The Infula Holy See (3)
"I see. So that's how it was. Truly, even a fragment of Berbaria is said to be terribly dangerous—the Scriptures speak of how each of its heads carries lethal power. To be sure, you could not destroy such a demon... but forcing it into retreat is more than impressive enough in its own right."
Yona's explanation went on for quite a while.
She'd tried to lay it out in an orderly fashion, but there was still a fair bit of rambling and backtracking, and it wasn't until Ceres stepped in halfway through to fill in the gaps that the Pope was finally, fully convinced.
"So, you wish to entrust the child to the cathedral orphanage here in the Church Territory?"
"Yes. If that's at all possible."
"It is more than possible. I shall give the order personally, so that she wants for nothing."
"Th-thank you so much!"
Yona sprang out of her seat without thinking and bowed at a full ninety degrees.
Rubina. Rubina.
Rescuing her had been the right call, and bringing her along to Carpatia Port had been the right call too.
But then the girl had been forced to witness things no child should see, and to endure an ordeal no child should endure.
If the Pope himself was willing to take a personal hand in her care, how much better would her life become?
At the very least, she would grow up receiving a proper education in surroundings far more comfortable than trailing after Yona.
"There is no need for thanks—if anything, it is we who owe you the gratitude. We would like to offer you a modest reward as well... Now then, is there anything you require?"
"Um..."
She had half expected this.
Adventurers who had rendered great service in driving off a fragment of a demon would naturally be due a monetary reward, but Yona had something else in mind entirely.
"Well, you see... um..."
"Yes? Do you need gold?"
"Oh—no. No, not that."
Yona shook her head.
It wasn't that she didn't need gold—there was no telling how much the procedures in the Wizard Community would cost, so the more coin the better. But there was something she'd been thinking of even before that.
"A shield... and a hammer. Would you have those?"
"A hammer?"
The Pope blinked.
Back in his days as a general, he had dealt with plenty of adventurers. He'd hired them for everything from trivial errands to matters of considerable weight, and without exception they had been greedy—each one demanding compensation wildly out of proportion to their meager accomplishments.
He had been curious, then, what sort of answer Yona—a woman who had lived as an adventurer for years—would give, and her reply had exceeded anything he had imagined.
"My partner fights with a shield and a hammer..."
Alec's hammer was so worn from years of use that the head was all but ready to fly off the shaft.
The shield had always been his standard equipment, but he'd used it so long, and repaired it so many times after it broke, that it barely performed anymore.
"You mean for your partner? Well, rewards will naturally be granted to all of you, so he will receive his share as well. That said, when the reward takes the form of arms rather than gold, the allotment is one piece per person."
Axell IV was testing the waters.
Guidelines existed, after all, dictating what compensation was due for services of this kind.
Opposing demons was one of the cathedral's highest mandates—there could be no reward structure without them.
And for the repulsion of a demon fragment such as this: one hundred gold coins, or one piece of equipment of one's choosing.
In other words, Yona had just asked for a shield and a hammer, and she would have to give up one or the other.
"In that case..."
Yona fell briefly into thought.
An adventurer is a creature with no room for sentiment.
As always, it would come down to choosing—the shield or the hammer.
"I'll take the shield with my share, and the hammer with my partner's. That's allowed, isn't it?"
"A shield. Very well. Though I confess, a shield for one who is not even a Paladin Knight... A priest's shield would be of rather limited use to you, I should think."
"Oh, that's fine. I'm getting a knight's shield."
Yona smiled.
She had no intention of using it herself, after all.
"Both of them are for my partner."
"Ho."
That was unexpected.
"Nothing I could give you would be better than the Holy Shroud you're wearing now—at least, not right away."
It would have grieved Axell IV enormously to hear it, but Ceres was right: for Yona, the Holy Shroud she currently wore was the finest equipment available.
She could have emptied the entire armory of the cathedral and not found a better one.
Holy Shrouds were exclusive to Healers, and not a single priest ever used one—so there was simply no reason to keep quality ones in stock.
In a way, that was exactly why this particular shroud had ended up in Ceres's hands.
"That's fine by me. Heh."
Yona's mood lifted, and she found herself grinning from ear to ear.
Alec's shield was a wreck, and so was his hammer—patching them up would only carry them so far, and the uncertainty had been gnawing at her. Since Alec's equipment was directly tied to her own survival, a little crowing at a moment like this was only fair.
"Alec's going to be thrilled."
"He'd better be. No—he will be."
"I'm sure he will. I'll explain things to James and Kayak myself. Although..."
Ceres stopped mid-stride in the corridor.
Yona stopped with her before she could help it.
"Are you truly all right with turning down the ceremony for the rewards?"
Axell IV had been planning a grand affair to bless and honor those who had driven off Berbaria's fragment. But the moment Yona heard of it, she had refused, insisting instead on simply coming quietly to the armory, collecting the equipment she wanted, and being done with it.
"Adventurers hate that stuff with a passion. Honestly, being inside the cathedral headquarters right now is probably enough to make his skin crawl clean off."
"...Is that so?"
She couldn't quite grasp the idea of anyone spurning such an honor.
But that was the answer she'd been given, so Ceres decided to take it at face value and let it go.
That night.
Yona stood before Ceres's door.
Tomorrow was the day.
In the morning she would leave Rubina at the orphanage—the paperwork was already finished.
Then there was the ordination of the Hero Ludwig and the Saintess Vigrind, also tomorrow.
And tomorrow was the day Yona's party was due to depart as well.
And tonight, at Ceres's request to stop by her room for a moment, Yona found herself standing helplessly in front of that woman's door.
She'd thought they had grown quite close over the course of the journey, but standing here like this, the nerves crept in all the same.
They had to. Ceres had a habit of watching Yona now and then with a look that was anything but ordinary, and every time Yona caught that gaze, a chill would crawl up her arm.
And being summoned to her room at night, of all things—of course she hesitated.
"...Whew."
Yona drew a deep breath and raised her hand to knock.
As if it had been waiting for exactly that, the door slid open, and Ceres's smiling face appeared.
"...I figured you'd do that, so I'm not even surprised."
"Are you? How disappointing. Well then, come in."
Guided by Ceres's hand, Yona stepped into her room.
It was a tidy chamber, not so very different from the one Yona's party occupied—much the same in size, its furnishings just as modest.
"So, now that you've seen the Church Territory—what do you think?"
The moment Yona sat down, Ceres plopped into the chair across from her with an almost giddy air.
Her face was so visibly delighted that Yona could only offer an awkward smile in return.
"It's a place where people live, I guess... What's there to compare?"
"Goodness. A priest visits the Church Territory and that's all the impression she takes away. If anyone heard you, they'd think... hm, they'd think something rather strange of you."
"I'm only a half-penny priest anyway. Not a proper one. A proper priest would be, well... Vigrind, or someone. You know."
"You never call her 'Saintess,' do you."
At that, Yona fell silent.
The side of Vigrind's face drifted unbidden into her mind. That stuck-up little brat who once muttered she wasn't sure whether the mantle of Saintess suited her at all.
She'd never imagined that damned ground-gnawing pipsqueak, always spitting venom, carried worries like that.
Yona had half expected her to become Saintess and start crowing, "See? Now you understand—there is a hierarchy between us, you and I," but she hadn't done anything of the sort.
Even so, Yona couldn't bring herself to call her Saintess.
Vigrind-as-Saintess felt, somehow, like a different person from the Vigrind she'd grown up with in the orphanage.
"Still—the Hero and the Saintess are ordained four days from now. Wouldn't it be better to stay and see it before you leave?"
She had thought about it, truth be told.
But an ordination ceremony was nothing if not an extravaganza, and she had a feeling that watching it would leave her feeling strange somehow.
A feeling that a person like Yona simply had no business sitting in that hall.
Just a feeling.
And so she had resolved, without regret, to leave the very next day.
Once Yona decided, the others all agreed, so there was no problem there.
When Yona went quiet for a long stretch without answering, Ceres gave a small, polite cough.
"...Well, in any case, fine. The reason I asked you to come by tonight is that I have a proposal for you."
"A proposal?"
Yona surfaced from her memories of Vigrind and looked at Ceres.
Ceres was still smiling at her, but there was something so strange in her eyes that Yona found herself dropping her gaze almost involuntarily.
"Nothing you'd lose out on, I promise. Quite the opposite—it's a good offer. The kind you'd be tempted by."
"Then why don't you spell it out?"
Nothing is more expensive than free.
Kindness given for nothing does not exist.
When someone tells you an offer won't cost you a thing and you should just hear them out—tell them to eat it first.
Those were Yona's guiding principles, and right now Ceres was flaunting a violation of the third one right in front of her.
But Yona lacked the gall to tell Ceres to go first—why are you making this offer to me instead of taking it yourself?
"So, once the Hero and the Saintess are ordained, they'll set out on the Hero's Pilgrimage at once. Their first mission will likely be tracking Berbaria's fragment, and hunting down whoever was behind the Semek incident."
"I'd imagine so."
Not that it's any of my business.
They'll manage on their own, I'm sure.
Let the Hero do it. Or that tin can.
"So here is my proposal: I'd like you to accompany them on the Hero's Pilgrimage."
"Refused."
Yona shut it down flat, without hearing a single word more.
Whether Ceres was flustered or not, Yona kept her mouth firmly closed.
Not my problem.
Her bag already held close to a hundred gold coins—whatever the procedures in the Wizard Community cost, she could cover it.
She'd set out on this journey with seven. Now she had a hundred. It was more than enough already.
She had no need to take on more work, and above all, she had a grand purpose driving her—more than ever before.
Reach the Wizard Community. Undergo the procedures.
And become a man again.
Nothing in this world was more urgent than that.