saintess finally snapped out of it and looked at me. She wrapped her arms around herself protectively and shouted.
“You pervert! You beast! When did you start looking at me with such lewd eyes?!”
“...I’m sorry. It was just a joke, but I got a little too carried away.”
When I apologized seriously, the Saintess’s eyes welled up with tears, but she suddenly changed her expression to ice-cold.
“...Is that all?”
“...Yes?”
What kind of shameless nonsense was this?
“...You said you wanted me to scold you.”
“No, that was obviously just a joke...”
“But isn’t this...”
The Saintess mumbled to herself, then released the arms that were hugging her body and sat up straight.
“...I heard men like women who get embarrassed like this...”
...What the hell did I just hear? I’ll forget it since it’s scary.
“...By the way, there’s something I want to ask.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Saintess, you have words you use often. Like... x-bap.”
“Yes.”
Do you know the meaning?”
The Saintess tilted her head.
“It’s an insult, right?”
“It is an insult, but... do you know what it actually means?”
“...x-bap is just a word for weak, useless people, isn’t it?”
...As expected.
The Saintess really didn’t seem to know. I had no idea where she picked it up, but our pretty Saintess probably used those words without knowing the meaning.
“It’s used in situations like this, but you don’t know the origin, do you?”
“...No way, does the Hero-nim know? How could you know what I don’t? There’s no way...”
Damn, does she think I’m really an idiot?
“...Instead, I know insults better than the Saintess. I lived in a backwater village, you know.”
Actually, I came from a modern city. So I know them well.
“So what does x-bap mean?”
“...Hmph!”
...How the hell am I supposed to explain this? My intention was simple: teach the Saintess the meaning of the insult and make her stop using it.
Normally, people who used insults a lot would get shocked when they learned the real meaning and use them less. That was the plan...
How was I supposed to explain the meaning of x-bap? White semen accumulated on a man’s...?
...I felt like shit.
“What does it mean?!”
The Saintess leaned forward, tapping my knee with her finger when I hesitated to tell her.
...Touching like that is uncomfortable.
Her amber eyes were filled with curiosity. She had an expression that said she absolutely had to know.
“...It means the foreign substance that gets stuck inside a person’s... thing. It’s something only men have.”
I said it as euphemistically as possible. I didn’t use any manly words at all. Thing, foreign substance. Just normal words.
But the Saintess wasn’t stupid. She understood right away.
“...Huh?”
“......I didn’t lie.”
“......What?”
The Saintess broke again. Her amber eyes trembled slightly. She seemed genuinely shocked upon learning the real meaning.
I advised her.
“...So you should stop using that word.”
“......A-ah...”
The Saintess lowered her head. Her ears turned bright red, and I worried her face might explode.
“Why... why didn’t you tell me earlier...”
...I thought you knew.
The Saintess, blushing and embarrassed, was incredibly cute.
...Dirty appearance-ism. Even the girl who talked like crap all the time looked this beautiful. Her face was a cheat key.
In the end, I couldn’t get a separate room and stayed in the same one to appease the sulking Saintess.
#
“Dummy♡ You said it’s not that, didn’t you~♡”
“...No, how is this different from that.”
“Don’t you think you should wear glasses♡ If you look closely, there’s an extra dot~♡”
The next day, the Saintess taught me letters.
Of course, I didn’t forget to hunt monsters. This time we defeated a moon fox in the forest. It wasn’t just a fox; it was bigger than a regular forest wolf, and it was classified as a middle-class monster.
After defeating the pack of moon foxes, we were sitting on a rock to rest and learn letters...
“...So what’s this?”
“A star~♡”
...A star?
No, that’s your name. I saw the same thing in the adventurer guild last time. Why are you teaching me that?
“Why are you teaching me your name, Saintess.”
“Huu~♡ How did you know my name?”
“I saw the same thing in the adventurer guild last time. But why a star?”
“The meaning of my name is star, isn’t it~?”
...That’s it?
The Saintess pointed at my face.
“It sparkles like a star, right?”
...You crazy bitch.
I couldn’t deny it. Beauty was a fact, after all...
“...So why are you teaching me your name?”
“One day the Hero-nim might have to write documents, right? You have to include my name as a colleague~?”
Then you should teach me your name too?
“Then teach me how to write your name as well.”
“Um~♡ No♡”
...What kind of girl is this?
“No, when I write documents, I have to know how to write my own name.”
“You can just write the Hero-nim’s name for me~♡”
Then you should write your own name too.
“Don’t you think it’s too much trouble...?”
“I like writing the Hero-nim’s name.”
“...Eh?”
The Saintess’s eyes curved nicely at the corners.
“Abel is a pretty name, right?”
“...Is it?”
I remembered the Abel from the Bible and didn’t care much...
“It has the word Belle in it~♡”
“What does Belle mean?”
The Saintess smiled softly.
Why are you smiling like that, you sap.
“Belle means ‘beauty’~♡”
...There was such a meaning. Now the name looked different somehow.
“...But how does that relate to me liking when you write your name?”
“...You’re dense.”
“What?”
“Dummy.”
...Suddenly?
#
It had been a week since we left Athens, and finally we arrived at the border between the Minerva Kingdom and the Vesta Kingdom.
“There are a lot of people here too.”
“I told you before~. The three countries including the Mars Empire have a lot of exchanges. Did you forget already~?”
“...I remember.”
“Fufu♡ Your memory is better than a tick~♡”
...Last time it was better than a goldfish. Why was it downgraded again?
“......Hmm?”
Someone caught my eye while I was looking at the people. The person was wearing a large cloak with a hood, hiding face and body, but a slightly yellowish-green priest robe peeked out.
And the face slightly revealed under the hood and the visible body... no matter how you looked, it was a woman.
“...Saintess, what color is the priest robe of the Ludria Cult?”
“Dark green and light green.”
“There...”
When I pointed at the suspicious person walking, the Saintess narrowed her eyes, then suddenly flicked her fingers lightly.
《Holy Chain》
“Kyaa!?”
Chains appeared in mid-air with a clink and caught the weird person. The suddenly grabbed person struggled, but couldn’t escape the Saintess’s holy magic.
...What if I use holy magic right now?
“What’s happening!?”
I calmed the border guards who were surprised by the sudden chains. After identifying myself as the hero and explaining the situation roughly, they returned as if they understood.
And approached the person still bound by holy magic along with the Saintess.
Peeking under the hood revealed brown hair and ruby-red eyes. It was definitely the face I had seen before.
“Hyaat!?”
“...You’re the Saintess of the Ludria Cult, aren’t you?”