Chapter 40: Nothing Has Ended

At the sound of a string snapping, the shoulders of the marching soldiers flinched in unison.

“…….”

Kariel replaced the string, his lips moving as if he were muttering to himself.

Luke, the knight in Black Armor, glanced back from the front row and addressed the Saintess, Alessia, who had just come up beside him.

“It’s a journey that will take more than half a day. Do you intend to go on foot?”

“I’m doing it as a form of training, and besides, there aren’t any horses available to ride right now, are there?”

“Are you blind to the supply wagons?”

“Then the horses would have to suffer, wouldn’t they?”

“…I can’t tell if you’re being considerate or just needlessly sentimental.”

Luke turned back to look behind them once more.

Including the personnel operating the wagons, there were about twenty people.

A small village within the Lord’s Domain had requested help regarding the appearance of Magic Beasts, and since Luke happened to have the availability, he had personally brought a portion of his escort troops.

While the village had a Vigilante Group, they were capable of chasing off wild animals, but dealing with Magic Beasts was a different story.

Occasionally, an absurdly skilled expert would pop up in a remote hinterland, but that was the exception of exceptions.

“It was a stroke of luck that, thanks to that young man, the situation ended without any casualties.”

“What about me?”

The Saintess asked, pointing to herself.

“…Of course, Lady Alessia was also a great help.”

“I don’t like being treated as a bonus.”

“That’s not the case.”

In truth.

The fact that they had such leisure… was perhaps thanks to—or rather, because of—this woman.

In the past, there was only one Saintess.

The symbol of the Religious Order, the Apostle of God, the one who carried out His voice and will—literally a messenger of God and a child watched over by His affectionate gaze.

However, the Religious Order had once gone through a period of turmoil over this issue.

At that time, by overturning the situation and ousting the Pope who had been colluding with the then-Demon King, the symbolism of the Saintess was dismantled. It was changed into a more approachable form.

…That was one of the achievements of Ermina, who was called the Holy Mother, surpassing the title of Saintess in her generation.

Thus, the existence of a Saintess no longer meant a unique, single individual as it had before.

Currently, there were six Saintesses recognized by the Religious Order.

Alessia ranked fourth among them.

“Don’t you feel any pity for me, being dragged around under the pretext of supervising leeches thanks to you guys?”

“Still, is it not true that all of this is for the sake of the Religious Order?”

“…I’m just lazy.”

Alessia tilted her head with a languid expression.

“Isn’t diligence a virtue for a member of the clergy?”

“Give that kind of nonsense to the pigs.”

She was firm.

“Anyway, when it’s time to work, you can’t be lazy even if you want to, right? You only need to be sincere then; if you’re like that all the time, you can’t survive.”

“Is that so?”

“What do you mean, ‘is that so’~! Hey, there’s a reason why those stiff types who worked so hard to be ‘proper’ clergy members end up turning into perverts or traitors with shady backgrounds later on. Isn’t it much better to be soft from the start than to be clumsily stubborn? Because imperfect humans try to act perfect, their minds all end up breaking. What do you think? Am I wrong?”

“…….”

She was quite blunt.

It was very different from malice or hostility.

“In that sense, that child is also a product of such sacrifice.”

Just look at his expression and his eyes.

“…Is that the kind of look a child that age should have?”

On that point, Luke deeply agreed.

While he had first felt admiration for the ghost-like skill the boy showed while blocking the monsters alongside the village vigilantes…

…Separate from that, the boy’s atmosphere and aura were far too gloomy.

Furthermore, he seemed quite unfamiliar even with the gratitude expressed by the villagers.

The sporadic appearance of Magic Beasts in small or large numbers.

Rather than an aftermath of the current Demon King Invasion, this was a scar from an invasion further in the past.

Sudden Mana Outcrops appear across the continent, and when they accumulate, they burst forth to form Magic Beasts.

Normally, these are monitored and handled periodically, but sometimes the cycle gets disrupted.

Exactly like in this case.

If he hadn’t luckily been passing by the village, the villagers would have likely been on the path of evacuation, unable to even request help, only to encounter Luke and his men just as rescue arrived.

Or, they might have fled in another direction and reached the Saintess, leading to another form of salvation.

“His movements… they weren’t human.”

“Really?”

The Saintess had joined late and hadn’t witnessed it, but everyone was full of praise.

During the stage of treating the wounded, her healing ability was truly overwhelming, but most of the severely injured had been treated before Luke or Lueld arrived.

Fortunately, no one died.

Therefore, it was as if heaven had watched over them.

…Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for everything to fit together so perfectly.

After finishing the cleanup, they joined the journey together because their destinations were the same.

“It’s almost the Festival of Saint Kariel. Many people will be gathering.”

The Guardian Saint of Baronen.

One of the eleven Guardian Knights of the Berg Empire.

In an era when chivalry had not yet been established, a time when remnants of the Demon Race and barbarians crossed borders and boundaries with impunity.

The Age of Distrust, where loyalty, trust, and even faith had plummeted.

In that era, to save the people suffering from plagues, to protect the sick and the naked whom even the lords had abandoned.

A being who faced hundreds of barbarian forces single-handedly.

And a hero who drove them away even as he was dying.

He was the one who referred to himself as a ‘knight’ rather than a ‘warrior’ and is said to have preached the mindset of a knight.

Though it was 300 years ago.

He was a contemporary of Illand, who was called the strongest and first knight of the Empire.

Saint Kariel was far from the strongest, but his compassion for the weak, his devotion and courage for their sake, and the resulting spirit of sacrifice became the very standard of the Age of Knights.

The fact that Hero Lueld and Saintess Ermina named their first child Kariel…

Wasn’t it because they highly valued that specific part of him?

“It’s not uncommon for those who are lost to find their way through the Saints and sages of old. Our following the teachings of Lady Irenis is, in a way, because we don’t know the path, so we follow Her footsteps, wanting to believe that we are heading in the right direction, isn’t it?”

“When you put it that way, you sound quite like a Saintess.”

“Look at this impious fellow.”

Just as the bickering between the two quieted down.

Ding!

Having finished the replacement, Kariel began to pluck the lute again.

Sometimes he played a calm melody, and other times a thrilling piece that made the heart race.

“Where did you learn that?”

Alessia now stood beside Kariel.

Since she was mounted on a horse, Kariel had to look down at her.

“On my own.”

“From gypsies, or maybe a bard? Not from the Demon Race kids?”

“Yes. I’ve seen them a few times, but I’ve never spoken with them directly or learned the method from them.”

He hadn’t had the leisure for that.

Swallowing the rest of his words, Kariel blankly plucked the lute.

In the Demon King’s terms, his conscious state was ‘fried,’ so further combat training would actually have a negative effect, making it impossible.

…Thanks to that, he was now plucking the lute even in his dreams.

Naturally, his playing skills could only improve.

At the same time, the Demon King would occasionally teach him how to play the guitar, and since the structure was different from a lute, it provided a different kind of fun.

Especially that ‘Mana Guitar.’

It truly felt like a product of the devil.

“But you haven’t asked once. How disappointing.”

“Pardon?”

As Kariel looked puzzled, Alessia smirked.

“Aren’t you curious why I’m following you guys?”

“……Am I supposed to be curious about that?”

“…….”

He suddenly made her speechless.

It wasn’t indifference, but… how should she put it.

“Then I’ll just ramble to myself.”

Alessia snorted in a sulky tone.

“You know about the ones who quickly broke ties with the Demon King and sided with humanity during the Demon King Invasion, right?”

“…Yes. Roughly.”

Kariel glanced at the air for a moment, but then turned his gaze back to Alessia.

“Among them, many possess strange techniques or abilities. And among those… there are those with the ability to glimpse remnants of the past left on the land—ah, that sounds confusing, doesn’t it? I mean, they can peek into things like memories.”

“Is that so?”

“And as you know, the history of the Age of Distrust still has many opaque elements, even for us, right?”

So.

“It wasn’t something the Holy See desired, but it seems those people requested it first, saying they wanted to help with that.”

“…Why?”

So, the remnants of the Demon Race want to know the past history of the saints of the Order of Irenis, and since they don’t know the details, they want to use their abilities to dig it up. Is that what she means?

“For the Order, it’s good because they can accelerate their research on the saints, and for them… they say it helps with their ‘creative work’?”

“Creative… work?”

Kariel glanced toward the air again.

“Since their activities after the Great War have been strictly limited to artistic, technical, and commercial endeavors.”

“…….”

He knew this, as it was a point briefly mentioned in his Academy classes.

“But, you never know, right? That’s why I was dispatched to supervise them.”

It was just unfortunate that she happened to be in this area.

Alessia sighed with a gloomy face.

“Still, it’s the festival day, so if I’m lucky, I might hook a good man.”

“…….”

“Read the room! I’m talking about you! I even proposed to you earlier! Have you forgotten already?!”

“Huh? Me? To me?”

Wait, was she serious? Not a joke?

Kariel, utterly bewildered, had to listen to her nagging—or rather, her non-nagging.

Still, how should he describe it.

…It didn’t feel bad.

To the point where he had to desperately stop the corners of his mouth from curling up.

He felt quite good.