Side Story: The Saintesses of Revelatio (5)
“Was the magic lesson enjoyable?”
“Yes. Today was especially fun.”
“What a relief!”
Leaving the magic professor behind, his soul practically drained from his body, our next lesson was physical conditioning.
A Saintess serves in a rear-support role—divine magic, healing, and the like—but all of it ultimately has to be backed up by stamina.
She has to travel from place to place saving the world, and if her strength runs dry, she'll collapse after only a few stops.
The Knight Commander let out a hearty laugh—haha!—as he fondled his heavy blunt weapon.
“Saintesses need not take the front lines, but it would be wise to learn at least some basic self-defense. You never know what kind of situation might unfold on a battlefield.”
“I'll keep that in mind.”
“Now then, shall we start with a light thirty laps?”
A light thirty laps.
The me of the past would have heard that and thought, what kind of nonsense is this? But these days, it doesn't faze me at all.
“Yes, sir.”
Just as he said, thirty laps was nothing to me.
The Knight Commander, still clad in his heavy armor, set off at the head of the pack. I followed, and behind me came the knights who needed training—or who simply wanted to catch my eye—while my maid, Miya, ran at my side.
Miya possessed superhuman abilities rivaling those of the holy knights, so keeping pace with this speed was no trouble for her.
“Are you holding up well, milady?”
“Yes. No problem at all.”
“...I see.”
After that, Miya silently kept watch at my side.
When we finished all thirty laps, the knights returned to their spots, sweating, to rest.
I did find it strange that knights would struggle with a mere thirty laps, but apparently running without using mana—relying purely on the body alone—drains a great deal of strength.
And the Knight Commander had run at a remarkably fast pace despite wearing such heavy armor.
But I wasn't fazed in the slightest.
Without a single drop of sweat, I glanced to my side.
There was Miya, looking somewhat worn out.
“Are you alright?”
“...Whew. Yes, I'm fine.”
“You don't look fine.”
“I'm fine. Really.”
As Miya panted and caught her breath, the Knight Commander—not a single drop of sweat on him either—came over with a hearty laugh.
“You look none the worse for wear today either. It seems Saintess Lily has truly exceptional stamina.”
“You look completely refreshed yourself, Commander.”
“That's only because I do this as casually as eating my meals. But haven't you only just begun your training, Saintess Lily? It's quite impressive.”
Was it?
Come to think of it, my stamina had improved a great deal since I awakened my divinity.
Though honestly, I'm not even sure I 'awakened' anything.
I couldn't cast magic with it, and I couldn't fire it out like a laser beam.
I just sort of felt like something was there.
No magic, nothing particularly changed.
“Wouldn't the other Saintesses be even more impressive, then? I'm hardly the only one with this kind of ability, and I've only just barely awakened it.”
“No, milady. No one surpasses you.”
“I'm sorry?”
What was that supposed to mean?
“The First Saintess, Saintess Marenia, Saintess Angela—none of them care for physical training. Saintess Marenia in particular hasn't trained her body in over seven years.”
“...Why not? It's not exactly difficult.”
Surely any Saintess would consider this level of stamina the bare minimum.
They might even surpass me—but I doubted they'd fall short.
The Knight Commander shook his head with a smile.
“As I mentioned before, remember? 'Saintesses serve in a rear-support role.'”
“I do recall that...”
“Perhaps because of that, the Saintesses never truly grasped the importance of physical conditioning. They believe the body is moved not by its own basic strength, but by mana or by the goddess's power—by special divine authority.”
A Saintess is positioned in the rear lines, not the vanguard.
Since hers was not a profession that relied on the body, there was little need for rigorous training.
Others would do the physical labor; the Saintesses only needed to cast spells from the back.
And even when they moved, it wasn't through bodily strength—they moved via mana or divinity.
“In fact, when Saintess Lily first arrived, I assumed her first day would be her last. I wondered how far she'd get this time.”
“......”
“But you took the training quite seriously. Personally, I found it rather moving.”
“How far did the other Saintesses get...?”
“Every Saintess before you—save for the First—couldn't even manage three laps before stopping. After that, they circled using mana or their miraculous powers instead.”
“...Three laps?”
I glanced around the training grounds.
...It really wasn't all that big, though.
“And the First Saintess?”
“She ran ten laps exactly once, and never ran again. To be precise, I should say she never ran again during the training hours under my supervision.”
According to the Knight Commander, she was such a venerable senior—having served in the Holy Court for decades, almost like the goddess's own proxy—that no one dared instruct her.
She was hardly at a level to be taught, anyway.
In that light, my thirty laps was an absurd anomaly.
I'd run them without using any divinity or mana whatsoever—and I could have run more.
“Well then, shall we... have a sparring match today?”
The weapons favored by holy knights were swords, spears, or blunt weapons like maces.
They also carried shields and daggers hidden in their breast pockets, but those were the main arms, more or less.
“Hyaah!”
“Come at me!”
CLANG! KRAK!
When we arrived at the sparring grounds, quite a few holy knights were already deep into their matches.
You'd think a sparring session would call for blunted swords or wooden practice weapons, but here, every single one of them was pointing razor-sharp steel at their opponent.
“Isn't that dangerous?”
“It is. Accidents happen fairly often, in fact.”
Training meant to mirror real combat—but this seemed a bit excessive.
Yet there was a reason behind it.
At the end of the Knight Commander's gaze stood a building right beside the sparring grounds.
Inside, through one wide-open wall, a group of people dressed in white were keeping careful watch over the training yard.
“We have healers on hand, so there is no problem.”
They were all acolytes—priests.
People who could treat minor wounds and speed recovery.
As long as they were there, even a serious injury during sparring could be managed.
“Oh... so they can heal any kind of wound, then?”
“Not quite. What they can treat is, at most, light external injuries. A severed limb or severe internal damage would be beyond them.”
“Then...”
They buy time, don't they.
The priests were, in the end, a contingency.
The ones who healed wounds beyond that limit were someone else entirely.
“We buy time until a Saintess arrives. So long as the bleeding is stopped, the wounded can be kept alive until one of the Saintesses returns.”
“...That's awfully risky.”
“But it is precisely because of that risk that the Holy Kingdom has flourished as it has.”
These people trained without sparing themselves any pain, and as a result, the Holy Court was able to extend its influence to every corner of the world.
Watching the holy knights spar, I started to feel a little uneasy.
Wait. They're not about to make me do that, are they?
I was the only Saintess remaining in the Holy Court right now.
Which naturally meant I was the only one who could heal wounds beyond the acolytes' limit.
But forget healing—I couldn't even cast divine magic.
As I hesitantly watched, the Knight Commander chuckled and shook his head.
“Surely you don't think we'd put such a task on someone who has only just arrived?”
“...R-really?”
“Of course. We've instructed everyone to be careful in your absence—er, I mean, while you are not yet able—and Saintess Angela will be arriving soon, so please don't worry.”
“What a relief.”
I could breathe a little easier, then.
SHLORCH!
“GUAAAAAGH!”
“...! Denz!”
Huh?
A horrific sound tore across the sparring grounds.
Something was flying up over there... no, wait—what was flying up?
“You—you reckless idiots!”
What on earth were they doing?!
The Knight Commander planted his foot deep into the ground and launched himself toward the scene.
The knights who had been sparring nearby likewise rushed toward the site of the incident.
Wait—you told them to be careful!
Why is a hand suddenly flying through the air?!
While I stood there flustered, the acolytes on standby went pale and scrambled into motion, and Miya swiftly drew up to my side.
“Milady.”
“Y-yes.”
“Stay calm. Shall we go take a look?”
“......”
I hesitated.
Honestly, I was a little afraid.
Not because they might make me do the healing.
Someone getting hurt.
Seeing a hand fly off, a man drenched in blood—it made me flinch away.
A visceral revulsion pulled my body backward before I could stop it.
Miya stepped directly in front of me, blocking my view.
“If it's too much for you, you may return to your chambers. I'll explain everything to the Knight Commander.”
“...No. I'll have to face it eventually.”
That's right. As long as I'd chosen to live as a Saintess.
As long as I carried the absurd quest of ending the war between the celestial race and the demon race.
This was a problem I would have to confront, no matter what.
I slowly made my way toward the scene.
—Uuuugh...
—You idiot! How many times did I tell you to watch yourself?!
—Somebody hold him down! If you cast a healing spell wrong, it'll fuse all weird!
...The wound was worse than I expected.
The flying hand hadn't been the problem.
The shoulder wound was severe too, and it looked like he'd been cut on a diagonal—blood was pouring from his abdomen.
I wanted to ask how on earth a sparring match had produced an injury like this.
“S-Saintess!”
“Saintess!”
“...What exactly is the situation?”
“There's no need to worry, milady! We can hold out until Lady Angela arrives!”
“Will that really be enough?”
“It will. However, we must leave the wound site partially untouched to make the later treatment easier, so the pain will be considerable. That much, he must simply endure.”
“.......”
Wasn't there some other way?
Leaving him like this looked far too painful...
“Maybe I could—”
“Leave it. A half-baked healing job will just make a bigger mess.”
The wound was closing.
As a pure white light seeped into the knight's body, his abdomen healed completely, and the shoulder that had been hanging loose and grotesque was restored in full.
Everyone stared in shock at the miracle that had unfolded in an instant, while a girl a full head shorter than me stepped up to the trembling knight.
“Hey. Hand.”
“Yes?”
“I can't heal you unless you give me the hand.”
Angela.
The Third Saintess stood before my eyes.