Chapter 145. Resolve
Shaferia looked at Yohan with trembling eyes.
Yohan was seized by extreme rage.
No, to be precise, he was pretending to be enraged.
He slammed the table.
“White Horn! That wicked demon bastard!”
Shaferia flinched. To her, seeing Yohan like this felt unfamiliar.
There had to be a special reason why Yohan, who was always calm, could not control his emotions.
Shaferia said with a worried expression,
“......My lord, what on earth happened to you?”
Yohan closed his eyes. He composed his emotions and opened his mouth.
“Let me hear your story first. What did White Horn whisper to you?”
After hesitating for a long while, Shaferia told Yohan about what she had experienced a few days ago.
While she spoke, her expression was extremely grave.
Yohan felt somewhat sorry.
Everything that had happened that night was merely Yohan’s performance, and Mapheltan was actually Yohan.
‘This feels worse than I expected.’
In that strange mood, he listened to Shaferia’s story.
No, he pretended to listen carefully.
***
Shaferia’s mouth closed.
Silence flowed for a while.
After briefly hesitating, she carefully opened her mouth.
“My lord, is everything White Horn said truly the truth?”
Beris, the Twelfth Apostle of the End, had engraved a curse upon Yohan through contract magic.
Yohan would meet an end far more terrible than death.
A few days ago, Mapheltan had clearly said so.
Yohan’s expression crumpled.
He swallowed a low groan.
“It is not something you need to worry about. You should simply fulfill your duty. The southern frontier must not yet be cleared.”
Low Demons and bandits were running rampant in the south.
Shaferia had not yet punished all of them.
She shouted in a slightly agitated voice,
“Not something I need to worry about? I am a knight who must protect my lord’s safety and life!”
Right now, the outskirts of the territory were not the problem.
Yohan’s life was in danger.
As a knight, Shaferia had to change her priorities.
She had to save Yohan first.
Yohan opened his mouth.
“At present, there is no way to lift Beris’s curse. Rather than pouring time into something meaningless, we must solve the problem before us first. Return to the outskirts.”
Shaferia bit her lip.
She was conflicted over something.
A moment later, once she had steeled herself, she said,
“......It is not that there is no way.”
Yohan looked puzzled.
“What do you mean?”
“White Horn knows Apostle Beris’s location.”
Yohan stared at Shaferia.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
Shaferia clenched her fists tightly.
A trembling voice leaked from her mouth.
“If we use White Horn, we may be able to punish Beris.”
Yohan narrowed his brow.
He said in a low voice,
“Don’t tell me, Shaferia. Are you telling me to make a deal with a demon?”
Shaferia immediately denied it.
“N-no! I only mean that we should use White Horn! Just for a moment, with that bastard......”
She could not finish speaking.
Yohan slammed the table hard.
“I am the Watcher of the Abyss! How could I compromise with evil?!”
As he shouted, he suddenly began coughing.
Bright-red blood vomited from his mouth.
It was ordinary paint.
Shaferia sprang up from her seat.
She was horrified.
“M-my lord! Are you all right?!”
That young boy had vomited blood.
Yohan’s health was not normal.
Surely Beris’s curse was at work.
That was what Shaferia thought.
Yohan glared at her with powerless eyes.
“Shaferia, disappear from before my eyes at once. I cannot bear the sight of you.”
Shaferia felt an overwhelming sense of failure.
Yohan’s attitude was far too firm.
She had no confidence that she could persuade her lord.
Her heart pounded like mad.
Was that faithful boy truly going to lose his life to a demon’s curse?
Was the Great Saint truly not going to help him?
Shaferia could not accept any of it.
She bit her lip hard.
Blood flowed out.
“My lord, please listen to me.”
Yohan’s eyes were bloodshot.
As though swallowing a blade, he spoke in a tearing voice.
“I told you to leave.”
“B-but......”
Yohan shouted while coughing blood.
“Can you not hear me?!”
He coughed violently.
Red liquid flowed endlessly from his mouth.
The thought came to her that Yohan might die right now.
Shaferia quickly moved her feet.
For now, she had to disappear from Yohan’s sight.
That was the choice for her lord’s sake.
“......I have committed a grave discourtesy.”
Shaferia immediately left the office.
All kinds of thoughts followed after her.
***
Shaferia walked and walked.
Muttering like someone possessed, she wandered through the territory.
Many gazes gathered on her, but Shaferia did not care.
She was consumed by only one thought.
What was truly the path for her lord’s sake?
The answer did not come easily.
The Holy Knight and the knight continued to collide.
Faith and conviction clashed madly.
Shaferia could not find the correct answer.
As she agonized, she came to an abrupt stop.
At some point, she had arrived before a large building.
Without realizing it, she had come to the church.
A large but old and shabby gate entered her sight.
As if out of habit, Shaferia opened the church door.
An aged prayer hall was revealed.
A musty smell stung her nose.
The church in the Miyatro direct territory had long been neglected.
There was no bishop or priest here.
There was not even an ordinary priest.
For some reason, Yohan kept a certain distance from the Order.
What was the reason?
That question suddenly arose, then disappeared immediately.
Shaferia had no room in her mind to think about anything else.
She walked heavily into the prayer hall.
She sat in a corner on one of the long benches.
Whenever she sat in a prayer hall, her head grew clear.
Her worries would lessen a little.
It had been that way since she was young.
Now, things were a little different.
Complicated thoughts still tangled her mind.
“What on earth should I do? Great Saint, please give me an answer.”
Even when she prayed to the pentagram on the dais of the prayer hall, no answer returned.
Instead, another voice was heard.
“As expected, you were here, Sir Shaferia.”
Shaferia turned around.
Guard Captain Gaf was entering the prayer hall.
“......Sir Gaf?”
Gaf sat beside Shaferia.
“I was worried. You left in such a hurry by yourself.”
Shaferia and Gaf had lived together for two months.
The two of them had patrolled the southern frontier together.
Shaferia lowered her head deeply.
“Something urgent suddenly came up. I apologize.”
Gaf shook his head.
“Please do not concern yourself with it. I heard a rough account from the baron.”
“May I ask how much you heard?”
Gaf said calmly,
“If it concerns White Horn and Beris, I know everything.”
Shaferia was a little surprised.
There was no particular wall between Yohan and Gaf.
Most sensitive subjects were being shared.
The two were far closer than Shaferia had thought.
Shaferia murmured in a small voice,
“......I see. Sir Gaf, you also understood the baron’s situation.”
Gaf let out a sigh.
“I am deeply worried. I imagine you are the same, Sir Shaferia.”
Shaferia covered her own face.
“To be honest, I cannot think of any solution.”
After briefly pausing, Gaf opened his mouth.
“When things are too complicated, it often helps to think only of the essence. That was always the case for me.”
Shaferia listened closely to Gaf.
“What do you mean by essence?”
Gaf smiled faintly.
“It is simple. You focus on your foundation. For example, a head of a household lives for his family, and a mercenary swings his sword for money. A Holy Knight punishes evil in the Great Saint’s stead. Then what about a knight?”
Shaferia answered immediately.
“A knight fights to protect the life and safety of their lord.”
Gaf nodded.
“That is the essence I am speaking of.”
Shaferia swallowed a low groan.
“Those essences are colliding with each other.”
A Holy Knight must never compromise with evil, no matter what.
On the other hand, a knight had to sacrifice anything for their lord.
Even their own convictions had to be abandoned.
Gaf opened his mouth with a calm expression.
“I, too, have experienced the same situation. More than ten years ago, myself as a head of a household and myself as a mercenary collided. Foolishly, I wavered back and forth. I could not make any choice. As a result, I lost everything. My beloved wife, my loyal subordinates, even the wealth I had gathered over my entire life. In the end, nothing remained for me.”
Shaferia chewed over Gaf’s words.
She, too, was facing the same situation as Gaf in the past.
If she could not make a choice now, then she, like Gaf, might lose everything.
“......Perhaps I cannot protect everything.”
She could not have both faith and conviction.
Between the Great Saint and Yohan, she had to abandon one.
Gaf opened his mouth.
“That greed ruined me. Please, Sir Shaferia, do not make the same mistake I did. Whatever choice you make, you must make it decisively.”
The complicated thoughts retreated in an instant.
There were only two choices.
All she had to do was choose one.
“I will remember your advice, Sir Gaf. It was truly a great help.”
Gaf smiled gently and rose from his seat.
“I am glad. I will take my leave now. Please make a choice you will not regret.”
He left the prayer hall.
Shaferia closed her eyes.
Time flowed quickly.
Agony and anguish slowly withdrew.
A single proposition filled her mind.
―――I am a knight.
She lifted her eyelids.
Her wavering gaze had settled into calm.
Unshakable resolve appeared on her face.
Shaferia looked at the pentagram and murmured,
“Great Saint, please watch over my chivalry.”
She rose from her seat.
At the same time, her expression crumpled.
The surrounding air began to sink coldly.
A heavy presence stabbed at her skin.
A chilling voice followed.
“Shaferia, you have gained good eyes in the past few days.”
Blasphemously, a black demon was perched on the pentagram.
Shaferia bit her lip.
“......White Horn.”
Mapheltan drew a bitter smile.
“Yes, it is good to see you. What became of the Watcher of the Abyss?”
“My lord does not compromise with evil.”
“What a pity. It seems a precious life will soon disappear.”
Shaferia opened her mouth with a composed expression.
“But I am different. As a knight, I will take your hand for my lord’s sake.”
Mapheltan raised the corners of his mouth into a long smile.
“Oh, my. What a remarkable decision.”
“Tell me Beris’s location. What will you take in exchange?”
Mapheltan shrugged.
“Nothing in particular. I merely want Beris’s complete extinction.”
Shaferia frowned.
“What does that......”
A demon who wanted no price whatsoever. Mapheltan was saying something completely outside common sense.
He spread his enormous wings.
“Now, follow me. If you and I are together, Beris is already as good as captured.”
Mapheltan flew into the air.
Blasphemously, his red eyes were gazing down upon the church.
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