Good Intentions Don’t Always Bring Good Results (9)

“I’ve gotten everything I could get here.”

Yona sat with her legs crossed on a chair in the corner of the reception room, lost in thought.

In her opinion, there was no particular reason to stay in Esima anymore.

After sending Catsy to call Atilamancha, Yona summoned Alevian.

“Think, Alevian. Where should we go now?”

“…Uh, yes. I’ll think about it… and tell you.”

“Tell me? You’ll tell me?”

Alevian flinched at Yona’s gaze.

Feeling a chill as if her heart was being pierced, Alevian’s lips trembled before she shook her head.

“I-I’ll report…”

“Yes, that’s right. It would be better to think carefully about your choice of words. And next, Alec.”

Alec seemed not to have heard Yona’s call and was standing in front of Amira.

It looked like he was saying something, but his voice didn’t reach Yona.

Amira sat dazed in front of the blood splattered across the reception room, with Alec standing before her.

Yona wasn’t curious about what the two were talking about.

The only thing that bothered Yona was—

That Alec was talking with a woman.

“……”

Yona, who was looking at the scene with displeasure, raised a finger and tapped the table with her nail.

Tap, tap, tap…

While the inorganic sound rang out very softly, Yona, who had been thinking deeply about something, moved her lips as if to say something, but then sighed and closed her mouth.

Then she suddenly stood up from the chair she had been sitting on and approached Alec.

“Alec. Didn’t you hear me calling?”

Yona spoke to Alec again as she approached him.

But Alec’s gaze wasn’t directed at Yona.

Alec certainly knew that Yona was calling him, but—

It was on purpose.

He did it on purpose.

Alec wanted to show Yona, even like this, how angry he was.

Life is precious to everyone, just one for each person.

For Alec too, life was something incredibly precious.

But even in the fading of that life, how valuable would it be if that fading was for someone else?

Alec, with his background as a cathedral knight, knew very well the value of such sacrifice.

He knew well how valuable it was to give one’s only life for someone precious.

That’s why he had no regrets.

Moreover, if it was for Yona, could there be a more valuable death?

Living life by her side is valuable, but dying to save her in crisis is also valuable.

However, wasn’t it a life saved by her—even if that wasn’t the way Alec had wanted, it was a life saved by her. And he, Alec, didn’t even want revenge. He never wanted such a thing in the first place. Despite that, because Alec had nearly died—Yona had taken so many lives by herself. She had killed them.

He had heard that quite a number of cathedral knights and priests had been killed by Yona in the church territory where she had fought to rescue Alec. But hearing about it and seeing it directly were clearly different. It was a completely different story to directly witness Yona taking so many lives before Alec’s eyes.

“Alec. I’m calling you.”

At Yona’s cold voice, Alec finally turned his head slowly.

Alec, who had been comforting Amira until then, turned to look at Yona reluctantly—making it clear that he was looking because he had no choice.

“What.”

“…What? What do you mean, what. I’ve been calling you. Didn’t you hear?”

“I heard.”

“Then.”

Yona was looking at Alec with a displeased face.

Standing with her arms crossed and one leg slightly forward, Yona’s face was full of dissatisfaction.

Alec looked at her like that and ended up sighing heavily.

No matter what, he still couldn’t hate Yona.

They say the one who likes more always loses out, and this was exactly that case.

“…I did it on purpose.”

“Why? Why did you ignore me?”

“…I didn’t say I ignored you. I pretended not to hear.”

“That’s the same thing. Why did you pretend not to hear me?”

Alec couldn’t bring himself to speak.

That you killed the Azrami tribe, the imperial family like that—

“No, wait.”

“What?”

Alec suddenly turned to look at Yona with wide eyes, and Yona also looked at him with a puzzled expression.

As if something had occurred to him, Alec grabbed Yona’s shoulders with eyes as big as lanterns.

“The, the imperial family…!”

“The imperial family, what?”

Yona tilted her head to the side.

Alec, who had just now realized the enormous situation, began to stammer out one word at a time to Yona.

“The, Azrami… tribe is the emperor, the emperor…”

The current emperor of the Katus Empire is from the Azrami tribe.

The previous emperor, the Meadow Gill tribe, had finished their term and passed the throne to the Azrami tribe, and the Azrami tribe was just entering their second year of the emperor’s term. But now, by Yona’s hand, the imperial family had been massacred except for Amira, and this brought two problems.

There was the problem that Yona, a Kapatian, had massacred the imperial family of Katus. This was enough to make Yona the enemy of the entire Katus Empire where she had been designated as a citizen, and also the problem of how Amira, left alone, would deal with the aftermath now that the imperial family had been killed like this.

“There are these problems…!”

Alec, still holding Yona’s shoulders, explained haltingly. But even while listening to this explanation, Yona didn’t seem particularly flustered, and rather was incredibly calm.

“Ah, if it’s that kind of problem. Don’t you think I would have thought of that much?”

Yona chuckled and beckoned Alevian, who was standing behind, with her fingertip.

As Alevian, who had been summoned, hurriedly ran over to stand by Yona’s side, Yona gestured with her chin towards Alec.

“Explain, Alevian.”

“…The Sky… no, the Saintess calling for Atilamancha, the chief of the Meadow Gill tribe, was also for this purpose. Since all this happened in one night, other tribes would not have been informed of this anomaly. They will still think the civil war is ongoing. So by calling Atilamancha and disguising it as a situation caused by the civil war, there won’t be a problem.”

Yona nodded as she listened to Alevian’s explanation.

In contrast to her confident expression, Alec’s expression became more and more strange as he listened to the explanation.

It wasn’t like Yona.

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t like Yona.

He couldn’t think of it as the Yona who had walked the path of a cleric.

Alevian speaking so nonchalantly as if replacing a broken carriage wheel.

And Yona accepting such a countermeasure from Alevian.

The sense of discomfort felt from these two was overwhelmingly strong.

“…Yona, are you… really, really Yona?”

“…Of course. As you can see, I’m Yona. Who else do I look like?”

Yona answered as if it were obvious.

But Alec’s gaze remained fixed on Yona.

Yona confidently met Alec’s gaze full of doubt and distrust, and even smiled.

“Yona.”

“Yes?”

“…If you’re really Yona, you’d remember what monster we encountered on our first request, right?”

“Of course I remember that.”

For a moment, Yona didn’t answer.

Then, smiling again, Yona answered.

“Of course it was goblins. Are you asking because you think I might have forgotten even that?”

“Then how many goblins were there?”

For a moment, Yona was at a loss for words.

“Tw… twelve… was it?”

• • Clang!

    A metallic sound rang out.

    Alevian had rushed in front of Yona and was blocking Alec’s hammer with her overlapped palms, while Alec was aiming the hammer precisely at Yona.

“What are you doing?!”

“As I expected, Alevian. I thought you’d do this.”

Alec continued speaking firmly, though trembling from exertion.

The muscles in his forearms twitched, showing how much force he was putting into the hammer.

“Tell me, Alevian. Yona—no, this isn’t Yona. What is this, what happened to Yona. Tell me everything. Quickly!”

“Put this away first! How can I speak while you’re doing this!”

Alec didn’t care at all that Alevian’s tone had changed.

He was certain that the Yona in front of him was not Yona.

Their first request together.

The goblins they encountered there weren’t even that many.

That request where Alec, who had tried to appear weak somehow to match Yona, Alec who hadn’t been bothered at all by such goblins, had seen Yona’s true face for the first time.

The Yona who answered twelve without even knowing how many goblins there were in that request was not Yona.

“Hmm, I don’t know where I slipped up. Is it because my power hasn’t fully returned yet?”

Yona muttered, watching the scene.

With a sneer in her orange glowing eyes, Yona spoke to Alec.

“Well, I suppose it was bound to show since you’ve been together for a long time. You noticed quite well. It’s almost time anyway.”

A voice that couldn’t be thought of as Yona herself speaking, as if regarding herself as a third person.

“You… what exactly are you?”

Alec lowered his hammer but didn’t let his guard down.

“Ask this child when she wakes up. I’m not sure if she’ll tell you obediently though.”

Yona’s eyes curved gently.

The gentle curve of her eyes was at first glance merciful, and also loving.

“Just in case, don’t think that the divine punishment on those wicked snakes was… solely my will. This child also wanted revenge. It was quite extreme, but it should have relieved some of the rot in this child’s heart.”

The smile gradually disappeared from Yona’s face.

As the smile completely vanished, her eyelids closed.

Alec caught Yona as she staggered and was about to fall.

Finally feeling warmth from Yona, Alec—opened his eyes wide again.

The large eye tattoo on Yona’s chest was dispersing.

The black tattoos that had left the eye were wriggling and moving as if returning to their original places.