Before She Was the Saintess
The hero’s party returned to the inn after Andrew saw them off. Perhaps because the saintess had been flying into a rage the whole way, Lee Yu-seong kept his head down, offered a brief goodbye, and went into a single room on his own.
Hilde and the saintess sat separately on the beds in the two-person room. Hilde looked at the saintess, whose face was still flushed red, and spoke.
"Saintess. You can stop pretending now."
Irene’s shoulders jerked.
"Huh? How did you know? I fooled everyone perfectly."
A smile curled over her face as if she had never been angry at all. Irene took off her heavy outer coat and changed into something more comfortable.
"You’re not the sort of person who would get angry over something that small. What were you trying to do?"
"You know me too well. Hehe."
The saintess continued in a calm voice.
"That mage, Edan, didn’t seem interested in the hero’s party. More precisely, he probably doesn’t want to join for some reason. So I put on a little act to test him, but if we’re going to persuade him together, this one will be very difficult."
"Do you mean the mage’s offer was sincere? Would it be all right if someone else came instead?"
The saintess shook her head. It wasn’t a simple matter.
"The hero’s party isn’t something just anyone can elbow their way into. If you think the royal family simply chooses the members, you’d be mistaken."
The saintess leaned close to Hilde and lowered her voice. There was a sacredness to it that felt different from her usual tone.
"Those who can endure trials on the way to the destined fate."
Hilde tilted her head. It was one of the truths of this world she was hearing for the first time.
The saintess flopped backward onto the bed. She closed her eyes and sank into thought. Before long, she came to a conclusion.
"We need to find out why Edan Patrick doesn’t want to join the hero’s party. That’ll be the key to this situation."
"Sounds like a journey with no end in sight."
It was a bleak reality. The mage looked sharp-tongued, rude, and stubbornly self-righteous. He didn’t seem easy to persuade.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After sending the hero’s party off from the reception room as though he were driving them out, Edan Patrick had stood there for a long while, unmoving. The arrogant smile that had curled his lips had vanished, leaving behind a cold, expressionless face.
"Tsk, tsk. You hopeless fool. I never raised my disciple to be this pathetic."
With a flash, an old man with a full white beard appeared. Edwin Patrick, Edan’s master and the Tower Master of the magic tower, scolded him, but there was no real rebuke in his voice.
"And what are you going to do now? Are you really going to let them go like this?"
"They don’t suit me. I only heard about them, but seeing them in person, they’re disappointingly mediocre. A frog in a well, perhaps."
Edan turned toward his study. Edwin looked at his disciple’s broad back. Even as a mage, there were clear signs he had trained his body diligently.
"Edan, I won’t indulge your lies."
"Lies? What on earth are you talking about? You want to see me throw a fit, old man?"
Edan strode up to his seemingly frail master. The older man studied his agitated disciple closely. It overlapped with the bright, innocent boy he had once been.
"In truth, more than anyone else, aren’t you the one who wants to fight like mad, Edan?"
Edan clicked his tongue and turned away.
"Hmph. You must be going senile. If you’re going to spout nonsense, do it later. I’m busy right now."
With a loud bang, Edan left the reception room. Edwin replayed the expression he had just seen on his disciple’s face. Edan had snorted as though it were absurd, but he had seen it all the same. He had been grinding his teeth and holding himself back.
The happiest time of Edan’s life had ended because of an incident. After that, he had shut every door in his heart and become someone else. Until now, he had never shown even the slightest trace of it, but today, a fragment of the old Edan had surfaced.
The hero’s party. Their arrival had stirred even Edan.
Edwin quietly thought back on the three companions he had seen from afar. He remembered the people who had once struggled to save the world fifty years ago. With noble purpose, they had become the heroes who rescued the continent.
Could they become Edan’s companions... Please.
Please help that pitiful child.
The only ones who could change that boy, consumed by obsession, were the hero’s party.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Edan was studying a magic formula suspended in the air. On a sheet of paper lying carelessly at the corner of his desk, the project title had been written.
An Interdimensional Travel Solution Using a Spatial Coordinate Gate.
Even when he was completely absorbed, he would still frown and erase every formula. He would set the variables again and derive a new result. Yet for some reason, he couldn’t concentrate.
[In truth, more than anyone else, aren’t you the one who wants to fight like mad, Edan?]
His master’s words floated restlessly through his mind.
Damn old man. Instead of helping, he’s just getting in the way.
Edan had too many stray thoughts today, so he sat back in his chair and tried to clear his head.
Then, all at once, the voices of the hero’s party—voices that had been arguing so heatedly just moments ago—drifted into his ears. The corners of his eyes lifted just a little.
Companions who trusted one another’s backs and fought together. It was the kind of thing he had once pursued.
When he heard that the saintess and just two holy knights had taken down a basilisk on the way here, his heart had even begun to race.
I want to be with them too.
I’m jealous.....
Jealous of those bastards? Damn it, forget it. I’m just going to do what I have to do.
Edan shut the loosened door of his heart once more.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Even though it was broad daylight, the sky was black and red.
Thunderous roars rolled again and again through the air, and crows wheeled overhead.
This was the western region of the continent, a land where not even a blade of grass grew. It was called Makyeong.
Watching the army being mercilessly cut down by monsters, he could not hide the humiliation burning in him.
"All forces, retreat!"
Austin Silercanth.
Austin, the marquis of Travis, a kingdom even farther west than Marinella, gritted his teeth in this increasingly brutal battlefield. Under normal circumstances, only low-tier monsters appeared here, so there were hardly any casualties. But starting last week, everything had changed at once.
The assassin of darkness, said to be the Demon King’s closest subordinate. The Reaper of Silence had begun appearing on the battlefield, and the front line was being pushed back helplessly. At this rate, they would be driven and driven until the surrounding cities fell as well.
"Damn it! Just when in the world is the hero coming? I heard they set out last week!"
Austin trudged back toward the camp. He had truly nearly died today. The Reaper’s elusive, ghostlike ability was beyond even Austin, who had trained his whole life, to deal with.
"Commander has returned! Salute Marquis Austin!"
"No need. You’re all working hard again today."
Arriving at the commander’s tent, Austin gave a bitter smile at the voices he heard. Even if the hero’s party came, it was hard to say they could beat the Reaper of Silence. These soldiers had grown up admiring the hero’s party since they were children, but on a battlefield where lives were on the line, they needed someone to blame.
"If there are circumstances, they may be late. Right now, we need to focus on holding out. Let’s revise the military plan from the ground up."
"I spoke out of turn, Marquis."
Inside the command tent, voices rose from all sides in a fierce debate, with no regard for rank. They discussed how many of the stationed soldiers and hired mercenaries had survived, and how much damage the Reaper—who had obsessively targeted only the most important mages—had inflicted.
"We need to request at least twice as many reinforcements right now. In the present situation, where we can’t rely on the hero’s party, mages and priests are the most important forces we have."
"I agree. Especially since Travis’s priests have taken heavy losses. We need support from priests from every country."
Austin’s head throbbed. In just the battle that had taken place moments ago, more than three hundred mages had died. Each one of them was high-value talent, impossible to raise easily. The problem was that if their numbers were not replenished to match the dead, the next battle would produce even more casualties.
"Have more escorts assigned to the mages, and we’ll delay the honors for the fallen a little."
The people inside the tent could finally breathe. Battles lasting for hours every day wore down both body and mind.
Austin stepped out of the tent and looked up at the gloomy red sky. He had heard that this western land had once been full of blue skies and lush forests.
Would there ever come a day when humanity won?
Shaking off the useless thought, Austin took out a cigar.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Grrrrk.
Grrrroooowl.
The sounds of monsters echoed everywhere. Seated on a large rock with one leg folded beneath her, a high-ranking demon bit into a mage’s heart in a single mouthful.
"Ugh, disgusting."
The demon known as the Reaper of Silence frowned. It tasted awful. There was not a shred of flavor to it.
She had an alluring figure, dark skin, and long black hair that fell all the way to her waist. Her sclerae were black instead of white, and her eerie red irises had slit pupils. Her ears were longer than a human’s and pointed at the tips.
Chewing thoughtfully on a piece of heart, she gazed blankly at the sky. The heavens had been transformed by the churning mana. The land where lightning fell under this abnormal climate was utterly different from the one in her memory.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, the Reaper of Silence set the heart down and placed a hand on the dagger at her waist. Once she recognized the newcomer, she turned away again.
"You’ve come all the way here. I thought you had no interest in the battlefield."
"Orders from Lord Black Snake. Assassinate the mage who’s separated from the hero’s party."
The monster who had approached the Reaper of Silence looked like a lizard. It stood on two legs like a person.
"Why should I listen to that bastard’s orders? If he wants something, tell him to come ask me himself."
The Reaper of Silence was not one of Black Snake’s underlings. Black Snake, who had been assigned a role at the Demon King’s side, was a weak little brat who survived by latching onto others.
"Message says there’ll be a substantial reward if the mission is completed. The proposal mentioned before still stands as well."
"That’s true, then? If you change your story, I’ll take your head and Black Snake’s first."
The lizard monster was startled to hear the Reaper’s voice coming from behind as she sat on the hill. Before its throat, black aura blazed along the edge of a dagger.
The color drained from the lizard monster’s face. As a temperature-adapting demon, it went pale.
"True. Black Snake swore on the Demon God’s contract."
The Demon God’s contract was a prohibition that, on behalf of the Demon King, could never be broken. If one so much as mentioned it carelessly, even one’s soul would be burned away, leaving no freedom even in death.
From Black Snake’s perspective, who never took a loss, dealing with a single human mage was worth that price.
It wasn’t a difficult job. In fact, it was familiar.
"Good. Finish it within three days and come back. Tell him to keep his promises."
The Reaper of Silence dissolved into smoke and vanished. In the place she had left behind lay the half-bitten heart of a human.