The Good Fortune of Peace and Chastity (1)

The auditory hallucinations that seemed to stir her mind and the visions that blurred her sight were gradually fading.

Scarlet sat blankly, staring at a cathedral-like building roughly put together with wooden planks.

It was a day with good sunshine.

On such a sunny day, a shabby cathedral with the Celestine Church symbol somehow cleaned and attached to the roof of that cathedral-like place.

And beneath it, a woman with a shabby sacred scarf wrapped around her right arm was gently stroking a boy’s head.

“There, it’s all done now. You rascal, didn’t your sister tell you to be careful when sliding down the hill?”

As boys often do, he must have gotten hurt playing roughly, with blood flowing from his elbow.

Serad, who immediately reached out her hand to heal the boy as soon as she saw him.

Even as she scolded him while lightly bonking his head, the boy just grinned.

The boy touched his elbow, which had been covered in blood, and exclaimed “Ooh” in admiration before giving a thumbs up.

“Sister Sera is the best!”

“Of course! Naturally, I’m the best!”

Serad, who was puffing out her chest proudly, soon patted the boy’s bottom and said in a bright voice.

“Now, go and play. If you get hurt, come back again. Got it? You little ones?”

“Okay! Bye, sister! Bye, little sister too!”

The boy turned quickly towards where Scarlet – Sekti was and waved his hand.

Because of that, Sekti also unknowingly waved her hand awkwardly, and only then did the boy turn around and run off into the distance.

“Hey— Run slowly! You’ll fall again like that! You’ll get hurt—!”

Serad shouted loudly and then turned smoothly towards Sekti.

Then she sat down on the flat rock next to where Sekti was sitting without saying anything.

“Is your hand all better?”

“…Yes. It seems so.”

Sekti looked down at her left hand.

The hand that had been horribly scarred from striking it several times with her greatsword had already healed, and thanks to Serad’s insistence, after resting in bed for three days, her body, which had been quite weak, was mostly recovered.

“How did the cathedral knight end up collapsed there?”

“That… I can’t say.”

She needed armor.

Only with armor could Sekti truly be herself.

Without armor now, she was crushed by a sense of powerlessness.

“Hmm…”

Serad rummaged in her nun’s habit pocket and pulled out a pouch.

She took out a tobacco pipe from the pouch and firmly pressed pinches of tobacco leaf powder into it.

“Do, do you smoke?”

“Yes. Do you dislike tobacco smoke?”

“No. Not particularly…”

Clergy usually think of their bodies as being like a cathedral.

Therefore, it was customary to avoid substances harmful to health such as alcohol or tobacco, and Sekti also never touched tobacco or alcohol at all.

But Sekti didn’t say much to Serad, who was lighting up a cigarette as if it was the most natural thing.

There’s nothing in the doctrine saying not to drink or smoke, after all.

“Phew…”

With each breath Serad exhaled after lighting the tobacco leaves with a flint, misty smoke rose in puffs.

Every time she made a clicking sound with her tongue, the tobacco smoke rose into the sky, forming round circles.

“It’s fascinating, isn’t it?”

“…Yes, it’s… fascinating.”

Sekti answered without even looking.

But regardless of whether Sekti was watching or not, Serad giggled and showed off by making round circles with the tobacco smoke.

“Look at this, look.”

Putting her head under the round smoke she had puffed out, Serad flapped her hands, imitating wings.

“Doesn’t it look like an angel? Look, flapping wings.”

“…Please don’t make light of the Celestial God.”

“I’m not making light of it. Rather, the Celestial God might like it more? It’s an image closer to the believers, this.”

As she sat back down on the rock with a grin, coarse white hair swayed between her veil.

Every time she saw that white hair, Sekti felt sick to her stomach.

Should you be here, have you forgotten your duty?

It felt like someone’s voice was speaking, and she felt strange every time she saw that hair.

“Well, don’t blame yourself too much.”

“I, I don’t know what you mean.”

Of all things, those words hit the mark exactly.

Sekti was startled for a moment, but soon regained her composure.

Fortunately, Serad didn’t seem to have noticed.

“Come on, I’ve been living on scraps for years. I can tell at a glance. Moving around so busily as if being chased by someone, who’s going to appreciate that? You should take it easy. Even if you serve to the bone, only the one serving suffers. No one even appreciates it.”

“…The Celestial God will appreciate it.”

“Heh, is that so. I suppose that’s why you were sprawled in the middle of a mountain path.”

Tobacco smoke constantly flowed from Serad’s mouth, which didn’t lose a single word.

Her half-open eyes were looking somewhere unknown, and every time her pursed lips made a clicking sound, tobacco smoke rose in circles.

“Well, it’s about time for you to leave, isn’t it? You can stay longer if you want.”

“…I’ll leave even tonight.”

Haven’t I already delayed too much?

Although she had calmed down somewhat, Sekti had a reason to hurry and pursue that apostate.

Rather, she clearly had a big goal to the extent that it was incomprehensible to be wasting time like this.

“If you say so, then.”

Sekti suddenly realized that the ground was shaking.

The rumbling ground originated from horse hooves, and Sekti soon noticed that it was heading straight for this cathedral.

Someone was approaching.

And not just one or two, but a number exceeding five or six.

And she could clearly see a hazy dust cloud rising in the distance.

She felt a strange, indescribable feeling.

“We might be having guests.”

Serad held the pipe upside down and tapped out the tobacco leaves on the rock before standing up and stretching her back fully.

While she was at it, Serad stretched out completely and looked towards where the dust cloud was rising.

Those gradually revealing themselves.

They were all men wearing leather armor of not very good quality, along with blunt-ended iron hammers.

Seven in number, most of them looked shabby and visibly tired.

The brand stamped on one side of the leather armor with a hot branding iron was clearly that of the Celestine Church,

and Sekti knew well what the black moon mark next to that brand meant.

‘Those are… inquisitors…?’

And among them, those with extremely low ranks, who belong to the Inquisition but actually do work close to miscellaneous duties.

They were called the Spider Swarm.

“Are you the healer?”

The man who stood at the forefront of those who had ridden horses asked Serad as he dismounted.

Serad stood still and looked the man up and down.

“From the looks of it, you don’t seem to be injured anywhere, so what brings you here?”

“That’s none of your business. Let’s confirm one thing. Is this the cathedral or whatever it is?”

“…Well, it is.”

“That seems to be a cathedral.”

The man looked around at the makeshift building behind Serad, craning his neck this way and that.

“Well, it says there’s no cathedral here. Unauthorized cathedral construction and… are you alone here, Healer?”

Serad didn’t answer that.

Feeling that something was going wrong, Serad’s face hardened slightly as she pressed her lips tightly together.

“I can see you’re wearing a sacred scarf, so it must be right. A cathedral with just a healer and no priest. Then it’s unauthorized cathedral construction and violation of priest dispatch rules. Well, take off your veil.”

“…What is this about?”

Serad’s face had hardened considerably.

In the meantime, the wind blew, causing her veil to flutter and reveal the white hair underneath.

Whistle—

The man’s whistle seemed to cut through the wind.

The disgusting smile that spread across his face was also blooming on the faces of the others standing behind him.

“This is just perfect.”

“…What are you talking about?”

Serad’s voice trembled slightly.

And in front of her like that, Sekti revealed herself.

“St-state your affiliation and name.”

“What’s this little one saying now?”

The man paid no attention to whatever Sekti was saying.

Without her armor, she looked no different from a child, so it was difficult to see her as a cathedral knight no matter how you looked at it.

Moreover, without armor, even her voice and intonation were that of a young girl.

“Well, come with us for a moment.”

The man approached Serad with a swaggering posture.

Every time he approached, a terrible body odor mixed with sweat flew in on the wind, causing Serad to unknowingly frown.

“Unauthorized cathedral construction, violation of priest dispatch rules, and the same age group and hair color as the apostate… my, you’re under quite serious suspicion.”

The man stood close to Serad, rubbing his hands together.

Serad glared at the man, biting her lip hard, but soon lost her nerve and averted her gaze.

She had never heard talk of apostates or anything like that before.

But stories of unauthorized cathedral construction and violation of priest dispatch rules seemed somewhat realistic, so Serad was rather more intimidated by that part.

“Holy War Special Forces Captain, Scarlet… that’s me. I’ll say it again, state your affiliation and name.”

Sekti intervened between the man and Serad, trying to look as dignified as possible.

She owed Serad a debt of gratitude, and besides, she couldn’t understand how people belonging to the church could act so arrogantly.

Sekti knew well that Serad had nothing to do with the apostate Yona — that name too blasphemous to even mention.

“Scarlet? What nonsense. Kid, stop talking nonsense and get out of here. Before you get hurt. Tch.”

As the man raised his hand sharply, Sekti flinched and stepped back.

It was fortunate that things didn’t escalate further from there, thanks to the man’s good mood.

The man was in a good mood.

How much had the higher-ups been pressuring them to produce results?

Capture the apostate, or if you can’t capture them, at least show that you’re continuously searching to capture them.

The appearance of an apostate was a big deal from the church’s standpoint, but it was also an opportunity for those who occupied a corner in the fierce power structure within the church.

If they could capture the apostate at this opportunity, becoming the next Pope wasn’t just a dream.

Rather, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to demand abdication from the current Pope with such merit.

So they frantically pressured their subordinates.

Capture and capture and capture again.

If someone looks even slightly similar to the apostate’s appearance, it’s okay to capture them.

If they turn out to be the disguised apostate when investigated after capture, that’s good, and if not, they can be released.

Anyway, in the midst of all this, such a fairly big catch had been found, so there’s no way the man wouldn’t be in a good mood.

“I’m telling you nicely to come with us. Well, you have committed crimes, haven’t you?”

At the man’s words, Serad took a deep breath.

She didn’t know what was going on, but it was clear they had made up their minds.

“…F-follow them for now. I’ll follow soon after.”

Sekti whispered softly to Serad.

Anyway, with this short body and without armor, it’s difficult to even prove her identity.

She didn’t bring casual clothes and is still in patient clothes, so armor is like an identity card.

“…Alright. I’ll go with you.”