Psyche was saved twice.
“Let’s get out of here, Psyche.”
She was rescued once by Kroon when she was abused in a slave training facility disguised as an orphanage.
“Kroon…! Kroon!!”
Then, in a dungeon she stumbled into, after losing all her precious comrades and only having Kroon and herself left, she awakened as a saint and was saved by the divine.
After that, things seemed to become easier.
Kroon had become one of the strongest in the continent, and as a saint, she was treated very differently than when she was a child.
Of course, Psyche had not lost her original intentions.
Using her status, she searched far and wide for children like herself.
After a fierce battle with demons, innocent victims were bound to emerge.
She had roamed all the frontline classified as border areas.
Kroon silently followed her actions.
When much territory was recaptured, all stories ultimately led to the final confrontation with the Demon King.
Everyone knew that if that fiend wasn’t eliminated, the chain of events couldn’t be broken.
And amidst this chaos…
“Psyche, please.”
Only Psyche was left alive.
…
The still red and dark Pandemonium.
“Why are you two here?!”
The gray ashen-haired man replied without a hint of panic.
“Didn’t I mention it?”
“Yes?”
“We came to escort the saint. That’s all.”
“…You flirt…”
It seemed like something was about to spill from the demon girl’s mouth, but she quickly shut it.
“And as you can see, without the saint’s assistance, I’m as good as dead.”
He shrugged, and he seemed genuinely without any other intentions.
In other words, it was true.
Psyche asked the next question.
“Then how did you know…?”
For the next question, he answered as if he had been prepared.
“Well, it just kinda happened.”
“…?”
“But one thing’s for sure… Isn’t all of this aiming to make sure Sinatis and the saint meet once again?”
“You know Sinatis…?!”
“Yes, we even made a contract.”
This wasn’t a lie either.
’So it really was Sinatis…’
The crossbow he had just shot carried a familiar scent of wind.
It was that of Kroon, her companion monster, which she had sensed for a long time.
Psyche had taken quite a while to open her heart to Sinatis.
If he had even made a contract with her… that does alleviate some doubt.
“L-Last question! What’s the relationship between the two of you?”
“…”
This time, the gray-haired boy didn’t answer.
Instead, the sky-blue-haired demon girl mumbled something back in response.
“My junior seduced me.”
“Excuse me…?”
“I can’t run away anymore. I’m completely this flirt’s slave… oof!”
“Saint, let’s ignore them and go.”
“……”
Psyche covered her mouth with one hand.
For now, she didn’t sense any lies from the pair’s words.
She thought that just connecting with Sinatis was not something an ordinary man could achieve.
But this girl was a demon.
A love story between a demon and a human, she had never heard of such a thing anywhere.
Moreover, a human would be looked down upon by demons… being in a position beneath one…?
An unimaginable event was unfolding right in front of her.
‘Sinatis…’
Certainly, Kroon would have warned her to be careful about humans, and she worried if this man had somehow found a weakness in her.
For the people she needed to look after, Psyche steeled herself.
“Alright, let’s hurry back.”
“Thank you for believing in me, Saint.”
“Uh-huh~”
Watching the man skillfully handle the demon girl, Psyche thought once more.
‘By the way, he definitely was called a flirt, right?’
A title given to lecherous men with poor romantic tendencies.
‘!’
In an instant, she recalled Aria Bluebell.
Her potential successor, who would follow her to become a saint.
“No way!”
“Saint?!”
The man approached her, sensing something was wrong.
As expected, he was unconstrained.
“No, no.”
Psyche waved her hands to stop him.
“Yes, please tell me right away if there’s a problem.”
“Yes…”
The innocent girl, filled with pure intentions like freshly fallen snow, was precious.
‘I need to be careful about someone like her.’
*
The Denec family members arrived late at Claris Academy.
Though it was a severed family, the news of death was somewhat shocking.
During the funeral, his mother came, and now his father, the head of the household, had personally arrived to hear various details.
That was all.
He might… end up being forgotten like this.
Aria had just begun to feel the weight of his death.
‘I will never… forget.’
She could no longer deny the reality.
The Hero Academy was just like that.
For the future, she wouldn’t stop training the students. If anything, she would accelerate it.
To atone even a little as Edwin said, she needed to grow stronger.
There was no choice but to defeat the demons to achieve peace.
Thus, Aria threw herself into her studies.
“Aria, aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”
“I’m fine.”
Despite Edwin’s worries,
by immersing herself in magic and constantly reading books, she could forget that person, even if just a little.
Moreover, she would be able to take a step closer to her goal of becoming stronger.
These two facts drove her mad with determination.
And so, as she walked toward the library today, she encountered…
“Hello? My cute junior?”
It was Liris.
Aria greeted her with a glance but tried to pass by.
However…
“You did well~.”
“!”
Her fresh tone triggered the remaining emotions within Aria.
“After all, that guy was a worthless demon, wasn’t he?”
“…”
With no reply, Liris forcibly stopped her in front.
“I asked if he was a demon…?!”
“…”
“I-I knew it. That guy, just because he got lucky enough to become a demon, was still perfectly sane… Nothing special, and yet… I almost fell for it!”
“…”
“Why, no answer? Could it be… he was really a demon… or a demon being…?”
Liris Larochelle. She was a bit unhinged.
She had heard that Reb Denec’s corpse had yet to be recovered, so her only interest lay in whether Reb Denec was a mere demon or a real demon being.
If he truly were a demon, her actions would never, ever be forgiven in Pandemonium.
With no other option, Liris decided to confirm it another way.
She leaned in closer to Aria and quietly whispered.
“Hey, hey. What was it like? When you stabbed him… his flesh…”
“…!”
A tremor instinctively began from her fingertips.
-R-Reb…
-N-No way…!
-S-Sorry…
As the nightmare of that day began to resurface for Aria,
-Snap!
Suddenly, Liris’s head turned.
“Get lost…!”
“!”
It was Yeriel.
A rough phrase that would never normally escape her lips was directed at Liris.
“What are you doing…? I just wanted to praise my cute junior for defeating a demon…?”
“Praise? Sure, let’s praise that fat face leeching off the academy after feeding off the student council.”
“Yeriel…? Have you gone mad? Hanging out with first-years and siding with this murderer…!”
-Crack!
Then it happened.
The marksman club president, Violet, roughly grabbed Liris by the wrist.
“Yeriel Artina, Aria Bluebell. These two have cooperated actively with the investigation demanded by Claris and the royal family. You’re not obliged to answer your personal questions.”
“Let go… Let go!”
“There are some things we need to investigate closely, so this way.”
Violet gave an apologetic glance toward Yeriel and Aria while dragging Liris away.
“Aria, are you alright…?”
In Yeriel’s concern, Aria turned the question back.
“And what about you, Yeriel?”
“?”
“I… I treated Reb-san… with my own hands…”
“I know.”
“…”
“But it wasn’t really Aria’s will, and most importantly, it was Aria who helped stop my rampage, right?”
“?!”
“I always recall a little late… When everyone lost consciousness from the magic I released…”
“…”
“It was Aria that enveloped me with her sacred power.”
That much was true.
In the climax against Markosias,
at some point, the curse that was strangling Aria had disappeared, allowing her to move freely.
The first thing Aria did instinctively was to calm the unseen black-winged Yeriel.
“So, for a while, it might be a bit tough… No, it might be like this for a long time… but for Reb’s sake… let’s hang in there together, shall we…?”
It was undoubtedly an encouraging statement, but tears filled Yeriel’s eyes.
“Yeriel-san, uuuh…! I love Reb-san…! But I did such things… foolishly said…”
“It’s okay, Aria…”
“Even though I don’t deserve it, I want to see Reb-san… I can’t stand it…”
“…It’s alright, Aria…”
In truth, both of them knew.
The man known as Reb Denec was not someone you could just brush aside with a tear.
That was why they remained innocent girls, relying on one another.
*
-SHAAAAAA!!
A surprisingly large circle of divine light illuminated a corner of Pandemonium.
It was a door reminiscent of Valhalla’s temple of angels welcoming us.
How beautiful divine revelation could be.
“Keep your promise…!”
In the distance, squinting was Yellody,
and the one who had performed this miracle, Saint Psyche, opened her mouth.
“Let’s go back, to where we belong.”
