Level Up Saintess

I finally saw what monstrosity Chella made my hair into when I went to the bathroom in the morning. Like I said, I don’t care what it looked like while we were in the room; After all, who’s going to show up and look at me there but Chella, you know? But… Yeah, it’s probably for the best that I put it back down again. No one else needs to witness this. There’s no way anyone would ever take me seriously if they saw it.

 

Oh, but of course I had a bunch of random weird kinks in my hair all through the morning prayer because of it. The ‘+30xp!’ pop-up for my daily quest didn’t taste quite as sweet with all the silly glances I was receiving. It was no surprise when the balding priest asked me what happened to my hair during breakfast. At least it made an excellent icebreaker to ask the lady priest for another hair tie.

 

“Oh, that old thing? I’m surprised that Chella even kept it.”

 

Chella grumbled and looked away in embarrassment. I’m sure all of us present thought that she was exceptionally cute, and not just me. The lady priest even openly giggled at her before she continued talking to me.

 

“Sure, I’d be fine with making you another hair tie. We have loads of different feathers to choose from, and it wouldn’t take up too much of my time.”

 

Her time, huh? You know, I know what the balding priest does all day, and I kind of know what Chella gets up to, but I never really cared to figure out what the other two usually do. I know all the priests have to rotate their available healing time in the chapel, but besides that…

 

I shyly looked at the lady priest and the quiet priest and squeaked out my question.

 

“Um… Could I ask what it is you priests normally do?”

 

Crazily enough, the quiet priest who I never really heard much from was the one who spoke up first. Maybe I’ll have to rethink his name.

 

“Haha, well, you know what Heinrik gets up to every day, but for the most part Meria and I take turns between tending to the kitchen, taking care of the garden, and managing the birds. And healing, of course, but I bet you already knew that.”

 

Wow, I don’t remember his voice being that deep. I guess I did name him quiet priest for some valid reason or another, but that deepness really makes an impact. Right, what did he say? I figured one of the two of them had to be in charge of the kitchen, but I guess it makes sense that they switch off between them-

 

Wait, what? We had birds in the church this whole time, and they never mentioned it to me?

 

“Oh wow, I didn’t know we had birds! Are they kept in the church?”

 

This time the lady priest answered me. I guess her name is Meria? Lady priest is much more memorable, but since she’s going to be making my hair tie, I should probably put in the effort to learn her name.

 

“We pretty much keep them out of sight in the back so that we don’t rile anyone up... They give us feathers for our pillows and quills, and they help with tending the garden at times, so I suppose they have plenty of uses.”

 

I nodded along with her words. Yes yes, I can see why keeping some birds would be a good idea. It’s surprising that they help with the garden, but, like, maybe they set them loose to run around eating bugs and stuff sometimes? I could see that being quite useful, as well as a free meal for the birds. I don’t get why they have to keep them hidden, though. Maybe there’s some kind of superstition around them? Or maybe it could be that they’re seen as really holy or something, and that’s why the church is the one keeping them? Maybe people freak out and try to steal them or something because they’re related to the Goddess. I should really study up on this place’s theology some more, being a member of the church and all.

 

Oh and side note, but I also didn’t know we had a garden. I guess it makes sense that we do, since sometimes our soup has veggies in it. I figured they were just going out to the market and buying some, but I suppose our church doesn’t really have that kind of income. But then, where are we getting all the bread? We definitely don’t have anywhere to mill it down, right?

 

Okay, well while I was busy with all my random thoughts and speculations, I guess the balding priest decided to step in and say something too.

 

“You know, you’ve been practicing pretty well with writing, so why don’t you also pick out your very own feather for a quill tomorrow? We have a couple of differently colored birds to choose from, so you can really make it how you like.”

 

He definitely has a point. It’d be best to do both of those things at the same time and kill 2 birds with 1 stone, wouldn't it. Ohhh wait, maybe that’s a bad analogy since we’re about to go see birds. How about, um… We’ll say we’re just getting it all done in one trip! Less of an analogy there, but what am I gonna do? And maybe if I like the birds enough, I might go hang out there in my free time sometimes too, instead of just sticking to the library all the time. I could even see if my magical Saintess healing works on animals if any of them ever ends up getting hurt.

 

Yes, it was all the perfect plan, except-

 

“Oh, sorry, no… I’m not going to be able to do it tomorrow. Today’s also a little bit busy, so I’m not really certain I’ll have the time… But would the day after be okay?”

 

I guess the sheepish face I made was funny; Not just Meria, all 3 of the priests gave me a little laugh. In the end I was just told to have Chella bring me to them whenever I have the time, which made her puff up her cheeks and pout over being treated like she was my errand girl or something. That also prompted a nice laugh from the table, even from me this time.

 

I’m glad these people have been so nice and accepting of me. I’m sure it could have easily been a ‘we hate you because you’re young’ or ‘we have to be uptight because you’re the Saintess’ kind of situation. The fact that they’ve been so kind to me and haven’t changed how they’ve acted even after learning that I’m most likely the Saintess must mean that they’re quite good people, right? I hope it’s not just because they’re trying to suck up to me or something, although I guess I couldn’t really blame them if that were the case. Maybe that’s why I like Chella so much.

 

~~~

 

So what were my plans for today you ask? The Head Priest said he was requesting my help for a few things today before we had our morning prayer together, so apparently I would be running a few errands for him.

First I helped with the morning mass. There was a nice little appetizer of people who needed some healing that had come from the town next door. I got at least 16 [Heal]s, 9 [Greater Heal]s, and 12 [Cure]s out of the ragged and dirty looking bunch, and I even snuck in 35 [Cleanse]s to solve the whole ‘dirty’ issue too, although I couldn’t do anything for their clothes. It didn’t take very long, and it gave me a tasty 405 exp overall, putting me at 455/900 exp, which means I’m already a little over halfway to reaching level 10!

 

I had to hold down my excitement over the first good bit of exp that I’d gotten in days, though; The people I’d just treated looked really somber and like they’d just lost everything they ever had. At first I just assumed that they were all from the slums or something and that the Head Priest had managed to convince some of them to come see me, but taking a better look at their wounds while I healed them, as well as some of the debuffs that they had… Unless the slums had some particularly vicious rats wiggling around in them, then there must have been quite a big beast or two that came along and attacked these people. And after I learned that they all came from the next village over, well… It’s obvious what happened.

 

And following that obviousness, the fact that the Head Priest led me over to the adventurer’s guild next was completely unsurprising. Doesn't mean that I was ready for it, though.

 

“The Guild Master has sent us a request for your help in saving the town those refugees came from. Keep in mind you have every right to refuse this, but as you are a Saintess, I doubt that you will. But if you get there and it seems like it’s too dangerous, then know that you can call things off and return to town at any moment, alright?”

 

Part of me was uneasy that I was being called over to deal with something so scary this early into my Saintess-ing career. I’d only just fought with near harmless lizards only yesterday, and now it was all on me to kill off something that decimated an entire town?! The progression on that is completely awful! Turns out being a Saintess is actually really hard I guess…

 

The Guild Master came out to greet me, which I won’t lie, only made me more tense. I get that this was a request to the Saintess herself or whatever, and that it was the proper thing to do for him to show up, but it only felt like it was increasing the pressure on me. I was already in charge of rescuing an entire destroyed village from a literal murderous monster; I didn’t need a whole pomp and circumstance thing along with it.

 

“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Saintess.”

 

The Guild Master bowed his head politely in greeting towards me, and then swept an arm to the side to motion towards the people behind him. They all looked tough, like they knew what they were doing, and exuded strength. Seemed to me they had a ranger, a bruiser, a mage and a warrior? That’s a pretty classic team set up they have going on there.

 

“I gathered the best team that I could find in this brief amount of time. They call themselves ‘The Dawn’s Shadow’, and are a group of all B Ranked adventurers. I’m sure there will be plenty of time for individual introductions during your journey to Midliff town. Hopefully they will be a good enough shield for you while on this mission.”

 

Eh, I don’t like him calling them a ‘shield’, but I do really appreciate that I’m not just going to be sent in alone, even if their team name seems a little dweeby. Thanks for keeping my lack of experience in mind, Mr Guild Master. I gave him a quiet thanks along with a head bow, and then moved closer to the team. Even the women were taller than me, so I kind of felt like I was being towered over by giants. Still, I guess I’d rather have larger teammates protecting me than smaller ones, if I had to choose.

 

“...I’ll be in your care, thank you.”

 

Yeah, I would have loved to say more, but the atmosphere was so damn tense that I really wasn’t sure that I could manage to squeak out anything better. Best to just stick with something safe like that and not screw anything up.

 

I hope the trip to town is gonna be quick, because I really can't take this for much longer.