“I’ve shed the title of Priest. That priestly Yona you’ve seen is no more. I’m going to run wild as my true self; try and stop me if you can.”
Since that fateful day when I pronounced the Alebians, Yona’s face has been free of shadows.
Ever since that day the demon exploded, there has always been a gloom somewhere on Yona’s face.
But now, Yona looks so bright and carefree—Alex even felt it was a bit awkward to see such a Yona.
“…I have no clue what that guy is thinking.”
Kaiyak said to Alex while casually rubbing the axe blade with cloth.
True to his warrior roots, Kaiyak wasn’t slacking off on weapon maintenance even in this situation, and the double-headed axe, generously smeared with oil, gleamed with light.
“Well, I’m not sure either.”
“Alex, didn’t he say anything to you?”
“Nope.”
Alex replied while polishing his shield with an oil-soaked cloth.
But—he wasn’t completely in the dark.
It was just that night when Alex had asked Yona what she was planning to do.
*
“What are you thinking about?”
Sitting close made his body tingle, making him flinch slightly.
He thought he had gotten used to it, but apparently not; so Alex sat a bit further away.
“What do you mean, what am I thinking?”
Yona replied, half reclining on the carriage roof.
Her lazy expression resembled the old Yona, which made Alex a bit happy, but he buried that feeling deep and asked her again.
“I mean what you said to Alebians earlier.”
“Oh, that.”
Yona yawned widely.
On the carriage roof, with the cold wind howling during the winter, the two were gazing up at the sky while keeping a little distance from each other.
“It’s just as it sounds. If Alebians pulled this crap because I was a Priest, I figured I might as well repay the favor.”
“Repay? How?”
“I thought about Alebians and Ceres’ goals. It’s all just speculation, though.”
Yona sat up straight.
She tried to scoot closer to Alex, but the tingling sensation made her hold back and keep her distance again.
“Think about it. He told me to subjugate all the demons. And he said with that power, I could topple the Church of the Celestial God.”
“Right.”
“When I was blinded by rage, I thought about annihilating the Church and everything, but now I’ve cooled down a bit. I think it’s time to assess things more rationally.”
I trapped Yona for my purposes and pushed Alex into such a crisis.
If I think about it, isn’t Ceres and the Alebians my biggest enemies?
The Church of the Celestial God hasn’t done anything right either.
If they had just listened to Alex once, it wouldn’t have turned out like this.
However, now that Yona has cooled off a bit, she thinks the root of the problem lies with the Alebians and Ceres.
Those two schemed this whole plot in the name of selecting the saintess of the Demon World, and Yona and Alex fell right into it, so they’re the biggest problem.
“First of all, as Ceres said, subjugating all the demons—I think that’s necessary.”
“Why?”
Yona paused for a moment and sighed.
A white breath escaped her lips, dispersing into the air.
That breath, which soon disappeared into the atmosphere, felt incredibly fleeting.
“…We were too weak. No, you were hiding your power, but I was indeed powerless. Now that I see how the Church of the Celestial God has gone insane, I think I need strength too. The existence of the saintess of the Demon World and her immense power—it’s like a warning. I think we need that. Got it, Baldy?”
It had been a long time since he was bald.
But in Yona’s memories, Alex was always a bald guy, and even though he had a lot of hair now, it somehow felt awkward.
So, just for the title—Baldy.
“I thought I should become a being that remains still unless provoked. However, the moment I’m provoked, it’s something difficult to handle. I figured that would be good for me and for you as well.”
“But what does that have to do with what you said to the Alebians?”
“Oh. Did I go off on a tangent?”
Yona chuckled at Alex.
That smile reminded her of the days when she was rolling around as a low-tier adventurer in Evian, and it made her feel somewhat cheerful.
“Anyway, our goals are now aligned. But in the process, I won’t follow whatever they lead. For example, even if I end up going to the Katus Empire, it’s not like I’ll just move the way you all think I should. That’s why I’m trying to meet Priest Vigrind again this time.”
“Meeting the saintess…”
To be honest, Alex couldn’t understand what Yona aimed to do by meeting Vigrind.
He heard they had clashed with the intention to kill each other.
Back then, he was unconscious, so he later heard from Kaiyak that not only Vigrind but also Ludvik was ready to kill, and if Yona hadn’t shown mercy, Ludvik would have been killed by Vervaria.
I heard it’s going to happen.
“Well, if you think about it, Vigrind might actually understand me.”
Yona paused and thought.
When there was a ruckus in the Church Region, Priest Vigrind ultimately didn’t attack her.
If he had tried to crush Yona with the Celestial God’s holiness, she wouldn’t have been able to go all out like a madwoman either.
Vigrind must have hesitated until the very end.
At least when it came to Yona, it was clear he couldn’t muster a sincere attack.
“It’s not that he might understand me; I’m sure he will. We need to meet Vigrind and put a stop to this madness. Just because we have the same hair color and eye color doesn’t mean I should be dragged in for questioning! Does this make any sense?”
“No way.”
Even Alex was on the same page about that.
The Church of the Celestial God had gone bonkers.
Because of a single heretic, the Church was losing the public’s trust.
“So we should tell Vigrind to fix this Church of the Celestial God thing.”
“Are you giving up on toppling the Church…?”
“I’m not giving up. I’m just waiting and watching. Like you said, those like Sister Aege or the knights at the Cathedral are all good people. Just because there are lunatics in the Church Region doesn’t mean those folks are bad. So I’m just going to watch a bit longer. There might be more good people than we think.”
If the world only had bad people, how could it function?
How could the Church of the Celestial God have lasted for hundreds of years if it only had insane zealots?
Surely, only a handful of crazies have seized control, and in reality, most people must be genuinely faithful and good, right?
Yona’s thoughts were clearly changing.
After Alex’s intense persuasion, her anger began to wane, making way for calmness.
Yona, who naturally liked people, was slowly having the flames of her anger extinguished thanks to Alex’s arguments.
“Okay, you’ve thought this through. You might be right that the Saintess can put a stop to this madness. But what about you, the Hero?”
“It’s fine since I’m in Vervaria.”
Even as a Hero, he couldn’t defeat Vervaria.
He could even say he was utterly humiliated by it.
So he didn’t worry too much.
“…Hmm, okay. So you have a plan, right?”
“Of course I do. So, like this—”
*
Albians was listening to that entire conversation.
Although the carriage roof blocked the exchange between Yona and Albians, she was no ordinary fairy, so she heard it perfectly well.
‘…So Yona was thinking like that.’
What should she do about this?
Alebians pondered.
As a priestess, it was her duty to relay the conversation to Ceres, the leader, so that plans could be amended and improved.
The vanished divine—
The High God.
Since the High God, who maintained the balance between the demon realm and the human realm, disappeared, the Celestial God, focused solely on the human realm, had left the demon realm increasingly desolate.
As a result, the residents of the demon realm—what humans called monsters—began flooding into the human realm, and if time continued to pass, the demon realm would completely collapse, and its aftermath would engulf the human realm.
Thus, Yona was an essential being.
Knowing that Yona was having such a conversation with Alex, the observer Alebians felt it was her obligation to inform the leader, Ceres.
‘…What to do.’
Alebians hesitated, activating a magic circle that connected to Ceres but not initiating it.
For the greater good, she should shatter Yona’s plan.
But, for Yona’s sake—perhaps it would be better to just pretend to be unaware.
What is right and wrong is a matter of uncertainty.
However, after closing her eyes and deeply contemplating—
She extinguished the magic circle floating in her palm.
‘It’s Yona after all. She’ll figure something out. Somehow, definitely.’
Alebians lay back on the sheet, closing her eyes.
It wouldn’t matter if she didn’t sleep, yet she still wanted to.
*
A cloud of dust billowed as the warhorse galloped.
On the horse were a woman in a black nun’s outfit and a giant clad in silver armor.
“There’s Evian over there.”
“I’ve seen Evian while passing by, but it seems like I’ll be passing by it again this time,” Scarlet said, shading her eyes to look at Evian.
The mid-city Evian.
It was where she, a native of Kapatia Port, had first considered settling down.
It was a city of adventurers, and thinking there would surely be high demand for healing centers if there were many adventurers, Serad had heard that the competition was fierce with healing centers almost every other household, so she had bypassed Evian without stopping.
“It’s also the hometown of the Saint and the apostate. Would you like to stop by?”
“Um… no, that’s alright.”
Apostate.
That name had completely shaken her comfortable life in Karakuchia, yet it was a name she did not want to be associated with.
“Let’s head straight to the Kingdom of Lukasia.”
“Understood.”
The warhorse didn’t stop.
Carrying Scarlet and Serad, the warhorse galloped across the plains, kicking up clouds of dust.
And after a while, a carriage appeared before them.
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