Cold wind licked my cheeks.
I wanted to raise my cape but instead remained still as I looked at my opponent.
Sellen looked back and asked me, “Are you really going to fight me?”
“You’re not going to get out of my way. We have to fight.”
“...Fuu.”
Sellen let out a breath as if she had no choice before taking her own stance.
I slowly began to circulate my internal energy.
Now that I thought about it, was this the first time Sellen and I had fought?
This girl defeated Hector during their spar.
In that case, her sparring skills were similar to or even greater than Charon’s.I wanted to observe her movements for a bit...
But I didn’t have much time, so I launched the first attack.
Dash.
At the same time, Sellen charged toward me.
I saw something flash with silver, and I noticed that her claws had grown and were reflecting light.
The Blessing of the Silver Moon... She’s taking this seriously.
That was a bad omen.
With my current internal energy levels, facing those claws head-on will be difficult...
That was what I had thought just yesterday.
Clang!
“...!”
I covered my fist with fire ki as I deflected Sellen’s claws.
Sellen was the one who ended up being pushed away.
There was no need to hide it: this was thanks to the mystic bead.
While curing Sellen’s internal state, I had explosively absorbed the energy of the mystic bead and my internal energy reserves had increased threefold.
My power currently outclassed hers.
Sellen was probably well aware, but she didn’t back down. She approached even closer to exchange blows.
...Something’s off.
Frankly, I’d been confident I would be able to suppress Sellen without much issue.
I wasn’t looking down on her, but the experience I’d gained during the training camp wasn’t insignificant at all.
However, the combat prowess Sellen was showing was easily beyond anything I’d expected.
It wasn’t just a small difference. She had grown so much that it felt like she was someone else.
Was this also related to Sellen’s secret?
Crack!
Sellen’s backhand slammed into my palm.
Through the numbing pain in my palm, I realized two things.
One, I had less than half of my full strength at the moment.
And two, Sellen was matching my level while fighting me.
“...”
Why are martial artists so stupid?
When I realized that my opponent was going easy on me, a fire erupted within my heart.
Of course, I was holding back attacks that could kill Sellen as well...
But... what was it that Third Senior Brother had said about situations like this?
—Hypocritical?
—Bam bam bam!
As punishment for having had those useless thoughts, I’d suffered a minor wound.
I knew what the Blessing of the Silver Moon entailed.
It was the power of choice of the future hero “Silver Moon” and the blessing that allowed the power of the divine beast Silver Fox to inhabit her body.
Now that I think about it...
What Arzan had shown while we were in the Gem Mountains looked similar to what Sellen was showing now.
Did Arzan have a blessing as well?
Dash.
Suddenly, Sellen stepped back.
She looked at me like she was looking at a monster.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in terrible condition?”
“That’s right. I can’t even use half my full power.”
“Half...”
Sellen laughed in disbelief.
I wiped the blood from my face.
It wasn’t a lethal wound, but due to how terrible my condition was, that small amount had been enough to make my head feel light for a moment.
Perhaps Sellen had been aiming for that...
I knew that it was unfavorable to me to drag this out.
I knew that, but I couldn’t help but ask. “Is this on Goodspring’s order?”
“What?”
“You heard about Evan from your house and entered the training camp to kill him... If I think about it like that, it helps explain the way you’ve been acting.”
Sellen sneered at me.
“Kekek. That’s a funny theory, but you missed one thing.”
“What is it?”
Sellen’s smile turned cold as she responded, “The way I’m treated within House Goodspring. Did you know that Goodspring’s bloodline is pretty strong? Interestingly, no matter which house’s blood they mix with, their children all end up being born with the same characteristics.”
I’d had nearly no interactions with House Goodspring.
However, I had seen their family head once.
Hatehm Goodspring... He had warm golden hair that looked like melted sunlight and deep blue eyes reminiscent of the ocean.
He was so unlike the Lord of Blood and Iron that the imagery of the two standing next to each other had stuck in my mind.
“...”
I looked at Sellen.
I was similar in that I looked quite different from the average Bednicker, but at least I had inherited the dark-red eyes of the black fairies.
However, Sellen looked nothing like Hatehm.
“I’ve heard that this is the first time it’s happened in the history of House Goodspring. That’s why people hate me as much as they hate the Bednickers. They’ve treated me like a witch since the moment I was born.”
“That’s unexpected. I thought Goodspring and Bednicker were total opposites.”
“Total opposites?”
“I thought House Goodspring was like a warm spring morning, as the name suggests.”
In response, Sellen burst into laughter.
When people laughed at something I said that I hadn’t intended to be funny, it always made me feel disrespected. It felt like they were laughing at me.
But for some reason, Sellen’s laugh felt different.
Even though she was laughing loudly, I could feel a sense of sadness from her.
After she stopped laughing, she smiled and said, “You can’t live a life that’s always like a spring morning. At some point, you have to face the cold. That’s why I hate the spring. That comfort makes humans weak, it makes them forget their suffering. The winter is cold, but it wakes them up to reality. Goodspring’s order?”
Sellen raised her middle finger.
“They can go die. If they’d tried to do something like that, I would’ve been the one to mess it up.”
“Then why are you trying to kill Evan? Is it just because you don’t want to die?”
Although I hadn’t known her for long, I knew that she wasn’t the type to kill someone just for something like that.
“...If we kill the vice-cult leader of the Church of Darkness, then the emperor will probably reward us for our achievement. It’s a great achievement that even the elders of the House would have to respect.” Sellen smirked. “What you said isn’t completely wrong. Rather than the order of the house, I’m here by my own will.”
“You want to be respected by House Goodspring.”
“Who cares about respect? I just want to show ‘Sellen’ to the house again.”
“What?” I asked.
The way Sellen had said that was a little odd, but she just closed her mouth as if she had made a mistake.
Then she shook her head.
“...Let’s stop the useless discussions here. You aren’t in a position to be wasting time either.”
“That’s true.”
I didn’t know much about Sellen. However, I could tell that it wasn’t simply because she hated her house like she’d said.
I could understand her heart.
Living while leaving behind your house...
It was an easy thing to say, but completely distancing yourself from your birthplace was very difficult.
I had experienced it as well, so I knew.
That was why I also knew the answer to that problem.
It was actually quite simple: find a place more important to you than your house.
And I had found it.
Although it had happened after I’d died, I’d ended up finding my spring day.
On the other hand, it seemed Sellen hadn’t gotten to that point yet.
“...”
Did I need to comfort her?
That didn’t seem to be the case.
Ignoring my lame wordplay, I wondered if trying to comfort Sellen would in itself be mocking her.
She was accepting her winter just as she was looking for her spring.
A rash act of sympathy would only insult her.
Thus, the answer was simple.
We just needed to fight until both of us were satisfied.
Boom...
It was then that I heard what sounded like an explosion in the distance.
Just as we were about to charge at each other again, Sellen and I stopped to look in the direction of the explosion.
I could feel on my skin that a terrifying energy had been unleashed.
“That’s...”
“...Demonic energy?”
Sellen spaced out. She seemed worried.
“No...”
She gritted her teeth before running directly toward where the sound had come from.
I instinctively recognized that this wasn’t the time to fight, so I followed after her.
* * * * *
* * * * *
The place we could feel the demonic energy coming from wasn’t far.
Sellen and I arrived there quite quickly.
The scene we saw laid out before us...
Hector and Charon were lying on the ground.
The Instructor of Doctrine, Juniang, was covered in blood.
And...
“...Evan?”
[...]
An entity that looked like Evan was standing still between them.
Of course, he looked very different from before. His skin was completely black, and his eyes had flipped up so only the whites were visible.
I wasn’t skilled in medicine, but I could clearly tell that his condition was abnormal.
The Instructor of Doctrine coughed.
Sellen quickly ran up to support her.
“What happened? Did it fail?”
“...Fail? Yeah, I guess you can call this a failure.”
“What do you...”
“This might sound irresponsible... but I don’t know... Evan definitely died...”
“Yes. He did die, Instructor of Doctrine.”
It was neither I nor Sellen who had answered her.
With a creepy laugh, the sky turned black.
Oooooooh~
A sorrowful cry filled the forest.
Pshwoo!
Even though there wasn’t any wind, the trees shivered as if they were possessed.
Suddenly, the quiet forest became noisy.
Creak!
The canopy that had covered the sky began to bend in odd ways. The trees creaked as if their joints were being twisted and broken.
Then, for the first time since entering the Forest of the Butterfly, I saw the sky above the trees.
Instead of the night sky, all I could see were the dozens of demons waiting in the air.
The winged beasts and banshees were flying in a circle around the high priest.
“...Instructor Juan,” Juniang spat.
Juan, the high priest, smiled brightly.
“You don’t look well, Juniang. Have you had a bad day?”
“The worst day. Because of you.”
“Because of me?”
Juan acted surprised as he pointed at himself.
“Cut it with that disgusting act of yours.”
“It’s not an act, I am truly hurt. I saved your life, yet you’re treating me like this?”
“Saved my life?”
“Do you think I’m joking, Instructor of Doctrine? As a person of your station, did you really think you survived because you were excellent? Tsk, tsk,” Juan said as he wagged his finger. “Aren’t you looking down on high priests a bit too much?”
“What do you...”
“I know that you’re an expert in demon hunting. For that reason, you were required for this training camp. The final piece, so to say...”
The high priest seemed to be enjoying the situation.
He didn’t seem to consider us a threat anymore. Rather, he was looking down on us like rats in a barrel.
“Evan Helvin is different from regular cultists. Regular cultists must destroy their medium to recover their sealed memories, but the vice-cult leader awakens through death.”
“...Death.”
“Yes. That is why we needed you. You knew about the Church of Darkness as well as the cult’s memory-sealing techniques and ways around them.”
Juniang’s expression hardened.
“And by our hands, you made him experience the worst death. Haha! Evan Helvin will be reborn as the strongest vice-cult leader!”
“That can’t be...”
Juniang shook her head. In the short time I’d known her, this was the first time I’d ever seen her despair.
It seemed she couldn’t handle the fact that she had ended up birthing a great evil with her own hands.
“In the end, you were right, Luan Bednicker,” Sellen mumbled in a dejected tone.
Of course, if I shouted “I told you so!” at this moment, I would only look like an idiot.
“...Hm. I told you so.”
...But I couldn’t hold back after what I’d had to endure.
Sellen laughed a little at my absurd response.
“Sure. Then I’ll need to pay for the consequences of my actions as well.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“That thing I used to defeat the demons, I’m going to use it again.”
“Oh ho.”
“It’ll take some time for me to focus. You know what I mean, right?”
I cracked my neck joints out of habit.
“You want me to buy you some time. Roger that.”