I sat by the edge of the lake in the Forest of Lent and scooped the water into my hands. The water here was said to improve your health, and even though it never had any effect on my eyes, I still drank it out of habit.
Later, I was sitting in the shade under a tree, thinking that today was awfully hot, when a cold chill suddenly ran up my spine.
“Huh? Wh-what is this feeling?!” I let out a frightened yelp. I’d never experienced anything like this before, so I had no idea what was happening.
Seven instantly jumped out in front of me. “Fi! Are you okay?!” He looked around to see if everyone around me was fine and then said frantically, “You have to hurry back to the villa! Monsters have gotten into the forest!”
“Whaaat?!” I cried in shock.
I’d never seen a single monster in all my years of being here. In fact, I’d never seen a monster in my entire life. I knew that something major had happened, and my heart began to race.
I began pacing around in a panic, which caused my guards to sharply question me. “Princess Serafina, is something the matter?”
“Monsters! They might be in the forest!”
When I let them know what Seven told me, the knights gasped in surprise. One of them crouched in front of me and spoke. “Princess Serafina, this is an emergency. May I have your permission to carry you?”
“S-sure.”
From his voice, I knew that it was Xeno, one of the knights who came with Sirius.
As Xeno lifted me up, one of the other knights blew a horn to signal an emergency. The shrill noise rang out while Xeno clutched me and began running for the villa.
“The monsters are plant-types,” a floating Seven explained to me as he kept pace with Xeno. “I’m guessing that birds dropped a bunch of monster seeds in here. They’re not considered threats when they’re just seeds, so that’s what got them through the spirits’ barrier and into the forest. And thanks to the heat today, they all sprouted at once.”
“Oh, no!”
“You sense it too, right? The monsters are getting stronger. They’re the type to grow superfast.”
I blinked, startled. It was just as Seven said—the bad energy in the forest was growing stronger. A wave of sickness unlike anything I had ever felt before washed over me.
Just then, Xeno came to a halt. I heard the other knights’ footsteps stop as well. I looked up warily and could sense some kind of creature was moving in front of us.
This was bad, no doubt about it.
“Seven?” I called out hesitantly.
“Yup,” he said tersely before launching into an explanation on what I couldn’t see. “There are monsters in front of us. They look like carnivorous plants with long vines, and they’re twice as big as the knights. There are five, six, seven of them—and five more behind us. We’re surrounded.”
“But they’re plants…”
“That’s just their type. They’re monsters, so they can move around. Worse, this species is really fast.”
While Seven was explaining this to me, I heard the sound of swords being drawn from their sheaths at multiple points around me. There was a loud crrrrk, as if the swords were striking the plants, followed by a harsh metallic noise.
I held my breath at the sudden start of battle. I heard a whoosh, as if something had just gotten slashed.
Soon after, the knights started crying out in pain.
“S-Seven?” I asked, my voice trembling.
After a short silence, Seven responded in a strained tone. “The knights are in a bad position. The monsters are strong, and there are a lot of them. They’re steadily closing in on us too. I dunno how we can get out of this.”
At that moment, I felt a rush of wind near my face, accompanied by a sharp whipping noise.
Some kind of liquid splattered on my face, and the knight carrying me groaned in pain.
“Xe…Xeno?” I shakily called out the knight’s name.
Xeno replied with ragged breath. “My shoulder took a wee bit of damage. We’re in a bit of a pickle—I can’t find an escape route.” He paused. “You’ll have to wait until help arrives from the villa.”
“That won’t be easy,” was my immediate thought. The lake was located deep in the forest, much too far from the villa for anyone to come help us right away.
What was I to do? I was sure that pretty much every knight here was injured, and none of them could use healing magic—only me.
“Let me down, Xeno.”
Knowing this, I had to help the knights. It was a saint’s role to save people.
“Xeno, please! You can’t dodge the monsters while you’re carrying me. You have to hold your sword to protect me.” When I changed my wording to sound more reasonable, Xeno finally lowered me to the ground.
But…I couldn’t see. When I decided to help the knights, I didn’t know where they were, or where the enemy was. I strained my ears, trying to work out where everyone was standing, but all I could hear was a stream of painful cries. My stomach twisted in panic and confusion.
“Oh, Sirius!” I muttered the name pleadingly, without even thinking.
And then…
“Serafina! Are you okay?!”
Unbelievably, Sirius’s voice came ringing back.
“What? S-Sirius?!”
My voice came out sounding hoarse, but luckily Sirius seemed to notice me. “Serafina, it’s going to be okay!” he said reassuringly. “Leave it to me. I’ll be there with you in a bit!”
Oddly enough, just hearing that put me at ease.
Even though the villa was so far away, Sirius realized the danger and arrived faster than anyone could have imagined. He did the impossible, and now that he was here, I knew I would be just fine.
But of course, things weren’t so simple. At some point, more monsters had joined the first twelve. As if to affirm my fears, I heard the sounds of bodies being pierced from all directions, plus the knights crying out in pain. This was followed by Sirius’s unending assurances of “You’ll be okay” and “This will be over soon.”
I clenched my hands together, breathing in and out slowly, and went back to focusing on my surroundings. Although Sirius’s appearance had changed the situation for the better, I could sense that the knights were still getting hurt.
I wanted to help them, even if it was only a tiny bit. I was a saint, after all.
As soon as that thought ran through my head, everything around me fell into a hush. I tried to figure out what was going on, but since there was no sound, I couldn’t tell what had happened.
Later on, I heard that the monsters surrounding the knights stopped in unison at that moment. The knights had readied themselves in preparation for some kind of attack—and that was when the monsters all began spewing pollen at the same time.
“Ahh?!”
Even without my eyes, I could tell that a strong magic spell had just activated—a status affliction.
Every knight in the area got paralyzed. The tiny pollen-like magic invaded their bodies and froze them in place instantly. The seriousness of the affliction depended on how tough the person was and how much pollen fell on them, but over half the knights were unable to move at all.
“Urk…!” “Argh!” They groaned.
“Hold your breath!” Sirius’s voice rang out. “Don’t inhale the pollen!”
“Oh, good,” I thought. The sound of his strong voice relieved me. It meant that he hadn’t taken too much damage.
But the situation was definitely getting worse by the second.
“Serafina, hold your breath as much as you can!” Sirius called out to me as he struck a monster.
I was worried that I might take a lot of damage because I was so tiny…but since I was a saint, my body automatically cured any paralysis I received. I could defend myself against the affliction before it even affected me. This meant that I was as healthy as ever. I concentrated hard on my surroundings—my head was shouting that I had to do something for the knights who were protecting me.
But there was a part of me that wanted to start crying.
Because, just like before, I couldn’t tell who was injured, who was in danger, or even where the knights and enemies were. A blind girl like me couldn’t save her knights.
For the very first time, I cursed my inability to see.
Since I’d been blind from birth, I’d always thought of it as normal. My condition made it possible for me to sense the spirits, which made it easier to accept. Only now did it occur to me that my abilities weren’t enough. It wouldn’t have mattered if all I wanted to do was just survive, but I wanted to be a saint. I needed my eyes to see the battlefield if I was going to save those knights.
There was no wavering in my mind at that moment. The answer came to me right away…
I’ll be a saint and save those knights.
That feeling was stronger than anything in the world.
I reached my hands out to the sky and spoke in the spirit language.
“O Spirit Lord, I thank you for all the blessings you have given me. You have been so gracious with me.”
As the sky swallowed my voice, multiple peals of light began glimmering around me. They belonged to Seven and all the other spirits.
“Serafina understands us, Your Majesty.”
“Serafina can speak with us, Your Majesty. That voice you hear is hers.”
“Please show Serafina this beautiful world, Your Majesty.”
Somewhere far, far above me, all the way beyond the sky, I felt someone break out into a smile. And then something bright and glittering came falling from the heavens. The moment the light touched my eyelids, the weight over my eyes disappeared, and the block in my vision vanished in an instant.
For the first time in my life, I opened my eyes.