Chapter 18 - The End of the Midnight Sun

“I'll be going in, then.”

“Yes. May you have a peaceful night.”

Bera watched Renée give him a small bow and enter the red-roofed house. Only after she had opened the door and disappeared completely inside did he turn and head out of the village.

'... Starting today.'

Night would return. The long, long stretch of seven days of daylight had finally ended.

It also meant that the various factions scouring the continent would gradually begin tightening their net.

Bera was neither afraid nor worried. Tightening the net was all they could do; a week was not enough time for them to identify Renée.

They did not possess the divine powers of guidance. In other words, they had no way to pinpoint her at once. Their only means of immediately identifying her would be to watch the Holy Empire's movements, but even that was impossible this time.

'Because I'm the one who came.'

He had never once left the Holy Empire. No matter how much information they tried to gather, he did not exist in their intelligence networks. Since he was the one who had come to meet her, they could not identify the Saintess through him.

Of course, that did not promise him unlimited time. The continent had magic, sorcery, and mysteries. If they made full use of those, they would eventually be able to identify the Saintess as well.

Still immersed in thought, Bera reached the village entrance and gave a slight nod when he spotted Norn waiting there for him.

“You're back, sir.”

“Yes.”

“What did you learn?”

“The Empire is still in the central region. They seem to be searching within their own borders first.”

“And the Magic Tower?”

“They are likewise focusing on the central region, and seem to have expanded their search into the south as well. The alliance has not moved from the west. There appears to be some internal discord.”

Bera nodded at the report. This was the first thing he had done upon realizing that Renée did not want to go to the Holy Empire: have Norn, who had accompanied him, investigate movements across the continent. However much time they had to spare, surely they ought to make at least some preparations.

“What about the other factions?”

“There are reports of Draconians moving in small groups throughout the continent. As for the followers of the night... as you know, they were unable to move during the midnight sun.”

“Understood, for now. Thank you for your hard work.”

“It is my duty.”

Norn bowed his head.

'Do we still have time to spare?'

Comparing his knowledge of his previous life with the current circumstances, Bera calculated the routes they would take next.

'The Draconians will probably be the first to arrive.'

Dragon half-bloods. Those who sought the Saintess in their ambition to attain their dragon parents' divine powers.

With their individual mobility and independent intelligence networks, they would likely be the first to identify the Saintess.

'Next... the followers of the night.'

Those who sought the Saintess to erase the curse etched into their blood. They could not move during the day, but once night fell, they could move faster than anyone else. Moreover, their bodies instinctively recoiled from divine energy. Once they saw Renée, they would immediately recognize her as the Saintess.

Then the routes they had taken in his previous life surfaced in Bera's mind.

'The Empire never managed to identify the Saintess. The Magic Tower headed north because of friction with the Draconians. As for the alliance of kingdoms, we won't have to worry about them once we cross the border, so I can leave them out for now.'

This was not mere speculation. The situation in his previous life had been exactly like this, so unless something drastically unexpected happened, it would remain the same. That was also why Bera could still afford to be so unhurried. Forces on the scale of the Draconians and the followers of the night were well within his ability to wipe out alone.

'... Not bad.'

There was still time. In the worst case, he would have to sling her over his shoulder by force and head for the Holy Empire, but they had not reached that point yet.

Bera did not want to force Renée's decision. He wanted to give her the time she deserved to stand on her own and make up her mind.

Why wouldn't he? Was that not the nature of the light she had shone upon him in his previous life? She had not forced him. She had not dismissed his wishes. Simply staying by his side had moved his heart so profoundly. It was only right that he respect her wishes in turn.

'... For now.'

He wanted to wait for her a little longer.

As Bera continued thinking, Norn watched him and cautiously broached the subject.

“Um... how did things go with the Saintess?”

“She seems not to have made up her mind yet.”

“Ah, yes, sir.”

Watching Bera answer so casually, Norn felt the expression he had seen before leaving to investigate overlap with the face before him.

An indescribably vacant-looking face. That was the expression he saw superimposed on it.

What a shock it had been. Ever since their first meeting, Bera had always seemed sharp and on edge. Seeing him trudge over with a face as witless as the twins' had made Norn wonder whether something terrible had happened.

His ensuing explanation—that he wanted to respect the Saintess's wishes—had assured Norn that nothing was wrong, but... he could not shake a separate question that had arisen.

'Has he fallen for the Saintess...?'

Norn narrowed his eyes. Wasn't that a perfectly plausible conclusion? The Saintess, whom he had briefly glimpsed before leaving, had been beautiful enough to draw an involuntary gasp.

Besides...

'He's at that age.'

Bera was a young man who had only just turned eighteen—the very age when the opposite sex set one's heart racing. Norn understood that feeling well enough.

He was married with a child now, but what had he been like at that age? Hadn't the mere sight of anyone in a skirt stolen his attention and left him grinning foolishly all day?

He gave a slight nod. Without realizing it, a fatherly smile rose to his lips.

'I should cheer him on.'

Of course, love could not blossom if the feeling went only one way, but Norn believed in the hardworking Bera he had come to know. He approached everything earnestly. Surely his sincerity would reach her.

“... Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It's nothing.”

Bera frowned slightly, while Norn gazed at him with a gentle smile. They were together, yet thinking entirely different thoughts—a perfect illustration of the saying.

* * *

The next day, Bera followed Renée as always, matching her pace. He simply trailed after her in silence. They exchanged small talk from time to time, but mostly, they did nothing more than walk without speaking.

It might have seemed frustrating, but Bera found it satisfying nonetheless. Merely following her like this allowed him to make sure she was safe. The flame he pursued was still burning, intact, right there. Just being able to confirm that with his own eyes filled him with a deep sense of reassurance.

They kept walking. The land, which had looked the same throughout the seven days and nights of the midnight sun, gradually changed color as time passed.

The shadows that had shrunk beneath the noon sun lengthened little by little. The sky gradually took on a reddish hue, and before long, the sun began to set, laying crimson over the greenery.

It was only then that Renée posed a question.

“... You don't ask me anything, Sir Knight.”

“About what?”

“Don't you think it's ridiculous? A blind person who can't see, going on walks all day like this. I can't even see, and all I'm doing is needlessly putting myself in danger.”

At her words, Bera studied Renée. As always, his reply was plain and unadorned.

“I do not find it ridiculous in the slightest.”

“Really? You're unusual.”

Silence followed once more. The tap of her cane was followed by the tread of footsteps. Only after they had walked for another long while did Renée speak again.

“... I'm teaching my body the roads. Because I can't see them. I'm preparing like this so that if I ever need to go somewhere, I'll still be able to find my way easily.”

“That is admirable.”

“It's foolish.”

Renée stopped walking, and Bera stopped with her. Before his eyes, she stared blankly into space and continued in a murmur. Feeble little laughs escaped her lips.

“The truth is, I know it too. There will never be a reason for me to go somewhere in the village alone. If something so serious happens here that I need to do that, then there really won't be anything I can do.”

Sorrow, with a little anger and helplessness beneath it. Those emotions colored Renée's words.

“Even if I really am the Saintess you're looking for, I won't be the person you expect me to be. I'm a blind person who can't do anything alone... who can't even see.”

There was pessimism in her words as well, and despair. Only then did Bera feel that he could see this fourteen-year-old Renée a little more clearly. He also understood, with certainty, where those emotions came from.

Helplessness. The feeling that had relentlessly tormented Bera in his youth was now tormenting fourteen-year-old Renée. He still did not know what it felt like to be unable to see. But he could empathize with that helplessness.

The fear that one could do nothing, that one would go on living like this and ultimately die. An emotion like a parasite, eating away at the heart and at life itself. That was what helplessness was.

What should he say? What words could comfort her? As Bera thought, he recalled something she had once said almost habitually in his previous life, and spoke it aloud.

“There is no telling.”

Those were the words she had always used to hold on to him, to help him stand again.

Her reply was steeped in derision.

“No telling what? That I might be able to see again? Is that what you're trying to say?”

Renée turned her head toward Bera. Looking at her face, tense and pinched with suppressed emotion, he spoke once more.

“There is no telling. Whether you truly are someone who can do nothing, Saintess, or whether you will become truly great—even the gods in the heavens cannot know.”

“That's not even funny. And I'm not the Saintess.”

“Forgive me.”

Renée bit her lip. Her expression crumpled into a frown. Lowering her head, she let out a heavy breath and continued.

“I'm sorry. I was too irritable. This isn't your fault...”

With that, Renée turned back around and began walking again.

TAP

Her cane touched the ground.

Watching her back, Bera spoke with all his sincerity.

“Many people fall. Many people tremble in fear as well.”

Renée stopped short. She was still facing forward, so Bera could not see her expression.

“But I understand that few people refuse to give up even in those circumstances.”

Looking at Renée's turned back, Bera continued steadily. The words came as he recalled the woman she had once been.

“Sain... Lady Renée, you have spoken so pessimistically, yet you have not stopped. You are still moving forward.”

She was different from him. Unlike him, who had known only how to lie fallen in that gutter and resent the world, she was still walking.

“Even today, you are striving for an uncertain tomorrow.”

And so, in the end, she had become a light that subdued even a villain like him.

“Therefore, no one can know what you will become in the future, Lady Renée.”

She was not helpless in the slightest. With that feeling in his words, Bera bowed his head.

Silence settled. The wind stirred. Her shadow, lengthened by the setting sun, lay before Bera's lowered eyes.

TAP

Her cane sounded against the ground.

Without giving any reply, she walked on.