When Ludvik first opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a pure white ceiling.
His last memory was a battlefield in the back alley of Evian, but what he was staring at now felt utterly foreign.
‘…What happened…?’
Ludvik blinked blankly, trying to think.
But no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t remember anything else.
He could almost still feel the sticky warmth of black blood wrapping around him.
But what the heck was this situation—
“Hero, are you awake?”
That familiar voice.
Ludvik’s eyes shifted to the side.
Looking down at him with a worried expression was—
“Saint… are, are you okay?”
Ludvik reached out.
He wanted to wipe away the tears rolling down Vigrind’s cheeks, so he extended his hand toward her while lying down.
“I’m not okay.”
However, that hand froze at the sound of that familiar voice.
Ludvik’s gaze turned to the side of Vigrind.
A tall woman.
A woman with creamy white hair.
A woman dressed in black saint’s robes—
It was Yona.
“…Is this the saint of the demon realm? What on earth is going on?”
Ludvik tried to sit up.
A crushing sense of loss weighed heavily on him, but he instinctively realized that it wasn’t the time to be lying there in a daze.
The fatigue in his entire body was overwhelming.
As a hero, he was usually full of vigor; he had never felt such exhaustion before.
“Calm down, Ludvik. I’m not going to eat you. Anyway, the situation is under control, so you don’t need to worry. Are you feeling a bit better?”
He could hear Alex’s voice from beside his pillow.
How many people had gathered around Ludvik?
He was completely lost as to what was happening.
“If you’ve gathered your wits, why not get up already? The one who should be lying down is Vigrind. The actual fighter is the one who has already sprawled out while making the saint endure all that hardship—shouldn’t you be ashamed of yourself?”
Yona’s voice was laced with frost.
To her, it was understandable.
If Ludvik had been holding up well—well, maybe it wouldn’t have changed things that much, but still, Vigrind might not have had to suffer so much.
Thinking that way, Yona couldn’t speak gently to Ludvik.
“I’ll explain everything later. Vigrind, you should also go lie down a bit. Seriously…”
Yona’s voice was tinged with annoyance mixed with concern.
Alex stood up with a wry smile and turned Yona around by the shoulders.
“Come on, Yona. We have our own business to attend to. Let’s leave the hero and the saint to sort things out themselves.”
“…Fine. Just don’t hold on to me; it smells burnt.”
She didn’t like it one bit, but Alex wasn’t wrong.
As much as I dislike it, Alex’s words were not wrong.
Their conversation should be had between them.
There was no reason for Yona and Alex to interrupt, but seeing Priest Vigrind running to Ludvik, wailing despite his frail condition, made it impossible to hold back her temper.
“Then, Saint, please take care of the aftermath. We have some things to discuss on our end.”
“Yes, Alex. Please take care of Yona. Yona, try to calm down a bit.”
“Got it, got it. It’s always me who’s the bad girl, damn them.”
With a huff, Yona stormed out of the room.
As they followed her out, Alex gestured for her to ignore it and slowly closed the door.
*
“What are you so angry about, huh?”
“Do I look like I shouldn’t be angry? Did you see the blood coming from Vigrind’s wrist? How much must it hurt to cut your own wrist? That idiot Warrior just fainted right off the bat, what a moron.”
While heading to the inn from the cathedral, Alex watched Yona, who was grumbling nonstop, with a bitter smile.
He never thought he would see the day when Yona, the saint of the demon realm and apostate, would walk in broad daylight in Evian again.
Besides, Alex figured he would never set foot in Evian again, either.
He wasn’t entirely sure why Yona was okay after leaving the cathedral, but he thought it must be because she didn’t come into direct conflict with holy power—as he walked alongside her.
“But try not to get too angry. Ludvik must feel something too. They say people grow through such experiences.”
“That’s hilarious. You think that will help him grow? The chance of Vigrind’s chest getting bigger is more likely.”
“Hey, there are people whose hair grows back, you know.”
“…Ugh.”
Yona seemed to have no more words and fell silent.
Ludvik had also awakened, and they had done their part.
They had entered Evian without any interruption and had already been staying in a pretty nice inn for three days.
During that time, both Yona and Alex, along with their party, had been able to rest comfortably.
There were still eyes on them for being apostates.
But before being apostates, without Yona, they wouldn’t have been able to kill Damian.
Of course, it was true that Vigrind played the biggest role, but it was ultimately Yona who dealt the final blow.
And those who had witnessed that moment—
Most were knights of the cathedral and also priests.
It was fortunate that they were not the type to shamelessly ignore the fact that their lives had been saved by Yona, allowing her group to rest fairly comfortably under the tacit approval led by Vigrind.
“What should we do about food?”
“Well, I don’t know. No ideas.”
“Okay, then you rest well. Are we departing tomorrow?”
“You should get some rest too. Are we leaving tomorrow?”
Yona nodded at Alex’s question.
After all, as humans tend to be, if a heretic is wandering around like this, they might have been turning a blind eye for now, but if it drags on, there would definitely be some folks who are not happy about it.
Once the thought creeps in that there isn’t much need to treat simple heretics to this extent, it becomes a snowball effect with no end in sight.
So, she planned to leave before it got to that point.
The next destination is Kapatia Port.
From Kapatia Port, they will head towards the Katus Empire.
As for the white-haired girls, Priest Vigrind will check on it and stop that madness, so it should be fine. There shouldn’t be any major issues leaving like this.
Thinking that, she pushed open the inn door and found a familiar face inside.
“Teacher!”
“Oh my, our Yona. I’ve been waiting for a while. Are you coming back from the Cathedral?”
Aege smiled brightly as she sat casually on the bed with Rubina on her lap.
Luckily, Aege was safe from that chaos, looking as unscathed as ever.
It’s hard to express how relieved that made her.
If anything happened to Aege, Yona doubted she could keep her sanity.
“Yes, I think Ludvik has come to his senses too. With Vigrind around, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“That’s a relief. I was worried since you were gone, and ended up coming in here first. Sorry about that.”
Aege smiled warmly.
But that didn’t really matter.
“It’s okay. It’s you, not someone else. But is it really alright to meet me like this in broad daylight?”
“Even the Saint is having a private chat with you. And so is the Hero. It should be fine for now.”
“That’s true.”
“More importantly…”
Aege gently laid the sleeping Rubina on the bed and covered her with a blanket before turning to Yona.
There was a mix of warmth and comfort in her gaze, making Yona feel her heart ease.
“You’ve been through a lot, Yona. Really amazing.”
“Ah, it’s nothing much…”
As Aege returned to the table, Yona took a seat across from her.
If Aege came to see her, it must be because she had something to say.
“I came to ask you something.”
“Yes, Teacher. Go ahead.”
“…What’s the deal with Elder Ceres?”
Yona’s face, which had been smiling brightly, suddenly felt like it cracked at the seams.
But Aege, unfazed by Yona’s expression, asked again.
“Elder Ceres is an elder of the Church of the Celestial God, but… she definitely has some other plans, doesn’t she? There’s something else, right?”
“Uh…”
There is indeed something.
While she is the elder of the Church of the Celestial God, she is, in essence, a being opposing it.
But how Aege caught on to that, Yona had no idea.
Aege had no clue how she had figured it out.
“—Vigrind asked me. He said Ceres was acting strange and wanted me to keep an eye on her.”
So Aege had been closely observing Ceres in the midst of everything.
She was a fairly famous mage, and her status as an elder of the Church of the Celestial God made her even more renowned.
But Aege remembered.
She recalled the moment when Damian and Ludvik clashed, and Ceres was smiling with a satisfaction that was too wicked for someone in her position.
That smile was too sinister for an elder of the Church of the Celestial God.
*
“So, what are you planning to do?”
Ceres said, unable to hide the irritation bubbling up inside her as she spoke to the Alebians.
However, the Alebians sitting across from her seemed unfazed by Ceres’s annoyance, merely tilting their teacup.
“As I said, I’m going to follow my own path now.”
The Alebians were calm.
No matter how much Ceres shouted, they showed no signs of caring.
Ceres glared at the Alebians and, in an irritated tone, said, “—Do you really think it’s acceptable to create a new celestial god?”
“What do you mean it’s not acceptable? You saw it for yourself. Yona has absorbed Damian’s power now. She’s completely dominated Vervaria. With Damian’s power absorbed, the remaining dukes will be cooperative with Yona. If they don’t unite, they’ll struggle to oppose her. So the conditions are sufficient. What’s so unreasonable about creating a new celestial god with that power?”
The Alebians’ argument was reasonable.
But it was worlds apart from Ceres’s thoughts.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Alebians. That’s a waste of power. Gathering all the dukes would make her a celestial god in her own right. It would be much more efficient to just become a celestial god.”
“I don’t want that. Yona has already suffered enough as she is. It’s time to stop. That’s enough. There’s no reason to erase Yona.”
“Alebians!”
“You can say I’ve grown attached. You can question whether this is all because of emotions, and you’d be right. I genuinely like that child named Yona. So I no longer want to participate in your plan to erase her. If you want to get emotional, do it alone.”
The Alebians set their empty teacup on the table and stood up.
Facing Ceres, who stared up at her blankly, she spoke in a cold voice.
“—To put it simply, I will stand with Yona. Do whatever you want. I’ll do what I want as well. Good luck.”
With that statement, the Alebians turned away.
Her back carried no hesitation at all, so cold that Ceres found herself staring in silence for quite a while.
‘Sometimes it’s a bit irritating though…’
Thinking of how Yona had been a pain in the neck, as if it were easy to serve a saint, the Alebians shivered just a little.
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