Chapter 64
“C-come here! Uncle Ross needs a lecture! Honestly…! How could you, of all people, take us to a place full of such, such lustful rabbits…! As a devout believer in the Sun God, aren’t you, aren’t you ashamed?”
The furious silver-haired girl was relentless.
Aria gathered up her skirt and splashed toward Ross, who had come to fetch water. She was surely just walking normally, but her pale legs were cleaving through the current.
Splash!
Splash!
Splash!
Wherever her feet landed,
the streambed was laid bare.
“!”
‘What incredible leg strength. Walking through water is hard enough, but she’s actually kicking it aside as she goes….’
Lydia was momentarily reminded of the religions in her original world. There, too, a saint had parted the waters to deliver a teaching. Aria looked exactly like that now.
-Ross, sinner of lust, would you believe me if I walked on water?
The Saintess said,
and performed a miracle like a saint.
Not through the power of faith, but through physical force.
Aria was running across the water.
Splash!
Splash!
Splash!
A literal miracle made manifest.
Ross the merchant was horrified by the spectacle. Like an ordinary person confronted by a miracle, he trembled and fell over. A faint scream escaped his lips.
“Eek?!”
The Saintess running across the water and charging at him.
The merchant, terrified at the sight of her.
It would look threatening in a picture alone.
Lydia watched with her arms crossed.
“….”
‘I don’t sense any killing intent from Aria. She doesn’t really mean to punish him; she just wants to blame him for an embarrassing experience? But charging at an ordinary merchant and making pillars of water with every step must be terrifying.’
Aria merely put on an angry expression.
Just as she had at the academy, and sometimes did with Arti…. It was a sulky display, hoping those around her would respond with an “Oh, come on!”
“Uncle Ross—!”
“?!”
But to Ross, a Saintess walking on water was terrifying. She seemed to be charging forth to deliver God’s solemn judgment. He got his trembling legs under him and started to run away.
“Eek?! I-I’m sorry…! Please spare me! I really didn’t mean to take the real Saintess to a place like that! I swear, I didn’t know anything!”
Ross turned around and ran at full speed. He fled in a desperate scramble, even stumbling off balance as he ran.
Tat-tat-tat!
Before long, he disappeared beyond the horizon.
All that remained on the ground was the waterskin he’d dropped.
Aria, who had come right up to him, stood there blankly, having even forgotten her cute embarrassment. She’d only meant to give him a brief lecture, but hadn’t expected him to run away so desperately.
“H-huh…?”
Arti, Mave, and Lydia stared blankly at the pitiful sight. It had happened so quickly that they couldn’t react.
“….”
“….”
“….”
Arti was the first to speak.
He said flatly, his voice dazed,
“He ran away.”
“….”
Aria turned around, her face slightly red. Now that things had turned out this way, she seemed flustered.
“H-he really ran away?”
“….”
“….”
“….”
‘Of course he’d run if you approached him like that….’
All three of them thought the same thing.
Lydia was the one who told her the truth.
“If you approach him that threateningly, of course he’ll run. Judging by the fact that he even dropped the waterskin he brought, he must have been truly frightened. Merchants are terribly attached to their travel gear.”
“I-I didn’t mean to threaten him that much… That’s strange. Uncle Ross used to be so casual with me, even knowing I was the Saintess.”
“….”
Aria seemed to have a slightly different idea of what had caused this. So Lydia corrected her misunderstanding.
It wasn’t because of her status,
but for physical reasons.
“Aria, you may not realize this yourself, but the strength you’ve been showing lately isn’t that of an ordinary girl.”
“?”
Aria tilted her head blankly.
“M-me?”
“I can say this with certainty. The strength you just displayed nearly matches that of swordsmen who’ve spent almost their entire lives training in mana and physical conditioning.”
“….”
Aria opened and closed her mouth.
Then she tentatively offered a rebuttal.
“…I-is it really that much? Isn’t it just that I’m sturdier than others because I’m from the countryside?”
“….”
Ah, so that was it.
‘Does she want to preserve her country-girl persona rather than be seen as a super-strong woman….’
Lydia corrected that cognitive dissonance.
“It’s only because everyone around you is a swordsman who’s reached the Flowing Realm, but even the Flowing Realm is a superhuman level where one person can easily take on more than ten soldiers on a battlefield.”
“What! Aside from being qualified as a Saintess, I’m just an ordinary country girl.”
“….”
Ordinary, ordinary….
“An ordinary girl can’t knock fish unconscious with a shockwave from splashing water. You’d have to throw a boulder the size of a house into the water to do that.”
“….”
Aria looked shocked at the phrase ‘a boulder the size of a house.’ Comparisons that evoke heaviness are harsh for a girl. But Lydia had to say it.
Lydia steadfastly continued.
“In short, ever since you got stronger at the academy, you’ve become a superhuman whose mere display of strength would horrify ordinary people. I don’t know why, though.”
“But all I did was….”
“….”
“All I did was…. H-huh?”
Aria began to accept reality.
She was gradually realizing the scale of the things she’d done.
“….”
“….”
Lifted boulders,
torn monsters apart,
smashed the ground,
and walked on water.
Truly, divine (physical) power.
Instead of healing wounds, she removes their cause.
Before she knew it, she’d left the bounds of an ordinary priestess. She’d grown into a peerless Saintess who didn’t appear in the original story.
Lydia nodded.
‘I still don’t know why. But she learned to use the Holy Sword and grew dramatically stronger right after the Hero’s exam ended. It must have had a huge effect on her growth….’
Now that she’d grown like that,
Aria’s strength was superhuman.
It might be proof that she was growing beyond her original-story counterpart. That left Lydia both bewildered and proud.
“Your legs are as sturdy as a bull’s, and your arms are as fearsome as a hawk’s wings in flight. You truly have the body of a warrior.”
“….”
Aria said hesitantly,
“That… doesn’t sound like a compliment…?”
“It is a compliment. A Saintess who tears monsters apart with her bare hands in dungeons and on the surface—doesn’t that sound reassuring and dependable?”
“….”
Aria narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Lydia, you’re pretending to compliment me while subtly making fun of me, aren’t you?”
“….”
Lydia flinched.
‘She’s more perceptive than I expected.’
Apparently, her growth wasn’t limited to her appearance; she’d matured inwardly, too. So Lydia hurriedly steered the conversation elsewhere.
“Anyway, that isn’t important.”
“Ah! You changed the subject! Lydia, you just changed the subject, didn’t you?!”
“….”
She let that comment pass.
Lydia silently picked up the waterskin Ross had left behind. It had been used for a long time by a wandering merchant and was worn rough in places.
‘He’s like a quartermaster squeezing every last bit of use out of military supplies.’
He was truly a frugal merchant.
“Since we picked up this merchant named Ross’s belongings, shouldn’t we return them to him? In a way, you could call it Aria’s spoils, so you could keep it if you wanted….”
“….”
Lydia handed the waterskin to Aria.
Aria took it, but puffed out her cheeks.
“I don’t want it. A Saintess who threatens someone and steals their waterskin… If the Sun God finds out, I’ll surely be punished.”
Once the conversation came to an end,
Arti and Mave edged closer.
“But when are we going to return this? He’s already disappeared over that hill, and the sun’s setting….”
“Hmm. Once the sun sets, monsters sometimes wander the wilderness. Well, a country bumpkin and I could easily handle monsters appearing on a peaceful plain like this.”
“The one who says that always gets attacked.”
Surprisingly, Mave didn’t get angry. She merely shrugged and calmly retorted.
“Didn’t I include you in that? Swordsmen like us have to protect the rear and get attacked together, even if tentacle monsters show up.”
“Tentacles, all of a sudden?”
“Tentacles are a swordsman’s natural enemy.”
“W-well, that’s true….”
Arti awkwardly scratched his head, remembering the infamous habits of tentacle monsters. Countless female knights had suffered horrific fates at their hands.
“…I’m a man, though?”
“It’s naive to think tentacles won’t get you just because you’re a man. Since ancient times, a knight’s greatest natural enemy has been tentacle monsters. That’s why the Order’s headquarters is stocked with tons of slick ointment.”
“That’s a lie, right?”
“Oh, you caught me. I just made that up.”
“Mave, you’re starting to lose it, too.”
“But the slick ointment is real.”
“….”
Arti tilted his head.
“…What would they even use it for?”
“Who knows. Lots of things.”
“Wow, I really don’t want to join the knights.”
“Hehehe, that’s part of a knight’s romantic ideal. You’re prepared to suffer any fate for those you protect. Even if you need slick ointment….”
“That kind of romance doesn’t appeal to me.”
Mave grinned.
“For Lady Lydia’s sake, I’m ready to throw myself at a tentacle monster in your place any time.”
“I’ll come looking for you in three days.”
“At least you’ll come looking. I’m grateful.”
Lydia considered what part of that conversation to point out. But she dismissed it as the sort of joke kids that age often made once they got close.
“….”
‘Maybe it’s because they’ve spent weeks hanging out together? They seem incredibly close… far more than when we were at the academy.’
She only told the group one thing.
“…There’s no need to chase after the merchant. We’ll probably see him again tomorrow.”
“Lydia?”
“Let’s get the camp ready first. For dinner, we should have the fish Aria caught.”
“Ah! Now that you mention it….”
Mave looked to the side.
Countless dinner ingredients were floating on the water.
“They’ve been floating there for a while, so I didn’t notice. Goodness, just throwing herself in caused a sight like that.”
“Thanks to Aria’s strength, dinner will be quite the feast.”
“Let’s get salt and lemons ready.”
Aria puffed out her cheeks.
“…I’m not that strong. I’m not even heavy.”
“….”
“….”
“….”
Morgan watched the group from afar. Then Morgan turned to look in the direction Ross had run and murmured,
“The Western Caravan….”
Their destination was the Western Caravan.
A wandering caravan that traveled around western Gallia, distributing and selling all kinds of goods. From now on, they were headed where that great procession of merchants would pass.
The merchant named Ross was probably on his way there, too.
Once this was over,
would they head straight to the academy?
“….”
But Morgan didn’t bother saying that.
‘The nobodies can find out later anyway.’
Besides, Lydia too…
‘Why isn’t she talking to me?’
…Just as Morgan thought that,
Lydia walked over to the corner where Morgan was.
“Morgan, let’s prepare dinner together. Honestly, whenever you’re not around, nothing but noisy incidents happen.”
“….”
Morgan snapped the book shut.
“…Hmph.”
Just this once,
I’ll forgive you.