Chapter – 05
Before I could even say a word, Sir Arden preempted me.
“It’s fine. Please give us that room.”
The innkeeper, who must have misunderstood something after glancing at us, gave a satisfied smile and handed the key to Sir Arden. Sir Arden then handed the key to me.
“Then, please rest comfortably.”
“What about you, Sir?”
“Escorting the candidate is my duty. I will be guarding the front of the room, so please sleep without worry.”
So, he means he’s going to be doing an all-night guard—or surveillance—right in front of the door, just like at the temple? I couldn’t trust this man the temple had attached as my escort, nor did I know how far the temple’s reach extended with this knight, so even if Sir Arden offered to guard me, I couldn’t completely drop my guard. You can’t comfortably entrust your safety to someone who isn’t on your side, can you?
I had no choice but to enter the room alone and put down my luggage. Looking around lightly, the furniture in the room was simple—just one bed and one table—in a clean, clutter-free structure. While I was roughly organizing my things, the smell of the stew I’d caught a whiff of downstairs kept lingering in my head. I threw a coat over myself haphazardly and opened the door.
As expected, Sir Arden was standing in front of the door, guarding the room. Before I could even make an excuse that I wasn’t running away but going to get beef stew, or offer for him to come along, Sir Arden grabbed the door I had swung open and stepped inside before I had a chance to stop him.
Sir Arden stepped quietly into the room in an instant and closed the door slowly. Then, he looked at me without a word. He flinched as if to say something, then closed his lips again. The rigid wariness and ceremonial pretense felt during our first encounter had vanished, and in its place, a strange silence and hesitation enveloped him.
And finally, Sir Arden spoke in a low voice.
“This is your last chance. Please give up, even now.”
Could it be that Sir Arden, whom they had attached as my escort, was part of the tricks the temple had planned? I scoffed inwardly, thinking they were mistaken if they thought I could be persuaded by this, and looked him straight in the eyes—
Concern and pity contained in his deep blue eyes, resembling the deep sea, met my gaze.
“Do you know how many priests have been dispatched to Delheim village so far?”
Naturally, there was no way I would know.
“How many?”
Sir Arden, who hesitated for a moment at that question, spread out both palms.
“……Ten? What kind of disease could it possibly be for……”
“Seven died or went missing in that village, and three barely managed to return alive, but they were quarantined because they had contracted the disease and met their deaths in the temple.”
They might as well have sent me there to die. I had thought it was just a “buildup” to humiliate me publicly and kick me out of the temple, but our later generations were much more malicious than I had anticipated. Sir Arden, biting his lip, said in a heavy voice.
“……The temple threw you into danger on purpose. Hoping that you would not return alive.”
Where on earth should I start to properly overhaul this disaster? As a deep sigh escaped me at the overwhelming sense of helplessness, Sir Arden spoke quietly, as if he had taken that sigh as an emotional reaction to the current situation.
“If you wish, I can hide you in the Hwellin family territory.”
“And not go back to the temple?”
Sir Arden smiled bitterly at my question.
“If you give up here and return to the temple, you will be dragged before the Inquisition, slapped with the charge of daring to impersonate the will of God.”
So, according to Sir Arden, the choices laid out before me were only two: either be martyred in this village like the ten priests before me, or return safely only to be put on trial by the Inquisition, sentenced to be burned at the stake for the crime of impersonating God’s will to covet the position of Saintess.
But even if Sir Arden didn’t know it, I did. Only one certain option existed for me.
“In the end, you mean to say that for me to return to the temple safely, I must somehow solve the problem in Delheim village?”
When I shrugged and parried his words, a momentary look of bewilderment flashed across Sir Arden’s face.
“What did you think you were listening to until now?”
It was a tone that even carried a sense of absurdity.
“What do you mean, ‘what’? I listened very well with both ears. However, living my whole life cowering and hiding doesn’t really suit my personality.”
I looked at Sir Arden, who seemed to have a lot to say, for a moment, then smiled softly and added.
“If you wish, you can stop escorting me here. I can take care of myself. I have no intention of forcing a sacrifice on you, too.”
Still, this man at least didn’t wish for me to die here. So, this was the final consideration I could offer Sir Arden. His eyes met mine without wavering. Inside his wall-flower blue eyes, where a serious light dwelled, resided not duty or orders, but the lingering fragrance of more complex emotions.
“I will stop.”
Sir Arden’s answer was short and firm. Like someone who had already made up their mind from the beginning. Before I could even wave my hand to say goodbye, Sir Arden added:
“Stopping the act of sending you to that village alone, that is.”
This man makes people feel awkward with his delayed-action attacks.
“It seems you’ve fallen out of favor with the higher-ups quite a bit, too. Not content with attaching you as an escort for an ‘eyesore’ Saintess candidate, they threw you into this mission as well.”
I chuckled and said it playfully on purpose. Although I had confirmed Sir Arden’s good intentions, I hadn’t completely let go of my suspicion yet.
“The mission assigned to me does end at escorting the candidate to the entrance of the village.”
Hmm, hearing this, Sir Arden definitely seemed closer to being “my monitor” than a “disposable pawn” from the temple.
“If I had fallen out of favor with the higher-ups, I would have entered that village with you without knowing anything at all.”
“Then why are you trying to enter with me now, even though you know?”
When I asked, genuinely curious, Sir Arden blinked slowly, lowered his eyelashes, and answered quietly.
“Could I say it is because I became curious about the reason for that confidence……?”
Risking his life out of mere curiosity. The suspicion grew even more than the feeling of being moved by his belief in me. As the 3rd Saintess who had experienced all sorts of trials, my ego was too large to be purely moved by such things. In any case, thanks to him, I now knew that Delheim village itself was a trap, so it wasn’t a losing trade.
“Well, since the talk is all over—”
I tilted my head and looked at Sir Arden.
“Let’s go eat some beef stew.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Sir Arden paused for a very brief moment. A look of being completely fed up flickered across his otherwise stoic expression.
“Do you perhaps dislike beef stew?”
“I had a colleague once who was crazy about beef stew, so I ate nothing but beef stew until I was sick of it……”
My goodness, to think there was someone else like me. Even when I went around purifying contaminated land, and during the Demon King raid, I always ordered beef stew first whenever I stopped at a village inn. Every inn had a different taste of beef stew, so there was fun in tasting them one by one. The moment I took a bite of the beef stew, what came to mind across the threshold of my memory was “the me of that time,” who felt happy with a single bite of beef stew even amidst fatigue and wounds, and the gaze of my former lover watching me.
It must be my imagination that Sir Arden, sitting across the table and looking at me, has eyes similar to my former lover.
“Doesn’t he get tired of that……”
……The exact expression. Not to be outdone as a descendant, he really is disgustingly similar.
After the short night of rest was over and we had driven for several more hours by carriage, we finally arrived at the entrance of Delheim village.
“This is……”
When I discovered the stone pillar stuck at the village entrance and paused for a moment, Sir Arden spoke the identity of the stone pillar aloud on my behalf.
“It’s a holy stone.”
“Usually, holy stones are placed in land contaminated by demonic energy for barrier purposes to keep the contamination from spreading, aren’t they? As far as I know, they are almost never placed just for an epidemic……”
I trailed off, feeling as if I had spoken too much like an “insider.” There was a sufficient possibility that the amount of holy stone mining or the way work was handled had changed from 500 years ago.
“Perhaps it is because what is circulating in this village is not a simple epidemic. It is a village where as many as ten priests have been martyred, after all.”
The entrance to the village, which had been hit by the misfortune of an epidemic, was silent. So silent it was ominous. A rural village without walls, no doors, and not a single shadow of a person to be seen. As I stopped for a moment before entering the village, Sir Arden turned his gaze.
“Let us go.”
I reached out my hand slightly and grabbed his wrist, which was extended as if to escort me. Sir Arden smiled slyly.
“If you have changed your mind, please feel free to say so. The offer to hide you in the Hwellin family territory still stands.”
“Not a chance. I am only trying to repay the trust you sent my way.”
I pressed my right thumb firmly against his forehead. A calm light settled from my fingertips. For a brief moment, a faint stigma was drawn on Sir Arden’s forehead, then disappeared.
“You should be able to block most ordinary epidemics. However, if symptoms manifest, you must do healing, not a blessing, so tell me immediately.”
Sir Arden stared intently at me. Although he was expressionless as always, a very faint tremor passed somewhere in his eyes.
“Why are you like that? Like someone who has experienced divine power for the first time?”
“It is nothing.”
He shook his head briefly.
“How boring.”
Clicking my tongue, I moved forward first. The sound of the wind shaking the old roof grazed behind my back. And the sound of one set of footsteps walking side-by-side was added next to it. It was the beginning of the real competition.
