The Wizard Community (1)
"Is there anything troubling you, my Lady?"
At Scarlet's words, Vigrind shook her head with an awkward smile.
"With this many people about, what could possibly trouble me?"
She had tried to speak with all the dignity she could muster, but to any observer, Vigrind still looked like a young child—a far cry from anything resembling refinement.
Vigrind knew this about herself as well as anyone. Still, she thought, she was only just growing up—surely she would fill out in time—and she did her best not to let it bother her.
That aside, there was something Vigrind desperately wanted to say.
'Honestly, you're the most uncomfortable thing here…'
And yet she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud, because Vigrind was now a formally ordained Saint of the Heavenly God Church.
She had to act carefully, believing that somewhere, someone's eyes were always watching. She had to speak carefully, believing that somewhere, someone's ears were always listening.
It wasn't only because she was the Church's Saint. As the closest companion of the Hero who stood right beside her, the same standard applied all the more.
Vigrind gave Scarlet a smile and adjusted her robe.
The saintly vestments themselves were exceedingly revealing, so in weather like this there was no escaping the cold. She had grown used to the exposure by now—after all, the vestments existed so that the body might soak in as much of the sunlight that was called the Heavenly God's Radiance as possible, and there was nothing to be done about that—but the cold never quite became familiar.
And so Vigrind had draped herself in the pure white robe meant for winter dress, wrapping her whole body in it.
Then, feeling a tug that wouldn't give, she glanced over to find the Hero, Ludwig, sitting right on top of her robe.
His eyes were closed, lost in some thought, or perhaps asleep—there was no telling. But Vigrind needed her robe free from beneath him, so she grimaced and pulled at it with all her might.
After a long struggle, Vigrind finally let out a small sigh and tapped Ludwig on the shoulder.
"Ah—my Lady. I wasn't sleeping."
"…You're welcome to sleep, of course. But might you let me pull my robe free?"
Only then did Ludwig look down at his own backside. Catching sight of the thick, snow-white length of robe pinned beneath it, he lifted his hips with a sheepish smile.
"Thank you, Hero."
"Thank me? Please, don't mention it."
Even as he said it, Ludwig covered his mouth and let out a yawn that threatened to split his face. Stretching one arm up high in a long, luxurious stretch—claiming he hadn't slept, though he had clearly been doing exactly that.
The carriage bound for Carpatia Port had grown noticeably emptier. What had once been packed with Yona's party, Rubina, Ceres, Scarlet, and the Hero's party besides was now reduced to the two of the Hero's company, Ceres, James, and Scarlet.
Just five remained.
Thanks to that, the carriage fairly flew along the road, and it had now been a week since they left Church Territory. If nothing went wrong and they kept this pace, three or four more days would see them at Carpatia Port.
"By the way, Sir Scarlet."
"Yes, my Lady."
Scarlet had been sitting pressed close to Vigrind's side for some time now. Before her ordination she had seemed rather cool and distant, but the moment the ceremony was over, her entire bearing had changed—and it frankly left Vigrind flustered.
"Did you… not go to investigate Semek, Sir?"
She had certainly heard that the Crusade Knights had marched out. She'd assumed Scarlet would have been the one to lead them, so it had been quite the surprise when Scarlet appeared and boarded the carriage as it was departing.
At Vigrind's question, Scarlet paused for a moment.
"The search of Semek was carried out by the Crusade Knights. I was given a separate duty—to escort you, my Lady, and accompany the Hero—which is why I joined you here."
Her tone of voice seemed to have changed as well.
Vigrind nodded at Scarlet's explanation. If that was how it was, what could she say to it?
But once Vigrind fell silent too, the inside of the carriage sank into utter stillness. In the back, James was snoring away, and Ludwig in the seat beside her seemed to be asleep as well. Across from them, Ceres was buried beneath a mountain of parchment, busy writing something or other.
Which meant that of everyone present, only two people were awake and in their right mind: Vigrind and Scarlet.
"…Sir, have you ever seen a demon?"
"A demon, you say?"
Hmm.
At that, Scarlet lapsed into a thoughtful hum and said nothing more. The silence stretched so long that Vigrind began to think she must never have seen one—but just as that thought formed, Scarlet spoke.
"I have not seen one with my own eyes. As you know, ever since the Heavenly God cast that Radiance down upon this land, all demons have been driven back to the land of their birth. And so, no—I have never seen one directly."
"I suppose that's true."
It was written in the scriptures, after all. When at last the Heavenly God revealed herself in Marlene and blazed forth with faithful light to smite the False Heavenly God, every false light retreated, and the demons slumbering in the ruins all around were cast back to where they belonged. And when the three demons who remained plotted to summon the Demon King, Hero Siwoo and Saintess Sonia rose boldly with their companions and drove the Demon King back with that lightning—so went the passage.
The very story she had heard ad nauseam back in her days of study at the cathedral.
"And now that such things scheme to return at last with wicked designs, would it not be that she has sent the Hero and the Saintess down to this land to punish them?"
"…I—I suppose so."
Vigrind felt her face flush hot for some reason.
It was the first time anyone had flattered her so shamelessly to her face, and she had no idea how she was supposed to respond. This was exactly the kind of thing Yona, with her gift of the gab and easy sociability, would have handled with aplomb.
"What manner of relationship did you have with that white-haired adventurer?"
"The white-haired adventurer… You mean Yona?"
"Yes. That… reckless, thunderclap of an adventurer."
The coldness in Scarlet's voice as she described Yona was something else entirely. Vigrind knew perfectly well that the knight did not think highly of Yona, but even so—wasn't putting it that way going a bit far?
"She is my… my peer. We were raised in the same orphanage, and we studied at the same cathedral."
"I see. And yet you, my Lady, are so very much alone—how is it that your peer…"
"She is my peer."
At Vigrind's sharp voice, Scarlet's mouth snapped shut. Privately, she didn't think she'd said anything wrong, but shut it she did.
"Madam Regent."
Ceres, her face buried in her pile of parchment, lifted her head and looked at Vigrind. A dark shadow hung beneath her eyes, as though someone had painted a streak of black beneath them.
"…You seem very busy."
"Oh—ah, yes. The Semek reports. Was there something you needed?"
That was when Vigrind found herself at a loss for an answer. Talking with Scarlet had somehow put her in a foul mood, and she'd called out to Ceres without any real purpose in mind—so now she had nothing at all to say.
"Give the lady something sweet, would you. It seems our Saintess's mouth has grown idle. Hahaha."
In contrast, a voice brimming with energy. Ludwig, awake again at some point, flashed a grin at Ceres before turning to look at Vigrind.
"Isn't that right, my Lady?"
There was something teasing in that voice, she couldn't help but feel. But when a plate of cookies was pushed before her, a small dish of honey set alongside it, Vigrind kept her mouth shut.
Because an idle mouth… might very well have been the truth.
Vigrind picked up a cookie and dipped it generously into the honey. She knew this cookie's taste well—it was made without a single thought spared for how much sugar went into it. She had often fed them to Rubina in her arms, and more than once Vigrind herself had eaten those very cookies from Rubina's outstretched hand.
That sweetness had been truly delicious.
"Hero, have some."
Her hand cupped beneath it to catch the dripping honey, Vigrind held the cookie out to Ludwig. He really ought to just take it—but how embarrassing.
Then Ludwig suddenly swept in close, and Vigrind startled so badly she nearly dropped the cookie.
"Goodness, you startled me."
Ludwig had clamped a hand firmly around her wrist. Catching the cookie that would surely have fallen, he popped it straight into his mouth and flashed that cheerful grin of his.
"Wow, this is genuinely delicious. Though I suppose nothing given by the Saintess could taste anything but wonderful."
"…Please, eat up. There's plenty."
Without answering him, Vigrind picked up a cookie of her own and took a big bite.
Truly delicious.
Very sweet—
"Ugh, bitter."
Yona spat out the petal she'd been chewing and scowled darkly.
"That's why I told you not to eat it."
Alec looked at her with an expression of pure exasperation.
"Come on, baldy. A person's supposed to have something sweet now and then. You don't know that?"
"What kind of lunatic goes around sucking down raw flowers?"
"But this, this is a really tasty flower… why does it taste bitter now?"
She'd forgotten the name, but this red flower was exactly the one Yona remembered. Pick only the buds and suck on them, and honey would come welling out—that kind of flower.
Yet now that she actually ate one, there was no honey to be found—nothing but bitterness.
"Hurry up. Because of you, Kayak's about to blow his top again."
"Ugh… that lizard would've been dead ages ago if it weren't for me."
Grumbling all the while, Yona quickened her pace. She did it because Kayak, already far ahead, was glaring back at them with his brow ridges drawn down, and the look on him was not promising in the slightest.
"Yona, hurry it up. What are you doing?"
"Coming, coming."
Just as Kayak had said, the entire crossing of the Medial Plain toward Lake Cantasia had passed without a single monster sighting. An extraordinarily peaceful journey—they hadn't so much as crossed paths with a common wild orc. There had been one very serious incident along the way, but no one spoke of it.
And Alec's mind was doubly uneasy. Yona, eyes narrowed, had barked at him that they were going to talk once they parted ways with Kayak—which made it doubly so.
Knowing nothing of Alec's troubles, Yona straightened her habit, readjusted her left arm, checked the seams of her Holy Shroud, and adjusted her right arm in turn.
"Look there, Yona."
Kayak, already at the crest of the hill, waited for them and pointed far into the distance.
"Whoa…"
Lake Cantasia. A lake steeped in the legend that the arrowhead of a giant who lived long, long ago had struck the earth there, and water had pooled in its wake. Mist was said to hang thick around its shores at all times.
—Just as it did now.
Rising through that mystical mist—dense, yet never quite concealing the view—buildings came into sight. Seen from atop the hill, they stretched away into the far distance.
"…Isn't it supposed to be a tower, when you say 'wizard'?"
"Where'd you pick up that 'common knowledge'? Don't you know no building's allowed to stand taller than the Imperial Palace?"
"And this is your first time seeing it too, baldy."
"First time or not, that's still what common knowledge is."
Leaving the two to their bickering, Kayak started down the hill. The pair hurried down after him in his wake.
"That there is the Wizard Community. As you can see, it's just a village. It's a community, so it's a village."
"Huh… I mean, I suppose so."
But still—when you said wizard, wasn't a tower the thing to picture?
There was even a term for it: mage tower, after all.
Yona murmured to herself as she made quick work of the road. The thoroughfare spread out before them ran straight toward the Wizard Community—a place where buildings of two or three stories, five at the very most, sat huddled together in cozy rows.
At last—the Wizard Community.