Darkness (1)

“Come to think of it.”

Bigrind, who had finished a cup of tea, looked at Yona and said.

It was something that had been bothering her since she arrived here, but due to the atmosphere, she couldn’t bring herself to ask.

The knight in silver armor she saw while entering the carriage — and beside him, a nun who seemed unfamiliar but was sticking close to the knight for some reason.

“Why is Sir Scarlet here?”

She wondered why this hadn’t been asked yet.

Yona felt somewhat uncomfortable inwardly, but it wasn’t something she couldn’t explain.

“Oh, um. That’s—”

“—That’s how it happened.”

“…Well. It’s surprising that Sir Scarlet was such a gi— no, young lady, but it’s also surprising that she was originally acquainted with Mr. Alec.”

Ludvic feigned a surprised expression at Alec’s explanation.

Although Ludvic was in the middle of the chaos that occurred at the Celestine Church headquarters, he didn’t see everything from beginning to end. Even if he had seen it, he probably wouldn’t have known. When Alec shouted that he was Johannes Spielvan, Ludvic wasn’t particularly paying attention to Alec, and he was watching to see if Yona escaped safely.

And when Yona returned as an apostate, he was too focused on confronting Yona to pay much attention to Alec, so it was understandable that he didn’t know. But to learn that Scarlet was acquainted with Alec — and even more, that Scarlet was actually Alec’s direct subordinate, that was more surprising.

“But it’s even more surprising that she followed all the way here…”

Ludvic knows Scarlet’s strength.

Scarlet, who appeared when Ludvic was getting tired due to being outnumbered during the Semek fortress battle. He — now she, Scarlet, appeared and swept away all the undead while displaying all sorts of buffs. Not only that, but while all the Templar Knights boasted terrifying combat power, Scarlet was exceptionally strong even among them.

For Ludvic, it’s very surprising that such a Scarlet prioritized Alec over her faith and followed him all the way here, and is just watching even with that apostate right before her eyes. But it’s not that it’s unexplainable, because now that it’s been revealed that Scarlet was such a beautiful young lady, there’s really only one reason why she would abandon everything and follow Alec.

“What can we do? She seems happy to meet her old superior.”

Alec smiled awkwardly.

He didn’t intend to tell Ludvic everything in detail, but Ludvic, who had shown hostility ready to clash at their first meeting, unexpectedly listened well to his words, causing Alec to ramble on without realizing it.

“Hmm, do you really think so?”

“Pardon? What do you mean?”

“No, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

Ludvic closed his mouth.

It might be innocent if it’s innocent, and if not, then not, but at least to Ludvic, who had been around in the adventurer world for ten years, it seemed less innocent and more just incredibly oblivious.

“By the way, Mr. Ludvic.”

The title of Hero disappeared. Alec mentioned his name confidently, but Ludvic didn’t bother to point it out. The day will come when it will be returned when the time is right. There’s no need to pick a fight about it now.

“Yes.”

“…Why is the church territory doing such things?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

Ludvic was also dumbfounded. Why, is he really asking because he doesn’t know? Ludvic just stared back at Alec silently. Only after Alec cleared his throat awkwardly under Ludvic’s gaze did Ludvic take a deep breath.

“…I also have negative feelings towards the apostate— no, your Saint. After all, the Celestial God appointed me as a Hero and Bigrind as a Saint in preparation for a disaster. If you think about it, that disaster the Celestial God spoke of…”

Ludvic glanced at the carriage.

The meaning of that gaze was clear. The Sai— no, the apostate Yona inside the carriage.

In other words, the meaning implied in Ludvic’s words was that the apostate Yona might be that disaster.

It’s not that there haven’t been apostates before, but there’s never been one as powerful as Yona. She somehow managed to accept into her body the great demon Berbaria, who had already descended although it was just an avatar, and in that state, she snuck into the Celestine Church headquarters.

And then she revealed her true colors by exploding that demonic energy in a place where most of the church leadership was gathered, almost—

“That may be so, but I clearly asked the Saint not to perform the grand healing. Yo— no, the Saint also followed me out without saying much when I said we should leave. At least she didn’t have hostile intentions towards the Celestine Church headquarters as you just said, Mr. Ludvic.”

“I acknowledge that. That’s why I didn’t stop you from escaping with your Saint. You know, Mr. Alec, that if I had made up my mind to stop you at that time, I could have done so easily.”

He didn’t bother to say that he regrets not having done so even more.

After all, he didn’t come here to fight.

“That’s… true.”

At that time, Alec’s spell hadn’t been lifted yet, and he was forcibly drawing out power beyond the spell, so if Ludvic had stalled for time there, surely neither Yona nor Kaia would have been able to escape.

“Then your Saint shouldn’t have recklessly barged in like that either. She should have stopped the hostile actions and just threatened to a certain extent. She should have stopped at saying something like, ‘If you return Alec, I won’t take action.’ Because she inflicted such tremendous damage and then fled, the Celestine Church has gone mad.”

“No matter how mad they’ve gone, there should be a limit, shouldn’t there?”

“The higher-ups only gave orders to capture the apostate group including your Saint. But you know, subordinates tend to over-interpret the orders from above. Is it strange that an order to capture just three people grows into ‘let’s capture all suspects first and sort it out later’? Something like, if we capture everyone who looks similar, one of them must be the one we’re looking for.”

Ludvic’s words were the orthodox view.

It was exactly what Alec had thought too, to the point where he couldn’t even argue against it.

“Even so, isn’t that too excessive?”

— That’s about all he can manage in terms of a timid protest.

“What’s too excessive?”

And at that moment, the carriage door opened and Yona appeared.

Instead of the nun’s habit she always wore, she was in an elegant saint’s robe.

Perhaps because of that saint’s robe, or because her appearance seemed different, Ludvic glanced at Yona and then quickly averted his gaze.

“What did you say was too excessive?”

As Yona came out of the carriage, Bigrind appeared right after.

Bigrind, not in her previous saint’s robe that was quite revealing.

“Did you take off your robe, Saint? I’m worried you might catch a cold in this chilly weather.”

“It’s alright. It blocks out the cold well enough.”

“Even so…”

Ludvic held out his hand.

Bigrind lightly took Ludvic’s hand and stepped down from the carriage.

Yona, who had been quietly watching Ludvic’s actions, looked at Alec.

“…No, you’re tall enough to step down directly…”

Even though Alec muttered an excuse after realizing the meaning of that gaze, it was already too late.

“Well, we’ll be heading back now. If we’re any later, the cathedral might notice. Anyway, remember what I told you. Don’t forget.”

“I got it. I got it, so go back. You make sure to clean up well on your end.”

“Don’t worry.”

The two saints exchanging such conversation clearly seemed to be on better terms.

Seeing the two saints who seemed to have grown much closer than before, Ludvic and Alec became curious about what conversation the two had in the carriage.

At the same time.

“Hum, hum hum, hum hum hum~”

Humming a tune, Ceres looked around the basement of the community center.

Even at a glance, there were over thirty or forty corpses strewn about in the basement of the community center.

“The inverted pentagram… is all done. This should be enough for the summoning… Well, let’s wait a bit.”

A terrible smell of blood filled the interior of the community center.

Corpses wearing black robes.

The robes the corpses wore would have originally been navy blue, but now they had turned black from being soaked in blood.

And the remaining blood that couldn’t be absorbed flowed and filled the floor.

The inverted pentagram that Ceres had drawn.

Each line forming the sides of the pentagram was filled to the brim with bright red streams of blood.

“Now… it’s about time to finish up.”

Ceres stepped into the center of the pentagram without hesitation.

With each step she took, and as she approached the center, the demonic energy rising from the pentagram grew thicker and thicker.

“Now then, this…”

Ceres pulled out a sharp dagger from her bosom.

The pure white silver dagger was mainly used for ceremonies rather than actual combat, and this one was used for sacred rites in the Evian diocese.

Ceres, who had taken out the dagger, cut her wrist without hesitation.

With a hissing sound, a stream of blood gushed from her wrist, and soon that blood trickled down to the floor.

“Ow, tsk… it hurts.”

Ceres, her face contorted, twisted her wrist downwards. The trickling blood turned into a gushing stream, soaking the ground.

“Hurry up and come, you bastard…”

As the blood soaked the ground, and Ceres’s blood thoroughly drenched the center of the pentagram.

The candles set up around shook violently as if blown by wind, and then went out with a whoosh, leaving only one lit.

“—Finally, you’ve come. You son of a bitch.”

Ceres, her face pale white, grinned.