In Front of You

Twenty knights supported by Viscount Cartein.

Twenty church knights dispatched from the Church Knight Order.

A total of six priests sent as support from the church.

No adventurers.

Total of 46 people.

“Phew.”

Rudvik whistled lightly as he looked around at the sight.

It was difficult to judge whether the number of people was large or not.

How could one know if this number was large or small when it was unknown what was in the fog that was casting darkness over Evian?

However, Rudvik’s appearance seemed to look disappointed as if the number of people was small, so Eije approached and casually offered words of comfort.

“It can’t be helped, can it? Adventurers who move without getting paid are rather untrustworthy humans.”

“Well, that’s true. Probably even I wouldn’t have moved without at least a hundred gold coins if I wasn’t playing the role of a hero.”

Rudvik grinned as if it was nothing.

Hearing those words, Bigrind suddenly became curious.

The Hero was said to be a gold-rank adventurer, and he would be a much stronger adventurer than Yona, of a much higher rank.

Seeing that he says he wouldn’t have participated now without at least a hundred gold coins, he must have pride in his own skills, and although he confessed to being a coward, that must have been a lie to comfort me— Bigrind thought to herself.

Then, how much wealth does the Hero have?

If it takes a hundred gold coins to move a gold-rank adventurer, just how rich must he be— while thinking this, Bigrind suddenly realized that she had handled less than ten gold coins in her entire life so far.

‘No, no. For someone who has become a saint to think such thoughts…’

Bigrind shook her head to clear her thoughts.

She felt somewhat ashamed for having such improper thoughts, even if only for a moment.

“Saint, are you scared?”

“Pardon?”

A long shadow fell over her face.

Looking up at that shadow, Rudvik’s smiling face was looking down at her.

As always, a cheerful smile that seemed to refresh even the mood of those who saw it.

“Wh-what do you mean, scared?”

She hadn’t even thought of such a thing.

Rudvik, with that smile in full bloom, quietly reached out his hand and stroked Bigrind’s head.

A hand as large as Bigrind’s face.

That hand caressed the top of her head.

Her red hair, twisted up on both sides, swayed gently, and those carefully maintained hair strands sparkled in the sunlight, echoing like a dance to Rudvik’s touch.

“I apologize, your tiara was crooked. Saint.”

Rudvik said to Bigrind while looking around.

Then, lowering his posture, he whispered in Bigrind’s ear.

“Are you a bit calmer now, Saint?”

“Th-that’s—”

It’s not like that.

I wasn’t scared.

I’m not afraid either.

Bigrind tried to say.

But her mouth wouldn’t move.

Her mouth wouldn’t move, and instead, the thought ‘isn’t it fine?’ came first.

“—seems so.”

She ended up lowering her eyes.

A lie, this too must be a lie.

With the thought that she had told a lie, Bigrind felt as if a part of her chest was tightening.

“Let’s set up camp here for now.”

As the title of Hero was not a light one, Rudvik, who had come to lead the forty-six people, tapped the ground with the tip of his spear.

The fog was not yet visible, and it was a place where they needed to go further in, so at Rudvik’s words to set up camp here, the Church Knight Commander and Cartein Knight Commander looked puzzled.

“We don’t know when the fog might expand again. The ground is flat here, so it’s good for about fifty people to stay, and there’s a pond behind, so it’s easy to get drinking water. We’ll need to rest well for a day anyway before entering the fog, so let’s set up camp here.”

“The Hero’s words are reasonable.”

There was logic in Rudvik’s words. For a group of nearly fifty people, not a small party of less than ten, securing a place to eat and sleep was important, so most seemed to agree with Rudvik’s words that reckless advancement could rather have adverse effects.

While the Church Knight Order led by Scarlet and the Cartein Knight Order were preparing to level the ground and set up tents, Rudvik went to find Eije.

Since they had moved this time riding in cargo wagons without any church carriages or anything, the faces of the church priests who had lived comfortably were all covered in dirt.

Eije, who alone looked fine among them, was comforting the priests when he saw Rudvik and quickly jumped down from the wagon to approach him.

“Hero.”

“Priest Eije, how is it? Do you feel anything?”

“I can feel that the demonic energy is getting stronger. It’s definitely thicker than when we came before. Above all, what’s unusual is…”

Eije looked around.

He was looking around in case anyone was listening, but the knights were already busy setting up tents, and the priests were half out of their minds, struggling to take care of themselves, so there was no one eavesdropping on their conversation.

“I can feel that the demonic energy is surging quite high. It’s a very different situation from when we came before.”

“The demonic energy is… high?”

“Yes.”

Eije had been constantly releasing holy power to examine the surroundings since the moment the wagon stopped here.

It’s a very inefficient method that most don’t use, as it only projects outward continuously without returning, but at least Eije thought it was necessary in the current situation.

It wasn’t ineffective.

Not only was the demonic energy thicker compared to when the fog appeared before, but the source of that demonic energy was in a very deep place, and contrary to expectations, the source of that demonic energy might be on the ground.

And that it was surging up to a very high altitude.

“It’s continuously getting stronger. It’s clear. As the fog spreads wider, the demonic energy is undoubtedly getting stronger.”

Eije’s expression hardened. Proportionally to that, Rudvik’s expression also hardened.

“That’s as good as saying we don’t have much time.”

“Yes.”

Rudvik raised his head to look up at the sky.

The gloomy sky, heavily clouded, covered the sky like the fog that would be in the distance, with no sunlight visible.

“…Hmm, I understand.”

Rudvik nodded and then turned again to find Bigrind.

Bigrind, who had been sitting like a sick chicken in a corner of the cargo wagon, dozing off, woke up groggily at the sound of Rudvik sitting across from her.

Her face looked so pitiful that Rudvik couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

“Saint, are you alright?”

“Ah… Hero. I showed an unseemly appearance. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. It must have been a forced march for you.”

Rudvik’s gaze turned to the snow-white robe Bigrind was wearing.

That robe, although it’s a holy robe, is strictly just a cold weather garment without any particular function.

As a cold weather garment, it not only blocked the sunlight, but she had been wearing it all the way here, so she probably hadn’t been exposed to sunlight much during that time.

“How is your holy power, is it abundant?”

“Yes. It’s sufficient.”

“Pardon?”

Rudvik’s eyes suddenly widened.

As he remembered, Bigrind had been wearing that robe the entire time.

She had been wearing the robe on the ship coming to Evian, and even after arriving in Evian until now, she had been wearing the robe.

There shouldn’t have been enough time to get sufficient sunlight.

Yet Rudvik was puzzled that her holy power was abundant.

Holy power builds up over time, but even that has some limit.

Clerics have different capacities for holy power, so the time it takes to fill up varies.

For Bigrind too, that holy power fills up over time, but once she becomes a saint, she gains holy power beyond that capacity — holy power of a different nature from ordinary clerics.

And the means of filling that holy power was sunlight.

The more and longer one is exposed to sunlight, the more holy power builds up.

That’s why the saint’s outfit is so revealing.

“Whenever I was alone, I took off the robe… and…”

“Ah, I see.”

Rudvik nodded only then.

Occasionally, Bigrind had times when she was alone in her room, sending away even her following attendants, and it seems she had been filling her holy power alone in the room at those times.

“The Saint is truly amazing. You’re always prepared for the parts I was concerned about.”

“No, not at all. It’s just natural. You’re praising me too much.”

Bigrind blushed and lowered her head.

“…There might be a demon. Saint, aren’t you afraid?”

Bigrind raised her lowered head to look up at Rudvik.

The smile that always stayed on his face had disappeared somewhere, and now his face was quite hardened.

How could one not be afraid?

Even when faced with Berbaria, her body had frozen with fear.

Just seeing that terrible appearance would overwhelm anyone human.

“I am afraid, Saint.”

Rudvik smiled with a plop.

That self-deprecating smile was tinged with an incomprehensible ambiguity.

“Facing a demon would be different from facing monsters, wouldn’t it? Even though it was just an avatar, I couldn’t overcome it. When I think there might be a demon this time too, I’m scared. Because I might die.”

The spear tip poked at the wagon floor.

The spear tip moved, tapping like a dance in front of Bigrind’s small shoes.

“So, I am afraid. How about you, Saint?”

Did he want to become a Hero?

Bigrind thought while looking at Rudvik’s face.

Did Rudvik really want to become a Hero?

Did Rudvik, who was a gold-rank adventurer receiving a hundred gold coins each time, really want to become a Hero?

But she couldn’t ask that now.

Rudvik, with a face that looked like he might cry at any moment, seemed too distressed to ask such a thing.

“…The Cheonsin does not give trials that cannot be overcome.”

It’s a cliché.

Such words wouldn’t help at all.

But she didn’t know what words to say.

“Saint, perhaps. About those trials. Isn’t it that those who couldn’t overcome them all died, and only those who overcame them survived?”

“Ah…”

That might be so.

Bigrind closed her mouth.

What should she say?

Cheer up, you’ll win, I’m here for you…?

Nothing seemed to fit.

“…Somehow, in front of the Saint, I seem unable to filter between what should and shouldn’t be said. My, how embarrassing to show such an unseemly side again.”

To Rudvik, who smiled awkwardly, Bigrind couldn’t say anything.

She couldn’t.