[Saintess, Anastasia Lacroix - 05]
[Saintess, Anastasia Lacroix - 05]
"Huuuh."
Light magic spells were drifting around, passing through objects and many other things.
I felt dizzy at the sight that greeted me the moment I opened the door.
It had only been a few days, yet the Saintess-nim was already perfectly handling the characteristics of light magic.
Of course, the objects here aren't imbued with mana, so the difficulty level is on the lower side.
But seeing her reading a book nonchalantly while handling not just one, but multiple light magic spells simultaneously, felt like common sense was being shattered.
She clearly had plenty of room to grow into a literal human weapon; even without proper training, she could probably just wipe out most enemies, and with training, entering the realm of the strongest was entirely possible.
How terrifying.
Every time I see a glimpse of the Saintess-nim's talent, my blood runs cold, and I can't help but imagine what would happen if it went berserk.
Should I say a feeling close to a sense of duty is sprouting? If I can't properly socialize this girl, she'll end up becoming the worst villain, after all.
Still, lately, she's been following along quite well.
She's become somewhat proactive in her lessons, and it seems like she's trying to understand things somehow.
No, to be precise, it seemed like she was trying to 'memorize' them.
It seemed she was learning through study—that in this situation, it's better to do this, and in that situation, it's better to do that.
She would watch various people through the window, and especially often, she would bring journals containing real stories and ask why this person reacted this way in this situation.
If the emotional descriptions were deep and rich, she wouldn't bother asking, but there were quite a lot of cases where they weren't written down properly.
"Oh, you're here?"
"Starting today, Saintess-nim, you must begin your duties as a Saintess. The Pope-nim was truly delighted."
"Yeah, he came after you left and talked like he was about to cry. Since he doesn't have any children, I wonder if he's seeing me as a substitute for one?"
"Please phrase that a bit more nicely."
"It's just you and me. I won't say that in front of the Pope. I can just say something like, 'Thank you for treating me like a daughter,' or 'I follow the Pope-nim like a parent,' right? Don't worry, I'll do that. Besides, there's no benefit to becoming enemies with the Pope."
"It is a joyous thing that emotion has entered your rational judgment, resulting in a reasonable decision. Be careful not to get caught. There are truly many people who, if they find out it's not sincere, will feel betrayed or think it's dirty."
"How annoying."
"Most humans are annoying."
Of course, the Pope-nim wouldn't think that far, but I felt he would be sad.
Anyway, there were truly many cases where people heard someone's inner thoughts and became disappointed.
Even if they wanted to hear it themselves, they would get hurt, and even if it wasn't sincere, there were truly many cases where they would dislike it despite the fact that they had received help.
It meant that if they realized the Saintess-nim wasn't truly a Saintess-like being, there would be quite a few people who would get angry, saying she "lacks the qualifications of a Saintess."
She's still young, and with the Pope-nim around, it's fine, but once she becomes an adult and the Pope-nim can no longer protect her, there was a high possibility that if she showed any opening, she would be stabbed right then and there, leading to a situation that would test the Saintess-nim's love for humanity.
It was better to avoid that, and even if she couldn't avoid it, it was better to be prepared to respond well.
"They say hypocrisy is also a virtue, but it's annoying."
"People often mistake it, but hypocrisy is not a virtue."
"Hm? Is that so?"
"Shall I give you an example? What people commonly call hypocrisy is calling someone who does volunteer work because they like 'themselves helping someone' a hypocrite. They aren't volunteering with a sincere heart; they aren't in it because they want to help someone, but because they are intoxicated by the image of themselves helping someone."
"That's true......."
"But in this case, they are just a normal good person. There are really very few people who help solely out of 100% good will, or who have nothing but good will in their heads. If you call everything else hypocrisy, then people who can be called 'good' in this world will go extinct."
"......."
Even a person who sacrifices their truly noble life could die thinking "I don't want to die," or even thinking completely ugly thoughts in their final moment.
But no matter what they thought right before dying, their actions saved people, and they died.
Then that action remains a noble action.
Likewise, even if there was some reason for helping people, if they helped, it was a good deed, and they were a good person.
"Then what is hypocrisy? You said that wasn't hypocrisy?"
"I see. For example, let's say you run an orphanage. You take in children with nowhere to go, feed them, and give them a place to sleep. It looks like a good deed itself, right?"
"That's right."
"But what if, behind the scenes, you were conducting human experiments on the children? What if the orphanage was merely a smokescreen to keep the experiments from being discovered? That is truly evil, enough to make one sick, right?"
"It doesn't make me sick, but well....... It is evil. But that's not even 'good.' It's just evil."
"Yes, but the outside is packaged as good. That is what we call hypocrisy. I gave a somewhat extreme example, but there are truly many people who cannot distinguish this hypocrisy. They just criticize it as hypocrisy simply because the inner motive was a little different and it wasn't 100% true good will."
And they say they prefer someone who is honestly evil over a hypocrite.
Bullshit.
Isn't it obvious that someone who does good deeds, regardless of what's in their heart, is better?
If they want to criticize even that by calling it hypocrisy, they should take a look at themselves.
Whim.
Sincerity.
Or ulterior motives.
Anything is fine.
Doing it just on a whim is fine, doing it with sincerity is fine, and doing it with ulterior motives because you want to buy someone's favor is also fine.
Regardless of the reason, one who performs good deeds is noble, and one who does good things can be called a good person.
"More importantly, Saintess-nim."
"Hm?"
"Turn off the magic. It's blinding."
"Is it?"
Ta-ak, as the Saintess-nim snapped her fingers, the light magic spells in the air vanished in an instant.
"Actually, Ed, I'm trying to develop an interesting magic. You said before that magic is based to some extent on imagination, right?"
"Yes, that is correct."
Magic is, literally, a matter of one's own imagination; aptitude and such also conform to that issue.
People who develop magic or use unique abilities mostly possessed creativity to match. Let's say, for example, there's a magic that blocks attacks with an arm instead of a shield.
Then, the criticism often arises: "Isn't it more efficient to just block with a shield?"
But if it's not like that, and one actually develops the ability to block with an arm, and if their aptitude for that magic is high, it becomes possible to block more efficiently than with a shield.
Since aptitude can never be ignored, it was good to test various types of magic.
There are exceptions, but in most cases, when magic is developed, the developed magic and the person who developed it fit well together.
Especially if one intends to use it themselves, it mostly fits them well.
Even my Shadow Magic, there was no one else who could properly use it, and even if they could, there was no one as efficient as me.
"So, what kind of magic are you trying to develop?"
"You see, I find moving annoying."
"I suppose so."
The Saintess-nim said, dropping a sugar cube into her black tea.
I wondered why the Saintess-nim, who doesn't like moving and mostly eats food that makes it easy to gain weight, doesn't gain even a little bit of weight.
Is this also an effect of the Awakening of a Saintess?
They say there are people with constitutions that don't gain weight no matter what they eat, and people who live healthily no matter what they do; perhaps the Saintess-nim was one of those types.
"So, I'm trying to create a magic where I can defeat and subdue enemies just by moving my hands without having to move myself. It's still in the conceptual stage, but let me test it on you later, Ed."
"Are you trying to kill me?"
"You can't die. If I did this to anyone else, my image as a Saintess might crack, and more importantly, they might actually die. I'm only asking you because I trust you, so shouldn't you gladly accept?"
I wonder why I sense an inexplicable, queen-like dignity from this young girl.
For better or worse, it seemed she was simply born with the disposition to stand above others and give orders. With the right person to properly advise her by her side, she could become a truly exceptional leader.
"So, you said you came to put me to work?"
"Yes. From now on, you will be in charge of healing the people and hearing their repentance. In other words, you will be meeting directly with the citizens."
Honestly, I couldn't help but wonder if it was a bit too soon, but gaining popular support was the best way to restore her image. Even if it was a double-edged sword, the power of public popularity wasn't something to be ignored.
"So I just heal their sicknesses and wounds, and tell the ones confessing their sins to screw off to the courthouse?"
"The people coming will mostly be those who have already served their legal sentences, or those whose misdeeds aren't legally punishable. You just need to offer them some appropriately uplifting religious words and tell them they are forgiven."
"What a pain."
I completely agreed with her, but being forgiven by the Saintess was a very important matter to the people.
Naturally, we wouldn't let just anyone in; we would carefully screen the candidates, selecting only those who had already faced 'legal punishment' or whose transgressions didn't warrant the law's involvement. After all, actual criminals using religion as a shield to seek cheap forgiveness wouldn't be a good look for us.
"Alright."
For someone complaining about what a pain it was, the Saintess looked rather amused.
The trust that had crumbled away to almost nothing.
It seemed she was genuinely enjoying the process of rebuilding and piecing that trust back together.
"Let's go, Ed."
Come to think of it, as someone who was merely in charge of her education, I didn't necessarily need to tag along. But for some reason, I had the feeling that if I refused to go, she might do something impulsive.
Besides, there was always the chance something could go wrong on site.
So, I decided to go with her for now.