Level Up Saintess

Since Kale wasn’t showing any signs of being bothered by this silly situation, I tried to just shut up and sit down to eat. I tried to be the bigger person. I tried to just eat my food at the table next to those people and be good. I really really did. But it was hard, and I’m not perfect.

 

In the end, I decided if Kale wasn’t going to care, then I would care on his behalf.

 

It's stupid, I know. If he didn’t want it, then I shouldn’t have done it, but I just couldn’t stand those priests acting like that just because of Kale’s presence! And maybe… Maybe the fact that Kale and I grew up with tense meals like this in both of our childhoods made me a little overly upset by it. Maybe.

 

I’ve never been the kind of person to start a fight, probably because I never wanted to be like my parents.

I always tried to act like a mediator.

…But maybe, in this new existence of mine… It’s about time I changed.

If anything, I’ve learned that if I’m going to protect someone, I need to be willing to step forward and put my foot down sometimes.

If something happened to Kale because I was too busy letting things pass all the time, then…

 

Yeah, I can’t let myself keep being a doormat, if only for Kale’s sake.

 

“Is something wrong? Did either of you have anything to say?”

 

I’m sure they could tell from the aggressive tone in my voice that I wasn’t screwing around on this. The balding priest’s smile faltered, and he looked my way apologetically. And the quiet priest… Well, his jaw was still firmly clenched, but at least he’d put down his spoon, which meant he’d heard my words well enough. His eyes still wouldn’t turn my way, though. Perhaps he wouldn’t look towards me because Kale was sitting next to me at the table; From the angles we were at, he’d have no way to look at me without getting a glance of Kale.

 

No, these reactions certainly weren’t enough.

 

“I said, did either of you have anything to say?”

 

The balding priest just nervously shook his head, looking like he desperately wanted to avoid any confrontation. Fine. I didn’t expect much to come from him anyways. Really, if he hadn’t looked so obviously uncomfortable, then I wouldn’t have thrown him into this in the first place. At the very least he looked a bit sorry, so I’ll be lenient with him.

 

“No? Alright. And you?”

 

My eyes turned to the quiet priest, who still refused to look my way. His clenched jaw was trembling a bit now, but he still refused to open it to say anything to me. That’s fine, I’m sure I wouldn’t have liked whatever it was he would have said anyways.

 

“Really. I was already disappointed earlier seeing the ugly sides of you and Meria, but this dinner is only proving to be just as disappointing. The two of you could have at least had the common decency to not make your dislike of everything so obvious. Or, if you were going to make it so obvious, then you might as well have come up to Kale and I and said what was bothering you to our faces! This… This is just childish. I hope you both choose to be better at breakfast tomorrow.”

 

And with my piece said, I got Kale up and left the dining room.

 

~~~

 

It felt great to get that load off of my chest, but I couldn’t shake the remaining frustration and disappointment from my mind. I should have known dinner would have gone like this, but some silly little hopeful part of me still wanted to believe that priests of all people would have accepted the Goddess’s mandates more easily than this. I guess it’s just not that easy to accept sudden change. I probably shouldn't have expected so much from then so soon.

 

When I finally finished dragging Kale back to his room and closed the door, I let out one last big sigh and gave him an apologetic look.

 

“Aaah, I’m sorry Kale. You didn’t get to finish your food, did you?”

 

“It’s fine, Saintess... I’m used to eating less food.”

 

That’s not fine at all though! Really, what’s with these birds always acting like all this abuse they’ve been given was perfectly normal?!

 

“Ugh. Yeah, well don’t be, because I’m gonna make sure you eat the proper amount of food you need to from now on!”

 

I marched off in a huff, moving from the doorway where we’d been talking, and sitting down on the bed with my arms crossed. I feel bad for talking to him in such a harsh tone, but re-hearing about the injustices that Kale had to face is only making my mood all the worse! No, he doesn’t deserve to be snapped at just because my mood sucks... I should try being a little bit gentler with him, especially since I basically just made him have dinner with a bunch of people who clearly didn’t like his kind. Really, what a huge oversight on my part! I feel so stupid for thinking that was a good idea to put him through...

 

The room was quiet for a moment as Kale stayed in his spot by the door just looking at me, but eventually he opened his mouth hesitantly.

 

“Saintess… May I ask you a question?”

 

“What? Of course you can Kale, you can ask me anything, anytime!”

 

Kale stared at me with an apprehensive look for a while, as if debating with himself, and then finally let his question fly.

 

“Why did you get so mad at them during dinner?”

 

“Oh, that?”

 

I really didn’t need something to remind me about that incident we just escaped from and getting me all worked up again, but if it was for Kale then maybe I could talk about it… even if I felt like a whining child while doing it.

 

“Well I didn’t like how they were acting around you! They aren’t usually like that, you know? I mean, I could understand them acting a little awkwardly, but that was way more than you could explain away with just ‘awkwardness’! I’m sure they must have been feeling weird or upset about having the guy they used to beat up and treat like a slave eat dinner with them, and that just really pissed me off! I mean, I got the Goddess to set you free, so where do they get off still treating you differently and not showing a speck of remorse, huh?!”

 

Kale simply cocked his head in that confused animal way of his again, like he was trying to make sense of my words.

 

“...But only one of the priests there had ever hurt me before, so why were you mad at both of them?”

 

That… was a good question. One that made me feel like I was really being silly.

 

“Even if he’d never abused you, I still don’t like how weird he was acting around you when he should have been treating you like everyone else and not being so uncomfortable with you there! It just didn’t sit right with me!”

 

Kale tilted his head the other way, still seeming a bit lost.

 

“So you were mad because they weren’t following the Goddess’s will?”

 

Oh man this bird is seriously not helping me here with these questions. I can totally feel my blood pressure rising right now because of this.

 

“What? No! I was mad because they were treating you like shit!”

 

Kale’s eyes widened for a moment and scanned me over.

 

“...You were mad because they were treating me rudely?”

 

Jeez, sometimes this idiot can be such a bird brain, really!

 

“You dummy! It’s obviously because I care about you, Kale! Why would I just sit there and watch them being rude to someone I cared about?!”

 

Kale’s eyes stayed wide, taking in every inch of my face for a moment longer, and then they suddenly squinted a bit, as if he were extremely happy. Even his usually inexpressive mouth bent up its corners a teeny bit.

 

“Oh, I see…”

 

I could feel my anger immediately dissipating when that cute little look of his entered my eyes. Wow. Just wow... This must be what people mean when they say something is so cute that it’s healing. I finally understand those people who religiously looked at pet videos online when they made it back home from work.

 

It kind of makes me want to feed him something for some reason.

…What is it that birds like again?

 

“...Do you like seeds, maybe?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

Kale cocked his head again, which made me realize that I’d spoken out loud by accident.

 

“Oh, no, ignore that! Um… I meant to ask you to tell me about yourself! Like the things you like and stuff!”

 

Smooth save there, Arissa…

Jeez, I’m so awful at talking to people sometimes!