Chapter 130
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: Healing
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".....or so I heard."
"Hmm......"
I relayed to her the information I'd gotten from the dungeon merchant about the Demon Mirror, along with the details on the 'Empress' that Erzsebet had been curious about.
After hearing me out, Erzsebet's expression turned a bit grave.
"Eastern... castle..... white hair......"
"Erzsebet?"
"....Sorry, Master. I'm feeling a bit tired.... Could I rest for a while?"
Her brows furrowed as if she were desperately trying to recall something that just wouldn't come to mind. In a voice lacking her usual energy, she asked to rest.
I couldn't bring myself to say no after seeing her like that, so I nodded. She trudged off toward the house the dwarves had newly built for me..... Wait, why was she heading to my house when the dwarves had built her one too?
"....W-What happened to Lady Erzsebet...?"
"You're still calling her that, huh."
"I-It's scary...."
Lilith, who had witnessed the whole scene, came up to me and asked what was wrong with Erzsebet.
Her voice trembled, and calling out to Erzsebet was laced with fear, but beneath it lay a subtle concern for her.
She's grown fond of her, huh.
To be fair, Lilith had basically been treated like a blood bag by Erzsebet. Still, maybe some affection had developed despite that.
"Heh heh... M-Maybe if she bites me and drinks my blood again, she'll perk up? With those sharp fangs digging into my flesh and sucking my blood.... Ahh....♡"
"........???"
Or maybe not affection—maybe she'd awakened to something far more dangerous..... Either way, I should tell Erzsebet not to drink Lilith's blood for a while.
"By the way, why are you here? Where's the saintess... Jeanne?"
"Over there."
Jeanne was supposed to be under Lilith's watch, but seeing Lilith casually approach me like this, I asked about the saintess. Far off, crouched down, was a blonde woman with a red-haired girl beside her.
"You throw it in like this!"
"Uh, o-okay...."
The Red Demon Tribe girl, Rio—now practically the mascot of our ruins after cheerfully greeting every member inside—had become a fixture here.
She'd befriended everyone in a flash, like the ultimate social butterfly. She even got along with Lilith, who showed signs of social anxiety, and Pandora, who ignored everyone but hybrids. Truly, Rio was a demon tribe capybara through and through... and right now, she was working her charm on someone new.
"A-Amazing...."
The woman Rio was warmly chatting up, Saintess Jeanne, gave an awkward smile as she responded.
After I'd decided to take Jeanne into the dungeon—no, the ruins—none of the tightly bound members objected. Bound by various restrictions from the start, they simply followed my lead without complaint, harboring no resistance to humans or even to admitting a saintess, whom they saw more as a prisoner than a comrade.
So even though we'd accepted Jeanne, the others treated her like she was invisible, not speaking to her at all. Jeanne, having anticipated this, quietly handled the chores I assigned without fuss.
But one person bucked the trend, approaching without prejudice....
"You can burn other stuff besides wood! Like the bits the slimes can't fully swallow that they bring over...."
Even at their first meeting, Rio had shown wariness toward humans, but now she was chattering away at Jeanne with overflowing friendliness. Maybe because she'd just seen Jeanne protect her right in front of her eyes?
Come to think of it, she did the same with me.
Rio stuck to me this much because I'd saved her from that human mage at our first encounter.... I couldn't even remember his name anymore.
Anyway, since saving her back then made her follow me so devotedly, it wasn't strange for her to warm up to Jeanne the same way after being rescued.
"Uh-huh... Amazing."
And even as Rio latched on like this, Jeanne responded with a mix of bewilderment and a faint smile.
Till now, cooped up in the temple, the only people she'd met were the same priests day in and day out, the occasional heroes seeking her blessings, and the citizens who watched her from afar with admiration during miracle outings.
Rio's approach—pure, bright, free of preconceptions or envy—was a refreshing joy to her.
"Um.... I'm human, though.... Doesn't that bother you?"
Unable to withstand Rio's innocent gaze, Jeanne took the initiative, asking if being human didn't make her dislike her—reminding her how, at their first meeting, she'd wailed about her past and shown hostility toward humans.
"Hmm.... Sis doesn't seem like a bad person."
But after pondering Jeanne's question, Rio replied with sunny cheer.
"I thought all humans were bad after those ones attacked our village.... But Sis saved me, right? And Sis wasn't one of the ones who attacked our village... So hating Sis just because of those humans I saw would be wrong."
"........."
Rio's words, chosen carefully with simple vocabulary, stabbed deep into Jeanne's heart.
Jeanne had lived blindly accepting that demons were evil, as preached in the temple, never questioning it until witnessing innocent demons slaughtered before her eyes. Only then had she mustered the courage to abandon her worldview.
This child is better than me.
Or perhaps because she was young, she could shed her views more easily?
Even this young demon girl, who lost family to humans, distinguished proper targets for hatred rather than hating blindly. Yet Jeanne, who hadn't suffered directly but merely heard empty words, had harbored hollow hatred....
-Spurt!
"Ow!"
"....!! Wh-What's wrong?"
Feeling guilt and solace from Rio's attitude, Jeanne gazed warmly at her—until Rio collapsed clutching her hand. Jeanne rushed over in alarm.
"Ouch... My hand.... Hng...."
"D-Don't cry!"
Upon closer look, Rio had gotten distracted chatting with her and badly cut her hand while tossing half-digested slime trash into the incinerator.
Red blood dripped steadily, tears welled up in Rio's eyes and fell in drops. Jeanne, with no experience soothing a crying child, floundered in panic.
"Th-There, there! Don't cry. I'll fix it right up...."
Flustered, Jeanne gripped Rio's bleeding hand and drew forth her miraculous power.
A holy power far brighter and warmer than what ordinary priests used spread out. The moment it touched Rio, Jeanne belatedly remembered one crucial fact amid her panic and gasped.
W-Wait! Holy power on demons...!
Recalling too late that priests' holy power was fatal to demons, Jeanne inwardly cursed—but it was already too late.
The warm holy power from her hand enveloped Rio's profusely bleeding hand. Expecting her foolish mistake to cause this kind child pain, Jeanne closed her eyes in guilt.
And then.....
"Huh...? It doesn't hurt! Did Sis do it?"
"....What?!"
Hearing Rio's words—cheerful, no longer crying—Jeanne's eyes flew wide as she snatched Rio's hand. Not even a scar remained; the pale skin was flawlessly healed.
"Wh-Why are you...?"
Rio cautiously asked, startled when Jeanne suddenly healed her then yanked her hand away, staring blankly. Jeanne just gaped at the hand before letting out a hollow laugh.
'The holy power bestowed by the gods acts as poison on demons. This is proof even the gods despise them...'
'Beings untouched by divine love. Even the gods reject their existence!'
"....Hahaha...."
"S-Sis...?"
In the end, even that was a lie.
Unlike the priests' whispers, the power directly from the god herself—her miraculous source, called holy power, a warm light—had soothed Rio's wound.
As if Eukrasia herself embraced even demons.
At this point, the holy power used by other priests seemed downright suspicious. Unlike her own radiant power, granted after being chosen by Eukrasia, theirs always felt somehow murky.
She'd chalked it up to the difference between a saintess and ordinary priests.... But what if it wasn't? What if there was a fundamental difference between their holy power and hers?
"S-Sis...?"
Rio, whose hand was still held, saw Jeanne zone out, chuckle hollowly, then turn serious. She quietly backed away.
This sis is weird....
She'd approached wanting to befriend the person who saved her and was accepted by the respected Master, but this one seemed off.
Were all humans just weird?
"Hmm......"
Meanwhile, Eugene watched Jeanne and Rio from afar with Lilith. Seeing Rio's hand heal, he thought:
I can save some points.
No issue with holy power on demons? He'd assigned injured treatment to the saintess just in case, but it worked fine.
From now on, unless urgent, he'd hold off on [Status] recovery and leave it to her.
But that light...
Didn't it look just like the effect from his [Status] recovery function?