As I neared my church, I couldn't help but sigh. Despite only having been gone for a relatively short time, I can’t help but miss my church.

As I got near the gate, I was called out. “Elizabeth?” I turned to see a younger priestess, Nala, walking over. “It is! Hello, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Mmm, yeah, it has.” I say before giving her a hug. She was one of the main people that raised the kids since I was thirteen.

“So, what brings you here? Last I heard, you were a good ways north.” She asks.

“We are, but since we are going to be camping out in the wilderness for a while, I came here to resupply. Also, I had a few questions that I could only really ask here.” I responded.

“Ah, is there anything bothering you?” She asked in worry.

“Not really, it’s just some mild curiosity I had.” I shrug.

“I see.” She sighs. “That’s good to know, is there anything I could help with?”

“Maybe, I only really need to ask a few of the higher ups some things.” I answer.

“I’ll see what I can do. Other than that, what are your plans?”

“I’m probably going to be pretty free for the next few days, so unless something comes up, I won’t have any plans.”

“In that case.” She looks around nervously. “Could you possibly give some of the healers some advice?”

“If I’m free, sure. I don’t mind teaching the kids for a bit.” I nod.

“Em, well, you see.” She seems pretty embarrassed now. What is going on? I wonder as I stare at her. Noticing my stare, she sighs. “Well, I meant for the adults.” She finally says as she looks away.

“Um, I’m probably not good enough to really teach them anything.” I say in confusion.

“Well, you are the saintess, so we thought you might have learned something new.”

“I mean, it’s only been like a month since I left. While I did figure out an interesting way to buff people, my healing hasn’t gotten much better.” I shrugged.

“I see, nothing we can really do about that then. Shall we go and meet the higher ups then?”

“Sure, the sooner, the better.” I say as we head to the office.

Once there, Nala suggests. “Why don’t you wait in the meeting room? I’ll gather whoever’s free to answer your questions.”

“Sounds good. Thank you, Nala.” I say with a smile.

“You’re welcome, Elizabeth.” She says as we separate.

The meeting room, unlike a reception room, is sparsely decorated and really only contains a massive oval table surrounded by chairs. It is purely utilitarian, and only used by members of the northern church for their discussions.

I picked a chair at random and sat down. Hmm, I guess I’ll practice some magic while I wait. Being a supporter is pretty convenient during times like this.

A short while later, the leader of the healers entered. “Hello.” I politely greeted.

“Yes, hello. The others will be here soon.” He responds.

“Thank you.” I guess there are others arriving.

Over the next few minutes, pretty much every higher up, along with a few others, had arrived. The Bishop then said. “Everyone has gathered, Saintess, feel free to ask your questions.”

“I see.” Now that I think about it, I don’t actually know the old man’s name. Or really anyone else’s here, really. Huh. “So, first question, do you know when I was called to the temple? When everyone first found out I was the saintess?”

“Yes.” He says in confusion.

“No, I mean the date itself. the Hero said that the day the Gods chose me might coincide with the day that I was born.” I say. “Even if it isn’t, though, it could be considered the day that I was reborn, or something.” I shrugged.

“I see. That works.” He says. I highly doubt he had expected that. Time to confuse him even more!

“Second.” Everyone gulps. “I was hoping I could get an ID that marks me as a priestess or something.”

“Uhh, may I ask why?”

“I feel that, sometimes, being the saintess is a bit overkill.” One of the priests choked at that. “I mean, everyone becomes super respectful and stuff. Sometimes I just want to buy something and leave, without making a fuss.”

“Ah, that does make sense. I’ll see what I can do.” the Bishop nods.

I really should have prepared my questions instead of practicing magic. “Hmm, I guess next is, was there a particular reason why I was given healer’s robes.” I was hoping to ask this later, but my mind is blank.

“Well, we felt that being inconspicuous would be beneficial towards your early travels.” He answers a bit nervously. Hmm. Interrresting.

“Also, while I know that only some info is spread about the saintesses, why was so little spread about me?” I say, almost sounding accusatory.

People got split into two groups at my question, those that were confused, and those that were nervous. It seems that some of them knew about this. “What do you mean by that?” The Bishop asks, appearing surprisingly calm now.

“Well, the only information about me that was spread was my name, my appearance, and that I was personally chosen by the Gods to support the Hero on his journey to slay the demon lord. That’s less than what even I know about the previous Saint. It is quite literally the minimum amount of information the church physically could release, as any less would be a direct insult to the Gods!” I’m actually getting annoyed at this. Huh, I really didn’t think I would care, with this just being an idle question.

“Is that so?” The Bishop tries to brush off the question.

“Well, if you won’t tell me, I’ll just go to the Cardinal.” I say, shocking everyone. “Or,” I continue, getting an interesting idea. “I could go to the Pope. I might even be able to call a meeting for the cardinals. That could be interesting.” Everyone, even those that probably weren’t involved, started freaking out at that.

“You… can do that!” The Bishop realizes. Ah, so I can do that. It would probably piss off several people, but I actually could. I wouldn’t, but they don’t know that.

“So.” I say, now with an arrogant grin. “Why was so little information spread?”

“Well.” The Bishop hesitated.

“You might as well just say it. The longer you take, the worse it will be.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Haa, fine. Several people are against you being the saintess, so they hid as much information about you as possible in complaint.”

“I see, that sounds quite stupid and pointless.” I say, causing some people to flinch. “I mean, it’s the sort of thing children would do. It doesn’t even do anything but occasionally waste a few minutes of my time.”

“Ehem. Yes, you are right.” He agrees, after getting over his shock. “But they couldn’t actually go against you, as you were both blessed given a mission by the Gods. Anything bigger would be in direct opposition to the church itself!” He passionately explains. “Everyone was just annoyed how such a valuable opportunity was given to someone that didn’t seem to appreciate it.”

I see, well, if I had actually spent any time really thinking about it, I probably could have figured this out on my own. I also figured out why I was so annoyed, I had thought they were the ones responsible. Since that’s not the case, I no longer really care anymore.

I shrug. “I see. I guess I don’t need to care then.”

“What?” I’ve confused everyone with that.

“I mean, I didn’t really care that much in the first place. I was just worried that it was caused by you. But since it wasn’t, I don’t have any reason to care.”

“...Really?”

“Yeah. I already knew that people would be annoyed with me. The only things I was actually worried about were the people I’m close to being against me. Or that they would interfere with my mission. I just don’t care about anything else.”

“Ah, we really underestimated you, Saintess.” The Bishop compliments. “So, do you have any plans to deal with their hate?”

“No. I’ll deal with it after we defeat the demon lord. It’s not like there’s much I can even do right now anyway, so I just won’t worry about it for now.”

“That's… a practical way to deal with your situation.”

“It is!” The head of history shouts. “Every saintess that accomplished a divine mission received massive support afterwards. So, as long as she succeeds, she doesn’t need to worry about any opposition, as she would have too much support to make going against her realistic!”

“That’s right!” “I didn’t think of that!” “That’s genius!” There were various responses to that realization, as everyone cheered.

I see, that does mostly solve everything. I guess I really don’t have to worry about anything for now, I just need to make sure I succeed. Which, I mean, failure would likely mean death, so it’s not like I planned on failing anyway. And, well, either way I won’t have to worry about people disliking me.

“So, Saintess, do you have any other questions?” The Bishop asked after everyone had calmed down.

“Hmm, not that I can think of.” I say. “Wait, is there a traditional outfit for the saintess?”

“Yes, there is.” Ooh, I wonder what it is? “Sadly you can’t wear it.”

“What?” I spurt out.

“You see, you currently aren’t powerful enough to wear the robes or halo yet.”

What? Well, whatever. “Halo! I get a halo!” I shout in excitement

“Well, part of one. It’s a halo with the front missing that you wear around your head, similar to a laurel wreath.” He describes.

“What does it do?’ I can’t help but ask.

“I do not know.” Well, that was helpful. “All I know is that it somehow enhances the saintess’ powers. I apologize for not knowing more, but only those that have worn it truly know what it does.”

“No problem, it's something to look forward to, then.” I sigh. “Well, that’s good enough for now. I’ll let you know if I have any other questions. Thank you for your time.”

“It’s no problem, feel free to see me should you ever need anything.”

As everyone got up to leave, I suddenly remembered. “Ah, do you guys usually eat leita leaves?”

“Yeah? Why?”

“I was just wondering what those leaves were.” I said with a shrug.

“Ah, fair enough.”

With that, everyone actually left and went back to work. Nala then came over and asked. “What are your plans now?”

“Hmm, I’m going to report what I know I’ll need to the warehouse, while asking them to figure out what I could be missing. Afterwards, I’m probably going to say hi to the kids. Otherwise, I don’t have any plans.”

“I see. I’ll go check on the kids then, I hope to see you again soon.” She smiles as she leaves. Well, to the warehouse I go!

______

Haa, I ended up spending several hours in the warehouse, discussing what I do and do not need. I do have way too many books, but I actually need most of them. Sadly you can usually only use one spacial bag at a time.

Actually, how did the Hero use a second? It usually requires a decent amount of training, power, and mana control to use a second bag. Well, the Hero is the Hero, so I guess that makes sense.

Well, in the end, we managed to pack my bag with everything I needed. I’m glad I didn’t have to do this on my own, as I definitely wouldn’t have been able to pack everything properly. Oh yeah, I also grabbed some priestess robes.

After thanking everyone, I went to the field to see the kids. Heh, I can truly call them kids now, without it also applying to me. That… doesn’t feel as grand as I thought it would. I just feel kinda… lonely. Haa, well, time to deal with my negative emotions by replacing them with positive ones!

I rushed over to the field, and shouted as soon as I saw everyone. “Hello, kids.” I say with an arrogant smile.

“Oh, I was wondering who it was, but it’s just Elizabeth.” One of the kids said.

“Missed you too, Brent.”

“So, you get kicked out for spending too much time reading and have to return here?” He teased.

“Nah, I’m too important to remove, especially after I saved everyone’s lives after the Hero blew us up with a bomb.”

“Uh, what?” He blanked.

“Yeah, we were running away from a blast nest, when something called a blast soldier caught up with us. We needed to deal with it quickly, or we would have been surrounded and killed."

“WHAT!”

“So, the Hero, with barely any warning, blew up the bug with a bomb, severely injuring me, Gregory, and himself, while minorly injuring the rest. And he didn’t even kill the bug in the process.” I sighed in disappointment.

“Hold on!”

“So I had to take charge while rapidly healing everyone, while we ran from the injured bug, just for another one to catch up.”

“By the Gods, Elizabeth, how are you still alive?!”

“I’m just that amazing!” I say smugly.

“Are, are you okay?” He asks seriously.

“Well, mostly. This trip has been tough, extremely so. And we’ve barely just started.” I say as I sit down with a sigh.

“Well, don’t worry, I’ll get some tight lipped kids for you to vent to. I’ll even make sure they don’t even tease you that much.” He says with a smirk.

“Thanks.” I thanked. You could feel the relief in my voice.

“Man, you must’ve had it hard if you are acting like that. Are you okay?”

“Mostly. I just ended up relaxing too much, so my contained worries were brought to the surface.”

“I see, well, we’ll help you however we can, we’re the closest thing to family we’re gonna get after all. You can count on us.” He smiled.

“Thanks, that means a lot. More than I thought it would.”

He pats me on the shoulder. “Head over, you know where to go.”

“Right now? Are you sure?”

“Better to get this over with. Besides, we can use you all we want once you owe us.” He says with a smirk.

“A game’s coming up?”

“Once I change the time, it will be tomorrow.”

“Using the Saintess to cheat is overkill.” I mocked.

“Not when everyone’s openly cheating. After you left, they thought that openly using their higher number of supports would bring them victory. Sadly, they were right. But, you would change that. I don’t even know how you got so good, but honestly, I wasn’t that surprised when you became the saintess. So, let's prove to the east who are the real best soccer players!”

“By cheating.”

“By cheating!”

“Sounds like a fair trade. If we have some time to practice, I might even let you use the buffs that I enhanced.” I definitely shouldn’t use my linked buffs though, as that would just be mean.

“Now that I’ve got to try! I’ll start negotiating so that we can. Let’s win this game!”

“No. Let’s destroy them.”

“I am really looking forward to your buffs now!”

After my completely legit deal, I headed to the ‘crying’ room. There, I ended up venting to a few kids for an hour or two. Haa, I can feel the tension, that I didn’t even realize I had, disappear. I feel nice and refreshed now.

The rest of the day I just chatted with everyone, before eventually heading to bed. I could have used a nicer bed in a guest room, but my old bed was free, so I used that instead. Ah, it’s nice to be back, even if I was only staying for a while.