2 The Saint Retires her Sainthood

I opened my eyes and I knew right away something was different.

I held my hand to my stomach. There was no longer a hole, nor any blood pouring from it.

I looked down where my hand laid on my stomach.

'Small'

There were no mirrors in the temple.

Even when I was dressed up to be shown off to the nobles, or in a parade, my makeup and dress was done entirely by others.

I had only the complements of others to estimate my appearance.

'But, certainly... this much I can tell is different.'

Not only did my hands look smaller, they also were also covered in cuts and bruises. I tried to move my hair back out of habit, but the wavy navy blue hair was nowhere near my lower torso. I reached higher to feel my hair that didn't even reach my shoulders.

It was as short as when I would slice my hair off with a rusty blade out of convenience.

I looked around where I stood.

If one were to look at the sky, it would be obvious it was midday, however; the alley in which I stood was inexplicably dark.

Of course the shade could contribute to the lack of light, but even the air itself felt gloomy.

I saw people laying in waste or sitting with an empty bottle all throughout the alley.

I glanced past their vacant and unfocused eyes.

It wasn't that long ago that this had been my life, since I had been one of them.

Up until 8 years ago, this was my world.

Since the man from the temple took me from here, my contact with this side had been cleanly cut, despite these slums being just a few streets behind the temple.

Would this feeling be nostalgia? No, my emotions are too dirty to be called anything like that.

'But how am I back here?'

I stepped over legs and arms lain in the alley.

The putrid smell of human waste and rotting garbage assaulted my senses in every step.

A few men hurled semi-conscious insults towards me as I narrowly avoided stepping on them.

I finally made my way to the end of the alley. I grabbed the side of the wall as I peeked out to the branching street.

Unlike the alley my feet were still grounded in, the street was bright and lively. Any time a person walked by this alley, their gazes would quickly avert in an opposing direction.

It was just how I remembered it. But at the same time, I felt I was seeing it in a different light.

'Hm? Isn't that...'

I spotted a girl in ragged clothes walking down the busy road. I accidentally ended up staring at her, after a few seconds she seemed to notice and run over to me.

"Blue!"

She called out a nostalgic way of address.

"...Yellow"

I mumbled out the way I used to call this girl.

'She's acting like she always did.'

"Go use your magic to distract the shopkeeper while I steal some bread!"

'Yellow' was an older girl that would use me to get food.

'She barely shared any of what she stole with me though.'

I used to help her happily because I wanted to be useful to everyone. I never complained when she stole a whole loaf and only gave me part of an end piece.

'Even though the shop keepers would chase after me to beat me when she got the easy part of the job.'

She looks to be about 9 years old right now though. Since she's older than me, she should be around 20 years old now.

'But she's even younger than when I was taken away.'

I stared at her suspiciously.

"What's wrong with you? Bread. I want bread, Blue!"

"...I'm busy right now"

"Huh? What does a brat like you have to do other than support the other kids? I want bread. Blue, get going."

Yellow began to yank on my small arm.

"Let go"

Something started to spark around my arm.

"Ow! What the hell, Blue!? Did you just use magic on me?"

Did I? It felt fundamentally different from when I normally use magic though.

Not to mention,

'My Holy Magic can only physically hurt those with the darkness attribute. Although it has various other functions such as illumination...'

I stared at Yellow again.

'I can't sense any Dark Magic or Dark Magic attributes coming from her.'

But more importantly...

"Yellow. How old are you?"

"Huh? How should I know? Maybe 9 or 10 by now?"

She replied impatiently.

Yellow should be about 4 years older than me.

How is it that I'm here with a 9 year old Yellow after being stabbed?

'It really felt like I was dying.'

Could this be my life flashing before my eyes then? Or some sort of post-death loop?

Whatever the answer is though...

"Go steal it yourself"

I have no obligation to obey any of these brats anymore.

I'm done bending over backwards to get people to like me.

'Even if it's a bit late to finally stand up to everyone...'

I stepped out of the dark alley and past Yellow.

"Wait, Blue!"

I didn't stop.

I felt a grip around my wrist.

"Blue, you can't walk away from me!"

I briefly felt a flashback to when I helped everyone out of sympathy, even if they acted bratty like this.

*Sigh*

"Let go, Yellow."

The feeling of caving in to her still feels fresh, despite that this portion of my life ended a long time ago.

I can't pinpoint exactly what day I was brought back to, there were so many times I was asked by the other kids to help them steal or to steal for them.

And of course, I accepted every time.

'In the end, they convinced me to steal from the wrong person and I was taken away.'

If I really am 5 and Yellow is really 9, then that would happen in about 3 years.

As I was lost in thought Yellow grabbed my arm again.

I turned around and concentrated my light in my eyes and I made eye contact with her.

"Agh! It burns!"

Yellow cried as I used Holy Magic to blind her. Blinding others was about the only way that Holy Magic could hurt ordinary people.

She let go of my arm and I hastily walked away, blending into the sea of people.

'If by some chance, this is before I was noticed and taken in by the temple, then it's also before I was recognized as a Saint.

I stopped walking for a moment, people complained at me as the bumped into me and walked around me.

'Then...If I'm free...If I'm not a Saint...what do I do? Where do I go?'

I began to jog my small body, dodging around the crowd. My mind began to spin.

'Why is this happening to me?'

After jogging for only a couple minutes, my body began to give out.

"Ah"

I scoffed.

'This really is my old body. When I run I can feel my empty stomach and my bruised legs so vividly.'

But what's different is,

'My magic power feels just as powerful, no... maybe more powerful than when I was 16, let alone as a 5 year old brat.'

I was already called a genius when I had that level of magic at 16.

But having that same magic at 5?

That's impossible.

'I need to get out of here.'