Shilo came back to his senses and nodded woodenly.
Lintis was deeply skeptical of this. After thinking for a moment, she said, “Mr. Shilo, what was your grade in cultural studies?”
“……” After a few seconds of silence, Shilo silently turned his head to the side and said without much confidence, “I never went to that sort of thing.”
Now it was Lintis’s turn to fall silent. She rubbed her forehead. ‘This is going to be a long and arduous task…’
But she had already agreed, so she couldn’t just drop it and walk away.
She could only be patient and explain it all over again. Fortunately, this time Shilo’s eyes looked much clearer.
“So, Mr. Shilo, today we are only going to do one thing, and that is to sublimate your holy power. Understood?”
Shilo nodded.
Lintis, feeling deeply weary, returned to the wooden house. She brought out a reclining chair and casually grabbed a box of cookies. Only after sitting down in the recliner did she look at Shilo.
“Mr. Shilo, next, I’d like you to completely exhaust your holy power.”
“It’s just like a blacksmith tempering metal. You must continuously deplete your holy power and then let it recover. During this process, your holy power will gradually change. Finally, when a quantitative change produces a qualitative change, that will be the moment your holy power sublimates.”
This time Shilo understood. He grunted in acknowledgment.
Coming back to his senses, he noticed the Saintess was already lying in the rocking chair, rocking back and forth with great leisure.
He couldn’t help but feel a wave of speechlessness. Just as he was about to start training, he suddenly thought of something and asked, “Saintess, about how long will it take for me to complete this sublimation?”
“Hmm…” Lintis thought for a moment, sat up, and held up two fingers.
“Two days?”
Lintis shook her head.
“Two months?”
Lintis shook her head again and said, “Two years.”
Hearing this, Shilo’s eyes widened.
“That long!”
“It’s not that long~” Lintis waved her hand dismissively.
“An ordinary knight normally needs about three years to complete the sublimation. However, Mr. Shilo, perhaps because you frequently battle the tainted, your holy power has already undergone some tempering, so the time will be shorter for you.”
Shilo frowned slightly. He had thought it would take two months at most, never imagining it would take this long.
If it were before, it wouldn’t matter. But just yesterday, that white-haired chief priest used Sery to threaten him. He didn’t believe that would be the only time.
He needed sufficient strength to deter the other party. He needed the initiative to be in his own hands, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully.
“Saintess, aren’t there any other shortcuts or the like?”
Hearing this, Lintis blinked, then deliberately shook her head with an air of worldly wisdom.
“Mr. Shilo, you are at the stage of laying the foundation right now. Don’t think about those kinds of fanciful things. Keeping your feet on the ground is the real way. Everyone came up step by step like this.”
She thought this would at least somewhat dissuade Shilo, but unexpectedly, he still didn’t move. This made her a little unhappy.
“So, is there one?” Shilo pressed again.
Lintis frowned, feeling he was aiming too high without the ability. She couldn’t help but think slightly less of him.
“I’m telling you, you…”
As she spoke, Lintis suddenly paused. She only now noticed that Mr. Shilo was staring at her with an unusually serious look. From that gaze, she gradually understood something.
Her previously somewhat angry expression slowly softened. Her gaze softened, and her tone became gentle.
“Mr. Shilo, is there something very urgent?”
Lintis’s question made Shilo fall silent for a moment, thinking about whether to tell the Saintess about the situation with the white-haired chief priest.
Previously, due to his urgency, he had kept forgetting about this. If he told the Saintess about the white-haired chief priest threatening Sery…
Presumably, with the power the Saintess commanded, along with her status and attendants, she could easily accomplish things he couldn’t.
But… could he really trust her?
Shilo raised his head and met Lintis’s eyes again, looking into those eyes that were pure and clean beyond measure.
Yes, he knew very well.
The Saintess was different from those corrupt people. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he had already unconsciously come to trust her.
But… it still wasn’t right.
“It’s nothing, Saintess. I was just asking out of curiosity,” Shilo said.
He didn’t like, nor did he want, this method of placing all his hopes on someone else.
Looking at the stubborn boy before her, Lintis blinked and lightly uttered two words.
“There is.”
“What?”
Shilo, who had already been prepared to give up, was taken aback.
“I said there is a shortcut. But this kind of shortcut is also accompanied by pain that ordinary people find difficult to endure. If you can’t withstand it, you probably won’t be able to continue on the path of a knight.” Lintis calmly stated one possibility.
Hearing the danger described by the Saintess, Shilo didn’t hesitate much. The identity of a knight itself wasn’t important to him, and besides, he wasn’t a knight to begin with.
“Saintess, please tell me the method,” Shilo said firmly.
Lintis made an expression that said “I really don’t know what to do with you,” then lay back down. This made Shilo, who had steeled himself and was looking on with anticipation, immediately have black lines run down his face.
Fortunately, the Saintess’s voice soon rang out.
“Mmm… well, well, well… don’t be in such a hurry… I’m getting a little sleepy. You practice on your own first… call me after you’ve exhausted your holy power. And now, the lovely Miss Lintis is going to sunbathe, so please work hard and be quiet, okay~”
“Oh, right, if you try to touch me while I’m sleeping again, be careful I…”
Lintis made a throat-slitting gesture, and for good measure, she acted out a hit reaction, sticking out her little tongue and rolling her eyes. It was both funny and cute.
It made Shilo both angry and amused. He said irritably, “I would never do that!”
“Hehe, you clearly like touching my face. How dishonest, M~r.~ S~h~i~l~o~”
Deliberately drawing out the syllables, Lintis chuckled, then yawned.
Completely ignoring Shilo, whose face had turned red beside her, she lay limply in the rocking chair and closed her eyes.
The gently rocking chair made a faint creaking sound, not grating but rather reassuring.
Shilo rolled his eyes helplessly.
Although he inwardly condemned the Saintess’s behavior of either eating or sleeping all day long, Shilo didn’t say anything. Instead, he activated his holy power to enchant his sword and honestly began swinging it.
On the farm’s open ground, the leisurely young woman and the diligent young man formed a stark contrast.
Not far away, a large dog that had already regained its white fur was happily chasing butterflies around the farm.
Time passed minute by minute. It was nearly noon when Shilo finally managed to completely exhaust his holy power.
Only knowing how to enchant, his utilization of holy power was truly too inefficient, which was why he had dragged it out until now.
He stretched his body, relieving the soreness, and looked back at the spot where the Saintess was.
The rocking chair had long since stopped. The Saintess lay on it, a thin blanket draped over her, sleeping soundly and peacefully, looking very serene.
Having been fooled once before, Shilo learned his lesson this time. He simply maintained a half-meter distance, pushed the Saintess’s shoulder, and said as he pushed:
“Saintess, please wake up.”
“Mmm… no.”
Still in her dream, Lintis mumbled, turned over, and acted like she didn’t want to be bothered.
Shilo stood up expressionlessly, grabbed the blanket with both hands, and yanked it off with force.