Red's Sudden Stand and the Saint's Disappearance
She was serious! What the hell was Red doing right now? I couldn't wrap my head around this situation at all. And it wasn't just me—everyone else here probably felt the same. Even the demons were staring at her with dazed expressions.
"...Hey."
In the midst of everyone's stunned silence, I barely managed to open my mouth.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Are your eyes just for show?"
Red answered without turning around.
"I'm protecting you. Can't you see?"
"No, I can see that, but why the hell are you doing it?"
I asked, genuinely clueless about her motives, and her response was, "Just because."
Just because. That insane answer left everyone unsatisfied, naturally.
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"Have you lost your mind?"
"We knew you were crazy, but this?!"
The demons erupted in outrage, voicing exactly what I'd been thinking. As her own kind condemned her and even I shot her a wary glare, Red brushed it all off with indifference.
"Hey."
"What?"
"How have we always parted ways?"
"Huh?"
"Think back on it and get ready."
With no proper explanation, just dumping that cryptic line, Red whipped her arms into tendrils like lashes, blasting the surrounding demons aside to clear a path. Then she charged straight at me.
She scooped me up princess-style in both arms, but I didn't resist. I'd figured out what her words meant.
This was her specialty whenever she left—something she was damn good at. Escape. And this time, she planned to take me with her.
"Hold on tight."
Gripping me firmly, Red bolted through the underground space. That's when a thunderous roar echoed from behind.
"Capture that traitor!"
It was Has, the one Red had flung away, barking the order.
Soon, the clamor of countless pursuers filled the air behind us.
"Slow them down."
"...I was already planning to!"
I clung to Red with one hand while thrusting the other backward, unleashing lethal bursts of divine power at the chasers. I screamed as I blocked their advance.
"What the hell is your reason for this?!"
"I help you out, and your first words aren't thanks—you grill me instead?"
"I can't exactly be grateful when I don't even know why you're doing it."
A woman who'd been gnashing her teeth to kill me moments ago was now playing savior? I wasn't naive enough to just accept that. Especially not from someone I'd known since infancy who turned out to be a demon and betrayed me.
"Come to think of it, why the hell is Has acting like this? She hid her identity for over twenty years—why betray me now?!"
"...Don't sweat the small stuff. Don't you have bigger things to worry about? Like how you're in my arms right now, pressed right up against my chest."
"Bullshit! It's not even that big!"
As if I'd care about that in this mess. Even normally, I was used to constant physical contact from those four—I had no reason to fuss over Red now.
"Tch, no fun to tease."
Red clicked her tongue in annoyance before shifting to a more serious tone.
"You pick. Where do we run to?"
"...Where can we even run to, exactly?"
"If we use the passage we took to enter this underground, we can get out of the capital."
Demons had a passage letting them come and go freely in this capital, home to the empire's emperor?!
Stunned by the revelation, I replied, "No way. They'd know the destination since they came in with us—they'd catch up immediately."
"True, we did come together. So where should we go?"
"Straight up. Can we exit right in front of the temple?"
I pictured the people waiting outside since they couldn't enter, and Red nodded. She abruptly veered, plunging into what looked like an upward passage.
"This should connect to right in front of the temple."
"'Should'?"
"I'm not super familiar with these passages either."
"...Then what made you come down here?"
"I morphed my senses to match those of animals that live in these tunnel-riddled depths. We just have to hope their instincts are spot-on."
Anxiety gnawed at me, but what choice did I have? Clutched in her arms, I prayed she hadn't gotten it wrong.
Ground level, inside the temple.
"Lady Ares, preparations are complete."
"You finished awfully quick."
Ares responded with sarcasm to the deferential priest. The man was fairly high-ranking in the capital temple, the sort who'd normally protest such rudeness even to Countess Huferion. But he didn't. Neither he nor the other priests could meet her eyes—they just watched her warily.
"Lady Huferion, please calm yourself..."
"Why should I?"
"This incident wasn't the will of our entire temple."
As Ares's mood remained foul, a green-haired woman interjected. Namiel, the vice high priestess overseeing the capital temple, was trying to soothe her.
"Our temple isn't a band of thugs meddling in noble affairs for gain. That woman, Hairel, confessed she wasn't after the Huferion family—she only wanted to pressure Lord Seres."
"So you're saying I should just let it slide?"
"No, that's not it. After all, one of our vice priestesses did orchestrate it."
Namiel's explanation was wordy, but boiled down: one bad apple, so we're all apologizing—cut us some slack.
Ares, veteran of political games, saw right through it. Normally, to avoid souring ties with the temple, she'd play along reluctantly.
"You dare say that to me?!"
Not this time. She threw politics out the window and unleashed her genuine fury.
"Do you have any idea what you've done to my family? Do you know how much anguish Seres has suffered?!"
"We've said it over and over: we apologize and will compensate. First, we'll appoint Seres as saint and provide full temple support..."
"That's not compensation—that's just you exploiting him!"
"..."
Namiel gave up as words failed. She glanced pleadingly at Hames, who stood nearby with arms crossed, observing. With their acquaintance, it was a desperate help me look. Hames sighed and stepped forward.
"Lady Ares, calm down. This won't improve anything."
"...So you're temple loyalist too, huh. Siding with them over Seres."
"Would this help Seres? Save the reckoning for after. You're just dragging things out."
Sound advice.
"...Fine."
Ares was still seething but couldn't retort. She relented grudgingly.
"Right. Let's wrap up this distasteful mess first. Bring Seres. And that damn nephew too!"
At her order to summon the principals, the priests moved. First came Nemeth, with Ayran tagging along.
"What?"
"Huh?"
Their joint arrival and the tense vibe drew odd looks from Ares and Hames.
"Seres—Seres choked me!"
Nemeth seized the moment, baring his neck and yelling as if he'd waited for it.
"He said it was your fault things went south, then went for my throat!"
Clear handprints marred his neck, stirring uproar.
"Is that true?"
"Lord Seres choked someone?"
"Here in the temple?!"
The flustered priests turned to Ayran.
"Lord Ayran, is this true?"
"W-well, he did choke me..."
Ayran answered cautiously, saying no more. Traumatized from Seres's earlier threat, but Nemeth ignored that, crowing triumphantly as if Ayran backed him fully.
"See? Even Lord Ayran, the original saint candidate, says so! Seres isn't the pure, innocent boy everyone thinks!"
"..."
"He called me a line-crosser and cursed me...!"
"Don't insult Seres further."
Ares shot out her right hand, throttling Nemeth.
"Wh-what the hell?!"
"You thought I'd let you badmouth him like that to my face?"
"N-no, it's not an insult—it's true...!"
Nemeth gasped the facts amid the chokehold, but Ares didn't buy it.
"Didn't my brother tell you? I don't play favorites even for blood."
"I-I'm your nephew...!"
"So what? You thought I'd go easy because of that?"
Ares tightened her grip. As tension spiked, priests intervened.
"Calm down~!"
"I was going to deal with him after anyway. Might as well now!"
Fully enraged, Ares ignored them. Even Hames, the only potential voice of reason, watched coldly, no fondness for Nemeth. Cornered to death's door,
"Lord Seres is nowhere to be found!"
"What?"
A priest rushed back shouting. Hearing it, Ares unwittingly loosened her hold, letting Nemeth live.