Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Saint, You’re So Vulgar! – Chapter 31
At the end of their nonstop sprint, a smile bloomed across Asher's face.
"The exit!!!"
Far ahead, beyond the stairs, a starry sky shimmered faintly.
At his words, joy lit up the faces of the missing people.
And so they ran a little further.
"Ah, aaaah!!!"
Dawn's air enveloped them.
Earthen ground and grass, trees and sky, and stars, wind.
The open expanse of naturenot dark rock wallsreddened their eyes.
Sobs, impossible to tell if laments or sighs of relief, echoed from all around.
Some prayed to the Parent God.
Others clung to each other and bawled.
Their ragged forms, as if death could claim them any second, savoring the moment of escapeit surely stirred a deep sense of duty within Asher.
Asher smiled softly.
Lubena, utterly drained, collapsed to the ground and could only manage a shaky "Huuu..."
Somewhere amid it all, Versia finally finished tying up loose ends and emerged.
She gazed at the open sky and let out a long breath.
Asher drew near and whispered.
"You did amazingly! Without you, Saintess, who knows what would've happened...!"
He couldn't help grinning like a fool.
It was such a miraculous moment, after all.
And one where they'd brought justice together, no less.
Asher wanted Versia to feel proud of what they'd accomplished.
So he showered her with praise, chattering on by himself for a good long while.
At some point amid it, Asher suddenly fell silent and looked up at Versia.
Her face still bore traces of unease that wouldn't fade.
Asher's expression turned uneasy in turn.
"...What's wrong?"
Versia scanned the surroundings.
Then the hole they'd just crawled out of.
With a grave look, she murmured,
"It's weird."
"Pardon?"
"Why was it so easy?"
Asher tilted his head.
The implication behind her words was clearly nothing like arrogance.
* * *
The rearmost position, the one Versia had held.
Once Asher's escape plan kicked into full gear, she'd been locked in combat nonstop.
It hadn't been difficult in itself.
Thanks to how miraculous Asher's body was.
From the moment battle began, the world slowed to a crawl.
The heretics charging like swarms of locustsevery attack registered crystal clear. In that state, figuring out counters was child's play.
Versia's experience might be limited, but it didn't matter; the body was optimized for combat.
Strike, thrust, unleash.
The only real annoyance was the prayer output, weaker than her original body's.
Anyway, with all that leeway, she'd noticed something.
'Isn't this too easy?'
For a nest hiding hundreds of heretics, the troops' quality wasn't all that high.
And they didn't give off any sense of discipline.
There was a clear reason this was suspicious.
The cult, reorganized around the Witch.
The heretics should have a strict hierarchy and chain of command.
Their forces should be deployed systematically, with proper tactics in play.
Yet they fought like a disorganized mob.
Just moths to a flame, charging in to die.
Assuming they hadn't prepared for this felt too optimistic, and Versia wasn't the type to cling to hopeful delusions.
Quite the opposite.
She always planned for the worst.
This was where she differed from Asher.
He'd always been the strongest, crushing crises with his own power, so "easy resolutions" felt natural to him. He wasn't questioning this at all.
'...This is weird.'
The faint discrepancy snowballed into full-blown doubt.
Versia found herself replaying everything, even right after discovering the cave.
The unease wrapped around her, heightening her senses beyond their threshold into something ominous.
It happened in that moment.
Ku-gu-gu-gu!
The ground trembled.
"...Ma'am!"
A booming shout echoed from deep in the cave.
Soon, its source became clear.
"Saintesssss!!!"
It was Satern.
He was racing toward them, smashing through the passage in a frantic tone.
That urgency pierced straight through the haze clinging to Versia.
'He's panicked?'
Escape was already complete. What reason could Satern, who'd gone to clear the depths, have for showing up like this now?
'Why? How?'
...The answer was obvious.
It wasn't over yet.
The thought clicked puzzle pieces into place one by one.
From the very start.
It had been off from the beginning.
'The cave supposedly snatches people with tentacles beyond a certain point.'
Yet, as far as Versia remembered, the group hadn't encountered a single tentacle until reaching the prison.
'And what about all the previous rescue teams?'
There wasn't a single rescuer among these missing people.
By all accounts, there should have been. But up to the escape, none among them were rescuers.
'Where did the intel go wrong?'
The answer was plain.
The source of the info had hidden or twisted something.
The moment it clicked, Versia whipped her head around.
And she saw him.
At the edge of the missing people, Bourbonthe very first one taken.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
'You being alive is the weird part.'
Truth be told, if they were sharing limited resources underground, he'd have suffered the worst health decline by far.
Wasn't that strange?
All his comrades dead and sprawled out, yet only he survived?
That didn't add up.
Because he was exceptionally healthy?
Sturdy stamina?
Superior survival skills?
For some flimsy reason like that, a regular guy pushing past fifty surviving over half a year down here...?
'...Impossible.'
Thought and action were one.
Versia drew her sword.
The instant she lunged for Bourbon
Heh...
He grinned.
His whites turned pitch black.
Versia's eyes widened in shock.
Bourbon's mouth gaped open.
Deep in his throat, a red tentacle in place of a tongue throbbed like a spear tip.
It launched.
That thing was the enemy.
Asher's instincts screamed it.
She had to rush in and block it.
But even at this body's speed, reaching it before it fired was impossible.
No dodging, either.
Not a matter of the body.
What that tentacle targeted
"...Ah."
was Asher.
He'd spotted Bourbon too.
His face drained white in horror as he turned straight to Versia.
Was it that gaze?
...No, that wouldn't be reason enough.
The instant she grasped the full situation, Versia moved before she could think.
Thud
She shoved Asher aside.
Stepped into the path.
And the tentacle fired.
Spurt!
In this hyper-focused state, split seconds stretched like eternity.
Only then, in the slowed world, did Versia realize she was sacrificing herself for Asher.
That her body had acted before her mind.
'Why?'
She saw Asher staring at her, bewildered.
And finally, the answer came.
It felt right.
'Because I wanted to.'
That dumb, oblivious faceas if he hadn't registered the dangerworrying for her first even now, had burrowed deep into her heart before she knew it.
When weighing her life against his, his tipped the scale just a bit heavier.
Not a life without him, but vanishing for his sake felt better.
All from just over a month together.
Because she lacked the confidence to endure longer alone.
'Ahh...'
Everything clicked into clarity at last.
A thin fog lifted from her mind.
Yeah, wasn't it strange?
Why had she grown so emotional only toward Asher, when others barely registered?
The dread of his hatred, the desire to possess him.
The answer was so clichd.
'Turns out I was smitten.'
That newfound clarity in her life had felt so good.
At some point, Versia had fallen hard for Asher.
The only regret was realizing it so late.
But this would do.
Better for the world if Asher survived than someone as shady as her.
If that was why God favored her, if the body swap was her purpose, she could accept it.
So Versia closed her eyes.
But
As it had throughout her life.
As every moment that forged her pessimism had.
This time, the divine favor protected her in the form of a covenant.
-If harm comes, let it strike me first...
One knight's devout prayer tragically brought about Versia's greatest fear.
Fwaaah!
A sensation of her soul ripping free.
Right after,
Splat!
A burst echoed as Versia fell flat on her butt.
The same instant Satern appeared and smashed Bourbon.
Boom!
A distant roar sounded.
Versia felt dizzy.
She grimaced briefly, then looked up late.
In that moment, her blood ran cold.
"Ah...?"
A gasp escaped her.
Before her eyes stood Asher's bodythe one she'd just been using.
Pierced through the solar plexus, he stared down at her with a dazed expression.
In other words.
Of all the timing, her body had switched back right then.
* * *
"Cough...!"
Bloody froth bubbled up and spilled out.
Agonizing pain lanced from her solar plexus.
Heat spread through her entire body.
Poison.
The deadliest kind.
Could she detox it now?
Didn't know.
Her mind was fading.
Thoughts scattered, judgment faltered.
She couldn't collapse like this.
Even amid the haze, there was relief.
'It's me.'
She'd taken the hit.
Her body was back to normal, and the Saintesswho'd tried to die first for her guardhad survived, thankfully.
Versia managed a pale smile.
Just as she'd hoped, taking the harm meant for the Saintess first.
Their eyes met, and in that instant, Versia blacked out.
Thud
She crumpled into the Saintess's arms.
Her blood began soaking the Saintess's body.
* * *
Lubena clamped her hand over her mouth.
The trembling started at her fingertips and spread relentlessly through her body.
Far off, Versia and Asher.
Versia, drenched in Asher's blood, stared blankly down at him in her arms.
The focus faded from her eyes.
Her jaws parted.
Lubena felt her heart stop.
Having registered nothing until now, she could only wonder why.
"Ugh...?"
The anomaly struck right then.
Drdrdrdr
The ground shook.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu!
Vibrations like the sky crashing down.
Then the wind screamed.
The underbrush thrashed wildly.
At the center, above Versia's head.
Kiiiiing!
A blood-red halo began to rise.
Rumble!
Lubena looked up.
Her breath caught.
The dark night sky was staining red with blood.