As Expected, The Saintess Was Amazing (As Usual)

The S-rank adventurer Phylite’s party, chasing after Seyi, had come to Mount Riikura.

“This is strange… the Saintess is nowhere to be found.”

Up to around the river crossing, they had heard reports of seeing the saintess.

But once they entered Riikura’s mountainous region, her trail had cut off.

As if she had vanished somewhere.

“Chasin’ the Saintess matters and all, but we gotta do our job too.”

“I know. We’re here to wipe out the bandit gang using Mount Riikura as their base, right?”

A direct request had come to them—the S-rank adventurer party—from the adventurers’ guild in the port town.

Since they were heading to Mount Riikura to search for Seyi anyway, their plan was to take a job to earn travel funds.

However…

“…Something’s off. This is supposed to be a bandit hideout, but I don’t feel any hostility.”

“Huh? Ufhcok, what do you mean?”

“…I can feel people’s gaze on my skin.”

“A skill, you mean?”

“…No. It’s an inborn blessing—a Gift.”

Bols and the others had already reached the mountainous region.

Yet sure enough, there was no sign of bandits attacking.

And Holy Knight Ufhcok’s remark about not sensing hostility was concerning.

While they were exploring for a while, it happened.

“Ugh… somebody… help me…”

“…That was a human voice just now.”

“We must go help!”

Faster than anyone, Phylite ran toward where the voice came from.

Seeing that, Ufhcok narrowed her eyes.

“Hm? What is it?”

“…Is she always like that?”

“Yeah. Once she gets an idea in her head, she goes straight at it—impulsive and charging ahead.”

“…I see. Understood. Thank you.”

Ufhcok and Bols followed after her.

It was one of the caves in the mountain region.

There were bandits tied up with rope there, but…

“What is the meaning of this…? Why is everyone bleeding from the face…?”

All the bandits there had been captured, and their eyes had been crushed shut.

Phylite interrogated someone who looked like the boss.

“Who did this?”

“A black-haired woman. She caught us bandits and tied us up.”

“My! The Saintess! But then, those eyes…?”

“…No. This wasn’t that woman.”

Thank goodness, Phylite felt relieved.

There was no way the saintess she respected would hurt people.

“Then who?”

“It was the Diamond Dragon… We set a trap before, caught it, skinned off all its hide, and tossed it away. But it came back to life… and it came for revenge!”

After Seyi captured the bandits, the Diamond Dragon came here to return the favor in kind.

They said the diamond breath the dragon unleashed stole only the bandits’ sight, then it left.

“One of our guys can understand magical beasts, and he says it told us, ‘I won’t take your lives. The one who saved me was a black-haired human. Be grateful to her.’”

“It must be the Black-Haired Saintess, no doubt about itーーーーーーーーーーーーー!”

Phylite gazed up at the air with sparkling eyes.

In her mind, scenes of the unseen black-haired saintess performing great feats replayed.

“Defeating wicked bandits without anyone even asking her to! And then hearing the voiceless cry for help from a dragon and healing it too—!!!!! Ahh, as expected of the Saintess～～～～～!”

“Sure, you hear about dragon slayers a lot, but you don’t hear much about someone who healed a dragon.”

“That means she is a magnificent person who shows mercy even to dragons!”

Meanwhile, Ufhcok looked down at the bandits and said,

“…We will take you in. Come quietly.”

“Yeah… I will. I’m done being a bandit. Karma… losing my sight was punishment for the bad I did…”

And then, at that moment—

“Hey, boss. These potions in this box—are they yours?”

“Potions? No, we didn’t have anything like that…?”

When Bols inspected a wooden box in the corner of the room, there were potion bottles inside.

“This is… no way!”

Phylite took one of the potion bottles and stared at it.

As if she had gotten exactly what she wanted, Phylite splashed the potion onto the boss’s face.

“Peh—what’re you doin’… wait! My eyes! I can see!!!!”

The eyes that the Diamond Dragon had crushed were completely restored.

A miraculous effect, as though time itself had been rewound.

Phylite—and Bols too—had seen something like this before.

Because it resembled the miracle the saintess had performed in the monstrous frontier land.

“The Black-Haired Saintess left this for them!”

“!? That girl… why would she…?”

The boss tilted his head.

They had once tried to take her life.

There was no reason for her to help them.

But Phylite nodded with a look of satisfied understanding, as if she grasped everything.

“This is the Black-Haired Saintess! Even if they are evil, she is the kind of person who reaches out a hand to save them!”

“N-no way… we tried to kill that girl, and she left this medicine to save us… uoooooh!”

The bandit boss—and the bandits—shed tears.

They were grateful for Seyi’s kindness… but,

the truth was different. Seyi had had no intention of showing them mercy.

What she left behind was a recovery potion.

She tied the bandits up and left them there, but she did not deliver them to town—because it was a hassle.

She figured that if she left them, someone would eventually come and haul them in.

But if they died of dehydration before someone found them, that would be a problem.

So she left a few potions behind.

…She did not leave mercy for evildoers—she simply didn’t want to feel guilty if they died after being left there. That was all.

“Saintess! I’ve reformed! I’ll atone for my sins, and I want to pass on the kindness and恩 I received to others!”

But the bandits, including the boss, cried at Seyi’s mercy and reformed.

Seeing that, Phylite and Ufhcok nodded, going “yes, yes.”

“Truly, Seyi-sama is a wonderful person!”

“…As expected of the Black-Haired Saintess. Not merely crushing evil, but making them repent and giving them a chance to start over.”

Holy Knight Ufhcok, of the Tendo faith, began to think in secret that Seyi was far more amazing than even the goddess she served.

But only Bols had hit the truth with,

“Uh… maybe she just left potions because it’d be a pain if they starved to death?”

““There’s no way!””

The two saintess believers shut down his opinion.

Bols thought that now there were two troublesome ones, it had become even more troublesome.