Side Story:
Making Strides as a Saint
POPULARITY POLL: 5TH - CHARLOTTE
“THAT’S INCREDIBLE, Charlotte! You must’ve worked really hard to maintain the effects of the green healing potion spring!”
While Fia was in Sutherland for her knight work, I visited the eastern side of the castle grounds every day to give the green healing potion spring my mana. It was all worth it once she returned and started heaping praise on me, enough that I actually felt bashful. Was I blushing?
“Thank you, Fia… But I only barely kept it working. You’re so amazing. You gave the spring so much healing magic. That’s the only reason its effects lasted as long as they did. My magic isn’t enough; in the month you were gone, the spring has weakened so much.” My shoulders slouched at the thought.
Fia tried to encourage me. “No, you really are incredible, Charlotte! Not many saints can do this much.”
Fia was a super talented saint herself, and kind on top of that. That became all the clearer to me when I attempted to copy her and learned what an unbelievable amount of mana she put into the spring. Even when I drained my mana dry to try and maintain the spring, it dulled a little more by the day.
Despite her incredible mana, Fia didn’t put on airs or make fun of me for failing to match her. Far from it, she praised me for doing what I could. Thanks to that, new strength welled up inside me, encouraging me to keep trying my best.
“I’m so happy I got to meet you,” I said from the heart.
“Me too, Charlotte!” Fia pulled me into a hug, and I smiled like I always did around her.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Saint Charlotte, might I have a moment?”
I was checking on the familiars in the stables when a knight from the Fourth Monster Tamer Knight Brigade called out to me, a mellow woman named Patty Conaghan.
“There’s a deer-type monster here that has lost her hearing. We plan on sending her to the rest home in a week.”
“The rest home?” I’d never heard of such a thing.
She smiled. “It’s where we send the familiars who have become injured or sick, or who otherwise can no longer fight. It’s outside the royal capital but surrounded by mountains, so it’s a nice, relaxing location for retired familiars.”
“I didn’t know we had such a place. How nice,” I said with a smile.
She frowned a bit. “Indeed, but parting from the masters they’ve fought with for so long and leaving behind the place that’s become their home puts a lot of stress on the familiars. Somehow, they always sense that they’re about to part from their masters and grow restless.”
“Oh, I see.” Monsters had fairly sharp intuition, so they probably read the truth in their masters’ expressions.
“Familiars who know they’re being sent away become easily agitated and always wind up exhausted on the day they have to move. That’s why I was hoping we could give them some colored healing potion to calm them, even if it costs significantly more.”
“You mean like the green healing potion?” I asked, knowing no other colored healing potion.
She nodded. “Familiars usually spend their last night here with their masters, but because they’re so exhausted from stress, they’re irritable and often quickly fall asleep. From the reports we receive from the rest home, the familiars always seem to regret not spending a better last night with their masters, so I was thinking some green healing potion might help soothe the familiars and let them enjoy it.”
“I see…” Having been separated from my mother at the age of three, I sympathized. I wished I could have spent my last day with her talking and hugging, but instead I cried the whole night due to the suddenness of it all. I’ve regretted that ever since and would rather the familiars and their masters avoid those same regrets. “It’d be nice if everyone could part without having to feel sad afterward. I’d be more than happy to share some green healing potion.”
“Really? Thank you so very much, Saint Charlotte. In that case—”
“Rose! Oh, Rose! Forgive me for having to part ways with you!” A hoarse voice echoing through the familiar stables cut Patty off.
I turned toward a well-built knight clinging to a familiar. I racked my brain trying to figure out how I recognized him. “Who’s that?”
Patty blinked, bewildered. “Well, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but what perfect timing… Saint Charlotte, allow me to introduce you. That man is my brigade’s vice-captain, Gideon. The monster he’s clinging to is his familiar, a flower-horned deer, the one I mentioned that’s being sent to the rest home next week.”
“Huh? Oh no, what’s wrong with her?” I asked. She didn’t appear hurt in any way.
Patty furrowed her brow. “Recently, she’s completely lost her hearing… Just between you and me, Captain Quentin has started keeping a griffon chick, and Vice-Captain Gideon keeps insisting his familiar lost her hearing to it.”
“I saw that griffon chick myself a while ago, but it was smaller than me.” Meanwhile, Gideon’s familiar was so huge I had to crane my neck back to take it in. I found it hard to believe a chick could hurt it.
“Right. The vice-captain isn’t one to lie though, so I think he believes it. But his claim is so outrageous that nobody knows what the truth is. Personally, I think it’s possible the griffon chick used its small body to peck at and worsen the flower-horned deer’s preexisting damage, but I’m not really sure…”
“I suppose that’s possible.” I didn’t know much about monsters. Maybe there really was something a small chick could do to harm a much bigger monster.
“At any rate, Vice-Captain Gideon has been with his familiar for a long time and really dotes on her, so parting ways will be rough on him. I’m sure he’d be thrilled to use your healing potion to enjoy a peaceful last night with her.”
“Is that so…” Patty’s solution didn’t seem like it’d address the root of problem, but I smiled anyway and said, “I’d be happy to help!”
Bereft of other solutions, I agreed for the time being. After more discussion, we parted ways, and I left the familiar stables behind. I snuck a glance at Gideon as I exited, my chest clenching when I caught him clinging to his familiar, tears streaking down his cheeks.