The Path Back: A Saint's Heartfelt Gift
I felt a surge of relief wash over me as the words left my mouth. “I’m okay. But Celine’s been captured and turned into a monster’s brood mother!”
My voice came out serious, but Estelle just tilted her head, her amber eyes sparkling with confusion.
“...Celine?”
“Yeah, we have to save her right now!”
“Celine was fine when I found her. Why the fuss?”
“...What?”
How could she be fine? The Mother had made it clear she planned to turn her into a brood mother.
I stared at her, still trying to make sense of it, but Estelle answered with that casual tone as if nothing was wrong.
“On the way back, I found Celine and released her. She looked completely fine. She hadn’t snapped out of it yet, but it wasn’t like the situation I was worried about?”
“Uh...”
Now that I thought about it, she had said she hadn’t even started the process yet.
I had overreacted for nothing.
“Anyway, Abel, you need to hold onto this properly. If you keep dropping it carelessly, what am I going to do about it?”
Estelle handed me something without missing a beat. My eyes went wide as I stared at her.
“This...”
“Thanks to you, I was able to come, but what if the hero drops the Holy Sword?”
Estelle held the Holy Sword of Order in one hand.
“It’s heavy. Take it already.”
“Ah, okay.”
I immediately accepted it.
...How heavy? It’s super light.
But I couldn’t bring myself to argue with the woman who had just saved me. Instead, I gripped the sword properly and looked straight ahead. There, the North Queen stood beside a high-risk monster that had been wounded.
...That bastard paid for what I did to her.
“Hey, Estelle, can I kill this guy?”
“...That’s an Amon-class knight-type monster?”
An Amon-class? No wonder it moved so fast. But...
“You’re not going to say no?”
“...I can cast a blessing on you.”
“Oh.”
Well, she had used her divine power after all. The sight of Estelle’s hair glowing like the sun was breathtaking, but remembering that using it weakened her made me grumble internally.
It wasn’t anger toward her. It was toward myself for being so dense that she had to use her power to save me.
“...Sorry.”
“Suddenly what? If you’re thinking I borrowed the Goddess’s power, don’t say that.”
“But...”
“I had to use it, so I did. First things first.”
Solaria’s Protection
A powerful blessing settled over me. Energy flooded my body, filling me with strength. I could almost tear the monster apart right in front of me.
“I’ll finish this quickly.”
“Leave the Mother to me. Stay calm.”
“...You need the Holy Sword to kill a Mother, right?”
“I can do it. Think about what kind of power I’m using right now, you dummy ♡”
...Oh, right. It was the Goddess’s power. Of course it would work. The Holy Sword was made by the Goddesses themselves.
“Understood.”
I gripped the Holy Sword with both hands and stared down the Amon-class monster.
You’re dead, you bastard.
✧
Clang!
The Holy Sword clashed with the Amon-class monster’s sword. Even though it was wounded, Kai refused to be pushed back by the boosted strength of Abel thanks to the blessing. The small eyes arranged in an X pattern glowed as it revealed its fighting spirit.
Abel let out a soft laugh.
“...You’re holding up well.”
“That worthless bug who begged for its life...!”
But the wound on its chest was too deep. It couldn’t keep up with Abel’s speed. Abel darted behind it in an instant and had to offer one arm to block the sword strike aimed at his back.
If it hadn’t been ambushed by Estelle, Kai would have won easily. But the blood pouring from the deep chest wound was making it weaker by the second.
Abel moved faster than Kai could react in its exhausted state and sliced off its other arm with the Holy Sword, shouting,
“I’ll make you kneel, too.”
While Abel fought the Amon-class monster, Estelle looked up at the Mother sitting on her throne.
The North Queen, a Named Mother entity called by many titles: the Queen of the North, ruler of the Glacier Mountains. She had become the terror of the region.
Besides the Amon-class monster Kai, the countless monsters Estelle had killed earlier were all high-risk creatures of Gorgon-class, Leviathan-class, or Barbatos-class.
That was why the Glacier Mountains had been declared an entry-forbidden zone.
But even that was useless before the strongest Saint who wielded the Goddess’s power.
“Not coming down?”
“...Goddess’s power... How do humans...?”
“What a meaningful thing to say.”
The North Queen flinched at Estelle’s words, but Estelle didn’t miss her chance.
“It’s like you thought there wouldn’t be any human delegates. Why did you think that?”
“...Would I ever tell a human that?”
“...Really? What a shame. I was curious... So if you won’t answer, I might as well kill you.”
“I don’t know how you got in, but would my children just sit there and do nothing? The ones you killed were only a tiny fraction of them.”
The North Queen mentioned the countless monsters she had personally birthed outside the audience hall. Their numbers were far beyond what one person could handle, and if her subordinates rushed in, even a human using the Goddess’s power would tire out first and leave.
“...How did you even get in?”
Estelle laughed lightly.
“Just smashed through the main gate. I killed them all.”
“...What?”
“Can’t believe me? Call your fancy subordinates right now.”
The North Queen broke out in a cold sweat and did exactly as Estelle said, summoning her subordinates. A special wave spread through the surrounding monsters, passing along the Mother’s orders. But there was no response from nearby areas. It was eerily silent, as if all of them had already died. The North Queen looked at Estelle with an expression she had never worn in her long life.
Estelle smiled brightly.
“On the way back, I killed them all ♡”
“...Y-You crazy human girl...!”
At that moment, Estelle’s smile vanished. She let her sun-like hair flow freely and glared at the North Queen.
“Just a brood mother that gives birth to monsters, and you call yourself a queen? How interesting. Why did the Demon King turn a blind eye to that? Maybe he knew you might rebel against him. Is he merciful, or just too stupid to notice...?”
The North Queen trembled. She looked down at her own hand in shock at the fact that she was trembling. Her hand was shaking slightly.
Ever since she was created by the Demon King, this Mother had risen to power, birthing Amon-class monsters and expanding her territory in the Glacier Mountains. She had never once faced a dangerous situation since she nested there fifty years ago.
At first, the humans who came to exterminate her had been wiped out repeatedly. They had since forbidden anyone from approaching the mountains and given up. Fifty years was a long time. Without human interference, she had expanded her nest and claimed this vast mountain range as her own.
As the terror of the humans, she became the Queen of the North and lived as if she had become another Demon King. No one could stop her, and no one dared to restrain her.
She had lived as an only child, and now, for the very first time, she felt fear. A feeling that she might truly die gripped her entire body. Her hands, feet, arms, and legs trembled as if her whole self was shaking.
“A... Aaaah...!”
“Oh? You can’t speak suddenly? It seems even the ruler of the Glacier Mountains is afraid of death?”
“...P-Please...”
The ruler of the mountains that had thundered for centuries finally knelt before the Sun Saint. She set aside her pride and dignity, descending from her throne and bowing her head before Estelle. But...
“Your effort is admirable... but I don’t want to.”
“W-What...?”
“There’s no way I’d save monsters.”
Estelle had lost her family and home to monsters. There was no chance she would save any of them. She grabbed the head of the North Queen, who had bowed in front of her.
“And the ones you should apologize to are the people you and your monsters killed, not me. Apologize to them in hell.”
“W-Wait...”
High-grade artifact
The Holy Sword of Order, its ego awakened through romantic bonds, now in full power after the first stage.
A sword as bright as the sun appeared and pierced the North Queen’s chest. The North Queen, with her heart exactly pierced, fell backward. She spilled blood with a wet cough and stared at the ceiling.
There was nothing there. The original pitch-black darkness had been cleared away by the radiant woman, revealing an empty ceiling. Just like her, who had lost all her mighty children in an instant and had nothing left.
“...Is this the punishment for not obeying my father’s command? I at least managed to capture you... You’re heartless.”
The North Queen, the terror of the people of the Apollo Kingdom, met her end that way.
#
After confirming the North Queen’s death, Estelle turned her head slightly. She wanted to check on Abel fighting the Amon-class monster Kai. But Abel had already moved behind him.
“Whoa!?”
“Huh?”
“S-Scared me! Why were you standing quietly behind me!”
“You looked busy...”
Abel scratched his head, looking sorry for the scare.
Estelle sighed and asked,
“Did you finish him cleanly?”
“Yes. I made him kneel all the way down.”
“...Kneel?”
The look of confusion on Estelle’s face made Abel smile.
Estelle let out a soft chuckle at that and checked Abel’s condition.
“How’s your body? Any injuries?”
“My jaw hurts a little...”
“Let me see.”
Estelle gently grabbed Abel’s face and turned it this way and that. Abel swallowed hard at the soft touch on his cheek.
“It’s just a light bruise. I’ll heal it.”
“Ah... Thank you. But Estelle, that power...”
“Ah, right.”
Estelle closed her eyes for a moment. Her sun-bright hair slowly darkened again until it returned to its original color.
“Now, I’ll heal you.”
“Okay.”
Estelle channeled divine power into the hand that had been on his face. Abel smiled faintly, watching the woman who cared about him so much.
“Why are you smiling? You’re so stupid ♡”
“It feels good to see you after so long.”
“W-What all of a sudden...”
Seeing Estelle’s flushed face, Abel suddenly remembered something he had forgotten.
“...Oh, right.”
He needed to talk about Celine. The timing wasn’t right yet, so Abel decided to bring it up once they got back with Celine.
“Estelle, thank you for saving me.”
“...Really, Abel’s too weak, so only I can save him ♡”
“That’s true.”
After the healing, Estelle leaned heavily against Abel’s chest and said,
“From now on, don’t do that so carelessly...”
“...Yes, I’ll be careful.”
“Really... Suddenly disappearing like that...”
A slight wetness colored Estelle’s voice. Abel gently pulled her into his arms.
“Sorry.”
“...Sob, really... How worried you think I was...”
“...I’m truly sorry.”
There was nothing else to say. He couldn’t imagine how her heart must have felt. And while she had been worrying, he had been thinking about his own mistakes, and his conscience ached.
Abel patted Estelle’s back, a little sweaty.
At that moment, a familiar voice came from behind.
“...Hero-nim?”