Chapter 11
Translator: True Detective
[The Saintess Awakens - 01]
'I'm glad she seems to be following along better than I thought.'
I let out a small sigh and wrote today's observation log for the Saintess.
First of all, her overall lack of patience, combined with her innate nature and this environment, was an unavoidable aspect. Dozing off while listening to a lesson was cute in comparison; if her stress exceeded a certain level, she had a tendency to attack as if exploding.
In response to that, I was scolding her somehow and guiding her in an educational direction.
I couldn't know exactly how she was before I arrived, but her habit of trying to improve something through violence seemed to have started being corrected to some extent.
'It's a method that wouldn't have worked if we had met any later.'
This was also because I was somewhat strong against and well-versed in dealing with types like the Saintess who attack relying solely on talent. Dealing with people who don't make an effort and attack with their innate talent wasn't difficult because they practically attack as if following a set rule, no joke.
Of course, since this was strictly speaking about what is normally the case, the Saintess exceeded that normal range.
A genius among geniuses.
Because of that, no matter how I defended or dodged, the burden piled up and it was common for me to get wounded. If this place hadn't been the Cathedral, I might not have used such a dangerous method. Because it was no exaggeration to say that if I got hit wrong by mistake and suffered a severe injury, it would be game over right then and there.
At least here, there were many people who could heal me immediately even if I suffered a severe injury.
I could also use healing magic itself, but I couldn't heal myself.
Surprisingly, with healing magic, learning to heal others only requires knowing the sensation of that magic, but healing oneself after that is extremely difficult.
Naturally, one carries tools corresponding to that, but a person who can heal themselves without tools was someone who could make a living off of that alone.
I viewed this as being similar to 'how it's difficult to see your own face without a mirror.'
'Anyway, there's no doubt there are still risky aspects. Even if it has decreased, she still tries to solve things with violence at the drop of a hat. Since she's done that until now, that habit won't fall away easily.'
Since she still had several years left until she came of age, it seemed better to take my time with that part.
What was ambiguous was that depending on the case, there were situations where using violence resolved things better. It was a bit ambiguous whether the Saintess would feel confused there and be able to understand in which situations using violence could resolve the situation better.
Once she starts agonizing over that, you could view it positively as having progressed quite a bit at that point, but conversely, to progress beyond that requires quite complex thought experiments.
Honestly, in what situation would violence be helpful?
Even philosophers in history or great people would all have different answers to that question.
Because in most cases, you don't know unless you're in that situation.
I roughly finished organizing and came out to the hallway.
"Good morning, Pope."
"Is it going well?"
The Pope smiled benevolently and spoke to me.
"It is difficult to say yet. It has only been two months, after all. If there is a good point, it would be that the number of violent acts has decreased a bit recently."
"I see."
"But it's hard to say for sure yet. I don't know about now, but if the day comes when the Saintess has to fight personally, and that experience soon leads to victory and resolves a problem, this issue might recur again. Because even the Saintess herself probably doesn't know where her thoughts will bounce off to."
What I learned about the Saintess during those two months was that the Saintess doesn't know much about herself either.
She has no patience.
She doesn't understand emotions.
Simply put, she gets angry herself and doesn't know why she got angry. Should I say it seems she feels the emotion itself, but the part that recognizes that emotion is broken? Because of that, it was like she couldn't properly recognize her own emotions.
She feels emotions as emotions, but can't control them as control is needed, so it was truly an absolute nuisance.
"I heard there were quite a few minor injuries."
"Yes, but still, there was nothing that could be called a fatal wound."
"That is because you coped well; it is definitely not because that child controlled her power."
"That is true. If there is a saving grace, I think it is the fact that we met when she was young. If just a few years had passed, I wouldn't have even been able to respond and would have been unilaterally defeated by the Saintess, and if I conducted lessons like this, it is highly likely my life would have already ended."
"How terrifying."
"Yes, it is terrifying."
It's not a joke; I would have been crushed by that firepower before I could even respond.
Her speed of absorbing things was also incredibly fast, so now if the Saintess came at me with a genuinely large attack like when we first met instead of just minor attacks, I would truly have to risk my life. Because it was impossible to see the flow of mana with my eyes and easily slash it like before.
If that happened, there was another countermeasure, but naturally I would have to risk my life, and if I failed, I would just die, no joke.
Is it a relief that I wrote a will since I was on the battlefield?
"However, I have expectations of you."
"……." "You have been with that child for several months." "It has been about two months." "You might not realize how amazing that is, but you are already closer to that child than I am, who has been by her side for years. Did you use some kind of magic?" "I just conversed with her normally." "That is what makes it extraordinary. Because there was no one who could do things 'normally' with that child."
One could view that as the Cathedral having a problem as well, but I thought saying that out loud wasn't quite right.
Because it wasn't their fault. Saying there is a problem but it isn't their fault might be a contradiction, but it was actually true. The Saintess was special, and if one couldn't accept that specialness, let alone education, even proper communication was impossible.
The Saintess herself recognizes that she has a problem and is innately different from other people. But the reason she still didn't fix it probably includes a truly childish mindset of 'So what?'. However, the way I see it, I think it's because no one accepted the fact that she was originally like that. Of course, as I said, that is not a fault. The Cathedral, whether in a good sense or a bad sense, is a place to repent for sins and seek forgiveness.
The attitude of the Saintess, who doesn't consider a sin a sin and doesn't seek forgiveness, was truly no exaggeration to call heresy. That's why she wasn't understood by anyone.
Therefore, my words telling her she could stay exactly as she was, but just pretend to be a good person, seemed to have been quite to her liking. No, I don't know if she liked it, but at the very least, there was no doubt it had seeped into her heart.
"I see hope."
"Please do not get your hopes up. Not yet." "If even you fail, I don't think anyone will succeed. If I go to the Goddess's side, there is no one to protect that child." "Pope."
Something very. Hmm. Judging from this atmosphere, it seemed she was going to ask me a very troublesome favor. From the look in the Pope's eyes as she watched me, it felt as though I could already roughly see the contents of that favor. I sighed inwardly and spoke.
"Why do you trust me so much? It was the same with the Saintess's education. At that time, we must have been strangers who had just met……. What is the reason you entrusted the important task of the Saintess's education to me?"
Even though I was in charge of education on the front lines, is she entrusting the Saintess's education to me just because of that?
She even let slide the gamble that, if things went wrong, I might just leave the Saintess alone until she came of age.
I didn't think it was simply a mindset of 'nothing to lose'.
"It is because, from such a ruined family, you made an effort and earned a rightful evaluation. That is what I bet on."
"……A rightful evaluation, you say?"
"A bad reputation, once stuck, does not fall off easily and clings to you forever. There, through effort, you left behind honor on the battlefield and returned a rightful evaluation to the man named Adrian Valtus. You seem to still not have self-awareness of how amazing that is." "……." "I leave that child in your care."
That smile, which was gentle yet somehow strong, was not an order and was definitely closer to a favor, but for some reason, I could not refuse it.
"Please do not have expectations."
"You are not giving up on a child that even I had half-given up on. ……That answer is enough. I will be going now. Let me know anytime if you need anything."
The Pope walked away like that, and I sighed for a moment and walked to where the Saintess was.
For two months, it's not like there haven't been results. But I couldn't know when things would suddenly collapse. Even she herself doesn't know her own heart, so is there any way I would know? I was just doing the best I could.
Knock knock, I knocked as always.
"Saintess, I am coming in."
"Okay."
As I opened the door like that, something flew quickly toward my shoulder, and I caught it.
"Please do not throw stones at people, where did you pick this up?"
"How did you catch it?"
My question was completely and utterly ignored.
I'm so aggrieved I can't stand it.
"Haa……." At least it was a stone and not something bladed.
The fact that she aimed for my shoulder, not my head. Should I be thankful for those points and consider myself lucky? No, is this right.
'If I truly let my guard down, I feel like I'm going to get a severe injury one of these days.'
"When I did it with magic, you detected the mana, so I tried it with a stone this time, but it still didn't work. Should I aim from a blind spot next time."
"Please don't."
If she keeps failing and just causes a massive explosion out of stress one day, I might actually die this time, so I sincerely wish she would stop.