A Suspicious Peace
After a series of twists and turns, Jindrich and the soldiers successfully completed the operation. Together with the wounded, they left the devastated Trzikov behind and were returning to Silenia.
“So we never found that damn bastard after all?”
Her robe reduced to nothing more than rags, Lucie had draped Jiri’s cloak over herself. She asked the question in a voice thick with displeasure while riding behind Jindrich.
“We caused too much commotion to stay long, so we only performed a quick search… but there wasn’t even a trace of him.”
“Tsk. Then the bastard’s still alive.”
Irritated for no clear reason, Lucie thumped Jindrich’s back with her fist. The blow nearly made him lose balance, but Jiri’s quick support kept him from falling.
“He may have been a higher-ranking demon than we realized.”
“During the fight I think he shouted something about himself… but everything was so loud I couldn’t make it out.”
Jindrich shuddered as the memory of battle resurfaced.
“Looking back now, what we did was completely insane.”
“Yet here we are, alive and well! By the way, soldier. How is your arm?”
Lucie asked gently toward Milos Pensler, who lay in the captured cart with both arms fitted with splints and wrapped heavily in bandages.
“It huuurts so much…”
“Um… yes, of course it does. Um…”
Lucie trailed off and scratched the back of her head vigorously. Seeing her awkward gesture, Milos let out a small chuckle and asked.
“Is there something else you wish to say?”
“It’s… nothing special… I just wanted to say the thanks I couldn’t give you earlier… Th-thank you, soldier.”
Receiving one-sided help in battle and then expressing gratitude for it. Even counting her previous life, this was the first time Lucie had ever experienced it. Normally the words came naturally to her, yet in this moment they felt awkward and embarrassingly itchy, as though her whole body were crawling with discomfort.
“…Then, may I ask you for one favor?”
“Hm? A favor? Well, if it’s from you, I see no reason to refuse. What is it?”
“Milos.”
“Huh?”
“My name is not ‘soldier.’ It is Milos Pensler, Saint. From now on… could you please call me by my name?”
The unexpected request left Lucie staring silently for a moment at Milos, whose face she could not see while he lay in the cart.
“Um… I thought it was going to be something else.”
Then the corners of her mouth lifted into a bright smile.
“Very well, Milos my boy.”
She immediately resumed thumping the back of Jindrich’s armor.
“Right! Let us hurry and announce our victory! Faster, faster!”
“Ugh, please stop moving around back there, Saint!!”
Though he could not see their faces, Milos Pensler smiled quietly inside the cart as he listened to their voices.
Border of the Demon World. Legion Commander Valbasor’s domain.
A land where black clouds blanketed the sky so completely that not a single ray of sunlight could reach it. Upon that ground rose a majestic black castle.
The castle walls, having endured centuries, were rough and thick, yet crimson vines swayed in the wind as they climbed the stone, making the entire structure look like a living creature writhing in its sleep.
“Uwaaaaaah!!!”
Inside the castle, the furious voice of its supreme master reverberated through every hall and beyond the walls.
“That damned Saint… how dare she…!”
Valbasor’s condition after returning to his private chambers via Foradnit’s transition magic was unspeakable. The barrage of holy arrows from Lucie had detonated around him; the dark membrane of his wings was torn in several places, and the sharp wing bones were bent and snapped like rotten timber. Burns covered his body, and the holy power slowed his regeneration so severely that the wounds throbbed with a bubbling, searing agony. Most of all, his pride had been shattered.
The existence that had delivered countless waves of despair to humanity with every descent. Demon King’s Army Legion Commander Valbasor. He could not accept that he had been reduced to this state by a single Saint and a handful of insignificant insects.
“Master… please calm yourself…”
Foradnit spoke cautiously from a short distance away.
“F-first, I shall prepare the blood sacks for your recovery…”
His timing could not have been worse.
“Shut your mouth!”
In the blink of an eye Valbasor’s hand closed around Foradnit’s throat and lifted him off the ground.
“Ghk, k-hek… M-Master!!”
Before Foradnit could resist, Valbasor’s fangs sank into his neck. The screaming subordinate’s strength drained visibly; his dangling legs soon went limp. Meanwhile Valbasor’s wounds regenerated at a visible pace, and his tattered wings regained their glossy sheen, once more becoming the wings of a bat.
“Huu…”
At last Valbasor raised his head, mouth dripping with his subordinate’s blood, and hurled Foradnit into a corner.
“Be grateful I did not drain you completely.”
Foradnit, now little more than a shriveled mummy, staggered forward and pressed his forehead to the floor.
“Thank… you for your merciful… gr-grace… Master…”
“Disappear from my sight at once and collect yourself. I will summon you when needed.”
Only after Foradnit’s trembling figure dissolved into mist as he gathered what little magic power he could did Valbasor release a long, heavy sigh.
“I did not imagine it.”
Having regained some measure of reason through the blood he had consumed, Valbasor replayed the events at Trzikov in his mind and began to identify the source of the unease he had felt the entire time.
“That face. The title of Saint. Even that unusually aggressive holy power. Damn it all, I knew I had seen her somewhere before…”
Valbasor strode to the bookshelf in the corner of the room and triggered a hidden mechanism. A concealed drawer slid out from beneath it, containing a small green stone.
A memory communication stone. An ore imbued with special power; anyone who infused it with magic could exchange words across any distance.
Without hesitation Valbasor clutched the stone and slowly poured his magic power into it.
Vwoong——
The stone vibrated faintly, radiating an enchanting light that swirled between green and crimson. Then—
……Valbasor.
A voice reverberated inside Valbasor’s skull like an echo.
Your presence suddenly shifted from the Empire’s territory into the Demon World.
The voice rose and fell unpredictably with every syllable, as though many creatures were speaking as one. It was nearly impossible to read any emotion in it.
What happened?
“I encountered the Saint.”
The voice waited in silence for him to continue.
“And the face was strangely familiar.”
……So it is her.
“Yes. The very bitch you nagged every legion commander about so insistently.”
That explains the state you are in. Understood.
Valbasor flinched. He glanced back and forth between his ragged clothes and the window, then roared.
“Stop peeping on me, you bastard!”
A faint chuckle echoed softly inside his head.
Then withdraw your forces as the contract demands, Valbasor. I will inform the other commanders myself.
“Tsk. This is exactly why I disliked this war from the start.”
At any rate, it seems things will become busy. Let us end the conversation here. We shall meet at the next legion commanders’ assembly.
“…‘Demon King,’ I still cannot accept your methods—!”
Before Valbasor could finish, the communication stone had already lost its brilliant glow.
“……Aaaargh!!”
A month had passed since the raid on Trzikov.
I knew that once their supply line was severed the enemy would need time to regroup. Even so, the situation felt far too quiet. Most of all, that vampire. From what I had learned of his personality during our fight, he did not seem like the type to let the matter drop. Convinced he would come for revenge, I had been drilling Silenia’s soldiers relentlessly even before my own body fully recovered.
“……It’s fucking peaceful.”
I sat on a tree stump in the corner of the training ground, watching the soldiers train, when a butterfly fluttered down and landed on my knee.
“……Way too peaceful.”
“Isn’t peace a good thing, Saint?”
“Ah, the viscount’s adjutant. That… uh…”
“Dolia. Could you please remember my name this time?”
“Ahem. My apologies.”
Dolia approached, paper and pen in hand as though they were physically part of her body. I had never seen her without them.
“Did you need something from me?”
“I do. One piece of good news and one piece of bad news.”
I must have frowned without realizing it, because Dolia studied my expression and let out a soft giggle.
“…Your face looks far brighter than when I first met you. It suits you.”
I nodded at her words. “It’s all thanks to you, Saint. Do you truly not understand how great a feat you have accomplished?”
Um… the way she was buttering me up made me nervous about what would come next.
“What do you mean?”
“Here, the good news first. It is finally over.”
“…What is?”
“The war.”
“…Huh?”
“The Demon King’s army is withdrawing. The regions near Silenia—including Trzikov—have already been abandoned by the demons.”
What on earth was she talking about?
“The Demon King’s army withdrew that easily?”
“From the perspective of the entire empire, it was not exactly easy, Saint. The damage inflicted in such a short time was staggering.”
“Ah… yes, I suppose that’s true.”
The withdrawal carried too many suspicious elements to be taken at face value. Demons had always been a race that hid daggers behind their smiles. This retreat was clearly not born of mere accumulated losses; there had to be another scheme at work. Still, there was no need to voice such doubts in front of Dolia while she wore that bright expression.
“Then what is the bad news?”
“Ah, that would be…”
Dolia drew an expensive-looking envelope from her bosom and handed it to me.
To Viscount Jindrich of Silenia,
By order of the Holy See, an Inquisitor shall shortly be dispatched to your fortress. The authenticity and orthodoxy of the newly manifested Saint must be verified without delay. Prepare to receive the emissary of the Triangular God Church.
May the light of the Three Gods guide you.
“This morning a letter arrived for the viscount from the church headquarters in the imperial capital. They are sending someone to Silenia.”
“The church…”
There was only one church that mattered within the empire: the Imperial Central Church that served the state religion of the Triangular God Church. On the surface they presented themselves as an ordinary religious body, but having waged political war at the empire’s very heart in my previous life, I knew their true nature. Their involvement in imperial politics was only the beginning; their power far exceeded anything I could have imagined. I had been prepared for this moment from the day I awakened inside the Saint’s body. Sooner or later, I would have to face them. Perhaps I would even have to confront the ugly truth hidden behind the church’s façade. It seemed that time had come.
“They say the person they are sending is a heresy inquisitor.”
“Ah.”
This was a bit fucked.