To Hell with Being a Saint, I’m a Doctor

She harbored some doubts.

She had scoured every corner of this area, save for the forest rumored to house the elves’ village.

Yet, she found no trace of the saint.

Thus, it was only logical to suspect the last unexplored forest.

Iriel made her decision and informed the priest and the dispatch troop.

When the saint turned around, they all halted in line.

Iriel surveyed everyone and unleashed her divine power.

Overpowered by her divine energy, they trembled.

But this was a calculated move on her part.

By displaying her divine power, she aimed to bolster her allies’ morale and strengthen her authority.

And it worked.

Their gazes shifted as they looked at her.

Then, she smiled radiantly and announced,

“Ensure your weapons are ready and your ranks are in order. We are heading to the elves’ territory.”

Iriel’s words shocked the dispatch troop, despite their high morale.

But since the words came from the saint, they held their tongues.

When everyone fell silent, the elderly priest leading the reconnaissance team addressed Iriel.

“The elves’ territory is forbidden for humans to enter, isn’t it?”

But Iriel looked perplexed, as if wondering what his concern was.

“We are merely going to have a conversation. Resorting to force should be our last option and avoided if possible.”

“…Understood.”

The priest realized she had no intention of instigating a fight.

Given her personality he had observed so far, he had assumed a fight was inevitable.

But before her personality, she was a strategist.

Even in the face of a volatile situation, she remained composed, thinking and acting in the most beneficial way. That was the current saint, Iriel.

Among the saints in history, she might not have possessed the most potent divine power, but she was reputed to have the most exceptional intellect.

It was uncertain how many thoughts were concealed behind her radiant smile.

As he bowed his head and retreated, Iriel scanned the crowd to see if there were any dissenting opinions.

But since the highest-ranking priest had backed down, there was no one brave enough to present a differing opinion.

With that, Iriel nodded her head and silently moved her steps.

The large-scale dispatch troops were moving all at once; they had to hurry to arrive by tomorrow.

It was impossible to arrive on the same day as they weren’t riding horses.

Moreover, entering the elves’ forest on horseback would be somewhat intimidating to them.

That’s why she didn’t bring horses from the Silia royal family.

She also didn’t want to be swept away by the atmosphere and end up in a battle.

Because the high elves had existed there for a long time.

---

After Ray waited for her to stop crying.

“What happens to me in the village now?”

It was because he had treated their landlord as he pleased.

Of course, it was fortunate that it was successful, but if it had failed, he didn’t know what would have happened to him.

Reading such thoughts of Ray, Aira laughed.

“Don’t worry. You are a benefactor to the elves. Well, regardless of the process, you saved me, didn’t you?”

“That’s true, but……”

Seeing Ray still worried and not loosening his expression, Aila became serious.

“If there is any elf who says something to you…… Well… I think we need to have a little talk with such a person.”

With her firm conclusion, Ray could no longer say anything.

It wasn’t unreasonable for him to be worried like this.

After the incident where he treated Aira, he had not seen any other elves, including Pia.

Of course, it had only been a day, but still, they hadn’t come to Aira’s house.

Whether it was out of awe, respect, or fear.

And that included him.

When he treated Aira, he thought he had drawn an enormous amount of mana.

It was such an intense mana that it could thinly slice one’s skin just by approaching it.

The elves, who are especially sensitive to mana, must have known that.

So, he thought there might be a couple of elves who feared him.

Aira merely held his hand, seemingly indifferent.

She then smiled gently and said,

“When you infused my body with mana, you held my hand like this. Honestly, I was taken aback then. I didn’t realize a human could manipulate my body to such an extent with their mana.”

She paused briefly before continuing,

“Experiencing that mana, I grasped what it meant to be human. I could distinctly sense the essence of a person from you. So, don’t worry excessively. You just need to be yourself.”

Simultaneously, she beamed brightly.

Even when she was merely sitting, she was stunningly beautiful. But now, she was grinning a radiant grin that I had never witnessed before, and it seemed as if the air was awash with color.

He didn’t even comprehend what the essence of a person was.

But every single word of hers was sufficient to stir my heart.

Seeing her slightly flustered, turning her head away and hiding her face, Ray chuckled.

“Do I have the essence of a person?”

At that, she quickly swiveled her head as if startled by the wind’s sound, and retorted,

“It’s not a smell, it’s an essence! An essence is different from a smell!”

“Did I neglect to wash myself that much?”

Shake, shake.

Aira shook her head, her hair fluttering.

Then she lowered her head and murmured softly,

“…I thought it would be okay to skip washing a little.”

As he had mentioned earlier, Ray’s hearing was extraordinarily sharp.

His already keen ears had become even more sensitive due to the mana.

His hearing was so acute that her murmur sounded as if she had spoken through a loudspeaker.

“…I’m fifteen years old, you know?”

“I don’t mind.”

“Are you saying you don’t mind even if I’m on the verge of death?”

“I don’t mind.”

She was resolute.

Ever since Aira had been lying down, Ray had a question he wanted to ask.

Now that the topic had arisen, he decided to inquire.

“By the way, how old are you?”

At that, the dignified look in her eyes she had been maintaining disappeared, and her pupils began to tremble violently.

To the extent that Ray, who was observing her pupils, thought there was an earthquake.

She parted her fine lips.

“…It’s a secret.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a secret!”

“……”

How old was she that she was reacting so strongly?

Ray cautiously probed,

“A hundred… two hundred years old?”

“……”

It seemed that there was no response.

Seeing a smile briefly spread across her face buried in her knees, it seemed he guessed her age to be younger.

“…Five hundred?”

“…….”

Again, there was no response.

But it seemed that the smile had slightly faded away.

Ray spoke, shivering.

“Su, surely… a thousand……”

“I didn’t eat that much!”

She lifted her face buried in her knees and shouted.

“That, right? Hahaha…….”

He awkwardly scratched his head and laughed it off, then turned his head again.

She buried her face in her knees and did not look at him, seemingly quite upset when he asked her age.

Even if she was a different race, there seemed to be no significant difference from humans. Ray thought.

Of course, there might have been some differences in their living environment and personalities, but fundamentally, they were similar.

Look at this.

She, who was respected and revered by all elves, was now burying her head in her knees like a rolled-up armadillo?

Seeing this, how could one definitively say she was different from humans?

“…….”

Unknowingly, Ray rolled her.

Roll, roll.

Panic-stricken as she was trying to figure out what was happening to her, she quickly straightened up her body.

It seemed that she instinctively realized she wouldn’t be rolled if she straightened up her body.

Moreover, she must have unconsciously thought that such behavior was unacceptable for a high elf like her.

“What, what are you doing!”

How startled must she have been for such urgency to come out in her usually calm and dignified voice.

Ray spoke while looking at her.

“I thought you were asking me to roll you because you kept curling up into a ball.”

Even as he spoke, he continued to roll her. Panicked, she straightened her body but then suddenly curled up again.

It seemed unexpectedly fun.

When else would she lose her dignity and roll around in a room like this?

Laughter spread across Aira’s lips.

“Hahaha. This is strangely fun.”

After being rolled around in the spacious room for a while, Aira laughed for a long time before closing her eyes.

“Is this what happiness feels like?”

“Finding happiness in being rolled around is strange.”

“No, I’m happy. Thinking about it, the reason I haven’t felt happiness is that I wasn’t interested in anything.”

“So, do you think you can be happy now?”

At Ray’s question, Aira opened her eyes and looked at him.

“If you are with me.”

In her eyes as she spoke, there was full of affection, the kind that is not afraid of getting hurt.

Even if he said ‘no,’ she wouldn’t be hurt, not even a twitch in her eyes.

Moreover, he didn’t feel bad about himself.

With a single word from Aira, he liked her, and with a single laugh from her, he found himself laughing along.

If this isn’t called happiness, then the word ‘happiness’ doesn’t need to exist in this world.

But right now, it seemed they couldn’t be together.

He planned to travel to various places for medicine.

Knowledge was important, but experience was also important.

He wanted to gather knowledge from various places, find new knowledge, and make it his own.

Moreover, the Holy Kingdom was looking for him.

He could make a decision only after a critical situation had occurred to Aira.

Go to the Holy Kingdom and extract the necessary knowledge.

Apart from being a religious state, the Holy Kingdom had the most medical knowledge.

That made sense because it had the most healers and priests who healed people.

Healing without knowledge of the human body was too inefficient, so everyone had basic understanding.

Furthermore, he had no desire to be exploited by the Holy Kingdom.

Once he obtained everything he required, he planned to leave the Holy Kingdom.

To accomplish this, he intended to utilize all his resources, whether they were force, strategy, wealth, or modern knowledge.

After infiltrating the Holy Kingdom and acquiring all the necessary knowledge, he would ridicule their revered god and saint.

‘Saint, my foot, it’s the power of modern medicine!’ he would declare.

Until that moment arrived, he could not react to her.