Secret Friend
"A-Aaah…! For the children who shed tears, the Goddess sheds Her blood!"
"That's not it at all."
I knew exactly what she meant. The priests who served the Goddess of Love had taken the vast concept of love and broken it down into smaller, more comprehensible pieces. Unable to grasp the Goddess's love with their human minds, they had refined it into forms they could accept. They spent their lives exploring and practicing the kinds of love that suited them best… and among them all, one was considered the greatest.
"Charity means wiping away another's tears with one's own blood!"
"No, that's not…"
Charity—the form of love said to most closely resemble the Goddess's own. Yeah, I got it. Even if I shouted that it wasn't true, that she should stop paying attention to me, I already knew what the priests would see in someone who suddenly purified divine power and revived the dead by feeding them blood. After all, that final treatment method had been designed with exactly this reaction in mind!
The whole "deceiving a curse that stopped the heart by using someone else's blood" thing was just an afterthought. The real point was: isn't it incredibly cool when someone drinks the holy blood flowing from my hands and the person everyone thought was dead suddenly springs back to life? And yes, that setting had been included with charity in mind. To pity the sick and heal their wounds with one's own. How could anyone resist that?
The problem was that the person in front of me was none other than Karen. She possessed the divine grace to see emotions, and with it she had once glimpsed my unconditional love for this world. Now I was showing her a miracle of charity right before her eyes? That was more than enough to send a Heretic Inquisitor—who already had deeper faith than most priests—into a frenzy.
"Please do not deny it so strongly. Through the eyes the Goddess has granted me, I can see the compassion and charity within the Apostle. Even if it means blinding these eyes of mine, I beg you not to tell me to look away."
"No, haah… This really isn't what you think…"
"If you are concerned about Priest Remilly, there is no need. The moment I knelt, I briefly shielded the surrounding gazes."
"At this distance, how could that possibly— Oh. Right. You're a Heretic Inquisitor."
Heretic Inquisitors were different from ordinary priests. They were the ones who hunted heretics with twisted faiths, like Those Who Swallow the Twilight. Beyond the combat training of battle priests or paladins, they specialized in piercing through lies, interrogating the truth, maintaining fanatical yet upright faith even when faced with the same divine power, and methods of concealing themselves from prying eyes. Hiding someone's view for a moment was probably child's play for her.
"O Apostle. O Saint who has descended upon this land after a thousand years. What would you have me do?"
"Could you maybe just pretend today's events never happened…?"
As I scratched the back of my head in distress, Rydia—who had stepped forward to protect me but now wore a bewildered expression—furrowed her brow.
"No."
With that firm refusal, she completely hid me behind her back.
"Yona is not what you think. So stop bothering him."
She hadn't drawn her sword, but the aura roiling around her was so menacing it was visible to the naked eye.
"Eek."
Bodyguard knight, huh. She was so reliable I almost fell for her.
***
Rydia stared at Karen, who knelt before Yona with fervent eyes and voice. A Heretic Inquisitor noticing the connection between Those Who Swallow the Twilight and Yona and trying to kill him would have been worse… but that didn't mean she welcomed this current interest and misunderstanding. Yona's rapidly souring expression made that perfectly clear.
After all, Yona had been an experimental subject of Those Who Swallow the Twilight. The love Karen saw—something closer to the Goddess than human—was the result of forcibly implanting faith after breaking down even the bare minimum of humanity. Yona claimed to love everything in the world, but that also meant he held nothing in particular dear. Absorbing a heretic's divine power and converting it into pure divine power? The experiments of Those Who Swallow the Twilight sometimes produced results beyond imagination. There was even a living witness right beside Rydia.
The theme of the experiment conducted on Yona was whether the Goddess's love could dwell even in those who did not know love. The answer was apparently "yes." His suspicious level of familiarity with the methods of Those Who Swallow the Twilight? Karen had dismissed it as nothing strange if Yona truly was the Goddess's apostle… but Rydia knew better. She knew it was because he had watched from close by—or experienced it firsthand.
The reason he had moved despite the risk of being discovered was because he had seen his past self in the fallen Ian. As for Yona's reluctance to get involved with the temple? Karen seemed to want to interpret it as some lofty purpose she couldn't understand, but Rydia saw it differently. Yona was terrified of his past being exposed. Naturally so. One wrong move and he could be branded a heretic like Those Who Swallow the Twilight… or worse, his life before being kidnapped as an experimental subject could be revealed.
Rydia still remembered it vividly—the flawless etiquette of a high-ranking noble that Yona had displayed, and the burning desire for revenge that seemed ready to consume the world. Rather than living comfortably as the Goddess's apostle, Yona had chosen to roll around in the lowest, most dangerous places to grow stronger. The reason was simple: revenge only held meaning if carried out by his own hands. In that sense, the blade of vengeance was better kept as secret as possible. Only then could it strike the most vulnerable vital point with the greatest depth.
Perhaps Yona's obsession with ambushes and assassinations stemmed from that ultimate goal. But Karen, unaware of all this, seemed to think Rydia was in the way. She began drawing up her divine power in response to Rydia's aura. Even after expending a considerable amount to save Ian, the remaining divine power was substantial.
She's no ordinary Heretic Inquisitor.
Having made her resolve, Rydia reached into the air. Ready to draw her sword at any moment. But then—
"Rydia. I won't condemn you for trying to protect Yona. But I hope you understand that such overprotectiveness can sometimes be no different from keeping someone caged. Yona is someone meant for far greater things in far greater places."
"No. You don't understand anything. I can't entrust Yona to someone like you."
"How self-righteous. In the end, aren't you the same as Elly, desiring Yona's adult body?"
"Wrong."
Rydia shook her head and glanced back at Yona hiding behind her. He looked bewildered, but even now he was clutching tightly at her waist. As if being behind Rydia meant he could overcome any hardship. That sight reminded her of the forest that day. Though it had started as a simple game, Yona had shown his trust in her, and she had answered it. Even if Yona himself didn't realize it, the oath she made that day had been real.
"I am Yona's knight."
A knight was one who willingly pledged loyalty to those who acknowledged them, and who would never turn the sword they held, even if it meant making the world their enemy.
"A sword to cut down enemies, and an unbreakable shield."
Rydia's heart pounded heavily. Her aura flared like a blazing flame, and her characteristic red eyes shone brilliantly. It was the clear will often seen in those capable of burning themselves at any moment.
"If Yona doesn't want it, no one can force him."
Rydia had wanted to become a knight. She wanted to restore her fallen house and laugh back at those who had mocked her. She liked serving high-ranking nobles, earning honor on the battlefield, even indulging in slightly impure romances. But above all else, there was something she wanted more. Rydia wanted the one thing she could believe in within this imperfect, chaotic world. What she believed was right. In other words, conviction.
"Even the Goddess is no exception."
A knight lived and died by their convictions. And she was the noblest knight of all.
"You…!"
Karen gritted her teeth as if she had witnessed blasphemy. Just as Rydia steeled her resolve and reached into the air to draw a rapier suited for close combat—
Peek!
Yona poked his head out from under Rydia's arm and spoke in his usual playful voice.
"Inquisitor Karen! Instead of fighting, how about we become secret friends?"
"…Pardon?"
"Secret friends, you know. We can meet occasionally in secret, talk, eat delicious food together…"
While both Karen and Rydia froze at the suspiciously impure choice of words, Yona grinned and continued.
"And beat up heretics together too."
"……."
"……."
Rydia squeezed her eyes shut. But what could she do? He was the lord she had chosen.