Saint

The Kingdom of Narve, where I live, is one of the continent’s two leading powers.

It is said that the kingdom began with the Great Saint, and that her descendants founded the royal family.

According to legend, the Great Saint sealed away the Demon King, who had plunged the world into terror, then married the hero who fought alongside her to defeat him. Their child went on to rule the kingdom, generation after generation.

…It’s a complete lie, though.

A Saint’s power is healing.

A Saint’s power was said to heal any wound in an instant, restore missing limbs, and even cure illnesses.

But over the course of a hundred years, then two hundred, the Saints’ power grew weaker and weaker.

Originally, there were many Saints throughout the continent.

So the royal family preserved the power by repeatedly marrying women who possessed it strongly. The nobility did the same. They had discovered that a Saint’s power was inherited by the next generation more readily than magical power.

Because Saint power had guided the kingdom’s founding and was vital to maintaining peace, it was treasured, and passing it on to the next generation became the highest priority.

There were practical reasons, too.

Whether fighting monsters or an enemy nation,

the course of a battle could change dramatically depending on whether one had someone capable of using healing magic.

Only Saints could use this precious healing magic.

And yet, the number of Saints kept dwindling.

Although children capable of using offensive magic were rare, they were still born in steady numbers. Saints capable of using healing magic, by contrast, had become exceedingly rare.

For this reason, Saints came under the kingdom’s protection. They were gathered at the Church, taught about their power, and trained in how to use it.

Noble suitors flooded them with marriage proposals, and engagements were arranged one after another while they were still young. Even women born commoners could join the nobility, as long as they possessed a Saint’s power.

Because there were so few of them, no Saints worked as adventurers anymore; all belonged to the kingdom. In peacetime, they made healing potions, and when the Knights deployed, they went along—protected and waited on by the Knights.

Wherever they went, people revered them, calling out, “Saint-sama, Saint-sama,” and treating them with the utmost deference.

As a result, the Saints came to think of themselves as chosen ones, growing conceited and arrogant.