Five days had passed since Yona parted ways with Ceres.
“How peculiar,” Kaiyak remarked.
Alex and Yona nodded with puzzled expressions. Only Rubina, who was clinging to Yona’s leg, looked up at her with a bewildered face.
A strange silence hung over the mountain ridge. Just a moment ago, the area had been bustling with a wild kobold horde creating a ruckus, but now, it was as if that noise had never existed.
Instead, there were kobolds kneeling before Yona, their heads buried in the ground as if they might embed themselves there. They were muttering unintelligible sounds, too scared to lift their heads.
It was a scene that couldn’t help but provoke laughter. Although there was no reason to feel tense about kobolds anymore, it was natural to be prepared for a fight if they came charging. Yet here they were, charging in with great fervor, only to collapse before Yona in submission.
“It seems being the Saint of the Demon Realm is quite an impressive status after all,” Alex noted, but Yona offered no reply.
Despite being called a saint, she had never truly felt it. Even having traveled alongside Saint Vigrind, she didn’t see anything particularly special about it.
The divine manifestation that could suppress the dead—just that, nothing more, was all she had felt about the status of a saint.
But having become the Saint of the Demon Realm and experiencing this situation made her wonder if perhaps being a saint was more significant than she thought.
“Everyone knows those monsters are all from the Demon Realm. Isn’t it because you’re the Saint, Yona, that they won’t dare to confront you?”
“By that logic, they should be going after you,” Yona retorted.
“Oh, right,” Alex replied.
Even if the kobolds wouldn’t confront Yona, it wasn’t unreasonable for them to come at Alex, who was a cathedral knight with divine power.
Yona’s question was valid. However, pondering it wouldn’t yield any answers, and thinking too long was just a waste of time.
“Shall we rest here for today?”
As Kaiyak suggested, the sun was already beginning to set. The brilliant afternoon sunlight always fades with time.
When the sun sets, the moon rises, and day turns into night.
【Is it time to show my true colors?】
‘…Huh?’
Yona paused her actions at the sudden voice from Vervaria, which had been quiet for a while.
As she stood dazed, freezing in place while preparing the campsite, Alex and Kaiyak exchanged puzzled glances at her.
But oblivious to their stares, Yona stood there, blankly waiting for the next words from Vervaria.
‘What, what are you talking about?’
【At this point, I wish to show you what the saint of the demon realm truly is.】
‘W-what does that mean…?’
It was then.
Just as a snake seemed to slither out from Yona’s left arm, it suddenly soared into the sky, inflating to an enormous size in the blink of an eye.
A giant snake the size of a house.
Not a snake with nine heads, but one with a single head.
The snake, surrounded by its scaly, glossy skin, rose until it was face-to-face with Yona, gazing down at her.
Yona’s face reflected in its yellow eyes was strangely calm.
Neither pale green nor stark white, but just a normal, serene expression.
Indeed, Yona was oddly composed.
Even though a snake so huge—it could swallow her whole with one gulp—was staring down at her, Yona felt no change in her emotions.
Unconsciously, it seemed she recognized that Vervaria would never harm her, and remained calm.
– O Saint. I wish to show you our world.
“—Where do you intend to take Yona!”
Startled by the sudden shout, Yona flinched.
With that shout came a thick grip wrapping around her waist.
Before she could even let out a surprised yelp, she found herself enveloped in Alex’s arms.
“Demon, do you intend to reveal your true self to Yona now?”
With his shielded hand wrapped around Yona, Alex instinctively shielded her with it.
The radiance of pure divinity rose from the hammer aimed at Vervaria, showcasing Alex’s extraordinary spirit.
But there was one problem—
‘…Ouch.’
It was fine until Yona was in his embrace, but with him radiating such divine energy, it hurt.
Every time the divine energy reached her, a sizzling sound echoed, and thin wisps of smoke began to rise.
It stung and hurt where the energy touched her skin, and more importantly, the demon magic instinctively tried to rise to protect her against this divine energy.
‘He must be hurting too…?’
A glance at Alex revealed that he too was sporting sparks leaping from the bare skin visible between his shirt.
Sweat dripped down his chin, tracing along his neck, and just when it seemed it would flow into his collarbone, it instead trickled down his solid chest muscles—
– Do not misunderstand, young knight. I hold your loyalty to our saint in high regard, but you cannot handle even me. And it seems the saint is in considerable pain, so perhaps you should let her go.
“My loyalty to our Saint is unwavering, but even you are too much for me to handle. And it seems the Saint is suffering greatly; how about we let her go?”
The yellow eyes were unsettlingly full of amusement.
Suddenly realizing what he’d done, Alex hurriedly released Yona, who he’d been holding tightly.
“Uh, s-sorry. Yona, are you okay?”
Finally, the divine aura emanating from Alex began to fade.
Yona didn’t look all that great either, caught in the clash of magic and divinity like a deer in headlights, her sweat-soaked hair clinging to her face in a rather unfortunate manner.
“Uh… I’m f-fine. So, Vervaria, what do you mean?”
Feeling awkward looking at Alex’s face, Yona quickly shifted the topic to Vervaria.
It was quite bothersome that they suddenly just appeared, claiming to show their world, but it was hard to look away from Alex’s disheveled state, so changing the subject was the better option.
– “I was just about to show you our world. The timing is perfect.”
“Your world? Isn’t it the Demon Realm? You’ve shown that before, right?”
The ruins.
A place where fires raged and smoke billowed endlessly.
They had already been there once before, hadn’t they?
– “That’s just a tiny part of my domain. Besides, you barely moved around there.”
That was also true.
They had been, but they hardly explored the place.
– “Now that you’ve become the Saint of the Demon Realm, it’s necessary for you to know about it. Am I wrong?”
“…That’s true.”
Given Yona’s personality, if she was going to do something, she had to do it right once she’d started.
It was the same when she became a nun, a healer, and even during her adventuring days.
Now that she was a Saint, she ought to act like one.
“Yona.”
Alex approached with a worried look, grabbing her arm.
After all, Vervaria was a Demon, and who knew what she might do?
So it was only natural for Alex to be concerned about Yona.
“It’s fine. The Demon Realm… I didn’t mention it, but I have actually been there once,” she replied.
In a dream, though.
That was a detail she conveniently left out.
“What Vervaria is saying isn’t entirely wrong. Ceres… that cursed witch, whatever she’s plotting, I need to be aware of it to respond.”
“You’re saying that, right?”
“…You really don’t have anyone to trust, so you’re trusting a demon?”
“Not really? It’s not like I have no one to trust. I trust you, after all!”
Beep—
Sticking her tongue out playfully, Yona spun around and looked up at Vervaria.
“Yeah, let’s go. To the demon realm or whatever. We should’ve gone a while ago. We’re actually really late.”
– Is that so? Good mindset.
Vervaria’s yellow eyes turned toward Yona.
Yona thought it looked oddly like a smile.
– Yes, just like that. You’ll use the sigil. The sigil is the very foundation of the demon realm, and raising your wishes alongside it is a basic virtue of a saint.
‘…What the heck is this.’
Following Vervaria’s instructions, Yona pressed down on the inside of her wrist where her veins were, focusing her mind to go to the demon realm.
Unlike before, the intense magic, now unrestricted by her right arm, surged smoothly throughout her body, as if responding to Yona’s wish, swirling toward the sigil engraved all over her right arm.
And what appeared first was an elongated oval.
From the mouth of the oval, dark red magic surged and billowed up into the air.
As it expanded, the magic intensified even more.
The magic was so wild it made Yona’s hair flutter.
Even Alex, who had been keeping close in case something happened to her, frowned at the intensity of the magic.
Within that magic, the circle began to grow larger and take shape.
– This is the gate to my territory. Saint, the more demons you subjugate, the more gates you can open.
Before long, the circle had become a massive gate.
The stone pillars on either side were thicker than a grown man’s waist, and the snake slithering up those pillars was quite a sight.
The snake coiled around and met at the top of the stone gate, twisting together and roaring at each other.
– Now, let’s open it. Knight of the saint, step aside. You won’t be able to withstand it.
Slowly, the stone gate began to open.
The churn of magic flowing through the gap wasn’t getting any less intense, but its concentration was incredibly dense.
Yona didn’t feel anything in particular, but Alex felt as though his whole body was burning, and he stumbled back without realizing it.
– G-g-g-guhh…
With a heavy sound, the stone gate fully opened.
Nothing was visible inside, but Yona knew.
That place, right beyond the gate, was definitely the demon realm.
And oddly enough, it felt—
For some reason, it even felt cozy.
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