[Saintess, Anastasia Lacroix - 15]
[Saintess, Anastasia Lacroix - 15]
"Saintess-nim, is Master's stamina infinite, by any chance?"
"What?"
A week had passed since Eris began her training.
As we ate lunch together—which could be called the only time Eris actually got to rest—Eris asked me.
"W-well, that guy... He seriously spends every waking moment on training, except for when he's sleeping, eating, or using the bathroom! And most of the time, Master is right there with me... On top of that, after I go to sleep, he spends the rest of the night thinking about my training for the next day, and then he wakes up earlier than me to rouse me!"
That's right.
So, my own training had been put on hold for about a month.
In the past, a month could have been fatal, but it seemed I was of the opinion that even if I took a month off now, it would only delay things by a month, and nothing catastrophic would happen.
As Ed predicted, I had no intention of causing any trouble at this point, and for the past month, I had been working hard solely on my Saintess duties to improve my image and reputation.
As always, I spent my time healing people, hearing confessions, having tea time with the people in the Cathedral, and chatting about trivial things with the Pope.
All of those things would influence my reputation as the Saintess, and they would gradually mold me into an even more perfect Saintess.
A mask that would never be removed.
Even until the moment I die, I might not understand them and might consider them fools, but they would remember me as the beautiful, kind, and perfect Saintess-nim.
"So?"
"What do you mean, 'so'? Does that guy do it too? Does he have any break time?"
"He'll manage on his own. He doesn't really look like he's overdoing it."
Ed might look like a model student who just reads books, but in reality, he was someone who had been rolling around on the battlefield since childhood.
He trained every single day, and honestly speaking, there was a high chance that even if Eris and I combined our stamina, we wouldn't even be able to hold a candle to him.
Besides, since he didn't look like he was overexerting himself, I had decided to just leave him be.
It seemed that just training Eris wasn't enough to accumulate any fatigue for him.
If he were truly in a state of overexertion, I would have forced him to rest, but since he didn't look that way, leaving him alone was the best option.
Because if he went wild without even properly grasping his own physical condition, that would be troublesome in its own right.
Well, even if he really trained that hard, it wouldn't matter since I could just heal him if there was a problem.
"Saintess-nim, you don't seem very kind to Master."
"Does it look that way? Then that's a relief."
"Is it a relief?"
"Yes, there's nothing more relieving than that."
In other words, that meant I 'looked kind' to other people.
I could tell that I was doing my job properly.
Unfortunately, even if I thought to myself, 'This should be enough,' I couldn't get a definitive confirmation, so I had no choice but to pay a little attention to the evaluations of others.
The nuns' conversations.
The priests' stories.
I needed to listen to their voices and hear about my current reputation.
If improvement was needed, I would incorporate those improvements into my acting; if not, I would maintain the status quo; and if it was excessive, I would just dial it back a bit.
In any case, humans are creatures that evaluate others.
There was no way people wouldn't talk about the changed me, and by listening to those stories, I had to confirm my direction once more.
Naturally, I couldn't just listen to the people in the Cathedral, so I had to go outside occasionally to hear external evaluations and obtain a lot of information in various ways.
Now, I will save and redeem you, so feel free to be grateful to me.
That was exactly the extent of my mindset, but since I was saving and redeeming them, wasn't this a good thing?
My inner thoughts were completely different, and honestly, I didn't care whether you lived or died, but since I was saving you, this was good.
It wasn't hypocrisy either, since I wasn't exactly doing good to hide evil.
It was just to keep one man tied to my side.
And so that man could look at me with pride.
I was just putting in a little effort.
"So, how is the training going? I'm not watching you the whole time, and I'm busy with various Saintess duties. Because of that, there are many times I can't see you, but is there any progress?"
"I've become able to draw out my mana."
"That's a relief."
"They said I need to at least know how to handle basic attributes to have a fighting chance against a Holy Knight. However, since my basic physical ability is higher than a Holy Knight's, they said that even in my current state, if I'm lucky, I can win."
After finishing the meal, I listened to Eris's story while putting a sugar cube into my black tea.
"That's not bad for just one week. But 'if I'm lucky, I can win' is no different from saying that in most cases, you'll lose. So, you can't just slack off, okay?"
"Ah, I know."
Eris also answered while putting bread into her mouth.
She didn't seem to have basic manners, but that couldn't be helped since she lived in the slums.
Ed said it was a place where you had to live with a prickly attitude to avoid being looked down upon, so this part was something I could correct after she officially became my subordinate.
It didn't matter if she used informal speech with enemies, but she needed to know how to use honorifics to some extent with people who could be considered her direct superiors. Since most of the people she would meet were high-ranking individuals.
Well, I would make sure Eris didn't have to talk to those people as much as possible, but if she did have to, she needed to know how to show minimum courtesy.
Once Eris became my person, everything that happened because of Eris's actions would become my responsibility and affect my reputation.
It was a somewhat troublesome issue, but it was more efficient to have her on my side, so the risks that existed were unavoidable.
"Hey, Saintess-nim."
"What?"
"Why me, of all people?"
"Hmm?"
"No, I know you don't want to borrow the power of high-ranking people, but it doesn't have to be me. Even if not from the slums, yeah. It would be safer to keep someone like an adventurer, or someone with a proper status, by your side."
"I guess the answer I gave before didn't convince you?"
"Yeah, honestly, in your position, Saintess-nim, you can already meet more amazing people. It's possible to bring them in, and as Master said, this is a position that anyone would want to reach out for."
A secretly visible, shattered self-esteem.
Living in the slums had inevitably given her the habit of lowering her own value, and she seemed anxious about a life that suddenly gave her value.
Now, what should I do?
Encouraging her was one way, and no matter what I chose, I honestly didn't know if I could give an answer that Eris would find convincing.
I remembered Ed's words that sometimes honesty, not acting, works better, and that honesty is considered a kind of virtue.
Is it something I should just try regardless?
I looked at Eris and said.
"A hunch."
"A hunch?"
"Yes, intuition... or a premonition, call it whatever you like. The moment I first saw you on the street, I thought you would be useful. And you were actually useful; that's the reason. To put it more simply, it might be fine to say that I liked you."
"..."
"You, too, are looking for value in yourself, aren't you? 'I don't want to end up in those slums, I want to live a better life...' 'I definitely have a power different from other slum dwellers, I can climb to a higher place,' you say."
Eris gasped.
Eris wasn't just a slum dweller; she had some power, and she was the type who didn't just get taken advantage of in those slums, but carved out her own life and could do things with that power in her own way.
In other words, in that mindset, the thought 'I am different from those slum dwellers' was bound to arise, whether she liked it or not.
And in fact, she did possess a different power.
"I will raise you up. I discovered a raw gemstone that no one else recognized, and I will polish it. So, climb as much as you want. I will give you a better life, so you just need to prove that my eyes were not wrong."
"Your own eyes... You mean you wanted to test if your intuition was right?"
"In a sense, that might be the answer closest to the truth."
"Saintess-nim, you don't seem like a good person."
"What are you talking about?"
I smiled.
"I am a good person. Do you know how many people I saved today, and how many people's sins I forgave?"
"..."
"Eris."
I said, looking at Eris's expression, which seemed unconvinced.
"Between a person who kicks you in the stomach, steals your food, and gives it to their own family, and a person who tries to use you but gives you a job where you can live in luxury for the rest of your life..."
Eris's eyes widened.
I smiled while putting a spoon into the black tea with the sugar cube and stirring it.
"Which one would you rather be with?"
Appearances can just be decorated.
Whether I intended to use someone or not in my heart was not an important issue.
How I treated the person I was trying to use, that was what mattered.
Well, since there were cases where this method could be applied negatively, I had to choose who to be honest with.
The reason I was honest with Eris was...
Because I judged that it would be better to be honest with this girl.
"..."
Eris was silent for a moment, then scratched her head vigorously and let out a deep sigh.
"I got the feeling that the person who will be my master might be an incredibly troublesome person."
"You only just realized that? The salary and authority I'll give you also include the price for being with 'the troublesome me'."
"Don't you think it's strange to say that yourself?"
I smiled while drinking my black tea.
"Maybe it would be better for me to just remain a troublesome person."
"What do you mean?"
"It's nothing. It's almost time for training."
Hearing that Eris had talent, I felt confident in my own power once again, and I could understand once more why Ed was training me like that.
I...
It might be a happy ending in many ways if I just remain a moderately 'troublesome person' to the people around me.