Unexpected Choice
A deserted back alley in a quiet village.
Tadadak.
A man and a woman were racing through it.
"...I'm not too heavy for you, am I?"
"I-I'm fine. Just let me catch my breath a second."
More precisely, the man was carrying the woman on his back. The woman perched there wore a faintly bemused expression.
To think I'd end up on someone's back.
In all her life, she had never once imagined she would be carried like this. When she first scrambled out of the carriage and he offered his back as if to say, Climb on—
I almost refused without thinking.
Of course, the moment she left the carriage they were already something like accomplices, so she had climbed on without further protest.
...It's not as bad as I expected.
Even though she had not been this close to anyone since becoming the Saintess, she did not find it particularly unpleasant.
People had always kept a careful distance from her. They bowed toward Arcelia, spoke with scrupulous courtesy, and fretted endlessly over whether they might commit some discourtesy.
It's almost kind of fun.
Huhu.
In the end, she was smiling faintly, as if she found the whole situation amusing.
And the young man carrying the Saintess—Juhan—what was he thinking just then?
How am I supposed to talk her into this?
He had hauled her out on impulse, but now he was at a complete loss as to how to persuade her. Honestly, if he had left her in that carriage, she would have spilled everything about him.
It was not that she looked loose-lipped or frivolous. Just...
She seemed like the type who'd grant any request if someone simply asked.
If that fellow Velkras asked, "Did something happen?", she would probably say, "Well, he told me not to say anything, but..." and pour it all out.
He also looked like someone of fairly high rank.
On top of that, this woman herself seemed to be of quite elevated station—the spacious carriage she had occupied alone, the way Velkras had been so attentive to her.
What was strange, though, was that for all that, he could sense no particularly special aura from her.
A noble young lady, then? And a fairly high-ranking one at that.
That was the most realistic guess for now. He had already been told that the "high figure from the Church" would not reach this village for several more days. By now she was probably in some other town, bestowing blessings on the faithful or something of the sort.
Having settled that in his mind, Juhan decided to ask her about the one point that had been nagging at him.
"By the way."
"Yes?"
"Are you really all right with just leaving a single letter behind?"
Before she stepped out of the carriage, she had briefly held him back, insisting she at least ought to leave a letter.
As far as Juhan was concerned, he only needed to hide for a while and send her back once things quieted down.
"I don't think there are exactly few people who would worry about you."
"...It should be fine until they find the letter in the morning. But."
"?"
"You seem more worried than I am."
Rather, the one who had dragged her out was the one fretting—that was the thrust of her question. Hearing it, Juhan could not help but snort a quiet laugh. Maybe she just seemed a little cute to him.
"You're someone of high standing, after all."
"......"
"Honestly, I'm just a wanderer."
Juhan gave a casual shrug. No answer came to that.
"...I'm Ria."
"Ria?"
"My name. How long were you planning to keep calling me 'you'?"
She was simply introducing herself as Ria. Of course he did not take it for her real name. Probably an alias, or a pet name shortened from the real one.
"And yours? What should I call you?"
"Just call me Juhan. I don't have a family name."
"Juhan...."
It was not a name he particularly needed to hide. Depending on how things went, he was already prepared to leave for another village or region anyway.
"Juhan. I like it. The name."
She murmured it almost to herself. It did not sound like something that expected a reply, and after that only an awkward silence stretched between them.
"So where are we going?"
It was Ria who finally broke the silence after a long while—a rather fundamental question about where they were headed. Juhan thought, She's only asking that now?, but he did not say it aloud.
"There's a hill I use when I need to sort my thoughts. I was planning to head there."
"A hill?"
The destination was already decided. A small rise not far from the village, with a clear view of the whole place. At this hour there would be no one passing by.
"We're almost there. We'll stay until morning, then... part ways."
But something was odd. Even faced with that proposal, Ria showed no particular reaction. She neither nodded nor objected. She simply gazed for a moment at the path that wound up the hill.
Looks like she's got a lot on her mind.
Juhan let it go with that brief assessment and quickened his pace again. He did not force conversation. The silence was not uncomfortable.
Thud. Thud.
So they began climbing the little hill path. The noise of the village waking for morning gradually faded, and only the sound of the wind grew clear.
Before long the small hill came into Juhan's view. They had arrived. There was no longer any need to keep carrying Ria.
"We're here."
"......"
"I said we're here?"
But strangely, for some reason Ria showed no intention of getting down from his back. As if she wanted to stay carried a little longer, she simply remained quiet without answering.
"Well then, I'll just—"
"Over there."
"Yes?"
"Please set me down over there. My clothes are a little uncomfortable."
She said she would get down when he pressed her, but it felt like reluctant acceptance.
Without complaint, Juhan carried her to a flat spot on one side of the hill and set her down. Ria gathered her skirt in one hand and carefully stepped onto the ground.
Rustle.
At the same time, her question came to him.
"By the way."
"Yes?"
"Why don't you want to become a Holy Knight?"
"Ah."
It was a question about why he had refused the offer to become a Holy Knight. Apparently, even while riding on his back, she had been turning over that conversation from the carriage.
"It's a noble and glorious office of serving the divine mission, isn't it?"
Ria pressed on as if she were genuinely curious.
"Even now, countless young men are striving just to become a Holy Knight's squire."
"Well... you're not wrong."
Juhan nodded without much deliberation. It was not particularly wrong. Even in the novel, a Holy Knight had been that kind of position.
There was honor. There was power. There was security enough to live without worry for a lifetime.
For some, a dream to chase for their entire life.
But.
"Still, what I don't want is what I don't want."
Juhan was the Great Catastrophe. Even if he hid among people wanting an ordinary life, he could never truly blend with them completely—that was the essence of it.
Of course he could not explain that fact straight out, so he had no choice but to answer simply that he did not want to.
But perhaps Ria did not take it that way. She found herself blinking without realizing it.
"Is that... all?"
"Yes."
Juhan nodded.
"Of course it's an incredibly good position. But it's a little different from what I want to do."
"...What is it that you want, then?"
Her tone was one of incomprehension—as if asking what on earth he could want that would make him set aside becoming a Holy Knight. Yet even with that attitude from Ria, Juhan simply continued speaking calmly, as if he did not particularly mind.
"Just... that I'd rather walk the path I want, not one someone else decided for me?"
"......"
It was something he had said without much thought. Perhaps it was a statement that cut through the heart of Juhan's life. Ever since falling into this world, that was what he had wanted most.
But hearing those words, Ria found herself closing her mouth without realizing it.
Not a path decided by someone else...
That single calmly delivered line had, for some reason, lodged itself intensely in her chest.
Her life had been decided from the moment she was born. But the man before her eyes was the complete opposite—trying to live by choosing for himself the path he desired.
A life of receiving people's respect and expectations, of walking in the direction they wanted. She had never disliked that. At least, that was what she had thought until now.
"The path one wants to walk."
But the man before her was speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if it were a right granted to anyone.
Swoosh.
Had she lost the will to ask anything further?
Without realizing it, Ria lifted her head and looked up at the sky. The eastern sky she gazed at had at some point been dyed red.
Whooosh—
And so the sun began to rise beyond the mountain. Gradually, warm light poured down over her golden hair.
"......"
It was strange. Even though she had watched countless sunrises in the Holy Kingdom, the scenery before her eyes somehow looked completely different.
She was simply standing on a hill as an ordinary woman. Yet that fact was making her heart strangely light.
Huuu....
A breath slipped out without her noticing. It was not a sigh. Rather, it was a breath as if something long accumulated in her chest were draining away.
"It's nice."
That small remark that slipped out.
"Right?"
Juhan answered without much thought. His actual concern was elsewhere—thoughts like, I have no choice but to send her back now.
Huhu.
Ria was smiling faintly as she watched that side of him. Because he was a truly strange person. Even if he himself seemed completely unaware of it.
How much more time passed after that? Around the time the sun had fully revealed itself—
"Well then..."
Juhan said as he rose from his seat.
"We should head down now. You left a letter, but I think it would still be better if you just went back."
But something was strange. Even with that proposal from Juhan, Ria showed no particular reaction.
"Hello?"
"......"
She had simply been quietly looking down at the village below the hill—Arcelia. No. Ria.
She soon spoke to Juhan in a calm voice.
"I don't want to."
"...?"
At the unexpected answer, Juhan blinked without realizing it. Ria continued without hesitation.
"I don't want to go back."
Ria's declaration that she would not return. Was there something she disliked about it? But hearing those words, Juhan spoke to her without a moment's deliberation. It had sounded like a tantrum not even worth reconsidering.
"No."