Try to Endure It
Blasphemy.
“……”
Every time Alphonse looked at the scenery around him, he muttered the same words. Thanks to his vow of silence, the muttering never reached anyone else, yet he couldn’t hold it back.
No one offers thanks.
While eating, while gazing at the sun that shone down on them from the sky, even while finishing their errands and heading back.
“Hehe. Gotta buy snacks.”
“Hey, miss! Looking for something sweet?”
“Yeah!”
“I’ll give you a good deal! Come over here!”
“Really?”
Blasphemy.
The merchant stall that had called out to Iris and Alphonse was painfully shabby. The food they sold was crude. Low-quality fruit coated in sugar water to hide its inferior taste—nothing but cheap snacks. If only they had at least wiped down the stall, but sugar powder lay scattered across the ground.
“Mister, how much?”
“How many do you want?”
“Lots! I have so many people to give them to!”
“Then I’ll give you eleven for fifty copper coins. One extra because you remind me of my daughter, miss.”
Alphonse ground his teeth.
How dare he spout such nonsense without knowing who she is.
The Saintess had only one parent—the Heavenly Mother. It was no exaggeration to say that, compared to every Saintess in history, Iris received the Mother Goddess’s greatest favor. She was the one who would save the world from evil. Simply accepting dirty snacks from a blasphemous man like this should have been considered a lifelong blessing, yet—
“This is all you have?”
“Oh my, it’s more than enough. Just wait a moment, miss.”
At the silver coin Iris held out, the merchant beamed and handed her a bundle of copper coins in change, then began coating the fruit skewers with sugar water.
How dare he demand payment for selling trash like this.
Had it not been for the vow of silence, he would have brought down heavenly punishment in the Mother’s stead.
“Thank you!”
“Oh, I’m the one who should thank you. Take care now!”
Iris clutched five fruit sticks in each hand, one already in her mouth, and skipped forward with light, bouncy steps.
“……”
The Saintess is being defiled.
Alphonse’s heart burned with indignation. The ritual of praying to the Heavenly Mother before every meal, the practice of remembering that every grace received came from the Mother and offering back even the smallest portion—where had all of it gone?
Alphonse, I too highly value your piety. Because the Holy Kingdom recognizes your heart, you are constantly mentioned as a bishop candidate.
No one your age studies doctrine so diligently or offers such sincere prayers of gratitude to the Heavenly Mother each time.
However, demanding all of that from the current Saintess causes her pain. Citing doctrine to criticize Abaddon in this situation will only put your life in danger.
Remain silent for now. Alphonse, this silence will help you grow.
Archbishop, you are wrong.
How could faith walk a path without pain? To avoid a path one believed was right simply because it was dangerous only proved that one’s heart amounted to no more than that.
“Three for Evan-Evan, three for Rowena, two for zombie sister, and one each for the coachman uncle and the little kid.”
I must correct this.
Before the Saintess could become any more tainted. Before she could be corrupted any further by filthy undead and the king of heretics.
The Heavenly Mother is always watching over you, so do not despair simply because the answer is not yet visible.
Reciting a passage of doctrine inwardly, Alphonse followed Iris in silence.
Then Iris suddenly froze in place. Clear bewilderment rose on her face.
Alphonse turned his head to follow her gaze and smiled.
As expected, you have given the answer once again. Thank you, Heavenly Mother.
What Iris and Alphonse had found were knights wearing the uniform of the Heavenly God Church.
“Are you perhaps priests from the Holy Kingdom?”
One of the knights, seeing Alphonse’s attire, made the guess and asked. Alphonse drew the sign of the cross in front of his forehead, then lightly touched his lips with that same hand—the universal gesture of the Heavenly God Church indicating that one was observing a vow of silence.
“Our bishop said he felt immense divine power here at dawn, so we came to investigate. Was it your power, Father?”
Alphonse shook his head with a warm smile, then firmly grasped the wrist of the bewildered, frozen Iris and began to pull her along.
“I-I don’t want to.”
But Iris’s timid protest was completely drowned out when Alphonse knelt before her and pressed his forehead to the back of her hand. The sugar-coated fruit skewers she had been holding scattered onto the ground with a clatter and were crushed beneath the approaching footsteps of the moved knights.
“Could this person be…?”
“I-I am…”
Iris tried to step back, but Alphonse had already stretched out his arm to block her. The knights surrounded her with eyes full of pure longing.
“It is an honor to meet you…!”
“This is no place for such a meeting. We will escort you. Our bishop will certainly wish to see you as well. Our church may be humble compared to those of the Holy Kingdom, but please allow us to take you there.”
Yet Iris, encircled by the knights, wore anything but a pleasant expression. She stared at the fallen, trampled, and shattered fruit skewers with a face on the verge of tears.
“Those… I was supposed to share them.”
“What is this…? Fruit candy? Did you receive this as an offering?”
The knights’ faces darkened. They knew very well that the fruit candies sold in this area were low-grade junk—near-spoiled fruit coated in sugar and sold at rip-off prices.
“Such inferior goods are unworthy of you. To think anyone would dare offer something like this to the Saintess.”
Frowning, the knights snatched away the remaining snacks from Iris’s hands. They tossed them carelessly to the ground as if the sight disgusted them, then smiled brightly as they gently took the Saintess by the wrist.
“Let us go to the church. We will offer you things far more fitting for the Saintess than this low-grade food.”
Watching the situation unfold exactly as he had hoped, Alphonse could not hide his smile.
Saintess, you truly are the most noble being, one who cannot help but receive the Heavenly Mother’s special favor.
She possessed the power to shake the knights off at any time, yet she did not. There were simply too many people here. If the repelled knights collided with passing pedestrians, someone could be hurt.
However, Saintess, that kindness of yours exists to distribute the Heavenly Mother’s love from a closer distance on her behalf. It is not meant to be directed toward heretics the Mother herself has abandoned.
Therefore it must be corrected. Rowena’s approach did not suit the current blank-slate Saintess. Believing she would realize the truth on her own and walk out was fine, but throwing her into this filthy environment was nothing but neglect.
“……”
It is time to return to your original self, Saintess.
I will help you become the person I once met—before the curses took you. The strong, pure you who put the Mother Goddess’s teachings into practice before anyone else.
. . .
Evan watched the scene—which could only be called a farce—from within the crowd. He had arrived partway through and hadn’t approached closely, so he couldn’t hear the conversation clearly. Still, it wasn’t difficult to guess what was happening just by watching.
I knew that priest had fanatic tendencies, but this is worse than I thought.
“Idiot.”
Even if they dragged Iris away now, she would only end up returning anyway. If the Holy Kingdom had any real chance of dealing with those curses, they never would have brought her all the way to Abaddon. There would have been no reason for Rowena to hesitate even after hearing the condition about the holy relic.
I suppose I’ll benefit from that fanatic streak.
He didn’t know why Iris wasn’t resisting them—or couldn’t—but if no one interfered, she would be sent back to the Holy Kingdom. In that case, he wouldn’t have to keep his promise to lift one of the curses. Since this was the result of Alphonse running wild on his own, Rowena would have no grounds to hold him accountable.
“……”
The Saintess will return anyway.
He could simply begin his research then. He might even use this incident as leverage to demand greater concessions from the Holy Kingdom next time. All Evan had to do was quietly turn around right now, pretending he had seen nothing.
Yet.
Why am I still watching this?
Was it enjoyable? Was he watching just to laugh at the ridiculous antics of the fool playing the clown in this comedy?
No.
It was irritating. The fact that he didn’t understand why only made it more unpleasant.
Thud.
The cheap snack Iris had been holding fell to the ground at the knight’s hand and became covered in dirt. Her face crumpled as if she would burst into tears at any second.
Step.
Before he realized it, Evan was already walking forward. With the knights surrounding Iris and the pedestrians watching from a safe distance, his advance toward the center naturally drew every eye.
“…Who the hell are you?”
One knight frowned and glared at him. When Evan kept walking without answering, the knights adopted threatening postures and rested their hands on the hilts of their swords.
“You there, stop. You stand before a noble person.”
“Noble person?”
Evan laughed coldly.
“I don’t see one.”
All he saw were stupid knights who had abandoned thought in the name of reverence, a priest blinded by faith, and an idiot Saintess who wore a displeased expression yet couldn’t even voice a single proper objection.
“How dare you!”
“Insulting the daughter of the Heavenly Mother right in front of her?!”
The knights drew their swords in unison. Evan didn’t know much about swords, but he knew that truly skilled people did not get excited by petty provocations and pull their blades. Some skilled fighters drew swords without hesitation at the slightest taunt, but those were usually murderers who had simply been looking for an excuse to cut something.
These men belonged to neither group. They were merely small fry—drunk on the sense of omnipotence and superiority that came from wearing the Heavenly God Church’s uniform. Or fools who wanted to flaunt their power by covering the violence of the sword with the justification of religion.
“In front of the Heavenly Mother…”
Dealing with such fools was simple. Once they realized they were nothing but small fry, they would tuck their tails between their legs on their own.
Ignoring the swords pointed at him, Evan removed two rings from his right hand and offered them as payment.
“The Heavenly God Church regards sunlight as the love and gaze bestowed by the Mother Goddess. They say that since God is always watching from the heavens, one must always behave properly.”
“Reciting doctrine now and begging for forgiveness is already too la—”
“But I’ve never particularly received that love, so I’d appreciate it if you removed that gaze.”
The moment Evan finished speaking, the entire area darkened at once. It wasn’t that shadows had fallen. The color of the sunlight itself had changed.
The knights and onlookers who sensed the anomaly looked up at the sky, then widened their eyes in terror.
“The—the sun… turned black?”
The massive spell created by Castior that hangs over Abaddon, allowing undead to maintain their sanity and storing the price of spells. The source of Evan's absolute authority.
“Abaddon’s… devil?”
The knights’ sword tips trembled in disbelief as Evan continued to walk closer. Instead, their blades slowly retreated, fear etched across every face.
“『From this moment, you have one minute.』”
Black flames coiled around his body. With every step, the ground beneath his feet changed color. He could no longer be called human.
“『Anyone who turns and runs without hesitation will live.』”
Even his voice carried a truth so absolute that instinct itself recognized it.
“『If you’re curious what happens to those who remain here after one minute—』”
Evan’s eyes had already become pure flame.
“『Try to endure it once.』”