The Saintess Departs
The news that Seraphina had been chosen as the Saintess of the Goddess Church spread through the village like a quiet breeze. The elders offered no objections. In other words, they did not oppose it. The people of Magia-Bell had always believed that one day the continent would fall into peril, and that when no one else stepped forward, those with power must rise. In that same vein, it felt only natural for Seraphina to lend her strength as the Saintess now that the Demon King had appeared.
The same blood of Magia-Bell flowed through my veins, so I understood their thoughts without needing to hear them spoken aloud. Yet my feelings ran so deep that even that instinct could not restrain me. I wanted nothing more than to hold onto Selphy.
The thought that I would no longer be able to see that smile I had witnessed every single day tore at my chest like fire.
“Sera. This is a tremendous honor. Though I’m not sure our little troublemaker of a daughter will manage the role of Saintess very well?”
“Haha! You don’t mean we have to leave right this instant, do you? Our daughter will need time to prepare, after all.”
But neither the village elders nor even Seraphina’s own parents showed the slightest intention of refusing her selection as Saintess. Then what about Seraphina herself?
I walked over until I could clearly see her face. There it was—her expression looked dazed, yet somehow rigid. Having watched that face for so many years, I knew exactly what it meant. Seraphina was terrified.
I stepped right beside her and gently took her arm.
“Abel…”
As expected, the trembling in her arm subsided the moment my hand closed around it.
“It’s all right, Selphy. I’m here.”
I spoke softly to calm her, then added in an even quieter voice,
“Tonight. At our usual place…”
I set the meeting spot. I needed to hear what she was truly thinking.
By the time night fell, a deep blue full moon had risen, bathing everything in pale light.
Creak…
I closed the wooden door quietly, slipped out of the house, and walked while my thoughts churned without end. Which choice would truly help Seraphina? I wanted her by my side, but wasn’t that just my own selfishness? If she left, should I follow her? No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t find an answer. All I felt was resentment toward this sudden situation that threatened to tear her away from me.
Lost in those endless worries, I reached the small clearing with the pond just before entering the mountain. It was a secret place no one visited because it lay on the boundary where beasts appeared, yet monsters never crossed over.
“…Selphy.”
Even though I had come as soon as it grew dark, she had arrived first. She was crouched in front of the pond.
“A-Abel.”
She turned, stood up, and walked toward me with a bright, relieved face. Even though she had once been attacked by a monster as a child, she still wandered around at night without fear. That was so like her. At the same time, the thought struck me again—someone like her should never have to become a Saintess and face danger.
“…”
“…”
We stood face to face in silence for a long time. The brightness in her expression gradually dimmed.
“The bishop and Father said I have to leave the village in one week.”
The remaining time slipped from her lips. After nearly ten years together, Seraphina would disappear in just seven days.
“What do you want to do, Selphy?”
Normally I would have spoken more formally, but the question burst out before I could stop it.
“I don’t know. Fighting the Demon King and monsters sounds terrifying… and I keep wondering if someone like me can even do the work of a Saintess…”
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger. A shadow of worry crossed her face. Seeing it, I felt—for the first time in my life—regret at having been born in this village. To casually offer up a girl who had never faced monsters or demons in her entire life, to send her off to confront the Demon King simply because she had been chosen…
“Selphy.”
“Yes?”
“Want to run away with me?”
If she said yes, I was ready to leave the village with her that very night.
“W-what are you saying, Abel!”
But Seraphina stared at me with a startled expression.
“You know how fast my legs still are. I could easily carry you on my back and get us out of the village.”
“And after we leave…?”
“We’ll hide our identities and live together in a distant village or small city. No matter what I have to do, I’ll make sure you never have to suffer.”
As I continued speaking, Seraphina began to cry. Tears fell one by one until her fair skin flushed red from the force of her sobs. I held her close and patted her back until she finally pulled away a step.
“But Abel… running away is impossible…”
“…Why?”
“If we run, the Church’s paladins will come after us.”
“I’ll protect you!”
I shouted to dispel her fears, but she looked at me with anxious blue eyes.
“You’re injured, Abel…”
Injured. There were no fresh wounds on my body right now. She meant the mana roads that had been damaged that day. The mana roads were delicate channels; even partial damage could become a fatal injury, preventing smooth use of magic power. No matter how skillfully Uncle Locke—the high-ranking alchemist—had performed the transplant, the truth remained.
“We could never escape the Church’s paladins…”
With only half my mana roads left, I could no longer wield my original strength. Ever since the day the wolf monster attacked Seraphina, I had been unable to fully activate my innate ability, Acceleration. High-speed movement and overwhelming power were now beyond me. All that remained was the ability to run a little faster and longer than a horse using the mana roads in my legs. I had fallen so far from the instantaneous movement I once possessed.
“…”
Perhaps that was why I couldn’t bring myself to tell her to trust me again, despite the anxiety in her eyes and voice. Just as she feared, completely hiding her from the Church would be impossible.
“It’s all right, Abel.”
Seraphina repeated the words I had spoken to her earlier, wiping away her tears.
“They said the subjugation of the Demon King would be in serious trouble without a Saintess… so I’ll do my best. I can do this.”
She smiled again, as if telling me not to worry. I could tell that smile was different from her usual one. The words “No, let’s leave the village together” lingered on my tongue, but—
“This is the right thing, Abel.”
Her face already showed she had made up her mind.
“I… understand, Selphy. If that’s what you want, I’ll support you.”
I had no power to help the one girl I loved. All I could do was pretend to be fine so her decision would not waver.
A week later, Seraphina left the village with the Church’s carriage procession. Just before she departed, I met her one last time in front of her house.
“You absolutely cannot meet any other girls until I return, okay? You can’t even talk to them, understand?”
She hugged me tightly and repeated it over and over. Even though she would soon become the noble Saintess, the way she kept saying she would continue to love me was unbearably lovely. Only after I barely managed to promise we would write letters to each other every day asking how the other was doing did she finally let me go.
Yes… Seraphina might be going far away, but our hearts had not grown distant. We would write letters every day. And I would pray for her safe return once she finished her duty as Saintess.
I pushed all my countless worries aside with those two thoughts.
“Hey! Abel, could you deliver this for me?”
“Yes! Don’t forget to write down the address!”
“Yeah, yeah—”
Two years after Seraphina left, I began working as a courier, making use of my special talents. Most villagers were stronger than me, but their abilities lay in different fields. My talent—running as fast as a horse with exceptional endurance—made me perfect for the job of a mailman. I delivered packages and letters entrusted to me by the villagers to nearby cities and towns.
“Here’s the item Mr. Alter sent!”
“Oh, that arrived quickly.”
“By the way, I was wondering…”
The reason I took this job wasn’t simply because I disliked mining.
“Have you heard any news about Saintess Seraphina?”
It was because I could gather information about her from people in the surrounding cities. Of course, the most accurate way would have been to ask her directly through letters. The problem was that her replies had stopped coming.
For the first one or two years, Seraphina’s letters arrived steadily. They spoke of how stifling the rigid schedule at the Church was, how difficult it was to heal the sick, and how she wished she could run freely through the mountains and forests with me like in the old days. Letters filled with her adorable handwriting had certainly reached me.
But one day, the content changed. She wrote that she had met the Hero who would subjugate the Demon King together with her. The Hero she described was an incredibly flamboyant person—blond like her, from a noble family, and possessing truly heroic good looks. After that, most of her letters were about her daily life with the Hero… Honestly, I felt jealous. And afraid. I worried she might be more drawn to a noble Hero than to a childhood friend from a rural village like me.
Still, I believed that Seraphina, who had been with me since childhood and promised me our future, would not give her heart to another man so easily. The reason the letters stopped must be because her duties as Saintess had grown too busy… I chose to trust her. And while she was occupied, I decided I would seek out news of her myself.
“Hmm? The Saintess? Ah, right—you’re from the same village.”
“Yes.”
“Well, the Saintess is apparently very busy traveling with the Hero and his party to subjugate the Demon King. Recently, they say the Hero defeated a Twin-Headed Ogre, one of the Demon King’s high-ranking officers.”
As expected of Seraphina. She was doing well as the Saintess.
“But I hear the relationship between the Hero and the Saintess isn’t exactly ordinary. People say they’ve been seen kissing at drinking parties… And before that, he was supposedly dating the party’s elf mage. That Hero really has quite the reputation with women…”
Bang—!
“What did you say?!”
“Whoa—scared me!”
The startled innkeeper looked at me. My voice trembled.
“Seraphina…! The Saintess kissed the Hero…?”
When I asked again in disbelief, he stared at me strangely and moved his lips.
“They’re probably dating… Isn’t it normal for the Saintess and the Hero to become lovers?”
“That can’t be true! Seraphina would never do that!”
Seraphina would never. Not the girl who had forced a smile at the pond, telling me she was fine while clearly worried about my injuries. Not the girl who had emphasized over and over, right before leaving, that I must never cheat on her. The Seraphina I knew would never give her heart to another man.
“Where… where did you hear that story?”
I barely managed to suppress the rising anxiety and anger as I asked.
“A bard was singing about it.”
“Ha! See? Bards make things up all the time!”
The words from the innkeeper finally let me breathe again.
“Why are you getting so worked up anyway? Do you have some kind of relationship with the Saintess?”
The innkeeper asked with a sullen face.
“Seraphina is my…”
The words caught in my throat. Seraphina and I loved each other. A few years ago, I would have boasted about that without hesitation.
“…She is someone very precious to me.”
But now, when we couldn’t even communicate, could I still call us lovers? What if I was the only one still holding onto those feelings?
“If you don’t have anything to send, I’ll be going!”
I mustn’t doubt her. It was just baseless gossip. That’s what I told myself on the way back…
“I have come to see Saintess Seraphina.”
…And somehow found myself standing in front of the Goddess Church’s branch.
I had visited once before, back when her letters suddenly stopped. I had worried something might have happened to her. At that time, the priest had blocked me, saying that unless one was royalty, nobility, or held a special position, one could not casually meet the Saintess. After much pleading, he agreed to pass on a message to an acquaintance. After that, only a short reply—“She is doing well, so do not worry”—had come, and I had convinced myself she was simply busy.
I never thought I would come again, but—
“I lived in the same village as the Saintess…”
I asked nervously, afraid I would once again be told I could not see her.
“The Saintess is currently away with the Hero. She probably won’t return until their mission is completely finished.”
“Ah… I see.”
This time the answer was different. And it struck me as far more horrifying than being told I could not meet her because of her position as Saintess.
Step. Step.
On the way back, my head was filled with thoughts of Seraphina. Had her feelings for me completely disappeared? Perhaps to her, a childhood friend she had only known briefly as a child was nothing compared to a man she had truly fallen for as an adult…
“Don’t doubt her. You haven’t seen anything with your own eyes.”
I spoke to myself as if to comfort my own heart. I must not tarnish my love for her with suspicion. Until the day I could stand before Seraphina in person and hear her true feelings, I would believe in her no matter what.
“Oh! Abel, you’re back. Did something happen on the way?”
Perhaps because I returned later than usual, or maybe something showed on my face—Father asked. I forced my expression to stay calm.
“No. It’s just… the rain showers have been so frequent lately that it was hard to run.”
“Hmm. Is that so? If you’re getting tired, maybe we should ask the merchants instead.”
Father muttered while shifting his gaze. For some reason it bothered me, so I asked again.
“Is there something that needs to be delivered?”
“Ah, yes. The Hero’s party is stuck at a wall inside a dungeon, so they need a large quantity of high-purity magic ore to make mana bombs. Since the Saintess—Seraphina—is from our village, and you’ve been close to her since childhood, I thought maybe you could deliver it.”
A chance to speak with Seraphina in person had suddenly appeared.
“I’ll go! I’ll deliver it, Father!”
I answered before he could say anything else.