Level Up Saintess

It didn’t take long after I healed Ferr for her to come back to her senses and get up, although she still looked exhausted. Not like I can blame her; If anything, I should be very impressed that she can just get up and walk away with me after all she just went through. Ferr’s stamina is really no joke.

 

As I’d been treating her, I forced myself to look away from the grotesque, torn, leaking neck of the man next to us, and tried to look around for where everyone else had gone. There should have been at least 4 more kidnappers scattered around the alley from when Ferr first showed up, but for some reason, I couldn’t see a single one of them. It made sense they weren’t here, since if they had woken up and decided to come help out, then Ferr would have at least been closer to the dungeon door than she was. But still, it begged the question of where they’d gone.

 

…Had they maybe woken up and decided to go home?

I know that’s what I would have done if I’d gotten so squarely beaten by Ferr like that, but I doubt that would have been true for all 4 of them.

Surely at least some of them would have revenge on their minds.

 

That thought made me worried enough that I grabbed a hold of Ferr and helped her hurry out of there in as much of a rush as I could manage. My energy was too low for me to trust fending off anyone right now, and Ferr was far too weathered for me to trust in her abilities right now either. I had enough energy left in me to put a [Benediction] on the both of us, but as I’d learned earlier, that would only get me so far. I could maybe swing one good [Judgment], but if more than one person appeared, then I’d definitely be shit out of luck. And besides, using energy right now would just render me completely useless afterwards anyways. Yup, retreating and regrouping was probably the only thing I could possibly pull off right now.

 

I’m sorry people in the dungeon. Give me just a little bit more time, and I promise I’ll set things right.

 

~~~

 

As we walked, I kept talking to Ferr to try and keep her conscious. It wasn’t like I was afraid she was going to pass out from pain, but more like I thought she might pass out from fatigue. She was walking just fine, with only a slight wiggle to her steps, but I could see on her face just how exhausted she was. She kept promising me that she would be fine if she could just sit down for a moment, but I was too worried to believe her. We were at least 30 minutes away from the church, and if she collapsed before we made it there, I was afraid that the kidnappers who’d escaped might just sneak up on us again like last time.

 

Man, in the future if I get offered a skill to restore a person’s stamina, I should probably really take it so things like this don’t happen again.

 

There was also the problem that I was just barely above 200 energy, which was making me feel a bit of energy exhaustion gnawing at me. I was still able to walk just fine, but I felt terribly nauseous and shaky, and with Ferr leaning on me for support, we weren’t really walking as quickly as we could. Hell, we were barely moving at even a limping pace. The 30 minute distance might as well have been 50.

 

The idea that we should stop by the brothel since it was closer had hit me several times, but I knew that would just be a trap at this point; If we stopped there, then there was a chance that we would both pass out early in relief after feeling safe, which might just doom all the prisoners I’d sworn to save. There was also the chance that in their worry, the ladies wouldn’t let us leave after they knew what happened to us, which would also doom the prisoners. No, the only place I could go to was the church. I was sure that if I talked to the Head Priest, he would be able to round up enough trustworthy mercenaries or cops or constabulary or whatever the hell this town had, and they would be able to storm the dungeon and get those people out safely. I just knew it somehow. I guess I must have trusted him more than I thought... Crazy.

 

But yeah, as we hobbled our way to the church, I continued talking to Ferr, deciding to let her in on my plan.

 

“Yeah, that should work out just fine hun. If your Priest gets everybody together, then I’ll go along and show them where the dungeon entrance is.”

 

“Are you sure? But you’re not in any shape to-”

 

“Hah, nah. Who do you think I am? I’m one of the mighty tiger-kin! I can shake off this lil’ bit of sleepiness easy

! Just lemme rest a moment while your Priest runs around getting everything together, and I’ll be good.”

 

“...Well if that’s true then it’s very reassuring. I’m glad I have someone as reliable as you here right now.”

 

Ferr snorted and looked away, and I could see the corner of her mouth twitch as it turned into a frown.

 

“‘Reliable’, huh? ...I’m surprised you can call me that after my failed rescue attempt. You had to save me in the end, right?”

 

Oh? That’s a surprise. I never thought I’d see the cheerful and strong Ferr show a side like this... In a way, it’s kind of comforting to see. Makes me feel like I’m not the downer I always think I am, if even Ferr can get like this sometimes.

 

“Maybe, but do you wanna know something? Before you showed up and rescued me, I had basically given up. I was being a big dumb idiot and feeling sorry for myself because I had gotten a big head, and was shocked to find out how powerless I truly was. But after you rescued me and we spoke a little, you made me realize that I’ve been thinking of things all wrong and expecting too much out of myself. And when we both got captured, I felt that I was especially letting you and Ka- Letting you down, and I couldn’t stand that, so I found a way to get out somehow.”

 

Ferr cocked her head at my stutter and then narrowed her eyes as if she could smell something fishy. The slow smile that creeped onto her face made me flush and avert my eyes. I knew she wasn’t gonna let this one go.

 

“‘Ka’? Who might this ‘Ka’ person be, Arissa?”

 

I clamped my lips shut and held my breath, but Ferr continued her teasing and prodding without relent.

 

“Could this person maybe be why you’re in such a mood lately?”

 

When my eyes glanced over to her, her smile grew just a tad bit bigger with certainty.

 

“Yeah, I think Chella mentioned something about some friend of yours to me once, right? Some guy you seem to be obsessing over lately that’s driving her nuts?”

 

I guess my face showed everything on it, even without me saying a peep, because Ferr just laughed and closed her eyes like she’d solved a riddle.

 

“You know, I’ve listened to dozens of love stories throughout my life, hun. Could be that you might enjoy telling big sis’ Ferr all about yours. My ears are always open for ya.”

 

It was a tempting offer, but I didn’t think it was one I could take her up on. The only one who could possibly help me with any of this was the Goddess, I was sure, unless Ferr somehow knew how to get someone’s past-life memories back. Besides, I didn’t want to accidentally cause a repeat of that one time with Chella where I made everything cosmically ‘skip’; Who knows what kind of harm doing that multiple times would cause?

 

…But maybe later, once Kale was free and safe and we got to hang out and get to know each other again… Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to ask Ferr for advice once or twice.

 

~~~

 

The sky was turning dark by the time Ferr and I made it back to the church. Luckily for me, the Head Priest was in his usual spot reading from some kind of scripture book when we came in, so I didn’t have to waste any time going looking for him. He was obviously shocked to hear everything that had transpired, but he didn’t waste any time asking any extra questions once he knew what we needed from him, and he quickly rushed off to get help.

 

While we were gone, Chella appeared, and for the first time ever, I saw her start to cry. Seeing your friends cry over something stupid and dangerous that you did always hurts. I already felt like an absolute fool for dragging Ferr into my stupid choices, but seeing Chella so upset about it was the nail in the coffin, for sure.

 

Chella stayed hugging the both of us and crying the entire time until the Head Priest came back. When she heard the door to the chapel open, she quickly sprung up and turned away, angrily wiping at her eyes like she was mad that the tears wouldn’t stop. To his credit, the Head Priest only shot her one quick fatherly look of understanding while she couldn’t see, and then informed us that about 20 of the town guards were waiting for us outside.

 

Ferr sprung up from where she’d been resting, making a big straining noise as she stretched a few times, and then headed for the door. Chella and I both reached for her, asking doubtfully if she was really okay enough to go, but she just laughed and asked who else was gonna take them if she didn’t. It was completely true and fair, since the only other person here who could do it was me, and I knew for sure that I wouldn’t remember the way there well enough. Besides, maybe I’ve recovered 100 energy since we left, but that’s still nowhere near good enough for me to be of much help if we got attacked by those missing kidnappers. And if I got stolen in the middle of our little rescue mission, then I would be the absolute worst person ever, for sure.

 

As much as I hated it, I would just have to sit here and wait for them to come back.

But before they left, there was just one more thing that needed to be said.

 

“Head Priest!”

 

I called out to him as I saw him start to leave, and rushed over. He made a little half-frown and turned back to me, with one of his eyebrows starting to twitch.

 

“Saintess, I don’t know why you keep addressing me like that. I may lead the priests here, but I myself am a Bishop.”

 

Huh. Why hadn’t anyone corrected me about that before? I’m pretty sure I’ve called him the Head Priest in front of a bunch of the other priests and Chella, and they barely batted an eye at it. I hope they weren’t just laughing at me the whole-

 

“Ah, I’m sorry but that’s not important right now!”

 

I desperately grabbed onto his sleeve as I yelled, but when I realized what I was doing, I instead opted to just clasp my hands together. It was fitting, considering I was kind of asking for a favor.

 

“Please… After you rescue everyone, bring them back here so that they can get treated. There’s a lot of them that look like they might die any minute… and I don’t want that. I don’t care if you have to heal a few of them a little just to get them here, so please, make sure everyone that can get here alive does.”

 

The Head Priest- Oh, wait, the Bishop’s face contorted a few times in confusion. Looking back on the words I just said, there were probably a few odd things in there. Like, maybe he was wondering why I cared if he healed a couple people. Or, well… Now that I was thinking about it, I don’t recall him actually saying that he was going along with Ferr and the guards in the first place. I guess maybe I just assumed he was, since I saw him moving like he was going to leave after Ferr did. But if he didn’t go, and the guards were a bit too rough getting the captured people out, then what would happen if some of them died?!

 

As I kept giving him the most pleading look I could manage, eventually he just sighed like he’d given up.

 

“I’ll do my best, Saintess.”