Yona was ready to drink Scarlet’s soul with her gaze.
An indescribable chilling feeling swirled in her eyes as she glared at Scarlet for a long time before shifting her attention to Alex.
“…You.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Alex awkwardly smiled, but Yona scoffed dismissively and turned away, looking like she didn’t trust him one bit.
It was Alex’s request to have a little chat with Scarlet.
Yona was not going to allow that, but Alex persuaded her anyway, and after glaring at him for ages, Yona reluctantly nodded.
In the midst of that, Scarlet was sitting blankly on the floor, staring at Alex without moving an inch.
There was no sign of life in her eyes.
The softness and warmth she usually showed were replaced by the chilling gaze of Alex that was all too evident now.
‘Did I… did I mess up…?’
What could she have done?
Scarlet couldn’t come up with anything, no matter how much she thought about it.
She was the one who had tortured him, but she had intended to apologize.
She wanted to say that it was her fault for not recognizing her senior.
She believed that doing so would bring her senior back to her old self.
Though it might require eliminating that heretic and whore in the process, she believed that with her persuasion, her senior would definitely regain her sanity.
But what was happening now?
Sure, it was Johannes’ powerful shield bash that sent her crashing to the ground, but that being was her own self.
And how, despite giving such warm smiles and sweet whispers to that whore, she was met with such a cold stare instead.
In the face of that reality, Scarlet sat there, dazed, staring blankly at Alex.
“Are you okay, Sir Scarlet?”
Serad had hurried over at some point and was trying to help Scarlet up.
But with Scarlet dressed in heavy armor and only her helmet off, Serad was struggling to lift her.
“I’m… fine.”
No, she wasn’t fine at all.
Why was her senior looking at her with such a chilling gaze?
Each time she received that look, it felt like her heart was crumbling.
Her senior’s lips would move as if she was going to say something, but then she’d just sigh in defeat.
Every single one of those moments was something she had never seen when she was by her side.
“Get up, ugh… why are you so heavy?”
Should she even try to stand up being dragged by Serad’s straining hands?
But right now, Scarlet couldn’t even stand properly since her legs felt like jelly.
Scarlet couldn’t even stand properly because her legs were shaking.
Johannes was the one bearing down on her.
With that icy expression and those eyes that seemed to say, “What are you doing here?”—looking thoroughly annoyed.
All of Johannes was weighing down on her.
Alex, who had been quietly watching Scarlet, glanced back.
Yona, being led by Kaiyak towards the carriage, turned back to Alex every few steps.
As if she was trying to eavesdrop on whatever story was being told or whatever was happening, Yona kept looking back at Alex.
“My sins run deep, my sins run deep.”
Alex sighed heavily while looking up at the sky.
He thought to untangle the mess.
And if it was tangled so badly that it couldn’t be undone, he’d just have to cut it off.
Alex slowly approached Scarlet.
Scarlet, staring blankly at him as he approached.
The unknown nun who had been trying to lift her hurriedly stepped back as Alex got closer.
“…Get up. How long are you going to stay down?”
“Yes, s-senpai!”
It had been a while since she spoke like that.
Since leaving the cathedral, she hadn’t used such an imposing tone.
But that tone was just like the one in her memories, and she sprang to her feet in front of Alex.
“Why are you here?”
Scarlet couldn’t answer that question.
It wasn’t a simple “How have you been?” or “What’s new?”
It was the piercing question of “Why are you here?”
That question felt like a dagger stabbing deep into Scarlet’s chest.
“Senpai… are you hurt anywhere…?”
“Yona healed everything. …Don’t worry, I’m not trying to blame you again.”
“Thank goodness…!”
At that, color returned to Scarlet’s face.
She had caused him pain and rendered him unable to walk.
The fact that all of that had been healed—so he was okay now, after all.
“But if that apostate, that demon healed you, there must be a problem…!”
“Enough.”
At Alex’s cold tone, Scarlet flinched and stopped speaking.
“Senpai, let’s go back to the cathedral together, okay?”
“The cathedral?”
Hah.
A short laugh.
Though it was brief, it felt to Scarlet like an eternity of mockery.
“Why would I go back to the cathedral? I’ve been kicked out of there, and there’s no way I’m going back now.”
“E-eh? But, but senpai!”
? But, but senpai!”
“I’m no longer affiliated with the Church of the Celestial God. The one who lifted the Church’s ban is Yona… the very heretic you talk about. By your logic, wouldn’t I also be considered a heretic?”
“That can’t be!”
Scarlet shouted as if she were about to have a seizure at Alex’s words.
If being treated by a heretic makes someone a heretic, then even if Scarlet didn’t know it, she treated a heretic herself, so she must be one too.
“Then, if we follow that logic, I too—”
“Exactly. Isn’t that the case? The ban that was to be imposed on you, I took on that burden for you. So if we apply that logic, wouldn’t I also be a heretic?”
“But…!”
Scarlet clenched her fist tightly.
Her hand was trembling.
“Weren’t we supposed to be going somewhere? Just go along your way and don’t mind us. If I can’t back down as a Cathedral Knight, then I’ll take you on myself. As the husband of that heretic.”
Not yet.
But it will be.
I will make it so.
“A husband?!”
Scarlet shot her head up.
A husband? That’s nonsense.
There can’t be someone who could become the wife of Johannes Spilban.
With his noble character, outstanding strength, deep faith, and a broad-mindedness that embraces all.
That man is Johannes Spilban.
How could such a man refer to that mere heretic as a wife?
Why is he calling that harlot his wife?
“…Senpai, that can’t be true. Please think once more. Please…!”
Alex let out a deep sigh.
From the moment he encountered Scarlet here, he felt that things had gone awry.
He needed to return to Evian quickly as per Yona’s wish, but being held back here was not how it was supposed to go.
“Scarlet. Stand straight.”
Alex’s words were cold.
The cold sting of his words pierced Scarlet’s heart even more painfully.
“From now on, you and I are strangers. Johannes Spilban, the former Cathedral Knight, has long been dead.”
“Sen—”
“Does a junior get to interrupt when a senior is speaking?”
Scarlet felt crushed under the frigid pressure.
Protests against the impossibility of that statement, pleas to reconsider.
All of it vanished into thin air so hopelessly.
“I am the heretic your Church speaks of—the Knight of Yona. I was revived by her healing and I swore to be her knight. So forget about me. Go back. Go back and try to clean up your insane Church just like now.”
“Heretic—I’m Yona’s knight. She healed me, and I vowed to become her knight. So just forget about me. Go back. Go back and deal with the Church of the Celestial God that’s going bonkers like you always do.”
“Senpai…!”
Scarlet’s gaze was shaky, unable to properly look at Alex.
Those cold words seemed deliberately chosen to hurt Scarlet, stabbing and slicing through her, gradually gnawing away at her.
“We’re going our own ways… No, wait. I’ll go my own way, and you go yours.”
With that, Alex let out a deep sigh.
Cutting ties is like this, isn’t it? Ending past connections is like erasing memories. The idea of dismissing all those times, all those memories, saying they never existed.
Alex knew well how much Scarlet had followed him.
Back then, he was Johannes, and he knew he had been everything to her.
He wasn’t oblivious to the hidden feelings behind the title “Senpai.”
But no means no.
The past Johannes Spillban had no room to accept her feelings.
Now, Alex had no reason to accept her.
His heart was one, and that heart belonged to Yona.
Scarlet, who had spat such harsh words at Yona—
“So let’s go our separate ways. Don’t follow me anymore.”
With that, Alex turned away.
There was no need to look deeper into Scarlet’s face.
He grew more distant.
The one he’d been desperately searching for was slipping away.
As Scarlet stared blankly at his fading figure, she lowered her head.
By her side stood Serad silently, not saying a word.
She couldn’t say anything or even think at all.
Scarlet’s shoulders began to tremble.
Slowly kneeling down, she buried her head in the floor and began to cry.
Like the howl of a wounded beast, like a woman missing someone she could never see again.
Scarlet sobbed loudly.
“Senpai, Senpai…”
The overwhelming sorrow soaked her heart, spreading like a silent echo across the fields.
In that moment, Scarlet suddenly thought,
“If this is how it’s going to be, then I’d rather—”
Her gaze turned to the departing Alex.
And her hand moved towards her waist.
A sharp dagger—
A dagger that glinted not even a little in the moonlight was now clasped in her hand.
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