Two People and Two People

The winter in the Northern Continent was cold, and the nights by Lake Cantasia were even colder due to the moisture in the air.

Although they had lit a campfire and could somewhat endure by burrowing into sleeping bags laid out around it, that was still just enduring.

‘Sleeping like this again.’

Yona was sleeping with her arms spread wide, as if it was very uncomfortable to sleep with her hands folded.

Because of this, both her hands were sticking out of the sleeping bag, and Alec carefully gathered them and pushed them back inside the sleeping bag.

But that only lasted for a moment. There was a feeling of something being pressed, and then with a “thump,” her hands sprang out of the sleeping bag again.

‘Ah.’

Right, that makes sense.

Alec understood.

Still, if her hands stuck out of the sleeping bag like this, they would get cold, so Alec positioned Yona to lie in a sort of attention posture and pushed her hands in.

That too lasted only a moment. Uncomfortable lying in the attention posture, Yona groaned and turned on her side, stretching out her arm again.

So this is the inconvenience of having large breasts.

Thinking this, Alec took out the stones he had shallowly buried around the campfire.

Thanks to the campfire, the stones had absorbed the gentle heat from the ground and become nice and warm. Alec blew off the sand and dirt on the surface of the stones and pushed them into Yona’s sleeping bag.

The chill that couldn’t be solved by the campfire alone could be dealt with by putting these stones into the sleeping bag and hugging them like eggs, which should be quite warm.

Indeed, not long after he put the stones in, Yona put her hands that had been outside back into the sleeping bag and curled up.

‘Now she should be warm.’

Thinking this, Alec opened the lid of the mess tin hanging over the campfire and stirred it.

To prevent the solid bits of the leftover stew from sticking to the bottom of the mess tin, it needed to be stirred frequently like this.

Otherwise, it would be a struggle to clean it in the morning.

He added water to the much-reduced broth and closed the lid again.

Alec set the ladle next to the mess tin and sat back down by the campfire, looking around.

The bushes were swaying in the wind, creating waves.

The night wind was chilly, laden with cold air, and as if truly entering winter now, every time the wind blew, it penetrated between the gaps in his armor, feeling painfully sharp like a blade.

Alec threw more firewood into the campfire.

The flames flared up, scattering like ghosts before futilely fading into the darkness.

‘Church territory…’

They would be going to the church territory.

Alec thought this.

It was a place he didn’t want to go to if possible.

Although no one recognized him when they went to the church territory this time, the Pope probably would.

Wasn’t it Arczel IV himself who imposed the seal on him back then?

Although his hair had all fallen out because of that seal, since Arczel IV was the one who placed the seal, he wouldn’t fail to recognize Alec.

‘I’ll have to remove the seal. I’ll have to do that.’

Alec tightly closed his mouth.

With a face as rigid as his closed lips, he stoked the campfire to rekindle the embers.

His determination remained as firm as a rock, unchanged even a little.

To make Yona erase even the thought of returning to being a man, to erase her very desire for manhood, regardless of whether she was actually a man or not.

That firm resolve Alec had made was still intact.

For Yona—

He wasn’t afraid of the consequences of forcibly scraping out holy power to bypass the seal.

It was fine because it was for Yona.

Rather, because he was weak, he couldn’t push back Berbaria and ultimately failed to prevent Berbaria from taking root in Yona, but that only ignited Alec’s desire—the spark—to remove the seal.

Alec tightly gripped the gloves he had newly fitted at the Mage’s Tower.

Although they were of much lower quality and cruder equipment compared to the cathedral knight’s gear he had been issued along with the title of youngest cathedral knight, they were still usable enough.

“I need to get stronger.”

Alec muttered aloud.

To be able to stand firm in front of Yona and protect her no matter what comes from the world, he needs to become that way.

True to his reputation as an iron fortress during his cathedral knight days, he already had shield techniques ingrained in his body, which had somehow allowed him to stay with Yona until now, but from now on, even that wouldn’t be enough.

“I need to get stronger.”

He muttered again.

Deep in his lower abdomen, pure holy power was coiled, but it couldn’t circulate.

Holy power that couldn’t circulate at all due to the seal encircling the place where it resided.

He hadn’t dared to even try moving it because of the intense pain that would come if he did, but now it was time to break that spell.

Alec’s hazy gaze turned towards the breaking dawn.

He should have switched watch duty with Yona, but as he looked down at her sleeping face, he lost track of time.

Hours passed just gazing at her clear face.

Just silently looking at her, time slipped away, and finally dawn broke.

Alec pushed more firewood into the campfire and opened the lid of the mess tin containing the stew.

Steam rose from the mess tin, where the red broth of the stew was simmering.

It was now time to prepare for departure.

Alec looked at Yona’s sleeping face once more and caressed her cheek.

Only after feeling the soft touch of her skin several times did Alec gently tap Yona’s cheek.

“Yona, wake up. It’s morning.”

“Uh, uh… yeah…”

Yona seemed to have been very tired, as she had a hard time waking up.

Only after responding did she manage to push open her eyelids after several difficult attempts, and Yona’s golden eyes slowly revealed themselves.

Her eyes, still hazy with sleep, turned towards Alec and eventually broke into a smile.

“Aleeeec… did you sleep weeeell…?”

This made Alec momentarily forget what he was going to say.

Not something like “Hey baldy, did you sleep well?”—but her directly calling his name and smiling at him in her sleepy state seemed to shake his heart.

“Get up, you lunatic.”

“What are you saying… why are you picking a fight first thing in the morning…”

To do this and still claim to have been originally a man, who would believe that?

You’re just really a lunatic, that’s right.

Alec protested only inwardly.

It’s also something he couldn’t say out loud in front of her.

*

“Welcome.”

The rumor that the hero and saint had finally arrived in Evian had spread, and that rumor became reality when the carriage crossed Evian’s square, displaying its grandeur just yesterday.

Mary awkwardly smiled as she watched Rudvik enter through the adventurers’ guild door.

She did the same as she saw Saint Bigrind following behind him.

The two people who didn’t fit at all in this shabby building, the hero and the saint.

Yet the reason they came to such a place was likely none other.

“It’s been a while, Miss Mary. Have you been well?”

Mary silently nodded.

Although that person had claimed to be a hero from the beginning, now that he had been officially ordained, he somehow seemed to exude an aura of authority.

Not only that, but Saint Bigrind standing next to Rudvik as well.

“Let’s go upstairs. The guild master is waiting for you too.”

“Is that so? Then let’s do that.”

The adventurers gathered around were silent.

Although adventurers are said to never back down from a verbal fight no matter who the opponent is, they know the value of their own lives.

Rudvik had already proven that he hadn’t just become a hero for nothing, and moreover, being a former gold-rank adventurer, he was a veteran who had been through thick and thin.

The adventurers all knew that if they carelessly ran their mouths, they might end up with a spear through those precious mouths of theirs, so they couldn’t speak recklessly.

Only after Mary, Rudvik, and Bigrind disappeared beyond the stairs leading to the second floor did that tense atmosphere gradually loosen.

“Wow, that hero guy is no joke.”

“I’m telling you, he didn’t just become a hero for nothing.”

“They say he killed that demon by stabbing a spear through its head, right?”

“He stepped on its arm, jumped up like this, and stabbed it deep.”

“This bastard Emerson always talks like he saw it himself. Did you see it? Did you really see it, you bastard?”

“I did see it, you bastard. I was there. I saw it clearly with my own two eyes, I’m telling you.”

Since there was more than one or two who had seen it, it couldn’t be easily dismissed as a baseless rumor.

“…That person is indeed the hero. Don’t carelessly run your mouths.”

The adventurers’ gazes all turned towards the guild entrance.

A giant in silver armor, who had appeared without anyone noticing, was leaning against the doorway, looking them over.

With his intimidating build and expensive-looking armor, visible at a glance, scrutinizing them, tension began to build once again.

“Who… who are you? You look like a cathedral knight.”

When the warrior at the central table barely managed to open his mouth and ask, the giant in silver armor—Scarlet—glanced at him.

“My name is Scarlet. I belong to the 13th Crusader Special Operations Unit of the Infula Church territory. Is that enough?”

The adventurers wouldn’t know about Crusader Special Operations Units or anything like that, but Scarlet didn’t care either way.

Whether they knew or not wasn’t important.

They were the kind of people who understood the logic of power, and at least from what he could see, there was no one here who could defeat him.

“From now on, I will absolutely not tolerate anyone speaking irreverently about the Hero and the Saint. If you ask how I won’t tolerate it, I’ll let this answer for me.”

Scarlet showed the mace he was carrying at his side.

As soon as it was grasped in his hand and holy power was detected, spikes suddenly protruded from the head of the mace with a “schwing” sound.

As the mace instantly became a spiked morning star, an even deeper silence fell among the adventurers.

That’s the kind of intimidation a morning star gives.