Ch.103Faith and Love (4)

# Faith and Love (4)

Serda and Esmeralda’s sudden encounter.

The battle between these two was taking an unexpected direction.

“Ugh?! W-what’s going on!”

“Tsk…”

Legion Commander Serda. A commander who should be at least two levels stronger than Five.

However, surprisingly, Esmeralda was the one dominating.

Had she become strong enough to defeat the commanders she always struggled against?

No, that couldn’t be right.

Just this afternoon, she could barely hold her own against a weakened Five, let alone win.

Yet the reason she could overwhelm Serda was simple.

[Note: I plan to distract with my left hand, then use magic with my right to throw a match flame.]

Serda had poor compatibility with Esmeralda.

Every small gesture, playful tone, foot placement, angle of the wrist.

For Serda, who used every action and word as a battle deception, it was impossible to fool Esmeralda, who could read thoughts.

Because the meaning behind each action was completely transparent to her.

‘Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! What the hell is this girl? Is she crazy?!’

Serda felt a crisis.

Her power began with deceiving opponents.

In other words, if she couldn’t deceive, her power was practically useless.

The ability to make illusions real.

Such a powerful ability naturally required appropriate conditions.

The condition was making the opponent believe the illusion was reality.

Serda accomplished this through exaggerated gestures, speech patterns, and magic.

Usually once was enough.

If she could show an illusion becoming reality just once, the opponent would accept it as truth.

And even if an enemy knew her ability, it was nearly impossible to counter it easily.

Deception strikes at the gaps in consciousness. Making the mind go blank for just a moment is enough to make someone accept it as truth.

Like how audience members scream at ghosts in a horror play even knowing they’re fake.

[Note: I plan to step at a 43° angle, make dirt fly up, then throw the dagger hidden in my wrist while using illusion magic.]

That’s why her tricks didn’t work on Esmeralda, who could clearly read her thoughts.

Each of Serda’s deceptive actions was completely transparent.

It was like knowing exactly when, at what timing, and how a ghost in a horror play would try to scare you.

‘She really overthinks everything… Doesn’t she get tired fighting like that?’

Esmeralda was disgusted.

She couldn’t understand the opponent’s mindset of putting meaning into every single action. Of course, regardless of that, the current situation allowed Esmeralda to demonstrate her power to the fullest.

The more an opponent thinks, the more advantage Esmeralda has.

And the most frightening thing was that she didn’t show it.

She recognized it as her most excellent weapon.

Esmeralda wasn’t particularly smart, but she knew how to handle the most important things.

That’s how she had managed to walk the tightrope in the hero’s party until now.

“What, you’re not surprised…?!”

But Serda, unaware of these inner workings, glared at Esmeralda with a pale face, grinding her teeth.

She was the 3rd Legion Commander in the Demon Lord’s army. Only three beings had ever been able to defeat her.

The first was Second.

That werewolf childhood friend had senses bordering on future prediction, allowing him to intuitively see through all of Serda’s deceptions.

That’s why Serda could never defeat Second. But at the same time, she could only show her true self to him.

Because only he understood her true feelings, which even Serda herself didn’t know.

The second was First.

Like the current Esmeralda, it was impossible to make First believe illusions were reality.

Of course, their situations were different.

For First, Serda’s playful attacks didn’t even register as threats.

In other words, no matter what Serda did, his mind remained unshaken.

In such a situation, it was impossible to deceive First who knew her abilities.

And the grand third.

This was obviously Demon Lord Belphegor.

She chose to completely shatter Serda’s pride.

Yes, she accepted all of Serda’s illusions as truth but then smashed through them head-on.

It was crude, but could be called the most overwhelming victory.

“Ugh…”

So right now.

Facing another person who could break through her ability, what was Serda thinking?

“You’re incredibly smart!”

“Well, I suppose I am.”

She was vastly overestimating her.

Esmeralda felt a small but pleasant satisfaction.

***

Before speaking with Lug, Eirene grabbed the unconscious Extra by the collar from the adjacent room and threw him outside.

Rather than releasing him… it was more about removing him so he wouldn’t wake up and interrupt.

Suddenly left alone with Eirene, Lug felt his heart racing.

Partly because he was alone with the beautiful Eirene, but also because of the mysterious tools she had brought with her.

“May I sit beside you?”

“Of course.”

Lug moved aside slightly to make room for Eirene.

She sat down next to him with her usual modest demeanor.

The two remained silent, sitting close enough that their shoulders nearly touched.

Eventually, it was Lug, who had grown somewhat accustomed to the situation, who spoke first.

“We agreed to have an honest conversation. Saintess, is there anything you’d like to ask me?”

“Yes… Things I want to hear, things I want to say. I have both, but I’m not sure where or how to begin.”

Eirene took a deep breath and carefully chose her words.

She recalled the moment when the blackened sky had returned to blue.

How could she forget that miraculous moment she had been desperately searching for?

Eirene had been suffering.

No matter how much she tried to deceive herself, she couldn’t ignore that what she was doing was sinful.

The gradually accumulating sense of guilt.

The feeling of advancing alone through darkness.

She had been lying for so long that she could barely remember what kind of person she was.

That was probably why.

Why she couldn’t tell if she wanted to live or die.

‘That’s why your existence…’

That’s why when Lug showed her a miracle, she felt the presence of God.

She could truly feel that God was with her.

The Heavenly God who was thought to have abandoned the Heavenly God Order out of disappointment.

That brilliant and great deity had always been by Eirene’s side.

Yes, always by her side.

How could she not accept this situation as divine mercy?

‘You’ve become like my other half.’

It was an ironic situation.

How similar they were—the current Heavenly God carrying half-demon blood and she who was living half as Lug’s existence.

‘So I didn’t know.’

She found comfort in Lug’s existence.

A light had appeared around Eirene as she walked alone through darkness.

People are so fickle.

Even knowing that light wasn’t meant for her, she felt reassured.

‘That I…’

She knew Lug wanted to leave the hero’s party.

It felt like the Heavenly God was leaving her side, so she kept interfering.

Then a question arises. The reason she had been preventing Lug from escaping until now.

‘Whether I love you or worship you.’

Which emotion was it?

There had been signs.

When she first noticed Lug’s existence.

She began toying with him. But could she say it was solely because of his special existence?

‘But now I know.’

That was just the catalyst.

Eirene genuinely enjoyed tormenting Lug.

Like an adolescent boy teasing the girl he likes.

Yet she used every method to prevent him from leaving.

And when she realized he was the Heavenly God. How did Eirene feel?

‘I called it love.’

Not faith, but love.

She loved Lug, almost using his identity as the Heavenly God as an excuse.

Isn’t it funny?

While saying she needed to restore his memories and return him to being the Heavenly God, she had never once called him “Heavenly God” to his face.

Because she liked their current relationship.

Because she didn’t want to turn him back into a one-sided object of worship.

Faith and love.

Eirene, who practiced both, had always worried.

‘So.’

What was she doing?

Love mistaken for faith?

Faith mistaken for love?

Or both?

Or perhaps neither—just a lie used as an escape?

“So, Lug. Heavenly God.”

But Eirene knew.

She probably knew what emotion she harbored.

Yet she increased her options.

She had been lying.

“As a representative of the followers who once betrayed you, I want to ask.”

Because she was afraid.

The shame of the Heavenly God Order.

The representative of the Heavenly God Order had betrayed and tried to bring down the Heavenly God.

Because of this, their deity who had watched over the world disappeared, and the followers could no longer hear the voice of their god.

Now she knows it wasn’t simply because of the Heavenly God’s disappointment.

She knows the current Heavenly God is incomplete.

She knows the reason blessings and miracles no longer descend upon them is because of a problem with the Heavenly God himself.

But could she assert that the Heavenly God wasn’t disappointed in them?

‘After becoming like this. After suffering so much.’

Could she still say he loved those who had once believed in and followed him most, yet he didn’t reach out to them and struggled alone with his fragile body?

Eirene thought it didn’t matter.

She believed faith was something given, not exchanged.

But because of that, she wanted to ask him about the emotion she was feeling now.

Yes, the emotion she was feeling now was…

“May I love you?”

Because she wanted it to be reciprocal, not one-sided.