Demon Follower (2)

A girl with orange eyes.

A girl with white hair.

Girls around twenty years old with these two physical characteristics.

Yona was appalled by the fact that they were capturing all such girls they could see and sending them to the Celestine Church headquarters in the church territory, and that this had been going on for quite some time.

Even so, weren’t there dozens of people who had seen Yona in person?

Moreover, hadn’t all the priests and cathedral knights who had gathered around to attack Berbaria seen Yona’s face?

If they had just been dispatched to various regions to search, such madness wouldn’t have occurred.

“…It’s not a place that moves with such rational judgment. You know that too, Yona.”

Yona slowly nodded at Alec’s words.

No matter how crazy they were, no matter how paralyzed their reason was due to the unprecedented situation of their headquarters being directly attacked.

Is this something humans should do?

“Alebbian.”

“…Yes.”

Alebbian answered in a small voice with his gaze lowered at Yona’s call, which was emanating a chilling aura.

Given the clear difference between a priest and a saint, strictly speaking, Alebbian shouldn’t use informal speech with Yona, but Yona had decided to speak informally with each other as before, as her formal speech actually increased the unpleasantness.

“You, tell me honestly. Is this also one of Ceres’ schemes?”

Alebbian hesitated at Yona’s question.

How should he answer?

While it was all prepared by Ceres, even she probably didn’t expect it to grow to this scale.

Moreover, judging by her personality, now that she knows about this, wouldn’t she design something else using this as an opportunity?

However, to say that straightforwardly—

“Don’t rack your brains, just tell me the truth.”

Yona’s voice was full of sharp edges.

The thorns of her words, standing on end as if about to stab at any moment, were aimed at Alebbian’s face, urging an answer.

“…It is part of Ceres’ plan.”

“Ha… No, how could that woman design something like this…”

A sigh came out involuntarily.

Thinking about it now, it’s ridiculous what kind of woman she is.

“Alebbian, what exactly is your relationship with Ceres? Are you sisters or something?”

“No, it’s not like that. Sisters? That’s absurd.”

“Then what exactly is your identity?”

At first, she just thought he was a fairy.

But thinking about it carefully, isn’t it really strange that a fairy would be in charge of the demon realm’s priest?

Even elves have the Naiaso Great Priest Alliance, which is the elf nation, and the Ezero Grand Priest Empire, but a demon realm priest who doesn’t belong to them?

“…I can’t tell you yet, pretty one. But unlike Ceres, I’m just an observer. And… you might not believe this.”

Alebbian gently raised his head to look at Yona.

At that somewhat pitiful expression, Yona closed her mouth and looked back at him.

“I tried to protect you. I even tried to send you back to your original state, as a man. But because of Ceres’ plan, which was much more meticulous than I thought… I couldn’t do anything.”

“There’s no better excuse than saying you couldn’t help it.”

Now it was Alebbian’s turn to close his mouth.

He didn’t think Yona would forgive him with such words, but Yona’s reaction was much colder than expected.

“I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with Ceres, but since you’re the demon realm’s priest, you must be relatively close. You say you tried to protect me? What could be easier than saying that? In the end, you couldn’t do it, right? You, Alebbian, also contributed to me running away like this. Ceres is needless to say the root cause. Isn’t that right?”

Alebbian couldn’t say anything in response to Yona’s scathing criticism.

“Anything is free if it’s just words. The important thing is whether you can prove it with actions. So.”

Yona smiled with a subtle expression.

At a glance, it looked like a sneer, but looking again, it seemed like a dejected smile.

With such a smile all over her face, Yona glared at Alebbian.

“From now on, I’m going to prove it to you guys. You said I was chosen as a saint because I was clergyman-like, right?”

Yona, who lived for others rather than for sacrifices and her own well-being.

Although she herself had no such awareness, Alebbian and Ceres saw her that way.

“I’ve put down the name of clergyman. I’m no longer that clergyman-like Yona you saw. I’ll rampage according to my true self, so try to stop me.”

“Pretty one. What on earth are you trying to—”

“You’ll see if you wait and watch.”

Yona gritted her teeth and looked out the carriage window.

It would still take a few more days to reach Evian.

“Ahem.”

Sniffling, Serad moved closer to the bonfire.

As it was winter, dry branches were abundant, so there was plenty of firewood, and the wild animal that Serad had caught using the skills from his brief time as an adventurer was browning nicely over the bonfire.

“I, I think it’s cooked now…”

Sekti, who had only removed the helmet from her armor, picked up the meat and tore into it.

Every time she forcefully tore off a piece of meat, grease dripped down, but not even a trace of grease remained on her gauntlets.

“Eat…”

Serad carefully started to eat the leg meat handed over by Sekti.

They had just left Carachia and emerged from the Insturia Mountains.

The Cathedral Knight Order, and among them, the elite Templar Order.

And among them, Scarlet, who belonged to the elite.

His warhorse was a superior steed on a different level from other horses.

Thanks to that, the warhorse carrying Scarlet and Serad had successfully traversed the Insturia Mountains at a mad pace.

“I never imagined crossing the Insturia Mountains so easily. That remote area…”

“It’s not… the first time I’ve crossed it…”

Due to her position, Sekti spent more time outside the church territory than inside.

There were cases of magical beasts appearing, but more often it was other tasks, such as eradicating heretics.

Or dealing with the rampant Dark Covenant these days.

As she was mainly in charge of such tasks, she already knew the knack for crossing the Insturia Mountains.

“Really, Sir Scarlet, the more I see you, the more amazing you are.”

“Just… call me Scarlet. Or Lord Scarlet.”

“But it feels a bit off to call you that. Lord Scarlet sounds too masculine.”

“…Don’t worry about… such things…”

• • A girl should learn to dress up and such. When we get back after this mission, I’ll ask the chief priest to teach you about makeup.

It felt like someone’s voice was coming through.

Since she started traveling with Serad, her mind had somehow become more at ease, and the frequency of hearing Johannes’ auditory hallucinations had decreased a lot, but suddenly it happened again like this.

“…I, I don’t care.”

“That’s why the most neutral title is ‘Sir,’ isn’t it? Well, even at the cathedral when I was there, they called you ‘Sir’ this and ‘Sir’ that.”

“Do as you like…”

Talking a lot is tiring.

Moving the lips, chattering on and on.

The more you do it, the more tiring it becomes.

As Scarlet closed her mouth and continued eating, Serad, who had been chattering on for a few more words, soon seemed to tire of talking alone and began to eat quietly.

After a while.

Serad, who had eaten as much meat as possible and placed the remaining bones in a pre-dug hole, carefully watched Scarlet’s reaction and opened his mouth.

“…By the way, is the Celestine Church… going to be alright?”

“The Celestial God is right… always.”

“Everyone knows that. The Celestial God always watches over us, always speaks rightly, and even if He doesn’t show Himself, He’s always there. That’s the first thing you learn when you enter the cathedral, right? I’m not talking about the Celestial God, but whether the Celestine Church is alright.”

“What are you… trying to say?”

“…It’s about the apostate.”

This was a topic that Sekti also didn’t particularly want to talk about.

“I agree that we need to catch the apostate. But isn’t the method of tracking wrong? Where do you see people being captured just because their hair color or eye color is similar or resembles someone?”

That’s putting it nicely as “capturing,” it’s almost at the level of kidnapping.

Serad would probably have been taken away already if it weren’t for Scarlet— no, now that she’s taken off her helmet, Sekti.

Scarlet isn’t stupid enough to answer that the Celestial God is always right even here.

“…It must be a method to catch the apostate as quickly as possible. There must be a reason for doing this… there’s no need to, uh, doubt it.”

“If they want to catch her as quickly as possible, I heard there are hundreds of people who saw that apostate at the headquarters. Wouldn’t it be quick to find her if they just sent those people one by one to search all over the country?”

That makes sense.

Perhaps that’s why Sekti struggled to answer.

It’s well known that there are hundreds of eyewitnesses.

And if they, as Serad just said, were dispatched one or two at a time to villages across the country, they might be able to find the apostate quickly.

At least, they wouldn’t have to do this bizarre act of capturing everyone who looks similar.

“…Don’t worry about it anymore. Anyway, when we get to Lukasia… won’t you be able to receive personal protection?”

“That’s uncertain. Unless I completely get rid of this hair, and unless the Celestine Church quickly arrests that apostate, there won’t be any safe place for me. If it weren’t for Sir Scarlet, I would have been taken away already, right?”

“……”

The more they talk, the less there is to say.

Scarlet also had nothing more to say because she couldn’t understand what was happening now at all.

“It’s not like I can shave my head either, being a woman and all.”

At that moment, someone’s face comes to mind.

The man who might have been under a spell, whom Scarlet had tortured severely with her own hands without knowing.

A sense of guilt washed over her like a flood.