Saint and Dragon Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Sara, The Beautiful Girl with Red Hair

A week after the attack of the skeletons, Misery was getting back to normal, and Mari was offered to stay at the castle for a while in the guest room where she had been moved in when she collapsed.

Sophie also intended to move in with her, but was prevented from doing so by the opposition of the others. She was given a small room near the guest room because they worried that if she and Saintess shared the same room, it would start strange rumors.

Instead, Sarah, the High Priestess's attendant, was assigned as Saintess's attendant.

"Mari-sama, wake up. It's already morning."

Sarah called out to Mari, who was lying in bed.

"I don't want to get up!"

"No, you can't. Today we have the Saintess-sama's unveiling ceremony. After that, you will have an audience with the leading nobles."

The ceremony was just held yesterday.

"Yesterday was the welcoming ceremony for Mari-sama's arrival at Misery Castle. Today is different, it is an important unveiling ceremony to introduce Mari-sama to the people."

"How many ceremonies are there? How many ceremonies are there?"

""I don't know the details myself, but I'm sure there are many more to come."

"I don't feel well. Tell the Prime Minister that I'm taking the day off."

"Do you hate your job so much?"

"I hate it!"

Sarah stared blankly, her small body squished and her red lips curled into a smile. Her small body was slumped and her red twin-tail hair was hanging down listlessly. Mari quietly looked at this beautiful girl's sorrowful face from inside the futon.

(If she makes a face like this, I would definitely lose.)

She had no choice but to get up from the bed.

After they finished breakfast together, Sarah saw her off at the door of the guest room.

"Mari-sama, welcome. You know the venue, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. Thank you, Sarah-chan."

◇◇◇

The unveiling ceremony took place in the plaza in front of the balcony, where thousands of citizens gathered. The enthusiasm reached a climax when Mari performed a magic spell on the crowd.

The magic used was a very ordinary one: a magic circle appeared at the feet of the person to whom the spell was cast, and light scattered about. But when used on tens of thousands of people, it had a different significance. With the Plaza transformed into a pageant of glamorous lights, the thrilled crowd and,

"Saintess-sama! Saintess-sama! Saintess-sama!"

---the crowd cheered wildly.

It was so enthusiastic that even Mari, who had worked her magic, took a few steps back in her mind.

"Mari, it was a great success!"

Sophie was as pleased as if she was the one being praised.

"I'm glad you used magic without saying a word of greeting. That was more Saintess-sama like than having a bad speech."

High Priestess Chris, who was also in attendance, seemed pleased with the success of the ceremony.

"Yes, Mari has a mysterious dignity and grace when she stands silently."

"Hey, Sophie, Chris, maybe it's just my imagination, are you two dissing me?"

When Mari looked at them with a glare, they quickly averted their gazes.

◇◇◇◇

When Mari returned to the guest room after completing the entire itinerary, Sarah made tea.

"Sophie and Chris were outstanding. They were both so dignified at the ceremony, and their social skills are on point."

"Those two are nobles, so they must be used to it."

" You know what they say about me, Sarah-chan? As long as I don't speak, I am like a Saintess-sama. That is so rude."

"Mari-sama is a friendly person and I like you very much."

Sarah smiled and poured a cup of tea.

"Hey, why don't you join me, Sarah-chan?"

"No, I am an attendant."

"Don't mind it, there's only the two of us currently anyway. Besides, you said it would be more fun to drink with more people."

Sarah hesitated, but then prepared her own cup. The look of happiness on her face soothes Mari's heart.

"By the way, Sarah-chan is also a candidate for High Priestess, isn't she? When you take office, you'll have such a hard job."

"No. I probably can't be a High Priestess."

"Really? The Prime Minister seems very proud of Sarah-chan."

"The Prime Minister is very kind to me, but there are many people who are outraged with my position."

Maybe it was the red hair, Mari thought intuitively. She wondered whether to ask or not, but decided to take the plunge.

"Could it be because of your red hair?"

"..."

Sarah froze and didn't answer. She cursed bitterly in her mind at her foolishness for daring to step on a landmine.

"I'm sorry, that was too insensitive. You can go ahead and rest tonight. I'll take care of the cleanup."

"No. No. It's okay, it's the truth. I was raised in the temple as an abandoned child. Maybe it's because of this hair that I was abandoned."

Mari listened quietly to her words, but her heart was racing. It wasn't like a land mine, it was like hitting the launch switch on a nuclear warhead!

"But I don't hate my parents. They gave birth to me with such high magical power."

"Come to think of it, the Prime Minister also said that Sarah-chan has already surpassed the High Priestess in magic power."

"That's all I can offer for the temple, though."

"Hey, can I check your magic power for a second?"

"Sure, but there's no way to find out here."

"Don't worry, that's a simple task for me to find out."

Mari used Analyze. It was a magic to measure the status of a target.

"What do you think, Mari-sama?"

"The quality and quantity are excellent."

"I'm glad to hear you say so."

Sarah was flushed and honestly pleased.Mari thanked God that the nuclear warheads had been a dud.

"By the way, Sarah-chan, I need to talk to you about something."

"About what?"

"Would you like to try to learn the revival magic "Resurrection"?"

"Resurrection?"

"Yes. I didn't know this, but I'm the only one in Ardesia who can use Resurrection. That would be a problem if something happened to me."

"That would certainly be a problem."

"So I thought, maybe Sarah-chan could master Resurrection."

Sarah thought about it for a while and then replied, "Yes."

"Done! From tonight on, Sarah-chan will be my apprentice. From now on, I'm going to call you 'Sarah', okay?"

"I will be Mari-sama's apprentice?"

"I don't know. That depends on you, I guess, if you want to be my apprentice."

"No, no! I'm not ready for it yet...I mean..."

Sarah turned bright red, but eventually made up her mind and looked Mari in the eye and nodded slowly.

"So, Mari-sama, from now on, I should just call you Master-sama, right?"

"Mask-sama is a bit... well, I guess you can call me Onee-sama."

"Yes, I understand. Yes, I understand.  Onee-sama"

The news that Mari had taken Sarah as her apprentice soon spread throughout Misery. At that time, Mari did not yet know what it meant.