Chapter 52
Apart from the first ambush, the journey to the royal capital was smooth and uneventful.
Azazel was disappointed that there were no targets for her magic, but soon shifted her interest to Aria.
To the capricious witch, the docile, open-minded Saintess made for an unusual conversational partner.
“Come on, Big Sis, say aaah.”
Azazel held a plump, juicy tangerine.
Aria replied, idly wondering whether tangerines were winter fruits in this world, too.
“Azazel, I can eat by myself.”
“Hmph, I went to the trouble of peeling it and feeding it to you. You're saying you don't want it?”
Azazel lowered her eyes and made a sad face, as if she were genuinely hurt.
She wasn't truly sad.
After all, just look at her eyes, slanted like a fox's.
Could she be any more coquettish?
Aria waved her hands in refusal.
“I'm fine, so you should eat it…….”
Azazel cut her off and stubbornly insisted on feeding her.
“You should at least eat it for your little sister's sake!”
Aria was dumbfounded.
Even if they were both women, wasn't this kind of thing embarrassing?
Besides, if she was going to have this kind of lovey-dovey moment, she'd rather have it with Ashtein.
She glanced sideways.
When Aria tried to look toward Ashtein, Azazel noticed and narrowed her eyes at Aria, pressing her.
“You don't want me to feed you? You'd rather Ashtein feed you?”
Aria flinched.
She hunched her shoulders and tucked her chin, turning away.
“I-it's not like that.”
It was an obvious lie.
Azazel's eyebrows shot up, then her face crumpled as if her spirits had fallen.
“Hmph, I'm disappointed, Big Sis.”
This time, she was genuinely dejected.
Aria looked at Azazel helplessly, still in an awkward half-crouch.
“……A-Azazel?”
“Hmph.”
She puffed out her cheeks and turned her head away.
It was childish behavior, a fit of pampered sulking.
Still, Aria didn't entirely dislike Azazel's coy act.
“……All right. I'll eat it, okay?”
Resignation was familiar to Aria.
At the Saintess's declaration of surrender, Azazel let her puffed cheeks deflate and asked,
“Really?”
Aria decided it was better to act than to say it a hundred times, so she squeezed her eyes shut and opened her petal-soft lips into a little circle.
“………Aaah. There.”
Seeing the Saintess open her mouth like a baby bird, Azazel was seized by a strange feeling.
Why was she closing her eyes?
It made it seem like she was doing something forbidden.
Gulp.
Azazel swallowed.
In any case, this was good.
It was a chance she'd forced her way into getting.
The tangerine in her hand moved carefully, slowly toward Aria's lips.
It was the historic moment when the vivid orange tangerine was about to touch her lips.
A large hand stopped the tangerine's advance.
What a deflating turn of events.
“What is it, Ashtein?”
Ashtein pulled his outstretched hand back and looked away, embarrassed.
“…………Um, my body moved on its own.”
“You call that an excuse?”
He scratched the back of his head vigorously and gave a bitter smile.
“Azazel. This might sound petty, but Aria is mine.”
“It doesn't just sound petty. It is petty.”
“When I see this, I can't help getting jealous.”
“Ugh, pathetic.”
“Yeah.”
“Don't just admit it. It makes me feel even more pathetic. Honestly, Big Sis is so lucky to have this idiot's love all to herself……Big Sis?”
Azazel waved her fingers in front of Aria's eyes.
She had gone completely rigid, like a statue.
That's right.
Aria had frozen and stopped breathing at Ashtein's declaration!
Mine.
It was a soft, sweet sound.
Aria is mine.
Aria is mine.
Aria is mine.
Ashtein's words from moments ago were playing on an endless loop in Aria's mind.
She let out a hiccup.
“………Hic. A-Ain! A-Azazel's right here!”
“That's why I'm saying it.”
“………Ah, ngh.”
“I wish everyone else would just die.”
Azazel frowned at the lovey-dovey aura practically spilling over between them, then put a tangerine in her mouth.
Pop, pop.
Tangerine juice burst in her mouth.
Sweet and sour.
But it wasn't as delicious as she'd expected.
It was in season, so it should've been delicious. How strange.
This was all because of that damn couple.
“Must be nice for you two. Some of us don't have a lover, you know. So lonely, so lonely. Do you really have to flaunt your relationship like that?”
“I'm sorry.”
“I don't want to hear Big Sis apologize! I'm talking to you, you damn Ashtein!”
Azazel's barb was aimed at Ashtein.
He looked at Azazel calmly.
“Really?”
Was he going to make some kind of outrageous remark?
Aria anxiously hoped Ashtein wouldn't say anything.
“Sorry if we made you uncomfortable.”
It was a straightforward apology.
Perhaps because of that, even Azazel's temper quickly cooled.
“……Ugh, how does even your apology manage to piss me off?”
“Still, Aria is mine.”
Azazel gave a derisive snort.
“Of course she is.”
The carriage continued steadily toward Gallia.
* * *
Sister Gina had arrived in the royal capital of Gallia.
As befitted a royal capital, it was full of towering buildings and people of many different races.
Even so, the scenery didn't make much of an impression on Gina.
She felt no wonder at any style of architecture or beauty of form.
The only man who had ever stirred Gina's heart, then or now, was one.
‘Lord Ronin.’
She hadn't been able to protect him.
If she'd been by his side, she could have helped.
Perhaps she might even have helped him escape safely.
Why hadn't she stayed by his side?
She should have protected him, even if it meant disobeying orders.
She was consumed by guilt.
She blamed herself for having grown numb.
She cursed the Hero and the Saintess, wishing they would be chewed to pieces.
How dare they, how dare they, how dare they!
You dare try to harm him?
Grit.
Gina calmed herself and headed into a sparsely populated alley.
The deeper she went, the more sinister the atmosphere became.
No matter how dazzling a royal capital was, it was bound to have a darker side.
Perhaps the stronger the light, the more clearly the darkness stood out.
The place she was heading for was Gallia's slums.
The stark divide between the two districts, like the two sides of a coin, was always ironic.
‘It's been a while since I came here.’
Since Ronin had put a leash on her, she'd practically severed ties with the underworld.
She couldn't expect a pleasant conversation when she went back.
She'd be lucky if they didn't condemn her or treat her as an enemy.
‘Still, I have no other way.’
How long had she been walking?
Thud.
A bald man grabbed Gina roughly by the shoulder.
His grip was strong.
“Hey, little nun, what brings you to a dump like this?”
Gina stared at the man with expressionless eyes.
No fear, contempt, or disgust—just a mechanical gaze.
For some reason, the man felt uneasy.
“What? You little brat, giving me that insolent look? Want to get roughed up?”
Gina twisted her lips.
Her face looked as if she were forcing a smile.
“This works out perfectly. I needed a guide.”
“You little brat, making a fool of an adult…….”
He couldn't finish what he was saying.
A thorn extending from Gina's shadow had touched his Adam's apple.
Gina tapped her temple.
“Kid, if I were you, I wouldn't be mouthing off in this situation. Too stupid to understand what I'm saying?”
The bald man shook his head repeatedly.
Seeing his pale face, Gina felt her sadistic streak returning for the first time in a while.
In the past, the moment someone like him talked back, she'd have taken off an arm or a leg and poked him full of holes.
You've gone soft, Gina.
“If you understand, get moving. Unless you want to keep breathing.”
“……W-where do you want me to go?”
Thrust.
A shadow blade pierced his collarbone.
“Aaaaaagh!”
It was a loud scream.
Gina frowned.
“You speak too casually. You're rude, impatient, and all you can do is quack like a duck.”
The man stared at Gina in terror.
Her violet eyes gleamed with an eerie, bewitching aura.
“Take me to your ‘father.’”
The man clutched his collarbone and spoke with difficulty.
“………O-okay, I-I understand.”
Gina and the man walked on.
At some point, wary eyes began to fix on them.
They must've been the lackeys that insolent brat had stationed around.
Gina found it unpleasant, but didn't pay it much mind.
If they showed hostility, she would simply deal with them.
The man kept walking, unaware of the eyes following them.
Before long, the two reached a certain place.
“……My father is here.”
It was a building that looked like a tavern.
Gina clicked her tongue.
“Huh, are you mocking me?”
At her sharp retort, the bald man's complexion turned a sickly shade of blue.
“W-what do you mean?”
Gina's shadow roared fiercely.
Like a wolf's howl.
“This isn't the place, is it?”
“……You think I'd take a dangerous bitch like you to my father?”
“Oh, so you've got some guts?”
“Get out here! Kill this bitch…….”
At that moment, a fine line scored the bald man's neck.
Splurt!
A fountain of blood gushed out, and his head rolled across the ground.
Gina controlled the blood spraying in every direction so it wouldn't splatter on her habit.
Ronin liked things clean.
“Was killing him really necessary? Ignorance isn't a crime.”
“I apologize for the excessive disrespect.”
A man dressed in black appeared in the empty space, as if emerging from a wavering shadow.
“That's enough. You're making this awkward.”
“Have you been well?”
“Can't complain. Is he doing well?”
“The palace has tightened its security, so he's been buried in work. May I ask what brings you here looking for Denian?”
“Denian?”
“He was the ‘father’ of the man you just killed.”
“Ah, I see. Don't get the wrong idea. I thought he'd be startled if I went straight to him, so I was going to work my way up through the proper channels.”
Though now that you've caught on, there's no point.
Gina looked at her fingernails with an indifferent expression.
“I see.”
The man looked at the purple-haired nun, sweating coldly.
There was a story passed down in secret through the underworld.
A figure who had ruled the capital's shadows for many years, from a generation before the Red Blades.
The Violet Night.
That had once been Gina's epithet.