Level Up Saintess

Breakfast went as unsurprisingly as I expected it to. Meria still didn’t show up, so Chella sighed and left after she finished eating, off to deliver her food. The balding priest was still there looking awkward and shooting me apologetic glances, and the quiet priest completely stopped eating once we arrived, and basically pretended to be made of stone. It was like he thought if I didn’t see him I wouldn’t chew him out for being rude or something this time.

 

Ah whatever, I did my part. Change takes time, and I don’t have enough of that available to spend it all trying to convince any of them of anything. My last few days here wouldn’t be very enjoyable if I wasted them on these guys anyways. All I can hope is that they eventually take my words to heart and realize that they were wrong, I guess. And maybe since he feels guilty about it, I can recruit the Bishop to work on them in my place.

 

But really, considering I’ve never really succeeded at changing someone’s thoughts on something in my last life, my hope meter on the whole thing is starting to get really low...

 

~~~

 

The day didn’t go anywhere near how I’d wanted it to. As I should have expected, the people in town didn’t accept Kale with wide open arms; If anything, it seemed like a majority of the adult population rather hated or feared him. Luckily, the word about the Goddess’s oracle seemed to have gotten around somehow, so no one yelled at him that he was a slave or tried to force him to do anything, but that doesn’t mean they suddenly forgot all of their hostility against him. From what I’d learned about their war against the bird people, it would've been near impossible for them to accept Kale immediately... I really really couldn’t blame them for the way they were acting. But still, seeing them react to him like that was getting me very very miffed, I have to admit.

 

Oh well, change has to start somewhere.

I can only hope that me bringing Kale around like this and showing him off will help show that he’s not the monster they think he is.

And at least he should be safe next to me.

 

I’d tried to do my rounds at the adventurer’s guild, but over half the people there seemed a bit on edge with Kale around, and I only got to get about 80xp out of the place. It felt like complete chump change, but I couldn’t be too upset with it since I was now 1240/1500 towards leveling up. Every little bit counts, right? I have to keep telling myself that, or else I’ll let all this frustration get to me and end up snapping at everyone, and then even less people will want to let me heal them.

 

Honestly, I was stupid to have gone to the adventurer’s guild anyways. A lot of those adventurers would have known the town’s guards, or maybe were ex-guards themselves. It’s even possible that they were mercenaries during the war, if they were old enough. And there’s also the possibility that they or another adventurer that they knew in the past had once stumbled upon a bird-person during a quest outside the town and gotten hurt by one of them. Yeah, adventurers were definitely a no go until I left this town, I guess.

 

I figured I could still try my luck at the brothel at least, since Ferr was there and the girls didn’t seem like they’d have any reason to dislike the birds, so we headed there next.

 

“I’m sorry I’m putting you through all this, Kale.”

 

It’s not like I didn’t consider the option of leaving Kale at the church so he didn’t have to face all these awful looks, glares, and mean words that were pouring down on him, but that came with its own set of drawbacks, too. Like, what if Meria or the quiet priest did something to him while I wasn’t there? What if Kale felt lonely or abandoned while I was away, or thought that I was too ashamed of him to bring him out? Or what if Chella spoke nonsense to him like last time?!

 

Besides, leaving him in the building that he was abused in was an absolute no, so of course he was coming with me.

Maybe I wasn’t that amazing at fighting, but the best place for Kale would always be right by my side.

 

“I’m fine, Saintess. You don’t need to worry about me.”

 

I checked his face extra closely to try and see if I could find any secret traces of insincerity or sadness hidden on it, but his natural stoic-ness seemed to be winning out, so it was impossible to tell. Darn...

 

“Alright if you’re sure… But tell me if it gets to be too much, okay? After all, it’s not like I’m making you go through this because I want to or anything.”

 

“...Then why is the Saintess bringing me along? Is it not making things more difficult for you?”

 

Ah, yup, I’m an idiot. I never told Kale why I brought him with me today, did I? Hey, so what did he think I was doing, then?!

 

I gently bumped my arm against his as we walked, narrowing the distance between us.

 

“How else am I supposed to keep you safe if you aren’t with me? And didn’t I say I wanted to take you with me all those days ago? Well this is me doing exactly that!”

 

I crossed my arms and made a small hmphing sound, and I could see Kale slightly smile at my antics out of the corner of my eyes.

 

“Yes, that’s right, you did say that, Saintess… I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

“Good! You’d better!”

 

I gave one last playfully ‘hmph’ and then loosened my arms. The smile that he gave, although small, had sent my heart thumping a mile a minute. It made me feel like opening up to him a bit more.

 

“Besides…”

 

I leaned myself against him lightly, letting our arms touch each other. It felt… tingly somehow.

 

“You’re like my security blanket, Kale. I feel like I can’t breathe without you around...”

 

The small smile on Kale’s face faded away, seemingly being replaced by the widening of his eyes. Once again he was looking at me in all of his falcon-like glory, scanning over every bit of my face that he could. I still felt strange whenever his eyes changed like this and his face began to look less and less like the picture of my previous life’s Kale that I had in my mind… But maybe since I’ve been exposed to it so much over the past day, I’m starting to get a bit more comfortable seeing it. Doesn’t mean I don’t still secretly wish that he’d quickly put his face back into the Kale look that I know and love, though. It also doesn’t mean that it’s not embarrassing to be stared at like this, especially after what I just said…

 

I cleared my throat and tried to hold back a blush as I continued talking.

 

“Well anyways, at least no one should treat you weirdly at the brothel.”

 

Kale’s wide eyes quickly disappeared as a small look of confusion and concern washed over his face instead.

 

“...The brothel? Saintess, why…?”

 

Hm? Does Kale have something against brothels? I guess they make some people uncomfortable, don’t they... I bet brothels and whores would be even more stigmatized in these times than the one I came from, right?

 

“Do you not like it? Don’t worry, I’m just going to see a friend of mine and hopefully do some healing. We won’t be there for very long, I promise.”

 

The look on Kale’s face eased up a bit, but the way the feathers on the back of his head were still a little ruffled told me that there was still something he was unsure about.

 

“But Saintess…”

 

I walked in silence, letting him form his words together. It wouldn’t help either of us to rush him on this.

 

“...Correct me if I’m wrong, Saintess; I only loosely know about this country. Isn’t a ‘brothel’ a place where one would go to mate?”

 

…Oh? Well, he’s not wrong in a sense, but I wouldn’t say most people end up ‘mating’ there. Do bird people not have a concept of sex for the sake of recreation, or has Kale just been exceptionally sheltered all his life?

 

“Um… Well, Kale, a brothel is a building full of prostitutes, who give people pleasure in exchange for money. It’s not exactly ‘mating’, because they aren’t doing it to have a child or anything… It’s just, you know, for fun.”

 

Kale tilted his head as if he were having a hard time understanding what I was saying. Really, it’s interesting just how universal that head movement seemed to be amongst his kind. It’s always so cute to me, every time.

 

“...Then your friend is one of these ‘prostitutes’?”

 

“Mmm, technically no? She’s more their bodyguard from what she’s told me, although she does dabble in it a bit. Oh, but instead of prostitutes, it’s more common to hear them called whores. Not sure if they’re okay with being called that to their faces though; I’ll have to check about that.”

 

The more we talked about prostitutes and such, the more Kale’s feathers were starting to rise again, which was a little worrying to me. And the doubtful look in his eyes when he asked me his next question really struck me, since I couldn’t fathom what he could possibly be thinking.

 

“Are you and she going to do that together when we get there, then?”

 

Hah, what’s this? He was so nonchalant when Chella was teasing us yesterday, but now he’s all bent out of shape talking about it? Besides, can you imagine what Chella would do to me if she found out that I’d boinked her big sister/idol? She might just kill me!

It was all just too hilarious to me. I had to leave Kale hanging for a while until my giggles cooled down enough to explain everything, and afterwards Kale seemed quite embarrassed, even though his face returned to the perfect look of stoicness as always.