Ruvy was standing in front of the room Erifell was in.
“Geh...” I muttered.
After rebuking me for my uncontrolled response, Ruvy heaved a truly deep sigh.
“Hakura Istilla. Leen Stonabel,” she said.
“Wh-What?” I asked.
I glanced back at Ruvy only to find that she was on her knee with a bowed head.
“If you two hadn’t been present...I would have given...an incorrect verdict,” she said.
Wow, I didn’t think she’d actually genuinely apologize.
“On behalf of the Carbuncles, I extend my apologies,” she went on.
“Heh heh! That’s right! I hope you reflect on this. It was very, very close!” Leen said.
Of course Leen wouldn’t hesitate to act cruelly toward someone who was acknowledging their misstep. However, I noticed from her eyes that she was serious.
“Your decisions can decide who lives and who dies, after all,” she went on.
I wondered just how many times in the Carbuncles’ long history someone had managed to successfully hide their stigma. Who would take responsibility if an innocent person had ended up being wrongly executed in the witch’s stead? If they were a decent organization, I expected that this event would result in them revisiting their past records to reflect and consider.
Well, even Leen didn’t know whether an adventurer had become a witch in the past, so I could only pray that the Carbuncles of the past hadn’t made any mistakes until now.
“You’re quite right,” Ruvy said.
Ruvy was one of only six special-class knights in the world and evidently had no rebuttal to this.
“The person we need to make things up to...is Erifell Leston. Now...Sir Derg?”
“Ma’am!”
After slowly getting back to her feet, Ruvy called for Derg. This was a direct summons from someone in a far, far superior position to him. He immediately fixed his posture and answered in a clear voice. Considering how much taller he was, it was an amusing sight.
“I will contact you...later about this. It does not...seem right to do so now,” Ruvy said.
“Understood!”
After a nod, Ruvy bowed before leaving.
Thanks to their own error of judgment, she didn’t touch upon the whole Krauna thing. That was a relief. After waiting until Ruvy was out of sight, Derg knocked on the door.
“Miss Erifell, it’s me, Derg. How are you feeling?”
However, there was no response.
“Miss Erifell? Miss Eri—”
“Coming right through!”
Leen brushed Derg aside, who was about to knock again, and opened the door with zero hesitation. It creaked open, and the sight awaiting us surprised me.
“I can’t believe you! Brute forcing your way into a church? What were you thinking?”
“I-I’m sorry, Erifell... Wait a second. Why am I apologizing even though I’m in this state...?”
“I’m making you apologize because you’re like this! If you’ve passed away, then hurry along to heaven. What are you doing with lingering regrets? You were buried with Allen, weren’t you?”
“W-Well, yes, I was, but... I was worried about the glove...and you, Erifell.”
“I suppose you’ve grown up if Useless Krauna is the one worrying about me. Have you improved at your leatherwork since I saw you last?”
“I told you not to tease me like that! Hmph!”
The sick patient was sitting up in her bed, berating a wraith. What on earth was this scene?
“Hello, Erifell. Nice to see you’re doing well,” Leen said, choosing not to read the room.
Realizing we’d lose our chance to get inside if we didn’t move now, Derg and I followed after her. Finally, Erifell noticed us. She bowed her head slowly.
“I apologize for the hassle I caused you,” she said.
“You bet! We worked so hard for you!” Leen replied.
“Do you not know what modesty means?” I muttered. Although Leen wasn’t wrong that we’d done a lot.
“She’s right. Without you two, I would never have been able to win against Cormeca. Hakura Istilla, Leen Stonabel, thank you so very much,” Erifell said, adjusting her glasses. “I never thought I’d get to speak to Krauna again.”
“Oh! Erifell, your glasses...” Krauna said, clapping her hands together as she noticed something. “They’re the ones I made for your birthday... You use them?”
Krauna seemed overjoyed, but Erifell’s response was curt.
“Only in my private life. They’re useless at work. They don’t fit my face at all!”
“Don’t be so mean, Erifell...!”
Erifell ignored Krauna’s sniffles and turned to Derg.
“Derg... I don’t know what to say.”
“Y-You don’t need to say anything. I was, um, fulfilling my, er, duty as a church knight... Yes...”
Krauna’s tears vanished in an instant, and she started laughing at how stiff Derg had become. She no longer seemed like a wraith. That intense aura from when she’d appeared was gone, and now she seemed positively human.
“I will pay you back. No matter what it takes,” Erifell replied.
“N-N-No, it’s okay! I don’t need anything, I, uh, yes...”
It was amusing to see Derg act so flustered, but a part of me wanted to receive some kind of payment too.
“Huh? Give us something too! Where’s my reward!” Leen said.
“Do you not know the meaning of constraint?” I said.
“If there’s a reward, then you should take it!”
Erifell merely sighed. “That goes without saying. I owe you two my life. I will prepare something for you,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“You don’t sound very grateful,” Leen replied.
“Well, I am, very much so.”
From her curt tone, I could tell Erifell was back to her normal self. It seemed she was on her way to recovery.
“Anyway,” Erifell said, giving a light cough before looking up at the floating Krauna. “What are you going to do now, Krauna?”
“Huh? Me?”
“Look at you. I doubt you intend to stay like this. Or do you want to end up the subject of some horror stories in Esma’s future?”
“Talk about harsh...” I muttered.
However, I was curious as to how this would be sorted. I glanced over at Leen.
“Hmm... How would you like to accompany us to Chromrorm, Krauna?”
I had assumed as much from the conversation with Derg, but it seemed like her destination was the northern reaches. I did want to chime in and ask about this “us” part. Our contract was only until Clovel, wasn’t it?
Krauna pondered Leen’s question for a while. Soon, she slowly shook her head.
“Thank you, Leen. I appreciate your kindness. But I think I’ll go to sleep. I’m already dead, after all! And I can’t leave Allen on his own.” She seemed a bit sad, but there was a brightness in her tone that suggested she had no regrets. “Oh! You said your name was Stonabel, but you told me it was T—”
“That name is a secret between us, Krauna,” Leen said, holding her index finger to her mouth and letting out a shush.
It seemed like she had realized what Krauna’s response would be, so she made no move to keep her here.
“Okay. Our little secret, hee hee,” Krauna said.
After that, the boundaries of Krauna’s body started to glimmer with a pale glow before gradually disappearing. As if melting away, Krauna turned into small particles of light that filled the room.
“Thank you, Erifell. Thank you for doing so much for us.”
“You should thank everyone else here. I wasn’t able to do a thing.”
“That’s not true!”
“She’s right. If you hadn’t been here, then no one would’ve thought to indict the witch,” Leen said, not reading the room as usual. This time, though, she was right.
“I agree, Miss Erifell. We were able to achieve this result thanks to your bravery in standing up to the witch,” Derg said.
Erifell’s step forward had propelled Derg into action, leading us to help out, which had, in turn, brought Krauna back to this world to finally indict Cormeca. Erifell had been the one who had set this all into motion. In fact, if she hadn’t sent Leen to Leston, then we would never have realized this whole affair had occurred.
“Krauna...”
“Yes, Erifell?”
“I...wish...”
“Yeah?”
“...you hadn’t died...”
It seemed to me like Erifell had finally realized the role she had played.
“I wanted to see you get married. I wanted to see the happy future you and Allen would have achieved together. I wanted to sew your wedding dress. I wanted to see you toss the bouquet for us to catch.”
It was natural for Erifell’s emotions to finally burst.
“Why did you have to die, Krauna? I...”
Those emotions spilled forth into tears.
“I loved you two so much. I wanted you to live a happy life together...”
Apparently it’d been Erifell who had sent Allen on his job to Leston. I had my own theories as to Erifell’s thoughts behind this, but there was no way for me to know exactly what was on her mind.
“Erifell,” Krauna said, as her body gradually disappeared. “You were the most beautiful woman in our village, so please...smile for me. If you can do that...then I can leave without any regrets.”
As a gentle gust passed, Krauna vanished. In the final moment, I felt like I could see someone taking her hand as she left forever—but that was probably just my imagination.
✦ ✦ ✦
Then, three days later...
“Good morning, Erifell.”
Leen approached the guild’s counter and called out to the receptionist who had successfully returned to work and was calmly organizing some documents.
“Good morning. Are you here for a quest?” Erifell replied.
She was back on form and was wearing her work glasses. No matter how much she may move around, they wouldn’t budge at all from the bridge of her nose.
“I am! I’d like a job that’s easy, pays well, and won’t be a pain!” Leen replied.
“What about your job as a monstermancer?” I chimed in.
“With all the excitement recently, I’d like to fit in some nice, easy work to relax with!”
She wasn’t wrong, so I wasn’t going to counter that argument.
Erifell pulled some documents off the shelf and spread them out before us. From the top was a quest to collect a gryphon’s egg, quelling a group of goblins supposedly led by a troll, solving some turf wars between three types of monsters, et cetera, et cetera...
“All of them seem like a real pain,” Leen moaned as she browsed the selection.
“My job,” Erifell said, not changing her expression and without blanching in the slightest, “is to provide the appropriate job to the appropriate adventurer.”
“Ugh, you’re such a meanie, Erifell,” Leen groaned.
After glaring at the selection of quests, Leen looked up at Erifell, sticking her tongue out before giving a nasty smile.
“That necklace really doesn’t suit you,” she added.
It was an old necklace, a round piece of leatherwork that was worn by its years of use, a tired item that wasn’t all too well made even if you were being generous.
Erifell clutched it and chuckled before replying with a smile, “I know.”