Chapter 237 : Chapter 237
Chapter 237: Elaine (1)
Harad and Ellen and Fireball, Shura and Duke, the Village of Embers and the Serzila Mages…… Jis had quite a lot of friends.
It did not end there.
Jis also had a friend on the continent.
Following that friend's advice, Jis had secretly followed them all the way to this far north.
'Follow where your Origin points.'
Jis's one and only friend had given that advice, he said.
It meant a Mage quite knowledgeable about Origins, a rather excellent Mage.
"That is the Saintess."
"Yeah!"
Harad let out a hollow laugh.
It felt like he had come full circle. He had wanted to meet the Saintess all this time.
"Can you introduce us?"
"No!"
The shadow shook his head vigorously.
"Hermia cannot leave the Sanctuary."
"The friend with severe burn scars on her face, is that right?"
"Yeah. How do you know?"
Jis tilted his head.
Come to think of it, they had never talked about the Saintess in front of Jis.
"I heard from Balbebron, that he saw her in Gildein."
Gildein.
The Saintess had healed a cripple there.
It was the reason Balbebron and Alena had sought asylum.
Balbebron had witnessed that scene.
"Ah! Right. Hermia's fire heals people."
The Mage and the Saintess Balbebron had seen were the same person.
"I took her there. Hermia always wanted to go outside."
"To Gildein?"
"No. I did not take her to Gildein, we got caught in Gildein."
Jis had snuck the Saintess out.
Then not long after, they were caught by the Church.
In the process, the witness Balbebron was branded a heretic.
"So that is why she cannot leave the Sanctuary now. The guards, no, the surveillance has become much stricter."
"Right. Apostles stick to her. So it has become hard for me to enter too."
It meant he used to go in and out frequently.
'I see. That is why he was familiar with priests.'
He had wondered why Jis did not avoid Seria.
The friend's house he used to visit frequently was none other than the Church's Sanctuary.
The place crawling with priests more than anywhere else.
Jis was a bolder Mage than expected.
"What happened with your friend?"
Ellen asked.
It was her characteristic curiosity.
"I met her in the Sanctuary."
"Before you knew she was the Saintess?"
"Yeah."
"Why did you go there?"
"To get rid of my curse."
"Ah."
The curse.
The Mage who had placed the Prohibition curse on Jis was sealed in the Forbidden Ground of the Church's Sanctuary.
According to Bahav Enverque, the Saintess lived in that Forbidden Ground.
Perhaps the meeting between Jis and the Saintess had been inevitable.
"When did you go?"
"After I succeeded in implementing Manifestation."
After reaching the 5th Rank and succeeding in Manifestation, he had immediately tried to kill the Mage who had cursed him.
Harad let out a hollow laugh. Jis was a far bolder Mage than expected.
"But Hermia stopped me. She said it would be impossible for me alone."
Jis looked somewhat gloomy.
"You ignored her."
"Yeah. At first I ran away. Because I got caught."
He had repeated infiltrating, getting caught, and running away, and they became friends.
"What kind of friend is she?"
"Her outside and inside are opposite!"
"How so?"
"She has no manners at all, but she is actually kind."
Jis grinned.
To him, Hermia seemed to be a good friend.
"What do you think? He says she is a kind Mage."
Harad turned his gaze with a smile.
"A Demon's Bewitchment…… a lie……"
Seria stood blankly, just shaking her head.
"Jis is not that kind of Mage."
However, Seria, who had stayed for nearly a month, knew well how pure a child Jis was.
A kind Mage, a pitiful and young neighbor cursed.
"What would he gain from touching the Saintess?"
Jis had nothing to gain.
That seemed to act as a trigger for Seria. Suddenly, with a clapping sound, her head burst.
"You are right."
Seria, who had regenerated a new head, said.
Her expression was calm. Her patience had been refilled.
"Jis has no reason to lie. I have already been converted."
If it had been Badelots, perhaps, but there was no reason to deceive Seria.
"So the Saintess truly is a Mage."
Seria accepted it more easily than expected.
Over the past month, it was not only Mages she had grown accustomed to. She had also grown accustomed to being a heretic herself.
"Do not make it obvious when you go."
"Am I insane?"
Her answer was rough.
She had grown accustomed to it, but that did not mean she was comfortable with it.
"Perhaps that is why the Church designated you as her aide."
"What?"
"She is a Mage, is she not? If they knew, they should kill her."
"……"
"But even if she is a Mage, they cannot kill her. Because she is the Saintess."
It was a kind of dilemma.
However, it was a meaningless problem for a crazy woman.
"Are you saying the Church hopes I will become agitated and kill the Saintess?"
Seria caught on quickly.
"Of course, it is just my guess."
However, if left alone, the Saintess would die.
That was what had happened in the previous life.
He did not know if the culprit was Seria or not.
"The end times are upon us."
Seria muttered with a pale face.
Harad laughed loudly.
The end times were indeed coming soon. If left as is, the continent would be destroyed by the Otherworld.
'Rather, this is more realistic.'
From Seria's perspective, it might be more plausible that the Saintess was a Mage.
"Good heavens."
The Saintess is a Mage.
Seria muttered endlessly to accept reality.
"This too must be God's will."
When he said that, Seria made the Holy sign.
"If I become her aide…… hmm."
Where should he start and where should he end?
Harad chose his words for a moment.
'Jis's friend. Actually kind.'
The Saintess had even healed a cripple she had never met before.
'There is no guarantee she will do the same for me.'
She was Jis's friend, not Harad's friend.
"Tell her a Mage who stopped Bahav Enverque's curse and became Jis's friend wants to meet her."
Then Seria glared at him with venomous eyes.
Her gaze seemed to say, how could he say such a thing now?
Harad smiled brightly.
"It is too late to back out now. Far too late."
It was a temporary farewell.
* * *
Even if reunion was promised, farewell was not a particularly pleasant moment.
She did not know what Harad would think, but at least she felt that way. She had rarely parted from anyone.
However, her inability to adapt to her returned daily life was not because of parting from a friend.
"Grand Heir!"
Nor was it because the work she had to do as Elaine had piled up from playing for nearly a month.
It was not entirely unrelated, but…… compared to the other two reasons, it was trivial.
Those two things occupied half of her brain each, and the stress from the Grand Heir's duties was sandwiched thinly like paper between them.
Half, the left brain commanded.
Elaine swung her sword.
"Tsk."
And then clicked her tongue hard.
This was not it.
That woman, that sword was much more…….
'She said she would teach me.'
Elaine clicked her tongue harder.
Come to think of it, she had never said she would teach.
That woman had merely said she would show.
So she could only watch.
But…… it was that woman who swung it, but it was Ellen's body. The sensation from that time was vivid. She had read the thoughts too.
When swinging, that woman had not thought anything.
How should I swing, how can I cut, without any such concerns, she just swung. As if it was natural law that if she swung, it would cut.
She had looked down on Harad's Manifestation like an ant about to be stepped on.
'I roughly understand what it feels like.'
That was more of a problem.
The more she knew, the clearer the gap became.
'Crazy woman.'
Elaine in the dream was not just crazy in the head.
Her skills were insane too. Tremendously so.
'Why did she show me? Would it be good for that woman if this body became stronger?'
Because she would take it anyway?
Elaine, who had been thinking, shook her head.
It did not make sense.
Even in any shabby body, a monster was a monster.
It meant there was no reason for Ellen to grow.
If she just took the body, that woman could become a monster at any time. That woman was such an existence.
Her acting was also disgustingly excellent.
If that woman had approached Seria pretending to be Ellen, Seria would have been completely fooled.
'Why did she not do that?'
Then Elaine instinctively turned her body. It was that woman's influence.
Every time her body was taken, her Innate Strength was awakening.
"Grand Heir!"
The unwelcome visitor was Mores Palaz.
A retired knight and the swordsmanship instructor of Grand Heir Elaine.
"How long has it been since you came!"
Mores Palaz, who had just entered the training ground, came running.
Come to think of it, the unwelcome visitor was on this side. When Elaine played as Ellen, that retired knight seemed to have visited the training ground every day.
"Are you not going to say something? I came out after a long time."
"I am moved just by your coming out."
Mores's eyes sparkled.
Scolding was one thing once or twice, but since she did not come out so much, now he was moved just by her coming out.
Elaine felt both burdened and sorry.
"I am sorry. I have been busy lately."
"What are you saying? I heard you dumped all the desk work on the outsider."
"……"
Come to think of it, his eyes were somewhat sticky.
He looked ready to tie Elaine to the training ground at any moment.
If she had not been the Grand Heir, she would have already been tied up.
"Not all of it."
"What on earth have you been doing?"
Mores did not know about the deviation called Ellen.
Therefore, he could not fathom at all what Elaine usually did.
"I am living however the hell I want."
"……"
"Why are you looking at me like that? You encouraged me to do so."
His eyes became stickier.
As Mores himself had once professed, it was not disillusionment. It was the eyes of an instructor contemplating whether or not to raise a rod.
"That aside, good timing. Will you take a look for a moment?"
Elaine quickly changed the subject and took a stance.
Mores's mouth, which had been about to object, shut.
Because jet-black flowed from Elaine.
It was still faint, yet at the same time extremely dense. It was not a color that should come from the Grand Heir.
"……"
Jet-black.
Mores realized half a beat late that the sword had been swung.
In other words, he had missed it for a moment.
"How……"
Mores could not finish his words.
His jaw would not close either. Because the trajectory the jet-black had created was still vivid.
It was not the sword of an immature genius who asked to be sent to the line of death.
It was closer to one for whom the line of death was no longer the line of death. Something even Mores Palaz, who had devoted half his life to the barrier and retired, had not reached.
"……Do not tell me you have seen the Essence?"
"I have not seen that yet."
She had not crossed the wall, yet she had drawn a trajectory beyond the wall.
Even Aratus, the greatest Grand Duke in Serzila history, could not do that at that age.
Even that monster could only draw such a trajectory after becoming a Sword Master.
"Then how on earth did you do it?"
"I told you. I am living my life."
Elaine smiled strangely.
"But how is it?"
"……You are incredible."
Mores could only say such words.
His complaints about Elaine not coming to training had long since vanished.
If she is like that, she should not come out.
"Compared to the Grand Duke?"
"Do you mean the Grand Duke at the Grand Heir's age?"
"No. I am talking about His Majesty now."
Mores Palaz quietly fell into thought.
He compared the trajectory he had just seen with the trajectory of Grand Duke Aratus he had last seen.
"It is not exact, but…… it does not seem like it will take very long."
It was nonsense, but Mores could only nod.
Such a monster was right in front of his eyes.
"I think so too."
Elaine let out a hollow laugh.
"She really was a crazy woman."
"Pardon?"
"There is such a thing. A woman who seems like she will take a long time."
That woman was on a far higher level than Grand Duke Aratus.
She could catch up someday.
They just lived in different worlds, but that woman was ultimately Elaine too.
But she had to catch up faster.
To do so, she had to dream, she had to go to the boundary. To the line of death.
"I have business to attend to."
"Ah. Are you going to the Grand Duke's manor now?"
"Why there?"
"The Grand Duke summoned you."
This was the first she had heard of it.
* * *
"Elaine."
Grand Duke Aratus said.
It was his son's name and also Ellen's other name.
It was also a more familiar name than Ellen.
She had been called Elaine more than Ellen throughout her life.
……However.
"Ah, damn it."
When Seria called her that yesterday too.
"Do not call me by that name."
Why was it so unpleasant to hear?
"……?"
"Ah."
Elaine said it and thought, oh no.
Grand Duke Aratus was looking at her with incredulous eyes.
Right now, she was Elaine, not Ellen.
"Elaine."
"I said do not call me that."
But unpleasant was unpleasant.
……It reminds me of that woman.