Even Though I’m a Former Noble and a Single Mother, My Daughters Are Too Cute and Working as an Adventurer Isn’t Too Much of a Hassle - CH 127

People say that an angel touched down in a remote village that day.

Two of the many who witnessed this event were Sophie and Tio. While the two of them were on their way home from school, a boy no older than five stumbled while running and fell down.

It was a normal sight you could see anywhere in the world deriving from a very common accident. Several people including Sophie ran over to the whaling young boy as large tears trickled down his cheeks and pooled on the ground below.

“I have heard your cries of pain and anguish.”

Suddenly, white feathers drifted from the sky above.

Looking towards the heavens, a girl representing the personification of beauty descended down as if she were an angel in service to the Goddess herself.

Rich blonde hair that fell below her waist. Large white wings extended from her back and draped themselves over her pearl white coat. Large green eyes that would make you believe someone had inlaid emeralds into her face shone alongside a radiant smile glowing with endless compassion.

Anyone who didn’t know any better would truly believe that an angel had descended from Heaven. Somewhere out of the blue, this girl quietly touched down in front of an injured and crying boy. Fascinated so completely by the girl’s presence, the boy completely forgot about his pain and stared after her in a mute daze.

“It will be fine. The pain will bother you no longer.”

With a gentle yet reliable smile that would put anyone at ease, the girl slowly laid the boy on his back before holding her palms over his scraped knees.

“Now, I shall save you from this pain.”

A gentle light then began to fall from the girl’s hands, and the boy’s scrapes were healed before the onlookers’ very eyes.

Even those with zero knowledge on magic would be able to see she was using a healing spell. The boy’s injuries would be closed up and those watching from the sides would be able to take a breath of relief knowing that things had been settled…….until the girl’s expression suddenly turned a ghastly pale.

“Yes…….I will pour everything I have…….”

In that moment, a huge torrent of magic power shot out of her body and towards the sky above. It pierced the overhanging clouds, forming a swirling whirlpool that curled down and engulfed the entire city.

“HAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”

“Huh!? Ho-, what the!? What is this!?”

A storm of healing magic enveloped everyone it touched, missing not a single soul. Injured stray cats, housewives who had cut their finger on a kitchen knife, guardsmen with sprained wrists, patients on death’s door from serious illnesses, and even adventurers with grievous wounds. No distinctions were made as this overwhelming power returned everyone in town to a fit and healthy state.

Those who hear about this later would inevitably kick up a fuss thinking that some kind of miracle had befallen the town. But would any of those people end up believing that it was all done for the sake of a small boy who had scraped his knee?

“Miss! That’s enough! I’m already okay!”

“HAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”

Meanwhile the girl at the center of this whole scene would not stop her healing magic. Even as her whole face turned blue from all the mana she was spending and her back became drenched in sweat from the strain, she refused to stop healing. The boy who had been crying about his scraped knees a moment before had grown worried over her, but even his cries were not enough to get her to stop.

Eventually the torrent of magic power did subside, but only after the girl had squeezed out nearly every drop of mana she had stored in her body. Her skin had turned a sickly pale, and with a weak smile, she gently wiped away the trace of tears that still clung to the corner of the boy’s eyes.

“Are you all right…….? It doesn’t…….hurt anywhere anymore does it…….?”

“N-No”

“Really…….thank goodness……I managed…….to save you……..”

Choking out those few words, the girl collapsed down onto the ground with a peaceful a solemn look on her face. It was right then that the two younger, white haired girls rushed onto the scene.

“H-Hermes-senseeeeeeeeeeei!?”

“Geez……always so extreme”

♠

“You are seriously a bothersome woman.”

A torrent of mana shooting into the sky. In the middle of the many adventurers shocked by the sight, Shirley quickly realized her daughters were close to the source of the eruption and dashed to the scene. When she arrived, she found Sophie desperately shaking the body of a fainted girl who had a pair of white wings protruding from her back. Tio in the meantime was busily calling out to see if a healer from the church was nearby to help.

Shirley was able to figure out the general situation after a quick glance, and after calming her daughters down, she carried the collapsed girl to the inn and laid her out on a spare bed. The young girl looked to be on the verge of death, but Shirley was well aware that she would never die from just this.

As proof of that, within the hour the young girl had recovered enough of her mana and vitality to be able to wake up and stand on her own two feet.

“Ahahaha…….sorry to bother you like this.”

“Honestly. I had already taken a guess at what happened, but when I heard the story, I was honestly shocked at just how right I was.”

Saint of Nirvana Hermes.

Going by just her age, she is a girl who looks a little younger than Shirley, but in truth, she is a semi-immortal whose name has grown alongside Canary’s for over a thousand years already.

She is an Elyos, a now endangered race who live lives almost as long as demons. She was able to rack up a score of remarkable achievements during her time as a church-affiliated military doctor back in the continent-wide war and eventually awoke as a semi-immortal.

The number of people she was able to save rose dramatically along with the emergence of her newfound powers. Since then, she has become a living legend in the medical world with rumors abound that during that fierce and brutal war, no matter how injured or seriously ill her patients were, not a single one of them passed away while under her care.

Since war’s end, she has traveled across the world with the sole purpose of healing the injured and sick, becoming known as the “Miracle Woman” and the “Angel in the Sky”.

With her daughters being the sole exception, Shirley is known as a ruthless fighter. Then there is the arrogant Canary and the notorious thief and kidnapper Crowley. Considering the reputation of her peers, Hermes is seen as the one good semi-immortal in a gathering of monsters.

“How could I begin to express my gratitude? You took the trouble to bring me to a bed and let me rest! I must pay you back somehow! I will do anything! Even if I have to give you my everything!”

“It really isn’t the kind of situation where you have to pay us back…….”

“Mm. Rather, I feel like us taking care of Sensei is the least we can do to pay you back.”

“Hm? How so?”

Hermes thought about it for a second, but unable to think of any reason she would be owed anything, she tilted her head to the side with a large question mark hanging in the air.

This is the level of ignorance Hermes holds in her actions. In pouring out all of her mana to heal a single scrape on a small boy, she was completely blind to the effects that excess magic power had on the rest of the town.

Self-sacrifice for the sake of healing the sick sounds good on paper, but in Hermes’s case, it was major overkill.

“You were moaning about how you were going to die. Please spare a moment of thought for the people who have to take care of you every time this happens.”

“Ugh…..”

In truth, Hermes happened to be passing through town five years ago when Tio had come down with a fever. She used her magic to cure her, but after exhausting all of her mana in the process, she collapsed immediately afterwards.

Back then, in order to thank Sophie, Tio, and Shirley for taking such good care of her――――

“How could I begin to express my gratitude? You took the trouble to bring me to a bed and let me rest! I must pay you back somehow! I will do anything! Even if I have to give you my everything!”

In other words, it was the exact same thing she was saying now. Although she was reluctant to do so at the time, Shirley lost to Hermes’s strong feelings and asked her to watch over her young daughters alongside Martha while she was away at work.

With that being said, the girls were already five years old at the time. The age where they could take care of themselves to a certain extent, so Shirley thought Hermes could lie back and rest without anything serious happening……yet when she returned home, the inn was covered in a tremendously thick and nigh impenetrable barrier. She would find Hermes lying down in the inn’s dining room, nearly dead after almost exhausting all her mana and vitality.

When asked what happened, the answer Shirley got back was, “I watched over them with all my might!” Shirley was happy for her thoughtfulness, but she had quickly grown tired of this. A strange feeling of guilt was crawling in her chest though as the girl continued to beg for opportunities to pay them back.

(Because there was no ill will behind her actions, a strange relationship was formed.)

The first time Hermes had ever met the family was back when Sophie and Tio came down with a case of chicken pox.

At that time, Shirley was much more vigilant of her surroundings, and she always had an air about her as if she were ready to cut down anyone who got too close. Yet a stranger still bravely approached her daughters and said,

――――“If you want to cut me, then cut me. But I will still heal these girls. I am willing to bet my everything to see it happen.

Shirley had overheard some passing peddlers describe Hermes as some kind of terrifying monster before……but the truth of the matter was that those peddlers had been beset by monsters. Before those monsters could harm the peddlers though, Hermes had gotten between them and offered her own body as food. Most of her upper body was clawed and ripped away, but eventually the monsters’ bellies were full and they left on their own.

Since then, it seems that those monsters never went on to attack any people again.

To be clear, Hermes was by far the most excessive of all the semi-immortals. The most extreme out of a group known for their extreme personalities. She exudes the kind of excessive kind-heartedness that would terrify people, but she never means anything bad by it. That is why she ends up winning everyone over.

The point of all this is to say that Hermes is the only semi-immortal who isn’t completely self-centered. Any cruel or heartless behavior will brush past her like wind through a willow, and it is impossible to get her down no matter how many jeers are thrown her way. It didn’t matter how suspicious of other people Shirley was back then; when faced with that kind of opponent, there was no way she could not build a good relationship with her.

“There are many people who worry about you. Can’t you take care of yourself at least a little to not make those around you sad?”

“Ugh……people often ask me that, and I try to keep their worries in mind, but when I find a child who is suffering……”

Hermes scratched her cheek with a weak smile, clearly troubled by Shirley’s words. It was as if she already knew she was being asked the impossible.

Hearing the concern from those around her, Hermes has tried to correct her behavior, but she wouldn’t be a semi-immortal for nothing if effort was all it took. If she ever finds someone suffering from an injury or illness, she would bet her life on seeing them saved.

Travel around the world to save people from their suffering and pay back anyone who helps you a billion times over…….that’s just the way Hermes is. A personality etched into her soul from the time she became a semi-immortal.

…….and the result of such an existence is that she is constantly reduced to a state teetering between life and death whenever she heals someone……which is where her name, Saint of Nirvana, comes from. The saint constantly a hair’s breadth away from passing on. It is the kind of name where it is unclear if meant as a compliment or insult.

“Geez. Hermes-sensei is the same as ever.”

“Mom, are all semi-immortals like this?”

“Now hold on just a minute Tio. I pride myself on being in a much milder and quieter class than Hermes-sensei and the others? You shouldn’t put me on the same level as them.”

♠

“”””Nonsense!!!!”””””

“Kyle? Cudd, Leia, and even Yumina……what are you yelling so suddenly for?”

“S-Sorry about that Asterios. The urge to scream suddenly hit me out of nowhere……..”

♠

“But it is good to see you again after all this time. You will be helping out with the school’s field trip yes? Will you be staying at the inn in the meantime?”

“Fufufu. I am always happy to see you and your two cheerful daughters. Actually though, I will be staying at Canary’s villa. She is lending me a room. I will have to be sure to pay her back when I can.”

Shirley’s line of thought skipped a beat when she heard Hermes’s response.

“Canary is? That’s surprising.”

“Why so Mom?”

“……..No, it’s nothing”

Shirley had a feeling she would be kicking up a hornet’s nest if she said any more, so she decided to keep her mouth shut and wave away Tio’s doubts.

“Anyway, thank you for taking care of my girls during this upcoming trip. If there is anything you will need for the trip, please let me know. I can grab any plants or herbs you might need; no need to go through the guild. It is the least I can do when it involves my daughters.”

“To receive such kindness…….! I’m so happy! I must somehow pay you back for――――”

“””You don’t”””

“Eh?”