Oh by the way, I’d completely forgotten to do the part of leveling up that I enjoyed the most until last night; I got another new skill to choose from! And what’s more, it wasn’t some questionable one that I was iffy on getting right now, but it was actually good! Level 15 really was a good one to reach, for sure.

 

{[Healing Augment: Ranged]: Allows for the Saintess’s healing and curing to be used at a range, for double the cost.}

 

Of course I jumped on getting it. I mean, having to touch someone to heal them would be completely inconvenient in any kind of combat situation for me. The only way it wouldn’t be is if I was wearing a full suit of armor and was right at the front line with the other people fighting, which is an absolute no for me and my apparently inept at fighting self. Besides, the possibility that something could attack me in a way that made me incapable of speaking my skills would be way higher close range, so I wasn’t very willing to do that to myself.

 

Really, I don’t remember sucking at fighting so much in my past life. I’m sure there were a few scuffles I got into once or twice before, if my memory’s right. I remember stopping someone from stealing my bag once on my way to work, and there were a few times where some of Kale’s admirers decided to jump me because I was too close with him… Although I suppose neither of those examples had people using literal magic and skills in them, so it’s probably not a very good comparison for here.

 

Oh well, at least this new body of mine has some good reflexes when I’m paying attention.

Maybe with enough training I could get better.

 

Still though, definitely not the type for melee, so ranged it’s gonna have to be!

 

What’s interesting about this skill I just got is that it’s not actually a skill, you know? Like I don’t have to say ‘Augment: Ranged [Heal]!’ or anything silly like I’m some kind of superhero or anime character or whatever when I use it. In fact, I don’t have to say anything for it at all. It’s just something that I can just use, like my ability to use unfocused heals on someone; I simply intend for it, and it happens. So then how come the unfocused healing thing doesn’t have a skill associated with it, but this one does? Is it because I could do one of them from level one, but this one isn’t possible until I took it at level 15? What, is it like a little badge that gives me permission to do it or something? But then why does it have to be listed as a ‘skill’ then? I suppose I did consciously have to put a point into it to unlock it, whereas the unfocused thing was there from the beginning… Yeah I guess I get it, but still. So weird.

 

Anyways, now that Kale and I were both up, I had to show him how the daily morning routine went. And of course after all the freshening up came the daily morning prayer, along with the daily morning bump of exp. Apparently since Kale isn’t a priest he wasn’t allowed to do the prayer along with us, or at least not out loud, but he was allowed to sit on one of the cushions in the chapel and pray along at his own discretion, so that’s nice. From what Chella angrily whispered at me, this whole morning prayer deal is supposed to be exclusively for priests, and the Bishop was really just being lenient with me on this one. Crazy, I would have never even guessed. Honestly, from what I’ve heard from the sermons, this prayer isn’t too far off of those, so I really don’t understand the difference.

 

Hopefully that doesn’t dock me on Saintessing points.

Really not sure where I was supposed to learn about that.

Maybe it’s just one of those common sense things that I’m lacking or whatever.

 

I don’t know if it’s important to note this, but Kale actually did close his eyes and act like he was going along with the prayer, instead of just chilling there like he was completely allowed to do. I guess it makes sense for him to be religious, since I guess everyone in this world is expected to be, but I kinda thought his belief would only extend to his Bird God thing? Although considering that he has the wherewithal to still think of me as the Goddess’s Saintess, and say that his God is actually more of a demi-god or divine beast, it probably means that the Goddess is still built into their belief system somewhere. Maybe that reinforces my whole ‘the Bird God being a demi-god means it’s the Goddess’s child somehow’ thoughts, but still not enough information to be sure. I’ll have to pester Kale for more hints at that later it seems.

 

Really, this whole deciphering a new religion thing has been really tough on me. I’m not even the type to be naturally religious, so a lot of this stuff just goes right over my head. I mean, the only real exposure to religious things that I’ve seen is the overly zealous religious people you hear about on tv, and my grandparents only my mother’s side dropping by on some holidays when I was young to take me to church, and even THAT was only like 4 times. So yeah, this kind of ‘worshiping’ type deal… Eh, who knows, maybe this adjustment is easier precisely because I wasn’t religious. I’m sure that would have made its own set of problems for me too. Sometimes a blank slate truly is better to work with.

 

~~~

 

Before we headed off for breakfast, the Bishop pulled Kale and I to the side. Well no, he really tried to pull me to the side, but I wouldn’t let myself be separated from Kale, so he just had to say it anyway. Apparently he’d received a message back from the capital last night, which I was surprised about until I heard that they’d used some kind of super fast and very expensive bird made out of magic to deliver their letter. Seems with the combination of the oracle from the Goddess, the increase in the monsters, and the letter that the Bishop had sent them about me, they were finally sending people to come escort me to the main church in the capital. They were slated to arrive for me in about 5 days from now, according to the letter.

 

It was exciting news really, for multiple reasons, but it also made me a bit sad.

I wanted to see more of this country and finally get the proper Saintess treatment, but it meant I wouldn’t get to see the friends I made here for a long long time.

…Although I can’t say that I would miss everyone here.

I could certainly think up two faces I’d be just fine with never seeing again, for sure.

 

Oh, and also on that topic, the Bishop spoke to me about one more thing: He was concerned about my relationship with the very two people I’d just been thinking of. Don’t worry, he didn’t pressure me to be nicer to them or try to convince me to forgive them. All he did was give Kale and I a very deep and solemn apology, and then try to explain to us where everything went wrong.

 

From what he told me, after the war had finished, the big-wigs in the capital didn’t want to have to hold onto the dangerous sounding birds themselves, and also didn’t want to have to waste the time, effort, and money to take them to the proper POW camps like protocol called for, so they decided to go with the other more feasible option and just left the captured birds to the local church as slaves, figuring that the kindly and dutiful priests would treat the birds less savagely than anyone else. They truly truly thought they were choosing the option that would appease both their country and the tribe of birds, since they wouldn’t be killing them, but wouldn’t be showing weakness by setting them free, either. They never even spared a single thought that the priests in the church might have personal grudges against the tribe that these birds came from, even though those same priests typically came from the very same border that the birds had been ransacking for years.

 

“You see, in my mind, the true fault lies with those who govern us. They see the church as a single faultless mass who follows the Goddess’s will implicitly, not realizing that we are each our own person, with our own feelings and understandings of her words. Not a one of us is faultless, like they’d hope. Even as I preach all of this, if I’m telling you the truth, then part of the blame also lies with me. I was too worried about what disappointing sights I might see, and consciously turned a blind eye to the bird’s suffering, and that is the sin that I too bear. I don’t expect any of my words to absolve any of us of our sins, but I still hope you’ll keep the circumstances in mind, unlike those who foisted the birdfolk upon us. Still, it is perfectly human to hold a grudge, and I’m sure no one could possibly think wrong of you for doing so at this point. Just know that I at least support whatever it is you feel you need to do.”

 

I nervously smiled and nodded along, doing my best not to try and pick a fight with the wrong person. What he was saying wasn’t wrong by any means, truthfully, but even though I know he was also part of the problem, at least he actually seemed like he felt bad and guilty over all of it, unlike Meria and the quiet priest! The way those two priests were acting was not going to fly with me at all. Sitting there acting like they’re the victims of some great injustice is just idiotic!. I’m sure he knew that already though, or we probably wouldn’t even be having this conversation where he tried to take some of the blame his way in the first place.

 

I don’t care what reasons they had for doing it, it doesn’t make it right to hurt other people.

If my childhood with my father taught me anything, it was certainly going to be that.

 

…Well, I talk a big game like that, but really all I’m hoping they’ll do is realize that what they did was wrong and sincerely apologize. It’s not like I’m hoping to hit them and torture them or anything, I mean after all an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Still, even just getting them to stop being obstinate and ignorant and change their mind is going to be way more difficult than I first expected, especially if the reason they’re like that is because they grew up in an awful warzone against the birds. I can only imagine what they must have seen and who they must have lost.

 

If I’m being honest, if I went through the same thing, then I can’t truthfully say I wouldn’t be that different from them.

…I still don’t think it makes it right, though.

 

“Thank you for talking to me about this, Bishop. I’ll try to keep your words in mind.”

 

“That’s all I can hope for, Saintess… Arissa.”

 

I felt a bit tingly hearing him call my name like that. He always sounded so businessy and uptight to me, but sometimes he really seemed a bit father-like. I really didn’t know how to take it every time that happened… Although I do think it’s what’s helping me to not feel so pressured around him, even though I totally would have by this point in the past.

 

Yeah, I really do think I’m going to miss the Bishop when I have to go away.

Just like Chella, I might be starting to think of him like family.

…This new life truly is different than the last, even in the most simplest of ways.

I could have never felt this way about someone in my previous world, for sure.

 

“Now then.”

 

The Bishop cleared his throat and made a wry face that was completely unlike the usually stiff and proper one I’d always seen on him.

 

“...Let’s make our way to breakfast and try not to pick any fights that they aren’t asking for, shall we?”

 

Ah, I would have never guessed the Bishop could make a joke like that…

Yup, I really do think he’s grown on me for sure!

 

____

AN: Alright, so let me be honest. Over the last month while I've been gone, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I felt about this story, and I came to an unhappy conclusion. I have about a good 4 other stories that I really want to spend time on, and after weighing them, I've decided that this story doesn't quite make me as happy to write as those ones do. The problem is, what I wanted to make this story and what this story ended up turning out to be has become vastly different, and it would be crazy as hell to just suddenly go 'hey, now this story has become this, so forget the last couple dozens of chapters'! In the end, as much as I don't like to do it, I've decided to give up on this story for now. Perhaps there's a future where I come back to it one day, but for now that future is looking unlikely. I'm sorry, I know no one likes having a story they've invested time in dropped. There's even some of you (at least one lol) who's been really super paying attention, so I feel quite bad for doing this, but I've decided this is for the best for me.

I still had about 7 more finished chapters written of this, so I'll be posting them now, although they'll be unedited, just like this one was. Feel free to read them if you still want to. Thank you for all this time, and I'm sorry.