Even So
Even so.
The sexual harasser was slipping away through the gaps in the crowd, which would only make catching him easier.
Just as I was about to drop down and seize him—
Whoosh!
Sena whipped her head around and looked up at me. Then she spun on her heel and bolted sideways.
Thud—
Because of that, I had no choice but to land on the bare ground.
With her physical ability I should have caught her for certain. Yet she had already known exactly where I would land and slipped aside.
She saw the future.
I was sure of it. Before she even turned to look at me, the eye-shaped Stigma on the back of her hand had glowed faintly.
No wonder the knights couldn’t catch her.
That didn’t mean I intended to let her go. I pivoted and crushed the earth beneath my sole.
Wind gathered under my foot.
Gust.
Whoooosh!
My body carved through the air.
The instant I settled into position Sena startled and twisted to look back—but I was already right in front of her.
If the body can’t keep up, foresight means nothing.
I killed just enough speed, then swept her up. Held under one arm like a parcel, Sena stared up at me blankly.
I said,
“Caught you, you little pest.”
Only then did she come to her senses and cry out in fright.
“W-who are you?!”
“The victim of sexual harassment.”
“Why are you even here…?”
“Because you grabbed my ass and ran?”
“Uh, uh…. I’m sorry about that….”
She apologized so meekly I had nothing left to say. She’d just been too busy fleeing, I supposed.
“N-no! That’s not what I meant….”
Sena shook her head hard and pressed on.
“Why are you here? You definitely weren’t in the future I saw….”
Sena was the Saint of Prophecy. Apparently I had not existed in the future she foresaw.
In a way, that makes perfect sense. In my past life I was never destined to come to this place.
In that life I would have been wandering around right about now, hunting Baron Scalen for revenge.
So the fact that she collided with me also fits.
But after that collision, hadn’t she predicted my movements? Had something shifted the moment we met face-to-face?
I needed to ask her a great many things.
“Huk!”
Just then Sena’s eyes went wide at something in the distance. A knight was racing toward us.
“Want me to help?”
“What?”
“You were trying to run, weren’t you?”
“That’s true, but….”
“I can make sure no one ever finds you for the rest of your life.”
“Th-then you’ll be the one they arrest!”
I let out a short laugh.
“No. The Holy Empire can’t catch me.”
They never could before. And right now I was confident they still couldn’t take me in for something this minor.
“What?”
“Enough. Choose. Get down here, or run.”
Sena watched the knight draw closer. He looked relieved she had been caught and was coming at a full run.
She gently clutched the hem of my coat.
“I’ll run.”
“Right.”
I turned my head toward the knight. He had drawn near enough to flash a bright smile.
“Thank—”
“Don’t look for us.”
“Huh?”
The moment confusion crossed his face I drove hard off the ground and launched skyward.
The knight stared blankly after us, then—
“Sena-niiiiim!!”
—finally grasped the situation and bellowed.
“Inquisitor-niiiiim! What about meee!!”
Another voice trailed after, but I ignored it lightly.
I brought Sena into a nearby stretch of forest. She sank onto a large rock and muttered as if she still couldn’t believe it.
“W-we really got away….”
I hadn’t fled simply because she asked. I had wanted to talk with her about any number of things, and no better chance was likely to appear.
“N-now people will come looking for us!”
“Of course they will. You’re the Saint of Prophecy.”
Bella had almost certainly been taken by them already.
She could have escaped if she put her mind to it, but that would only have deepened their suspicion, so she wouldn’t have.
I’ll buy her some meat when I get back.
Sena scratched her cheek.
“Ah… so you knew.”
“I figured it out when I heard your name.”
“Aren’t you scared of them, Inquisitor?”
“Well. It’s just everyday life for me….”
Or rather, I was simply used to it.
“What?”
“Never mind. More importantly—why were you trying to run?”
In her past life she had taken her own life. I needed to know the reason if I was going to solve the problem.
As Ludian had said, if she lived, the future might turn out a little better.
“That’s….”
Sena started to speak, then clamped her mouth shut and shook her head hard from side to side.
I hadn’t expected a ready answer, so I moved on to the next question.
“Then what does it mean that I wasn’t in the future you saw? After we collided it seemed like you saw me in the future.”
“Ah… you were there even before we bumped into each other. But it was black, like something had been chewed away by bugs, so I just got confused.”
“And after we collided?”
“Yes.”
I was a being who had regressed once. Perhaps that was why I appeared black, like a variable.
It didn’t seem immediately critical, so I let it pass for now.
“So what are you going to do now?”
Sena let her head hang and answered in a small voice.
“I don’t know…. What I’m supposed to do….”
I leaned my back against a tree, watched her quietly, and asked,
“Are you afraid of seeing other people’s futures?”
“……!”
“I thought so.”
She was still young; hiding her expressions was beyond her.
The Saint of Prophecy could use her Stigma on a target and see futures connected to that person.
But those futures did not always flow in a kind direction.
“The future can be changed.”
Her Stigma existed in the first place precisely so the future could be altered.
“I… know that…. I’ve kept seeing it myself….”
Sena fidgeted with her fingers.
“But the changed future isn’t always better than the one before. Sometimes more people died because of another choice….”
“I see.”
“Every time I look at someone else’s future it feels like a huge wave is crashing over me. Something I can’t do anything about with my own strength….”
“So you ran? Because you’re afraid of seeing other people’s futures any longer?”
“No.”
Sena answered firmly.
“Being afraid is fine. As long as I can make a slightly better future.”
From the sound of it, at least she had not driven a dagger into her own stomach under the crushing weight of responsibility.
Rather, she was a girl who faithfully shouldered even the burdens dumped on her.
“Then?”
“But….”
Sena bit down hard on her lip.
Silence stretched for a moment. Then thick tears began to drip one after another from beneath her long bangs.
“Me disappearing like this is the best future. Or… taking my own life….”
How could that possibly be the best future? It wasn’t as though she had committed any crime.
I thought carefully before speaking.
“Then there would be people left behind who grieve.”
The reason Sena remained in the Ritvel territory was Bishop Ritvel, who had raised her as his adoptive daughter long before she became a Saintess.
To her, Bishop Ritvel was that important.
“I don’t know about that…. But at least I won’t be the one grieving….”
Of course. Once dead, those emotions would vanish as well.
“Then do you want it to become like the future you saw when you first received your Stigma?”
Sena jerked her head up in shock. Her eyes trembled between the strands of her long bangs.
“H-how do you know that….”
Only a handful of high-ranking clergy knew that fact. It had become more widely known only after Sena’s death later on.
I continued without concern.
“The Goddess does not always show the correct answer. She only poses problems in the name of trials. She’s a truly tiresome sort.”
“Y-yes?”
“The future you saw is at least not the correct answer. It is merely a trial you must overcome.”
Now I roughly understood why she had taken her own life.
There was more I wanted to ask, but this was not the time.
Thud-thud—
Presence settled around us. Ten figures in total, every one of them armed with various weapons.
The man who looked to be the leader spoke.
“You’ve got guts. Daring to kidnap the Saint of Prophecy.”
I gave a dry snort and pushed off from the tree.
“Something like that.”
“Even if you’re an Inquisitor, you won’t walk away clean. If you don’t want to die here, come quietly. Take him.”
At the leader’s glance, three of them started toward me.
Sena, who had been sitting dazed, shot to her feet and planted herself in front of me.
“W-wait! This person didn’t kidnap me! He brought me here because I asked him to!”
The leader smiled thinly.
“That is something we will decide later. Saintess, please come with us as well. Otherwise the person you are trying so hard to protect will not remain unharmed.”
“Th-that can’t be….”
“Please be conscious of your position as Saintess. Every single action of yours sets many people in motion.”
The leader looked back at the three who had paused.
“Drag the Inquisitor away first. I’ll handle the Saintess.”
“Yes.”
As the three closed in, Sena turned to me with tears streaming down her face.
“I-I’m sorry, Inquisitor…. Because of me….”
I gave no answer and simply studied the men approaching me.
Their clothing was all mismatched, and their footsteps carried none of the formality peculiar to knights. They were not, at the very least, the knights assigned to guard the Saintess.
“Uh…!”
Judgment complete, I yanked Sena hard against me.
The moment the sword appeared at her throat, the leader’s eyes went cold.
“Do you truly intend to go that far?”
“If necessary.”
“You want the power of Prophecy?”
“Something like that.”
The leader snorted.
“Then you cannot kill her. Since you want that power, the best you can manage is to take her and run.”
“Oh? How cold-headed.”
That was the problem.
They had come to reclaim a kidnapped Saintess, yet they were far too calm.
Normally one would prioritize the Saintess’s safety above all else, not gamble with her life like this.
But this man’s attitude said he did not care in the slightest what became of Sena.
“By the way—mercenaries are protecting Saintesses these days?”
“The situation was urgent, so Bishop Ritvel simply hired us.”
“Is there any reason for mercenaries of your caliber to be hanging around a tiny territory like this?”
The Ritvel territory was a small place that survived on tourists who came to see the Saintess.
There was no reason for skilled mercenaries to loiter in such a place.
“We merely stopped by on our way to another territory. Small as it is, the facilities are decent—suitable enough for a rest.”
The leader exhaled a long sigh.
“Though I don’t know why I have to answer even this.”
“You do. The Saintess’s life is in my hands. What, afraid you’ll let something slip if you keep talking to me?”
“…….”
“If not, then shut up and answer. Stop speaking as if you don’t care what happens to her.”
The leader ground his teeth as though chewing on his anger. I asked,
“What’s your name? I’ll remember it and ask around about you.”
“…….”
“Hmm. Seems my words don’t register as words to you.”
I pressed the blade closer still against Sena’s slender throat. If they had truly come to save the Saintess, their attitude would change.
Sena swallowed hard and whispered,
“I-Inquisitor.”
“What.”
“If you tell him to shut up, he can’t answer, can he…?”
I nodded in mild admiration.
“True. Good point.”
“Yes….”
I fixed the leader with a sharp stare and asked again.
“What’s your name. Open your mouth and answer this time.”
Veins stood out on the leader’s forehead.
“Are you joking with me right now?”
“If that’s how it looked, that’s a pity.”
I took them all in at a glance and issued a warning.
“Bring the knights. If the knights come, I’ll release the Saintess without a fight.”
“…….”
“I have all the time in the world. I don’t know about you lot, though.”
The leader studied my eyes for a long moment. Then he tipped his head back toward the sunset sky and let out a long breath.
“An Inquisitor, huh…. Leaving you alive would certainly be troublesome in more ways than one.”
Killing intent flooded his gaze.
“It would have been more convenient if you were stupid.”
Only then did I lower the sword from Sena’s neck and rise to my feet.
Flames coiled around the blade as I tilted my head.
“Like you?”
Before I finished speaking the three men were already swinging their weapons at me in unison.
Longsword, dagger, axe—the weapons varied, but one sword was enough for me.
Shwaaaak!
A crimson line carved through steel and flesh alike. Fresh blood sprayed across the sunset sky.
The remaining men instinctively flinched at the sight; the leader’s eyebrow twitched once.
Silence dropped over the forest. No one dared open his mouth.
Sena’s small frame was trembling. This was almost certainly the first time she had seen a corpse.
“Are you scared?”
At my question she nodded without a word.
“But one day you’ll have to face it. As the Saint of Prophecy, you should already know that.”
“…….”
“I will not allow the future you saw to come to pass. Even if it makes you sad.”
Sena bit her lip hard, then looked up at me almost in a glare.
“What if I don’t want that?”
“Even so.”
“Why on earth?”
I closed my mouth for a moment and glanced at her.
A frail body that looked as if a single swing of a sword would send her flying. In her past life that girl had gripped a dagger with her small hands and torn open her own paper-thin belly.
She had endured pain and terror no adult could withstand, and still done that to herself.
I shifted my gaze to my sword. Flames still danced along the blade.
“It’s far too early to reach the next stage.”
I said nothing more to her. I simply launched my body toward the remaining men.