The next day, after waking up and having breakfast, I said, “Hansen, I plan to leave here in around two hours, that work for you?”
“Indeed.” I swear, that’s got to be his favorite word. I feel bad ever using it.
“See you then. If you miss me, you can just head to the church. I should be in the left field.” I say before returning to my room to study.
After almost two hours, I went to the front of the inn. There, I saw Hansen and Melly waiting. “Melly, are you joining us?”
“Yeah, I figured I’d spend the next few days with you.”
“Glad to have you join me. So, Hansen, how’d it go with you?”
Hansen then summoned a dark purple, lion-like creature. The main difference, other than it just looking different in general, was that it didn’t have a mane, but instead had fairly long fur in general. “He agreed.”
“I see. Nice to meet you, I’m Elizabeth. While I’m sure you already know this, do not hurt any of the kids. If you do, I might have to call an inquisitor.”
I guess I underestimated the threat, because the ‘cat’ started shaking before saying. “Don’t worry, I, Zarewthem, promise that no harm shall come to the children.”
I see, he can talk.
I look over at Hansen in confusion. “He’s an intermediate spirit, so he can talk to others, not just his contractor.”
“Cool! Nice to meet you Mr. Zarewa, Zareweth, mm Zarewthem. Mr. Zarewthem. Haa, I hope you have fun.” I smile.
“I am looking forward to it.” Zarewthem says happily.
We then headed over to the church, attracting tons of attention because Zarewthem was actually walking there with us. Though, this time, entering the church doesn’t go as well. There happened to be a few people waiting at the gate, and no priests. I mean, they only gave us weird looks when we walked through the gates, but when we headed left instead of either straight or right, they stopped us.
“Hey! You aren’t allowed over there.” I have to admit, it feels odd to be told that I can’t go somewhere in a church.
“Why not?” I ask. I probably shouldn’t have, but oh well.
“That’s private land owned by the church. Uninvolved people aren’t allowed to enter.”
“But I’m a part of the church.” I can’t help but wonder, are the robes given to me by the church, not churchy enough? I’ve already been questioned a few times here now. Besides, that spoiled guy from the last town tried to threaten me to heal him, which is very odd considering that’s basically the same as threatening the church.
“How are you a part of the church? You don’t look like it.”
“I don’t?” What do I look like then?
“Of course not! You are just wearing some standard healer’s robes. While they were made in reference to the church’s, they are, in fact, very different.” He explained while looking at me like I was an idiot. I have to admit, I definitely felt like one.
“Huh.” is all I can say. Ah, Melly is holding her face in her hand. I know, I know. But In my defense, I basically never saw any general healers. I just thought this was like a novice or wandering priest, or even saintess robes! “Why am I wearing these robes?”
“How am I supposed to know? All I know is that you aren’t affiliated with the church.” He’s very wrong about that, but I can see where he’s coming from.
“Haa, well, what I look like doesn’t matter. I have business with the church kids.”
“I highly doubt that. What reason could you possibly have for seeing them?”
“To play with them.”
“What?”
“I am here to play with the kids.”
“I heard you, but why? And why’d you bring some weird cat thing?”
“I just felt like it.” I shrug. “Besides, why else would I be here?”
“There are several reasons, and all of them are more likely.”
“Maybe, but that’s what we are here for, you can ask any priest and they would confirm that.”
“Well, why don’t we wait and see. One should be here soon.”
I look over at my group to see what they think. Melly and Hansen don’t seem to care, while Zarewthem seems pretty excited, so I guess I’ll wait instead of just showing them my ID.
A few minutes later, A priestess did show up. “You are early, Baron Carlson.”
“I prefer to be early rather than late. By the way, do you happen to know why they are here?” He says, gesturing towards us.
“I must admit that I do not know.” She apologizes.
“Hmm, is that so?” He gives me a look.
“I’m here to play with the kids.”
“I see. Baron Carlson, they are here to play with the church orphans.” She says, sporting a smile as if she accomplished something.
Baron Carlson gave her a confused look. I’m of the same mind as him, what was that? Why does she seem so proud of herself?
“I guess I’ll go then, I don’t want to keep the kids waiting.”
“Have fun then, Saintess.”
Baron Carlson just had a dumbfounded face at the title drop. As he realizes what he did, I’m sure he feels like an idiot. I wave him off with a “It’s fine” as I leave. Now we’re even, as we both ended up feeling stupid in the end.
“That was quite entertaining, Miss Saintess. Today has already been worth it.” Zarewthem praised.
“Glad to hear. Though, I do hope that you continue having fun.”
It didn’t take long for us to arrive at the field. As soon as the kids noticed us, they came rushing over.
Jesica, the unofficial representative, asked. “Are you here to play again, big sis?”
“Yeah, I even brought someone new with me.”
“You must have missed me a lot.” She says smugly.
“Yup, how could I ever live without you.” I say as I give her a hug. Her attempts to hide her smile are cute. “Oh, by the way, are you the oldest?”
“No, Kevin’s about the same age, but he’s a brat. There’s one older kid, but he spends most of his time in the library, studying to become a priest, so I’m usually the one in charge.”
“I see, no wonder you’re so amazing.” I compliment. It also explains why she’s so attached. While I don’t know how the past few years went, right now she is the big sis. It makes sense that she’d want to be spoiled as a little sis again, especially if she was pushed into the position. “Though, a brat calling another brat a brat is quite arrogant.”
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“That’s just how big of a brat he is.”
“I’m not a brat!” Kevin shouts.
“Yeah, you’re right, he is a brat.” I agree. “So, Hansen, how do you want to do this?” I ask before I get too sidetracked.
“Would it be fine to summon some more spirits?”
“Yeah, I remember how they acted when we were waiting for the potions, they should be fine.”
Hansen then started to summon various spirits for the kids to play with. “Remember kids, play nice with the animals, or you won’t be allowed to play with them anymore.” I explained. The kids started cheering in excitement and rushed over. “Hey!” I shouted. “Be patient and get in line!” I commanded. “Those that don’t, don’t get to play!”
The kids then obediently lined up to wait. Nice, there wasn’t even a single troublemaker. Zarewthem, seeing this, then asked. “What should I do?”
“You should probably observe how the other spirits play to get an idea of how you should play. Then you just have to try things out to figure out your style. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask me.” I say, patting his shoulder. “Or you could just ask the kids what they want to do, that might actually work better.”
“Won’t they be shocked?”
“Isn’t that half of the fun?” I say, gesturing to the shocked Jesica. “Right?”
“Haha! I see. You are quite right, Miss Saintess.”
“I recommend trying to keep it a secret while only telling a few at a time, to maximize the amount of reactions, but you should just do whatever you find most entertaining. Let’s go, Jesica.”
“Did they just talk!”
“What do you mean?”
“The cat thing! It talked!”
“What do you mean? Cats can’t talk.” I tease.
“But, but. It just.” She says before noticing my teasing grin. “YOU!” She turns around with a huff. “I’m not talking to you!”
I laugh. “Aw, and here I was, going to play with just you since everyone else is occupied.” I pretend to sigh.
“Really?”
“Of course.”
“Mm, I’ll forgive you then. Aren’t I great? I’m so forgiving.” She brags.
“Very much, that’s a big sis for ya. I’ve got a lot to learn.” I compliment, to which Jesica happily smiles.
As I’m chatting with Jesica, I make sure to check how everyone else is doing. The spirits are mostly running around or cuddling with the kids, acting like fairly intelligent animals. Zarewthem is running around with kids on his back while they shout about being knights. Melly is telling more stories, while Hansen seems content to just sit and watch.
Everything continued peacefully like this until lunch. Lunch was slightly more luxurious than usual, probably because they actually know that I’m here this time.
Mr. Barith then came over for a quick chat before eventually asking. “When are you leaving?”
“Haa, probably either tomorrow or the day after. While it’s possible we might stay longer, It’s unlikely.” I answer.
“I see, well the books are almost ready, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Thank you.” I say as he leaves.
After we finished eating, we once again returned to the field.
“Hey.” I called. “Why don’t we split up into teams and play some games. We can split up the animals, kids, and adults evenly to make things fair.” I suggest.
After getting everyone’s approval, I made sure to split everyone up into mostly even teams.
Melly then said. “Eli, no buffs allowed!”
“Aye!” I agreed. Well, none that she’ll notice anyway.
We then spent the next few hours playing various games like soccer and dodgeball. I would occasionally sneak a small buff on someone to diversify things. I also occasionally openly used some buffs to make some other games more interesting. Not that it was really needed with us playing with various animals and a large talking cat. The reason that we stopped so soon was that everyone was exhausted, including Melly as she decided to not use any mana empowering.
We then said goodbye to the exhausted kids before leaving.
“Everyone have fun?” I asked as we walked.
“Yeah, kids can be surprisingly fun to play with.” Melly said.
“Indeed.” Hansen agreed.
“I haven’t had this much fun in over a century, I’m thankful for your suggestion, Miss Saintess. As such, I shall gladly make a contract with Hansen.” Zarewthem said.
“Oh. That is a nice surprise. Thank you Zarewthem, and thank you Elizabeth.”
“I’m glad to help.” I say proudly.
Once we arrived at the inn, Hansen went upstairs to enact the contract. As it takes several minutes to do, he’d rather do it inside his room. Meanwhile, Melly just rested and as I continued to practice my magic.
At dinner, the Hero said, “I’ve finished with my preparations, so if everyone’s ready, we can leave tomorrow.”
Haa, I guess it’s time to say goodbye to the church. “I just need to pick up some books from the church and say goodbye, but otherwise I’m ready to go.” I responded.
As no one else had any reason to stay, we decided to leave after my business at the church.
The next day, we went to the church early. While the Hero said I could take my time, I don’t want to delay things too much.
When I arrived, I went to the office on the right so I could talk to Mr. Barith. The office was still being cleaned when I entered, so I guess I really was a bit early.
A priest came over and said, “Do you need anything, Saintess?”
“Yeah, I need to talk to the head priest. Would you mind asking him to see me once he’s free?” I ask.
“No problem, I’ll be right back.” He said as he left.
A few minutes later the priest returned with Mr. Barith. “I was told you needed to see me? I presume this means that you are leaving.” he asks, noticing my friends.
“Yeah, so I’m here to say goodbye to everyone.”
“I see, don’t worry, your books will be ready soon.”
“Take your time, we have plenty of time until we leave, I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t being rushed.”
“I see.” He says with a smile. “I’ll tell the kids to gather in the room you told the troll story in. That way, you can properly say goodbye while I gather the books.”
“Thank you.” I say, before heading there with my companions.
After a few minutes, all of the kids had arrived, even Mr future priest. “Is it true that you’re leaving?” I was asked by everyone.
“Yeah, we have to go defeat the demon lord and save the world.” I announced.
“I see.” Jesica responds. “We can’t stop you if that’s what you are doing.” She says as tears build up in her eyes. “But I’m going to miss you.”
“I know, I’m going to miss you too. I promise that I’ll come to visit.” I say as I hold out my pinky.
She quickly links her pinky with mine. “It’s a promise!” She says as she finally can’t stop herself from crying.
“Of course. I don’t break my promises.” I say, pulling her into a hug. Everyone else joins in for a massive group hug. The kids then remembered to give hugs to my friends as well.
“While I don’t know how long I’ll take,” I start. “Or if I’ll even have time before we kill the demon lord, I promise that I’ll see you again.”
“Yeah.” She says, wiping her tears. “I believe you. How could anyone stand being away from me, I’m amazing. I was told so by the Saintess.” She brags. “She’s pretty cool you know, despite being super important, she’s still nice to a bunch of brats. I hope we can be friends.” She says as she shyly looks at me to see my reaction.
“Hmm, she sounds pretty amazing, I’m sure she would love to be your friend.”
“Really! Ahem, I mean, of course!” she says as she gives me another hug. “I’m going to miss you.”
“So will I.” I say as I stroke her hair for a few minutes. We eventually separate as the other kids crowd around for my attention. After playing around with everyone for a bit, Mr. Barith arrived with a stack of books.
“Miss Saintess, your books are ready.”
“How much do I owe you for them?” I ask as I pull out my wallet.
“Don’t worry, Miss Saintess, you do not have to pay for them.”
“Really? Wasn’t it a lot of work to make them?”
“If these books can assist you on your divine mission, then that is all the payment we need. The church exists to serve the Gods, assisting the saintess happens to count as one of our duties.” He explains.
“I see, thank you.” I say as I look towards everyone. “Haa, I guess it’s time for us to leave.”
I put the books into my bag, before heading towards the gate while being followed by all the kids. As I passed through the gates, the kids lined up and started to say their goodbyes. “I’ll make sure to visit again!” I shout as we leave.
I could still see the kids waving until the church was no longer in sight. “Haa.” I sighed. “I’m going to miss them.”
“Yeah, but you’ll see them again in the future.” Melly comforts.
“Yeah. We just need to quickly kill the demon lord so I can see them again!”
“That sounds good to me." The Hero agrees, as everyone sighs.
“You’re really trying to be the fastest hero in history, aren’t you?” I tease.
“Hmm, that sounds pretty good, let’s go with that!" The Hero proclaims, getting worried looks from everyone. “Don’t worry, I still need to actually succeed to be written positively in history instead of a cautionary tale of what not to do.” He assures.
“We will see.” Hansen adds. Indeed, Hansen, Indeed.