Unwelcome Guest (2)
One of the chapel windows was broken.
“This must be the cause.”
A stone lay near the shattered glass fragments scattered across the floor.
It hadn’t been carried in on the wind. Someone outside had thrown it with deliberate malice.
Lowen peered through the broken pane. The forest beyond was quiet, as if feigning innocence. No one was in sight. No matter how carefully he scanned the surroundings, there was nothing but pale-green undergrowth.
He sharpened his senses and focused. There it was. A gaze watching them from behind the bushes. The faint sound of muttered breathing. The rustle of leaves out of rhythm with the wind.
“Over there.”
Lowen pointed toward the presence he had sensed.
“Huh? I don’t see anyone.”
Of course she didn’t. The person was hiding behind the bushes under a concealment spell. Lowen couldn’t see them with his eyes either, but his senses told him clearly that someone was there. The fact that they hadn’t managed to hide their presence completely suggested they were an amateur.
“I’ll be right back.”
Lowen vaulted lightly through the window and closed the distance to the bushes in a single burst of speed. His movements were effortless; a few light steps carried him across a considerable stretch of ground. Even if he had abandoned the life of a knight, the fundamental physical prowess and stamina remained etched into his body.
The undergrowth shook violently as the figure inside startled at Lowen’s rapid approach.
“Whoa… he’s so fast…!”
Ariel’s pure, unfiltered admiration slipped out. So a person could move like that without magic after all.
“And he’s a bishop, no less.”
Clergymen were supposed to spend their time in prayer rather than physical training, hardening their faith and refining their divine power. Most of them were soft from lack of exercise. Exceptions always existed, of course, but this was the first time she had ever seen a priest with Lowen’s level of athletic ability.
“His divine power seemed a little lacking… maybe he skipped prayer and just worked out the whole time?”
She was tilting her head and muttering to herself when Lowen returned through the bushes.
“Let go of me! I said let go!”
A boy was being hauled along by the scruff of his neck like a cat. He looked as though he had just entered puberty, or was right in the thick of it. He shouted and thrashed his arms and legs wildly.
Lowen brought the boy into the cathedral.
“Saintess, this is the one who threw the stone at the window.”
He held the boy firmly by both shoulders so he couldn’t escape and stood him in front of Ariel.
The boy kept his head down, clearly aware that throwing a rock through a window was wrong. Yet he showed no intention of admitting fault; his lips were pressed tight and his fists were clenched.
“Hello.”
Ariel offered a smile as warm as spring sunlight. Her voice was gentle and soothing as she greeted the boy kindly. In front of a stranger she was carefully concealing her usual airheaded self and playing the roleposed saintess.
The boy, still looking at the floor, flicked his eyes upward for a quick glance at the owner of the voice.
“Ah…”
A face so lovely it momentarily stole his breath. A smile as soft as her voice. A sacred aura glowed faintly behind her.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, young gentleman. I am Ariel Violet, the Seventh Saintess of the Credia Empire.”
Even Lowen, who knew her true nature, almost found himself folding his hands in reverence before that noble presence. A saintess really was a saintess, after all.
“May I ask your name?”
The boy who had been sneaking glances at her finally opened his tightly shut mouth.
“…Van.”
“Van. What a wonderful name.”
“…Whatever.”
He grumbled, but turned his head away as if embarrassed.
“But why is Van’s heart so full of anger? Would you tell me?”
Ariel’s eyes glowed a soft gold. She was reading his emotions. A thick gray mixed with red: revenge, rage, contempt. Feelings no child should carry.
Van glared sharply at her question.
“Because of you people!”
It was a baffling answer. They had only arrived at this cathedral less than a week ago. That was hardly enough time to do anything that would earn someone’s hatred. And for the past few days they had barely left the cathedral, so they hadn’t even had contact with anyone else.
“Would you tell us what we’ve done wrong?”
Even facing a boy who was growling like an enraged beast, Ariel’s expression never changed. She kept her serene smile and treated him with gentle kindness. She was so calm and composed that it was hard to believe she was the same person.
“If we have done something wrong, we will apologize with all sincerity.”
“Liars. It was the same back then. You said you’d apologize and then ran away.”
“I don’t know what happened in the past, but I swear in the name of God. Whatever the reason for your anger, I will listen to your story here. If an apology is needed, I will give it. If it is a misunderstanding, I will clear it up. So please, tell me, Van.”
Ariel carefully took the boy’s hand.
“Don’t touch me!”
The moment he felt her warm touch, Van yanked his hand free.
“I’m not falling for it! You’re just pretending to be nice so you can put a curse on me!”
Lowen, who had been watching quietly, tightened his grip on the shoulders of the boy who kept showing such insolence toward the Saintess.
“Ugh…!”
Even a slight increase in pressure made Van feel as though his shoulders would shatter.
“Bishop Lowen, violence is not allowed.”
Ariel immediately scolded him. She fixed Lowen with a stern look, as if reprimanding a child who had done wrong.
“My apologies…”
He had thought she was just a masturbation-addicted pervert, but she was a more proper saintess than he had expected.
Lowen released Van’s shoulders. The instant he did, the boy bolted out of the cathedral. His use of a rudimentary haste spell made his legs surprisingly quick.
“I’ll go catch him again.”
“No.”
Ariel stopped him.
“Even if we try to talk again, his emotions are too heated. My voice won’t reach him.”
“But I believe he should properly answer for the crime of breaking the window.”
“Let’s forgive him. There is no evil deed without a reason in this world. He must have had some cause.”
“Saintess, if I may speak out of turn, evil deeds without reason most certainly exist in this world.”
The faces of the vicious men he had killed in the past flickered through his mind like pages of an album being flipped. Most of them had attached some justification to their crimes. But among them had been those who truly committed evil for no reason at all—not for pleasure, not for money. He once asked a man who kidnapped people for torture and magical experiments why he did it. The answer had been: “It’s as natural as a heartbeat. Why would something so obvious need a grand reason?”
“Even if his actions were of that sort, it would only be regrettable.”
Ariel looked up at Lowen, still wearing her saintess’s smile.
“But when I heard his words, there was a reason behind his actions.”
“It could have been a lie to make excuses.”
“It wasn’t a lie.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“The eyes God granted me can see truth and falsehood.”
A golden ripple flowed through Ariel’s violet irises.
“Say anything you like. I’ll tell you whether it’s a lie or not.”
She wore a confident expression.
“Hmm… very well.”
Lowen thought for a moment, then spoke.
“The Saintess is truly adorable.”
“…Huh?”
“Looking at the Saintess feels like looking at a puppy.”
At the blunt praise, Ariel’s hair floated lightly upward and both her cheeks flushed hot. She had heard plenty of compliments while living in the Grand Cathedral, but this felt strangely different. It wasn’t the kind of joy that made her heart pound, yet hearing such words from someone who knew her lewd side left her flustered. What threw her even more was that the words were pure, unadulterated sincerity.
“Like a country mutt that wags its tail and grins stupidly at every person it sees.”
“What did you just say?!”
That, too, was sincere. Not a single falsehood mixed in—exactly how Lowen felt.
“A-and ‘mutt’…?!”
Apparently she didn’t like the sound of the word. Ariel puffed out both cheeks and huffed indignantly.
“In any case, let’s continue the discussion about that boy later.”
“Urrrgh…!”
“I’ll clean up the broken glass. Saintess, please go upstairs and rest comfortably.”
Lowen gave a light push to Ariel, who had already slipped from lofty saintess back into her usual self, urging her toward her room.
And so Ariel returned to her chamber. She flopped onto the bed as if throwing herself down and glared at the ceiling, still fuming.
Back in the Grand Cathedral, whenever she heard negative remarks about herself she would never show it outwardly; she would retreat alone to her bedroom, replay the words, and work through her feelings. This time she had let her displeasure show right in front of Lowen, but the habit of replaying the words to process her emotions remained the same.
“Even if I’ve shown him some unseemly sides of myself…! Does he have to insult a person like that…?!”
Compliments were always pleasant no matter how many times one heard them. At first, being called adorable and compared to a puppy had felt nice.
“But a stupidly grinning mutt…?! The bishop has been looking down on me as a complete idiot this whole time…!”
It was a word she had never heard before, so she didn’t know exactly what a “mutt” was, but the way “stupidly grinning” was attached made it feel like a belittling term—simple, dumb, and deficient.
What made her angriest of all was that the words had been sincere, and he had said them with that gentle smile.
After hugging a pillow and grumbling for a long while, Ariel suddenly began sniffing her own scent.
“Sniff… sniff sniff… M-maybe… does my body smell like that…?”
No matter how foul one’s own body odor might be, it was always hard to notice. Worried that she might reek of feces, Ariel pressed her nose to her forearms, underarms, and various other places, sniffing diligently. Aside from the thick, fishy scent clinging to the underwear she had forgotten to change after masturbating, there was only the nearly odorless smell of clean skin.