The weapon of the Cathedral Knight is definitely the mace.
Among them, the Holy Knight Brigade uses a morning star, which is an advancement from the mace.
However, due to the nature of blunt weapons, they are somewhat weak in delicate tasks, especially when fast responses are required.
To prepare for such times, they carry a short but incredibly sharp dagger.
Scarlet drew the dagger that she always had strapped to her waist.
She heard a gulp from Serad, but such sounds didn’t reach her ears.
It was fading away.
In her vision, there was only the back of Alex—the Johannes Spilban.
Only the disappearing back of the apostate named Yona, who had returned to the carriage, seemed to say that it was truly over between them.
Even the face that always smiled at her now disappeared.
Whenever he showed his back, it was always on the battlefield, and the feeling of security she felt from that back no longer existed.
“Go your separate ways,” he said coldly, and those words pierced her heart like a dagger.
The chill of those words not only stuck in her heart but flailed and thrashed around her body, leaving her a mess.
Scarlet gripped the dagger tightly in her hand.
Everyone has their reasons for living, but for Scarlet, that reason was pointing at Johannes.
The man who took the punishment in her stead and ultimately got thrown out of the Cathedral—Johannes Spilban.
The strongest and youngest ever to become a Cathedral Knight, yet he wasn’t petty or arrogant.
He was incredibly strong, kind to everyone, strong to the strong, and kind to the weak.
Yet the downfall of such a man came in a moment of futility.
Sekti.
One day, Johannes Spilban brought her in and personally taught her to be a Cathedral Knight.
After years of teaching and treating her like a little sister, she was assigned to the Holy Special Forces with him.
But because the one she healed was a heretic, she couldn’t escape the punishment from above, and knowing that her intentions weren’t wrong, Johannes Spilban took the punishment in her place.
Thus came the downfall of the strongest Cathedral Knight in history—
Sekti thought that Johannes’s downfall was her fault.
To be precise, it was the excessive punishment from the Church of the Celestial God’s leadership, who were envious and fearful of him, but only a few elders knew that.
He was kicked out because he healed a heretic, that was Johannes Spilban.
Only such rumors roamed the Church Region, and most people accepted it as truth, thinking it was right.
Then the rumors vanished like mist.
The downfall of a Cathedral Knight became just a tale that faded away.
From there, Sekti began to struggle with a strange sense of absence.
She knew the name.
She knew what kind of person he was.
She knew who he was.
But she couldn’t remember his face.
Not his height or build, nothing at all.
The more she tried to remember, the more her mind clouded with a fog, and she could recall nothing.
She absolutely shouldn’t forget, yet she still couldn’t remember—
From that moment, Sekti changed her name.
Covering her whole body in thick armor, she hid her youthful face and wandered for years in search of the name Johannes Spilban.
But she couldn’t find it, and instead, the anger inside her began to fill up more and more.
Everything is due to the things that go against the will of the Heavenly God.
If it weren’t for them, she would still be by Johannes Spilban’s side.
But now she is alone, and will remain alone.
That anger slowly began to eat away at her.
And finally, her long-sought reunion with Johannes Spilban was—
The worst.
Scarlet raised her dagger and slowly got up from the ground.
Serad looked up at her with anxious eyes as she stumbled to her feet.
They had spent several days together.
Serad had felt more than once that something was off about Scarlet, that she wasn’t in her right mind.
In terms of strength, she was far superior to any knight Serad had ever seen, yet that man who had easily tossed her aside, not to mention the woman in the nun’s outfit who was definitely a heretic, exuded an overwhelming force.
So fierce was that anger that even Serad, who prided herself on being bold for a woman, shrank back and couldn’t muster any resistance.
As Scarlet stumbled and stood, Serad finally thought she had to intervene.
There was definitely something off in her eyes.
A sense of foreboding, a feeling of ill will.
“W-wait, Sir Knight, just a sec—”
Before Serad could rise to stop her, that dagger, glimmering in the moonlight at that very moment, plunged deeply into Scarlet’s neck with a soft slicing sound.
“G-gah….”
Scarlet’s last words were choked, her lips moving weakly.
All that could be heard was the sound of air escaping her throat as she slowly lost strength.
Her vision began to turn red.
A metallic taste of blood welled up in her throat, hot and rising, then falling back down multiple times.
Finally, the lump of blood surged even more powerfully, seeping out and trickling down her lips.
‘Ah, ah.’
It hurts.
It hurts so much.
How much of the pain did my senior feel—
Is it even half?
It felt as though the sky was spinning slowly.
With the sensation of her vision swirling, Scarlet felt all strength leaving her body.
Even as she unknowingly toppled backward, she felt no pain.
“Sir, Sir Knight—!”
Serad, flustered about what to do with the dagger that was lodged in her throat, managed to pull it out.
As soon as the dagger was removed, a spurt of blood shot out and splattered all over Serad’s face.
“Sir Knight, Sir Knight—! W-what is happening… No, no…! The blood—!”
Serad clutched Scarlet’s neck, injecting her with holy power as if she were half-mad.
But Scarlet had been worn down by magic before, so the holy power she possessed couldn’t heal her properly.
Blood flowed like a flood.
The lifeblood, the symbol of life— that bright red blood gushed forth, soaking into the dry earth where she lay as if it were a burst dam.
In the spot where Scarlet lay, it looked as if dark red roses had blossomed.
It was hard not to think about how much blood a human body holds, seeing that much blood blooming like roses.
At that moment, Alex came running.
“Sekti! You foolish idiot…!”
Alex rushed over and slapped Scarlet hard across the cheek.
After a few resounding slaps, the pale-faced Scarlet opened one eye and looked at Alex.
“Uh… S-s-s… Sorry…”
The sound of air wheezing out.
With a sound that couldn’t even be properly pronounced, Scarlet let out a faint smile.
Ah.
Finally,
Finally, my senior is noticing me.
Great.
So this was how it was supposed to be, my senior finally paying attention to me.
I should have done this sooner—
Really, I should have done this sooner, Scarlet thought to herself.
“Is healing… is healing not possible?!”
“Ah, no…! No matter what I do, it keeps pouring out…!”
Sister Serad looked like she was watching the old Yona.
Serad had been releasing the Sacred Barrier itself with her bare hands, pouring out divine power.
Since the Sacred Barrier was ultimately equipment for efficiency, it was better not to simply pour it out like this—without the Sacred Barrier, it would be much more effective.
Even though she was pouring out that much, it barely healed a little bit.
Having taken a direct hit from Yona, Scarlet’s body, invaded by the dark magic, couldn’t be healed just with the divine power.
Moreover, since Yona’s attack had been a frenzied one before she had fully adjusted to the dark magic, that dark magic would be difficult to counter with any ordinary divine power, making it even worse.
“Healing… healing isn’t working… if this goes on…”
Scarlet’s complexion visibly turned pale.
But strangely enough, there was no sign of pain or fear on her face.
In fact, her expression looked almost serene.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Her parched lips trembled slightly.
Now, now it really is the end.
It should have been like this from the start.
To my senior, whom I respected so much—and whom I could never bring myself to say it to.
Having committed an unforgivable sin of not being able to repay her.
To come here and say something like this, thinking it would work—what a fool I am!
Yeah, it’d be better to just die.
Dying like this, disappearing would be for the best.
Serad removed her hands from Scarlet’s neck and sprang to her feet.
She headed toward the carriage where Yona and her party were riding.
Inside, there was certainly the heretic, that woman who was surely a nun.
If she was being protected by such a strong cathedral knight, her abilities must be considerable as well.
Thinking that, Serad rushed to the carriage and threw open the door.
“What’s this? Who are you?”
With eyes wide open in disbelief.
Still looking furious—Yona.
Yona glared at Serad as she abruptly opened the carriage door.
“S-Save Scarlet Knight.”
“…What?”
What kind of day was it today?
Why are these two acting like this together?
It felt like blood was rushing to her head again.
But the nun before her, even Yona could see, was a healer in the same profession.
And that slight feeling of camaraderie compelled Yona to show a flicker of patience.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have looked back after arriving together with Scarlet in the first place.
“Who are you to make such a request? You should at least introduce yourself first. Didn’t they teach you that in the cathedral school nowadays?”
“I’m Serad. I’m a healer. I— I was saved by Scarlet Knight. She… she just tried to stab her own throat… she might die any moment now.”
Only after hearing that did Yona look at Serad’s veil.
Her rich cream-colored hair not fully covered.
Seeing that, Yona figured out what had likely happened without needing more explanation.
And she could also roughly understand that Serad had stabbed her own throat.
“If you were saved, then you should save her. Why are you coming to me?”
“I’ve already tried. Please save Scarlet Knight.”
“I’ve tried! Please save Sir Scarlet!”
Serad boldly demanded, looking straight at Yona.
Yona glared back at her with a completely incredulous expression.
A brief silence followed, leading to an extremely long staring contest.
“Why should I? As you said, saving lives isn’t a problem for me. I can bring someone back as long as they’re not dead. But why should I save that girl?”
“For your sake.”
“Huh, for my sake?”
Yona scoffed and slowly stepped down from the carriage.
A swirling mass of dark red magic floated around.
Every time it touched something, there was a sizzling sound as smoky wisps rose from Serad.
“Explain that statement. Saving that girl is for my sake? Give me a reason that I can actually believe. I’ve already killed a number of you Church of the Celestial God folks. Adding one more wouldn’t bother me at all. So go ahead, explain it properly. One corpse turning into two can happen in the blink of an eye.”
Yona’s words weren’t empty threats.
Serad felt the magic swirling around her and knew it was no lie.
It was incredibly powerful and overwhelming magic.
Magic that Serad could never handle.
But there was no way around it.
From Serad’s perspective, it was her first time seeing Yona – though she didn’t know her name, she knew Scarlet, who had spent several days with her, was far more important.
Moreover, for whatever reason, the conflict between the two women surrounding the black-haired knight of the cathedral had clearly become a deep chasm.
Serad decided to tread that path.
She thought of a reason that might work for a rivalry romance.
“—That black-haired cathedral knight is the man you love.”
Yona fell silent at those words.
But there was no need for her to clarify whether it was true or not.
Serad was already convinced.
“If Sir Scarlet dies like that, he will forever carry that burden in his heart. You will be the only one in the heart of the man you love, yet another woman will forever coexist there. If she dies like that—perhaps the black-haired knight will live with regret.”
Yona was at a loss for words for a long time at that.
“You’re the only one who should be there, right? In the heart of the black-haired knight? The one who passed away can’t be pushed away. Are you really going to watch that? I can’t imagine myself doing that. This is your reason to save Sir Scarlet.”
“—You.”
Yona clenched her fists tightly, trembling.
She wanted to grind her teeth and deny it, but the nun’s words were hauntingly true.
Was it said that the best and worst revenge one can have on a lost lover is to see them die before their eyes?
The memories and regrets one has to carry for a lifetime.
And Yona couldn’t bear the thought of that being left with Alex.
She should have killed him.
Before Alex opened his eyes, she should have killed him when the chance was there.
No—
It’s not too late.
Even if she saves him now, she could kill him when Alex isn’t watching.
She would definitely kill him.
She would make him bitterly regret showing up in front of her once again.
Yona made her vow, over and over again.
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