Level Up Saintess

“Uh, uhm, I-I… You’re very pretty, a-and definitely attractive, and I don’t want to hurt your feelings… But that’s not why I'm here.”

 

“Hah, well yeah, of course it’s not. I’m the one who dragged you in here, after all. But I also saw the way you looked at me when you first got in here. I know what that look in your eye was; You liked what you saw.”

 

The way she purred her words combined with the way she called me out made me blush for two completely different reasons. Man did I never think my day was going to go anything like this.

 

“A-although I can’t deny what you said, I really didn’t have any plans to do that with you! I was just… admiring your looks is all.”

 

Ferr pouted at my second denial, looking quite hurt that I’d repeatedly said no to her advances.

 

“Why don’t you want to? Are you too shy? It wouldn’t hurt to just give it a chance; It’s perfectly legal after all.”

 

What? What part of it is legal? Is prostitution legal in this world or kingdom or whatever?

 

“...Is it legal?”

 

“Yeah!”

 

Maybe thinking that she might have found a chance, Ferr sat up with excitement, and a new smile blossomed on her face.

 

“It’s been legal for at least 200 years now, ever since the last Saintess!”

 

What the hell was she saying? A Saintess showed up 200 years ago and made prostitution legal? …And the church was just okay with that? I guess there’s no way that the church could oppose a verified Saintess, but that doesn’t sound very holy to me…

 

I guess seeing my face scrunched prompted Ferr to keep talking.

 

“Wow, you really must have been sheltered from this kind of stuff, huh? But you’re a priest, so I’m surprised you don’t know about something that has to do with the Goddess and Saintess like this. Or maybe it’s because you’re still young? Yeah, there’s a story from 200 years ago that the Goddess sent down an oracle saying that all same-sex love should be recognized as legal. Seems like there was a Saintess at the time with a female knight for a lover, which was quite rare for a number of reasons, haha. A lot of people believed that the Goddess passed down the oracle just because of them, so it was a big story. There were even a few romance novels written about them. Really amazed you never heard of any of this.”

 

Oh. Oh wow. She was talking about same-sex relations, not prostitution. This is what I get for skimming over the Saintess book and not being able to read between the lines when people are talking. Now I look like a stupid newby priest in front of the hot tiger. Damn.

 

“No, it’s not because of… Well, I thought you meant the brothel was the legal thing you were talking about, not… Not that.”

 

“Oh yeah? It’s not like brothels are illegal, although they’re not particularly legal either.”

 

She didn’t look completely convinced, which I can’t say I blame her for when I did a terrible job of being convincing.

 

“No! Really! I mean it! I really thought you meant the brothel!”

 

“Mmmmhmm. Sure ya did hun.”

 

“A-and I just started reading the book on the history of the Saintesses yesterday! I’m still new! I haven’t learned about any of the oracles or anything yet either! I’m not dumb or behind or anything!”

 

“Never said you were, hun.”

 

“I’m not!”

 

Ferr’s patronizing smile only served to make me more and more frustrated. I used to never shout about stuff like this in my last life; Maybe I really have become younger. Or maybe I just never met anyone who disarmed me so easily like this before. I think the only person who I ever felt comfortable so quickly was with Kale-

 

…Kale…

 

Ugh, I’m doing it again. Why can’t I stop it already? I was doing so good after I came here but it only took about two days for this crap to start up again. I can already feel my body curling up into a ball just from a single thought about him. What a weak person I’ve become.

 

“...Hun? Are you okay? I was just teasing you, I’m sorry if it actually upset you.”

 

And now I’m just making the nice tiger who took care of me worry. Great job Arissa.

 

“...No, it’s not your fault. I’m just… I’m just new to all this Saintess-ing crap and I’m having a hard time adjusting and getting out of my old mindset. It’s all just really not me.”

 

“Huh? …What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

 

“I was supposed to come here and be a good Saintess and heal and cure everyone like I’m supposed to, but here I am just curled up on a couch obsessing about my past again. What a failure, seriously.”

 

There was a long pause where Ferr didn’t say anything and I just stayed there trying not to let myself cry, but then she reached over with her strong hands, excavated my head from my knees, and looked me in my eyes.

 

“Hun, are you telling me that you’re a Saintess?”

 

“...I’m supposed to be, but everything’s going wrong. I was going to start out by trying to heal some adventurers, but they ran away, and then I went to the slums to heal some of the poor, but then those guys ganged up on me. And somehow I managed to find the whorehouse that I was told about, but here I am just being useless on a couch. How am I ever going to get any of this Saintess stuff done when I’m like this? I’m just an awkward crybaby with no people skills. The Goddess never should have picked me. She should have just let me be.”

 

Ferr stared at me in shock for a while longer, but when the tears started falling down my cheeks, she quickly began wiping them away and making calming shushing noises.

 

“It’s okay, it’s alright. Everything’s hard when you’re first starting out, especially when there’s no one around to help you out. Honestly, what is the church even doing letting you wander around alone like this…? Here hun, what’s your name?”

 

“M-my name?”

 

I sniffed and blinked my eyes a bunch of times. I was sure I looked like an ugly mess, and now that I was staring into the pretty tiger’s face, I felt like such an ugly thing like crying didn’t fit the pretty scenery.

 

“...My name is Arissa.”

 

“Alright Saintess Arissa, why don’t we go get the other girls and see if any of them could use your help, huh?”

 

“That-That’d be nice.”

 

“Okay. Come with me hun, I’ll get you there.”

 

~~~

 

Ferr moved me up to the second floor and managed to run around collecting the rest of the girls who were scattered around on the first floor shortly after. It seemed that she had a good bit of sway amongst the others. Maybe it was because of the natural older sister vibe that she gave out, but no one really seemed to question her about anything.

 

Around 30 different people gathered around me, seemingly of various ages and races. There were humans, elves, and even a dwarf, but for the most part it looked like the brothel contained beastmen of many different kinds. There were dogs, cats, bunnies, our friendly tiger, and even a lizard-person with very androgynous looks. Ferr even whispered to me that some of the girls were actually just very girly boys, and to not be too surprised about it. Hopefully I did my best to keep a stoic appearance.

 

The madame of the establishment seemed to be a bat beastman who was up there in years. I guessed that she was one of the nocturnal people that Ferr had been referencing earlier, since she had to be woken up once everyone had been gathered. After Ferr explained what was happening to her, the madame clapped her hands and used her far-reaching voice to inform all the girls what was going on.

 

“Everyone! Today you’ll be getting healed free of charge, by this woman.”

 

I awkwardly bowed and tried to put on a business smile as everyone looked over at me.

 

“Hello, I’m Arissa, a Saintess. Please let me take care of you.”

 

“Yes. Now all of you line up and let her check you out. Once she’s done you may return to your cleaning duties.”

 

All of the girls gathered replied in unison and then with a teensy bit of shoving they lined up to meet with me. It was finally time for me to perform my duties as a Saintess. And more importantly than that, it was finally time for me to grind up some exp!