I lowered my hands and glanced at Canopus who was still sprawled out on the ground. Before my very eyes, the knight who had been gasping for breath just moments before suddenly sat up with surprising vigor.
“Princess Serafina, I’m healed,” he said, as if he was making a mundane remark about the day’s weather. The other knights, however, looked like their eyes were going to pop out of their skulls.
“Really?” I asked. “The magic worked without a problem, so physically you should be fine. But shouldn’t you check if you can actually move around properly?”
“The breathlessness, numbness, and chills that I had earlier are all gone now. I’ve fully recovered beyond a shadow of a doubt. There’s no need to check anything.”
“Is that so? You don’t feel bad at all?” As I piled on the questions, Canopus’s expression darkened.
“Well, in a way, I feel completely awful. After merely eating dinner, I fell ill to the point of causing trouble for you, Princess Serafina. I feel so ashamed that I’d crawl into a hole in the ground if I could.”
“Huh?!”
The cause of Canopus’s poor health was that he had eaten poisonous cockatrice meat. Once he’d ingested the poison, he’d need the help of a saint to survive. There was no reason for him to be sorry about what happened.
“That’s what saints are for,” I said cheerfully, trying to make it sound like something simple and not a big deal at all. But Canopus shook his head vigorously in response.
“No, you went above and beyond the role of saint! With this many men down and the limited number of saints available, the main priority would be to heal everyone to the point where no one dies.”
Hmm. That was the same thing Sirius had told me earlier. I was a little surprised that their responses were practically identical, but Canopus continued, his voice sounding glum.
“I was wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“You healed multiple knights at once on the battlefield before—that in itself is an anomaly. Having witnessed one unfamiliar spell after another and being overwhelmed by a constant stream of unbelievable events, it felt like my senses became numbed. As a result, I blindly accepted that you could cast an area-of-effect spell like this. However, I’ve finally had an awakening.”
“An awakening?”
Canopus might have been limp as a rag doll before, but he’d been conscious and alert the entire time. How could he have been awakened if he was never asleep to start with? I was puzzling over what he meant when a chorus of startled yelps from behind me interrupted my thoughts.
“P-Princess Serafina, what in the world is going on here?”
“How was everyone cured from just one spell?!”
“What just happened?!”
It was Mirach, Fackt, and Scheat.
I turned to look at them, wondering if they were talking about the detoxification magic that I’d cast earlier. At the time, I’d asked them to close their eyes for a moment. Being the obedient knights they were, I was sure they would’ve complied and missed seeing the magic I cast. But for some reason, all three of them defied me and opened their eyes. Not only that, but they didn’t even try to hide their disobedience, going on and on in disbelief about what I’d just done.
“I heard detoxification magic is incredibly difficult! Thinking back to when you healed people on the battlefield, your magic works on multiple people, doesn’t it, Princess?! It’s just completely beyond common sense to think that would apply to detoxification spells as well!”
Well, maybe that common sense worked for knights, but that didn’t mean it was the same for saints.
Besides, that’s not the problem at hand here, I thought as I asked suspiciously, “Why didn’t the three of you keep your eyes closed?”
My carefully concocted plan of having the knights avoid culpability—and Sirius’s wrath—by not seeing me cast the detoxification magic had all been in vain.
Seeing my face fall, Canopus interjected, “There’s something that takes higher priority for the royal guards than obeying commands, and that’s protecting you, Princess Serafina. When you cast the detoxification magic, the entire place erupted into chaos. The knights had no choice but to open their eyes so they could assess what was going on.”
Perhaps. But considering what they’d said, I got the feeling their eyes were open well before I cast that spell…
“Well, it would take a long time to remove everyone’s poison individually, so I decided to use magic that could do it all in one go.”
All four of them—including Canopus—had been hammering me with the same questions for a while, but when I answered honestly, they shook their heads as if they couldn’t accept my response.
“To save time, you say? No, no…we’re not asking the reason why you did it. We’re just shocked that you could do something like that.”
“After all, no other saints are able to use area-of-effect magic.”
“What? Really?”
Thinking back to the battle with the fenrirs, the saints were only healing one knight at a time. And even now, when so many of them were afflicted by food poisoning, they were going around from individual to individual. Maybe there was a rule within the Saint Knight Brigade that said you could only heal one person at a time?
“I guess it’s considered better to heal one person at a time since it uses less magic?” I wondered aloud, puzzled as to why such a rule would be in place. Just then, I saw Sirius striding toward us from the back of the room.
Uh-oh. Fearing he might be angry with me, I tried to run away. But before I could take a single step, he was standing right in front of me.
“Serafina, did you cast mass detoxification magic?!” He questioned as he gazed down at me, a shocked expression plastered on his face.
“…Heh heh!”
His expression set alarm bells ringing through my mind. He seemed to suspect that I was the one who had cured everyone of their food poisoning. He had explicitly told me not to fully heal the knights, and I was sure he’d be upset if he learned I’d broken that promise after all.
In that case, it was time to try a new tactic—never admitting it was me. I’d just smile and laugh, brushing him off with no real response, and try to gloss over the situation.
However, Sirius seemed to misinterpret my intentions, and his expression hardened.
“…I see. You’re right. There’s no need for all the knights to be made aware of what an exceptional saint you are at this current junction.” Sirius clenched his lips tightly, then reached out and gently ruffled my hair. “As you wish,” he said, smiling as if he had given up on something. “We’ll keep the fact that you’re the saint who detoxified all the knights a secret. Serafina, you’ve saved me yet again.”
Oh drat! Sirius figured out that I was the one behind what had happened. Maybe he was just too clever when it came to me.
I still needed to stay levelheaded, though. I couldn’t let his gentle manner trick me into admitting the truth.
“Serafina, as the leader of the brigade, allow me to express a few words of gratitude: Thank you for saving my knights.” With those words, a genuine smile of delight spread across his face.
The decision not to say anything in return was causing my heart to ache. Ngh! Sirius looked so darn happy. It wouldn’t be right for me to not accept his feelings…
“…You’re welcome,” I said with marked hesitation, but this only made his smile widen even more.
His joy seemed to flow into me, and I couldn’t help but feel happy too. Yep, Sirius really loved those knights of his. And I adored them too, of course! Even if I got scolded a little, my feelings for them wouldn’t change!
With a mirthful expression, I threw my arms around Sirius and gave him a big, tight hug.
“I’ll heal the knights wherever and whenever!” I proclaimed.
“Thank you, Serafina.” Sirius said, his face creasing into a gentle smile once more.