Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Saintess Rainy (4)
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How many more times did I get hit with the pillow after that?
The saintess seemed to have cooled off a bit while hurling them, her complexion returning to normal.
“Have you calmed down now?”
“Th-that’s all your fault.”
“I haven’t said anything that wasn’t true.”
“Haa…”
To the saintess, who still wouldn’t relax her expression, I decided to give her a gift.
Scribble, scribble.
I crossed out the clause on the contract that said 100 hours a week.
And wrote in the beautiful number 52 above it.
“Huh…?”
The saintess looked visibly flustered.
Her hand trembled as if she couldn’t believe it.
“It’s really… just 52 hours?”
“Yes, exactly that much work is all we need.”
I hadn’t planned on making her do any work in the first place, so even 52 hours would be a profit.
The saintess’s eyes sparkled as if she couldn’t believe the contract terms, and she read it over carefully again.
As if suspecting some magical tampering, she even licked her finger and rubbed it on the page.
“It’s a perfectly genuine contract. You can trust it.”
“Sssp… Conditions this good?”
“Everyone at the barony works just this much.”
“Eek?”
The saintess’s eyes went wide.
The reaction of someone who’d heard something unbelievable.
Her hands trembled.
“Could it be… you’re an angel?”
“Yes?”
I never imagined I’d hear an angel comment from a saintess in my lifetime.
Besides, a saintess calling a human an angel?
Wasn’t that blasphemy?
“No, common sense says there’s no way work hours are this short. Employers aren’t pushovers.”
“But it’s true…”
“Wow, I thought you were just a bastard, but you’re a pushover too? Impressive.”
“And you’re a virgin saintess.”
“A woman’s virginity and a man’s chastity aren’t worth the same. Especially for a pretty girl like me.”
“…”
Continuing the conversation seemed like a losing battle for me, so I changed the subject.
“Anyway, my turn now?”
“Yeah, don’t put anything weird.”
“I’d only put normal things anyway.”
I had things prepared in advance, so I wrote in the clauses without hesitation.
1. Speak politely.
2. Run together every morning.
3. No drinking.
Perfect clauses tailored exactly to reforming the saintess’s lifestyle!
Honestly, if she just followed these three, she could return to the Church right away with no issues.
As expected, the saintess frowned in complaint.
“This is kinda tough.”
“The no-drinking one will probably be the hardest, right? Don’t worry. I’ll actively help you get through the withdrawal symptoms.”
“No, I was already planning to quit drinking…”
The saintess tapped at clause 1.
“This one’s the hardest to keep.”
“Huh? It’s just speaking politely, isn’t it?”
“That’s why it’s hard.”
Isn’t it just holding back on swearing?
The saintess flopped onto the bed, abandoning even the bare minimum of decorum.
“How much hell did the Church put me through to fix my mouth? Even with their threats, insults, and beatings, this mouth of mine never changed.”
“What? The Church beat you?”
Realizing her slip, the saintess’s expression hardened.
“…You don’t need to know about that. Anyway, it’s a habit from childhood that won’t go away.”
“No, I don’t think we can just gloss over that.”
As someone who knew how revered saintesses were in this world, I couldn’t let that slide.
Even if I’d heard the Church was rotten, beating a saintess?
Didn’t they fear divine punishment?
“Well, from the old geezers’ perspective, they probably hated seeing the saintess swearing all the time.”
“Even so, you’re the saintess. The saintess. Aren’t you afraid of divine retribution for doing that?”
“Don’t have such grand illusions about saintesses. A saintess chosen just by the amount of holy power, not by the Goddess’s will, is basically just the Church’s figurehead.”
“…”
The 120-hour workweek was one thing, but it seemed being a saintess was even tougher than I’d imagined.
As I looked at her with newfound pity, the saintess scratched her head in embarrassment and drew a line through clause 1.
“Anyway, 1’s too hard, so write something else.”
My main goal was getting her to quit drinking and exercise diligently, so clause 1 wasn’t a big deal.
Without much thought, I wrote down the first thing that came to mind.
[Manage the church]
The saintess’s eyes shook at the filled-in clause.
“You serious?”
“You were always doing services anyway, right? Leading them as a saintess should be easy.”
“Yeah, it is easy, but… I’ve been excommunicated? If someone like me leads services, the villagers will react badly.”
“No need to worry. Our territory is half-isolated from the world, so no one knows your face. Just pretend to be a nun and run the church.”
The people of this world were virtually all devotees of the Goddess faith without exception.
But our tiny territory had no officiating priest, so the villagers just gathered haphazardly at the church every Sunday for unstructured prayers to practice their faith.
Having one priest to lead services would greatly improve the villagers’ quality of life.
They could go to the church for treatment if someone got hurt in the village.
After hearing my idea, the saintess hesitated a moment, wondering if she could really take charge of a church, then nodded.
“Yeah… I’ll do my best.”
***
Daven Academy, the barony’s only school.
“Uuu…”
The red-haired girl Dani was running around the playground today too, smiling brightly as always.
The territory was so small that the academy had only four teachers, making it impossible to monitor every student without blind spots.
Dani, who had slipped out of the teachers’ watch, was reveling in her freedom as she dashed across the playground.
To a child, everything in the world is an object of curiosity.
Curious Dani spotted the tree in the middle of the academy playground and suddenly wondered what the view would be like from the top.
She glanced around and, confirming no one was there…
“Grrn…”
She began climbing the massive tree with grunts of effort.
If it had been a boy with at least some muscle, he might have made it up somehow.
But Dani was a powerless girl.
At about a third of the way up…
“Uh?”
Her grip gave out, and she fell flat to the ground with a thud.
At first, adrenaline kept her from feeling pain, so Dani tried to get up like nothing happened.
But then.
“Huh?”
Dani realized her leg wouldn’t move as she wanted.
She’d commanded it to move, but it didn’t respond.
A child’s first response in a tough spot is tears.
“Waaahhh!”
Dani wailed loud enough to shake the academy, calling for help.
“What happened?”
“What’s wrong?”
Hearing her cries, nearby students and teachers came rushing over.
The PE teacher checked Dani’s leg and put on a grave expression.
“This… looks like a broken leg?”
In this era, a broken leg was far more serious than one might think.
Permanent disabilities were common, and in severe cases, inflammation could even lead to death.
Especially for a young girl like Dani.
It was even more dangerous.
“Waaahhh…”
Knowing how perilous a broken leg was, Dani sobbed as if to shake the academy.
“We’re going to the clinic first, Dani.”
“Waaahhh.”
The teacher hoisted the tear-streaked Dani onto his back and ran to the territory’s one and only clinic.
With basic treatment there, the chances of later complications would drop significantly.
Panting, the teacher arrived at the clinic.
And despaired at the firmly shut doors.
Thinking back, he recalled hearing that the clinic’s healer had recently taken to her bed and couldn’t get up.
“What do we do…”
Children are sharper than adults think.
They pick up on agitation easily.
Dani, her face streaked with tears, asked timidly.
“Teacher… am I gonna keep hurting?”
“…”
Unable to lie, the teacher fell silent.
It pained him that there was nothing he could do for the little girl.
“Hm? Did the kid get hurt?”
Standing there in despair, an old man passing by spoke up.
“Yes… seems like a broken leg, but the clinic’s closed, so I’m at a loss.”
The elder stroked his white beard thoughtfully, then spoke.
“Why not try the church?”
“Pardon?”
“A nun arrived at the church recently, and they say her holy power is incredible. Maybe ask her?”
“Hmm… Thank you for telling me.”
The teacher, who’d lived his whole life in this tiny village and never encountered holy power, tilted his head skeptically but headed to the church anyway, grasping at straws.
The rundown church in the center of the territory.
‘Huh? Something’s different?’
Arriving at the church, the teacher could sense it had changed.
No big visible differences, but it felt mysteriously holier somehow?
It was utterly unlike the rowdy gatherings of locals every week for prayers.
“Excuse me…”
Opening the door cautiously, the rumor proved true—a silver-haired young beauty in the center was praying before the altar.
Sorry to interrupt her prayers, but desperate times called for it, so the teacher hurried toward her.
Sensing his approach, the woman slowly opened her eyes.
“Oh my… such a bad injury.”
Her gaze went to Dani on his back, and she gently touched the girl’s leg.
Woooong.
As expected, a brilliant light burst forth inside the church.
When it faded, Dani’s leg was perfectly healed.
“Th-thank you!”
The teacher, witnessing holy power for the first time, was too stunned to speak at first, then bowed deeply in gratitude.
The woman in nun’s robes smiled benevolently.
“Don’t thank me—offer your thanks to the Goddess who made this miracle possible.”
A powerful holy aura emanated from her back as she spoke in a kind voice.
Seeing this, the teacher thought.
A saintess has come to our territory.