In the Name of the Saint (3)

When Ludvik faintly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a pure white ceiling.

His last memory was of the battlefield in the back alleys of Evian, but what he saw now was incongruous.

‘…What happened to me…’

Ludvik thought hazily as he blinked.

But no matter how much he tried to remember, nothing more came to mind.

He had been enveloped in black blood, and he could still almost feel that slimy, wriggling sensation on his fingertips.

But what was this current situation—

“Hero, are you conscious?”

That familiar voice.

Ludvik’s eyes turned to the side.

That figure looking down at him with worried eyes—

“Saint… Are, are you alright…?”

Ludvik tried to reach out his hand.

Wanting to wipe away those tears rolling down Bigrind’s cheeks, Ludvik reached out towards Bigrind while lying down.

“No, I’m not alright.”

However, that hand stopped hesitantly at that familiar voice.

Ludvik’s gaze turned to Bigrind’s side.

A tall woman.

A woman with milk-white hair.

A woman in a black saint’s robe—

It was Yona.

“…Is it the Saint of the demon realm? What is the meaning of this?”

Ludvik tried to sit up.

Although a terrible sense of loss was weighing him down, he instinctively realized that this was not a situation to be lying around blankly.

The exhaustion throughout his body was tremendous.

He, who had always been full of vitality as a Hero, and who had originally been a strong human, had never felt such exhaustion before.

“Calm down, Mr. Ludvik. I’m not going to eat you. Anyway, the situation has been resolved, so you don’t need to worry. How are you feeling?”

Alec’s voice, who was sitting at Ludvik’s bedside, was also heard.

Just how many people were gathered around Ludvik?

Ludvik couldn’t understand at all what kind of situation this was.

“If you’ve come to your senses a bit, why don’t you get up quickly? The one who should be lying down is Big. The one who should have fought fell early, leaving the Saint alone to suffer like that. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Yona’s voice was filled with coldness.

From her perspective, it was understandable.

If Ludvik had held out normally—in fact, even then the situation might not have changed much, but still, Bigrind might not have had to suffer so much.

Thinking like that, Yona couldn’t bring herself to speak kindly to Ludvik.

“You can hear the detailed explanation later. Big, you go lie down too. You really…”

Yona’s voice—irritation mixed with worry.

Alec got up with a bitter smile, grabbed Yona’s shoulders and turned her around.

“Come on, Yona. We need to go do our own work. Let’s leave the Hero and the Saint to handle their own affairs.”

“…Alright. Your hands smell of gunpowder, so let go.”

Although extremely displeased, Alec’s words weren’t wrong.

It’s right that they should talk among themselves.

There was no reason for Yona and Alec to interfere, but seeing Bigrind, who wasn’t well herself, rush to Ludvik and weep made her unable to contain her anger.

“Then Saint, please take care of the aftermath. We have some things to discuss on our end.”

“Yes, Mr. Alec. Please take good care of Yona. Yona, try to control your temper a bit.”

“I got it, I got it. I’m always the bad bitch, damn it.”

Yona left the room with an annoyed huff.

Following behind Yona as he left the room, Alec gestured not to mind and slowly closed the door.

*

“Why are you getting so worked up, hm?”

“How can I not get worked up? Did you see the blood on Big’s wrist? Do you know how much it must have hurt to cut her own wrist? And that bastard calling himself a Hero collapsed as soon as it started, what a wimp.”

Alec watched Yona, who kept grumbling as they walked from the cathedral towards the inn, with a bitter smile.

He never thought there would be another day when Yona, the Saint of the demon realm and apostate, would be walking in Evian in broad daylight like this.

Moreover, Alec had thought he would never set foot in Evian again.

Alec wasn’t sure why Yona was fine in the cathedral, but he thought it must be because she wasn’t directly clashing with holy power—as he walked alongside Yona.

“Still, don’t get too worked up. Mr. Ludvik probably has his own feelings about it too. They say people grow through such experiences.”

“Don’t make me laugh. You think he’ll grow from that? It’s more likely that Big’s chest will grow.”

“Well, there’s also me whose hair grew back.”

“…Sheesh.”

Yona closed her mouth, seemingly at a loss for words.

Ludvik had woken up, and they had also done their part.

It had already been three days since they entered Evian without any hindrance and stayed at a fairly nice inn.

During that time, both Yona and Alec, as well as the rest of their group, were able to rest comfortably.

There were some looks towards Yona as an apostate.

But before being an apostate, if it wasn’t for Yona, they wouldn’t have been able to kill Damian.

Of course, Bigrind played the biggest role, but it was Yona who delivered the final blow at the end.

And the people who had clearly seen that—

Most of them were cathedral knights, and also the priesthood.

Fortunately, they weren’t so shameless as to not realize that their lives had been saved by Yona, so under the tacit approval of those led by Bigrind, Yona’s group was able to rest quite comfortably.

“What should we do about food?”

“Well, I don’t have any thoughts.”

“Alright, then you get some good rest too. Are we leaving tomorrow?”

Yona nodded at Alec’s question.

Anyway, as is typical of humans, if an apostate keeps wandering around like this, although they’ve been turning a blind eye so far, if this continues longer, there are bound to be people who will start looking at them unfavorably.

Once people start thinking there’s no need for the cathedral to do this much for mere apostates, it’s natural for that sentiment to snowball endlessly.

So they plan to leave before it comes to that.

The next destination is Port Lukasia.

From Port Lukasia, they will head to the Katus Empire.

Bigrind said she would look into the matter of the white-haired girls and make sure such madness is stopped, so there shouldn’t be any problems. There shouldn’t be any major issues with leaving like this.

Thinking this, as she pushed open the inn room door, there was a familiar person inside.

“Teacher!”

“Oh, our Yona. I’ve been waiting for a while. Are you coming back from the cathedral?”

Eije, who had been sitting alone in Yona’s room with Rubina on her lap, smiled brightly as soon as she saw Yona.

Fortunately, Eije had been safe in that chaos, and she looked perfectly fine without a single injury anywhere.

It’s hard to express how fortunate that is.

If something had happened to Eije, Yona wasn’t confident she could have maintained her sanity.

“Yes, it seems Mr. Ludvik has come to his senses too. With Big by his side, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“I see, that’s good. I came in first since you weren’t here, even though it’s not my room. I’m sorry about that.”

Eije smiled warmly.

However, such things didn’t matter.

“It’s fine. It’s not like you’re a stranger, Teacher. But is it alright for you to come out to see me in broad daylight like this?”

“The Saint has private meetings with you too, doesn’t she? The Hero as well. It should be fine for now.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“More importantly…”

Eije carefully laid Rubina, who had fallen asleep in her arms, on the bed and pulled up the blanket to cover her, then turned to look at Yona.

That gaze was a mixture of warmth and tranquility, making Yona feel as if her heart was naturally melting.

“You’ve been through a lot, Yona. You’re really amazing.”

“Oh, it’s nothing much…”

As Eije returned to sit at the table, Yona also took a seat across from her.

Most likely, Eije had come because she had something to say.

“I came because there’s something I wanted to ask.”

“Yes, Teacher. Anything.”

“…Elder Ceres, what is her true identity?”

A cracking sound seemed to be heard as Yona’s face, which had been full of smiles, suddenly changed.

But ignoring Yona’s expression, Eije asked again.

“Elder Ceres, she’s an elder of the Celestine Church… but she actually has some other scheme, doesn’t she? There’s something else, right?”

“Uh…”

There is indeed.

Although she’s an elder of the Celestine Church, she’s actually an existence that could be called the antithesis of the Celestine Church.

But Yona couldn’t understand how Eije had noticed this.

“—Bigrind had asked me. She said Elder Ceres was strange, and asked me to keep watching her.”

That’s why Eije had been closely observing Ceres even in the midst of everything.

She was quite famous as a mage, and even more famous as an elder of the Celestine Church.

But Eije remembered.

The sight of Ceres smiling as if satisfied when Damian and Ludvik were clashing.

That smile was too vile for an elder of the Celestine Church to show.

*

“So, what are you going to do?”

Ceres spoke to Alebiang, unable to hide her rising irritation.

But Alebiang, sitting opposite her, merely tilted her teacup as if she didn’t care whether Ceres was irritated or not.

“As I said, I’m going to go my own way now.”

Alebiang was calm.

No matter how much Ceres berated her, Alebiang didn’t seem to particularly care.

Glaring at such an Alebiang, Ceres spoke in an irritated voice.

“—Do you think it makes any sense to try to create a new False Celestial God?”

“Why wouldn’t it make sense? You saw it this time too, didn’t you? Yona has now absorbed Damian’s power too. She completely subjugated Berbaria. Now that she’s absorbed Damian’s power, the remaining Grand Dukes will also be cooperative with Yona. It will be difficult for them to oppose Yona if they don’t work together. Then the conditions are sufficient, aren’t they? What doesn’t make sense about creating a new False Celestial God with that power?”

Alebiang’s words were logical.

But that was different from Ceres’ thinking.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Alebiang. That’s rather a waste of power. If you gather all the Grand Dukes without exception, it’s already the False Celestial God itself. It’s much more efficient to become the False Celestial God as is.”

“I don’t like it. Yona has already suffered enough as herself. That’s enough now. It’s sufficient. There’s no reason to erase Yona’s existence.”

“Alebiang!”

“You can say I’ve grown attached. You can say I’m doing this because of that petty attachment. Because it’s true. I quite like the child called Yona. So I don’t want to participate in your plan to erase her anymore. So if you’re determined to do it, do it alone.”

Alebiang put down her empty teacup on the table and stood up.

And facing Ceres, who was blankly looking up at her, she spoke in a cold voice.

“—Yes, to put it simply. I’m going to be on Yona’s side. You do as you like too. I’ll do as I like as well. So, good luck.”

With those final words, Alebiang turned around.

Her back view was so coldly resolute, as if without any hesitation whatsoever, that Ceres stared at her retreating figure for a long time, unable to say anything.

‘There were times when she was a bit annoying, but…’

Alebiang shuddered slightly as she thought of Yona, who used to constantly nag her, saying things like “Did you think attending to a Saint would be easy?”