Chapter 9
For three days after the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, I stayed cooped up in my room.
The truth is, I couldn't process all the information I'd been hit with, and just sat around in a daze, completely drained.
But, unexpectedly, it proved useful for avoiding my brother.
Being a genius, Ardio was desperate to learn about my contract with the Black Dragon as my familiar.
If I talked with my brother as he cornered me logically, point by point, I could only see one future: me confessing everything.
Thinking, "This won't do," I shut myself in my room, and would you believe it?
The exalted knight known as the "Ice Knight" would never barge into a lady's room without reason.
Even if that lady was his little sister.
Hahaha! How wonderful! Just as expected of the exalted "Ice Knight"!!
Then this morning, Father, my brothers, and my sister all said they were returning to the Knights, so I finally slipped out of my room to see them off. Now I'm behind the mansion.
After staying cooped up for three days, my head had cleared.
I'd remembered the main parts of my memories, too.
First of all, about three hundred years have passed since the time I lived as the Great Saint.
And in this life, too, I was born in the same country as in my previous life.
In my previous life, I became a legend, and it's said that my blood was passed down to the current royal family, but that's a lie. I died without ever marrying, let alone falling in love. Ah, remembering that dreary previous life is getting me down...
In my previous life, everyone had magic power, and people were divided into those who could use offensive magic and those who could use healing magic. The ratio was one to nine, with healing magic users overwhelmingly more common.
However, perhaps because its formula was completely different from that of offensive magic, healing magic required a tremendous amount of mana. Someone with average reserves of mana would run out after using healing magic just once.
That's why, in my previous life, everyone formed contracts with spirits.
By forming a contract, people could use the magical energy in the atmosphere as an energy source, allowing them to cast healing magic with nine parts ambient magical energy to one part their own mana.
This next part is just my guess, but I think contracts with spirits were lost for some reason over the past three hundred years.
People who had contracts with spirits had a contract mark engraved on the back of their hand, but I've never heard of any Saint in this life having one.
...Which begs the question: where does a Saint's power come from nowadays?
My answer is, "They're descendants of people who contracted with spirits."
Spirits are incredibly caring.
They're willing to grant the power of a contract even to their contractors' children, grandchildren, and other descendants down the bloodline.
However, that power grows weaker over time, so in my previous life, we didn't rely on power passed down through our bloodlines. Instead, everyone formed contracts directly with spirits.
I don't know exactly when it happened, but if, say, contracts with spirits were lost a hundred years ago, then the power of the contracts made back then would have been passed down to a great-grandchild or great-great-grandchild by now.
In other words, they were relying on incredibly weak power from contracts made three or four generations ago.
Unless their ancestors had formed contracts with exceptionally powerful spirits to begin with, that power would have run out before then and not been passed down.
"That would explain why there are so few Saints in this life..."
In other words, in this life, women who managed to inherit the power of a spirit contract and happened to have the aptitude for healing magic were recognized as "Saints."
And since almost no one in this life can use healing magic, I guess even the tiniest bit of power is welcome. Yeah, it makes sense that Saints are revered.
...
...Me.
If they find out I'm a "Saint," the monster that killed me in my previous life will come looking for me... won't it?
That was what it declared as I was dying in my previous life.
........................
...Yeah, I'm definitely going to die.
My swordsmanship isn't good enough to drive off the Demon King's right-hand man by myself.
My three older brothers in my previous life were despicably vile, but they were absurdly strong.
Saints specialize in healing, so they work best when paired with someone who can take on the offensive role.
If I charged in alone, I'd definitely just die for nothing.
"...All right, I've decided! I'll seal away my 'Saint' powers until I have about three swordsmen on the level of my brothers from my previous life as companions!!"
I looked up at the sky, feeling refreshed.
If the power of a Saint can be useful, then I want to help.
"So..."
I drew my sword and lowered my stance.
I closed my eyes and checked the mana flowing through my body.
This, this is what I came to the back of the mansion to check in the first place.
"Body Enhancement! Double my attack power! Double my speed!"
I swung my sword horizontally, cleanly cutting through a tree about ten years old.
"Wow, amazing!"
I cheered at a movement I never could have managed before.
...All right, all right, this is going well.
At this rate, maybe I can use quite a few of the Saint powers I had in my previous life.
They won't be as powerful, and I won't be able to use them as often, though.
If I use only my own mana to cast healing magic, the monster that killed me in my previous life shouldn't be able to find me.
In this life, it seems they call people who can use healing magic "Saints," but in my previous life, they called people who had contracted with spirits "Saints." The monsters search for Saints by sensing the remnants of spirits.
If I don't use the spirits' power, I won't leave behind any spirit remnants, and I won't disturb the magical energy in the air. There's no way they'd notice me.
"...Now I understand why I've been so insanely fixated on becoming a knight for as long as I can remember. Deep down, I remembered that becoming a Saint would get me killed, so I was desperately trying to become anything but one."
The Knights' entrance exam is three months away.
I'll test my Saint powers one by one and figure out what I can do.