"Ah?"
Hearing someone suddenly say they could save Sieg, Astolfo, still immersed in grief, clearly did not process it immediately. Teary-eyed, he looked at the approaching Souya.
"The... Master of the Red Caster?"
Looking at Astolfo, who appeared almost identical to a beautiful young girl, and meeting his teary gaze, Souya fell silent.
He truly is a textbook example of a boy drawn to look like a girl.
Sighing internally, Souya did not bother explaining anything to this idiot with Evaporation of Sanity. He pushed Astolfo aside amid his yelps and crouched in front of Sieg.
Looking at the androgynous homunculus, whose eyes were tightly shut and who was clearly exhaling more than he was inhaling, Souya did not hesitate. He reached out his hand and thrust it into Sieg's chest.
"Souya, wait..."
Seeing Souya's hand instantly covered in golden Magic Circuits, Jeanne instinctively tried to stop him.
As a fellow Saint, having witnessed the Heroic Spirit miracle Souya displayed, she assumed he was like her—possessing healing abilities, but not particularly exceptional ones.
After all, one miracle was usually enough.
She had already tried using this method to help Sieg. She did not want to see Souya waste his effort, giving someone hope only to plunge them into deeper despair afterward.
But the next moment, when she saw Souya's hand phase into Siegfried's chest as if it were intangible, the words she wanted to say froze in her throat.
"Wah! What are you doing!"
Watching this near-bizarre scene, Astolfo recovered his senses and panicked, trying to lunge forward. Fortunately, he was stopped by Jeanne, who had deciphered Souya's actions.
Looking at Souya, whose eyes were narrowed and whose body emanated golden light, Jeanne's eyes were filled with complex emotions.
She felt it. The miraculous aura contained within that golden light undoubtedly proved that, aside from Revelation and Spiritual Evocation, the Lord had granted Souya a third miracle.
Judging by the situation, this miracle was Healing.
Thinking of this, while Jeanne felt a trace of joy that a life was being saved, she also felt inexplicably bitter.
Are we not both Saints who believe in the Lord and are watched over by Him? Why does he have so many miracles, while I have nothing but Revelation?
If she had possessed the ability to heal others back then, could she have saved more people who should not have died? Would a version of her with such power have been trusted by more people, thereby avoiding the fate of being consumed by flames?
While Jeanne felt a pang of envy, Souya had almost finished.
Normally, because Sieg's body was simply too fragile, there would be no other way to cure his shattered heart aside from a heart transplant or reversing time.
Souya's Miracle of Healing, strictly speaking, should be called the Miracle of Restoration. Its function, through physical contact with his palm, was to restore a living being's wounds and bodily functions to an intact state.
Used on a withered plant, it brought the dead back to life. Used on a person, it repaired their wounds and restored their vitality.
Originally, because he could not physically touch internal organs, Souya actually could not heal internal injuries like Sieg's. Fortunately, he had anticipated such a moment and specifically learned phasing magecraft from Morgan.
Although it was impossible to use it as smoothly as Morgan in a short time, it was sufficient for treating injuries.
Thus, when Souya felt Sieg's heart beating again beneath his hand, he finally withdrew his hand from the boy's body.
"Done."
"Wah! Sieg!"
Seeing this, Astolfo, who was being held back by Jeanne, immediately lunged forward. When the pink-haired knight carefully leaned over Sieg's chest and felt the heartbeat within, he hugged Sieg and cried tears of joy.
"Thank goodness! You are alive!"
"Do not get too excited, Black Rider."
Souya glanced at the sky. He estimated that Vlad III and the others would arrive in less than an hour. Seeing that Astolfo clearly wanted to linger, Souya urged him.
"If you want to take this homunculus away, then quickly use your Noble Phantasm to leave Trifas. Otherwise, when your Black Faction Servants rush over, you will not be able to leave even if you want to."
"Ah!"
Hearing this, Astolfo finally realized the situation. He earnestly thanked Souya, then prepared to leave with Sieg, who had groggily awakened.
"Did you save me?"
Feeling the heart in his chest beating flawlessly, Sieg's gaze instinctively fell upon Jeanne—the woman who had inexplicably drawn his favor and made him want to approach her from the moment they met.
To his surprise, Jeanne simply shook her head in denial and pointed at Souya.
"The one who saved you was not me, but him. If you want to thank someone, thank him."
Sieg was slightly astonished, finally noticing Souya standing beside Jeanne.
Despite his bewilderment, Sieg still thanked Souya after recovering from his daze.
At this moment, Astolfo had already summoned his Rider-class Noble Phantasm, the Hippogriff.
Looking at the phantom beast stretching its feathered wings, Astolfo did not hesitate. He grabbed Sieg, bid farewell to Souya and Jeanne, and flew away.
Watching their retreating figures, Jeanne stood beside Souya and spoke sincerely.
"Thank you, Souya."
"To be able to step forward and save an innocent person... you truly are worthy of the title of a Saint."
Hearing this, Souya felt no joy. Instead, he scoffed and looked at Jeanne.
"So, Miss Jeanne, do you think I saved that homunculus out of kindness?"
Jeanne was stunned. She replied instinctively.
"Is that not the case?"
"Of course not."
Souya answered decisively.
"You must understand, I am not a Saint yet. And even if I were, based on my principles, I would not have saved Sieg."
"Ah?"
Jeanne's expression instantly filled with confusion and incomprehension.
But Souya quickly provided the answer.
"Because he is not an innocent person at all."
"I do not know why he has the name Sieg, but his true identity is a homunculus created by the Black Faction. His very essence is tied to this war; he cannot escape it."
"But you saw it too! He did not want to participate in the war. He wanted to leave!"
Jeanne frowned, speaking with some indignation.
"And exactly because of that, he is not innocent."
Souya's tone was flat and unwavering.
"Miss Jeanne, you must understand that often, a person cannot decide things based solely on their own will. More often than not, it is dictated by their identity."
"As a homunculus, he should participate in battle. That is his mission. As a living being, he wants to leave this place. That is, of course, permissible. But to successfully leave, the dangers and harms involved are things he should rightfully bear. He should not make others bear the burden and pay the price for him."
"Therefore, Sieg was never an innocent bystander."
The road to freedom is fraught with thorns. To seek something is to lose something. Souya believed that even a homunculus should have such resolve the moment they decided to escape.
Hearing this, Jeanne fell silent. She instinctively wanted to try and refute Souya, but suddenly realized she could find no reason to do so.
"Then why did you save him?"
She suddenly asked this question.
Souya merely smiled softly. Looking straight into Jeanne's violet eyes, he said:
"Because of you, Miss Jeanne."