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AFTER we finished eating breakfast, Professor Martinez and I set about working in the fields.
“Madam Monica, we’re severely understaffed for the care of the children at Temporary Base D. Might I impose upon you to help? Even if you can only spare time in the morning.” A maid came running up to me, panting for breath. “One of the women who works there went into labor, so we needed to make the preparations for the birth. We can try to find someone else, but it would be best for the children to be looked after by someone they know…”
“Understood.”
I washed the dirt off my hands and stood up. Next to me, Professor Martinez frowned.
“Lady saint, you do realize it hasn’t been that long since His Highness rebuked you?”
“It’ll be fine. Just like this field, the base is within the walled area and the knights are there too. We’ll keep this a secret from Richard, hm?”
“A secret… Hmmm… A difficult request indeed.”
“Please? Pretty please?”
“How about this… I’ll inform him, but will make sure to tell him the reason why. After all, it’s not like we can stop the helper from giving birth, eh?”
“Thank you so much, Professor!”
As usual, Solarus had been waiting silently for me. Once the professor and I finished talking, I took her with me and we followed the maid to help care for the children.
“Ummm, let’s see, Temporary Base D…”
The castle was partitioned into sections by several walls, and Temporary Base D was in one of them. Dozens of children and their guardians were in the square normally used by the knights for their military exercises. I also spotted two knights standing on guard. On the other side of the square was an old, two-storied wooden lodge. It was currently being utilized as Temporary Base D.
“Ah… I can definitely see why there aren’t enough adults here,” I said.
Hands on my hips, I watched the children run around and play all over the area. They ranged in age from newborns to around ten years old and they vastly outnumbered the grownups in this cramped space. This many little ones meant lots of personalities, which made it so much easier for arguments and scuffles to occur between them. On top of all that, these children had escaped from monster attacks, so they most certainly needed adults to look after both their minds and bodies.
“Ah! It’s Madam Monica!”
“Monica, Monica! Luka’s fighting again.”
“Monicaaa! Let’s make mud balls again!”
As soon as they noticed me, they bounded toward me all at once.
I became busy then. I pacified boys who accidentally broke things when they tussled with each other. I held small children who trembled from their memories of the monster attacks and cast calming magic on them with the Witches of Peace incantation. I helped the adults caring for the babies and toddlers by purifying dirty clothes through magic.
“Goddess of dew! O, goddess of dew, may your power cleanse and cast the filth into Venus’s river!”
The laundry floating in the air was engulfed in pure white foam and agitated vigorously in a circular motion. Clean now, the clothes and sheets all settled gently inside the basket. Not a wrinkle in sight. It was a magic that incorporated the blessing of the goddess presiding over housework and put it into practical use. Although there were self-operating magical apparatuses in the Empire that cleaned and laundered, in Kophe, humans still needed to perform these tasks.
“Haaa… I’m so glad I learned laundry magic in the Empire…”
I headed toward the old lodge from the washing area. Solarus was inside, skillfully cleaning the corridor.
“I cleaned the windows, performed pest control, and sorted the daily necessities,” she said.
“Thank you.”
She glanced at the children outside with expressionless eyes, then murmured quietly. “I… I’m not very good with children, you see.”
I nodded while helping up a child who had crashed into my legs. “Solarus, I’d be much more shocked if you were good at it.”
“Temperamentally, I’m vastly more suited to spanking adults to the brink of tears than soothing crying children.”
“Why am I not surprised…”
I suspected the children sensed Solarus’s forceful nature too. They played tricks on me without reserve, but they did nothing whatsoever to her. Even the most mischievous boys fled at a single look from her.
“I see you’re done with the laundry.” With her slender frame, she hefted a mountain of sheets. “I’ll be back after I carry these to their rightful place.”
“Thank you, you’re a lifesaver. Right then, what’s next…”
I suddenly felt a presence, so I turned around. A girl of around fourteen years stood right behind me. I hadn’t even heard her walk up to me. Her simple clothes marked her as a village girl. Based on the stained apron she wore over them, I assumed she was a child minder too. Though her clothes were clean, her arms and legs were stick-thin. Her complexion was awful and her chestnut-colored hair, unkempt. If she was malnourished, then she might actually be older than I thought.
“Um, Madam Monica…” She faltered, as if she couldn’t bring herself to say whatever it was she wanted to. I drew close to her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Her huge, sunken eyes pierced straight through me, refusing to look away. She leaned unsteadily against me. She must be feeling unwell. Was she hungry? Just as those thoughts flashed through my mind.
Plunge.
“Ngh…!”
A burning sensation in my stomach. Followed immediately by a savage pain. She mustered what strength she had left in those thin arms and twisted the blade deeper into me, her teeth chattering the whole time.
“It’s your fault! It’s your fault! It’s your fault, Madam Monica! You threw us away, Madam Monica! You abandoned Kophe while you wore your pretty clothes and smiled! You abandoned us! Can’t forgive you! Won’t forgive you! Can’t! Can’t! Can’t!!!”
My snow-white saintly attire turned red with blood.
My stomach felt like it was on fire. The agony and the shock almost made me wild with panic, but I suppressed it with reason. I held my breath and looked around. A woman and children who noticed something was wrong started approaching me. I couldn’t let the little ones see this. I grabbed the girl’s hands, then looked at the woman, shaking my head frantically. Run, go! I hoped she understood my signal.
The woman gasped with realization then nodded once before fleeing far away, taking the children in tow with her.
I stared at the girl in front of me. She was pale and trembling violently.
“Ah…”
She finally realized the gravity of what she’d done when blood gushed copiously from where she stabbed me.
“It…it’s your fault, Madam Monica… You left us…behind…”
A cold, greasy sweat slicked my skin. I smiled at her as best I could.
“I’m sorry…for forcing you to this point…”
I myself had no idea why I smiled. But I thought I needed to, I needed to let her know that it was all right, that I forgave her.
“Madam Monica!”
A clear, ringing voice pierced the air. In the next instant, the girl was bound from head to toe in rope—Solarus. Her eyes desperate, she tied the girl up.
“Don’t hurt her, spare…her…life…” I choked out.
“Madam Monica, don’t talk!” Solarus rushed to me after dragging the girl away. I showed her my red-stained stomach. I heard her inhale sharply at the sight.
“Solarus,” I said. “I’ll stitch the wound as you pull out the blade… P-Pull slowly. Slowly, okay?”
“Understood.” She nodded. I cast my supernatural saintly magic on my own stomach.
“Ngh— Ahhh….!”
I stopped the flow of blood. Then, from the inside and outside, I inspected the organs, muscles, and nerves severed by the knife. Once Solarus started pulling it out slowly, I sutured the wound in time with her movement using my powers.
“Haaa… Agh! Ngh… Ah…! Ow— Mmmpf!”
I didn’t have the wherewithal to anesthetize myself with magic. The wound itself was agonizing enough, but suturing it through magic added another dimension of pain, a burning sensation. The sweat continued pouring out of me. The excruciating agony was the only thing keeping me from fainting from blood loss. It was a vicious, never-ending loop.
“Haa, haa… Ahhh…” I gasped and panted.
At long last, Solarus pulled the knife completely free and the cycle ended.
“Well done, my lady. And I’m so sorry…”
She loosened my clothing and wiped away the blood covering my stomach. When the sunlight illuminated my midsection and I saw no scars, I wondered why my body felt so cold.
Then, in the next moment, I fell unconscious.