Chapter 20
Translator: True Detective
[The Saintess Awakens - 10]
This kidnapper just said someone put him up to it regarding me.
In other words, it was better to view the kidnapping of Ellyn not as the kidnapper's own will, but as something done because someone instigated it. It would be easy to take care of the kidnapper right there, but if I did that, the matter wouldn't just end with cutting off the tail.
This time Ed and I were here by chance, but there is no guarantee that will be the case in the future, so there was a need to eliminate the root cause in advance.
I am strong.
Ed also told me so often, and I could recognize it myself. That's why I thought there wouldn't be a big problem, but a problem arose.
"So this brat is the Saintess's younger sister. It's the first time I'm seeing her in person, though."
"Fortunately, it was an easy job. It would have been annoying if she resisted, you see. She knows how to use magic to some extent, after all."
"I see."
Is that guy the mastermind?
Something feels unpleasant?
No, that wasn't the problem.
This rope was the problem.
Something like a rope I could have lightly burned away, so I just got tied up without resisting, but after being tied, my mana wouldn't come out. It seemed to be a type of tool that forcefully sealed mana.
'If I want to forcefully untie it, I can. The problem is that it takes time.'
If I forcefully burned it, my mana would naturally vibrate and they would notice, and then the possibility of my neck being cut off while I was burning the rope was not zero. Even at a glance, it didn't look like a kidnapping aimed at money, so in the worst case, there was a possibility they might just slash me to death thinking it wouldn't matter if I were a corpse.
My head became complicated.
There might be a way to dismantle this kind of tool without being caught, but unfortunately, I hadn't learned it. If I knew this would happen, I should have asked Ed a bit more actively. I was seriously starting to doubt if I hadn't mistakenly thought I was strong.
Because my recent track record involves my attacks often getting blocked by Ed, and ultimately getting kidnapped and becoming incompetent over a single rope.
'Knowledge is more important than I thought.' The realization was about an hour late, but I realized it. If I had more information about this rope, I might have been able to pull out some other method, but with my empty knowledge, there wasn't much I could figure out. Before Ed came, I didn't listen to the lessons properly, and after Ed came, I mostly just listened to stories about morals or ethics for about half a year, after all.
"That aside, why did you grab the younger sister, not even the Saintess?"
"Do you not even know the rumors about that Saintess? Her personality is a mess, but her power is the real deal, they say. It's too dangerous, yeah. I don't want to cross such a dangerous bridge. Even if she doesn't have the Stigma of the Saintess, this younger sister who shares the same blood as the Saintess is all I need."
"Oh my, is that so?"
The kidnapper put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
"With this, the request is completed, I assume?"
"Yeah."
Is this old freak the person who requested my kidnapping?
He looks suspicious beyond compare even at a glance, but he brought me here mistaking me for the Saintess's younger sister. Geez, he should have at least looked at the face once and memorized it. Ellyn and I don't look that much alike, do we? Our hairstyles and hair colors are the same, so we look similar at a glance, though.
"Hey, why did you kidnap me? Unless I have the Stigma of the Saintess, I am just an ordinary noble."
For now, I decided to keep pretending to be Ellyn.
"You're calmer than I thought."
"Ugh, can I ask you one question?"
"What is it?"
"When was the last time you showered? The smell is too severe. I'd rather think the mister smoking a cigarette over there would smell better."
"……."
"……."
Even though I look like this, I tend to like things neat, so I want my surroundings to be clean. Should I say I don't mind getting things dirty myself, but I hate dirty people? The old freak made a blank expression for a very brief moment, and then swung his hand just like that.
Smack! Ah. My brain rang, and my vision shook momentarily. Along with intense pain in my cheek, the inside of my mouth burst, and blood flowed down. I only realized that I had been struck by a fist after I was sent flying, and I raised my body and looked at the old freak. He's impulsive.
I might really die from this. "You show no mercy even to a child, eh." "What are you saying after kidnapping that child and offering her to an old freak as an experimental subject?" "……." The kidnapper pulled his hat down low and spoke.
"I see, it is exactly as you say." "Good, good……. You made sure to leave footprints properly, right?" "Of course." "Right, since we left footprints, they'll know it's a kidnapping. I'll be able to get a few more people as experimental subjects."
This kidnapper might be more skilled than I thought. But one question I had was that I couldn't understand why someone with a certain level of skill would leave such obvious traces of a kidnapping. However, seeing him together with the old freak right in front of me now, I could understand why he did that.
It seemed his ulterior motive was to intentionally leave them to form a pursuit team, and then use the people coming in pursuit as experimental subjects as well.
It was an inefficient, impulsive action that seemed misguided in many ways. Moreover, it seemed they didn't even know the information that Ed and I were currently at the Frendisiv estate. I suppose so; the Saintess is supposedly not leaving the Grand Cathedral under the guise of being ill, and coming to the Frendisiv family is the first time since becoming a Saintess, so unless they were actively trying to dig up information, they wouldn't know.
"Hey, old man over there."
"Choose your words carefully. This time I might strike you so your teeth break. Hehe, that might be good, too."
"Why are you pretending to be such a misguided lunatic?"
"……."
"……."
Silence followed.
But I had a question, and because I wanted to resolve that question, I looked at the old freak. That old freak looked at me with an even blanker expression than before, and I could tell that astonishment was mixed in his face. 'Oh, did I just read an emotion?'
Even I was surprised. Have I become able to understand things a tiny bit?
I got a little excited.
"Because a real crazy person, you see, doesn't walk around wearing clothes that say 'I am a crazy person' like that."
Smack!!
This time it was his leg.
A foot kicked my abdomen, and I tumbled on the ground. Ah, this might be a little dangerous. Along with a feeling of my insides twisting, something indiscriminately popped out of my mouth regardless of my will. It felt as if all the black tea I drank earlier was regurgitating.
Ah.
Am I going to die from this after all?
'I still had quite a few things I wanted to know.'
If you ask if I'm afraid of dying, even in this moment, I couldn't feel such a thing. Fear wasn't felt, and if I had to say, I felt regret. Despite the fact that there were still quite a few inquiries I hadn't figured out, I had the thought that it was a bit regrettable for it to end here.
If he intends to use me for something like an experimental subject, he might not necessarily need to keep me alive and take me. In the worst case, there wouldn't be a problem as long as he just had the physical body itself.
What made him so angry? The old freak trudging toward me seemed intent on killing me no matter how I thought about it.
Hmm.
'Ah, why am I recalling Ed's face in this moment?'
Inquiry.
Another inquiry.
Because life is full of inquiries, I definitely had the desire to resolve that inquiry. That is why I end up thinking. In the moment of death, why am I recalling Ed's face first, of all people?
Half a year in my life.
You could say it's long if it's long, but from my perspective, it was a connection that could be called short. Despite that, why am I recalling Ed's face, and why am I trying to find its meaning.
What is the answer.
I ask myself once again.
Why did I hate the fact that Ed and Ellyn were talking alone?
"First, I'll have to tear that mouth a bit. A mouth isn't needed for experiments."
"Your existence isn't needed, so why don't you just die?"
If you say it's okay for it not to exist because it's not needed, it seems like your existence itself isn't needed either, so why are you alive.
Even as I say that, I search for the answer.
You are.
A whoosh!! sound rang out, and as the old freak approached me faster and faster, the sound of the forest being split was heard. The kidnapper seemed to have noticed and tried to draw his sword, but even before that, a pitch-black mana surged as if spreading widely and pierced right into the old freak.
"Keugh!!"
"Wow."
The pitch-black mana wavered and entered as if wavering toward the outside of the forest.
The sound of trudging footsteps was heard, and a man slowly revealed himself from the darkness.
In this moment, there was a person I wished would be the one coming to save me. I couldn't understand why I wanted that person to come save me, but nevertheless, there was a me who wished for it like that.
"Ed."
Walking slowly while holding a pitch-black, jet-black sword, Ed seemed like a different person from the Ed I knew.
Walking with an expression so cold it was hard to believe he was the same person as the guy who always wore an affable smile, that figure was an Ed I didn't know. It felt like I was seeing Ed's appearance on the 'battlefield' right now, so for some reason, my breathing became rough.
Ah.
I see.
'You are a special person to me.'
It felt like all the puzzles were finally coming together.
I didn't know it until now, but I was currently giving special treatment to the human named Ed.
I was recognizing the person named Adrian Valtus as my person, not just a passing connection.
"Who are you!?"
"No, wait. This wasn't part of the deal……. You, don't tell me." The person who kidnapped me took a step back with a pale face, seeming to know who Ed was, but Ed approached me wordlessly and spoke.
"Prepare to be scolded later."
"At times like this, I wish you would say something a little kinder. I got hit twice, so it hurts too much right now."
"You reap what you sow. Well, that's that, and……." Shadows wavered from Ed's body, forming shapes like blades. What is that again? He didn't use techniques like that when he fought me. Those shadow blades looked as if each one was made of compressed mana. The blades of shadows softly reflecting the moonlight were so sharp I wondered if they would even slash that moonlight. "That crest, are you a person from the Red Rose Mercenary Corps?" If it's the Red Rose Mercenary Corps, is it that mercenary corps that belonged to the Infinite Cult, which opposed the Goddess Religion, and was thoroughly torn apart? Is that guy from over there?
"I will say it only once. Throw away your weapon and surrender."
That figure with shadows wavering around him.
By no means looked like a bluff.
I felt like I could understand once again how much humility was contained in Ed's words that he 'isn't weak'.