The next day.
"Paulen, Jiggly might be able to shine."
"Huh?"
After finishing her morning prayer, Alia explained the newly discovered ability of the sli to Paulen.
Last night, while reading the scriptures because she couldn't sleep, the lantern went out.
She said the sli lit up to help her read the scripture.
"Did you have a dream or sothing?"
"No, I didn’t!"
Paulen didn’t believe Alia right away.
Because it was a claim in a completely different direction.
He could understand if the sli moved faster or jumped higher.
He would’ve believed it even if it made poison.
There is actually a kind called Poison Sli.
But emitting light?
It was so far from common knowledge that doubt ca first.
Of course, that doubt—
"Jiggly! Try glowing!"
‘Okay!’
Brrrrr!
Wooooong!
—was completely erased by the sli’s action.
"Wait, it really is glowing?!"
"That's what I said. It glows."
Paulen stared at the glowing sli in his hands.
"What kind of sli are you, anyway?"
▶Ah, close-up of a human face. Disgusting.
▶ Get it off.
▶ Hmm, maybe it’d taste good if you look closely?
▶Yeah, right.
While Paulen was intently staring at the sli, Alia spoke decisively.
“Today! Let’s go outside. With Jiggly.”
“Are you serious?”
Whip!
Paulen turned his head and looked at Alia.
What kind of change of heart had happened?
Why would the always hesitant Alia want to go out with the sli?
“Yes. I can’t just stay indoors forever. I am a Saintess, after all.”
‘If we keep staying inside the church, Jiggly will be pitiful too.’
***
“Isn’t that Saintess Alia?”
“Yeah, with orange hair and that figure, it’s definitely her.”
“And next to her is Paladin Paulen.”
But...
"Isn’t that... a sli in Alia’s hands?"
“I heard she had a sli when she returned last ti—was that true?”
“I heard even the daughter of Count Ludendion carries a sli around.”
“Is sli the new trend in high society?”
The sli should have originally been carried on Paulen’s shoulder.
But Alia gathered her courage and held the sli herself as she walked through the streets.
Alia, the next Saintess, who was known for rarely leaving the church.
So, naturally, when she ca out, all attention was on her.
Especially since she was carrying a sli.
‘It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.’
Alia repeated "it’s okay" to herself over and over to calm down.
With low self-esteem, Alia closely observed people's reactions.
They looked curious and surprised, but not hostile.
Perhaps because the sli looked soft and harmless, no one seed scared.
More than anything, since she was a Saintess, no one reacted extrely.
The people’s reactions weren’t bad.
Then from now on, she just had to act like a proper Saintess.
Just like her respected role model, Saintess Presia.
Alia first stopped by a street vendor and greeted politely.
“Hello.”
“Oh my. Greetings, Saintess.”
“Has everything been well?”
“Of course. All thanks to the blessings of God.”
As expected in the Holy City, even the vendors were devout followers.
Even if she was holding a sli, it was a joy to have the Saintess greet them personally.
“Could I have one apple, please?”
“Just a mont! I’ll pick the freshest one for you!”
Alia received an apple and handed over the money imdiately.
“Oh, Saintess! Please, you don’t have to pay!”
“No, just because I’m a Saintess doesn’t an I should take people’s kindness for granted.”
“How could soone be so kind-hearted?”
She tried to emulate Presia as much as she could, but complints still made her awkward.
She felt uncertain if she even deserved to hear such praise, and more than anything, she got so embarrassed that her face grew hot.
“J-Jiggly. Here, it’s an apple—you can eat this, right?”
To cool down the heat rising in her face, Alia brought the apple she just bought to the sli.
‘Apple.’
The sli happily absorbed the apple Alia offered.
The street vendor watched the sli eating his apple with fascination.
“Saintess, is that sli safe?”
“Yes, yes! Of course! It’s a very gentle and well-behaved sli. Its na is Jiggly.”
“Jiggly, you say?”
“When it’s happy, it vibrates a lot. Right, Jiggly?”
Brrrrrrr!
“Oh, it really does!”
The gentle Saintess talking to the sli, and the soft sli responding to her.
That sight further softened the wariness in people’s hearts.
Alia continued walking around the streets, and the sli was happy to see the new cityscape in detail.
And when they had explored the city enough, Alia stopped by a certain place before returning to the Grand Church.
It was a clinic run directly by the Grand Church.
The clinic operated in three main sections.
One was a free clinic for children and the elderly.
Another was for those who could afford to pay a certain fee.
The last was for those with serious injuries, such as adventurers or holy knights.
Alia headed to the third clinic.
“Ugh, aagh! My arm…!”
“Please bring so bandages over here!”
“Just hold on a little longer. You’ll feel better soon.”
“Thank you for your help again today, Sister. If you have ti later, maybe—”
“No.”
“Damn! If I hadn’t made that mistake…!”
“You can’t use bad language in the clinic!”
“S-sorry.”
The third clinic was always busy.
Even near the Holy City, monsters naturally appeared, and devout holy knights or adventurers from the Holy City were frequently dispatched to troubled areas—even beyond the city’s borders.
After inspecting the clinic briefly, Alia approached a patient who looked to be in the worst condition.
“Ugh…!”
Even though his abdon was wrapped in bandages, the blood continued to spread.
Beside him, a sister was pressing her hands together in prayer, using holy magic to treat him.
However, the wound was too severe, and one application of holy magic wasn’t enough.
Alia gently placed a hand on the sister’s shoulder.
It was a kind of signal to let the staff know she intended to help or had business in the clinic.
The sister didn’t stop praying but turned her head to look at Alia.
“Saintess!”
“I’ll help.”
“Please do.”
Even though the Saintess had appeared, no one stopped treating the patient or paused for formalities, and Alia paid no mind to it either.
In this place, caring about such things would be considered insincere.
Alia placed her hand over the patient’s wound and used holy magic.
Wooooong!
A soft yellow light enveloped the patient.
A Saintess who could use powerful holy magic without even assuming a prayer posture.
That was proof that she was devout and loved by God.
The blood soaking into the bandages gradually slowed, then stopped completely.
The patient's face, twisted in pain and soaked in cold sweat, began to ease.
Because of her low self-esteem, Alia had avoided people and instead practiced holy magic every day—which now helped her heal those in pain more quickly.
“Amazing…”
The sister looked on in admiration.
The wound she had been treating little by little was completely healed with a single application of Alia’s holy magic.
Alia withdrew her hand and looked at the patient.
“You’ll be alright now.”
“Th-thank you, Saintess…”
“Please rest well.”
Alia smiled at the healed patient and moved on to the next.
‘Seriously, she’s so unsure of herself.’
Watching her, Paulen let out a faint chuckle.
Even if Alia claid she wasn’t fit to be a Saintess, what she just did clearly proved otherwise—she was a dignified and compassionate Saintess.
Alia sought out patients with serious injuries and used her holy magic to help them.
Thanks to her, the sisters and clergy at the clinic were able to focus on the next patients in need.
One by one, the patients were treated.
However, even a Saintess like Alia couldn’t easily heal everyone.
“This patient…”
He had large bite marks on his calf.
“This is a patient poisoned by a Stone Snake.”
“Hrk! Gah! Ugh… s-save !”
Stone Snake.
A serpent monster with rock-hard scales, about twice the thickness of an adult’s forearm.
The poison wasn’t fatal, but it caused paralysis and continuous pain.
One of holy magic’s weaknesses—
It could heal physical wounds easily, but it had minimal detoxification effects.
“There’s no antidote?”
“They say the antidote for Stone Snake poison is difficult to produce. We’ve requested it from the Alchemist Guild, but it’ll take at least three days.”
Stone Snake poison naturally wore off after five days.
However, the pain during that ti was unimaginable.
While holy magic had weak detoxification power, soone like Alia, who possessed great divine energy, could theoretically forcefully treat it.
But Alia judged that there were still many patients in the clinic who needed her healing.
“Ugh…!”
She wanted to help the patient in front of her, but if she spent too much divine energy here, she wouldn’t be able to help the others.
While she hesitated, Paulen spoke.
“Saintess, detoxification consus a lot of divine power. You should prioritize the others.”
“You’re right.”
Just as Alia was about to walk away,
“W-wait! Please wait, Saintess! Please, please heal ! It… it hurts so much!”
“...”
The patient’s desperate cry stopped Alia in her tracks.
The cleric in charge of the patient tried to console him.
“We’ve asked the Alchemist Guild to prepare the antidote, so please hang in there. Don’t worry, the poison isn’t fatal.”
“Ugh! But it hurts! It hurts so much!”
The cleric looked at the patient with a pained expression.
“I’ll cast holy magic again. It should ease the pain a little.”
Seeing this, Alia lowered her head.
“If only my holy magic had detoxification effects…”
At that mont—
‘Detoxification?’
The sli, which had been riding on Paulen’s shoulder while Alia was healing, kept hearing the word and rembered two things.
One was the detox skill it had.
The other was a skill it saw in the shop.
A skill called Detox Solution Generation.
The sli opened the shop and checked the description of the skill.
[Detox Solution Generation: Produces a substance that can neutralize absorbed poisons.]
‘This is it!’
The sli believed that this skill could help Alia right now.
After defeating the two Lesser Trolls, the sli earned 15 coins each—30 in total.
Right now, it had 100 coins.
‘I’ll buy it!’
Without hesitation, the sli purchased the Detox Solution Generation skill.
The mont it bought it, it instinctively understood how to use it.
Boing!
“!”
The sli jumped from Paulen’s shoulder and landed near the patient’s calf.
“Ugh!”
Because of the poison, even the soft landing of the sli caused intense pain.
“Wh-what is this sli?”
“Jiggly! No! Get down!”
Alia panicked and tried to remove the sli.
At that mont—
Brrrrrr!
“Ah…!”
The sli trembled as it absorbed the poison from the wound along with the blood.
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