Saintly Book Pavilion.
Aililan had borrowed quite a few books.
There were general histories of the Starlane Continent, as well as knowledge about city governance. The enormous, resplendent stained glass windows poured clear light onto the scene, making both the place and the girl’s flawless face as picturesque as a painting.
“ε=(´ο｀*))) Sigh!”
With a light sigh, Aililan took off her Saint Crown of Thorns and placed it into a box inlaid with golden gems. The maid behind her immediately stepped forward to hold the box.
She gathered up the borrowed books.
When she stepped out of the Saintly Book Pavilion.
Aililan boarded a carriage and, together with her attendants, made her way toward the Holy Land City Gate.
An elite knight order had been waiting there for quite some time. The knights all wore silver-white armor, and behind them was a contingent of fifteen hundred servitors, all serving the five hundred Chastity Knights.
But don’t think of them as mere servitors and assume they’re just riffraff. They had another title: Reserve Knights.
Chastity Knight—Squire—Page—Servitor.
It could be said that every noble Chastity Knight started out as a servitor.
Fina Nisi, seeing the young lady arrive, gave the knight’s salute and said, “Saintess Aililan, you’re here.”
From inside the carriage, Aililan replied, “Yes, let’s depart!”
At the same time, she took out a roster for the Chastity Knights and reviewed it.
Aililan believed it was absolutely necessary to promote a few loyal followers of her own, lest she end up leading the Chastity Knights but find no one listens to her, how laughable would that be?
After a full day’s journey.
The troops strictly obeyed Aililan’s commands.
They made camp outside a quiet village, not disturbing the villagers unless absolutely necessary.
But she had overlooked the influence she wielded as Saintess. At dusk, the Village Head, along with the village’s most respected residents, knelt outside the camp in tears. “O most sincere and holy Chastity Saintess! Have we done something wrong, that you would abandon us? Why do you pass by our village without entering?”
Aililan heard the commotion.
She immediately appeared outside the camp.
Seeing the frightened and weeping Village Head, she realized her thinking had fallen into a rut.
Perhaps people fear the disasters of war, but she was the Saintess! In the eyes of the devout, such a Saintess must have come to bestow blessings. But if she didn’t enter the village? The faithful would begin to wonder if they had been forsaken.
“Village Head, please rise.”
“Saintess, please grace our village with your presence. If I can’t welcome you to Feileize Village today, I will no longer have the face to serve as Village Head.”
“I have seen your devotion. I will accompany you into the village.”
Aililan agreed to their request.
“Thank you, thank you, Saintess!”
The villagers were filled with joy and celebration.
Radiant as the moon and stars, she was escorted into the village by the crowd.
But after she left.
Vice-captain Pella gave a cold snort. “If we’d known this, we might as well have camped in the village from the start. Now look, our Saintess is off to enjoy herself, eating and drinking.”
“Vice-captain Pella, I can’t agree with you,” a tall knight reminded her. “Her Highness the Saintess is only responding to the prayers of the villagers.”
“Sun Knight Renata, mind your words and actions. You’re just a Squad Leader, are you trying to tell me how to do my job? Are you teaching me how to lead? Is this what your knight’s education taught you?”
“I…”
Sun Knight Renata was momentarily at a loss for words. She was not someone skilled at arguing.
She could only clench her fists.
In the end, she could only bow her head in helpless apology.
There was nothing she could do; authority crushes all. Even if her strength or even the strength of all five Squad Leaders of the Chastity Knights, surpassed that of the Vice-captain, what difference did it make?
Pella was Grandmaster Fina Nisi’s favorite. Just that fact alone meant they would never have their day in the sun.
She glanced in the direction of the village.
Renata felt a pang in her heart.
She didn’t want anyone to belittle the Saintess, but she also feared that, as Vice-captain Pella implied, the Saintess had abandoned everyone to spend the night in the village.
Meanwhile, inside the village, Aililan met with the villagers and performed a Miracle.
Mainly ‘Holy Light Healing’ and ‘Exorcism’, treating some of the wounded villagers, and finally concluded with a ‘Holy Light Blessing’.
Did anyone really think that Aililan had entered the village just to enjoy herself?
Healing and saving lives.
This was also a central tenet of the Church.
That was why members of the Chanting Church were always so warmly welcomed when passing through villages.
Bathed in the blessed Holy Light, the villagers were excited. “Respected Saintess, we have prepared the best room for you; you may rest here for the night.”
But Aililan shook her head, politely refusing. “I appreciate your kindness, but my loyal knights are still waiting for me. I hope you’ll understand my difficulty.”
Seeing this,
the villagers no longer pressed the matter.
The Village Head waved at the villagers, who promptly brought forth various valuables from their person. Even the poorest tried to offer some dried meat.
Aililan merely walked to a vine, plucked a bunch of grapes, and said, “You need not do this. This bunch of grapes is the best thank-you gift I could receive!”
When Aililan left, she firmly forbade them from giving her anything more, even playfully threatening that if they did, she wouldn’t visit the village again.
Soon after.
Aililan returned to the camp.
“Saintess!!!” A tall figure, calling out excitedly from afar, couldn’t help but wish to scoop Aililan up and spin her around a few times.
How uncomfortable she had felt before, now she was just that overjoyed.
Renata desperately wanted to lift her Saintess high and declare to everyone, “See? My Saintess isn’t anything like what you think!”
“You are Sun Knight Renata?”
“You know my name?”
“Not only do I know your name, I know you are a master of the two-handed sword. At fourteen, you stood alone against a pack of wolves to protect your village. At sixteen, you singlehandedly wiped out a major bandit stronghold. At seventeen, you joined the Chastity Knights, and in less than a year, you became one of the five Squad Leaders.”
“I, I…” Renata was so excited she could barely speak.
Aililan brought her hands together before her chest in a gesture of blessing, her eyes sparkling and full of longing. “I’ve always been paying attention to you! I often imagine, if you were fighting off those wolves, and I were behind you casting healing spells, how wonderful it would be to adventure and battle together.”
Renata’s eyes suddenly turned red: I… (want to cry)
‘Grr~’
But just then, the Saintess’s stomach made a suspicious noise.
Aililan stuck out her tongue, a little embarrassed. “Well then, my esteemed Sun Knight Renata, would you take me to dinner?”
“What, you didn’t eat in the village?”
“Knight Renata, had I stayed in the village, they’d surely have offered me their very best. The villagers already live hard enough. It would only make things worse. As the Saintess, it is even more important I set an example. Don’t you agree?”
Renata spoke with firm conviction. “You did the right thing. Truly, really you did very, very well.”
Such a merciful and noble Saintess, so that in her mind, only two words remained:
Utmost Sincerity!