Sora turned on his heel and walked back over to Iria. She couldn’t hide her impatience at his relaxed pace. The orcs could show up at any minute, after all. She wanted to yell at him to hurry up and cut her loose, but if she changed her tune here, he might think she had only apologized to get him to save her. She didn’t want his attitude to harden again, so she bowed her head in apology.
“I’m sorry... Back then, I...”
“You thought it’d be fine to abandon someone who’d hid their inability to level up from the rest of the party for half a year?”
That was exactly what she’d thought, but of course, she couldn’t tell him so.
He chuckled at her silence. “Hit the nail on the head, did I?”
“I... I’m sorry! I really am!”
“Hmph. Well, if I was in your shoes, I can’t say I wouldn’t have thought the same thing. I forgive you for the Lord of the Flies incident.” He was now standing in front of her again. He raised his head to her cheek. The sensation of his hand on her made her recall the sensation of his lips on hers, and she got goose bumps all over. Her subconscious revulsion wasn’t something she could suppress and hide with willpower.
Sora grinned as he looked at her. “Now then, once I’ve rescued you from here, I’ll apologize to you too. Then we’ll be even.”
His expression was bright, and his tone was cheerful. But Iria could somehow detect intense scorn behind that smile, and it made her freeze. “What...did you say?”
“What’s wrong? I said, once I rescue you from here, I’ll say sorry for what I did to you. You apologized for abandoning me, so I’ll apologize for leaving you here. I forgave you, so now you’re going to forgive me, right? I mean, compared to being eaten alive by maggots, becoming the plaything of a few orcs is no big deal.”
“But... What?!” Iria said sharply.
“Oh? If you’re scowling at me again, perhaps that gentle attitude of yours was an act all along? When I see your face like that, I can’t help but think that maybe you only apologized to get me to save you...”
Now Sora wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he’d been mocking her. The corners of his lips turned up into a smirk as he ridiculed the aghast Iria.
“You... You never intended to save me, did you?”
“Of course not. Now, if you’d just apologized to me back during our meeting at the guild, things might have turned out differently, but I suppose there’s no point in bringing that up now, is there? Oh...”
Just before he finished speaking, one dark shape after another leaped into the illuminated area around them. It went without saying that they were all orcs.
“One, two, three...five of them, huh? Guess we wasted too much time. And with this many gathered in one place, they sure do stink!” He made a show of holding his nose, then let out a cackle.
Iria, of course, was in no mood to laugh. The orcs’ eyes had all swung to her in unison. They were looking at her helplessly tied to a tree, staring hungrily at her face, breasts, hips, and legs. A waterfall of drool poured from their mouths. She could see that the loincloths covering their crotches were slowly starting to bulge. This was a nightmare, plain and simple.
At that moment, the wind blew in her direction and brought the stench of the orcs along with it. Unable to even cover her nose, she was subjected to the full brunt of the odor, and her face warped in revulsion and fear.
These creatures are going to have their way with me?! Again and again?! For days on end?! There’s... There’s no way I can endure that!
“Nooo! Sora, please, have mercy! Save me! Don’t leave me here!” Before she even realized it, her mouth was moving on its own, against her will. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I’ll apologize, I will! And if words aren’t enough, I’ll prove it with my actions! I’ll do whatever you want; just get me out of here! Please!” Her words were so brittle, so timid, so shameful, that she wanted to cover her own ears. But she was so desperate not to be abandoned that she fervently tried to win his favor.
And in response, a wide grin came to his face. “This is just an act too, isn’t it?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Once you get out of here, you’ll go right back to defying me.
That was what Sora was suggesting. Iria frantically shook her head.
“No! This time, I absolutely mean it! I’ll do whatever you say! I’ll even become your slave like Luna, if you want! So please—”
“Hm. Sorry, but I just can’t trust you. If you want to prove that you mean it, swear it on your god’s name, right here, right now.”
Naturally, Iria couldn’t respond right away. She was a priestess, and swearing an oath on her god meant much more than just words. If she broke an oath made on her god’s name, not only would the blessings she received from that god wane, but it would leave a permanent blemish on her faith. More specifically, her level of authority as a priestess—in other words, her ability to perform holy magic and the like—would plummet. Even if someone was forcing her to make the oath, as was the case now, that wouldn’t change. Plus, she’d have to live with the regret of using her god’s name to save herself. Her reputation and confidence as a woman of unshakable faith even at the cost of her life would be in tatters.
That was precisely why priests and priestesses rarely ever swore anything on their god’s name. Even if they were coerced into making an oath, they would resolutely refuse as a rule. They had to. If they swore an oath on their god’s name in order to save themselves, who could call that true faith?
Iria knew that well and had long since decided what her answer would be were she ever in a situation like this. She’d been prepared—or at least, she thought so. But...she wanted to be saved.
“To be a priestess of the law is to uphold the natural order of things. And order is the lamp that illuminates the darkness of the human world.” The teachings of her faith came tumbling out of her mouth in a groan, like a lament—or perhaps repentance. “Here and now, I swear to the God of Law and Order that I, Iria, will obey you, Sora...”
“For the rest of your life.”
“Kh... F-For the rest of my life! There! Now are you satisfied?!” she shrieked, despairing at having just relinquished something even more precious than her chastity. She couldn’t keep tears from spilling from her eyes.
As though to cut through her self-loathing and hopelessness, a voice resounded.
“Shinsou Reiki! Soul Eater, devour them all!”
A torrent of mana began to swirl with Sora at its center. It was such a high concentration of mana that she could sense it even though she wasn’t a mage. Before she knew it, Sora was holding a black katana in his hand, and unlike the one at his hip, merely laying eyes on this one sent shivers down her spine.
In the next instant, the black katana sliced across the landscape with a howl. The orcs were far away enough that there was no way the blade would reach them—or so Iria thought. But before her eyes, the five orcs’ upper bodies all simultaneously slid away from their lower halves. Their faces frozen in surprise, they were all silenced for eternity. A beat later, their upper halves hit the ground with a thud. With a single swing of his sword, Sora had sliced them all in two.
“H-Huh?” Iria couldn’t believe what she’d just witnessed. She was so shocked that she completely forgot the rage and despair she’d just been feeling and stood there with a dumbfounded expression instead. Sora glanced furtively at the look on her face, then with another slice of his sword, freed her from her bindings. It was so abrupt that she didn’t have time to put strength into her legs, and she fell onto the ground on her rear.
In the distance, she could see many other orcs knocking over trees and shrubs to get to the scene. The deaths of their brethren and the smell of a woman had them all agitated as they let out battle cries. Sora just looked at them and smirked. He didn’t seem frightened in the least. Rather, it looked like he couldn’t have cared less.
“So this is what they mean when they say ‘like lambs to the slaughter,’” he remarked with a grin, standing in front of Iria as though to protect her from the horde.
Naturally, Iria didn’t feel an ounce of security or comfort from that back of his. She might have sworn on her god’s name that she’d stay loyal to him, but she couldn’t feel safe around someone who’d tortured her to such an extent.
And yet...
She didn’t know why, but for some reason, she was certain that as long as she stayed behind him, those orcs weren’t going to harm her one bit.