I was wondering if I had been mistaken in thinking that the saints were curious, when suddenly, a small round of applause broke out.
I looked over and saw Charlotte clapping enthusiastically with her small hands.
It seemed like they were expressing their welcome.
I was happy that Charlotte was the master of consideration, applauding even to me, a spectator, but the saint next warned me, "Charlotte, this is not the time to applaud."
Well, I felt bad for Charlotte because she had applauded with good intentions, but before I could open my mouth, Lloyd spoke some soothing words.
"I hope you will overlook Saint Charlotte's actions. She welcomed us and made me happy." (Lloyd)
After warning Charlotte, the Saint gave a blank look and turned away, causing Lloyd to give her a wry smile.
Dorothee witnessed the whole exchange, but did not intervene, and instead resumed her explanation as if nothing had happened.
"Saints are special women who have been given a blessing, and there are only a limited number of them. Aside from the cathedral and large churches, the royal castle is the only facility that has 20 of these saints. The main duties of the saints here are to accompany the Knights on their monster exterminations, to heal the sick, and to make healing potions."
After hearing Dorothee's explanation, I tilted my head in confusion.
I thought that if healing the sick was one of their main businesses, it would have been great if Estelle of Count Peiz's family had been cured here as well.
Count Peiz was a nobleman, so maybe he could have used that position to ask the holy maidens working at the royal castle to treat his daughter.
My doubts seemed to show on my face, so Lloyd, who was observing me next to me, added some detail.
"The duties of the Holy Maiden who works at the Royal Castle are limited to matters related to the Royal Castle. Furthermore, since a large amount of magical power is required to heal the sick, they are only able to heal the royal family. If there is a high-ranking noble or official who is dying in the Royal Castle, you might be lucky enough to be able to heal them, but that's about it." (Lloyd)
I remembered that in the past, the Saints who accompanied me on a monster subjugation trip had to deal with three people just to heal an injury.
Based on that image, if someone was sick, they might need more people to respond.
If that's the case, then as Lloyd said, it would be impossible to deal with the problem unless we limit the target group.
"I see" (Fia)
I nodded in understanding, and Lloyd spread his arms wide as if he had no other choice.
"Yeah, 20 people might seem like a lot compared to other facilities, but considering the size of the royal castle, it's not enough at all. To be honest, we don't have the manpower to spare elsewhere."
If we follow Lloyd's words, there were fewer Saints than we thought.
300 years ago, more than half of women were saints, so that number had decreased quite a bit.
Lloyd, perhaps thinking something of my sudden silence, twisted his lip sarcastically.
"Those who are basking in the blessings may not notice, but the knights who are allowed to accompany the Saint on monster exterminations are extremely privileged. It's a privilege only granted because the Chief Saint is the Queen." (Lloyd)
Now that I thought about it, I remembered when I went to defeat monsters with Red, Green, and Blue, I was surprised that none of them got hurt at all.
At that time, when I asked the three why they didn't get injured, they replied something like, "Saintess is an accompaniment to royalty and nobility, and never accompanies adventurers. Even if you drink healing potions, it takes time for your injuries to heal, so you move around in a way that won't get you hurt."
In other words, it's likely that there were limited cases where a Saint would accompany a monster extermination.
"There really aren't that many Saints, huh?" (Fia)
When I blurted out my thoughts like that, he nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. And in this world of few Saints, there is a hierarchical society with the Chief Saint at the top. Generally, one does not dare go against a higher ranking Saint." (Lloyd)
"I see." (Fia)
I suddenly remembered hearing that the higher-ranking saints were ranked.
Will that hierarchy be re-established when selecting the Chief Saint?
If that's the case, then since the Chief Saint selection meeting was apparently only held once every 10 or 20 years, did that mean the rankings never change during that time?
Furthermore, what would happen to the ranking of those who had newly become saints, like Charlotte?
The questions began to form in my mind, but they didn't seem like things I should ask Charlotte about, so I put them away and decided to ask her later.
Captain Cyril, Captain Desmond, Curtis, Fabian, Cerulean... Just thinking about it for a moment brought to mind many people who would have been able to answer the question easily, so I felt relieved that there were a lot of knowledgeable people in the world and decided to put it off.
Ha ha ha, even if I don't know much about something, as long as I know someone who can answer any question, it'll be fine, so the best thing to have are smart acquaintances.
Thinking that I had finally grasped the truth of the world, I laughed to myself, when Lloyd looked at me in amazement.
However, Lloyd quickly regained his composure and turned to Dorothee.
"By the way, what were the Saints doing in this room?" (Lloyd)
Dorothee looked around at the saints in the hall, then at Lloyd.
"Because the amount of magical power a Saint has is limited, the amount of magic she can use in a day is limited. Also, after using a large amount of magical power, such as accompanying a monster subjugation, she cannot use magic for three days. Because of this, they have been improving themself in ways that do not require magical power."
I blinked, wondering what that meant specifically, but Lloyd seemed to understand and nodded with a smile.
"I see. I wonder if the Saints reading books by the window were improving their knowledge of medicinal herbs?"
"That's right. There are a total of 82 types of medicinal herbs, but among them, there are many that look similar to weeds and can only be found in special places, so they were studying them by comparing the actual herbs with the illustrated guide."
As I was listening to the explanation, I instinctively looked over to the window and saw a basket filled with medicinal herbs along with an illustrated guide on a table near the sofa.
Therefore, Lloyd had spoken to Priscilla with admiration, saying, "They are devout saints," but that's not what we should be focusing on here...
"…………"
Charlotte looked at me timidly, and before I knew it, we're staring at each other.
…That's right. Charlotte had previously told me that there are currently only 82 types of herbs designated as medicinal herbs, and I was surprised.
There were many more varieties of medicinal herbs used, but it seemed that the number had decreased to a fraction of what it was in the last 300 years.
Of course, there were many other medicinal herbs still in existence besides the 82 species, but knowledge of them seemed to have been lost, and they were now simply regarded as weeds.
Just as I was feeling disappointed that there used to be 300 or 400 types of medicinal herbs, I heard Priscilla's proud voice reply to Lloyd, "I remember all of the medicinal herbs in the encyclopedia."
"That's amazing. Have you ever used all 82 of those herbs, Priscilla?" (Lloyd)
Lloyd asked curiously, and Priscilla was at a loss for words for a moment, but then quickly answered sharply.
"Of the 82 species, about 20 are extremely difficult to obtain. Furthermore, five of those are so rare that even the illustrated guide states, 'You will be blessed if you can see even one of them in your lifetime.'" (Priscillia)
"…………"
My eyes met Charlotte's again.
Previously, Charlotte had asked me to bring back some rare medicinal herbs as a souvenir from Sutherland, so I brought back three types of herbs that had caught my eye in Sutherland.
Although I had given them to Charlotte in the hope that she would be happy with them, I was met with wide eyes when she told me that they were all items that would be found on the most difficult page of the herb encyclopedia.
I thought I had collected beautiful herbs in yellow, red, and green—"Yellow Wind Flower", "Red Sweet Fruit" (only the sweet ones), and "Sea Leaf"—but it seemed they were now extremely rare medicinal herbs.
"I don't want to cause any trouble," she said, staring at the floor and keeping her mouth shut. One of the Saints, who seemed to have been annoyed by what Priscilla had said, spoke in a mocking voice.
"Well, I guess you're not that great! Even a young Charlotte like her can easily get your hands on some super rare herbs."
"What's that?"
Priscilla glared at Charlotte, and Charlotte jumped in surprise.
Then Charlotte looked up at Priscilla in confusion and remained silent, so the Saint behind her took over and continued in a mocking voice.
"That's right, Charlotte got three types of plants: the 'Yellow Wind Flower', the 'Red Sweet Fruit', and the 'Sea Leaf'! Hehehe, I wonder if they're the most difficult ones according to the encyclopedia?"
That's true. Thinking about it, Charlotte wouldn't have kept the herbs for herself.
That was how she was analyzing her personality, but when she suddenly looked up, she saw the triumphant saints of the royal castle, Priscilla glaring at them in anger, and Charlotte looking down in the middle.
Author's Note
As always, thank you for reading!
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