I don’t think it’s such an odd thing if I, the visiting Saintess, go in and fix the root of the vilge’s problems, right? There are plenty of spots in the Saintess book that I read where instead of just going around healing like I tend to do, some of the other Saintesses took a more preventative approach and removed any threats that they found like this. Those were all much more battle oriented Saintesses to be fair, so it’s not like I’m really trying to mimic them or anything, but I think the sentiment is still coming from the same pce.

  Honestly, the only reason that I even suggested it is because I feel like I need to get more exp now, in this convenient pce, before we leave and I have a rough time finding more of it.

  …I guess that wouldn’t make a lot of sense to someone who doesn’t know all that, though.

  “What? Your Holiness, there’s no way you’re actually suggesting that, is there?!”

  Yeah, seems like the dy padin doesn’t agree. Why am I even surprised?

  “Well, since it’s making things bad for the people of this vilge, you know, hurting them and ruining their livelihoods, I thought-”

  “There’s no way that we, as your escorts, could possibly agree to that! Putting yourself into danger over something that’s barely even a threat, and what’s more with insufficient protection, is just-! No, I’m sorry, Your Holiness, but it cannot happen!”

  …So it’s barely a threat, but it’s also too dangerous…? How is that supposed to make sense? The slimes there may shoot out rocks and metal and stuff, but I have a pretty good shield from my [Benediction], so I really don’t think it would be much of a problem. Besides, they know that I fought a bunch of dregs on my own, and there’s also two padins here who helped fight back a monster wave, and yet they still think that it’s too dangerous? Really, I can’t help but think that she’s just overreacting here!

  “But-”

  “I’m sorry, Your Holiness, but I have to agree with Rayanne here. We can’t let anything befall you while you’re under our watch, after all.”

  Oh, so it’s not that they’re worried about my safety, but more that they’re worried about getting in trouble if anything happened, huh? …Of course that would be the case. If they’re gonna be so against it should I give up, then? If they’re so united about this then I doubt they’ll listen to anything I say, will they? Still, like I said before, if I don’t do this now, then knowing how upset the padins seemed that we stopped here, they probably aren’t going to be willing to stop again anytime soon within the next few days. I’m not necessarily all that behind on my leveling progress since I’m about halfway to the next one already, but I only have a little under 3 days left to try and get the rest of it, and it’s pretty damn unlikely that I’ll get lucky enough to find some other way to level while I’m stuck inside the carriage, right? It seems a bit too risky to just give up on the easy exp in front of me now, at least to me.

  Still, how am I going to convince them of that?

  “...But what about this vilge? They need help against the slimes! Shouldn’t we be helping them since we can?”

  The guy padin just stayed quiet and gave me a smile. Well, maybe it was technically a smile, and sure, his face stayed gentle like it usually always did, but it was still obvious that he was giving me the kind of look that you would show a petunt child who didn’t understand anything. And the dy padin, well…

  Obviously she wasn’t willing to be so patient with me.

  “We already told you no Your Holiness, and we meant it! You’ve already given your benevolence to these vilgers by healing them all, so there’s no need to go even further for them, Saintess or not! Dealing with the slimes is the duty of the Lord of this nd, even if he’s seemingly neglected it. These vilgers shouldn’t be your concern!”

  …That doesn’t make sense to me at all, though. Yeah, I get that this whole Goddess worshipping religion doesn’t really have too big of a concept of ‘charity’ to it, but wasn’t the Saintess supposed to be super mega charitable to everyone? Wasn’t it my role in the first pce to do this kind of stuff, even if they didn’t know that I was doing it with ulterior motives?

  It’s times like this that I wish I was a better negotiator.

  “I don’t think that’s the case though? If the Lord here failed these people, then isn’t it my duty as the Saintess to-”

  “I’m sorry, Your Holiness, but nothing that you say is going to change our minds on this matter. Now, you must be tired from taking care of all of those vilgers, so please return to the Chief’s house and get some rest. We’ll remain here and keep watch.”

  Her tone had a very ‘final’ sound to it, so I guess that means I’ve failed… Was there anything that I could have said to her to change her mind on all this? I know she obviously doesn’t like me, but if I couldn’t even get the guy padin on my side, then I guess there was no way that I was gonna succeed…

  Ugh, but I really need that experience!

  ~~~

  Kale sat on the ground next to where my nest of a ‘bed’ was set up as I thrashed around anxiously in it. It’s nice that he came with me to comfort me while I was so obviously upset, but I’m surprised that those padins let him come in here alone with me in the first pce. I guess they don’t see anything wrong with it since Kale and I have always been together? What, do they just see him as my accessory or something? Or maybe they just think it’s already too te to try and ‘protect’ me from him. Either way, I’m not a fan of whatever it is that they’re thinking, even if it’s helpful to me.

  “Really, having those two around feels more annoying than helpful sometimes…”

  Kale reached down and patted my shoulder reassuringly, the look in his eyes conveying how much he understood my sentiment, although a moment ter they changed to a bit more serious of an expression.

  “Should we leave them behind like you said before, Saintess?”

  Oh, did he remember those grumbles of mine from earlier? It’s been over half a day since then; I didn’t think he’d seriously keep that in his mind. Then again, I suppose the previous Kale also remembered every single detail of stuff too, didn’t he?

  “Mmm… As much as I want to say yes, I don’t think that we can. We can’t show up to the main church without them.”

  “...And you still want to go to the main church, even now?”

  “Huh? Yeah, of course I do. It’s the whole point of this journey, after all.”

  “...But Saintess…”

  Kale pulled his hand away from me, looking extra contemptive. It was hard to tell on his usually expressionless face, but from my many decades of ‘Kale reading’, it seemed to me like he was particurly confused by something.

  “...If you go there, won’t it be even worse than it is right now? From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like you would like being restrained in such a way. Even I…”

  Hmm? Why’d he stop? ‘Even I’ what, Kale?

  Does he not want to keep going? Wow, he even looked away from me. Guess he must really not want to say the next bit to me. Oh well, maybe I’ll find out another time.

  “Well, I guess you’re not wrong… They’re definitely going to try and keep a tight hold on me, and it’s definitely going to suck.”

  If it’s anything like the controlling way they kept a leash on Inaiah like I saw in her memories, then they’re barely going to let me do anything I want that doesn’t align in some way with their goals. Still, it’s not like they didn’t steadily bring her people to heal either, so in a way it was kind of a symbiotic retionship. Besides, sticking to just going back and forth from one town to the next will eventually be my downfall, considering how limited of a popuce they have, and how much experience I’m going to need to keep living in the future.

  “But I can’t just pass up going to the capital either, can I? Think of all the people there that I could heal and help; There’s no way that I can just pass up such a good pce. And if I show up there and just start doing my thing without those two padins to vouch for me, then with how things usually go, I doubt the main church will just accept that I’m really a Saintess.”

  From what I’ve read in the library, the heresy investigations in this world are absolutely no joke. Falsely ciming to be a Saintess, even if I actually am the Saintess, could end up very very dangerous. At the very least I’d be locked up for a while during their investigation, which would be especially disastrous for my whole ‘leveling up’ problem.

  I’d be willing to accept a little bit of confinement in the church if it was in exchange for a safer and easier ride.

  Kale didn’t seem to fully understand my reasoning at first, but eventually it looked like he just let it go with a resigned sigh.

  “...If that’s the case then Saintess, I won’t question you further on the issue. Still, I don’t understand why you let your escorts control you like this when you obviously don’t like it very much.”

  “Eh, ah, well… I’m not so good at talking with those kinds of people, you know?”

  Even in my previous life, I tried my best to steer clear of people like that. Usually Kale would be the one to step up and talk to them for me, or if they were getting angry at me over Kale in particur like his admirers would sometimes, then I’d just do my best to tune them out unless they got physical with me. But with the dy padin I don’t really have those options it seems…

  “Yes, Dame Rayanne can be a bit difficult at times… But even if she has the role of protecting you, in the end she is only just your escort. Both of them are below you, which means they have no right to speak to you in such ways, or decide what you do. After all, the only thing in the world that is higher than a Saintess are the gods.”

  Oh… I guess Kale’s right, isn’t he? I keep forgetting it because I get overwhelmed by everyone all the time, but it’s true that there’s nobody around who can really tell me what to do besides the Goddess, is there? Not even that spooky shadowy thing in the Goddess’s realm can force me to do anything, can it…?

  If the padins aren’t going to listen to me, then… Do I just have to make them listen to me?