novelraw Chapter 139 : Chapter 139
Chapter 139 : Chapter 139
Chapter: 139 Ekampote (1)
-Bear in mind, Harad. The Church are sons of bitches.
Elaine had once said something like that.
-You'll find out when you go to the capital too. No. Don't go. There's no need to go out of your way to see those sons of bitches.
It wasn't because I had become Elaine's friend.
The Grand Heir had said those words after returning from the capital.
Despite what she said, there wasn't much to the capital.
The past Harad had gone a few times with Elaine.
In fact, there were few places he hadn't been.
After the North fell, Grand Duke Elaine was little different from a mercenary. It didn't matter where the battlefield was, as long as the Otherworld was there.
Anyway, Elaine had only met a rare devil suspect in the capital.
She had only seen a woman wailing that she was not a suspect, the moment she was burned at the stake, and the believers cheering at the sight.
I had once heard about that incident from a drinking Elaine.
And now, I was seeing it.
I was dreaming.
‘She's younger than I thought.’
The one being burned at the stake was a young girl.
She was called a devil or a witch. Elaine, who had come to the capital alone, drew her sword but couldn't swing it.
The Elaine of that time was a Grand Heir who didn't know how to do as she pleased.
Still, if this land had been the North, she would have at least tried to swing her sword. But it was the imperial capital. Where the Imperial Palace, where the past Grand Duke Aratus had caused trouble, was located.
-A devil, huh.
And in truth, Elaine didn't seem to have much of a reaction.
It was her first trip to the capital. 25 years old. She was still distant from me, and the burning of some mage was a trivial matter.
Since the place wasn't the North, it was someone else's business.
-Harad, what would happen if I set that one on fire?
...That immature Grand Heir was curious about such things.
Elaine came to loathe the Church after she became friends with me.
Having grown close to a mage, the Church she had seen in the past must have started to seem like sons of bitches.
The view changed. The young Elaine and the scenery of the capital disappeared, and Grand Duke Elaine and her escort, Harad, appeared. It was an office.
I was once again reminded of how random and contextless dreams are.
-What's that?
I asked.
Grand Duke Elaine was looking down at a document she had just found, smiling.
-A threat letter.
-……?
-We killed three Apostles, didn't we? The Church sent a threat letter because of that.
-Ah.
It was from when the 3rd Prince once came to the North, demanding they hand over a mage.
At that time, Grand Duke Elaine had beheaded the three Apostles of the Church that the 3rd Prince had brought with him.
-What's it say?
-That they're preparing for a holy war. Demanding we explain the deaths of the Apostles at once.
It meant apologize and send the mage.
The Church seemed to want to see Serzila bow its head.
-Isn't this serious?
-Let them try.
Grand Duke Elaine tore up the statement sent by the Church and threw it in the trash.
-You're always conscious of the Church. I've told you time and again not to be scared.
-There might come a time when we need the Church's power.
-That might be. But it's already too late.
Grand Duke Elaine rested her chin on her hand and turned her gaze to me.
-I've already chosen you.
-You once said you never know.
-I was young back then, wasn't I?
Grand Duke Elaine scoffed.
-Mages hate the Church, and the Church despises mages. Mages and the Church cannot coexist.
Serzila.
No, Grand Duke Elaine had chosen the mages.
-You know it well too, don't you? How many fanatics have we encountered?
There weren't that many.
But it was enough to give up on the possibility.
-Are you telling me to do the Church's share of the work too?
-What kind of bullshit is that?
Grand Duke Elaine blinked.
-When has the Church ever done its part in the North?
-You never know, maybe later.
-The Otherworld? Why is that the Church's share? It's my share.
Grand Duke Elaine smiled arrogantly.
-You just need to do your job well.
And then she pushed a pile of documents towards me.
-My job is to be Your Highness's escort, though.
-Someone weaker than me is an escort?
-…….
-Scrub.
-Fuck.
-Ahem.
* * *
The Church liked the number three.
Benach, the priest of Ekampote, stayed up for three days offering prayers.
Not in the chapel, but in the church's backyard, and before him was Wimar's urn.
Though it was winter, the past three days had been sunny.
The sunlight was warm, and not a single snowflake had fallen. Benach said that Wimar's martyrdom had hastened the arrival of spring.
A prayer praising the kindness of Laan, who had pulled spring closer, echoed. That was the last of it.
“Priest Wimar's ashes will be moved to the main temple.”
Benach, who had stayed up for three nights and shed tears, looked haggard.
“Are there any objections?”
Ellen shook her head.
A tomb in the main temple was an honor permitted only to martyred priests. Wimar would have wanted that.
“Please take care of it.”
Ellen said softly.
It was a small voice, but it didn't feel precarious.
Benach left on the long journey just like that.
He could have called for someone, but he decided to move Wimar's urn to the main temple himself.
It was an expression of guilt for being the sole survivor in Ekampote and gratitude for Wimar's dedication in subduing the magical beast.
Ellen did not take her eyes off Benach's receding back.
Wimar had been a fairly renowned priest in his youth.
For the past three days, Harad and Ellen had heard prayers for Wimar and stories of his past from Benach.
Wimar was an old man over 100 years old.
The daughter he spoke of was his granddaughter, and the granddaughter he was going to introduce to Harad was actually his great-granddaughter.
“He must have really taken a liking to you. Lying about his age and all.”
Funerals are for the living.
At least, I thought so, and indeed, Ellen seemed to have composed herself over the past three days.
“They say mages and the Church cannot coexist.”
Wimar hadn't said that.
He had hinted at the possibility.
I had a dream.
Naturally, Ellen must have had one too.
“What do you think?”
“I think it's true.”
That was the conclusion that the past life's Elaine and Harad had reached.
To borrow Wimar's expression, Grand Duke Elaine had given up.
That Grand Duke was strong, but not full of life.
“It's just as Wimar said, isn't it? He said you gave up long ago.”
“……”
“I'm going to think it's wrong. Just as Wimar said.”
That she wouldn't give up.
Ellen said she would be different from the past life's Elaine.
Of course, I wanted Ellen to change.
It was to erase the regrets of her past life.
But now, Ellen was showing a change different from the one I had been inducing so far.
“There must be a priest who doesn't think of mages as devils. Or a priest who can change their mind.”
Until now, Ellen had accepted the dreams.
Through the dreams, she had accepted Kubel, decided to live as she pleased, saved Rick, and awakened her Innate Strength.
Cassion? That was just refuting the will of the Grand Duke Aratus in the dream.
Ellen had never refuted the will of the Elaine in the dreams.
“I want to keep Wimar's last wish.”
The Ellen before me was refuting it.
Pointing out what the past life's Elaine had given up on, she was saying that she would not give up.
Of course, Grand Duke Elaine had also regretted things about the Church.
It was a regret of not having crushed them.
Not a regret of giving up on coexistence.
If it was a variable, it was a variable.
Ellen had to walk the path of the past life's Elaine without regret, but exactly as it was.
But now, Ellen seemed to be trying to deviate from that path.
It's not an out-of-the-blue variable.
In fact, there were signs. Seria. I recalled that guillotine. Ellen had disliked her, but soon became friends with her.
Why did I stand by and watch?
Because I wanted Ellen to not have regrets.
Was that all?
“Are you upset?”
Ellen asked cautiously.
“If you don't like it, I won't do it.”
“I don't dislike it.”
“Really?”
“Really. You can do as you please. As always.”
“Without regrets?”
Ellen smiled.
“...That's right.”
Troublingly.
* * *
The mage who told the Balbebron-Alena couple about the sea route is in Ekampote.
I had to find that mage.
It was to grasp the sea route and block the asylum of the glacier mage who should still be on the continent.
There was curiosity as well.
That mage in Ekampote had said that a village exists in the Boundary.
A village of those who failed to seek asylum in the Otherworld.
I wanted to know the truth of it.
It was a curiosity that couldn't be helped as a mage.
“Isn't it Rosen? He said he would show us a way to escape.”
When he revealed his identity, Rosen had said that.
Saying they were in the same boat, he would show them a dangerous path.
It must be an asylum route.
“The path might be right, but I don't think it's Rosen. He was naive.”
Rosen had been appalled at the suggestion of killing Wimar.
It was an aversion to the death of a person, not a priest.
Rosen was born a mage, but he seemed no different from an ordinary human.
It didn't seem likely that such a person would know about the existence of the village in the Boundary.
If he knew, it would be something he had heard from someone else.
“He acted as if he could stop Wimar's pursuit, even if not the Church's. Rosen must have companions. It could even be a group.”
Companions or a group.
The source of the sea route and the village in the Boundary would be them as well.
“We need to meet Rosen first.”
“That's right.”
“What if he ran away?”
“We'll have to catch him.”
Although he said that, I was sure that Rosen would be in the same place.
He had witnessed Wimar's death.
This meant he knew that Wimar's cause of death was the curse of the Great Devil encountered in the small forest, and that the Great Devil had disappeared in the direction opposite to Ekampote.
The Church's interest would turn to the western continent where the Great Devil had headed.
Since the magical beast of the small forest was subdued, Ekampote was safe again. For Rosen, there was no reason to abandon the home he had found after so long.
My prediction was correct.
In fact, it was more than I expected. When we left the backyard, someone was standing in front of the church. It was Rosen.
Rosen wasn't just in the same place; he had come to find Harad and Ellen.
“You're safe!”
He had been pacing in front of the church with an anxious face, and upon seeing Harad and Ellen, he smiled with a relieved expression. It was a face of relief.
Thus, Rosen was not cunning but simple-minded.
And his heart was weak too.
“I pray that Priest Wimar's flame has reached the heavens.”
Rosen raised his hand to crudely depict the sun and offered a short prayer.
Even though he was a mage.
Anyone who didn't know would think he was mocking.
But Rosen was truly lamenting Wimar's death.
I found that strange.
‘How did he survive?’
No matter how dark it is under the lamp, this is not a continent where such a clumsy mage could survive.
Rosen's face wasn't thick enough to deceive even a priest, let alone a commoner.
That's why he got caught by Wimar.
“You're safe too.”
“Thanks to you.”
Rosen had an ambiguous expression.
It was a face that was relieved but couldn't smile out of consideration for them. It was probably because he knew that they had a rather deep relationship with Wimar.
“Don't feel troubled. You have nothing to do with Priest Wimar's death. It's because I was discovered.”
I lightened Rosen's heart.
It wasn't for his sake. Even if I hadn't been discovered, as long as Rosen had to be saved, I would have clashed with Wimar.
But that was something that hadn't happened.
Wimar's death was entirely my burden to bear.
I didn't want to pass that burden onto others. If possible, not even to Ellen.
“It's a good thing. I was about to go looking for you anyway. There's something I want to ask.”
At those words, Rosen's face brightened.
“As it happens, so do I.”
“Are you going to tell me about the path you were going to tell me about back then?”
“Ah! If you need that path, I can tell you anytime.”
It seemed he hadn't come because of the path.
“Then?”
“There is someone who wishes to meet the two of you.”