Dinner time was a surprise. Maybe it was the Bishop living up to his apologies, but he convinced Meria to come to dinner. Okay, I say convinced, but maybe ‘dragged’ would be the better word here. She wasn’t kicking or screaming or anything, but anyone could tell from the look on her face that she didn’t want to be there, even as she followed him into the dining room.

 

Truth be told, it’s so ingrained into me to try to be nice and scrape up any amount of favor I can win with the people that I live with that I almost waved to Meria and tried to say hello. Luckily I caught myself before I did it, though, and managed to give her the cold shoulder instead. I’m sure it looked anything but smooth and was really obvious, but it’s the intention that counts.

 

Really, I’m such a toddler when it comes to this stuff…

I don’t think I’m cut out for being rude.

 

I could see the quiet priest looking between Meria and I a bunch of times, and the way his mouth was slightly scowling was quite concerning. I’m sure he wouldn’t have the balls to pull anything, especially not here in the church to me, the literal Saintess. That’s gotta be one of the highest blasphemies of all blasphemies, right? He’s a priest; There’s no way a devout person could do such a thing.

 

Then again, I’ve had my beliefs in these people shattered before.

I don’t know why I would even be surprised anymore.

 

Meria ate like she was the most scared person on the entire planet the whole time that she was there, and then scampered away the moment that she was finished. Honestly, it’s actually pretty impressive that she cleaned her plate while looking like that. I wonder what the Bishop must have said to her? Maybe I should take notes.

 

The balding priest just looked like he was relieved once she left, so I didn’t really have any beef with him, but the quiet priest was a different story. The longer that I watched him out of the corner of my eye, the more that I was starting to get worried. His expression just kept getting darker and darker as the dinner went on, and after Meria left, his eyes were stuck on the door she’d exited through.

 

…Yeah, I’m definitely getting some worrying vibes here.

Should I be telling someone about this?

 

I gave Chella a nudge and stealthily pointed to the quiet priest, but she just gave me a small head shake and whispered that I should leave it alone. I want to trust in what Chella thinks is the right thing to do here since she’s known him longer than I have, but… I don’t know. Even Chella’s capable of being biased. She’s had to interact with those two over the past few days more than I have. It could be that she’s being swayed by sympathy towards them. I have to accept that she might not be completely objective here.

 

…I’d been planning to ask her about how money works after dinner, but now I’m starting to think I should spend the night in Kale’s room and lock the door.

 

I followed up on my sense of danger quite quickly after we finished eating and began to leave with Kale, but I was surprisingly picked up by the Bishop before I could really make it anywhere.

 

“Saintess, could you spare me a moment?”

 

My eyes inevitably pulled back towards the spot where I’d been warily watching the quiet priest all through dinner, but in the end I decided it should be alright so long as the Bishop agreed to take our talk elsewhere; There were plenty of things that I needed to discuss with him about anyways. Luckily he seemed to have understood my meaning very quickly, and suggested that we could have our talk in the library where no one should be right now. It was pretty close to mine and Kale’s rooms, so I figured it wouldn’t be the worst thing to give Kale a bit of alone time in his room while I had a serious talk with the Bishop. Of course, Kale looked a bit conflicted that I was going to leave him alone like that, but eventually he agreed, looking like a faithful servant the whole way.

 

Really, I’m glad he agreed with me, but I wish he would be a bit more stubborn…

I don’t like feeling like he listens to me just because of my position.

 

~~~

 

“I’m sure you noticed how Frieder was acting today.”

 

“Yeah. I didn’t really feel safe anymore, so I tried to leave with Kale as quick as I could. Oh, but good job getting Meria to show up today; I’m honestly surprised that she did.”

 

“Yes, well… It wasn’t without a good bit of convincing. She was a complete mess when I first came to see her. It’s amazing all of the things that fear can do to a person.”

 

“You’re right. I wish there was anything I could do to change how she sees Kale, but with her almost never coming out, I doubt I’m going to get many opportunities before I leave.”

 

“Ah yes, about that…”

 

The Bishop gestured for me to sit down, and the look of slight concern on his face turned even more serious.

 

“I’ve been told that the Paladins who’ve been sent to escort you have been running into an inordinate amount of monsters. It’s not much of a surprise, considering the rise in monsters that’s been happening as of late. They say it shouldn’t delay them too terribly, however, so we should still expect them to come when they previously stated.”

 

Oh yeah right, he did mention that before, didn’t he? I think I’ve also heard someone else mention it too. And if I remember it right, he even listed that off as one of the reasons the main church believed I was really a Saintess.

 

“Um… You said the rise in monsters is a sign of the Saintess, right?”

 

“Hm? Ah, I suppose no one would have mentioned this to you. Well, I suppose it is indeed a secret outside of the clergy… You see, the Goddess works in quite mysterious ways; Whenever she uses her powers to benefit us, something bad happens elsewhere. We believe it to be a form of balancing out the energies in the world. It makes sense, once you consider she is the Goddess of all, and not just of man.”

 

Oh… So they just decided to accept that the Goddess brings goodness and calamity. Yeah, that makes sense, knowing what I’ve seen of her. It’s really interesting to see people in such unadvanced times being willing to accept that though, although maybe that’s part of why only the clergy knows about it. Hard to sell an almighty god that might fuck you up just as soon as help you.

 

“So it’s the same every time? The Saintess shows up and a wave of monsters appears?”

 

“Typically yes. If not a wave, then usually some strong and evil being gets created that the Saintess must fight against. That case is very rare though… However, the last Saintess, Saintess Seria, was forced to fight against both a small monster wave and a greater evil, which was what earned her the title of the ‘Saintess of Victory’.”

 

Wow, the Bishop really knew his stuff about this, huh? I wonder if he had to study it to rise up in the ranks like he did… Yeah, I remember reading something about Seria having to fight those things in the big Saintess book of accomplishments or whatever. Didn’t think she had to do it because they were created with her or anything though…

 

I wonder what’s waiting for me to fight, if that’s what she had to go through…

Ah nope, let’s not dwell on that and make myself scared before anything even happens.

Time for a topic change!

 

“Ummm, by the way speaking of monsters, I went out earlier and had to fight a corpse pile that was spawning a bunch of undead in the woods.”

 

My words made the Bishop pull a truly disgusted face. From that reaction I’m pretty sure he must have been forced to see one before too.

 

“...Is that so? I’m truly sorry you had to deal with such a grotesque thing, Saintess.”

 

“Yeah… Me too. Funnily enough, I think it had something to do with that kidnapper group we took out a few days ago. Do you think you could get the guards or somebody to maybe look into that? If they check with the adventurer’s guild, they’ll point them which way to go.”

 

“Yes of course Saintess, I’ll get right on that.”

 

“Great, thank you. I made a promise, so it really means a lot to me. Phew…”

 

I’m really glad that takes care of that. I feel a bit like I should really be a part of the investigation a bit more than this, but honestly, I’m no detective. If it’s really gonna get done, then it’s better to leave this kind of stuff to the professionals, right? Right.

 

Well, if all of that’s resolved, then I guess I should get back to my Kale and-

 

“Oh! Right, we were talking about the quiet priest!”

 

“...? The quiet…?”

 

“Ah, um, Fr-Frieder! We were talking about Frieder!”

 

Crap do I hope I got that name right. Of course he wouldn’t know who the stupid quiet priest was, Arissa!

 

“Ah… Yes, we were. I had gotten sidetracked from my original purpose. About Frieder and his actions tonight… I-”

 

Suddenly there was a loud banging from outside, and I could hear some voices shouting while some others talked while overlapping.

As soon as I heard Kale’s voice gently enter the mix, I immediately took off in a sprint.