“By the way…”
Priest Vigrind, after taking a sip of tea, looked at Yona and spoke.
It had been on his mind since they arrived here, but due to the atmosphere, he couldn’t bring himself to ask about it.
The knight in silver armor they had seen entering in the carriage—and next to him, there was a nun who looked unfamiliar but somehow seemed glued to the knight.
“Why is Sir Scarlet here?”
He wondered why no one was asking that.
Yona felt a bit reluctant but thought it wasn’t something she couldn’t explain.
“U-um, that’s…”
*
“…how it turned out.”
“…Wow. It’s surprising that Sir Scarlet turned out to be… no, a lady, but it’s also surprising that she had a prior relationship with Mr. Alex.”
At Alex’s explanation, Ludvik feigned a shocked expression.
Even though Ludvik was in the middle of the chaos at the Church of the Celestial God, he didn’t see everything from start to finish. Even if he had seen it, he likely wouldn’t have known. When Alex declared himself Johannes Spilban, Ludvik wasn’t paying attention to Alex; he was too focused on watching Yona escape safely.
And when Yona returned as a defector, he was too busy confronting her to pay much attention to Alex, so it’s natural he wouldn’t know. But now, to find out that Scarlet not only knew Alex but was actually directly under him was even more astonishing.
“Still, it’s more surprising that she followed him all the way here…”
Ludvik understood Scarlet’s strength.
She had appeared just when Ludvik was on the verge of being overwhelmed in the Semek battlefield. She—who should now be referred to as “her”—had unleashed all sorts of buffs and swept away all the undead as soon as she arrived. Not to mention that all the Holy Knight Brigade members displayed formidable combat prowess, but Scarlet was uniquely powerful among them.
The fact that such a fighter prioritized following Alex over her own faith and chose to just stand there despite the defector being right in front of her was quite a surprise for Ludvik. However, it wasn’t an entirely unexplainable situation; now that it had been revealed that Scarlet was such a beautiful lady, it was reasonable to think there might be one clear reason she abandoned everything to follow Alex.
“What can I say? It seems she’s happy to see her old superior.”
Alex smiled awkwardly.
He didn’t intend to share the whole story with Ludvik, but surprisingly, the way Ludvik listened to him attentively as if ready to clash at their first meeting made Alex unwittingly ramble on and on.
Seeing Ludvik surprisingly listening to him well, Alex found himself rambling on and on without realizing it.
“Hm, do you really think that way?”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“No, nothing. Forget about it.”
Ludvik shut his mouth.
If he was innocent, then so be it, but at least from the perspective of someone who’s been around the adventurer floor for ten years, it wasn’t just naivety—he was simply oblivious.
“By the way, Mr. Ludvik.”
The title of ‘Hero’ had disappeared. Alex boldly mentioned his name, yet Ludvik didn’t bother to point it out. The day would come when he’d return it. There was no need to pick a fight over it now.
“Yes.”
“…Why does the Church Region do such things?”
“Are you seriously asking that because you don’t know?”
Ludvik was flabbergasted. Really? Was he genuinely asking that out of ignorance? Ludvik silently stared at Alex, who grew embarrassed under Ludvik’s gaze, cleared his throat, and then Ludvik took a deep breath.
“…I have my bad feelings about that Saint— um, about that heretic. The Celestial God appointed me as a hero to prepare for disasters, and made Priest Vigrind a saint. If we really think about it, that disaster the Celestial God talked about…”
Ludvik glanced at the carriage.
The meaning behind that gaze was clear. Inside the carriage was the Saint— no, the heretic Yona.
So, was the heretic Yona what was meant by that disaster?
There had been heretics before, but none as powerful as Yona. Although it had already descended, somehow it had accepted the avatar of the Great Demon Vervaria, infiltrating even the heart of the Church of the Celestial God.
And in the place where most of the leadership of the main faction gathered, it exposed its true form with a burst of magical energy, nearly causing most of the people there to—
“True, but I clearly asked the Saint to refrain from doing any major healing. Y— no, the Saint followed me out without any complaints when I said I wanted to leave. At least, as you mentioned, Mr. Ludvik, she didn’t seem to have any hostile intentions toward the Church of the Celestial God.”
“I acknowledge that. That’s why I didn’t stop the Saint from escaping. You know that if I had made up my mind to block you then, I could have done it without a doubt.”
He didn’t say the part that he regretted not doing so even more.
He didn’t really have to do it.
“We didn’t come here to fight.”
“W-Well, that is true.”
At that moment, Alex was still under the restraining spell and was straining against it, so if Ludvik had stalled any longer, both Yona and Kaiyak would definitely not have escaped.
“Then your saint shouldn’t have barged in like that. Instead, you should have halted hostilities and merely issued a threat. You should have said something like, ‘If you return Mr. Alex, we won’t take any aggressive action.’ It should have ended there. You caused an enormous amount of damage and then fled, so the Church of the Celestial God is furious.”
“No matter how furious they are, there’s a limit, right?”
“The higher-ups have only given the order to capture your saint and the apostates. But you know, underlings tend to exaggerate higher-ups’ orders. It’s not unusual for a directive to capture just three individuals to balloon into capturing all suspects just in case one of them fits the description. They think if they catch enough similar-looking people, one of them has to be guilty, right?”
Ludvik’s argument was on point.
Alex’s thoughts were pretty much the same, to the extent that he couldn’t even muster a counter-argument.
“That may be the case, but isn’t that a bit excessive?”
—He could only muster a timid protest.
“Excessive? What’s excessive about it?”
And at that moment, the carriage door swung open, revealing Yona.
Instead of her usual nun’s habit, she wore an elegant saint’s robe.
Perhaps it was due to the robe or maybe her appearance had changed, but Ludvik stole a quick glance at Yona and then quickly looked away.
“What do you mean by excessive?”
As Yona stepped out of the carriage, Priest Vigrind also appeared.
Not the old, rather revealing saint’s robe she used to wear.
“Did you take off your robe, saint? I’m worried you might catch a cold in this weather.”
“I’m fine. The cold doesn’t bother me.”
“Well, even so…”
Ludvik reached out his hand.
Priest Vigrind lightly took his hand and stepped down from the carriage.
As Yona quietly watched Ludvik’s actions, she turned to Alex.
“…No, but you’re tall enough to step down without any help…”
Realizing the meaning behind that look, Alex stammered out an excuse, but it was already too late.
“Alright, we’re heading back now. If we stay out too late, even the Cathedral might notice. Anyway, remember what I told you. Don’t forget.”
“Got it. Now get inside. You take care of the aftermath.”
“Don’t worry.”
The two Saints exchanging such banter clearly seemed to be on good terms.
Ludvik and Alex couldn’t help but wonder what kind of conversation the two had inside the carriage, seeing the Saints get much closer than before.
*
At the same time…
“Hmph, hum hum~”
Ceres hummed a tune as she surveyed the basement of the Community Center. Judging by a glance, there were certainly over thirty bodies sprawled across the basement.
“Is the Reverse Five-Point Star finished… It must be summoned by now… So, shall I wait a bit?”
A dreadful stench of blood filled the interior of the Community Center.
The bodies wore black robes. Though originally navy, they were now drenched in blood, turning them a deep black.
Leftover blood flowed and pooled across the floor.
The Reverse Five-Point Star drawn by Ceres was now filled with crimson strands of blood along each line forming the star.
“Well… I guess it’s time to wrap things up.”
Without hesitation, Ceres stepped into the center of the star.
With every step she took towards the center, the magic rising from the star intensified.
“Now, let’s do this…”
Ceres pulled a sharp dagger from her pocket.
This pure white silver dagger was mostly used for ceremonies rather than combat, yet it was indeed the one used in the Evian Diocese for Sacraments.
Without hesitation, Ceres drew the dagger across her wrist.
With a ‘pshhht’ sound, blood burst forth from her wrist and began to drip heavily onto the ground.
“Ouch… that stings.”
Ceres grimaced as she twisted her wrist downward. The flowing blood turned into a gushing stream, soaking the ground beneath her.
“Come on, you bastard…”
As her blood soaked the ground, and the center of the star became drenched with Ceres’s blood, the candles set around her began to flicker violently, one extinguished with a gust, leaving just one lit.
“There you are. Damn you.”
Ceres, her face pale, grinned sinisterly.
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