The Qualifications of a Saintess

A storm of impact and roar swept through the underground shopping arcade. From the rents between shattered storefronts, dark crimson blood and chunks of meat seeped out. All of it was the work of a single person, and a single punch.

"Ha... well, I'll be."

"......That's strange."

The man let the words of admiration fall with his mouth hanging open. Eila tilted her head and studied her fist, as if something were wrong with it.

"What's so strange?"

"I think I've gotten weaker. I threw that punch meaning to smash those corpses to nothing."

"Look. There are still scraps left."

At the words that followed, the man's face went stiff. Slowly his gaze turned, and ruined buildings filled it. That was a punch thrown with weakened strength?

"Hey, I'm only asking 'cause I'm curious, but what happens if you throw a punch at full power?"

"Hm? Who can say? I don't know how sturdy these structures are, so I can't give you a definite answer."

"E-even a rough explanation..."

To his question, Eila let the answer trail away. She didn't know herself. She had learned to fight unarmed so she could look after herself, not so she could step to the front and smash things apart. Let the Hero or the Sword Saint swing a blade once, and the sky split. Let the Archmage or the Great Sage speak a few words of an incantation, and the earth shattered. Where, in any of that, was there cause to throw something as humble as a fist with all her strength?

The man saw it differently. Among hunters, hiding one's abilities was common enough. Past A-rank especially, any single scrap of information might be treated as a national secret.

"Well, if you don't wanna say, forget it. Either way, I lived thanks to you."

"No. It isn't over yet."

"What?"

"I still haven't found the gate. If this many monsters have already poured out, destroying the core may be difficult. We ought to go look, quickly..."

"......The hell kind of nonsense is that?"

That was when it happened.

"Wh-what the fuck?! Why is the passage like this?!"

A rough voice carried over. The man and Eila turned their heads at the same time toward the sound. Where they looked, people stood covered in wounds, just emerged from a black hole.

The black holes. Ten years ago, when they appeared without warning, nations across the world fell into chaos. Countless people died to the monsters that kept crawling stubbornly out of them — creatures that belonged in novels.

But the technology humanity had stacked up over hundreds of years was not so fragile, and across four years the people succeeded in restoring society. Of course, it differed from the society that had come before in a great many ways.

At any rate, the black holes — the birth of the dungeons — changed society. They altered ways of living and the vested order of the world, and they gave rise to new fields of study and to mysterious tools. A cataclysm that even the renowned scholars of every nation could not have predicted swept the globe. At the center of that change, naturally, stood the dungeons.

Country after country put research into them first. Over a single year — short, if one called it short, and long if one called it long — scholars uncovered a great deal: why a dungeon appeared, how to erase one, how to keep one from forming. And so five years passed. Dungeons came to be regarded as nothing more unusual than a natural disaster, and hunter became a profession beloved the world over. People were enjoying their everyday lives, the same as they always had.

"Hoo, boy — we owe you our lives. I thought it was strange, the way those things suddenly bolted without so much as looking at us. To think it was all thanks to you, miss... Truly, thank you."

He was a large man. A frame broad enough to fill half the passage, a body packed tight with muscle. The muscle of the left arm he held out for a handshake twitched.

"No. I only did what I ought to do."

Eila took his hand. It was firm. He smelled of blood and of death. A familiar smell.

"Ahem. Late to introduce myself, but... I'm Lee Hanguk, the one in overall charge of this dungeon raid. If it isn't rude, might I ask your name...?"

"Please call me Eila."

"Hm? Are you a foreigner, by any chance...?"

Lee Hanguk blinked. Her speech was far too fluent for him to take her for one. White hair and golden eyes, yes — but hair and irises changed their color once a person took in mana. Pluck a single strand from each of the hunters around him, and you could have made a rainbow.

"Yes. I'm a foreigner."

For a different reason than his, Eila blinked as well. A foreigner: a person come from another country. A laugh nearly escaped her. Wasn't from beyond this world the truer phrase, rather than from a foreign land? Still, it wasn't wrong to say she had come from somewhere else, so she decided to let the word stand.

"By the way, in the name Lee Hanguk, which part is the family name? 'Lee'?"

"...That's right."

"Hanguk — then this is Korea? The Republic of Korea?"

"Miss, you came all this way without even knowing what country you were in?"

The man's eyes narrowed.

"......Yes. Somehow, that's how it turned out."

Eila offered a bitter smile. Lee Hanguk let the tension drain out of his body. Right. Whatever ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠else she was, she was the benefactor who had saved them. A little suspicious, granted, but still.

"Yeah, well, this is the Republic of Korea... If it isn't rude to ask, what's your rank?"

"My rank...? What sort of rank do you mean?"

"Your hunter rank. With skill like this..."

His gaze swung toward the ruined arcade, then came back again.

"I'm a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Saintess. I'm not a hunter."

"...Huh?"

Now that was a fresh bit of bullshit. A saintess. A saintess, she says. Sure, there were hunters who carried that title. Every last one of them trash. Well, fine. None of my business.

Lee Hanguk's eyes traveled over Eila.

"You sure you're ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all right leaving those clothes like that? Leave them, and they'll do your body no good."

Eila's body and clothes were steeped in blood. The dark crimson stood out all the sharper against the pure white of her garments, her hair, and her skin. Monster blood. Everything that came from a monster turned to poison, and to stay in contact with blood like that for long was to ruin one's health. Lee Hanguk had spoken out of that worry. But—

"Ah, this? If it bothers you that much..."

Snap.

The instant Eila flicked her fingers, a wash of pale green light wrapped her body. It covered her from head to toe and wiped the dark crimson away.

"There. Will this do?"

"No. What in the..."

"M-magic...?"

Both men's eyes went round. She had only flicked her fingers, and the blood alone had been washed clean away. It had not been wiped with water or blown off by wind. Only the blood had vanished without a trace. Among the magic they knew, there was nothing so gentle, and nothing so useful.

"It's... similar to magic, isn't it?"

Eila answered their bewilderment. Similar to magic, and yet not magic. Something new, binding magic to the Sacred Arts used by the clergy. While she learned magic from her fellow party members — the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Archmage Angelica and the Great Sage Kurtz — she had made something halfway, neither quite magic nor quite Sacred Arts. Angelica had rejoiced, calling it the discovery of a new realm and giving it the name Sacred Magic, only to lose interest the moment she learned it was a technique that could be used only on the caster herself. By now, even that was nothing but a memory.

"Th-that thing — can it purify poison that's already gotten into the body?"

"If it isn't old, yes."

"Th-then, could you treat that one over there as well...?"

The man's voice shook. In the direction he pointed, a woman lay on the cracked floor. Eila went to her at once, so fast that not even an afterimage remained.

"A moment. Excuse me."

"Wh-who are you?"

Whether the people around the fallen woman protested or not, Eila did what she was meant to do. Save people. That was a Saintess's work. She looked over the body of the woman groaning beneath her. There were many small wounds, but none of them were injuries that could have worsened her to this degree. Which meant—

"Poison, is it."

"Y-yes. She took a poisoned stinger, trying to shield me..."

The man beside her answered. Poison. Eila called on the Sacred Arts at once.

Pale green light covered the woman's body. When it faded, color had returned to her face. She looked much better.

"You should be all right now."

"Th-thank you. Thank you..."

Eila drew the back of her hand across her brow. Thank goodness. Sacred Arts work properly in this place, too. Sacred Magic had activated as it should, but because it was magic and Sacred Arts fused together, she had thought the Sacred Arts alone might not.

"Truly... thank you."

"You as well."

"Yes?"

Eila looked at the man who kept pouring out his thanks. Bandages were wound around his chest, and the red showing through here and there said the wound was bad. His arm was bandaged too.

"Could you gather the injured in one place for me?"

"Ah. Understood."

A short while later.

"We've got them all together, but..."

Eila turned her head, and there they were. Everyone who still remained. A little more than ten, and among them Lee Hanguk, the man who had offered her his hand. Rather a lot.

"Please, no one be alarmed."

Eila closed her eyes and held both hands out before her.

Pale green light spread outward in a circle.

"Wh-what is this?!"

"Magic?"

"What in the world—?!"

The reactions splintered every which way: astonishment, curiosity, and one man who moved to draw his sword. Fortunately Lee Hanguk stood beside him, and stopped him on the spot. Eila slowly opened her eyes.

Sanctuary — a Sacred Art that caused blessings meant for a single person to take hold of everyone within its bounds. She could have walked from one wounded body to the next and healed them each in turn, but there were far too many for that. Saying the same words three times over was tiresome enough. Recite the blessing more than ten? What a bother. A wide-area cast will do just fine.

The circle of light drew inward, then wrapped the people where they stood.

"M-my eyes! I can see!"

"My arm — it moves!"

"Th-this can't be... I've never heard of magic that can do something like this..."

"......Incredible."

The words differed, and so did the tones, but the reaction was the same. Astonishment. Shock. And gratitude.

She was glad. Glad that her healing drew a response at all. These past few years there had been no one but her comrades to use the Sacred Arts on, and even their answers had mostly ended at a formal word of thanks. A reaction this fierce brought the old days back, and the memory put her in a good mood.

The Hero, too, had been that astonished at first. Ah. I miss the Hero.

"Is everyone feeling all right?"

Eila smiled — a bright, radiant smile.