Demon Follower (3)

 

• • 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.

Since that day when she declared this to Alebbian, the shadow disappeared from Yona’s face.

Yona, who always had a shadow somewhere on her face since the day her demonic energy exploded.

Now, that Yona had no worries or concerns on her face – she looked so bright that even Alec felt somewhat awkward about this Yona.

“…I don’t know what that guy is thinking.”

Kaiyak said to Alec while slowly rubbing the axe blade with a cloth.

True to his warrior nature, Kaiyak didn’t neglect weapon maintenance even in this situation, and the two-handed axe, soaked with oil, was full of gleaming light.

“Well. I don’t know either.”

“Alec, didn’t she say anything to you?”

“No.”

Alec answered while rubbing his shield with an oiled cloth.

But— he actually did know.

On that very night, Alec had asked Yona what she was planning to do.

“What are you planning to do?”

If you sit too close, your body flinches from the tingling sensation.

Thinking he had gotten used to it, but it seems that’s not entirely the case, so Alec sat down at a slight distance.

“What do you mean, what am I planning?”

Yona answered, half-lying down on the roof of the carriage.

Her languid expression looked somewhat like the old Yona, which made him feel glad inside, but Alec buried that gladness in his chest and asked Yona again.

“I mean what you said to Alebbian earlier.”

“Ah— that.”

Yona yawned so wide her mouth seemed to split.

On top of the carriage in midwinter, with cold winds blowing fiercely.

The two people sitting up there were looking up at the sky, keeping a slight distance between them.

“It’s exactly as I said. If they did this to me because I was clergyman-like, I thought I should pay them back in kind.”

“Pay them back? How?”

“I’ve thought about Alebbian and Ceres’ objectives. It’s just speculation though.”

Yona sat up.

She tried to move closer to Alec but ended up sitting at a distance again due to the approaching tingling sensation.

“Think about it. They told me to subjugate all the demons. And they said with that power, I could overturn the entire Celestine Church.”

“That’s right.”

“When I was blinded by anger, I thought I’d end everything, Celestine Church and all, but now my head has cooled off a bit. I think I need to analyze this more calmly.”

For their own purposes, they trapped Yona and also put Alec in such a crisis.

Thinking about it, aren’t Ceres and Alebbian the biggest enemies?

The Celestine Church hasn’t done anything right either.

If they had just listened to Alec’s words once there, it wouldn’t have come to this.

However, now that Yona’s head has cooled off a bit, thinking carefully, the root of the problem lies with Alebbian and Ceres.

They plotted this scheme to choose a saint of the demon realm, and Yona and Alec fell into it, so those two are the biggest problem.

“First, I think subjugating all the demons as Ceres said is necessary.”

“Why?”

Yona paused for a moment and sighed.

Following her breath, a white mist scattered.

The fleeting nature of that breath, soon disappearing into the air, felt truly ephemeral.

“…We were too powerless. No, you were hiding your power. But I was truly powerless. Now that I know the Celestine Church has gone this mad, I think I need power too. The saint of the demon realm exists, and that power is great— something like that. So it’s like a kind of warning. I think we need something like that. Do you understand, baldy?”

It’s been a while since he was bald.

But in Yona’s memory, Alec was always bald, and even though his hair is now abundant, it somehow felt awkward.

So, for the nickname— baldy.

“An existence that stays still if not provoked. But once provoked, becomes difficult to handle. I thought I should become such an existence. I think that’s good for me, but it’ll be good for you too.”

“But what does that have to do with what you said to Alebbian?”

“Ah. Did I ramble too much?”

Yona grinned at Alec.

That smile at least seemed like the Yona from the days when she was rolling around as a D-rank adventurer in Evian, which somehow felt welcome.

“Anyway, it means our objectives now align. But I won’t follow their guidance for the process. For example, even though we’re saying we’re going to the Katus Empire now, I won’t move exactly as you guys think. That’s why I’m trying to meet Bigrind this time too.”

“Meeting the Saint…”

Alec, to be honest, couldn’t understand at all what Yona was trying to do by meeting Bigrind.

He heard they fought with killing intent.

Alec was unconscious at that time, so he heard this from Kaiyak later, but he heard that Yona fought not only Bigrind but also Ludvic with killing intent, and that if Yona hadn’t shown mercy, Ludvic would have been killed by Berbaria.

“Thinking about it carefully, Big might understand.”

Yona paused and thought.

When she was causing a riot in the church territory, Bigrind ultimately didn’t attack her.

If Bigrind had tried to suppress Yona with the Celestial God’s holiness, Yona wouldn’t have been able to attack so frantically like that.

Bigrind must have hesitated until the end.

At least, it was clear that she couldn’t launch a sincere attack against Yona.

“Not ‘might understand’— she will definitely understand. I need to meet Big and make her stop this madness. Capturing everyone with the same hair color and eye color as me for investigation. Does this make any sense?”

“It doesn’t.”

On this point at least, Alec agreed.

The Celestine Church gone mad.

The Celestine Church about to lose all public support because of one apostate.

“So I need to tell Big to set the Celestine Church straight.”

“Have you given up on… overthrowing the Celestine Church now?”

“I haven’t given up. I’m just trying to observe a bit more. As you said, baldy, Teacher Eize and… the cathedral knight uncles, they were all good people. Just because there are crazy people in the church territory doesn’t mean those people are bad. So, I’m trying to observe a bit more. There might be more good people.”

How would the world turn if there were only bad people in it?

If the Celestine Church only had insane fanatics, how could it have continued for these hundreds of years?

Surely it’s just that some crazy people have seized control of the leadership, but in reality, most people are probably truly devout and good.

Yona’s thinking was clearly changing.

After Alec’s intense persuasion, her anger began to subside, and in its place, gentleness took root.

Yona, who originally had a nature that liked people, was gradually extinguishing the embers of her anger, encouraged by Alec’s persuasion.

“Yes, you’ve thought well. As you say, the Saint might be able to stop this madness. But what will you do about the Hero?”

“It’s fine because of Berbaria.”

Even if he’s the Hero, he couldn’t defeat Berbaria.

Rather, it would be fair to say he was toyed with, defeated so pitifully.

So she wasn’t particularly worried.

“…Hmm, I see. I understand for now. So you have a plan?”

“Of course. So, it’s like this—”

Alebbian was listening to all of this conversation.

Although the carriage roof blocked the conversation between Yona and Alec, Alebbian was no ordinary fairy, so he could hear it clearly.

‘…So Yona was thinking like that.’

What should be done about this?

Alebbian pondered.

As the priest, it would be right for her to relay all the contents of this conversation to Ceres, the Instigator, to modify and supplement the plan.

The disappeared god—

The False Celestial God.

After the False Celestial God, who maintained the balance between the demon realm and the human realm, disappeared, the demon realm was becoming increasingly desolate due to the Celestial God only looking after the human realm.

As a result, the residents of the demon realm — those called magical beasts in the human realm — began to continuously flow into the human realm, and if more time passes, the demon realm will completely collapse and its aftermath will entirely engulf the human realm.

That’s why Yona was an absolutely necessary existence.

Now that she knows that such a Yona is having this kind of conversation with Alec, Alebbian, as the Observer, had a duty to inform Ceres, the Instigator, of this fact.

‘…What should I do.’

Alebbian hesitated, having raised a magic circle connecting to Ceres but not activating it.

For the greater cause, it would be right to destroy Yona’s plan.

But for Yona’s sake— it would be right to just pretend not to know.

It’s impossible to know what’s right and wrong.

But, after closing her eyes and thinking deeply, Alebbian—

Extinguished the magic circle she had raised on her palm.

‘Yona always managed somehow. Somehow, yes, somehow.’

Alebbian lay down on the seat and closed her eyes.

Although it didn’t matter at all if she didn’t sleep, she still wanted to sleep.

A warhorse was running, spewing out a thick cloud of dust.

On that warhorse sat a woman in a black nun’s habit and a giant man in silver armor.

“That’s Evian over there.”

“I’ve only seen Evian in passing before. Looks like I’ll be seeing it in passing again this time.”

At Scarlet’s words, Serad made a visor with her hand and looked out at Evian.

The medium-sized city of Evian.

It was Evian that she, originally from Lukasia Port, first considered settling in.

She thought that since it’s a city of adventurers, and if there are many adventurers, there must be a high demand for healing places— but when she heard that the competition was so fierce that there was a healing place every other house, Serad passed by Evian without even stopping.

“It’s also the hometown of the Saint, and the hometown of the apostate. Would you like to stop by?”

“Hmm… No, it’s fine.”

Apostate.

It’s a name that completely shook her comfortable and cozy life in Carachia, but it’s also a name she doesn’t want to be involved with.

“Let’s go straight to Lukasia.”

“Understood.”

The warhorse didn’t stop.

The warhorse carrying Scarlet and Serad galloped across the plain, raising a cloud of dust.

And after running like that for a while, a carriage appeared in front of them.