The Saint's Magic Power Is Omnipotent - Vol. 3 Ch. 10.4 - Appraisal

[IMACOP]

She enjoying a quiet life is fine. Potion and veggies are her hobby is fine. Refusing to help because of the prince and all is fine too. The problem is she isn't thinking like that. She knows only a saint can save the world and she doesn't mind helping, but because of her petty spite (caused by 1 person), she is pushing the world-saving duty that only a saint can do to a (younger) girl who most likely isn't a saint. She's really just trying to get the other girl and the people around her killed. Worst still, she have the cheek to 'show concern' for the other girl.

Her saint duties isn't that much or dangerous either. Her body is like an auto air purifier and monster repellent, and she'll be in the middle of layers upon layers of the best knights from the country. So, all she really need to do is being carried around, cast a spell, and fight against her greatest enemy - boredom. How dreadful. Needless to say, this won't work for the other might-not-be-a-saint girl. In her case, it'll become a death trap.

Also, the knights injuries or anyone's death or suffering from the area around her that happened while she's happily ignoring her saint status, it's all on her. She's also not doing herself any favors. Imagine what would happen when the world gets royally ****ed while she's hiding her status and she eventually got revealed to be the saint. Oh dear, I do wonder what will happen to her peaceful life then. ...then again, probably nothing will happen because all the handsome men will surround and protect her from all the monsters, angry mob and other handsome men, because Josei.

Ahhh... I'm ranting. Seems like I hate her more than I realize. I guess she reminds me of the type of people that I hate the most. You know, the type that talks about how sad and pitiful those starving children in the world are, while having fine dining.

 

[FireFish5000]

lol, agreed. I feel so sorry for poor Aria. Her life is in jeopardy, she is surrounded by people who call her an imposture behind her back, and her only hope out of this situation is a sadistic saint. This is neglect play, for our poor Aria-san.

 

[Sanctuario]

If you have the power, you have the responsibility to use it. However, we are human. How can we force someone to do something she doesn't like? How can we force our own ideals on a person? How can we force a person to be what we want her to be, not what she wants to be? It's quite mysterious, human nature that is. Humans are naturally selfish. If she's selfish, then aren't the people in the story also selfish for imposing their own wishes on her?

Edit: Upon reading some of the comments, I can understand why your viewpoint is like that. It's exactly because people can't think from the protagonist's perspective. There's this fictional barrier that keeps some from doing so. "It isn't reality; therefore, I can impose on her the fantasy she should be doing or I've been thinking of." Sad to say, reality is different from the ideal, and I would like to think that the author perfectly captured how a person suddenly hit with a heavy responsibility should be acting, albeit a little too selfish.

Edit (2): I'm not here to debate. I just want people to know that there isn't a perfect person, and I believe it was not the intention of the author to create such a person (thus the protagonist we currently have). If she was that perfect, ideal person we all want her to be, she would be saving the world actively right now. But keeping aside such imperfections, I think that this story is really fun.

 

[Kaarme]

@Aldis Yeah, she got bad behavior from one person, and then got surrounded by bishounen who pay her lots of attention. Too much attention in my opinion, but she seems to enjoy having her every waking hour controlled by handsome men, so whatever floats her boat. In any case it's quite petty for an adult to hold the whole world responsible for what one man did. But then again, it's not like she would have any responsibility for their alien world. They already owe her much for all the work she has done.

Like I said earlier, if she did all this as a business, she would be fabulously rich already. Just think of healing some duke or merchant magnate with bad eyes or a missing limb, who had lost all hope of getting perfectly cured. That single action would make enough for her to live nicely for a long time. She could also conquer the best portion of the healing potion market. Her enchanting skills could change the world (and make her wealthy beyond measure). But nah, all of those skills she uses for the benefit others while apparently receiving little to no pay or compensation.

I have zero love for modern feminists, but her character is still infuriating. It would be a different thing if she had been just biding her time, getting used to the world, and learning stuff in silence before hitting the road to find her own fortune, but this is indeed her real yamato nadeshiko personality.

 

[Aldis]

@Kaarme Minus the sarcasm, that may be true.

Edit: I'm thinking from the protagonist perspective, and from what I read from the novel:

Spoiler

Even if she told everyone she's the saint in the first time and go straight to work, it might not work asap because: 1. the supervisor of the ceremony (1st prince) believes the saint is the other person, I forgot why but the king actually not present that day hence the late treatment Sei received and the prince as sv; 2. she doesn't know how to use her power yet> no prove; 3. should she trust or distrust this alien 'rpg-like status' that write her class as saint and powers she still not sure can execute> again, no prove; 4. the summoner (head magician), the only one who can appraise her was comma; 5. she doesn't realize how much authority (the kingdom actually treat her as important saint-candidate not fake like what the prince thought) she has; 6. in the eyes of kingdom, Aira also shows significant power so it's acceptable if she is the saint too; 7. she will have trouble to activating the power anyway.

Part of it is the kingdom fault because they were handle Sei's case very cautious to the point they... don't do anything at all. The rest is her who unwilling to talk (something she's not sure). However, after her doubt was clear, I agree, she behaves selfish for not came forward as the Saint as soon as possible.

About Aira, that poor girl is actually forced by the first prince (who want to secure his position in throne by showing that he has contribution regarding the Saint) to have battle exp not the kingdom.

Her leisure time with the handsomes actually a vital point as she's not become a Saint for responsibility only, but for genuinely want to protect people she cares and loves, a very important thing she need to have in order to use the real power of Saint.

 

[Heath]

lmao people are bashing Sei because they expect she knows everything that we know (as reader). Saint's job won't be dangerous? She didn't even aware about that lmao.

 

[IMACOP]

@Heath Eh, she knows. Rather, other than the extra chapters, everything is from Sei's perspective...

 

[SundayHaze]

Y’all it a manga it ain’t that deep

 

[flannan]

@Heath - more like, as LN readers, we know that Saint's work will not be safe like that. In fact, if that is not the first time we're reading something, we should already know that there is no such thing as things going smoothly.
Monsters aren't going to just sit down and let themselves be purified by the heroine. They're called monsters because they will fight with tooth and claw to the last dubious organism.

It's very reasonable to assume MC expects Saint's job to be hard and/or dangerous, and she is unwilling to do it for random people she just met, or even far-away people she never met.

 

[Ruruskadoo]

I get why she's acting like that, she's scared of fighting and doesn't want to be involved and she's happy with how her life is now and doesn't want things to change. I still find how long her waffling is taking to be annoying though.

If she were doing it because she was angry at them (you know because of the whole kidnapping her and forcing her to stay in that world for the rest of her life thing) I think I would have an easier time accepting her unwillingness, but she wants to help people and feels bad about it and yet she's still just sitting there not doing anything. If I wanted to watch someone do that I'd look in a fucking mirror, not read manga.

 

[tgb089]

She's so annoying how she's dragging her feat and try to avoid claiming herself as the Saintess. I know she what's to live this low profile life and not tied to an obligation of 'saving the world' but its frustrating.

 

[ChiChidi]

@Heath they told her a few chapters ago it wouldn't be very dangerous. 😞

 

[SugarArirang]

The golden particles probably mean Asian lol

 

[Goukenslayer]

burh she being little pissy just out and say what u dont want and want to do

 

[nek0nek0]

@Kaarme Actually she doesn't get to choose what she does. They stopped her from leaving the city/palace initially. She literally had to ask to go with the potion people. They only allowed it because she's still within their purview. Her life is still being controlled by the palace that summoned her. She likes her life now because she is still pursuing her interests and making some choices about her day to day life.

 

[Kaarme]

@nek0nek0 So, you are saying she's like those foreign people the nazi Germany "kindly" asked to work for them during the WW2? Or those experts the Soviets borrowed from Germany to get their own missile, jet engine, and other projects up to date? That is, total prisoners doing forced labour. And she's happy with it. Normally such people would only work at gunpoint to preserve their lives. But then again, I already said she's a yamato nadeshiko, who enjoys being controlled by a man (or men in her case) and whose pride and joy comes from fulfilling the expectations of men. I find it hilarious this is a josei series with such a plot. That's some brainwashing, yo.

 

[nek0nek0]

@Kaarme Or she's making the best of the situation she's in? She's not being tortured or abused and she can't go home but she can explore her new world and pursue her interests. Your interpretation is similar to saying those four siblings enjoyed Aslan controlling their lives in Narnia. No. She enjoys exercising some agency in a situation not of her making or choosing.

I think it's hilarious that you seem to think josei is some socially-conscious genre instead of a money-maker for publishers... like every genre.

 

[Kaarme]

@nek0nek0 Where I'm from, a person who's not paid appropriately for the work despite working long hours, whose personal freedom is limited (can't even go downtown without supervision), who's continuously being checked on by the supervisors, and so forth, is called an exploited person, typically a foreigner from a poor/unsafe country who's a victim of human trafficking.

I'm not saying josei should be socially-conscious. This is entertainment industry. I'm saying I found it funny women would love to read a series, where the female main character is happy with the dubious treatment she's receiving. You know, in capitalisms people vote with their wallets. But then again, that's just how the world is. There were plenty of women who travelled to the ISIS caliphate to be terrorist wives (baby making machines), so what can I say?

 

[nek0nek0]

@Kaarme You know she's choosing to work like that because she wants to? They mention again and again how she makes too much potions and gets kicked out of the lab for depleting the stocks. Furthermore, that she doesn't have a choice in where she goes is the premise of the whole story. The whole 'summoned saintess' thing. Is it fair, is it right? Obviously she didn't choose to leave Earth and couldn't leave the palace/city when she tried to lol so very tough questions for you. I think the story presents that reality in a fairly negative light. But it's not a tragedy, so we move on.

I didn't say you said it should be socially conscious; I said I think it's funny that you think it (ever) was (even a little) socially conscious. Did you ask 'women' if they love to read it for that reason? I think it's great that you try to find the political messaging in this story but as a woman who doesn't care for 'good politics' in media (it doesn't exist anyway) and occasionally reads josei, I don't think I've ever read any josei that doesn't have questionable politics. Wait until you read some classic shoujo. Going by who owns and runs/makes decisions in publishing companies in Japan (mostly men shockingly), the politics of these stories say more about men than women. If they say anything about such a large demo of society at all that is.

Also, I don't think the mc is happy so much as making the best of her lot. She can twiddle her thumb in some suite in the palace. But she's interested in plants (and then magic) and this new world and the people around her so she decides to explore all of that. She isn't being abused, she doesn't care about profit, she has some level of agency, she gets to pursue her interests. Maslow.

 

[Kaarme]

@nek0nek0 Yeah, you are absolutely correct about her enjoying the opportunity to do what she has found she loves to do, the alchemy and related magic research, so theoretically everything should be cool. I guess I just have a personal problem about her being seemingly happy with her current circumstances as long as she can do that alchemy. Now, I would have considerably less problems accepting this if the situation in the world was different. Lets say the place was in an imminent danger of being overrun by murderous demons, people were dying left and right in battles every day. Then she would also be working to simply keep herself alive. However, that's not the situation. It has royals who can afford to be arrogant, it has a flourishing city, it has handsome bishounen who possess the luxury of keeping themselves dashing. So, her work actually should produce significant benefit, which just disappears somewhere. My sense of justice says that even if she herself doesn't have the mind to seek that benefit, someone should be there to tell her to do it.

Perhaps it playes a large role that I'm a man, predominantly reading shounen and seinen, where the main characters usually have their own aims, their own ambition, their own view of the world, and they don't want to be taken advantage of. Of course there are series where this is not a case, but I typically like them less.

Well, I admit I probably went overboard in blaming this series for trying to brainwashing people, but it's only because this is a decent series otherwise in my opinion, so I care.