Please Don't Break Me
Please Don't Break Me
Saint Amael was looking up at the sky and weeping.
He clawed at his own chest and head.
"Please....... Please. I want to be happy. Please."
Sobbing and pleading, he collapsed to the floor with a scream.
He was falling apart.
Writhing in agony, he was gradually dragged into the darkness.
And then......
He vanished completely.
***
The two princesses sprang up from the bed as if launched.
Both of them were drenched in cold sweat from head to toe.
"What...... what is this?"
Iomene stopped wiping the cold sweat from her brow and looked down at the back of her hand.
The Stigmata of Dulanear was shining.
The two of them realized immediately that this was no ordinary dream.
"Why the Saint...? Why...?"
Just as Almene was murmuring to herself, a single memory flashed through both their minds at the same time.
The time when Iomene's mind was still not quite right.
It was the memory of Amael holding Iomene and weeping.
"If Iomene stays by my side, she'll get hurt."
She remembered the Saint's sorrowful gaze as he looked down at her when she had asked him to marry her.
She remembered the sad smile, as if he were forcibly swallowing frustration and resentment.
"I'm sorry, Iomene."
And the moment when he held Iomene and wept came back to her as well.
After ruminating on that memory for a moment, the two princesses rose from their seats simultaneously, their faces pale.
After hastily changing their clothes, the two of them hurried outside.
"To the Mars Magic Tower branch. Go immediately!"
"As you command, Your Highnesses."
A limousine was brought around like a bullet, and before long the two of them arrived at the Magic Tower.
After getting out of the car, the two of them entered the Magic Tower surrounded by their escort troops, and despite the sudden visit, Magic Tower Master Oergen came scurrying down immediately.
"Wh-what brings you here?"
The two of them bowed their heads carefully toward Magic Tower Master Oergen, who had a flustered expression.
"Please forgive our rudeness in coming without prior notice. But there was someone we needed to meet urgently, so we had no choice but to come like this."
"Whom do you wish to meet?"
"Is Miss Erpa here? We wish to speak with her."
"With Erpa?"
"Yes. Iomene, Erpa, and myself. We wish to speak alone."
"I will summon her immediately. Would you kindly wait in the reception room for a moment?"
"We would be grateful."
The two princesses went to the Magic Tower's reception room and waited quietly, and in less than five minutes Erpa entered the reception room.
"Please, converse."
After the Tower Master bowed politely and closed the door, only the three women remained inside the reception room.
Erpa looked at the two princesses with an expressionless face for a moment, then greeted them courteously.
"I see Your Highnesses the Princesses. I am Erpa, a witch of the Magic Tower."
Erpa's eyes held wariness, fear, and a strange jealousy.
The two of them understood why she was wearing that sort of expression.
"Miss Erpa. We came because we want to talk about the Saint."
When Almene spoke first, Erpa's hands began to tremble.
"I thought so. Is that why you came?"
Erpa spoke in a voice thick with emotion.
"You plan to tell me to give up on the Saint, don't you? And you're thinking of keeping him all to yourselves, am I right?"
Erpa hung her head as if she were miserable.
"That's right. I was rejected. I was rejected right in front of Princess Iomene. But even so, I will never give up. No matter what threats you make toward me, I will never give up on him."
At those words, Iomene stood up.
"I'm sorry, but you've misunderstood."
"If that's not it, what reason do you have for seeking me out?"
Iomene delivered a single, matter-of-fact sentence.
"The Saint is going to die, Erpa."
With that one statement, Erpa's entire demeanor changed.
"......Excuse me?"
Iomene pointed at the Stigmata on the back of her own hand.
"Lord Dulanear showed the two of us a vision this morning—a vision of the Saint, unable to endure the pain, finally falling apart."
Erpa's jealousy vanished from her eyes.
The anger did too.
Her competitive spirit—all of it vanished completely.
And at last, her eyes held the expression that Iomene wanted.
Her eyes became desperate.
"First, sit down. I think the story will be a little long."
Iomene quietly indicated the sofa opposite the one where the two of them sat in the reception room, and Erpa did not refuse.
Erpa's eyes were trembling as she sat on the sofa.
"Please explain in detail."
Almene explained.
"It is exactly as I said. We saw the Saint suffering and then being consumed by darkness and vanishing. He looked as if his mind had crumbled. He was begging, pleading to be allowed to be happy."
Erpa's eyes quivered.
"Why? He is a divine apostle more faithful than anyone else. He saved countless people, and he saved us as well. So why would he...?"
Iomene answered that question.
"It's speculation. It's only speculation, but there's one thing I suspect."
"What is it?"
"The Saint may have possibly received a revelation that he must keep fighting evil in the future. The fact that the God of Evil Eradication, Lord Dulanear, specifically showed us the Saint's form is proof of that. It must be because even though he is a believer who serves another god, he will be used to fulfill Lord Dulanear's will."
At Iomene's words, Erpa shook her head, clearly not understanding.
"Evil Eradication, you say. Isn't that the duty of Iomene, the Saintess of the White Order? Why would the Saint have to do it?"
At those words, Iomene smiled bitterly.
"The situation must be that urgent. For three hundred years, no saint, saintess, or hero was granted to us, and now a Healing Saint and a Saintess of Evil Eradication have been granted to humanity almost simultaneously. Isn't it obvious that the Saint wasn't sent down simply to do some healing and then leave?"
Three hundred years ago.
That is, before the Empire was established.
It was said that back then, finding a saint, saintess, or hero was not so difficult a task.
It was also said that the gods spoke Divine Speech to humans more directly, and that Holy Power, blessings, and miracles were far more powerful than they are now.
But for three hundred years, the gods of the Pantheon no longer granted humanity saints, saintesses, or heroes. Their Divine Speech became exceedingly rare, and miracles and Holy Power were said to have weakened drastically compared to their golden age.
In contrast, Evil God Worshippers and Demon Cultists had steadily raised their power from the shadows over those three hundred years, and now they had grown to the point where they could even place a Chosen of the Evil God right in the middle of the Imperial Palace.
Humans could not know exactly what was happening in Heaven and Hell, but it was plain to see that the Pantheon's power was weakening and the power of the wicked believers was strengthening.
Amid such a situation,
a Saint had appeared and saved the empire.
Just as Iomene said, it was clear he was not sent down simply to heal the sick and leave.
"Evil Eradication isn't necessarily only about physically beating someone to death like the White Order does. That man clearly received a mission to continue saving the weak."
Almene picked up the thread.
"On top of that, he is a Seer. It wouldn't be strange if he had seen a future where the world is destroyed at the hands of the wicked. Perhaps he was trying to stop that future and save the suffering, bearing all the burden alone and pushing onward......"
Her words trailed off.
All three women were pale-faced.
They hated it.
The Saint disappearing and falling apart—
Truly, they hated that more than death.
Erpa clasped her four trembling hands tightly together.
"So that's why he pushed me away. It's obvious he thought I would get hurt if I stayed by his side because he has to fight the wicked believers."
Erpa seemed to be recalling the moment the Saint had coldly rejected her.
A memory that had been depressing just moments ago was now a memory that spawned anxiety and worry.
"What should we do? What can we do to prevent the future where he falls apart?"
At those words, Almene smiled gently.
"It's simple. All he needs is someone he can open his heart to."
"Knowing his personality, he's the type who would rather suffer alone! No matter what we do, he'll never open his heart. He's the type who would rather die than let someone else suffer because of his mission."
She was not wrong.
A believer who was foolishly kind, never spared a thought for himself, and willingly leaped into danger to save people.
That was the Saint Amael the three of them knew.
No matter how much they tried to get closer, it was obvious he would try to push them away somehow, worried that they would get hurt.
No matter how much they persuaded and pleaded, he would never open his heart.
Even while suffering and crumbling inside more than anyone, he would surely act foolishly like that.
Erpa did not know how to make the Saint open his heart, but Iomene and Almene simply wore strange smiles, as if they already knew the answer.
"Let's get him drunk."
Iomene spoke a single sentence.
"And then just go through with it."
Erpa must have swallowed wrong, for she coughed.
"Wh-what!......"
"Knowing the Saint's personality, he'll never give us his heart through normal means. He'll never try to lean on us. So I think this calls for a somewhat extreme method."
"The Saint loves you, Miss Erpa. When you left after he rejected you, you don't know how sad the Saint looked as he watched you go."
Erpa was startled by those words.
"Did he really....... did he really look like that?"
"That was a look in his eyes that could only come from love. It was unmistakable. So you have to do it. Go and win his heart somehow. And comfort him. Because he will continue to suffer in the future. You have to become a support so that he doesn't collapse."
"We came here to say that. If anyone can do it, it's you, Erpa."
At the words of Princesses Iomene and Almene, Erpa fell silent for a moment.
She opened her mouth after a long while.
"Why are you going this far for me? Don't the two of you also love the Saint?"
At those words, the two princesses nodded.
"We love him. Enough to take our breath away."
"Honestly, we've thought many times about whether it would be better to somehow get rid of you and keep the Saint just for the two of us. But we couldn't do that."
"We thought it would be too selfish...... for us, who were saved by the Saint, to stop someone else who was similarly saved from loving him."
"So go. Go and win the Saint's heart and make him happy. Because that's what we wish for."
The conversation was over.
Iomene and Almene were smiling with sad faces, and Erpa was silently gazing back at the two princesses.
Erpa seemed to be thinking about something.
After agonizing and agonizing over it for a long while, she eventually let out a self-deprecating laugh.
"You two are fools. To try to hand the man you love over to a rival in love."
Iomene smiled bitterly.
"We also thought we were being complete fools on our way here."
"Don't worry. Because I'm no less of a fool than you two."
At those words, this time the two princesses were surprised. Erpa shrugged her shoulders at their expressions.
"Wouldn't three be better than one? And besides, you're telling me to take a bottle of liquor, go to the Saint, and get him drunk, aren't you? I'm a woman who spent half my life in hiding. There's no way I could do that skillfully. I can guarantee you that you two would be much better at it."
The two princesses looked carefully at Erpa.
"Are you really alright with that? Erpa?"
Erpa nodded.
"It's exactly as you two said. For those of us who were saved together, isn't it too selfish to claim that some may love him and some may not? I think that's not right."
At those words, smiles appeared on the faces of Iomene and Almene.
"We'll somehow manage to get him to drink. And then we'll call for you, Erpa."
"Please do. But there's one thing—I can't concede on this. His first experience is mine."
Almene and Iomene clicked their tongues softly as if they were disappointed by that statement.
"Understood. We'll acknowledge that."
"We'll only warm him up. But after that, it's our turn."
Erpa nodded.
That was how it was decided.
***
Because Erpa was someone who came and went every day, no one stopped her when she entered the Magic Tower Temple and headed for the Saint's room.
Erpa passed the Royal Guard Knights and Court Mages standing watch, as well as the clergy and Holy Knights of the White Order, and carefully entered the Saint's room.
Perhaps the Court Mage had installed a soundproofing spell in advance, because the moment she stepped inside, sounds that were completely inaudible from outside reached her ears.
"Wait a moment, Iomene. If you just suddenly put it in like that....... Ah♥....... Nn♥"
"Since the sensations are shared, it feels like doing it with two saints at once. Amazing."
The twin sisters were lying on either side of the Saint, moaning.
Seeing Erpa enter, the two of them lifted their flushed faces.
The two princesses looked at Erpa and smiled softly.
"As we promised, we haven't done it yet."
"We only touched him with our fingers and arms. This much is fine, right?"
Erpa nodded at their words and approached the bed.
She could see the Saint, fast asleep.
His eyes were slightly swollen, as if he had shed tears.
She felt pity for him.
Erpa quietly climbed on top of the Saint's body.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that it has to be this way."
This man, who was so kind and good it was almost foolish, would probably wake up the next day.
And far from being angry once he assessed the situation, it was obvious he would instead worry about the three of them.
Because he was such a foolishly good man, he would try not to show the burden he carried to anyone, and in the end.......
He would fall apart, just like in the two princesses' dream.
She did not wish for much.
It was clear that he would keep saving people in the future.
That process would be painful and difficult.
So she wanted to give him a happy experience, even if only for a moment.
After he woke up, Erpa hoped he would use this incident as an opportunity to open his heart.
She hoped he would be happy, if only for a little while, in their embrace.
She wanted him to say that the burden he carried was heavy,
to cry and act spoiled, saying it was painful and hard.
Erpa carefully lowered her face and kissed the Saint.
"After tonight, you can blame me or be angry at me. You can react however you want, so please...... just don't fall apart."
Her four arms moved slowly and delicately, stripping off the meticulously wrapped witch's robes.
"I love you, Saint."
The night was growing deep.