67.
It had finally come.
I struggled to compose my complicated feelings and looked up at the Central Grand Temple located on the outskirts of the capital.
I had visited once before to find Prienne Izanare.
Back then, they had said they would check whether I had taken some strange drug, and my mind had been half-gone, so I hadn't been able to see a thing in front of me, but…
Now, for some reason, the solemn and serene atmosphere vaguely seemed to weigh down on me.
People in priestly robes disappeared into the temple building in groups of threes and fives, climbing the stairs.
“Sister. Have you come to pray?”
Just then, a priest who had spotted me lingering near the entrance approached me.
“No, I’m here to meet someone.”
“Then I shall call them for you. Who is it?”
“Um, Sir Izanare.”
The priest’s gentle eyes narrowed in an instant.
“……Unannounced visits without an appointment are difficult, Sister.”
When I felt that his tone had somehow grown colder,
a face I had encountered once before had quietly appeared from behind.
“Father, I know her, so if you would return, I shall handle this.”
I glanced aside and grimaced.
A man clad in a paladin’s uniform.
What the? It’s that paladin bastard who said he’d take me to Sir Izanare last time but dumped me in front of an inquisitor killing someone while covered in blood.
That very guy who even had a track record of running off by himself afterward.
The priest looked at him, nodded, and quickly went inside the temple.
I let out a sigh and turned to face him.
“Unfortunately, I have no business with you.”
“Is that so? These days, there are more than one or two young noblewomen who blindly chase after Sir Izanare to the temple out of admiration, so without my help, you won’t be able to set foot inside……”
“……”
“Of course, if I were to guide you, it would be a different story.”
I scoffed.
“If I receive your guidance twice, I’m afraid I’ll get caught up in something dangerous, so no thanks.”
“But you made it out safely, didn’t you?”
The paladin looked down at me with a brazen face.
He basically didn’t seem to like me very much, yet seeing him strike up conversation like this…
Does he want something from me?
Come to think of it, back then too, he had muttered all sorts of cryptic words by himself.
“Hey. Are you doing this because of how Sir Izanare described me?”
I hated feeling frustrated, and I had no patience to muster just to figure out what his scheme was.
When I asked outright, the corners of the paladin’s mouth twitched slightly.
“He said nothing.”
“Then is it jealousy?”
At my retort, the corners of the paladin’s mouth twitched even more this time.
He seemed a bit slighted.
“Why would I be jealous? And of someone like you, of all people?”
“Then why don’t you explain what you mean by ‘someone like me’ since we’re at it.”
He hesitated for quite a while before finally letting out a sigh and opening his mouth.
“It’s not jealousy, but…”
“It’s not?”
“I was testing you.”
“Excuse me?”
Regardless of me frowning and asking back, the paladin just rattled on with what he had to say.
“Sir Izanare is… I thought if I showed you that he is not someone who can build a normal family, you would fall away.”
“……”
“I admit you have a face that makes it impossible to give up, even having seen that.”
“……”
“Compared to other noble young ladies, your nerves seem quite thick, so I shall acknowledge you now.”
“Huh?”
It felt like my brain refused to understand.
“From now on, you’ll often go hungry. Since you’ll have to wander the continent, you won’t be able to sleep soundly in a clean place, and you’ll always be getting injured…”
The paladin even began counting on his fingers, forecasting my incomprehensible future.
“No, wait, wait!”
“Are you getting scared now, after all this?”
“Why would I suddenly wander the continent?”
“Because if you’re to be with Sir Izanare, that is how it will eventually be.”
“……”
“In your twilight years, you’ll live polishing his gravestone after he departs this world first. By then, well, you might be able to settle down.”
“……”
Is this bastard cursing me in some strange way?
“I thought you cared deeply for Sir Izanare. Talking about him leaving this world first, what intention do you have saying such things?”
“You’ll find out gradually anyway.”
“What are you talking about? Are you saying Sir Izanare is going to die soon?”
“Yes.”
“……”
Somewhere deep in my chest, it felt like a wind was raging far away.
A slight flutter.
‘Was I… surprised?’
Leaving me speechless, the paladin turned around and began to walk ahead with heavy steps.
“Anyway, please come inside. I shall guide you. Ah, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell Sir Izanare that I said such things.”
I followed belatedly, grimacing.
“……You badmouth him to your heart’s content, and now it bothers you? It’s already too late.”
“To be honest, I was a bit glad.”
Wondering what he was getting at now, I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
“I thought if he had someone he loved, he might act a little less dangerously.”
“……”
“But even so… nothing changed.”
The paladin’s expression darkened.
With a face distorted by deep sorrow, worry, and resignation, he finally fell silent.
“……”
If I were to say ‘but I don’t like that inquisitor of yours’ in this situation…
That wouldn’t do, would it?
Yeah, let’s read the room….
* * *
“I shall go inform Sir Izanare, so please wait here.”
And so I was left alone in an empty room devoid of any sense of life.
Waiting quietly in an empty room with no decorations or prepared refreshments was, truthfully, making me restless.
As time dragged on, I began to even suspect that the paladin who had guided me here had trapped me in a scheme after distracting me with all sorts of nonsense.
Come to think of it, it was unnerving that I had, of all people, been guided by that paladin and followed him here as if bewitched.
Clicking my tongue, I looked around the neat room with nothing to see,
when I spotted a picture frame placed on the shelf by the window.
I rose and approached halfway before stopping.
From where I stood now, I could make out the painting inside the frame.
It was a very young face, but it was definitely Prienne Izanare.
And…
Beside the boy with short silver hair, standing askance with a sullen expression,
there was a mother who looked exactly like him, a father as huge as a bear who honestly shared nothing but the silver hair, an elder sister who resembled that father in expression alone, brimming with confidence, and a little girl as small as a peanut.
In that little girl’s arms was even a puppy like a white ball of fur with a black nose.
A happy family, unmistakable no matter who looked at them.
But Prienne had said he abandoned his family name along with his household.
I didn’t have the confidence to go closer and examine their faces.
So I just backed away as I was and plopped back down into the chair.
“……”
Just then, faintly, the sound of music drifted in from outside. It was a piece with a melody that was neither fast nor hurried, but reverent.
Simply listening to it made my heart grow calm.
As if entranced, I turned my gaze.
At first I thought it was coming from outside the window, but when I strained my ears, it was outside the door.
From the corridor.
After hesitating for a moment, I decided I would probably have to wait quite a while longer and got to my feet.
Surely it would be fine to just step out for a moment and look around nearby.
For some reason, staying alone in this room any longer felt rude, too.
‘It seems to be Sir Izanar’s room, after all.’
No wonder we had come so deep into the temple.
No wonder he had led me to a place where not a single ordinary worshipper coming for service could be seen.
That paladin bastard really keeps putting me in front of things I feel like I shouldn’t be seeing.
If he tries to guide me somewhere again next time, I’ll have to make sure I never follow him.
Making that vow, I walked down the corridor.
Toward the place where the gentle music was flowing from.
And so I arrived at a place where corridors from here and there converged, like a small indoor plaza.
At the center stood a large statue.
It was a statue carved in the likeness of the chief god of the great religion that had continued since the days of the Holy State far away.
A blind god, with a hawk on his shoulder and a snake at his feet, was reaching his hand forward.
From his fingertips, drip, drip, clear drops of water were falling.
And strangely enough.
The moment I stopped before it, the melody that had been sounding all along vanished.
Drip. Driiip.
With only the sound of falling water left behind,
I reached out without realizing it.
A drop of water splashed.
The moment that cold sensation fell upon my eyelid.
My vision suddenly changed.
The sound of flowing water, a waterwheel turning slowly,
and a woman who had been lowering her head before it, then turned toward me at the sign of someone’s presence.
<……Hm?>
Even when I tried to focus, I couldn’t make out her face.
The woman tilted her head.
<Why have you come already?>