Chapter 42
Sigona walked through the cathedral’s vast courtyard.
The pillars and floor of the colonnade surrounding the courtyard were paved with pure white marble, giving the place a beautiful yet reverent atmosphere.
The weather had warmed, and gentle sunlight streamed down.
The damp courtyard was filled with the fresh yet bittersweet scent of grass.
Sigona bowed her head to the old man walking beside her.
“You said it was the manifestation of good will, but, Priest, I don’t think I’m capable of it. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“It’s all right, child.”
Priest Dephanis nodded with a broad smile.
“Chaik is generous, too. If you could wield divine power after hearing a sermon or two, a shameless monk like me would starve to death in no time, wouldn’t he?”
“Divine power… Even hearing it again, it still feels a little…”
“Of course it’s divine power. You’d be surprised to know how many monks here devote themselves to trying to sense even a fragment of it.”
Sigona went pale.
The priest had already shown her around inside.
Countless seekers were praying in their own ways.
Some meditated, some wept, some beat their heads against the floor, and some even whipped themselves.
The priest said that what they sought was inside Sigona.
Shaking her head, she said,
“I feel sorry for them. I didn’t even do anything special to become this way. I was simply saved by my sister, that’s all.”
“You only ended up like this because Enya saved you?”
“Yes.”
Dephanis tucked the rosary in his hand into his robes and said,
“Well, that girl is certainly gifted, but I want to believe you received the light because you were worthy of it. Not because, as Enya put it, she injected light energy into a werewolf. Wouldn’t that be rather bleak?”
“Priest, as you said, I’m a werewolf and just a tavern girl, and I’ve never made an offering—not once.”
Dephanis smiled as he spoke.
“I don’t think the life you’ve lived, preparing for death year after year, is worth less than that of the monks. You lived on edge, putting everything in order so you could leave at any moment, didn’t you? Poor thing.”
The boundary between the world and the cage.
At the mention of death, Sigona’s eyes widened, but her expression remained confused.
“Your health won’t deteriorate, so take your time thinking it over.”
Sigona turned her head and gazed at the courtyard, rich with the scent of grass.
She had thought she’d come for treatment, but the priest said she wasn’t ill; she’d received a gift.
She thought of the two who had gone east.
***
In the dim room.
In Enya’s ears, she could hear the distant splashing of laundry being rinsed outside, along with the boisterous laughter and shouts of people drinking in the room across the hall.
Amid those sounds, she anxiously watched the entrance.
She was tense, ready to dart out at any moment, but even if someone did come, she wouldn’t be able to do as she pleased.
Tarmin’s strong arm was wrapped around her waist.
His fingers brushed her side, making Enya stiffen even more.
“Enya?”
“What if someone sees us, hic!”
A hot breath suddenly touched her neck, and she jerked.
She was still pinned on his lap.
“W-What are you doing!”
“Mmm.”
The first thing he did after pulling the tense woman into his arms was bring his nose close.
Tarmin had buried his nose in her neck.
The tip of his nose tickled her neck, and Enya hunched her shoulders and let out a small shriek.
“Hey, you lunatic! What are you doing!”
“Sniff, sniff. What’s that smell?”
“Smell?”
At the word “smell,” she gasped in surprise, and Tarmin burst into giggles.
“I was kidding! You don’t smell at all. Sniff, sniff… Huh? Maybe just a little. This sm-ee-ll…”
“Let go!”
Realizing he’d been teasing her, she flared up and grabbed the arm around her waist.
She couldn’t stand how irritating he was, deliberately messing with her even though he knew she was self-conscious about it.
Tarmin grinned, willingly releasing her waist, then lifted her chin with his fingertips.
Enya scoffed and turned her head away.
“Hmph. Don’t be ridiculous. I’m really mad.”
Tarmin smiled for a moment, then whispered in her ear.
“Enya, did you know you have a sweet scent?”
Enya’s body went still.
“Y-Yeah?”
“I’m not lying. It’s true. Maybe it’s because you take that medicine?”
Medicine she had to take for the rest of her life to keep her body stable.
Did that medicine smell sweet? She’d thrown up because it was so disgusting.
And Tarmin was telling her it was okay.
Her body trembled.
Her face was hot.
Tarmin finished whispering and turned her chin back toward him.
“So you don’t have to worry about smelling bad. I actually like it.”
“Ugh, you like it…”
Tarmin’s face drew closer, and Enya tried to turn her head away again.
But this time, his arm wouldn’t let her go.
At some point, his other arm had wrapped around her shoulders.
As his strong grip held her shoulder in place, she felt the strength slowly drain from her body.
Feeling his distinctly masculine strength, Enya vaguely realized:
Resistance was meaningless.
In the end, he would take what he wanted from her.
It had been decided from the moment she sat on his lap—or when they’d gotten on the caravan together.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Facing her, Tarmin wore a smirk.
Just before their lips touched, she managed to open her mouth and plead,
“T-Tarmin, wait a second. Have you forgotten where we are? This is a shared lodging.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know anything! You don’t. Don’t kiss me, I’ll bite you. I said I’ll bite you—mmph…”
Their lips met, and as she felt Tarmin’s tongue slip between them, her eyes closed on their own.
It felt as if her mind were melting into a blank.
The noisy drinking and the sound of laundry being rinsed no longer reached her ears.
***
The caravan merchants were soothing their nerves after the attack with a drinking party.
When they ran out of their cherished airag, the merchants headed for the shop without hesitation, and the old owner smiled from ear to ear.
Soon, all sorts of liquor from different regions had gathered on the floor of the lodging.
They’d brought so much alcohol that the excuse that the horses were tired and needed rest almost seemed like a pretext.
“Ivar! If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead today! Have another drink.”
“No, it was nothing.”
The merchant who’d fired the crossbow from the very back came over and patted Ivar on the shoulder.
Ivar sat down and accepted the cup of liquor with an awkward expression.
The merchants were already quite drunk, chattering and making merry as they pleased.
“Is this fellow telling the truth, Ivar? You cut arrows with your sword?”
“I saw it with my own eyes. He swung it like this, and the arrows fell at his feet. You should’ve seen those horse-monster bastards’ faces.”
“…I was lucky.”
The centaurs hadn’t been surprised; they’d been sneering at him, but he didn’t bother to point that out.
He didn’t mind receiving their gratitude, but he was on a mission right now.
Lise’s order not to let the Hero’s party discover their identities had become hard to follow in just one day because of the attack.
A husband who cut arrows out of the air, and a wife who fought a centaur head-on—wouldn’t anyone find that suspicious?
“By the way, Tarmin, where’s that young archer? We managed to drive them off thanks to him hitting them with those arrows.”
“What? I wasn’t the one who hit them?”
“You’re worse than blind. Next time, keep your eyes closed when you shoot.”
Ivar looked around, but Lise was nowhere to be seen.
**
-Slurp… Smack… Slurrrp…
From one side of the spacious lodging came wet smacking sounds and ragged breaths.
Enya, who’d been tense as a wire, melted into his arms as soon as they kissed.
He pulled his lips away from hers, which he’d been feverishly savoring, and looked at Enya.
“Haa, haa, haa…”
Enya gazed into empty space with unfocused eyes.
Her shoulders drooped, and hot breaths escaped in quick pants through her slightly parted lips.
Feeling a small sense of triumph at the sight of her completely undone in his arms, he whispered,
“What are you doing lying there like that? What if someone comes?”
Enya moved only her eyes to glare at him.
“Shut up…”
“Want to get up?”
She seemed to have a lot to say, but she was too out of breath to manage it.
Enya exhaled several times before finally managing to speak.
“Every time I tried to get up, you stopped me!”
“Who told you to be so weak against kissing?”
Enya turned her head away.
She looked like she didn’t even want to talk, but it was also the kind of expression that made him want to tease her more.
He whispered against her exposed ear.
“Enya, didn’t you say a little while ago that you’d bite me?”
“Huh?”
“You said you’d bite me if I kissed you.”
Enya stared up at him in shock.
“Were you waiting for that?”
Tarmin smiled brightly and nodded.
“Yeah. You never bit me, no matter how much I kissed you.”
“You’re seriously insane.”
Tarmin burst out laughing and was just bringing his face close again when—
Suddenly, footsteps reached his ears.
“Ah…” While Enya, lying in his arms, couldn’t get up and made a startled sound, Tarmin moved quickly.
“Tarmin, are you here?”
“Yes, I am.”
The person who came in through the open doorway was Danis.
He looked around the room, spotted Tarmin sitting in the corner, and greeted him warmly.
“Tarmin! Were you resting?”
“I’m a little tired. What can I do for you?”
“It’s nothing urgent. You were a great help at dawn, too. I thought you might like a drink.”
“I see. Thank you very much, but I think I’ll pass. Ow.”
“Hm?”
“No… It’s nothing.”
“Ha ha, all right. Sorry to bother you. Get some good rest.”
Danis left the room without another word.
Perhaps because it was dark, he said nothing about the slightly bulging blanket covering Tarmin.
Trying to calm his pounding heart, he checked outside for a moment.
The rowdy drinking party had gotten even louder, while the sound of water outside had stopped, perhaps because the laundry was done.
The world was still peaceful.
He let out a sigh of relief.
He slowly lifted the blanket and saw Enya underneath, gnawing on the tip of his index finger.
…
Enya met his eyes, pulled her mouth away from his finger, and said with an evil grin,
“Good thing we didn’t get caught. Hee hee.”
“Enya.”
He abruptly pulled her close and rolled over.
Enya’s eyes widened in surprise, and she cried out in confusion.
“W-Why?”
She looked as if she didn’t understand why Tarmin’s eyes had caught fire.
He laid Enya down on the floor and immediately brought his face close to hers.
“I bit you like you told me to, so—mmph…”
She didn’t seem to realize how sensual she looked with his finger in her mouth.
*****