To the Church Territory (3)

Yona knew this was a dream.

Rather, she thought it had to be a dream.

Wasn’t this scenery too unrealistic to not be a dream?

“Yes, this is a dream. I need to have a thorough conversation with you, so I brought you into this dream. Your body is still sleeping now, so there’s no need to worry.”

Berbaria explained in a soft, whisper-like voice.

As if noticing Yona’s unease, Berbaria sat on a chair taller than her own height, swinging her legs gently and smiling brightly.

And that smile was unnecessarily innocent, which irritated Yona even more.

“…Why did you bring me here? And if you were going to bring me, shouldn’t you have at least told me beforehand?”

Because it’s a dream.

At least she wouldn’t die, right?

Thinking that way, she felt like courage she didn’t have before was emerging.

“If I had told you I was going to bring you here, would you have really followed? Is that truly what you think?”

“…Well, not really.”

The scene of Berbaria telling Yona that she would take her somewhere when she falls asleep, that they should talk a bit—it’s unimaginable.

And even if she said that, Yona wouldn’t have agreed to it anyway.

“Anyway, why did you bring me to a place like this?”

“The place where you were earlier. How did it look?”

Berbaria didn’t answer Yona’s question.

Far from answering, Berbaria started with her own words first, and Yona had to take a deep breath to suppress the rising irritation.

This bastard is a demon. Because it’s a demon, that’s why it’s doing this, Yona thought.

“…How should I know? It’s ruins, just ruins.”

“Yes, it was ruins.”

Berbaria nodded slightly and smiled faintly.

Seeing her look so satisfied, as if she had heard the answer she wanted, Yona found Berbaria even more incomprehensible.

“That place is the demon realm. It’s where I was, and where the seven archdukes, including myself, divide and rule. I also came from that place, a place where eternal struggle and eternal flames burn.”

The demon realm.

It was different from the image she had thought of.

The demon realm she had learned about in the cathedral was literally a living hell, a place where all sorts of negative emotions like darkness, fear, blood, and anger were lumped together.

At least, it was a dark and slimy place contrary to the ruins Yona had just seen.

“Humans call us demons. But are the roots of demons and humans really different—I want to ask you that.”

Berbaria was staring at Yona intently.

What was she saying—

Are those roots really different?

Yona laughed dryly.

She couldn’t help it, as Berbaria was saying nonsense.

“Human history is a history of struggle. From ancient times, haven’t humans, despite being human, killed each other, and walked the path of struggle against each other? The demon realm is the same. Demons are the same. Monsters born in the demon realm and flowing into the human world are the same. They kill to live, kill to eat. Are humans any different?”

Berbaria’s voice was quite serious.

The look in her eyes towards Yona showed no trace of playfulness.

“…Humans shouldn’t be compared to demons. Humans were developing…”

“Development, development, you say. Do you really think so? Hundreds of years ago, in the very era you humans call the Age Without Echo, and now. Not much has changed. I can’t see what development has been made.”

Yona couldn’t say anything.

She wasn’t originally from this world, and she didn’t really know much about its history.

It was difficult to understand Berbaria, who suddenly started spouting philosophy, and she wasn’t particularly interested in what she was saying either.

“So what do you want to tell me?”

Yona sighed softly. Anyway, it’s hard to understand everything even if she listens to long explanations, and if Berbaria brought her all the way here, she must have something she wants to say, so Yona thought she’d just listen to that.

“Yona.”

“What?”

The current Berbaria didn’t feel like a demon.

Berbaria, that terrifying demon who had devoured the mermaid.

But it’s amazing how much that fear is reduced just because of her current appearance as Rubina.

“I know your pride. You take pride in being a cleric.”

Yona closed her mouth.

Berbaria’s words were not wrong.

Yona was strangely obsessed with the title of cleric, and she tended to try to act according to that name.

“So, while all these trials are being engraved on you, what is the Cheonsin you serve doing?”

“What is the Cheonsin that you and all clerics cry out for and search for doing?”

“What was the reward you received for your efforts to save humans without sparing any effort?”

Berbaria came down from the chair and started circling around Yona.

As Rubina’s clear voice resonated, Yona’s face slowly hardened as she kept her mouth shut.

“You put aside even your pride as a cleric to save the Lizardmen.”

“You saved them by borrowing my power, and you’re feeling guilty about a cleric using a demon’s power.”

“But what did you get in return?”

“…I didn’t do it expecting a reward.”

That was the best rebuttal she could think of.

Because that’s how it actually was.

She hadn’t expected any reward.

It was just to avoid death.

She didn’t want to die,

She couldn’t let Alec die,

She couldn’t let Kaiyak die.

“Your goodness is beyond doubt.”

“Despite that, you purified the darkness of the sacred place.”

“Even after doing all that, you ultimately received no reward.”

“You received no reward at all.”

“Not a word of thanks, not a word calling you a benefactor, nothing.”

“Is it because you’re a cleric that it’s taken for granted?”

“Then you are truly befitting of a cleric.”

“Then you are truly devout.”

“Then you are truly—”

Berbaria stopped speaking and stood in front of Yona.

With those flashing black eyes, Berbaria silently looked at Yona.

Yona couldn’t bring herself to meet that gaze.

The lips that had paused for a moment began to move again.

“You are truly befitting of a saint.”

“…Why don’t you just say what you want to say?”

People who talk too much are con artists.

That’s what Yona was thinking.

Yona, who still retained a modern mindset, was the type to be wary of those who talked excessively.

“Yona.”

Berbaria looked at Yona silently.

This time, Yona also met Berbaria’s gaze without avoiding it.

“Become a saint. Become a saint of our demon realm, and spread the righteousness of struggle.”

“I refuse.”

Yona rejected it outright and stood up from her seat.

Yona still held onto her heart as a cleric.

Although she had hideous tattoos all over her body, Yona still thought of herself as a cleric.

The goal of someday returning to being a man and going back to her original world—although it had become much more blurred now, that goal hadn’t changed yet.

And before that, right now, as a nun of the Cheonsin Church—and as a healer, she still had her pride as a cleric.

For someone like her, being told to become a saint of the demon realm was nonsense.

“I see, so that’s how it is.”

Berbaria smiled.

Berbaria, curling up the corners of her mouth into a somehow seriously distorted smile.

“Don’t smile like that with Rubina’s face. It’s unpleasant to look at.”

Despite Yona’s irritated words, Berbaria kept smiling silently.

Yet with those eyes devoid of any trace of laughter, Berbaria looked at Yona.

“I will definitely watch to see if that heart of yours can truly be rewarded.”

“Do as you please.”

*

After that, without knowing when she had returned, Yona found herself back in reality.

It must be the time when dawn was approaching.

Yona blinked, waiting for the faint dawn light that could be felt outside the sleeping bag’s outer shell.

The air felt inside the sleeping bag was quite warm.

When she rustled and turned over, there were stones placed here and there in the sleeping bag.

Those stones that definitely weren’t there when she fell asleep.

Yona moved her feet to touch those stones.

The stones, which still retained a slight warmth, felt very rough on the surface.

After touching them with her toes, when she moved her arm, there was another stone placed near her shoulder blade.

This one also still had some lukewarm warmth left.

That lukewarm warmth.

Yona wriggled to pick up that stone.

As carefully and slowly as possible, as cold air seeped in from outside every time she moved the sleeping bag.

When she picked up the stone and caressed it, its warmth felt truly comforting.

The touch that had heated stones by the campfire all night, adjusting the distance so they wouldn’t be too hot and burn holes in the sleeping bag,

And when they felt just right, moving them one by one into Yona’s sleeping bag.

Yona unconsciously smiled as she fiddled with the stone inside the sleeping bag.

She couldn’t help but smile at the warmth that seemed to warm even her heart.

Smiling happily for the first time in a long while, Yona felt truly content.