Chapter 40: A Story About the Saint of Salvation

Ageha: “Wo~w, ha ha ha, I never thought I would be scolded for defeating too many demonic creatures in my life.”

It was the day after our expedition with Ageha when we took out 1,000 Griffins.

One of the other veteran adventurers came running back from the Flowtier mountains and alerted the church screaming, “All the Griffins are gone! There’s something wrong with the Flowtier mountains!!”

…………..and with impeccable timing, that’s when we returned to the church too, and we had a nice long, one-sided, ear-full of a “chat” with the church staff about proper adventurer etiquette.

Henry: “Yeah, that was my bad…..if you think about it, if you defeat too many demonic creatures here, you’re basically taking away prey for other groups of adventurers and their means of making a living….”

Jend: “I told you we were overdoing it…”

Ageha: “My bad, my bad. Over on the frontlines, you can hunt to your heart’s content. I never thought you could get in trouble for hunting too much.”

In Ligaleo, it’s actually impossible to wipe out all demonic creatures from any area. You can shave the numbers down, but it’ll grow right back where you started the next day. At this point, there’s no way to purify that area.

Before the Demon King, it wasn’t anywhere like that around that city, but now, the concentration of magical corruption is way off the charts. Just making sure that it doesn’t spill inside the city is the best we can do at this point.

Cyril: “Wo~w…, the more I hear about Ligaleo, the more I realize how dangerous the place is...”

Henry: “That’s right, Cyril. You can reconsider going there. It’s not too late.”

Cyril: (*whistles~♪)

Cyril looked away and just started whistling to herself and completely ignores my comment.

Ageha: “What, you want to come to Ligaleo, Cyril? Then partner up with me. We’ll go with the Ageha > Cyril > Ageha Plan, and we’ll make a killing.”

Cyril: “...........well, regardless of the name of that plan, when we do arrive there, please take good care of us.”

Well, Ageha did mesh well with Cyril overall. Cyril was happily firing off some big area attack spells that she doesn’t use every day as much as she wanted.

She used a Lightning Spell at the end called, {LIGHTNING JUDGEMENT}, and even Ageha couldn’t completely dodge its effects completely and felt her hand get zapped.

Teo: “Sister Ageha, I’m going too.”

Jend: “As will I.”

Ferris: “And I.”

Ageha: “Whoa whoa, sure thing. I can look after all of you guys. I always wanted to run a Clan.”

Ageha talks pretty big towards Cyril and the others but…

Henry: “To set up a Clan, you need at least 20 people. Were you that popular in Ligaleo?”

She gets along with everyone there, but how many people are willing to actually form a party with her?

Ageha: “Don’t worry. If we get Yuu to join us, we can draw in those stupid men left and right to fill the numbers.”

Henry: “Don’t make our party a den of idiots. Besides, how many days do you think those guys would last on an expedition with you?”

They might even try to make a move on Yuu during the night. Their skulls will be crushed by the next morning.

Well, I guess even if she crushes their skull, she’ll make sure that they’ll still live on.

Cyril: “Yuu? Who are you talking about?” Ageha: “*Eustacia. Ever heard of her?”

Cyril: “OHHH!! Yes, that famous…!!”

Cyril claps a fist in her hand at the recognition.

That’s no surprise. Yuu's tales and epics are famous and well-known throughout the lands.

3 years ago, the Demon King’s army executed a large-scale invasion. Powerful knights and adventurers were being cut down left and right in the attack, but the God of Mother Earth Ningale’s priest, the Hero of Legend Adventurer, revived them on the spot, and they held the defensive lines.

Out of everyone I know, she’s the best Healer there is. Ferris has significant Healing Skills, but at this point, she’s no match for her.

Ferris: “The Saint of Salvation, Her Holiness. For us Ningale followers, she’s the embodiment of what a Hero of Legend should be.”

Henry: “..........yeah…..”

Ferris seems to admire Yuu, so I just vaguely agreed and left it at that.

It’s true that she used her Healing Magecraft to hold the defensive lines together, but what’s less known is how she swung a Morningstar around and blasted intentionally failing Healing Magecraft at the enemies and destroyed their bodies ruthlessly.

And I know that she enjoys destroying her enemies more than sitting back and healing her comrades. I was assigned as her bodyguard, so I saw the whole thing from beginning to end.

When I heard her title of “Saint of Salvation,” I almost passed out and died from laughing.

Teo: “Sister Ageha, why would people come to your clan if the Saint of Salvation joins?”

Ageha: “You may not understand about men yet, but she’s pretty so men fall for her all the time.”

………..yeah, a regrettable fact.

Henry: “It’s only the new recruits that don’t know her that get fooled though.”

There’s no true hero who would still pursue her after getting to know her true nature.

Ageha: “What? No, there’s a lot of guys now looking for a chance to go out with her.”

Henry: “? Really? Why now? ……..wait, is she finally starting to settle down?”

I’m not talking about her superficial calm and kind persona, but an actual calm and kind personal skills.

Ageha: “Seriously, Henry? It all started because you were out of the picture.”

Henry: “.......oh, I guess I served as a sort of barrier. Now that I think about it, the only young adventurers she was close to were me, and the guys who retired, huh….”

She did get along with the people in the Knight Organizations though…

Jend: “Henry, you have way too many Heroes of Legends in your circle….”

Henry: “I was there for 10 years. Of course I’ll get to know a few of them.”

I let out a sigh as I responded to Jend.

Ferris: “He also knows Little Charu apparently.”

Jend: “Oh really? ………..wait, Ferris, what did you just say?”

I mean, yeah, I think I have a pretty solid network, but everyone there knows Sir Ezeal and Ageha, and if you stay in Ligaleo, you’re bound to get to know them regardless.

Besides, out of the 8 Heroes of Legend, there's 3 of them whom I’ve only said hi like maybe once? So I'm not close to all of them.

Ageha; “Oh! I almost forgot. Henry, Yuu told me to tell you, ‘Hey, I’ll come drop by soon.’ Alright, I passed the message to you.”

Henry: “.........you think she can really leave the frontlines?”

Ageha: “Nope.”

Thought so.

The only reason the death rate of Adventurers on the frontlines is only SLIGHTLY higher than other areas is due to Yuu.

As long as you have any breath left in you, she can fix you right up.

Yuu wanted to go out and do more Adventurer like things, but because of her Skills, the Church has her on strict standby around the city.

……….from her personality, I don’t think she’ll be able to just put those responsibilities aside and come down to visit.

Henry: “Well, I owe her a lot too, so tell her, I said hi and hope she’s doing well. I’ll give you something to take back to her before you leave.”

Ageha: “Sounds good. She’ll be happy to hear from you.”

I guess she likes sweets, so I’ll give her some sweet snacks that won’t go bad. I think those Flowtier cookies that Lana took to the university would be good.

Cyril: “Henry, you seem pretty close to this Yuu person…”

Henry: “We’ve just known each other for a long time now. She’s probably the person who was in my party for the longest time.”

We had times we separated to different parties, but in total, wasn’t it about 5 or 6 years?

Ageha: “Huh? Henry, I thought she was your ex.”

Henry: “That was when we’re still kids. That doesn’t count.”

I object to Ageha’s interpretation.

I came to Ligaleo when I was 12, but Ageha who is two years younger than me and Yuu who’s the same age as Ageha also came to Ligaleo when she was 12.

And coincidentally, she stayed at the same inn as me, and our rooms were next to each other.

………..on the frontlines, there were no other kids our age, so we got to know each other quickly by default.

But I say coincidence, but it was actually Sir Ezeal who caught wind of Yuu’s situation, and in his Sir Ezeal fashion, strongly suggested and signed her into the inn I stayed at.

And she was a 12 year old girl at the time. I was 14 and wasn’t adult-age yet. After 2 years, I was able to hold my ground and not pull any adventurer or knights’ legs.

In that situation, of course it was natural for Yuu to come depend on me.

And as she started her Adventurer career, there was a very brief time when we were in that kind of a relationship. I was too focused and worried about getting stronger, but I wasn’t going to just leave a girl in an uncertain situation behind either. I wasn’t a squire any more, but I still held onto the Knights’ values and ways.

But Yuu was still a kid, and we just spent our rare and too few and far in between off-days with walks together. We didn’t even kiss before we decided to go our separate ways……...and that just kinda happened naturally.

Cyril: “Henry had someone like that?!”

Jend: “Hey, Henry. Didn’t you say you had no luck with women in Ligaleo?”

Henry: “Look…...that happened when we were kids. There was no one else her age, and we dated for about half a year. I’m not going to make a big fuss just over that.”

In the end, Yuu grew up into a beautiful woman, and yeah, I do think about the what-if’s and if we stuck together, and I regret…...wait, do I regret it? ……………………...actually, I don’t. Yeah, I really don’t.

Ageha: “Is that so? I didn’t even know that. Wo~w...so Yuu had a period like that too.”

Henry: “Yeah, I don’t even know how she ended up the way she did….”

She used to be such a calm and quiet kid.

As a genius Heal Magecrafter, she busted into Ligaleo by herself thinking there are people she needs to save, and that crazy, world-saving attitude hasn’t changed at all though.

Ageha: “Great. Now I have more dirt on her that I can tease her about.”

Henry: “.....do what you want, and I hope you’re able to get away.”

I have a feeling that Morningstar is not going to be far away, and she’s persistent as heck.

Ageha: “HA! Like Yuu could ever catch up to me.”

Henry: “Oh yeah?”

I’m telling you, she holds grudges like no one else I know. Once she’s determined to get back at you, she would wait months for the right moment to arrive.

Teo: “.........Mr. Henry?” Henry: “Hm? What’s up, Teo?”

Teo is staring intently my direction for a while now. Wait, what’s going on?

Teo: “Were you and Sister Ageha ever in a relationship?”

Henry: “LIKE THAT WOULD EVER HAPPEN!!!”

Yeah, NO! JUST NO! PLEASE, NO. She’s a female warrior who would go undercover in open territory for 3 days and hunt down the enemy officers and bring back their heads. There’s no way I could be with anyone like that!

Ageha: “RU~DE~.......”

Ageha doesn’t like my reaction and frowns a little.

As if to let off some steam, she raises her hand and asks for a extra thick serving of steak, potatoes, and the whole bottle of wine.

Ageha: “We got off topic, but we hunted a lot of Griffins and made some good profits. Let’s have a party tonight~!”

Henry: “Didn’t we just party yesterday………?”

Great, she’s not listening at all. She chopped off the top of the wine bottle with her hand.

Ageha: “Don’t worry about that. Here, I’ll pour you a glass.”

Henry: “.........thanks.”

I bring up my glass, and Ageha pours me one.

Pouring a glass to each member of our party, Ageha raises her glass.

Ageha: “Cheers!!”

………….and again, she collapsed where she sat drunk as a skunk, and I had to carry her to another inn that night.