The Collapse of Everything (3)

“Couldn’t you just wear new clothes? Is there a reason you have to do this?”

Yona glared at Ceres as she snatched the package she was holding out.

If looks could kill, Ceres might have died not just five or six times, but fifty times.

Yona, clearly showing regret that this wasn’t possible, unwrapped the package.

What came out was a nun’s habit.

It was the very same nun’s habit that Yona used to wear regularly.

A nameless village they stopped at on the way to Albre.

Although that village didn’t have a notable church,

It was still a village where Yona, who couldn’t wander outside, would have difficulty entering without hesitation.

There, Yona had ordered Ceres to get her clothes mended.

Now it was no longer adventurer Yona and Regent Ceres,

But rather the strange cooperative relationship between the Saint, albeit of the demon realm, and a Celestine Church elder, so Ceres followed the order without much comment and had the clothes mended.

“…Is this what you call mending?”

“It’s called mending, but how can you mend a nun’s habit at a local clothing store? Saint, you’re saying strange things… There’s no way other than buying a new one at a church.”

The nun’s habit had the torn left arm part cut out appropriately, a similar colored cloth patched over it and stitched, and other than that, it was just thoroughly washed. It’s hard to see it as mending, but— since Ceres’ words weren’t wrong either, Yona didn’t say anything.

“Fine. I understand.”

The nun’s habit.

It would be fine to throw it away at this point, but she didn’t want to.

This, at least, she didn’t want to throw away.

For some reason, that’s how she felt.

She had thrown away everything about being clergy,

She did it for Alec so she had no regrets or lingering attachments about that, but still, this nun’s habit.

This piece of nostalgia remained in this nun’s habit, how could she easily throw it away?

The sun sets quickly in the mountains.

As darkness fell much faster than usual, the carriage stopped in a quiet clearing in the mountains as usual.

“Phew…”

As soon as she got out of the carriage, Yona stretched her arms up and yawned.

Although the carriage was very large and comfortable, being confined inside without being able to go out naturally made her body feel stiff.

As she stretched like that, there was a cracking sound from Yona’s waist.

“Oh my, Saint. Are you going to break your back?”

“What are you talking about, baldy?”

Alec patted Yona’s waist playfully with a voice full of mischief.

Responding to Alec’s playfulness, Yona hit the back of Alec’s head with a smack.

• • Thuk.

    “…Hm?”

    Even though she hit the back of Alec’s head, instead of the usual ‘smack’ or ‘thwack’ sound, there was a ‘thuk’ sound.

    When she felt hair instead of Alec’s bald head on her palm, Yona frowned as she looked at her palm.

“What is it? Why? Why that expression?”

“…Uh… No, it’s just the texture is so…”

As soon as the ban was lifted, Alec had abundant hair instead of being bald.

Hitting the back of Alec’s head like that used to have a clear sensation and impact sound which felt really good, but now it made this ‘thuk’ sound instead, which felt quite awkward.

“Hey, Alec.”

“What?”

Alec blankly stared at Yona, who was grinning.

Usually, based on past experience, when Yona had this expression, she was mostly thinking strange thoughts—

“Hmm. You know.”

Yona walked leisurely in front of Alec, examining his face from various angles.

Feeling a strange sense of discomfort from her gaze, Alec took a step back, but Yona stepped forward even more.

When he was finally cornered against the carriage wall, Yona finally opened her mouth.

“You know, I always knew you were quite good-looking, but…”

Yona muttered as she reached out to touch Alec’s nose, eyes, and lips.

“I knew it, but… seeing you like this, it’s definitely true. Were you popular with girls?”

Yona’s tone seemed to be getting a bit harsher.

A feeling that some sincerity was mixing in.

Cold sweat began to form on Alec’s spine.

“Hey you. Don’t you want to put the ban back on? It’s really weird with your hair.”

As expected.

At Yona’s words, Alec involuntarily let out a long sigh.

“Hey, stop saying weird things.”

“What’s so weird…”

Yona, who had been pouting her lips, soon snorted and followed after Kaiyak.

Kaiyak had gone ahead saying he heard the sound of water nearby and would try to catch some fish, so Yona following him must be going to the riverside.

Alec quietly watched Yona’s retreating figure.

To him, Yona, no matter how he looked at her— was pushing herself.

Although she was pretending to be fine like that, in reality, she probably wasn’t.

Alec knew.

Having spent years sticking close to Yona, and having gone through all sorts of hardships because of her, Alec might know Yona better than she knew herself.

No, that was probably certainly the case.

Even in that smiling face, there was a shadow in one corner.

Even when she tried to sleep leaning on Alec in the carriage, instead of relaxing her body to sleep like before, she often couldn’t sleep properly, curled up tightly and constantly trembling.

Given that, could that Yona smiling like that really be— smiling with a peaceful mind?

Probably not.

The church teaches that the demon realm is a place where only death, conspiracy, betrayal, and fraud run rampant.

The church never speaks well of the demons who rule that demon realm.

Even Alec’s face couldn’t help but stiffen at the fact that Yona, who had learned and grown up in such a place, had become the saint of the demon realm herself.

Given that, how must Yona be feeling? Alec couldn’t say anything to Yona, who was being considerate of Alec, a cathedral knight, saying she had become like this.

And yet, Yona couldn’t bring herself to say she would leave, or tell Alec to abandon her and leave.

Of course, even if she had said it, he would never have accepted it.

That’s why Alec found Yona’s retreating figure even more pitiful.

Although he had promised and promised again to protect her, he had once again ended up making Yona suffer.

A large lump remained in Alec’s chest as well.

“Wow, don’t freshwater fish usually have a lot of bones?”

Starting with Kaiyak, then Yona and Alec, and Rubina. Lastly, Ceres.

It had been a long time since they had a meal sitting around like this.

Although Ceres rarely joined them for meals, for some reason she had taken a seat with them for tonight’s dinner.

“For a Lizardman, deboning fish is nothing.”

Kaiyak grinned as he picked up a fish that had been hanging over the bonfire.

The fish, already gutted and deboned and grilled over the bonfire, was now nicely browned and looked ready to eat, its flesh having turned a brown color.

“Here, Yona. Take it. No, should I say, Saint, please accept this?”

Kaiyak chuckled loudly.

“Hey, lizard. Want to say something useless?”

Giving Kaiyak a glare, Yona took the fish.

Indeed, as Kaiyak said, freshwater fish usually have a lot of small bones, but they had all been removed leaving only the flesh.

She pinched off a small piece of that flesh with her fingers—

“Here, Rubina.”

Rubina’s black eyes rolled slightly before looking at Yona.

Then, after looking at the piece of fish in Yona’s hand for a moment, she carefully opened her mouth.

“It’s hot, so be careful.”

As she pushed the flesh into that mouth, Rubina indeed blew on it repeatedly as if it was hot.

When will she start speaking again?

It must be because the shock was too great.

Yona quietly looked down at her own hand holding the fish.

Although she had committed a sin worthy of death, this was the first time Yona had killed a person.

It’s just an excuse to say she didn’t kill directly with her own hands.

The fact that by her will, she had cruelly killed that holy knight remained unchanged.

On top of that, by summoning Berbaria, countless people had died and been injured—

Moreover, if she were to carry out her goal of completely destroying the Celestine Church,

She would have to kill countless people with these hands.

Is that right—

‘…It’s the right thing to do. That’s the correct path.’

Yona decided to let go of her lingering attachments to the Celestine Church.

She made up her mind that if she had to kill people, she would.

No, there was no need to think about killing people.

They were humans who had thrust their spears without discretion just because someone became an apostate.

They were bastards who didn’t even try to listen to a single explanation of how it came to be.

They were trash who didn’t even try to hear how much she had devoted herself to the Celestine Church, or what kind of good deeds she had lived by.

Moreover— they were beasts who had even threatened by putting a sword to a ten-year-old child’s neck.

At that point, the Celestine Church was as good as dead.

The Celestial God, who doesn’t even show his face let alone appear despite things becoming like this, is also an accomplice.

Yes, if that’s the case.

‘I’ll do it as much as needed. It’s natural for those who did wrong to suffer. There’s no need for me to suffer.’

You need to be able to communicate to be human.

You need to listen when spoken to to be human.

Those who don’t are not human.

Is someone human just because they have a human shell?

‘…What would Teacher have thought…’

Yona suddenly thought as she was mechanically picking off pieces of fish and putting them in Rubina’s mouth.

The person who had occupied the largest part of her life after Alec, so to speak, a person who was like a life mentor—

‘If it were Teacher Eize, what would he say to me now.’

Having thought that far, Yona raised her head and looked at Ceres.

Ceres, who had been skillfully separating the flesh from the fish on her plate with a fork and eating it, looked back at Yona with round eyes.

“Do you have something to say?”

“…I want to change our destination.”

“The destination?”

“Yes. Not to wherever Albre is— but to Evian.”

“Evian… you say? If we go there, you’ll meet Alebian again.”

“…I don’t care about that bitch. If it’s uncomfortable, it’s for that damn woman, not me. If she’s upset, she can avoid me. Anyway, I have someone I need to meet in Evian. So we’re going to Evian.”

“Evian… Hmm, Evian is it.”

Ceres put her fork down on the plate with a clank and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

Strangely, each of her movements was overflowing with grace, which made Yona feel sick to her stomach.

She couldn’t understand at all how that trash of a woman could maintain such grace.

“Well, that deviates quite a bit from the plan I told you about. It will also delay our schedule significantly.”

“That’s not my problem.”

It really wasn’t Yona’s problem.

Ceres had proposed the plan, and both Yona and Alec had accepted it, but anyway, isn’t it fine as long as they reach their destination even if they take a more roundabout route? Besides, Yona wasn’t pleased enough with Ceres to fully cooperate and adjust to her circumstances.

“You know it might also hinder absorbing demons, right?”

“That’s not my problem either. There’s something more important right now.”

The reason for absorbing demons.

Yona knew that reason well too.

“Is that so. Hmm. Well, it’s fine as long as you haven’t forgotten our journey’s goal.”

“…I haven’t forgotten, absolutely. The god I’m supposed to serve, right?”

“That’s right. Correct. The one you, Saint, are to serve. Even to bring that one back to this world, your help is absolutely necessary.”

“I haven’t forgotten. Don’t worry.”

“Yes, on the day when that one, dared to be called by the infamous name of False Celestial God, returns—”

Ceres smiled gently at Yona.

An unsettling smile.

A smile that was clearly fabricated somewhere.

“The Celestine Church will disappear.”