68.
“Already?”
I asked without thinking.
The woman turned her gaze back toward the stream of water.
“Where is this place?”
<Why did you come here if you don’t even know that?>
“I don’t know. I just, without realizing it……”
<What on earth do you know?>
“……”
<Do you at least know who you are?>
“What do you mean, who am I?”
I asked back, bewildered.
“Who am I?”
<That is something you must find out for yourself.>
“If you know, you could just tell me.”
The woman let out a sigh, then clicked her tongue.
<And here I wondered what you were going to say……>
I couldn’t see her face,
but I felt the woman raise her head and stare straight at me.
<It hasn’t been decided yet.>
And when I suddenly came to my senses, I was standing blankly before that same statue.
Drip, droop……
Water droplets were still running down the statue’s outstretched fingertips and falling onto the marble floor.
Right. The moment I focused on that sound…… suddenly, before my eyes……
Throb.
I abruptly sucked in a breath at a pain that felt as if it were stabbing through my left eye.
“Who are you, and why are you here?”
Startled, I turned around.
It was an older priest dressed in an unfamiliar black cassock.
The priest’s eyes narrowed, his white hair neatly tied back.
“……An intruder?”
* * *
The person who had never come when he waited every single day had to choose this moment, of all times……
The holy knight watching Prien hurriedly rise and begin pulling on his clothes clicked his tongue.
“Sir, shall I help you?”
As usual, Prien ignored him.
Aside from the high-ranking priests who had personally brought the boy, drenched in blood amid heaps of corpses, to the temple,
there was no one who could even pretend to stop Izanar once he set his mind on something.
A stubborn man who appeared polite, but in truth would not lend even half an ear to others’ concern or attention.
That was, in fact, the reason Prien Izanar was staying in the imperial capital for an unusually long time.
Because of intelligence that the core members of the heretics who had led the war had slipped into the capital.
But on the other hand……
Perhaps he had gained another reason before anyone realized it.
After all, it seemed as though private time had appeared in his life.
A person who moved him not for the purpose of investigating heresy, but out of purely personal interest.
Naturally, the holy knight was not the only one who had noticed that woman’s existence early on.
Did Prien Izanar even know that everyone was watching closely?
He was not an oblivious man, so even if he knew, he was probably simply indifferent.
Prien dropped his clothes.
The holy knight sighed and placed the garment back over his shoulders.
Prien hesitated, then silently slipped his uninjured arm into the upper garment.
A patient who had difficulty moving, a man who first rejected anyone else’s touch on principle, was hurrying this much for one reason.
“She will be waiting quietly, so there is no need to rush, Sir.”
“……”
He was ignored again.
But there was slightly more feeling in it than usual; he was clearly displeased that, the other day, the holy knight had made him witness ‘that’ scene without the woman’s consent.
“If only you had been a bit more careful, you would not have been hurt like this……”
It was then.
An urgent knock sounded.
The door flew open.
A young-looking apprentice priest looked back and forth between the two holy knights with confusion in her eyes.
“Ah, Sister. What is it?”
“It’s about the sister Sir guided to the temple’s central area earlier. She was found in the central chapel, where entry is forbidden, and right now……”
Before she could even properly finish speaking, Prien pushed past the holy knight and rushed out of the treatment room.
* * *
“I told you, I am Baron Anastasia Roxan.”
“Yes.”
With a warm teacup giving off wisps of steam before me, I sat with my shoulders pulled taut.
Across from me, that same older priest was gazing at me, his interlaced hands resting on his knees.
It was a stare so direct it felt persistent.
‘I’m sure the misunderstanding that I was an intruder has been cleared up…… So why is he still looking at me like that……?’
“Sister, it seems the person in charge of guiding you failed to tell you that you must not wander around here carelessly.”
“……Um. I’m sorry.”
“Not at all. It will be fine as long as you do not do so next time.”
‘Next time?’
Though I thought it was an oddly lenient response compared to how nervous I had been,
for some reason, I felt uneasy.
“I heard you were ill for a long time when you were young. They said it was an incurable disease of unknown origin……”
“Pardon? How do you know that?”
“When a young child falls ill, parents generally seek out a priest at least once.”
“You still remember that?”
“So how are you now? You appear healthy on the outside……”
“Thankfully, thanks to you, I am very healthy now.”
Though I had said it merely as a courtesy, the priest smiled faintly.
As if he were very satisfied.
“Do you have a rather strong stomach?”
“Excuse me?”
“Your stomach, I mean.”
“Ah, I don’t think I’m particularly sensitive.”
“Hmm.”
I sensed it instinctively.
‘Surely I’m not being tested again?’
Just what kind of existence was Prien Izanar in the Great Temple
for even this high-ranking priest, who seemed to be at least a ‘bishop’ or higher, to join in on this?
‘Wasn’t a heresy inquisitor supposed to be…… really frightening……?’
Well.
He would be frightening to heretics, but there was no reason priests serving the same god would fear him.
“What about your faith?”
To be honest, I had no particular thoughts on it. Even in my own eyes, I was not a very devout person.
Still, I did not have the courage to say, ‘Well, not really?’ in this situation, so I was choosing my words when—
“Ah, well……”
The door behind me flew open.
“Sir Izanar?”
When the pale, peerlessly beautiful man, covered in cold sweat, stepped into the room, it suddenly felt as if the interior had brightened.
“Why are you here……”
Flustered, he came to my side.
“Was there anything…… troublesome……”
His left hand was even trembling slightly.
And his clothes were…… how should I put it…… should I point it out……?
At any rate, I quickly answered first.
“It’s all right. He served me tea. We didn’t talk about anything much.”
Prien reached out and grabbed my arm.
Drawn by him, I was naturally pulled to my feet.
“What’s wrong?”
“We will be leaving now. ……Please forgive my rudeness.”
“Very well. Go on, then.”
The older priest nodded benevolently and waved his hand.
With my arm still held by Prien, I came out into the corridor.
Only after the door closed did he let out his breath.
“What’s wrong? Is the person in that room even higher-ranking than I thought?”
“To put it simply, he is my…… superior.”
“Your superior?”
“Yes. One who…… interrogates heretics.”
An inquisitor.
At that moment, my heart sank and began to pound.
‘How is your faith?’
The question I had heard so casually suddenly began to sound different.
With Prien holding my arm, I began walking ahead.
“F-for now, let’s go somewhere safe. No, to Sir Ijanar’s room.”
We arrived in the room in no time.
Only after I heard the door close did I let out a breath of relief.
“Is he a frightening person?”
“Yes.”
I shuddered.
That was just how it was. Even when you’d done nothing wrong, somehow it felt as if there had to be some wrongdoing of your own that even you didn’t know about…….
“But I really didn’t say much. It’ll be all right, won’t it?”
Still holding my arm, he nodded.
“As long as he did not make things difficult for you, that is enough. You will never have to run into him again from now on, so…….”
Prien stopped speaking and suddenly fell silent.
Beads of sweat gathered on his forehead and rolled down one by one.
A drop of sweat that had run over his eyelid slid along his lashes and fell.
“Are you all right?”
Only then did I notice his condition.
His complexion was pale, and there was no strength in his voice.
It seemed the sweat pouring off him like rain wasn’t limited to the parts I could see; the clothes he appeared to have thrown on roughly were already damp.
When I took hold of him to support him, his back beneath my hand was sticky with sweat.
“I am sorry. I was the one who…… asked you to come. But…….”
“No. I should have sent word before coming. I came at a bad time.”
Prien could not say anything.
It did not seem to be for any other reason; he simply seemed to be in real pain.
As if to keep from opening his mouth, he pressed the back of his hand hard against his lips.
“Does it hurt? Where does it hurt?”
“……Over there.”
When we went farther into the room, there was a single bed by the window.
I hurriedly sat him down on the edge of it.
I wiped the sweat on his forehead with my sleeve, then sat down beside him altogether and took out a handkerchief.
“Lie down for now.”
Prien lay down, his breathing rough.
Should I…… call someone?
But just now, after wandering around alone, I seemed to have been caught by someone I would rather never run into again if I could help it.
“Sir Ijanar, what should I do for you? If you tell me to call someone, I will.”
“……I am all right.”
The hand that held me back as if to stop me was trembling.
His entire body was trembling.
He was not shivering as though from a chill; this was, how should I put it…….
“Does it hurt? Is it because you’re in pain?”
It looked as if he was suffering.
I grew serious despite myself.
Prien clenched his teeth. His jaw tightened, and because his head was thrown far back, I could see the veins standing out starkly along his neck.
His nape was damp with sweat.
“Wait! I’ll call someone!”
Unable to bear it any longer, I sprang to my feet.