Chapter 7: Search for the Saintess
The days passed, and I turned eleven years old.
In the world, a certain rumor was circulating.
The lifespan of the first Saintess, Mizuha, was finally approaching its end, and the True Holy Order had permitted her retirement. It was said that Mizuha was living as a commoner, concealing her identity.
The True Holy Order is the largest religious organization in this world.
The Saintesses are weapons developed by the True Holy Order about a hundred years ago.
They modify suitable humans, enhancing various abilities such as magical power, physical strength, and reflexes through Superhumanization. For some reason, only young women are compatible, hence they are called Saintesses.
Their main mission is to subjugate monsters that are difficult to handle with normal forces. Occasionally, they also subjugate organizations that oppose the True Holy Order.
They are the embodiment of the justice advocated by the True Holy Order, and conversely, they are enemies to those who deviate from that justice.
However, it is a fact that the True Holy Order has strived to maintain world order, and most people do not doubt their justice.
The sight of a Saintess defeating a monster as huge as a castle with her small body is said to be more divine than any religious painting.
If you ask the True Holy Order, they will dispatch a Saintess quite easily, so many people witness their battles.
This increases the faith of the believers. Since the successful development of the Saintesses, the amount of donations has increased, and the True Holy Order seems to be continuously expanding its military and financial power.
Mizuha is the first Saintess, created a hundred years ago.
At the time, she was an ordinary fifteen-year-old village girl.
Then, engineers from the True Holy Order came to her village, conducted compatibility tests on the villagers, and Mizuha was chosen.
They offered food support to the village if she participated in the experiment, and they would dispatch paladins to protect the village from monsters. Mizuha agreed to these conditions.
The experiment was a success.
Unlike the previous test subjects, Mizuha did not die. She gained superhuman combat power and easily sliced through monsters.
Based on Mizuha’s data, further improvements were made, and Saintesses were mass-produced.
Saintesses do not age.
As long as they receive maintenance from the True Holy Order, they can live forever.
The Saintesses created after Mizuha had the performance as specified. Unless they receive fatal damage during battle, they are repaired repeatedly and sent back to the battlefield.
Only Mizuha is different.
After several battles, it was confirmed that damage that could not be removed by maintenance was accumulating.
Mizuha was the first one created, yet she was called the strongest. She survived every harsh battle. She hardly ever took enemy attacks. She would return victorious.
Yet, damage was accumulating.
It was Mizuha’s own magical power that was destroying her.
Her growth and aging stopped, and she had to spend time differently from other people. Enemies appeared one after another. Her body would stop functioning if she didn’t receive regular maintenance. She realized that she was no longer human.
These negative emotions mixed with Mizuha’s immense magical power, creating a curse.
The curse could not be completely removed by maintenance. It accumulated little by little.
The second and subsequent Saintesses had this problem solved. They were improved so that the curse could be completely removed during regular maintenance, assuming that it would occur.
Mizuha is different.
She fought and fought, continuing to fight longer than any other Saintess. And after a hundred years, she reached her limit. The curse had accumulated so much that she could no longer perform as a Saintess. She began to hinder the other Saintesses.
The fact that she was allowed to retire instead of being disposed of shows that the True Holy Order is an organization with something akin to mercy.
They said, “Thank you for fighting for a hundred years. You won’t live much longer, but use the rest of your time to regain your lost youth”—that’s how it was.
And so, Mizuha, in the fifteen-year-old form she was transformed into as a Saintess, was set free.
Of course, none of her parents or friends were still alive.
Since she had been fighting continuously, she had forgotten what a normal human life was like.
Even so. If she stayed quiet after retiring, she was expected to live for about ten years.
Mizuha knew nothing but fighting. Even if she once knew, she had forgotten it in the past hundred years.
So, she thought she would become an adventurer, defeat some manageable monsters, and earn some pocket money. Even if her power as a Saintess had deteriorated, she was still much stronger than the average warrior. She would live out her remaining days as a mysterious, skilled female adventurer.
That was her intention, but soon after becoming an adventurer, she encountered a huge and powerful monster. It was a monster that should not have been there normally.
Unfortunately, Mizuha was with other adventurers. She wanted to have equal friends, so she had joined a party.
If she were alone, she would have had the option to run away. But Mizuha couldn’t abandon everyone.
Besides, if that monster was left alone, it might cause damage to the town.
Mizuha had always protected the world. It was an order from the True Holy Order, but it was also Mizuha’s own wish that the world be at peace.
She couldn’t just stand by and watch that be destroyed.
So, Mizuha used the power of the Saintess, which she was no longer supposed to use, to defeat the monster.
As a result, she shortened her lifespan even further.
On top of that, her strength and fighting style revealed that she was the retired first Saintess.
Mizuha gained the respect of the people around her. She was seen as a hero. This meant that it became very difficult for her to make equal friends.
It would take three years from then until Mizuha met a strange boy named Akito—.
That’s the story of the original work written by Mizuha.
The Mizuha in this world has just retired and has not yet become an adventurer, nor has she encountered a large monster.
Even so, when I think about it again like this, Mizuha’s life is too harsh.
If Mizuha were to reincarnate as Mizuha, would she be able to live the same life?
Surely not.
Mizuha seems strong-willed, but she is the type of person who can’t even kill a bug.
If Mizuha’s inner self was Mizuha, she wouldn’t be able to fulfill her role as a Saintess.
The Mizuha in this world that I have reincarnated into fought as a Saintess for a hundred years. So, surely, her inner self is not Mizuha.
“But, well, I guess I’ll go help her. It’s tragic if someone who has fought so hard can’t have a decent rest of their life. And there’s always the possibility… just in case.”