An Illogical Ambush
Logically speaking, attacking a saintess was an utterly nonsensical act. Especially in a world where humanity followed a single religion, no one in their right mind would ever assault the saintess of that faith. Even if someone possessed both the ability and the will to strike, what motive could they possibly have? There had to be some gain from it, yet could any benefit from attacking the saintess truly outweigh the inevitable backlash and losses?
“Fire!”
“Protect the Saintess!”
Thud-thud-thud! Arrows rained down and embedded themselves into the shields raised by the holy knights and mercenaries. Each one carried considerable force, forcing even the well-trained men to brace their full weight behind their defenses.
Honestly, did this make any sense? There was no way the attackers could have been unaware of the saintess’s presence. The church’s banners flew openly, and even if that hadn’t been enough, we had already announced her presence loud and clear.
“Why are you attacking us?!”
“Lucia! Watch out!”
“Arrows won’t pierce the carriage anyway!”
At least they were only using arrows. Unless they had siege ballistae, ordinary arrows couldn’t reach inside the carriage—unless they were flaming ones. The situation was infuriating, but what angered me more was how fundamentally absurd it all was. Attacking a saintess and a hero’s procession? Really?
“Saintess! Are you all right?!”
“How many are there? What’s the situation?”
“At least a hundred! Their training is on par with regular kingdom soldiers, and their equipment looks like it was prepared specifically for an ambush!”
“Can we break through?”
“The horses pulling the carriage are already down! Please stay inside—we’ll handle this!”
If we had been in a hurry from the start, we might have tried to charge through at full speed. But since there had been no particular rush, the horses had fallen to the initial surprise attack. There was no other option now. These people had fired arrows without any warning or demands, so the only path forward was to fight and carve our way out.
“First squad, with me! We’ll clear the front!”
We had twenty fighters in total—ten mercenaries and ten holy knights. The enemy numbered over a hundred, a five-to-one disadvantage. However, half of our side consisted of fully armored holy knights in plate, carrying large shields and capable of using divine power. The attackers, despite their numbers and ambush-focused gear, were little more than mid-tier mercenaries in quality.
In theory, time was the only thing we lacked. We shouldn’t lose if we fought properly.
“Magic! They have mages!”
“How could mere ambushers have mages?!”
A fireball slammed into one of the holy knights, engulfing him in flames. Those bastards.
“Lucia! No!”
“No choice. Zieg, protect Yulia. I’ll go out.”
I hadn’t formed any deep bonds with the holy knights, but that didn’t mean I felt nothing for them. We had shared conversations during our time together. And now one of them was dying right in front of me.
“Saintess! You mustn’t!”
“Bring water!”
Yes, he was dying. But not yet. I deployed a protective miracle around myself to deflect the arrows and sprinted toward the burning knight. The flames had to be extinguished first.
I tore off my white silk cloak and threw it over him while channeling a healing miracle.
“This will hurt. I’m sorry.”
The fire had gotten inside his armor, so simply covering it wasn’t enough. Waiting for the flames to die naturally would kill him. There was no helping it—he would suffer terribly, but he had to live.
“Aaaagh! Aaaaaagh!”
“Shh, shh. It’s all right. I’ll save you.”
I poured water from my waterskin over him. Anything to reduce the burning. The pain must have been excruciating, but other knights soon arrived with more water and doused the rest of the flames. My healing miracle quickly regenerated the burns.
He wasn’t fully recovered yet—still delirious, convinced he was still burning—and thrashed while screaming. The knights had to pin him down, leaving them momentarily defenseless.
“Keep shooting until they’re dead! Let’s see if your saintess’s miracles can save them from that!”
The enemy hadn’t closed in yet, so arrows and spells continued to crash uselessly against my protective barrier. This was another reason people didn’t casually attack saintesses—when a saintess properly deployed her protective miracle, it became near-absolute defense against ranged attacks.
Of course, there was a simple way to break it: just walk up and swing a sword or spear. The barrier only stopped projectiles.
“She really is a saintess.”
“Of course she is! Did you think the banner was just decoration?”
Crash! Another fireball flew toward us in response to my shout, but the barrier didn’t even tremble. Several more spells followed—ice, rocks, fire—but none penetrated.
Meanwhile, the burned knight finally regained his senses.
“Even so, we still outnumber you! Hand over the saintess and we’ll withdraw!”
They still had at least five times our numbers—possibly ten. But that didn’t matter.
“What exactly do you think we’ll hand over?! Come and try to take her if you can!”
The knight commander’s voice rang out. Surrendering me was never an option—not for the holy knights, and certainly not for the mercenaries. These mercenaries had been chosen partly for their faith, and they were being paid in ever-rising gold coins. They had no reason to betray me.
“They’re asking for death! Attack!”
With that clichéd villainous cry, the ambushers charged. Their equipment and conviction were inferior, but they intended to overwhelm us with sheer numbers. Strangely, even the ordinary fighters showed no hesitation.
“Form up! Form up! Defend the carriage! Saintess, you really must get back inside now!”
“Ah, understood!”
Watching the chaos, even I couldn’t stay calm. I retreated into the carriage. My divine power and miracles were powerful, but I was useless in a proper melee.
“L-Lucia……”
“It’s fine, Yulia. Becoming a church holy knight isn’t something just anyone can do. They’re trained to fight both individually and in group battles like this.”
I wasn’t particularly worried. The church’s standing military strength rested on the holy knights, and there was a reason they weren’t looked down upon despite that. They might fall short against elite royal knights specialized purely in combat, but when it came to group defensive battles, few could match them. And they were an elite force to begin with.
“Even the Empire was like this……”
“Don’t worry.”
Clang! Clang!
The battle initially seemed shaky when the enemies crashed into the clergy, but soon our counterattacks began steadily reducing their numbers. Still, their overwhelming quantity remained a problem. Realizing brute force wouldn’t work, the attackers switched to a rotating formation, wearing us down with probing attacks while cycling their forces.
That tactic might have worked—if I weren’t here.
“How dare you try to exhaust my church’s holy knights with something so petty!”
My healing miracles naturally restored stamina as well. While less efficient than healing wounds, it posed no issue for a saintess overflowing with divine power.
But the enemy wasn’t completely stupid.
“There! Target the mercenaries!”
Since they couldn’t quickly break the stalwart holy knights, they shifted focus to the mercenaries, who could be worn down more effectively. Leaving just enough men to pin the knights in place, they launched a fierce assault supported by precise arrow fire from their archers still outside the barrier.
Even healing miracles had limits. The mercenaries’ formation began to shrink rapidly under the concentrated attack.
“Lucia, close your eyes.”
“I’m not closing them. Someone needs to step in before anyone actually dies. Yulia, you close your eyes.”
“If Lucia isn’t closing hers, then I won’t either.”
Zieg, who had been waiting in the carriage as our last resort, drew the Hero’s Sword and leapt out. The divine power I had been channeling flowed naturally into his blade.
“So you came out to die……”
Before the enemy officer could even finish his arrogant remark, his head flew off. The hero’s rampage had begun. Arrows, magic, spears, swords—none at mediocre levels could touch him. His overwhelming martial prowess was on full display.
In the end, when the ambush was finally repelled, not a single one of us had died.