I wander around town, looking for an open space where I can train, when I come across three ruffians.
All three have bad looks on their faces, and also scars. They stand in front of me, blocking the way, and then approach me with vulgar smiles.
“Hey bro. We’re short on cash. Wanna help us out?”
The guy in the middle is waving a knife near my nose with his right hand. And the other two are giggling.
So they’re threatening me for money.
This sort of thing happened a few times in the capital too, so it’s nothing new to me, because they always looked and talked like this too.
I guess people’s characters show on their faces? Trash like Ruby, who has a nice face, can get by, but there’s no saving people like these three, who have ugly faces on top of everything else.
They withdraw from society, and become real trash.
“I don’t have money, but I have plenty of magic. And I can stuff it in your ugly faces too. The town would be a bit better without trash like you, right?”
If you show weakness to these people, they’ll start coming after you regularly, so it’s best to crush them quickly.
“Hey, can’t you see the knife!?”
The guy in front yells with anger, and presses the knife against my cheek.
It cuts me slightly and draws blood, but I can heal it with magic.
Most mages are bad at fighting up close, but I can use Physical Strengthening too, so I’m going to turn this guy into a pile of meat in a second.
But just as I’m thinking I don’t want to hear this annoying voice anymore, and I’m clenching my fist to take them down as a service to society…
“Stop your evil doing.”
A girl appears.
Her long silver hair looks like it’s shining, because it’s being illuminated by the moonlight.
She’s wearing a white outfit that exposes a lot, and clearly shows the contours of her body. I can see her shoulders, and her apron gives off a lewd impression as it hides part of her thighs.
Despite being shorter than me, she has long and slender legs.
The pièce de résistance is her beautiful face. I feel seriousness, wisdom, and tranquility from it. It’s like all the world’s beauty was stuffed into it, so I freeze for a bit.
“How long have you been there? The hell are you?”
“I’m not important enough to give my name. But if you must know, I am Iris, the saintess of justice.”
You did just tell him your name.
The girl proclaiming herself to be a saintess has a calm expression on her face. It gives off the feeling that she’s somewhat elated with herself right now.
“Nevermind that bro. She’s really good looking! Let’s do her!”
“Hehehe. I don’t know about saintesses or anything, but you’re gonna regret defying us.”
The ruffians are licking their lips and looking at Iris like predators.
That’s all they can think about when they see such a beautiful girl. They really are beyond saving.
“I-if you take one step closer, I’m going to freeze you all with magic.”
Hey, I’m here too. What’s with her? Is she going to freeze me with them?
She looks a little startled by what the ruffians said, and listening to this is making me really uneasy.
“Heh, try it then! Grab that saintess!”
“Kuh, To I, create the shape of ice…”
I can tell by the incantation that Iris is going for the ice spell Ice Spears.
It’s a powerful spell, but it’s also area of effect magic, so it’s hard to control, and it’s dangerous because it turns the whole area into a world of ice.
And at this rate, it’s going to catch me too.
But here’s my chance.
Their attention is on iris, so I twist the wrist of the guy in front of me to take his knife, and smack him into the ground with a shoulder throw, rendering him unconscious.
“Eh?”
It’s not just Iris, the other two are also surprised, but they can’t react to me.
I cast Lightning, a spell with a very short incantation time that’s good to suppress opponents, and quickly hit those two, also leaving them unconscious. It takes just a few seconds.
“Ice Spears is powerful, but its incantation is too long. And it hits both friend and foe too. The low rank spell Lightning is better in a situation like this.”
“Eh? Ah, yes. S-sorry…”
She’s pretty disheartened, because the guy that she was trying to save is now giving her pointers on how to handle magic. She looks really dejected.
That said, it’s not like she had bad intentions, so I try to cheer her up.
“But thanks. It’s because of you that I got out of that situation.”
She did help me, so I bow and thank her.
T-thank you…! Hearing that makes saving you worth it.”
She didn’t have to say that last part.
She’s a serious, nice girl, despite being a little clumsy. That’s my first impression of Iris.
“We haven’t introduced ourselves. I’m Iris the saintess, from the neighboring country.”
“Hold on. Is it okay for a saintess to leave her country?”
I’m not an expert on that, but saintesses have a special power called Divine Law that they use to purify the land.
In countries without a saintess, it’s easier for monsters to appear, the land withers, and in the end, they fall to ruin. That’s what I’ve heard.
“W-well… Actually, I was expelled from the country as a false saintess.”
She is a saint, but her uniform is so non-saint-like? Also, given how dangerous famine and monsters can be, I find it odd that a country would risk exiling a saint before proving whether or not she really is false. That is not even taking into account that healing magic is apparently rare in this setting. So if saints – even if ‘false’ – can still use healing magic, why would they allow such a rare and valuable resource to leave the country?
You’re thinking too much, that’s just a fantasy JP novel. It’s not like the Archbishop herself(Sword Maiden) on Goblin Slayer dressed that conservatively. Even on western side there’s the Warrior Nun series(comic). And other examples…
Ah… if we get her POV she’s just a Shoujo protagonist meeting her prince charming lol.