episode_0048

“Are you looking at that again?”

Irina said, puffing out cigarette smoke. She roughly kicked away the corpse lying at her feet and approached Ena, who was sitting on a rock reading a letter. Ena completely ignored her and wore a faint smile.

Because the sentence written on the last line of the letter Asel sent pleased her greatly.

[I miss you, Master.]

“Ugh, cringe.”

Irina mumbled, resting her chin on Ena’s shoulder. Ena firmly pushed her face away.

“Get lost. You smell like smoke.”

“Smoke smell or whatever. You’re serious at this rate. How many times a day do you look at that letter? If Asel saw you like this, he’d be disgusted and wouldn’t want anything to do with you, you know?”

“Asel isn’t like that.”

“What do you know?”

“What do you know? He’s my disciple.”

Ena said that and got up from her seat. She brushed off the dust on her butt and turned her head towards the investigation team walking out of the forest.

Wearing heavy full plate armor, they didn’t seem to care about wiping off the blood all over their bodies, approaching the two great mages while reeking of gore.

Knights of the Empire who exuded a refined atmosphere. The man standing at the front of them took off his helmet and opened his mouth.

“All remnants inside the cave have been dealt with. As for the demon worshipers who fled…”

The man intentionally trailed off his words. Instead of answering, Irina pointed at the fallen corpse on the ground with the tip of her pipe. That was enough. The knight nodded and had his subordinates gather the bodies. Then, they used incendiary devices to cremate them all.

Among demon worshipers, mana users often have traces of human sacrifice on their bodies. If left alone or simply buried, they sometimes revive through rituals, so they had to be ensured of death when killed.

Fortunately, thanks to Ena having already turned a few bodies into ashes with lightning beforehand, the cremation didn’t take long. The knight quickly stepped on and crushed the remaining bones of the corpses and turned his head.

The cremation of the demon worshipers who died inside the cave was also finished. There were no longer any demon worshipers remaining around the Empire.

These are the guys they hunted down by even searching the lawless zones where no nation exists. Having lived for quite a long time with their armor and swords stained with blood, it seemed they wouldn’t need to be wary of demon worshipers for the time being. Of course, they had no intention of letting down their guard.

Demon worshipers are the kind of guys who could crawl out anytime, anywhere. They cannot be exterminated no matter how many are killed, and sometimes they even possess regeneration abilities.

Their vitality is not just persistent, but even feels tiresome. A tenacity that even druids, who obtain life from nature, would gasp at. That’s the kind of people that infest demon worship organizations.

Even if the cleanup was finished, they couldn’t let their guard down. The knight thought so and slightly bowed his head towards Ena and Irina.

“Thanks to you two, the subjugation finished faster than expected. As the representative of the special mission unit fully entrusted with this task, I express gratitude to Wihaim in the name of the Empire.”

“It’s fine. More importantly, may we return now? Killing the guys playing around near Wihaim and helping out here has made us a bit tired.”

Although Ena and Irina were currently in a lawless zone near the Empire, they hadn’t been there from the beginning.

They had dealt with the guys around the city with the mages of Wihaim and were then dispatched as just the two of them upon the Empire’s earnest request. Although they handled the job because they received compensation, they felt like returning home as soon as possible.

Both of them had piles of work to do back in Wihaim. Irina had to participate in a project being conducted by the Federation, and Ena had to look at Asel’s face for a bit before leaving to find information on the Demon of Gluttony.

Neither of them was exactly free. So, they overtly expressed their desire to disband now.

Since the orders from the Empire were all completed and there was also an order not to offend the great mages, the knight nodded obediently.

“Understood. By any chance, would you be willing to participate in the reception held in the Empire?”

“No.”

Ena replied. With a listless expression, she put away the letter and adjusted the position of her slightly disheveled hat.

“……?”

At that moment, she realized that Asel was sending something to her.

It was a sudden connection. Ena felt the residual traces of a spatial transfer spell from the faintly perceived mana resonance. And then she wore a soft smile.

“Asel wants to come to me.”

She said with a triumphant expression, looking at Irina. Irina, as if saying ‘so what’, puffed out smoke with her pipe in her mouth.

“He said he missed me, and it seems he couldn’t wait. You were wrong.”

“What are you talking about? Didn’t you badger him?”

“No. Shut up.”

“Can’t you be nice to me like you are to Asel?”

“Become my disciple then.”

“That’s creepy.”

Ena ignored Irina, who started rubbing her arm, and immediately responded to the magic Asel was sending. Then, the faint resonance became clear, and Asel suddenly appeared in front of Ena and collapsed onto the ground.

The thick smell of blood overwhelmed everyone present.

“Gugh…! Ugh…!!”

Asel, who had collapsed upon appearing, gasped for breath and coughed up a gush of blood. The recoil from pretending to be okay in front of the necromancer and the magic he forced out gnawed at his body. Blood streamed from his mouth and ears, and his pierced hands trembled.

“Draw your swords!”

The knights, mistaking Asel’s appearance for a demon worshiper’s ambush, simultaneously drew their swords. But Irina stiffened her expression fiercely and projected mana towards them.

“Stay put. Unless you want to die.”

“Lady Yeonhwa (煙花)…!”

“It’s not what you think, so don’t move.”

Irina snapped that out and checked Asel’s condition.

“……Krgh… Guh…”

A half-severed ear. Clothes and face drenched in blood. Pieces of organs smeared around his mouth. Both hands savagely torn open, gushing blood, and a broken wrist. His upper and lower body stained red from the bleeding pouring from his back.

These were severe injuries to the extent that someone with normal mental fortitude would have already fainted from shock and died. It was strange that he was alive.

Put differently, it meant it wouldn’t be strange if he died right now.

Figuring out where and what happened was a matter for later. Irina quickly composed herself and poured the recovery potion from her pocket all over Asel’s body. At the same time, she yelled towards Ena, who was trembling her lips.

“Ena!”

“Uh, uhh…”

“Ena, you crazy woman! Snap out of it and move fast! Are you going to let your disciple die?!”

Disciple. Death.

Those two words invaded Ena’s mind. Something that absolutely must not happen had crashed into reality.

Asel’s appearance was reflected in her blue eyes. A precarious state, as if he would die any moment. Just seeing it made her gasp for breath, and her mind spasmed wildly. Her reason as a great mage was useless. Her brain felt hot, and her tear ducts functioned as if they were broken.

Where, where did I make a mistake? Did I make a mistake during the resonance with Asel’s mana? Or why was Asel so injured? Where had he been and what had he been doing?

Why?

Why?

“Why?”

“Ena!”

Her questions were cut off by Irina’s voice. Irina grabbed Ena by the collar and met her gaze directly.

“I understand you’re shocked, but if you want to save your disciple, snap out of it quickly. If you don’t want to bawl at a funeral, hurry!”

Along with her shout, light returned to Ena’s pupils. Her mind, which had been hazy as if covered in fog, became clearer than before. She bit her lower lip until it felt like it would tear and fiercely hugged Asel’s body.

Cold. It was palpable that life was draining away. Tears flowed from her tear ducts, which she thought had dried up long ago.

Without even noticing that she was biting her lip so hard it was bleeding, Ena became a streak of lightning and disappeared with Asel.

“……Ha, fuck.”

Irina confirmed their departure and let out an expletive.

For her, who had no disciple, Asel, a being she cared for to some extent, had returned as a corpse.

Anger boiled within her.

***

Her arrival was, as always, sudden.

Elusive mobility gained from riding lightning and a brazen personality that acted as she pleased. A peculiar human who would suddenly show up and demand information about demons or ask the location of demon worshipers she had found.

But someone whose appearance was quite cute, and who, when genuinely angry, would look apologetic, making it impossible to simply hate her. Although a mage, a peculiar type of long-lived being who didn’t show much hostility towards even priests.

Ena Renatus.

Thanks to this, even if she burst through the doors of the Grand Cathedral, there was no one who genuinely hated and disliked her. Rather, older priests often brought her cookies or cakes and chatted with her. Young and devout followers were the same.

So, while praying, they wore wry smiles at the thunderous sound that had become not just familiar but even friendly.

As far as they knew, there was only one person who could drop lightning from a clear sky.

As if to prove that expectation, the prayer room door burst open, and Ena rushed inside. The Archbishop, who was presiding over the prayer, smiled, intending to scold her, but upon seeing the young man in her arms, he quickly ran out.

At the commotion, the eyes of the worshipers who had been praying all turned towards Ena, and Ena, without even noticing their gazes, cried out to the Archbishop, her eyes glistening with tears.

“P-Please save him. He’s my disciple. Please, please save him. If you tell me to die, I will die. If you tell me to destroy something, I will destroy it, so please… please save my disciple just this once…”

“……Oh dear.”

The Archbishop let out a lament of pity.

He couldn’t believe that Ena would show such a broken appearance. Even he, who prided himself on knowing her for a long time, had never seen her in such a precarious mental state. That must mean the existence of a disciple is more precious to her than anything else.

It was a cause for celebration that she, who had acted as if she would live alone her whole life, had found someone precious.

But the situation was not favorable. The Archbishop confirmed that priests knowledgeable in medicine among those praying were approaching, then examined Asel’s condition. At the same time, he activated holy magic.

Woooong.

The golden energy emanating from his hand gently permeated Asel’s entire body. Then, his gasping breaths gradually became regular, and some of his external wounds began to heal.

But it wasn’t complete. The Archbishop made a pained sound and said to Ena.

“He was attacked by a rather high-ranking necromancer. Because of this, it is impossible for me to heal this brother completely at my level. It seems we will have to monitor his progress for a few days, taking turns with the priests of our order.”

“You mean he needs to be hospitalized?”

“Yes. For now, there are a few empty rooms in the cathedral, so you can use one of those.”

“Ah, alright. The cost, a hundred gold or a thousand gold, I’ll give it to you, so please, just save, save Asel.”

“We won’t take money. When there is a patient before us, it is only natural to treat them.”

The Archbishop said that sincerely and had a nun guide Asel and Ena to a clean empty room. Ena followed her into the room, feeling restless.

The nun took off Asel’s blood-soaked clothes, wiped off the bloodstains on his body, and changed him into suitable clean white garments. Then, she carefully laid him down on the bed.

“I will wait here in case of any unforeseen circumstances. Is that alright?”

The nun asked, covering Asel with a blanket. Ena nodded once and held Asel’s cold hands with both of hers, pressing her skin and lips to them as if trying to breathe her warmth into him.

Not stopping there, she moved her hands to his forehead, cheek, and neck, continuously transmitting warmth. Until tears pooled on the floor, dripping down. Until Asel regained consciousness.

For a long time.