Tutorial: Interlude
To put it simply, my plan was a complete success.
Not a single soul suspected that I had lured the Ogre into the forest, and I had completely restored Danas's eyes just as I promised. I hadn't checked with my own vision yet, but considering I'd sacrificed my very life for it, it would be downright bizarre if they hadn't healed.
Resurrection... or so it's called.
Supreme-tier recovery magic. In the game's lore, it was a miracle said to bring back someone who had only recently died—a spell so demanding that it required an assembly of high-ranking archbishops, a Saint, or the Pope himself to cast. In gameplay terms, it was simply the skill that revived a fallen party member.
Of course, what I performed wasn't a genuine Resurrection; I merely mimicked it. If you jam an absurd amount of raw divine power into a Heal, it basically amounts to the same thing anyway.
Naturally, once I formally became a Saint, I would possess a true Authority—one that could casually mend any injury, cure any illness, or even bring the recently deceased back from the brink just like Resurrection, all in exchange for absorbing those exact wounds into my own flesh. Compared to that divine grace, my crude imitation was hardly worth mentioning.
Haa...
Truthfully, what I did wasn't all that complicated. I had simply squeezed out every last drop of healing divine power I possessed and poured it into him. When divine power is used to seal something, purify corruption, or incinerate demons, it is consumed as distinct, specialized forms of energy. But divine power channeled purely to heal another... was essentially no different from transferring my own life force. That was why, in the game, healing spells cast by a priest or nun drained the caster's own health pool.
And I had transferred that life force itself—every last shred of it—straight into Danas. In other words, I had effectively offered myself up as a living sacrifice.
It felt so good...
There hadn't been any physical pain. While that was a bit of a shame, it hadn't been violently torn away from me either; I had simply released all the power I held. The sensation went far beyond mere exhaustion, bringing a delicious agony of an entirely different flavor, so I was reasonably satisfied. If I had to describe it, it felt like the painless numbness of massive blood loss—the sensation of having your blood pumped out in real time while under anesthesia.
Yes, to put it more simply, it felt as though I was watching myself die in real time.
Like life itself... like some irreplaceable essence was draining straight out of my body. Having never actually bled out before, I couldn't say for sure if the comparison was accurate, but conceptually speaking, it was the closest match. It had felt so sublime that I'd drifted into pure ecstasy. Well, I lost consciousness before that euphoria could reach its peak, so it was all rather moot now.
Even so...
Considering I'm capable of coherent thought right now, it seems I pulled it off.
Then there was this divine power coursing through my limbs—a torrent so vast it could only be called overwhelming. Perhaps because of that, where before I could barely grasp the spatial layout of a room, I could now perceive my surroundings down to the finest detail. Not only that, controlling my mental resonance had become incomparably effortless. I could even pick up sounds echoing from well beyond these walls.
So this is the power of a Saint...
My eyes remained closed and my ears were still deaf, yet at this level of clarity, it felt as though I possessed both sight and hearing once more. If there was a single drawback, it was...
I can only perceive spatial form.
There was no color. To describe it in gamer terms, it was like a meticulously crafted 3D wireframe model floating in my mind, updating and reflecting my environment in real time. Above all, the sheer expansion of its detection range was an enormous comfort.
No wonder it offsets the penalties.
In the game's lore, I had always wondered how anyone could possibly overcome the crippling debuffs of total blindness and deafness, but this cleared up every lingering question.
As I mulled over these thoughts with a faint, satisfied smile, I sensed four people walking down the hall toward the room. No, more than just people—they were presences I knew well.
"When do you think she'll wake up...?"
"The priest said she would awaken soon, Melina. Don't be so impatient."
"Right~ She's the Saint, after all. She'll be up in no time!"
Hmm. It wouldn't be particularly strange for me to be awake by now, so should I just stay like this?
The door slid open with a soft rattle.
"Really, Danas... She's been out for so long, aren't you even worried—huh?"
Melina, who had been nagging Danas in exasperation, turned toward me and froze on the spot.
"...Are you awake?"
"[Is that you, Brother Danas...? And everyone else...]"
At my telepathic words, Danas let out a faint chuckle and turned to Melina beside him.
"Go inform His Holiness the Pope that the Saint has awakened. And..."
"Got it, got it~ Bring some fruit too, right?"
Danas watched Melina dash off as if she already knew the drill, then turned back to look at me. Previously, I could only sense that a person was standing there without discerning their expression, but now, I could clearly perceive every subtle contour of Danas's face. And...
His eyes... they're completely healed.
I could feel it. The damage to his vision was entirely gone.
"[I'm so glad... that I was able to keep my promise.]"
"...Even in a situation like this, is that the first thing out of your mouth?" Danas muttered, his tone carrying the deep resignation of a man who had attained spiritual enlightenment.
Come to think of it, until just recently, he had spoken in a grim, raspy murmur as if he held a grudge against the entire world. Now, his voice was that of an ordinary, dignified mature man. Was it because I had gone so far as to sacrifice my own life to save him?
Mmm... I must never, under any circumstances, let them find out.
If anyone discovered that I was the one who dragged that Ogre into their path, I'd probably be stripped of my Saint title before the day was out. Thank goodness the Goddess couldn't read my inner thoughts.
"How does your body feel?"
"[Um... It feels as though I'm overflowing with energy... I can perceive my surroundings much more clearly than before, and everyone's voices come through so steady and clear.]"
Previously, because I relied solely on thought resonance, I could only catch the mental echoes of living beings. Now, for some reason, I could discern all manner of sounds.
"His Holiness told us you have officially become the Saint," Danas said with an easy smile. "I suppose I ought to address you as Lady Saint from now on."
As Danas spoke, the other man standing nearby stepped forward. Calt, the party leader, if I recalled correctly. Calt stood in silence for a long moment, staring at me, before bowing his head deeply.
"I am truly sorry."
"..."
"No matter how displeased I was to have a novice nun thrust into our commission, I never should have acted the way I did. I was a fool."
Oh... I honestly hadn't expected him to apologize.
Well... it's not like I have any right to complain either...
Call it a hidden advancement route to maximize a Saint's base stats upon changing classes. In truth, the system evaluated everything you did during the penance period and while leveling as a candidate, awarding your final stat distribution based on accumulated karma. And to achieve the highest stats in history as the most noble Saint, the condition was none other than total self-sacrifice.
I seemed to recall that once chosen as a Saint, the player character revived right on the spot accompanied by a dazzling cinematic cutscene...
Not that I'd know, having died back then.
Still, feeling this divine power that dwarfed anything I had before, the class change had clearly been a resounding success, so the details didn't really matter.
"[It's quite all right. It's not as if I didn't understand how you all felt.]"
If I were in their boots, I wouldn't have wanted a blind, deaf, completely inexperienced novice nun tagging along on a dangerous quest either. It was a matter of life and death, after all.
"Furthermore..."
Calt dropped down on one knee right there—
Huh?
He's kneeling?
"Thank you for saving my comrade, Saintess."
"[U-Um, that is... P-Please, it's really all right... !]"
Wait, why are you going so far as to kneel?! You're making me feel guilty here...!
I waved my hands frantically, insisting that it was fine, but judging by his posture, he had no intention of rising anytime soon. He must have felt desperately ashamed of hazing me just to run me out of his party, considering he was humbling himself to this degree. Fearing this awkward display would drag on forever, I shifted my attention.
Speaking of which, the party's mage—I recalled hearing that she had chugged a mana potion that carried terrible rebound effects.
"[Sister Mirna... is that right?]"
"Huh? What is it?"
"[Your internal organs seem to be in quite a mess... so I was wondering if I might heal you.]"
"Ah, I guess there really is no fooling the Saint." Mirna let out an awkward chuckle. She seemed to be holding herself together with concocted medicine for the moment, but mana potions forcefully flooded an empty body with magical energy, and the backlash was severe.
In the game, Mana Poisoning was a debuff that initially reduced magic attack power and inflicted minor ailments like nausea and headaches. Gulping down more than one caused your health to drain as though your body were deteriorating from the inside out—and the higher the potion's potency, the harsher the rebound. That health drain was just a game mechanic, but a mage of her caliber would have needed at least an Intermediate Mana Potion to pull off what she did.
Which explained why she had boldly declared earlier that she would charge a fortune for her expenses. Her thought resonance had been so intense back then that I'd caught every word. Well, to cast an Advanced lightning spell like Lightning Spear, she would have needed to top off her mana reserves completely. At that level of strain, even if she acted tough on the outside, her insides were bound to be utterly wrecked.
Mirna, however, showed no interest in receiving my healing.
"I'm fine. A little rest and some low-grade potions will fix me right up."
"[Even so...]
"I do have a conscience, you know! Though of course, if not for my magic back then, that Ogre would never have gone down~"
Where did this sudden bout of bragging come from? Then again, I had always heard mages were an eccentric bunch.
This is tricky...
This was definitely going to be annoying.
Mmm... Still, outwardly, I'm supposed to be a gentle, benevolent nun, so I guess I'll have to play along and listen to whatever she has to say. Not that I'm particularly thrilled about it...
Tsk.