A girl with orange eyes.
A girl with white hair.
A girl around twenty years old possessing these two distinctive features.
Upon seeing them, she promptly captured them all and sent them to the main branch of the Church of the Celestial God in the Church Region, and Yona couldn’t help but gasp at how much time had passed since then.
After all, there were dozens of people who had seen a figure named Yona.
Moreover, the priests and cathedral knights who had gathered around to attack Vervaria had all seen Yona’s face, hadn’t they?
If they had merely been dispatched to search instead of causing this madness, it wouldn’t have happened.
“…It’s not a place that moves on rational judgment. You know that, Yona.”
Yona nodded slowly at Alex’s words.
No matter how crazy it was, having the main branch directly attacked was unprecedented, and it had paralyzed their rationality.
I mean, is this something a person would do?
“Alebians.”
“…Yes.”
At Yona’s call, Alebians answered in a small voice while looking down, a chill radiating from her.
Since there’s a clear difference between a priest and a saint, strictly speaking, Alebians shouldn’t be speaking informally to Yona, but in fact, the use of honorifics only heightened Yona’s discomfort, so they had decided to switch back to informal speech as before.
“Tell me honestly. This is one of Ceres’ schemes, isn’t it?”
At Yona’s question, Alebians hesitated.
What should she reply?
It was indeed something that Ceres had prepared, but even so, the situation had escalated to this level, which Ceres probably hadn’t anticipated either.
Moreover, considering her personality, this revelation might lead her to devise something even more complex.
However, to state that plainly—
“Stop overthinking and just tell the truth.”
Yona’s voice was sharp, almost as if it might stab. The prickly words aimed at Alebians urged her to respond.
“…It is part of something Ceres planned.”
“Ha… No, what on earth is that woman scheming like this…”
A sigh escaped her lips.
Thinking about it now was just absurd.
“Alebians, what exactly is your relationship with Ceres? Are you sisters or something?”
“No, that’s not it. Sisters? That’s ridiculous.”
“Then what on earth are you?”
At first glance, she thought she was just a fairy.
But upon deeper thought, isn’t it strange for a priest from the Demon Realm to be a fairy?
Elves have their own alliance, the Naiasou High Priest Union, and there’s also the imperial high priesthood of Ezero, yet here’s a priest from the Demon Realm who isn’t affiliated with those.
There’s the Grand Priest Union of Naiasos and the Total Grand Priest Empire of Ezero, but here we have a demonic realm priest who doesn’t belong to either.
“… I can’t tell you yet, pretty girl. But unlike Ceres, I’m just a watcher. And… you wouldn’t believe it, but.”
The Alebian quietly lifted her head to look at Yona.
With an expression that was almost mournful, Yona shut her mouth and stared back at her.
“I tried to protect you. I wanted to send you back to your original self, as a man. But Ceres’ plan was much more meticulous than I expected… I had no choice.”
“What’s a better excuse than ‘I had no choice’?”
Now it was Alebian’s turn to be silent.
She didn’t think Yona would forgive her with such words, but Yona’s reaction was even colder than she anticipated.
“I don’t know what the relationship between you and Ceres is, but since you’re a demonic realm priest, it must be relatively close. You tried to protect me? Nothing is as easy as it sounds. In the end, you failed, right? You’re the reason I’m running away like this. And Ceres is the main culprit, of course. Isn’t that right?”
Faced with Yona’s sharp condemnations, Alebian could say nothing.
“Words are free. What matters is whether you can prove it through actions. So.”
Yona smiled with a subtle expression.
At first glance, it seemed like a sneer, and upon a closer look, it appeared to be a smile of resignation.
Wearing that smile on her face, Yona glared at Alebian.
“I’m going to show you guys proof from now on. Didn’t I say I was chosen as a saint because I’m pious?”
Yona, who lived for others rather than her own safety.
She had no awareness of it herself, but it seemed that Alebian and Ceres did.
“I’ve cast aside the title of priest. The Yona you knew as a priest is no more. I’ll be running wild as my true self, so try to stop me.”
“Pretty girl. What on earth are you trying to do—”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Yona gritted her teeth and looked out the window.
It would take a few more days to get to Evian.
*
“Cough.”
Sniffling, Serad sat close to the campfire.
In winter, dry branches were everywhere, so firewood was abundant, and the wild game that Serad had caught with her skills from her brief adventuring days was cooking nicely over the flames.
The wild beast they caught with skill was roasting nicely over the campfire.
“I think it’s done now…”
Sekti, who had only removed her helmet from her armor, picked up the meat and began to tear into it.
Every time she pulled at the meat with force, grease dripped down, but not a single trace of oil was left on her gauntlet.
“Here you go…”
Serad, carefully taking the leg meat handed to her by Sekti, started to munch on it cautiously.
They had just left Karakuchi and were barely out of the Insturia Mountains.
The Cathedral Brigade, and among them, the elite Holy Knight Brigade.
And within that, Scarlet, who was also one of the elite.
His warhorse was a magnificent creature unlike any other.
Thanks to that, the warhorse carrying both Scarlet and Serad galloped madly and successfully crossed the Insturia Mountains.
“To think we crossed the Insturia Mountains so easily, I could never have imagined it. In such a remote area…”
“It’s not like it’s my first time crossing it…”
Due to her duties, Sekti spent more time outside the Church Region.
There were instances of monsters appearing, but more often, it involved tackling heretical cases.
Especially dealing with the rampant Dark Association these days.
She was mainly in charge of such tasks, so she was already familiar with the tricks of crossing the Insturia Mountains.
“Honestly, the more I see you, Sir Scarlet, the more amazing you seem.”
“Just call me… Scarlet. Or Sir Scarlet.”
“But it feels weird to call you that. Sir Scarlet sounds too masculine.”
“…Don’t worry about such things…”
– A girl should learn to doll herself up a bit. After this operation, I’ll have to ask the head priest for some makeup lessons.
It felt like someone’s voice echoed in her mind.
After starting to travel with Serad, she had felt a bit more at ease, and the phantom echoes of Johannes had significantly lessened, but suddenly, that had changed.
“…I’m not worried at all.”
“That’s why the most neutral title is ‘Sir.’ Even in the cathedral, they called him ‘Sir’ while I was there.”
“Feel free to call me whatever you want…”
Talking too much is tiring.
Moving my lips, chattering away…
The more I do it, the more exhausting it becomes.
As Scarlet shut her mouth and continued eating, Serad, who had been babbling a bit more, soon seemed to tire of talking and quietly started eating herself.
After a moment of silence, Serad, who had picked the meat off to the bone and placed the leftover bones into a prepared pit, cautiously glanced at Scarlet and opened her mouth.
“Open it.”
“…By the way, is the Church of the Celestial God… okay?”
“The Celestial God is always right… always.”
“Sure, everyone knows that. The Celestial God always watches over us and speaks the truth, even if He doesn’t show Himself. That’s the first thing you learn when entering the cathedral, right? What I’m talking about isn’t the Celestial God; it’s whether the Church of the Celestial God is okay.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“…I’m talking about apostates.”
That was a topic Sekti also didn’t want to discuss.
“I can agree that we need to catch the apostates. But isn’t the method of pursuit wrong? Just because someone has a similar hair color or eye color, you can’t just drag them all in.”
Let’s be honest, calling it “catching” is just a nice way to put it; it feels more like kidnapping.
Serad would probably be dragged off already if it weren’t for Scarlet—oh wait, she’s not wearing her helmet now, so Sekti.
If it weren’t for Sekti, she would already be on her way out.
Even here, Scarlet isn’t dumb enough to simply respond by saying the Celestial God is always right.
“…It must be a method to catch the apostates as quickly as possible. There has to be meaning behind it… so, there’s no need to doubt.”
“If we want to catch them quickly, I heard there are hundreds of people in the organization who’ve seen these apostates. If each one of them is sent to search every town, wouldn’t they find them quickly?”
That’s a fair point.
Maybe that’s why Sekti had lost her words.
She knows very well that there are hundreds of witnesses.
And if they sent them, just as Serad said, one by one to towns across the country, they might find the apostate quickly.
At least they wouldn’t have to do this bizarre thing of rounding them all up just because of similarities in appearance.
“…Just stop worrying about it. Anyway, if you go to Lukasia, you can receive protection, right?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know. Unless I completely shave off this hair and the Church doesn’t catch that apostate quickly, I won’t be safe anywhere. If Sir Scarlet wasn’t here, I would’ve already been dragged off, wouldn’t I?”
“……”
The more they spoke, the more words evaporated.
Scarlet couldn’t understand what was happening either, making it even harder to find what to say.
“Well, I can’t just shave my head either, being a woman.”
At that moment, someone’s face came to mind.
The man she tortured herself, perhaps the one cursed by gold.
Guilt washed over her like a tidal wave.
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