Be Not Afraid
Do not be afraid.
I am His servant, the one who watches over you.
See the world with those eyes of yours.
Hurry and depart for Venice.
The instant those eyes met mine, my body froze solid as stone. If not for the angel’s wings, the sphere covered in countless eyes would have looked like nothing but a hideous monster. Though instinct told me the being was an angel, shaking off the terror proved impossible. A fierce wind whipped at my eyes, yet I could not even blink. Why had an angel descended upon me? What were those eyes? Where was Venice? Every question piled on top of another.
I wished it were only a nightmare. I lacked the piety to deserve meeting an angel. As the Third Prince of the Holy Kingdom, I was a fool who had never manifested any proof of faith.
“Are you coming around?”
A voice so pure and heart-calming I had never heard its equal—even in the choir—made my eyes open. My body reacted before my mind could catch up, so even after seeing the person before me I could not easily close my mouth.
“An… angel?”
She looked about the same age as I, who had just turned eighteen. Beautiful blue eyes sparkled between strands of silver hair; burn scars could not hide her loveliness, and butterflies rested here and there, lending her an air of mystery. Compared to the monster I had seen earlier, I wanted to believe this was the angel.
“Pfft. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not an angel. Just a moment. I’ll bring you something to drink.”
“Wait…”
Before I could say more, the girl had already left the room. I tried to stop her, but it was useless. She was beautiful—like a butterfly that would flutter away the instant you reached out to catch it. My thoughts lingered on her only a moment before reason returned and I looked around. Where was this place? Heaven?
“Whoa?!”
The moment I sat up in bed and tried to rise, I lost my balance and nearly toppled over. Had my field of vision always been this high? It felt as though I were looking down from somewhere far taller than usual. Staggering, I opened the door, and a pleasant fragrance welcomed me. It eased my heart.
“Sleepyhead, you’re finally awake?”
A different voice this time—more mature and seductive—drew my gaze. Pink hair cascaded all the way to her waist; her eyes were a deep red that reminded me of rubies. The elegant way she sipped her tea, the generous curves that emphasized her femininity… any man would lose his soul to such grace and beauty. Yet my mind screamed repeated warnings: Do not approach her.
Witch.
I realized it instinctively. She was a witch—one who defies providence, a temptress of lost lambs, a heretic.
“Everything’s fine, but staring at me like that gets burdensome, you know.”
The witch set down her teacup and approached. I had to run. It was the only way to survive. Whether from unconsciously stepping backward or because my eye level had changed, I tripped on the door sill and fell.
“I went through the trouble of saving you. It would be a shame if you got badly hurt now.”
Saved me? Me, the nuisance of the Holy Kingdom? Was she planning to use me as a sacrifice? The Demon King from the old forbidden books came to mind. If she offered someone who carried the prophet’s blood as a sacrifice… it made perfect sense.
“Those eyes.”
Was she going to gouge them out first? Strength had already left my body; escape was impossible. Should I recite a prayer? What was the prayer again? The ones I had memorized as easily as eating refused to surface when I needed them most.
The witch had already reached my feet. She bent down, crouched, and let out an ehehe laugh. She was beautiful. But I was going to die. Even as her hand drew closer… I was a worthless believer.
Angel, could you not simply step forward in my place?
“Are those eyes, by any chance, passive?”
The witch holding up a hand mirror to show the brightly glowing orbs, the butterfly-like girl bringing tea from afar—none of it reached me. He had already fainted.
“Ah. He passed out again.”
“Whaaat?!?!”
Because Leo Petrick Florencia was the Third Prince of the Holy Kingdom, a problem child and an idiot.
“……”
“Come on, relax. It’s not like we’re mortal enemies.”
Between the Holy Kingdom and a witch, weren’t we mortal enemies?
I had thought it was a dream, yet even after regaining my senses the witch was still right in front of me. It was true I had wanted to become a Heresy Inquisitor, but not like this. At least not by encountering a witch in this manner. Like the proverb that said you could survive even an orc’s den if you kept your wits about you, Leo steadied himself with the same thought.
“Not relaxing?”
When she glared fiercely and thrust forward fangs conjured of dark magic, he immediately discarded the idea.
“Are you… going to kill me?”
“If I had planned to kill you from the start, I wouldn’t have saved you. Do you remember being captured by orcs?”
An orc pack has appeared near the ruined Garirill village.
Sir Lucia had promised that if I exterminated the orc pack together with two Heresy Inquisitors and rescued the people, she would allow me to join their ranks.
I had been thrilled that the day to reveal my calling had finally arrived. I found the orc pack… and then? No memory remained after that.
“I remember going to find the orcs… but nothing after that.”
“Ah, one of those concepts?”
I could not grasp the witch’s meaning, but I could sense the aggression. Irritation practically dripped from her tone. I understood whether I wanted to or not.
“Mom, you’re being too mean…”
“Hmph!”
The butterfly-like girl sitting beside the witch fidgeted anxiously, yet the witch crossed her arms and turned her head away. I had hoped the girl would soothe her, but with no idea what I had done to offend the witch in the first place, Leo found the situation unbearably frustrating.
“Eyes… eyes…”
Eyes?
The girl covered her mouth with one hand so the witch would not notice, then pointed at her own eyes with the other, signaling. Eyes. Definitely, when I first saw the witch, there had been something about eyes… The brightly shining eyes reflected in the hand mirror. Leo’s eyes, reflected in the full-length mirror across the room, glowed brilliantly as if to declare this was no dream.
See the world with those eyes of yours.
The more Leo rejoiced at the Holy Eye now residing in his own eyes, the more the witch’s eyes seemed to rot with displeasure.
“Should I kill him?”
“No!”
I did not want to trouble the girl, yet since I myself had no idea how to suppress the Holy Eye, it was driving me insane as well.
“W-well, I would like to try handling it myself… but this is my first time, so I don’t know what to do about it…”
“Want me to pluck them out?”
“I’ll do my best!”
Whether it was the angel’s mistake or not, I did not want to lose the Holy Eye that had come rolling into my possession. Without it, truly nothing would remain of me. Even if the angel returned claiming it had been an error and demanded it back, I did not want to give it to anyone. Just for a little while, please…!
“How is it… now?”
Leo, who had closed and reopened his eyes for a moment, asked the witch cautiously.
The witch, who had been grinding her teeth and scattering remnants of dark magic, checked Leo’s eyes and withdrew her anger.
Whew…. It seemed the matter had been resolved somehow. The tension drained away.
“From now on, those eyes are forbidden in front of me. Understood?”
“Yes…”
“Your name?”
“Leo Petrick Fl… ugh!”
The tension had eased, so the sudden question slipped out before I could stop myself. Witches could cast curses if they knew both face and name. The memory of secretly watching Heresy Inquisitor training as a child surfaced. It was fortunate I had not given my full name. As I reminded myself that this place was a witch’s den far more terrifying than an orc’s lair—
“Leo Petrick Florencia? So you were royalty. You’re a bigger fish than I expected.”
The witch spoke my full name casually, as if it held no particular interest, nearly causing my mind to go blank.
Florencia. A name only the noble bloodline of the Holy Kingdom could bear. The witch seemed well-versed in matters of the Holy Kingdom and appeared to know about the Holy Eye as well.
“Were you afraid I would curse you with your name? That sort of outdated curse is bothersome in method and inefficient, so I decline as well. Besides, didn’t I already tell you? If I had intended to kill you from the start, I would not have saved you.”
“I see. Then, Miss Witch, why did you save me…”
“Leo? Petrick? Whatever your name is, it wasn’t me who saved you—it was this child here.”
The mysterious girl with a blue butterfly perched neatly atop the hair covering her right eye smiled the moment her gaze met Leo’s.
She was an angel without wings. I believed without doubt that God had sent her to help me escape the witch’s den.
“I don’t know how to express my gratitude…”
“Eeeek…!”
I had simply tried to clasp both her hands in thanks, yet the girl’s face flushed scarlet.
Did I do something wrong again?
Setting aside the witch’s ominous ehehe laughter beside her, the butterflies resting all over the girl’s body began to flutter their wings.
“If a man and a woman hold hands, i-it causes p-pregnancy!!!”
What?
Leo was rendered speechless by the girl’s shout. He wanted to correct her, but tree branches that had sprung from nowhere wrapped around his body, leaving no room to breathe, so he could not gather his thoughts.
“Children are only born when you meet the man you love.”
“Yes, Mom! I removed them within three seconds, just as you instructed!”
“Very well done. But if you don’t release him soon, he’s going to faint again.”
“Huh? Yes?!?!”
As his breath grew steadily more constricted and consciousness began to slip away, he could no longer hear what the two were saying. All Leo could think was that he no longer cared about the Holy Eye or even his own life—he simply wanted to escape this place.