Chapter 19: Covenant
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 19: Covenant
Elesis opened her eyes on the bed. Even though she woke up in an unfamiliar place, she couldn't bring herself to spring out of bed. The bed she was lying on wouldn't let her go.
‘What is this...’
The mattress enveloped her, the blanket kept her perfectly warm, and the pillow cradled her head, soft yet supportive.
It was a bed of incomparable comfort compared to her lodgings at the church. It was as if she'd fallen in love with the bed; she couldn't easily get up.
‘My Lord.’
At last, after a long struggle between temptation and her faith, Elesis managed to sit up. Then, she looked around.
All that was there was a bed and a desk. There wasn't even a window, but thanks to her special training, Elesis could tell how many hours had passed since she'd fainted.
Not much time had passed since she collapsed. Even considering that the sun set early in the mountains, it was still daytime.
‘What happened to my men?’
However, she had no information about that. All she knew was that she had fainted while fighting a wolf the size of a house, and that she had woken up in this cabin.
Thinking she wouldn't learn anything by staying in the room, Elesis opened the door.
“...Huh?”
When she opened the door and stepped outside, a room identical to the one she had just been in appeared before her. Startled, she looked back, glancing between the room inside the doorway and the one she was now in.
There was no doubt. They were completely identical, not a single speck of dust out of place.
“What is this...”
Bewildered, she crossed the room and searched every nook and cranny, but she couldn't find a single difference.
Returning to the original room with nothing to show for her efforts, she let out a low groan as she tried to grasp the situation.
‘...Magic.’
Only a witch could do something like this.
Once she was certain of that, her thoughts began to fall into place.
She had been chasing a man named Yohan. Yohan had been heading for a cabin in the forest.
She fainted in the forest and woke up in a witch's cabin. Evidence had appeared that forced her to suspect a connection between the man she was chasing, Yohan, and a witch.
‘But my divine power isn't reacting at all...’
As she was deep in thought, the door opened and someone came in. She stood there blankly for a moment, unable to react, before her training kicked in.
She grabbed the person who entered, twisted their joints, kicked them, and subdued them. The entire sequence of movements was as fluid as flowing water.
“Ugh!?”
Instantly subdued, Yohan, with his face pressed to the floor and Elesis on his back, shouted.
“Wh-what the hell! What are you doing!?”
“...You are under suspicion of being a witch's follower. Surrender peacefully and tell me how to get out of here—”
Tell me how to escape— As she was about to say this, Elesis was kicked by something and sent flying into a corner of the room. There was definitely no one else there, so what was it? She turned her head to check, but saw nothing.
Meanwhile, Yohan got up, rubbing his twisted arm and shoulder.
“Hey, is this how Holy Knights repay kindness? With violence?”
“...Kindness?”
“You don't remember? You were attacked by a giant wolf and almost died.”
Of course, it was a lie. Fenrir hadn't tried to kill Elesis. In fact, he had kindly brought her to Yohan.
However, Elesis didn't know that. She had fainted right after being hit once... so she had no way of knowing whether Yohan was telling the truth or lying.
“...My apologies.”
“Apologies? After you tried to kill me, calling me a witch's follower and all that?”
“Kill you? I only said you were under suspicion—”
“You people slaughter citizens indiscriminately just on suspicion.”
Yohan still remembered the scene of innocent citizens being massacred in the plaza, accused of being followers—a scene so shocking that he still sometimes dreamed about it.
And—Elesis also knew very well that other Holy Knights acted without thinking when it came to anything related to witches.
“I-I didn't mean it like that...”
“Even if you didn't, it means the Holy Knights would, right?”
“...That's true, but.”
“If you take me to the church, can you protect me from start to finish? Can you guarantee a proper investigation will be conducted?”
She couldn't. Elesis pressed her lips together and lowered her head. When faced with such sound reasoning, she could do nothing but remain silent.
Other Holy Knights might have spouted all sorts of sophistry, like how they would do anything for God... but Elesis couldn't.
“...I cannot.”
“So you were trying to kill me, then?”
“...Yes.”
“And you were trying to repay kindness with violence?”
Nod. Elesis bowed her head. And—they say you don't take in an ungrateful beast. Yohan smiled lightly and spoke.
“Kneel here until I come back.”
“If that will satisfy you...”
He watched her kneel on the floor, then left the room. Even after he was gone, Elesis did not straighten her knees. She just waited. As promised, just stubbornly—until he returned.
‘Fuck, that hurts like hell...’
After leaving the room, I massaged my shoulder and thought about what had just happened. The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, Elesis subdued me with moves straight out of an action movie.
If I hadn't immediately reinforced my body with magic power, my arm would have been dislocated and something would have broken. Her movements were that skilled.
‘They say people who aren't witches can't use magic power... so how is a human who can't even use magic so strong?’
It wasn't for nothing that medieval knights were called human weapons. I learned that fact firsthand.
As I was rubbing my shoulder, Margaret, who had followed me, asked in a worried voice.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah—yes. I'm fine. Thank you for saving me.”
“It was nothing. If I hadn't saved you, Evangeline would have killed me.”
A moment ago, when I was being subdued in the room, Margaret had followed me in. Invisible to others, she had fired a spell at Elesis without any interference.
Thanks to her knocking Elesis away with magic, I was able to subdue her with words.
“By the way, when are you planning to go back in?”
“I don't know. I'll think about it later.”
“Right. Soothing your teacher is the priority right now, I suppose.”
At Margaret's words, I thought of my teacher, who had shut herself in her room.
It seemed she wasn't happy that I had readily carried another woman into her home. She had gone straight to her room and locked the door.
By now, her anger would have subsided a little, and she'd have unlatched the door, waiting for me to come and comfort her.
So, it would be a long time before I saw Elesis again. After cheering up my teacher, eating dinner, and washing up—it would probably be late at night.
‘If she's still kneeling by then, I guess I'll have to accept her apology.’
With that thought, I took some fruit and flowers and headed to my teacher's room. There, I comforted my teacher, ate dinner, washed up—and, exhausted, collapsed straight into bed.
A day passed.
The sun rose.
“Ah.”
Only then did I realize I had completely forgotten about Elesis.
Click. The door opened. It was the first time in roughly sixteen hours.
Yohan, appearing at the door, didn't enter like before but peeked his head in to check Elesis's location. This was to avoid being attacked again.
Peeking into the room, Yohan saw that Elesis was still kneeling and let out a low groan. It was obvious she hadn't just noticed him coming and struck the pose.
Looking at the overly rigid Holy Knight, Yohan sighed.
“...You can stand up now.”
“Thank... ugh-!”
As she tried to get up, Elesis pitched forward. Her thighs, trained like a Holy Knight's, had allowed her to endure kneeling for over a dozen hours, but she couldn't overcome her physical limits.
From kneeling for so long, her thighs were not only swollen, but the blood flow had been cut off, leaving her with no strength in them.
Fortunately, Yohan was right in front of Elesis and managed to catch her before she fell.
“Are you okay?”
“...I am fine. Thank you.”
“Don't tell me you've been like this the whole time?”
“You told me to.”
Hearing her words, Yohan clicked his tongue in disbelief. Just like clerics who believe in God, they were inflexible madmen.
To think she had been kneeling ever since—I thought she would have knelt for a few minutes, then given up and laid down on the bed...
“I did. So... have you had a change of heart?”
“...You are still a witch's follower. That fact has not changed.”
“Oh? In that case, you won't be leaving here.”
“However—separate from that, you are also the benefactor who saved my life. According to doctrine, repaying a debt of gratitude is as important as not committing sin.”
Elesis said this as she gently looked up at Yohan. She still hadn't dismissed her suspicion that this man was a witch's follower. If she were to report this to the church, they would dispatch witch hunters.
They would burn down not only this cabin but the entire forest. And that would be an act of ingratitude. It was wrong to abandon a debt of gratitude for the sake of her own achievements.
“If it is the right thing to do, turn a blind eye even to sin—”
“...So what are you trying to say?”
“It means I will remain silent about everything I have seen and heard here.”
It was a risky decision for her as well. If the church didn't believe her report and sent people to investigate this cabin, and they discovered Yohan's connection to a witch—she, too, could be accused of being a witch's follower.
However, a life saved was a debt that must be repaid with one's life. This was the only thing she could do.
Hearing her words, Yohan nodded and looked at her. It wasn't a perfect outcome, but it wasn't bad either.
“Come on out. Let's get something to eat.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I cannot eat the food of a witch...”
“...Another bowl.”
“Didn't you say you couldn't eat it a moment ago?”
“I-I never said that!”
Yohan chuckled and ladled more food onto Elesis's plate. She had resisted, claiming she couldn't touch a witch's food, but she was powerless before the might of a witch's seasoning.
Scrape, scrape.
The sound of a metal spoon scraping against the plate echoed.
Staring at the bottom of her plate, Elesis blushed and held it out.
“...J-just one more bowl—just a little, please!”
“...Are you a Holy Knight or a pig?”
“Wh-what! That's an insult!”
Yohan took her plate with a dumbfounded expression and filled it again. That day, the pot that was supposed to last until dinner was scraped clean.