Cleaning Erifell’s body, redressing her, and cooling her head must have had some positive effect, for although her condition wasn’t great, it was better than it had been earlier. In return, Leen had rummaged through her drawers, but that wasn’t my fault. Unfortunately, her fever hadn’t gone down, so the slime continued to play the role of ice pack. Handy little thing.
“I’m sorry. I had merely jumped to the rash conclusion that something had happened to Miss Erifell.”
“Well, some stuff did happen, I guess...”
After we explained the situation, the man seemed to accept it, and he sheathed his sword. We had put down our weapons and spoken to one another, which led us to now. It would be best for the patient to give her some space, but we decided to stay as close as necessary just in case her condition improved.
“My name’s Derg Luanton. I’m a third-class church knight.”
A church knight—in other words, a holy knight who worshiped Saphirism. They were powerful warriors on par with adventurers and played a big role in helping the church maintain its global influence. They were ranked into ten classes, with tenth being lowest and first being highest, but it was rare to meet anyone fourth or above. A third-class church knight was an elite, probably around B rank if judging on the same scale as the guild. Thank goodness I hadn’t attacked him on sight.
However, Leen seemed more intrigued by his name than his rank.
“Luanton? Isn’t that where the Church of Saphir is based?”
The four continents of Tomitoa, Lirabell, Corsueny, Altarina—the eastern, western, southern, and northern continents—and the islands that linked them all had their own nations and cultures. The towns and villages were, in turn, run by each nation. In other words, the people governed themselves.
There were independent organizations that weren’t affiliated with any nation. The only ones that could come close to rivaling the might of a nation were the guild and the church. As for the latter, if normal people mentioned the “church,” they were usually referring to Saphirism or any of the institutions under its purview. If adventurers were the ones who maintained control over the guild, it was the population of believers who maintained the church. The church was the world’s largest monotheistic religion that worshipped the goddess Saphir.
Both the guild and the church had many members all across the world. However, this was the only thing they had in common. They held vastly different viewpoints and, well, to put it simply, they didn’t get along.
“Really?” I asked.
All I knew about Saphirism was that getting involved with them would inevitably give me a massive headache, so I had no knowledge of their myths or their doctrine. I was more surprised that Leen knew about them.
“It’s right next to where I’m heading,” Leen said. “Luanton Cathedral lies at the farthest tip of human civilization, right before the northern reaches of Chromrorm. There are no human settlements beyond that.”
“Huh. You came pretty far, then,” I said to Derg.
With a home name like that, Derg here must have been born nearby the cathedral, traversed the tundra, journeyed across the continent, and made his way here. Hold on. Did Leen just say she was heading to the northern reaches?
“It isn’t so strange to leave home,” Derg replied.
Derg already had a serious face, and the wrinkles that crossed it now told me that this was a topic he’d rather avoid. I wasn’t particularly interested, so I didn’t intend to pry.
“And your names?” he asked.
“I’m Hakura.”
I paused for a moment before replying, deciding not to give my home name. I didn’t need to tell someone affiliated with the church. Luckily, unlike Leen’s slime, Derg didn’t inquire further.
“Oh, and I’m Leen Stonabel. You can call me Leen.”
“Mister Hakura, Miss Leen, it’s a plea— Huh?!”
I immediately collapsed down onto the carpet.
“Don’t mind him! Hakura has a strange illness where he randomly falls over.”
“No! I! Don’t!”
I sprang up and grabbed Leen’s shoulders.
“Say that again! Say it!” I shouted.
“Eep!”
Evidently surprised, Leen’s eyes swam as she ummed at me in confusion.
“I said...you have a strange illness where you randomly fall over...”
“I didn’t mean that! What did you say before that? About your name!”
“Are you two really an adventuring party?” Derg asked, eyeing us with suspicion. Shut up, man! I’ve got something important to ask here!
“I told you that my friends call me Leen, didn’t I?”
“Wasn’t that information so supersecret that you needed to piss me off back in that forest?!”
“That was because, Hakura, you— Ahem.”
My anger wasn’t settling, but Leen suddenly groaned to herself. She then looked over to Erifell and groaned again.
“Let’s set that aside. Right now, we’ve got something more important to deal with.”
“I ain’t taking that for an answer, just so you know.”
“I know, I know, I’ll explain properly later.”
I continued to glare at Leen, but she had a point. The problem at hand was Erifell’s condition...and the strange mark on her chest.
“What I’d like to ask about first is your relation to Erifell. How did you get in?” Leen asked.
“Ngh...”
We seemed like untrustworthy adventurers to Derg, but from our perspective, all we knew was that he had some relation to Erifell. He didn’t seem like her brother, so he was probably...
“I’m a friend. She had given me her key beforehand,” Derg replied.
“Not her boyfriend?” Leen asked.
“Just a friend.”
“A friend who wants to be more than that?”
“I said I’m just her friend! Is this really the most important thing to be discussing right now?!”
“No, but my curiosity got the better of me.”
“Don’t derail the conversation,” I said.
“Ow!”
I gave Leen’s head a little poke. She glared back at me but must have realized she was in the losing corner here, for she didn’t strike back.
“I have a reason for entering here with a weapon,” Derg said, pulling out a thin slip of paper. “Miss Erifell had briefed me beforehand. She always slips this piece of paper in the door frame when she goes out. In other words, if this paper is lying in the corridor, that means that someone else has opened her door.”
I glanced over at Erifell, who was breathing deeply. I didn’t realize she did this during her off time. It was basically an alarm system that let her share if there was an emergency or not. It made sense that he got angry when he saw that something was amiss, came in, and witnessed an unclothed Erifell surrounded by two strangers.
“Well, it’s easy to make enemies in her line of work. It wouldn’t be surprising for a bad-hearted adventurer to ambush her after losing their temper,” Leen said.
“I wouldn’t dare let that happen.”
Derg’s tone was strong.
That was the kind of guy he was, I supposed. I didn’t really get him, but he was free to do as he pleased. To be honest, I wasn’t all that interested in Erifell’s personal life. But still...
“Aren’t the guild and the church enemies? You happy with this?” I asked.
Due to cultural and historical reasons, the church and the guild were on really, really, really bad terms. More accurately, the church hated the guild. Even if Erifell weren’t part of the equation, it wouldn’t be strange for Derg to cut me down for no reason.
“Well, Miss Erifell isn’t an adventurer. There’s no rule that prevents fraternizing with guild employees,” Derg said. However, the slightly annoyed huff from his nose betrayed his actual thoughts.
“Uh-huh! I see, I see. That’s how it is!” Leen said with a shit-eating grin on her face as she looked over to the unconscious Erifell. “Well done, Erifell. You made moves on a church knight of all people!”
“Please don’t say things that could be misconstrued!” Derg yelled as he stood up.
Leen merely put a finger to her lips and shushed him in response. First she riled him up, then she admonished him. She was a real character.
“Ngh... F-First of all, such comments are rude to Miss Erifell. Misunderstandings of that nature will harm her reputation,” he said, clearing his throat awkwardly as he sat back down. “The reason Miss Erifell and I know each other is because she had something she wanted to discuss with me.”
“A request?”
Derg nodded, and his grave expression grew more intense. “You may have heard of this, as you are adventurers,” he said. He scanned the area and spoke in a hushed voice despite there not being anyone else around. “There was an incident in Leston just recently. It—”
“Oh, yes. We were the adventurers on that quest. At Erifell’s request. She said the church folk were too busy to do anything about it immediately or something.”
Derg’s shoulders slumped almost audibly. To him, he was probably revealing quite sensitive information, but Leen, in typical Leen fashion, had cut him off with her knowledge of the matter. Of course, she didn’t hesitate to add a dash of cruelty to her remarks. He himself was a “church folk” so it was only natural for him to grimace.
“Then you are aware of the breadth of the matter. Miss Erifell believed that the incident in Leston was the work of a witch.”
“Yeah, I thought so too,” I said.
Why else would Erifell ask for my help as a witch hunter? She must have had proof. Unfortunately, we couldn’t ask her anything in this state. Actually, wait a second... Maybe she was in this state because of what she knew.
“I had begun preparations to indict this witch.”
As soon as Derg said this, the air grew tense. Indicting a witch was quite the heavy act.
“Well, this is serious, huh,” I said.
The reason being that if someone indicted a witch, then either the accused or the accuser would be killed.
“Hmm, witches aren’t so commonplace that they just show up anywhere,” Leen said, arms crossed and evidently unconvinced. “But the fact that Erifell’s cursed means that one must be involved.”
“Yeah, if there’s a curse, then a witch must— Hold on, what did you just say?!”
I had the impression that Leen had again just said something I couldn’t dare ignore.
“Like I said, Erifell’s sudden condition is because of a witch’s curse. Someone who had been in tip-top shape wouldn’t fall over so suddenly like that.”
“Huh?! And what proof do—”
“I showed you! On her chest. Look.”
Leen pointed at the top right of her own ample bosom with a serious expression.
“There was an inverta right here. That’s proof that someone’s been cursed by a witch. Putting aside the question of whether this witch was involved with what happened in Leston, I know for certain that there’s a witch who wants to kill Erifell.”
I recalled the black mark on Erifell’s skin that Leen had—purposefully or not—shown me earlier.