Toward the Holy Kingdom
I watched Journey, who had dashed over to a woman who looked like a nun and was now wagging her tail with complete abandon, with a sense of utter futility.
She was so cowardly when it came to fighting, and yet so careless at a time like this. It was a strange contradiction.
Was it that she simply didn’t react much unless the threat was immediate and visible?
Doing this made me feel like I’d somehow become an expert in behavioral psychology.
In reality, I was neither an expert nor someone who’d ever studied it.
Still, did a profession like that even exist in this world? I couldn’t recall ever seeing anyone who offered counseling professionally.
People here were too busy running straight to a priest whenever something went wrong.
“You were attacked by a monster? Oh, dear! Hurry and go see a priest for treatment.”
“There’s a plague spreading? Quick, contact the church!”
“Father, I have sinned….”
That was the sort of treatment priests of the Edel Church received in this world—less like clergy and more like a universal remedy.
Anyway, maybe she didn’t know that in the wild, what you had to watch out for wasn’t only monsters and beasts.
It was fortunate that the stranger in the clearing happened to be a nun of the Edel Church, because if it had been a shady bunch of people, things could have turned ugly.
While we tied the horses to a nearby tree and made camp, Journey chatted merrily with the nun.
“I’m sorry for the late introduction. My name is Celine. I’m a nun in the service of Lady Edel. Please feel free to call me Celine.”
“I’m Journey. Please, call me however you like too!”
“Yes, Lady Journey. ...You received Lady Edel’s guidance, didn’t you?”
“Lady Edel’s guidance...? Ah, yes! That’s right. How did you know? Sometimes people don’t recognize it….”
“Hehe. If one could not recognize Lady Edel’s grace even when it remained so deeply upon them, then one could hardly call oneself one of Her servants. And also….”
The nun’s gentle gaze settled on me.
“That young lady is receiving just as much grace as Lady Journey, if not more.”
“Huh, Cana is?”
“So the young lady’s name is Cana? That is a beautiful name.”
“Ah….”
Hearing my name tossed in casually every so often, I tilted my head.
In the meantime, after exchanging a few more words, Journey spoke to me.
“Cana. This is Lady Celine. She’s a nun of the Edel Church.”
That much was obvious at a glance.
Since I’d been introduced, I couldn’t exactly ignore her forever, so I exchanged a brief nod of acknowledgment with Celine.
Maybe not everyone was like this, but at least every priest I’d met had been the sort of person who could be called decent, or even good.
And that seemed true of this nun named Celine as well.
Of course, we’d only just met and hadn’t even known each other for an hour, so I’d need to watch a little longer, but for now she didn’t seem to have any malicious intent.
Maybe I could relax a little.
“But aren’t you scared camping alone in a place like this? If it were me, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep properly for fear….”
“Hehe… Lady Journey is very kind. Please don’t worry. With a little-”
“Wow…!”
“—help from Lady Edel, there is nothing to fear.”
A golden radiance began in Celine’s hands and illuminated the darkness.
Flickering like fireflies, the light spread outward and gently enclosed the clearing where we stood in a circle.
“A barrier?”
“Hmm— not exactly a barrier, but rather a Holy Magic technique. Still, since it does much the same thing, I suppose that is one way to see it. I’ll be watching over you tonight, so please sleep in peace.”
“Um… doesn’t that tire you out…?”
“I’ve received more love than I deserve, so this much is nothing at all.”
Hmm….
I studied the light that ringed us.
It wasn’t as bright as when it had first burst from Celine’s hands, but the soft glow still surrounded us like a wall.
When I tried touching it, my finger passed through the barrier and out into the darkness with no resistance whatsoever.
I’d seen other priests make safe zones like this before, but theirs usually cut the inside off completely from the outside—people inside couldn’t get out, and people outside couldn’t get in.
But the barrier Celine had made didn’t seem to mind people going from inside to outside at all.
She couldn’t have made it for no reason, so maybe it would block things coming in from the outside instead?
That was rather interesting.
“Cana, is it fascinating?”
….
Journey was looking at me warmly as I poked at the barrier and tested it.
...That look is somehow irritating.
“It seems Cana was intrigued by the Holy Magic Celine used,” Journey said with a satisfied smile.
“Anyone would find it interesting, I think.”
After hearing her say that, Cana had stared into the fire as though nothing at all had happened, but Journey had clearly seen her tapping at the barrier like a child who’d just been handed a new toy.
She really is a child, isn’t she?
Journey thought Cana was adorable for pretending otherwise, but she also felt a pang of guilt, wondering if she’d gotten in the way for no reason.
Still, what could she do?
Uncles always teased their nieces until they cried because they were cute, didn’t they?
It was exactly like that. She’d had no choice but to poke at her…!
Journey was busy justifying herself in her own head when Celine, smiling gently beside her, suddenly asked, “Are you two also on your way to the Holy Kingdom?”
“Yes. ‘You two also’... wait, does that mean you’re headed there too, Celine?”
“Yes. I’m on my way back to the Holy Kingdom as well.”
“Perfect! Since we’ve met like this, why don’t you travel with us to the Holy Kingdom?”
Journey, putting all her natural friendliness to use, made the suggestion, but Celine smiled awkwardly and delayed her answer for a moment.
“I’d be grateful for such an offer, but shouldn’t we hear Lady Cana’s opinion as well?”
“...Ah, right.”
Only then did Journey realize she’d gotten carried away, and she calmed down a little.
After meeting a perfect nun who looked like she’d stepped straight out of a comic book, she had just….
Journey cleared her throat awkwardly.
She suspected Cana would probably just shrug and say, “Do whatever you want,” without caring much, but it still wasn’t polite to decide on their behalf without asking.
There was an old saying that it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and easier to report things afterward than beforehand, but she knew very well that if you kept doing that, trust would eventually collapse.
And she didn’t want to ruin the relationship she’d worked so hard to build with Cana.
“Cana, Cana.”
“...Why do you always say it twice?”
“Because it feels warmer that way. If I just say your name once, it feels kind of cold, doesn’t it?”
“Not really….”
“Really? Anyway, Cana, Lady Celine here says she’s also headed to the Holy Kingdom. Would it be all right if she traveled with us? I mean, it’s more fun when there are more people on the road.”
“I don’t know about that either.”
Cana reacted with obvious indifference.
When Journey was about to try persuading her again, Cana cut in before she could.
“Do whatever you want.”
It was exactly the answer Journey had expected from the beginning.
“Since she’s a nun, she probably knows the way to the Holy Kingdom well enough.”
Without anyone asking, Cana kept adding what sounded suspiciously like excuses.
Did she really want to preserve that cynical act so badly?
Well, whatever!
Journey beamed at receiving permission.
“Cana says it’s fine too!”
“...I didn’t say it was fine.”
“See?”
Cana, who now understood at least a little Arkish, tried to stop Journey’s fabrication, but Journey remained utterly unshaken.
“Uh… really?”
Even Celine, who had been listening, asked that in confusion.
“Of course! Cana isn’t used to Arkish yet, so she can’t say exactly what she means. What she just said really meant, ‘I’m fine with it! I don’t object!’”
“I-I see…? She does seem unfamiliar with Arkish….”
She doesn’t look like the type who’d say something like that.
Celine swallowed the rest of her thought.
The pairing she saw in Journey and Cana was quite unusual.
The lively Journey and the taciturn Cana.
In terms of personality alone, they were complete opposites.
Given their ages and temperaments, Journey seemed like the one who would lead Cana, but in truth the one holding the reins appeared to be Cana.
And yet it didn’t seem as though Cana was simply making every decision on her own, either.
So there really is a reason Lady Edel is watching over them.
Celine’s eyes glittered with interest.
“Then I’ll be in your care.”
Ignoring Cana’s obviously dissatisfied gaze, she said it with a smile.
And so the three of them became traveling companions, spending a comfortable night thanks to Celine’s Holy Magic.
In the morning, after making a simple stew with the Rain Buffalo meat they’d caught the day before, they cleaned up the clearing and prepared to set off again.
Journey stamped out the fire with her feet, then sprinkled water over it while making a show of being clever.
“Be careful with fire, morning and night. The lessons I got as a child really shine in a place like this.”
“That’s true. Fire is always something you have to be careful with.”
“Ah, ahaha… you heard that…?”
“Yes. A good lesson. I should teach it to the children at the temple as well.”
Journey, who had somehow become the honorary fire safety officer of Silia Online, laughed sheepishly.
She’d only muttered to herself; she hadn’t expected Celine to hear her.
Since fire prevention had been handled thoroughly, and since they had also packed up the supplies they’d spread out for camping, the group was about to resume their journey—until they ran into a problem.
“Huh? Celine, where are the horses?”
“The horses?”
“Yes. The ones you rode here on.”
“I don’t have any such thing….”
“Pardon?”
Journey was horrified by Celine’s shocking statement.
“Then how did you get here?”
“By walking.”
“Walking...?”
“Yes. Thanks to Lady Edel, it wasn’t very difficult.”
“...Seems like Lady Edel was pretty athletic in her younger years.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, never mind. Is there some teaching that says you can’t ride horses, or something like that?”
“How could there be? I simply ran out of travel funds. Embarrassingly, I made a mistake in my calculations….”
Celine gave a soft, embarrassed laugh, and Journey awkwardly laughed with her.
Still, this was a problem. Unless there was a spare horse somewhere, they only had two.
As Journey muttered in discomfort, Celine scratched her cheek.
“Um, if you’d like, you two can simply go on ahead and leave me here.”
“No! We can’t abandon a companion!”
“A- companion…?”
Journey glared wide-eyed at her.
Overwhelmed by her intensity, Celine instinctively took a half step back.
But Journey ignored that completely and whipped her head toward Cana with such force it almost sounded like it cracked.
“Cana! Sorry, but could we share the horses?”
“...What?”
“Celine said she came here without riding a horse. It’d be a little much for just the two of us to ride together, so how about you and I take one horse, and Celine rides the other?”
“You two should just ride together.”
“That would be too sad for the horse. It’s better to ride with light little Cana.”
“Then I’ll run, and you two can each ride one horse.”
“Ah, come on, Cana! Are you really going to keep being so cold about this?”
Journey and Cana began a fierce argument, neither one willing to give ground.
Even though she couldn’t understand the words, Celine could tell a tense exchange was underway, and quietly watched the mood shift.
“Fine. Then I’ll ride together with that nun Celine.”
“...That won’t do!”
“Why not?”
“Because it just won’t!”
“Honestly, tell me the truth and I’ll think about it.”
“...It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to stay right next to Cana! I can’t let an opportunity like this slip away!”
“Then just die.”
“Kyaaaah! You said you’d think about it! Cana, you liar!”
Cana expressionlessly picked up a branch and started chasing Journey.
Journey screamed and ran, Cana chasing after her.
Caught in the middle of a chase that had erupted out of nowhere, Celine could only blink blankly.
The furious pursuit ended when Journey, having been beaten soundly with a branch, sprawled face-first onto the ground.
“I knew it the moment you said we’d go together without thinking it through.”
“But Cana agreed toooo….”
“If I’d said no, you’d have clung to me and made it a hassle.”
“Hmm, that’s true. Ow! Why are you hitting me again?!”
“Because you’re annoying.”
Cana snapped the branch she’d used to strike Journey’s back.
Then she tossed the broken pieces away without a second thought and motioned to Celine.
“Get on.”
“M-me?”
“Yes. You did agree, so you should take responsibility.”
With almost no enthusiasm, Cana muttered for Celine to hurry up and tapped the saddle.
After making sure Celine had climbed up in confusion, the girl this time kicked Journey’s side lightly with her foot.
“Get up already.”
“Ugh, my whole body hurts… maybe if Cana went huff-huff on me, I’d feel better…?”
“Then just lie there for the rest of your life.”
“I-I’m up!”
...What an interesting pair.
Watching the two of them bicker, Celine suddenly realized she was smiling.
Even if it hadn’t been Lady Edel’s will, I might have ended up traveling with these two all the same.