Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: As Expected, You're Full of Thoughts of Revenge!
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May Luina, the saintess with silver-white hair.
Wherever her fingertips touched, severed arms would regrow, and her prayers could heal any disease.
A healing ability user with the qualifications of a saintess, appearing for the first time in hundreds of years. That was May Luina.
So when she revealed her abilities to the world, backed by the Papal Court, the entire world had no choice but to go into a frenzy.
Healing ability users were incredibly rare even among awakeners, and the emergence of a saintess who stood on a completely different level from other precious healers meant casualties could be drastically reduced.
As a result, both inside and outside the Papal Court, May Luina was revered and respected by all, enjoying everything that came with being a saintess.
Wealth, fame, power.
May Luina had obtained all three—universal goals for any person—immediately upon starting her career as a hero.
But even she had one massive grievance she couldn't just overlook.
And that was...
Ughhh! My mouth feels like it'll cramp up. When the hell can I go home and rest?
As long as she bore the name of saintess, she had to live like one.
All of May Luina's achievements had been possible because she was a saintess, so to maintain everything she'd built, she had no choice but to live as one.
To live as a saintess meant always maintaining a gentle smile, ensuring every gesture and movement exuded grace, and never showing irritation no matter how frustrating the situation—showing only mercy. Unless born for it, it was a lifestyle that could only lead to mental illness.
In that regard, you could say May Luina was half born for it.
Because she was a natural-born actress.
The image of a saintess demanded by the Papal Court and the world was crystal clear, and with her exceptional acting talent, playing the role they wanted was a piece of cake.
But no matter how talented at acting one was, it was still just acting, and it inevitably drained mental energy.
Ah. Aaaah! This is so annoying! Why, why do I have to live like this? My cheeks hurt like crazy from forcing smiles all day!
In the end, May Luina's patience was reaching its limit.
Whew, no, no, May Luina. You have to hold it together. If you slip even a little, everything you've built so far will come crashing down.
Even so, when faced with "live as a saintess and enjoy everything" versus "live true to herself and give up all her achievements," she naturally chose the former.
She had far more greed for material wealth, fame, and power than the average person, matching her innate talents.
Because of that greed, which kept her from letting go of what she had even as her mental energy neared its limit, she continued her hero work without expressing any of her pent-up emotions.
Half a year after she first appeared in the world as a hero, her mental energy hit its limit and her focus slipped. During a gate raid, May Luina suffered her first injury.
It wasn't severe, but she'd been poisoned by a type of toxin she couldn't heal at the time, so she was quickly transported to the national public Awakener Exclusive Emergency Room.
And there, May Luina met Stay.
The person working the lowest position, enduring the harshest labor, of anyone she'd seen in her life—a true owner of a ruined existence.
Someone whose life was so utterly hopeless that suicide wouldn't seem out of place, yet who hadn't lost their dream and desperately clung to survival, doing their absolute best within the worst options.
That was May Luina's first impression of Stay.
That person... that person for sure...!
Yes, Stay was exactly the kind of person she'd been searching for all this time.
Someone with such a strong will to survive that they thrashed desperately to live despite their ruined life—surely there'd be no problem using them as her emotional trash can!
It was a perfect match for someone she could abuse without any backlash.
Of course, she'd need to use her money and power for thorough gag orders, but that was nothing.
She already had amounts of money and power thousands or tens of thousands of times what others dreamed of in a lifetime.
So she straight-up ordered the Stay she'd just met to become her emotional trash can, and before any complaints could escape his mouth, she silenced him with money and power, forcing him into the role.
Days of unleashing half a year's worth of bottled-up emotions.
The refreshing release she felt, no matter how much money she spent, turned her—the world's greatest healing ability user—into an emergency room bamboo shoot.
Whenever even slightly annoying things happened, she'd rush to the emergency room, summon Stay, make him do trivial tasks, nitpick the tiniest flaws without mercy, and vent her stress.
About a year and a half after she started using Stay as her emotional trash can...
[S-St-Stay...? I-Is that... y-you, Stay?]
"Wow, even May Luina herself remembers my name. What an honor. Yes, I'm the emotional trash can for the one and only May Luina in the world. Emergency room errand boy Stay, at your service."
[Hiiyaak!!!]
The reunion happened in the worst possible way for May Luina.
Wh-Why? Why is Stay here? I can't move, but my senses are fine, so I heard them say I'd be moved to a room... but why is my caregiver Stay of all people...!
May Luina found the situation utterly bewildering.
After becoming a vegetable, she'd gone a month without speaking to anyone, trapped in pitch-black darkness, swallowing her loneliness. She'd craved interaction with others so badly, yet she reacted like this because Stay's presence was such a huge problem for her.
Because Stay was the victim of all the abuse she'd inflicted out of nowhere, forcing him to be her emotional trash can.
Of course, it was better than some unknown pervert becoming her caregiver and doing creepy, lecherous things to her helpless body. But that was just avoiding the absolute worst.
Stay of all people... The first person I get to hear my voice, after waiting so long, is Stay...! Th-This makes no sense...!
For May Luina, who had a year and a half's worth of karma piled up with Stay, his presence was terrifying.
To be precise, she was terrified of the anger and vengeful thoughts he'd direct at her.
Just as she'd done to him, Stay could do anything to her now, and she couldn't even resist.
U-Uh, first things first. I need to bow my head! With tears and snot streaming, sincerely apologize—that's the only way to survive... Wait, but I can't even bow my head right now, let alone cry or blow my nose. Wh-What do I do? Will Stay recognize the sincerity in my voice?
So the only thing May Luina could do now was apologize, and as soon as possible.
U-Ugh, no time to agonize—apologize first! They say the sooner the apology, the better!
With her sharp mind, May Luina expressed her remorse to reduce even a little of the revenge and anger Stay would unleash on her.
[Um, Stay... about everything that happened... I'm truly, truly sorry...!]
But her apology couldn't even finish.
"Nah, it's fine. No need to apologize."
[......Huh?]
Because those words refusing her apology came from Stay's mouth.
"And, y'know, I can hear all your inner thoughts. I heard you freaking out that it's a disaster I'm your caregiver, being scared and apologizing and all that. Apologies from that mindset don't really hit home."
When she heard Stay's following words, May Luina felt a chill run down her spine to her nape, even in her vegetative state—a true "I'm screwed" sensation.
[H-Hiiik...]
The sound was like a diver who'd been holding their breath to the limit, only 30cm from the surface, having their ankle grabbed and dragged back under. Pure despair.
She was probably making that noise thinking I'd heard her thoughts, refuse the apology, and unleash my full fury.
[I-I might be done for here... He'll surely vent his raging revenge on me wildly...!]
See? Spot on.
That said, I had zero intention of doing the kind of things she imagined.
As I said before, I was just an average citizen without the guts or power to do that to a world-saving hero.
Besides, I didn't even have that much resentment or desire for revenge like she thought.
Working in the emergency room, with all the crazy patients out there—if I held onto every little thing, I'd die of stress first.
Of course, I wasn't completely over what this bitch did...
"Hey, May Luina. No need to worry. I have no plans to do anything weird to you."
[Huh, huh?]
"Sure, being forced into the emotional trash can role pissed me off big time, but you saved the world, right? That squares it."
Yeah, I owed May Luina a debt.
Her saving the world meant she'd saved my life too.
So while I was a bit annoyed, I had no thoughts of revenge.
[S-Stay...]
After hearing me, May Luina called my name in a voice misty with emotion—whether or relief, I couldn't tell.
It was the first time she'd said my name in such a tone, and instead of tickling my heart, it just gave me goosebumps.
I wasn't going to get revenge, but that didn't mean I thought well of her.
Anyway, enough distractions. She seems calmed down now, so time to get to the main point.
[Th-Thank you. Truly. If I'd known you were such a good person, I never would've done that...]
I told the blabbering May Luina, who was saying utterly useless nonsense, why I'd wanted to hear her inner thoughts in the first place.
"By the way... can I infuse some of my yang energy into your body?"
[......A-As expected, you're full of thoughts of revenge!!!]