Regret is Always Too Late (3)

The primary weapon of a cathedral knight is undoubtedly the mace.

And among them, the Templar Order uses the morning star, an advanced version of the mace.

However, due to the nature of blunt weapons, they are somewhat weak for precise work, especially when quick responses are needed.

And for such times, they carry a short but extremely sharp dagger.

Scarlet drew the dagger she always kept at her waist.

A sound of Serad swallowing hard could be heard, but such sounds were inaudible to her.

He’s getting further away.

In her sight, there was only the back of Alec— Johannes Spielvan.

His back, heading towards the apostate named Yona who had already returned to the carriage,

Seems to tell her that it’s truly over between them now.

He’s getting further away, as if even the face that always smiled at her will no longer be shown.

When he showed his back, it was always on the battlefield, and the reassuring feeling that used to emanate from that back was no longer felt at all.

Go your own way— those cold and chilling words pierced her heart like a dagger.

The cold dagger of words seemed to not only pierce her heart but also tear and rampage through her entire body, leaving her in tatters.

Scarlet gripped the dagger in her hand tightly.

While everyone may have different reasons for living, for Scarlet, that reason was Johannes.

The man who took the spell in her place and ended up being expelled from the cathedral— Johannes Spielvan.

A man who, despite becoming the strongest and youngest cathedral knight in history, was neither petty nor arrogant.

A man who was so strong yet kind to everyone, strong against the strong and kind to the weak.

The downfall of such a man came in a moment, as fleeting as it was pitiful.

Sekti.

The girl Johannes Spielvan brought one day and personally taught to be a cathedral knight.

After years of teaching her like a younger sister, she was assigned to the Templar Special Forces along with him.

Because the person this girl had treated turned out to be a heretic, Johannes Spielvan couldn’t avoid punishment from the superiors, and knowing that her intentions weren’t malicious, he took the spell in her place.

Thus came the downfall of the strongest cathedral knight in history—

Sekti thought that Johannes’s downfall was her fault.

Strictly speaking, it was excessive punishment by the Celestine Church leadership who had been jealous, wary, and checked him, but only a few elders knew this fact.

The rumor that he was expelled for treating a heretic, that very Johannes Spielvan.

Only this rumor wandered around the church territory, and most people accepted it as truth, thinking it was right.

And then the rumor disappeared like a fleeting cloud.

The downfall of a cathedral knight disappeared as a topic of conversation.

From that point, Sekti began to struggle with a strange sense of absence.

She knew the name.

She knew what kind of person he was.

She knew who he was.

But she couldn’t remember his face.

She couldn’t remember his height, build, or anything.

The more she tried to remember, the more it felt like her mind was filled with a hazy fog, and she couldn’t remember anything.

There’s no way she couldn’t remember, yet she couldn’t—

From then on, Sekti changed her name.

Covering her youthful face with thick armor that covered her entire body, she wandered for years searching for Johannes Spielvan— that name.

But unable to find him, anger began to fill her more and more.

Everything was because of things that went against the will of the Celestial God.

If it weren’t for them, she would still be by Johannes Spielvan’s side.

But now she’s alone, and will be alone in the future.

Such anger began to eat away at her little by little.

And finally, the reunion with Johannes Spielvan, whom she had been searching for so desperately—

It was the worst.

Scarlet, who had raised the dagger, slowly rose from the ground.

Serad looked up at her with anxious eyes as she staggered to her feet.

Serad had been with her for several days.

There were many times when she felt something was off about Scarlet, that she wasn’t in her right mind.

In terms of strength, she was far superior to any knight Serad had seen so far, but not only that man who so easily threw her aside, but even that woman in nun’s clothing who was undoubtedly an apostate had such a tremendous aura.

That anger was so fierce that even Serad, who prided herself on being quite bold for a woman, had shrunk back and couldn’t offer any resistance.

As Scarlet staggered to her feet, Serad finally thought she should stop her.

Her eyes didn’t look sane at all.

A feeling that she was having some ominous, not good thoughts.

“W-Wait, Lady Knight, just a—”

Before Serad could rise to stop her— at the very moment the dagger seemed to glint in the moonlight.

The dagger pierced deep into Scarlet’s throat with a soft sound of flesh being cut.

“Gu, guh…”

With a groan that couldn’t even form a death rattle, Scarlet’s lips quivered a few times.

Only the sound of air escaping from her throat could be heard, and slowly the strength left her body.

Her vision began to turn red.

A fishy taste of blood was felt in her throat, and something hot surged up and went back down her throat several times.

Finally, the surging blood clots became more violent, and they forced their way through her lips and trickled down.

‘Ah, aah.’

It hurts.

It hurts.

Is this— how much of the pain Senior might have felt.

Would it even be half of it?

A feeling of the sky slowly turning.

With a feeling of her vision spinning, Scarlet felt the strength leaving her entire body.

She didn’t even feel the pain when she fell backwards without realizing it.

“L-Lady Knight, Lady Knight—!”

Serad, not knowing what to do with the dagger stuck in her throat, panicked and first pulled out the dagger.

As soon as the dagger was pulled out, a stream of blood gushed out with a ‘whoosh’, splattering all over Serad’s face.

“Lady Knight, Lady Knight—! What, what is this… No, no…! The blood—!”

Serad, as if half-crazed, somehow held onto Scarlet’s neck and poured in holy power.

But because Scarlet had been infected by demonic energy several times before, the healing didn’t work properly with the holy power Serad possessed.

Blood overflowed like a flood.

The source of life, the symbol of life— that red, red blood burst forth like a dam breaking, seeping into the dry earth of the field where she lay, ready to soak it.

Where Scarlet lay, it looked as if a dark red rose had bloomed.

To the extent that one might naturally think, ‘So there was this much blood in a human body’— that’s how much blood was blooming like a rose.

There, Alec came running.

“Sekti! You, you foolish girl…!”

Alec ran over and struck Scarlet’s cheek hard.

Only after several slapping sounds did Scarlet, whose face had turned deathly pale, half-open her eyes and look at Alec.

“Ah… Se… Sen… ior…”

The sound of air hissing out.

With such a sound that couldn’t even be properly pronounced, Scarlet smiled faintly.

Ah.

Now,

Now Senior is looking at me.

That’s good.

So this is what it took for Senior to look at me.

I should have done this earlier—

While Scarlet was truly thinking that she should have done this earlier.

“The healing, the healing isn’t working?!”

“It, it’s not working…! No matter what I do, it keeps pouring out…!”

The nun who looked like the old Yona— Serad.

Serad had been pouring holy power with her bare hands since earlier, having undone her holy rosary.

Originally, the holy rosary was equipment for efficiency, so it was better to be without it when pouring indiscriminately like now.

Even though she was pouring to that extent, now it had only healed very slightly.

Because she had been directly hit by Yona, Scarlet’s body, which had been invaded by demonic energy, was insufficient with just holy power.

Moreover, because it was an attack launched by Yona in a fit of rage before she became accustomed to controlling demonic energy, that demonic energy was even more severe, difficult to counter with ordinary holy power.

“The healing… The healing isn’t working… At this rate…”

Scarlet, who had noticeably paled.

But there was no sign of pain or fear on her face.

Rather, Scarlet’s face looked peaceful.

“Uh, uhn…”

Her pale lips trembled.

Now, now it’s really the end.

This should have happened earlier.

To Senior, whom she respected so much— and, and… something she couldn’t dare to say.

Having committed such an unforgivable sin against Senior who held such feelings.

To come here and say such things, and to think it would work.

Where else in the world would there be such a fool.

Yes, it was better to die.

It would be better to die like this and disappear.

Serad took her hands off Scarlet’s neck and stood up abruptly.

Where she headed was the carriage that Yona’s group was riding.

The woman nun riding there, who was clearly that apostate.

If she was a being protected by such a strong cathedral knight, surely her abilities must be considerable as well.

Thinking this, Serad ran to the carriage and flung open the door.

“What. Who are you?”

Eyes narrowed to slits.

The woman— Yona, still clearly angry as if her anger hadn’t fully subsided.

Yona glared at Serad who had suddenly flung open the carriage door.

“P-Please save Lady Scarlet.”

“…What?”

What day is it today?

Why are these people acting up in pairs?

Once again, she felt like her blood was rushing backwards.

But the nun before her eyes was a healer engaged in the same profession, even in Yona’s view.

And that slight sense of professional camaraderie drew out a very small amount of generosity from Yona.

If not for that, she would have already turned away without looking back, given that she had appeared with Scarlet.

“Who are you? If you’re going to make such a request, you should introduce yourself first. Don’t they teach that in cathedral schools these days?”

“My name is Serad. I’m a healer. I, I’m someone whose life was saved by Lady Scarlet. Scar, Scarlet tried to commit suicide by stabbing her throat… She, she might die soon.”

Only after hearing those words did Yona look at Serad’s veil.

The abundant milky hair that wasn’t fully covered.

Seeing that, she could roughly guess what had happened without further explanation.

And she could also roughly understand the situation about her stabbing her own throat.

“If your life was saved, shouldn’t you be the one to save her? Why are you doing this to me?”

“I’ve already tried. Please save Lady Scarlet.”

Serad looked straight at Yona and demanded boldly.

Yona glared at such a Serad with an expression of disbelief.

A very brief silence, and a very long staring contest that took place during that time.

“Why should I do that? As you say, saving people’s lives isn’t a problem for me. I can save anyone as long as they’re not dead. But why should I save that girl?”

“It’s for your own sake.”

“Huh, for my sake?”

Snorting, Yona slowly stepped out of the carriage.

Dark red demonic energy rising in billows.

Each time that demonic energy touched, there was a sizzling sound and whitish smoke rose from Serad.

“Explain that in detail. Saving that girl is for my sake? Explain a reason that’s convincing. I’ve already killed several of you Celestine Church people. Adding one or two more wouldn’t make much difference to me. So explain properly. It’ll be a moment’s work for one corpse to become two here.”

Yona’s words were not an empty threat.

Feeling the demonic energy rising from her body, Serad thought it was definitely not a lie.

Such powerful and tremendous demonic energy.

Demonic energy that Serad could never handle.

But she had no choice.

From Serad’s point of view, Scarlet, whom she had spent several days with, was more important than Yona, whom she was seeing for the first time— although she didn’t know her name.

Moreover, it’s true that for whatever reason, the conflict between the two women over that black-haired cathedral knight had become a very, very deep rift.

Serad decided to bet on that.

Thinking of a reason that would surely work if it was a love triangle.

“—That black-haired cathedral knight is the man you love, isn’t he?”

Yona didn’t answer that.

But no explanation was needed on whether it was true or not.

Serad was already certain.

“If Lady Scarlet dies like this, she’ll remain forever in the black-haired knight’s heart. Another woman will forever exist alongside you in the heart of the man you love, who should be yours alone. If she dies like this— perhaps the black-haired knight will live in regret too.”

Yona couldn’t answer for a long time to those words.

“You should be the only one, right? In the black-haired knight’s heart. You can’t push away someone who died first. Are you going to watch that happen? I don’t think I could ever do that. This, this is the reason why you should save Lady Scarlet.”

“—You.”

Yona trembled, clenching her fists tightly.

She wanted to scream ‘No’ through gritted teeth, but not a single word this nun was saying was wrong.

Wasn’t it said that the best and worst revenge you can give to a former lover is to die right in front of them?

Memories and regret to be carried for a lifetime.

And Yona couldn’t accept that remaining with Alec.

She should have killed her.

She should have killed her when she had the chance, before Alec woke up.

No—

It’s not too late.

Even if she saves her now, she can kill her when Alec isn’t looking.

She will definitely kill her.

She will make her bitterly regret appearing before her eyes again.

Yona firmly resolved and resolved again.