Chapter 27: That Saint Scatters Miracles With an Empty Smile

The central plaza, bustling with the Foundation Festival, was lined with colorful tents and food stalls, enveloped in a tremendous heat and energy.

Normally, today was my off-duty day, and after finishing my solitary walk in the forest, I should have been sleeping like a log in my bed at home. However, on the way back from the forest — as a rebound from my heart resting too much thanks to their invisible consideration — I ended up letting slip an uncharacteristic invitation like, “It sure would be fun if I could go around with someone.” And as a result…

“…Wait a second, Nagi! I don’t look cute right now!”

“A blunder. Escorting you on your off-duty day fully armed and in a robe stained with the scent of monster blood is the height of illogic.”

“Onii-san! Before we go to the plaza, give us just thirty minutes! We have to dress up!”

The moment the girls who leaped out of the forest realized their disastrous state, their faces turned bright red in a panic. Making me wait in front of the festival venue, they rushed back to change their clothes like a storm.

— And now, the present.

“Nagi! The skewers over there smell amazing! Let’s split one!”

Pulling my right arm was Lise, wearing a light, airy one-piece dress.

A complete 180 from the armored figure launching vacuum blades in the forest just moments ago — today she was dressed adorably, fitting her age, and wearing a smile like a blooming flower.

“Hey, Lise. Fatty meat puts a burden on the stomach. Nagi, have this fruit water instead. I’ve already tested it for poison… I mean, taste-tested it, so it’s safe.”

Offering me a cold glass from my left side was Fran, wearing a high-quality, slightly loosened casual robe.

Perhaps due to a hastily cast “Cleaning Magic,” she carried a faint scent of soap, her cheeks flushed as if swept up in the festival atmosphere.

“Eeeh, it’s a festival, so let’s eat junk food! Ah, Nagi-onii-san, can I buy these matching friendship bracelets?!”

And from my back, Roux, whose hair had been beautifully re-combed, energetically leaped onto me.

The strongest swordswoman on my right, the genius mage on my left, and the dual-natured thief on my back.

From the passing men, I could hear resentful voices like, “Who the hell is that guy…” “I’ll kill him,” and “Explode in your next life.”

(…What is this. It’s actually just normally fun.)

At the window, they cause my stomach to ache almost every day — but stepping outside like this, the inherent “charm” the girls possess hits in overwhelming waves.

Lise offered me a skewer.

“Here, say ahhn! …Ehehe, is it good?”

On that innocently smiling face, there was not a single trace of the time she was covered in blood, crying and screaming, “Don’t abandon me.” That healthy smile was so radiant it made my heart skip a beat.

At the shooting gallery stall, Fran crossed her arms and furrowed her brow.

“…The trajectory probability calculation for this cork gun is completely broken. This is a scam. Nagi, wait here. I will correct the trajectory with wind magic and shoot down all the prizes for you.”

“Please stop, you’ll get us banned. Here — I’ll win one for you.”

When I handed her a stuffed rabbit I knocked down by sheer fluke, she looked away saying, “…It’s not like I particularly wanted it, but if you won it, I will place it under appropriate management” — yet hugged it tightly as if it were precious. That clumsy inability to be honest was unbearably cute.

And then, when I was pushed by the crowd and nearly stumbled —

Suddenly, the hands supporting my back tightened, and a breath brushed against my ear.

“…You’re full of openings, Nagi. There were three pickpockets, so I swapped out their wallets. Relax and enjoy yourself.”

Luna, surfacing for just a moment — offering cold but certain protection. She immediately reverted to Roux saying, “Ahaha, are you okay, Onii-san~?” — but that quiet devotion, operating behind the scenes just for me, made the depths of my chest grow just a little bit warm.

All three of them are beautiful, strong, and straightforward.

The heaviness of their obsession with me is abnormal, but if we can laugh together like this, maybe these noisy days aren’t so bad.

Yes, I was thinking such uncharacteristically buoyant thoughts.

— Until the large tent of the church in the center of the plaza came into view.

“Ah, look Nagi. It’s the church’s ‘Free Healing’ line.”

Where Lise pointed, people carrying the injured and sick had formed a massive line.

At the very front of it, a miracle was occurring.

A single woman clad in pure white clerical robes, her silver hair swaying. As she gently held out her hand, a pale light overflowed — and the wounds of a heavily injured man closed up in the blink of an eye.

“Ooh…! Thank you so much, Holy Saint!”

“An emissary of the Goddess…!”

The people who received her healing wept, prostrating themselves on the ground and worshipping her.

“What an incredible mana output… To continuously invoke such high-level healing magic without incantations.”

Fran let out a voice of pure admiration.

The Saint’s beauty and unconditional love — everyone was moved by the sight, sending her voices of praise.

However.

Watching that scene from a slight distance, an ice-cold chill ran down my spine.

(…Something’s wrong.)

The intuition of a clinical psychologist who had faced countless “broken minds” in a previous life.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her “abnormal signs.”

The fingertips invoking the mana were trembling faintly. Her breathing was shallow, and cold sweat had formed on her forehead. She had clearly surpassed her physical limits.

And yet, she made no attempt to rest.

Most abnormal of all was that “smile.”

Bathing in words of gratitude and looking down at the weeping people, a perfect, affectionate smile was plastered onto her face. But the depths of her eyes were definitively dead.

No emotions were moving at all.

No joy, no sympathy, no sense of accomplishment.

Eyes like an empty machine, merely executing the function of “I am an existence that saves.”

— Sensei. I think… I can’t do this anymore.

The final voice of the client I failed to save in my past life flashed back through my mind.

It was the exact same back then. Everyone around her said, “She’s fine,” “She’s always smiling.” But behind that smile, her mind had died a long time ago.

“Nagi? What’s wrong — you suddenly look pale…”

“…Sorry. Wait here a second.”

Giving a short reply to Lise’s voice, I found myself stepping forward unconsciously.

Pushing through the crowd, I headed in a straight line toward the church’s tent.

“Next person, please. May the Goddess’s blessing—”

The moment the Saint — pale-faced, looking as though she might collapse at any second — tried to hold her hand over the next patient, I cut in from the side of the line and firmly grabbed her slender, white wrist.

“…!?”

“W-Who the hell are you!”

“What are you doing to the Holy Saint!”

The surrounding believers and patients erupted in a commotion all at once, raising angry shouts.

But I didn’t let go of her wrist.

“You are showing early symptoms of mana deficiency. Any further healing is dangerous. Please rest.”

At my words, the surroundings fell dead silent.

The Saint slowly raised her head and looked at me.

Seen up close, her eyes were filled with a terrifying “nothingness,” far more so than from a distance. Even with me grabbing her wrist, neither anger, nor surprise, nor even fear surfaced.

She tilted her head ever so slightly, and with that perfectly plastered, empty smile, she spoke.

“…Why are you stopping me?”

It was a beautiful voice, like a rolling bell.

“I am a Saint. If there is an injured person, I must save them.”

She didn’t care in the slightest that her own life was being whittled away. She didn’t even harbor a single doubt that she had been reduced to a mere “salvation device.”

More than the swordswoman terrified of being abandoned.

More than the mage unable to stop herself.

More than the thief whose memories were severed.

This Saint’s mind was on the verge of breaking at a much deeper, near-fatal level.