‘Seriously, he was decent at acting like a lover but he’s terrible at faking illness!’

This is what happens when someone is too earnest.

The Saint, who had initially turned pale, finally realized the truth after Lynen’s continued poor acting.

“Um, please get up.”

“…Ugh.”

Perhaps only now realizing he’d been caught, Lynen’s ears and the back of his neck turned bright red as he kept his face planted on the floor.

Even I, who usually delighted in Lynen’s embarrassment, felt sorry for him. After all, Lynen hadn’t just died alone but had committed team kill.

I belatedly tried to support him.

“How can you tell him to get up? Can’t you see he’s in pain?”

“I think it’s his pride that’s hurting…”

“W-well anyway, you just used some suspicious power on my fiancé earlier, didn’t you? I saw everything!”

“It wasn’t suspicious power but holy power. I was just trying to put him to sleep briefly.”

Can’t back down here.

I pressed on unreasonably like a troublemaker.

“How can you use holy power? Are you perhaps a priest? Is it okay for a priest to suddenly attack people?”

“Th-that’s not…”

“You probably meant to put him to sleep forever, not briefly! Look at this fever… huh?”

Lynen’s body temperature, usually cooler than mine, was strangely hot.

I touched the back of his hand and his cheek in succession.

“The fever… huh? What? Lynen?”

I turned his face toward me.

Lynen was breathing painfully, his face flushed with fever.

“Lynen!”

“Oh my.”

The Saint checked Lynen’s temperature and quickly said.

“We need to move him inside. Could you help me?”

“Y-yes.”

Despite his thin frame, the Saint managed to carry Lynen on his back, perhaps because he was still a man.

I patted Noah’s head to reassure him as he looked worried, and quickly followed behind.

“That room over there.”

I helped the Saint lay Lynen on the bed. Upon proper examination, Lynen’s condition was truly serious.

“His temperature is too high. We should at least remove his upper clothes.”

“Ah, yes.”

The Saint gave me a strange look as I stepped back.

“Aren’t you engaged?”

“We are, but we’re not married yet…?”

Seeing suspicion creep into the Saint’s gaze, I stopped making excuses and stepped forward.

‘To think I’d end up undressing Lynen… no, such thoughts are perverted.’

The person before me isn’t Lynen, just a patient.

‘Patient, patient…’

I began undoing the patient’s collar, buttoned up to his neck. As the collar opened, the patient’s broad chest came into view.

His large, magnificent thorax, packed with muscles from years of training…

‘Ah, crazy! Calliphe, are you insane?’

This is moral-book Lynen we’re talking about!

“A-are you okay? Your eyes are bloodshot.”

“Quiet.”

I focused my eyes and tried to undo the remaining buttons. However, my hands were shaking more than before, which was annoying.

‘Oh, whatever!’

Rip!

I ended up tearing open Lynen’s front all at once. The Saint gasped and covered his mouth in shock, but I didn’t care.

‘Good. I’ve got my head straight now.’

Now composed, I didn’t let my gaze be drawn to the firm deltoids extending from the trapezius, or the pectorals that seemed larger in circumference than mine below that, or the impressively defined six-pack.

Instead, I stared intently at Lynen’s forearm where the monster had bitten him.

“Look at this.”

“H-how could I!?”

The Saint let out a squeak in surprise.

But the next moment, his expression hardened like mine.

“The skin is turning black. And it’s gradually spreading up through the veins.”

“So I wasn’t seeing things wrong. Saint… no, Priest.”

“I-I’m not a priest.”

“Never mind that now. This person fought with a monster recently. He was bitten here then.”

The Saint’s expression grew serious.

“If that’s the case, it’s likely monster poison.”

“There weren’t any symptoms before though?”

As both a duke and a knight of the North, Lynen was a veteran of monster battles.

If there had been symptoms, he wouldn’t have left it untreated until it got this bad.

But the Saint, another expert who had treated countless patients, shook his head.

“Some monster poisons have an incubation period of several days before suddenly manifesting. It’s quite tricky.”

“Then surely your holy power can purify it, Priest?”

“…Just call me Allen. I’ll try for now.”

Allen lightly placed his hand over the poisoned arm and closed his eyes in concentration.

Fwash―

A holy light gently flowed from him and seeped into Lynen’s poisoned area.

“Oh…!”

“The black color is getting lighter bit by bit!”

Noah, who had followed and was watching, rejoiced at the amazing sight.

However.

“Ugh, cough!”

The poison that had seemed to be pushed back by the holy power suddenly regained its momentum and shot up through the veins. Blood flowed from Lynen’s mouth.

Far from being purified, his condition had rapidly deteriorated.

In my panic, I grabbed Allen’s collar.

“What happened! Why is he in more pain after you used holy power?”

“Ugh, I-I’m sorry. I’m better at attacking than healing…”

“Then respec into healing right now!”

“H-how can I do that!”

“You can do it!”

Other people’s holy power is born with set limits and doesn’t change.

But the Saint is an exception.

The stronger one’s faith, the more powerfully they can develop their holy power.

And that faith only increases, never decreases, from the moment they’re chosen as a Saint or Saint.

Because.

‘When the Spirit of Light appears only before you, there’s no reason for doubt.’

The Spirit of Light is the child of the God of Light and is also called the Holy Spirit.

Such a sacred being chooses me as Saint and appears only before me.

I grabbed Allen’s collar again and shook him.

“Pray to the Spirit of Light. Quick, ask it to make you better at healing too!”

“…Spirit?”

Suddenly Allen gave a twisted smile.

“Would the Spirit of Light care about a mere human? Would you notice if an ant was crying?”

“Huh?”

Allen let out a pessimistic laugh.

“Light has abandoned me. Even when I desperately begged for salvation, there was no response.”

He belatedly tried to hide his identity by speaking vaguely, but it was useless to me who already knew everything.

‘The Spirit of Light not responding to calls? Are you saying it disappeared?’

Given that the Grand Temple still considered Allen the Saint, the contract hadn’t been broken either.

The Saint’s younger sister disappeared, and the spirit that chose the Saint disappeared too.

Could this be a coincidence?

Allen shook off my hand and said.

“It will be dark soon, so rest here tonight.”

“Then tomorrow?”

He avoided my gaze. But his voice was firm.

“There’s no point in staying here. Go down to the village tomorrow and call for a doctor from another village.”

“…”

“Leave when day breaks.”

He left the room after those cold words.

As I stared at the closed door feeling lost, a hot hand lightly touched my fingertips.

It was Lynen, who had opened his eyes with difficulty.

“…Monster poison, they say.”

“So you were listening.”

Looking at Lynen, who seemed to have trouble even opening his eyes, made my chest feel tight. I didn’t know what to say.

I gripped his hand tightly.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why…?”

“Just because.”

Could someone else’s illness be this concerning? Especially Lynen, who was a hundred times healthier than me?

It was a strange feeling, but I forcibly ignored it.

“Get some rest. I’ll find a way to cure you somehow. Tomorrow I’ll get a doctor right away-“

That’s when he suddenly grabbed me.

“There’s one thing I must warn you about.”