10, 12, 15 slimes… Wow. It’s amazing how fast of progress you can make when you’re trying to escape from your thoughts, huh?

  It’s been quiet for the past 20 minutes of us wandering through this mine. I guess the guy padin must have immediately realized how much what he said hurt me since he quickly shut up, just like I did. I was happy for how quiet everything had gotten for a little while since I was in too down of a mood to keep talking, but now the silence is sort of making those thoughts that I was trying to escape from a bit too loud. One thought in particur is almost constantly screaming at me to ask it. It’s getting bad enough that I think I’m going to have to ask it just so that it can finally quit bothering me so much, although I’m sure it’s gonna come back to bite me and cause me plenty of indirect harm afterwards anyways.

  “So, um…”

  “Yes, Your Holiness?”

  “Well, um, if it’s not from Seria and the knight, then the knight had children with someone else after Seria died…?”

  “Hmm? No, it couldn’t be anything like that. Seria and her knight’s love and devotion for each other were quite well documented.”

  Oh… Really? Phew… I was getting kind of scared there, actually. I hate pcing myself into someone else’s shoes, but I know if it were Kale who left me behind like that when I couldn’t keep up with my death timer anymore, then I don’t think I’d feel very good about it. It’s not like I want him to be alone for the rest of his life once I’m gone or anything, but-

  “I believe it’s also documented that the knight died only a month after Seria did, so it should have been quite impossible for her to have a hidden child in that time anyhow.”

  “H… Huh?”

  “The knight. Ronia, I believe her name was? Something along those lines. Yes, she died of a broken heart not too long afterwards. From what I remember reading, it’s quite the common occurrence between Saintesses and their lovers if the Saintess goes first. It’s believed that their bond is too great, that their love is too strong, or some such thing like that. Have you not seen any books on it? It seemed like that fact was covered in quite a few theology books when I was growing up; Perhaps because it was quite a popur fact with the dy-writers.”

  It’s… ‘common’? The lover of a Saintess dying after they died happens so often that he can call it ‘common’…?

  “N-no, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that before. It wasn’t talked about at all in the Saintess book that I read about back at the church!”

  “Oh my. Let me guess, it was that one, ‘Saintesses: A History’ or something like that?”

  “...Yes…”

  “Ah, that one. Yes, it’s a handy little history book, but it’s also a rather dry one. It just blindly lists every fact publicized by the church while leaving out many of the finer details. There’s a reason that many of the younger priests choose to write their reports on that one instead of any of the other books on offer.”

  Oh… So that’s why it always seems like I’m missing out on important Saintess facts. I thought I knew enough about the common knowledge people had about Saintesses by now, but maybe I’m still only scraping the bottom of the barrel…

  Ugh, there’s that word again, ‘common’.

  “Hey, um, when you said that it was common for the lovers to die, how uh… common… did you…”

  “Hmm? Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve heard about it, but I believe remembering that almost all of them died within a few months of their Saintess dying? If I had to put a number on it, then maybe around 95% of them?”

  Oh… Oh god… I was already quietly freaking out when he said it was common, but hearing such an insane number attached to it is really making me want to vomit. So you’re telling me Kale is doomed to die right after I do…? And there’s nothing at all that I can do about it?! All this time I’ve been worried about what would become of him if I wasn’t around to protect him in this stupid freaking world, but it turns out that he’d actually end up dying instead from some bullshit trick that I’m sure the Goddess must be behind?! What is this?! Is this supposed to be ironic or something? I kill myself because Kale dies in our previous lives, and now we’re just inevitably doomed to repeat it in this next one?!

  How is any of this possibly fair or okay?!

  And why wasn’t I told any of this beforehand???

  …Is there any case where I can just not cim him as mine and save his life? We’re not even dating, much less engaged like we were before. I may still be holding onto whatever strong feelings I had for him from my previous life, but the Kale that’s next to me right now is completely innocent! He hasn’t even had time to really gain any big feelings for me yet, has he? It’s completely unfair for him to die when he hasn’t even committed any kind of crime yet!

  Erg, I’m scared to even look over at him right now; I’m afraid that I might cry if I look at him! No, actually, I’m afraid of what face he must be making having just learned all of this like I am. There’s no way he doesn’t resent me for this, right? I know if I were in his pce then I definitely would be hating me for all this!

  Well, in retrospect, I think it’s more accurate to bme the Goddess for setting things up like this… Although I doubt that anyone in this stupid fantasy world of hers would agree with me.

  Ugh, this is gonna make it so awkward talking to Kale after this! I sort of wish I’d learned these jaw-dropping horrible facts on my own, without him here to overhear them; At least then I could worry about this all by myself and not cause the person who means the most to me an awful amount of pain and stress like this-

  “Saintess!”

  “Your Holiness!”

  Huh-?

  Oh! Oh wow. Hey, for a minute there I totally forgot that we were in a mine. You know, the mine that we came into to eliminate monsters from. A dangerous mine, filled with dangerous monsters.

  If I hadn’t been smart enough to put a [Benediction] on each of us before we came in here then I probably would have been pierced through by shrapnel right now.

  I guess I was too stuck in my thoughts to see the slime that rounded the corner just now. Kale and the guy padin must have stayed back to let me deal with it like we have been this entire time, thinking that I would deal with it like I have all the others. That was the pn that we’d been following along this whole little trip of ours. You know, the one that I said I wanted to do, since I wanted to quickly clear through this pce and get a bunch of juicy exp.

  For the record, while I was still dazed and trying to understand the situation, Kale did pull me behind him like a big hero and bst a feather-filled wind at the slime that attacked me… It’s just kind of a shame that wind and sharp feathers don’t really seem like a good matchup against a literal blob of goo filled with big chunky rocks.

  “Excuse me, Your Holiness, but I’ll handle this one!”

  The guy padin looked like he was trying to seem as galnt as possible as he rushed up to the rock-filled slime, quickly striking a knightly-looking pose.

  “[Retribution]!”

  He raised his sword above his head before the slime could do much to stop him, and plunged it down into the top of the slime, piercing into it. A rge ssh of light followed behind the bde like an after image, sshing even more deeply into the slime and causing it to shine with a holy light before the slime abruptly came apart with a big spsh.

  I won’t lie, the smug look on the guy padin’s face afterwards made me kind of want to hit him.

  “Don’t worry, Your Holiness! I, as your escort, will take the lead from here to ensure your safety!”

  “Um, no, no thanks. I just got distracted there for a moment. But thank you for taking out that slime for me, and thank you Kale, for protecting me.”

  "…Yes, Saintess."

  “Of course, Your Holiness!”

  Wow, he really has become a kiss-ass now, hasn’t he? I’m really not sure how I feel about the weird way he’s treating me now…

  The guy padin sheathed his bde, gesturing for me to continue on, and after removing Kale’s hands that had still been trying to keep me behind him, we slowly continued on with our trek. It was quiet again, but this time I decided to stay extra focused so I wouldn’t embarrass myself a second time like I just did, so I was okay with it. Honestly, even if I was saved by my [Benediction] shield, I was still kicking myself for becoming so stupidly distracted like that in a pce that I already knew was dangerous. I was especially kicking myself since I had immediately put myself in a possibly life-threatening situation right-freaking-after learning that Kale would die too if I somehow kicked the bucket. I may have had a shield on me right now, but we’d already been in here for over 40 minutes! What if that had happened 20 minutes from now, and my shield had already fallen off? If I died right now, then I’ll barely have any time left to try and level up by the time I wake up!

  Let’s see, the slimes have been giving me 40 exp a pop, and I’m at 1845/2200 exp right now, so if I can just manage to get enough out of this pce to hopefully level before we finish all of them off, then-

  “Excuse me, Sir Werner?”

  Hmm? Kale’s talking to him? He’s barely said much of anything since coming in here, so it’s a bit surprising that he’s talking to him now, of all times. He didn’t even say a single peep about any of the previous shocking stuff that the guy padin told us either, so it's extra surprising. Oh wait… Did he just take his time to think it over, and now he’s finally gonna say his piece about it? I’ve been kind of avoiding looking at him, but that slight crinkle between his eyebrows… I’m pretty sure that’s a cssic ‘something is bothering me’ look that he has right now, right?

  Ugh, I’m afraid of what he’s gonna say, now!

  “Yes, Kale?”

  “What you said before… Do the Saintesses also die simirly if their lovers die first?”

  Huh…? Wow, what? You know, I hadn’t thought of that at all, but that’s actually a pretty good question, isn’t it? After all, didn’t Inaiah completely die soon after her lover did? There's totally a precedent there!

  “Oh? Are you curious about that?”

  Unlike when he answered my questions, the guy padin just smirked and looked away like he knew some kind of secret that he wasn’t willing to share.

  “Well, I don’t think that’s always the case? If anything, their lives sometimes get even more interesting without them, in a way.”