11 – reject-3

“D-I finally met you!”

Others flinched. The voice of the saintess resounded in the quiet library.

“be quiet.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Was I too loud?”

It wasn’t long before I met the archer. She wasn’t as violent or abusive as she had been with me before, but just showing me her face was annoying.

“Didn’t I ask you not to meet me?”

“Yeah, but…”

I didn’t like the way other people looked at me. I could understand.

I would have reacted like that if someone with a innocent face like a saintess was rejected by a man like me.

It wasn’t just the face. Her divine power proves her pure faith. Even if it wasn’t necessary, the saintess’ heart was clearly pure.

“Yeah, but I want to reconcile…”

However, that pure heart could have been pure hatred or pure indifference depending on the case.

“Do you have anything to apologize for?”

“Oh, um, that’s…”

Even her apologies are pure. It is simple and one-dimensional.

She didn’t even know what the saintess herself had done wrong, but since I was angry, she was just bending over, thinking that she must have done something wrong.

“Isn’t reconciliation something you do when something makes you angry?”

“That, so…”

“I don’t think the saintess is angry with me, and I…”

I inhaled. I don’t think there was any malice in the saintess’ heart, but there were quite a few things that happened to her.

“me too…”

Without realizing it, the power went in. He bit his lips.

However, I can understand what happened to her. And, I don’t even think I want to change her.

So, finally, what can I say?

“I’m not angry with the saintess.”

The saintess clenched her fists and spoke confidently, as if she couldn’t back down like this.

“Then, at least have dinner together…”

“I hate that.”

“Why, why? I said it was fine a while ago…”

“I don’t like it.”

Even so, I didn’t want to have a good relationship with her.

When someone hits me with a fist, it’s different to think, ‘There must have been circumstances that forced me to hit me…’ and to feel bad when I see him.

“It’s over. Do you have any reason to meet again?”

In the first place, if you wanted to dine with me, you had plenty of opportunities. Even if we wanted to talk, we had plenty of time.

“Even if there is no reason…”

“Holy Maid.”

I had no desire to chat more here.

I didn’t want to write my feelings. I didn’t want to get revenge on them with negative feelings, and I didn’t want to reconcile with them to make the last memories happy.

“I hate you. You’re not nice enough to meet me.”

“Yes Yes?”

I felt the eyes of the onlookers getting excited. A sigh escaped me.

“I hate it.”

“I, you like me… didn’t you?”

“Why did you think that?”

“Now, thank you for being nice to me… taking care of me, saying warm words…”

If it had been someone other than the saintess, she would have considered all of her actions as detestable acts.

But considering the time I spent with the saintess and her behavior, this wasn’t acting.

Really, you just don’t know what you did wrong.

“I didn’t even like it at first. Later, I hated it.”

“Then, tell me why you hate it!”

Actually, I can just walk out the next time I get up here.

However, then the saintess would visit me again and again.

Since I can’t avoid my seat in the library every time, it might be better to send her back now.

“Are you going to fix something I don’t like?”

“Sure!”

These are the eyes of a person who has never been hated by anyone in his entire life.

“Remember that forest village before? Near the waterfall.”

“Yes Yes!”

“At that time, you asked me to find the holy relic.”

“Remember! I was really grateful for that time. Hehe… I’ve kept it well and have it in the cathedral now. Would you like to see it together?”

“Immediately mobilize the villagers suffering from the demon lord’s invasion and ask them to find the holy relic, which may be somewhere.”

As if my words didn’t sound right, the saintess’s voice gradually got smaller.

“It was important…”

“I know. It must have been important.”

However, it was me who was resentful.

I was the one who gathered the people who were suffering from lack of food and ordered them to search the river in the middle of winter when the whole body was cold.

When a woman who was gathering herbs without the help of a hunter was bitten by a wolf and was on the brink of death, I was the one standing in front of my father’s wrath.

I knew it was nonsense. I didn’t feel comfortable when I said it.

The saintess told her to just take a break and rest, but that was impossible.

The whole party was already taking a break, and it was obvious what their feelings would be like if I, who had mobilized them, was watching them from a comfortable place.

It was me who had no choice but to threaten the villagers who refused, saying, ‘I don’t know how the wizard will come out.’

“That’s the incense burner St. Maroli used 700 years ago. There was an order from the Holy See to bring it back.”

“I know. I can understand.”

I just watched the saintess who protested in an unfair voice.

“And, it was necessary. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to suppress the next demon general I would meet. All adventures would fail, and people in that village would die…”

“I know.”

I couldn’t say that her judgment was wrong. At least in the hero’s party, there were no irrational people.

At most, the archer’s aversion to the smell was irrational, but she also kept her line.

He did not refuse to sleep in the same tent with five people if it was absolutely necessary. In a really emergency situation, I accepted it without hesitation.

It was the same with the hero, the wizard, and the saint. Most of their actions were necessary for adventure.

“They are all God’s children. The hero’s adventure and the demon king’s extermination are all the will of the Goddess. She must have accepted them happily…”

“I wasn’t happy.”

Not everyone puts God’s will above their own life and joy.

“Don’t say things like that…”

The saintess bit her lip. She seemed angry with me, but not because she was wrong or because she couldn’t take my word for it.

It was just that she was angry with me, saying that I should not disparage the villagers who ‘kindly brought me the holy relic’.

It is disloyal to reject God’s will. However, they dutifully helped the warrior party on their adventures, proving that they were following the gods with their actions.

It is disrespectful to the villagers from the saintess’ point of view for me to claim here that ‘they were not happy to follow God’.

“Have you met him in person?”

“Only the Goddess knows their hearts. The Porter doesn’t even know!”

So pure.

Naturally, I think they will have to help the goddess. And, of course, I believe they will be delighted. Because they are faithful and good children of the Goddess.

Still, in the case of this holy relic, it was a slightly better case.

At least in the party, no one objected to finding the holy relic, and it was helpful for the journey.

However, there were times when the ‘obvious thing’ in her mind was not something all party members agreed on.

Because only the saintess thought of God’s will as a “must do”.

And whenever that happened, I told the saintess’ opinion to the wizard, listened to the curse, and told the wizard’s opinion to the saintess, and was treated as a devil.

Neither of them was what I wanted.

I wanted to move on quietly, but as I was talking to her, I was already attracting attention.

“As expected, it was difficult to reconcile.”

It’s not like I can say to her, ‘Become an unbeliever right now.’

Aside from the position of a saintess and practical difficulties, to her, a goddess is the most important thing in her life.

Even if she went crazy and obeyed my words, I had no intention of taking responsibility for her, who was neither a saint nor anything.

So, it’s good to end it like this. There is no need to be angry with her, and there is no reason to apologize.

“Yes? Ah, ah!”

It was only then that she remembered what we were talking about and covered her small mouth.

“Let’s not work hard on each other. I’m the one who will go anyway.”

“Uh, are you going back to the territory?

“…Nothing to do, but well. It’s similar.”

“Even if it’s hard right now, I’ll definitely do it later…”

“I won’t be able to meet you.”

The saintess bowed her head as if regretting it. However, I wasn’t sure if that was her sincerity.

It didn’t seem to deceive me. However,

Did the saintess really want to be friends with me and say that?

Or is it just that God wants a ‘peaceful state’, so he’s trying to make that picture somehow?

The saintess left, promising the following. I couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh at the thought of seeing her face again.