Ch.23Saintess Eirene (3)

# The Saintess Eirene (3)

Esmeralda was feeling quite conflicted right now.

When she faced the trap designed by the demon Lilith, she felt chills down her spine. If Lug had said he wanted to live with his family from now on, she wouldn’t have been able to stop him.

But Lug, stupidly, retreated without realizing it was a strategy.

Just thinking about it made her want to laugh at how foolish he was.

However, what made Esmeralda feel uneasy was…

[Note: Here, I firmly refused, thinking that while agreeing might allow escape, it wouldn’t have a positive influence on the other person.]

Even if he didn’t know it was a strategy, he knew it was an opportunity.

Yet he refused to take advantage of someone who might have truly lost their son.

Despite how desperately he wanted to escape the hero’s party.

Esmeralda had to acknowledge his mindset of never harming ordinary people.

Come to think of it, he was like that from the beginning of his infiltration. Though his method was crude, he decided to create a fictional village.

Even though it would have been easier to actually destroy and annihilate an existing village.

“Mr. Lug. We’ll be arriving soon. Thank you for your hard work.”

That’s why Esmeralda approached Lug with a much softer attitude.

Of course, there were other reasons why she was being nice to him.

“Aren’t you excited?”

“…Yes, I suppose so.”

After all, she was heading to the papal office of the Celestial Order with a demon in tow.

In reality, Esmeralda was essentially taking Lug to his execution ground.

She felt sorry whenever Lug’s complexion grew paler with each step and his surface thoughts wavered unstably. Once they arrived, even breathing would be painful for him.

But she had no choice. Esmeralda couldn’t stand the sexual harassment continuing in Lug’s mind anymore.

And even outside of bandage-changing time, leaving a wound untreated for too long isn’t good.

Since injuries inflicted by high-ranking demons don’t heal well without holy power, Esmeralda needed to find a temple as soon as possible. It couldn’t be helped.

And it should be fine, right?

“Mr. Lug, you’re neither a demon nor a criminal, so it’s okay to go to the Order, right?”

“…Yes.”

“That’s right.”

I have his permission!

Of course, I won’t deny it’s like forcing him to eat mustard while crying.

But while I won’t deny it, I don’t plan to regret it either.

‘I should start disciplining him soon. I don’t like the way he looks at me.’

She was uncomfortable with how Lug had recently started seeing her as “still a woman” rather than “stupid idiot.”

That reason was sufficient, wasn’t it?

She was now tired of being startled by the sudden teenage-like sexual fantasies that popped up.

As Esmeralda endured these one-sided attacks, they finally reached the Order.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Hero. And Mr. Lug.”

“Yes, how have you been, Eirene?”

The Saintess of the Celestial Order, Eirene Saintess, welcomed the two. She was smiling brightly as if genuinely happy to meet them.

[Note: She is sincerely happy to meet both of them.]

Esmeralda nodded after reading Eirene’s surface thoughts.

Well, she is the Order’s Saintess after all.

She wouldn’t just think about grinding herself up to make holy artifacts every day.

Having built a relationship over time, she wouldn’t suddenly think about grinding her up.

‘Well, she is the kind of bitch who would grind my corpse into holy artifacts while shedding tears if I died.’

Heartless woman.

Esmeralda answered with her true feelings hidden behind a smile.

“I heard you encountered a Legion Commander. And that you stopped by our temple to treat those injuries.”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

Esmeralda flinched when Eirene grabbed her hand, then nodded with a sour expression.

Feeling somewhat trapped, Esmeralda tried to subtly pull away from that hand while nodding.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a tight grip, just one of Eirene’s habits, so it wasn’t difficult to escape.

‘What is it?’

The Eirene in Esmeralda’s eyes still showed only feelings of welcome. But what was this? This unsettling feeling.

‘Is it just my prejudice?’

Esmeralda didn’t make much of it, but remained vigilant.

“Please escort the Hero.”

“Yes, Saintess.”

As befitting her influential position in the Order, Eirene commanded the priests with practiced authority.

Shortly after, priests appeared with a stretcher, presumably for transport.

“Oh, this isn’t necessary…”

“No, Hero. You’ve been pushing yourself with an injured body until now. Even if you’ve been fine so far, now that you’re here, please rest as much as possible.”

“I-is that so?”

Esmeralda looked back and forth between the stretcher prepared for her and Eirene before lying down on it.

Once she lay down, nothing could be more comfortable. After all, she had only been bandaged, not healed. So being able to travel comfortably like this was a good thing.

As Esmeralda was squinting at the bright sunlight…

Click.

Lying on the stretcher and enjoying the warm sunshine with a smile, Esmeralda tilted her head in confusion at the restraints suddenly binding her body.

After staring blankly at the restraints being fastened to her body, Esmeralda looked back at Eirene.

[Note: She secretly plans to send her to the laboratory.]

Eirene, knowing about the hero’s abilities, deliberately manipulated her surface thoughts to torment the hero.

It was a kind of show she had prepared because she felt the hero’s gaze had been dismissive of her goodwill.

Just from that, Esmeralda began to sweat profusely.

Now that Eirene’s suspicions were one step closer to the truth.

“Um… Eirene?”

“Hero, please rest well. You’ll feel better after sleeping for a few days.”

Eirene stuck a syringe into Esmeralda’s neck with an unchanged smile.

“Slee… ugh?!”

As Esmeralda gradually lost consciousness due to the mysterious injection in her neck, she thought:

‘I… was… right… after… all…’

She collapsed like a genius detective meeting her end.

As if mourning her death, snoring sounds were heard shortly after.

Snooore~

Thanks to this, Esmeralda, who hadn’t slept properly for several days, was able to sleep deeply.

Lug, who had been watching Esmeralda with shocked eyes, noticed someone looking at him and belatedly turned around. There stood Eirene, grinning.

“Well then, Mr. Lug, I’ll show you around the temple.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I’ll stay at a nearby inn…”

At that moment, Eirene’s affectionate gaze turned cold.

“Why? Are you uncomfortable with the temple even though you’re neither a demon nor a criminal?”

“N-n-no way! That sounds great. May I ask for your guidance?”

“Of course, just trust me and follow me, Mr. Lug.”

Eirene grabbed Lug’s hand with a blossoming smile.

Then she led him away, running like a child.

The direction she headed was first to the chapel, a place frequently visited by the general public.

It was also sometimes used for weddings, making it a place with special meaning.

However, Lug, whose heart had been racing even at Esmeralda’s small kindnesses, couldn’t even think such sweet thoughts.

For him, a demon spy, it was like heading straight to hell.

‘Ah, come to think of it…’

Lug stared blankly at Eirene’s hand holding his.

Normally, just the flowing holy power would have been painful, but for some reason, it was fine now.

Only now did he properly feel Eirene’s soft touch.

‘Oh, no, that’s not right. You crazy bastard, get a grip!’

Lug berated himself for having his heart race at the touch of her hand while being dragged to hell.

‘But it is soft.’

However, thoughts aren’t so easily controlled.

***

First was the chapel.

Then the garden, places with divine statues, the priests’ quarters, and where they worked.

The papal office of the Celestial Order had more diverse buildings than expected.

Among them were buildings whose purpose was difficult to guess…

“This is the heretic reformation center. Even I can’t freely bring outsiders inside, so I’m afraid I can’t show you the interior.”

“T-that’s fine…”

Most places, after hearing the explanation, weren’t ones he wanted to know about.

It might have been his imagination, but he thought he heard faint screams, though since he hadn’t heard them before, it was probably just his imagination.

That’s what he thought—he must have imagined those hallucinations.

“Now, next is a place I really want to show Mr. Lug.”

Thirty minutes into exploring the Celestial Order’s interior, led by Eirene’s hand.

She had just returned from a journey, yet she was dragging him around like this—perhaps she was still somewhat naive. Well, he knew the Saintess’s purity. It was that purity that had made him shed endless tears.

As he was being led by Eirene’s hand, half-running through the papal office…

Her footsteps gradually slowed hesitantly before coming to a complete stop.

I could tell we had arrived at the destination she mentioned.

It was a place that looked desolate, yet suspicious with flowers piercing through soil and rocks.

“Mr. Lug.”

After silently observing the scenery for a while, Eirene spoke.

“Do you know about the dark side of the Celestial Order?”

I understood only that it was an extremely difficult question to answer.