Chapter 50 - The Eve

Renée summoned her divine energy.

The elf waiting with a severed arm held against the stump widened their eyes as the arm began to reattach.

"This is..."

"I'm glad you brought your arm back. Even sacred arts can't make a missing arm grow back."

At her words, delivered with a faint smile, the elf began to weep, gasping, "Ah, ah."

"Thank... Thank you..."

"It's my way of repaying your hospitality."

The voice offering thanks was thick with tears. Sensing the relief and gratitude in it, Renée felt truly glad that she had worked so hard to learn the sacred arts.

"I'll go see the next patient, then."

When Renée rose, Bera, who had remained beside her all this time, guided her to the next person.

This patient's side had been torn open, leaving internal organs protruding.

"The intestines are spilling out. The left side of the waist has been torn away."

Bera's role was to tell Renée what he could see of each patient's condition.

He did not like the task. Naturally so, since it meant describing gruesome scenes to her.

Even so, he carried it out without complaint because Renée was so devoted to healing the elves.

Watching her tend the wounded with an unwavering smile, Bera felt her image overlap with that of the Renée he had once seen in the gutter.

A sense of fulfillment welled up within him at the knowledge that the noble, compassionate Renée who had been a light illuminating his dreary world already existed.

Stealing a glance at Renée as she poured divine energy over the elf's side to fill in the missing skin, Bera once more described the healing process.

"The bleeding is gradually stopping. The intestines are recovering, but regenerating any more flesh seems unwise. It would be best to stitch up the rest and leave it to heal on its own."

"Oh, thank you."

"I'm only doing what I should. One moment."

Bera sat down beside Renée and began stitching the elf's side.

Listening to the elf's intermittent groans and the rustle of Bera's movements, Renée asked,

"Where did you learn medical skills like this, Bera?"

"I taught myself as a child. I lived in a somewhat dangerous neighborhood."

"Oh..."

She wanted to ask where that dangerous neighborhood was, but she kept quiet, knowing how reluctant Bera was to speak of his past.

Whenever she asked, all she got were answers like, "It was not a pleasant place." It would be fair to say she had half given up by now.

"It's finished."

His words reached her while she was still lost in thought. Renée nodded, rose to her feet, and offered the elf a word of caution.

"You mustn't exert yourself for a while. Make sure you get plenty of rest, even after the wound has closed."

"Th-thank... you..."

The words came with labored, wheezing breaths, yet there was a sense of peace in them.

Feeling an emotion that could only rightly be called fulfillment well up inside her, Renée went back to attending the patients.

Watching from some distance away, Friede tilted their head.

'Happiness? Relief?'

Those were the emotions coming from the siblings whose treatment was complete.

Why? Why had their feelings changed like this when, only moments before, they had been filled with resolve and acceptance?

Pondering the question, Friede recalled the workings of emotion as they understood them and eventually arrived at an explanation.

'Ah, these are the emotions one feels upon receiving an unexpected stroke of luck.'

They had been certain to die, but the good fortune of meeting the Saintess had allowed them to live longer after all. That must be why they felt joy.

The Saintess's words had indeed made sense.

Friede had learned something new: even resolve did not diminish the longing for life within.

Yet there was still something Friede did not understand.

'Why does she go to such lengths...?'

It concerned Renée herself.

A small curiosity began to blossom within Friede, though they had not yet recognized it.

* * *

Renée had been very busy over the past few days. As the Noir's offensive intensified, the wounded kept pouring in.

Attacks came from every direction at once, and the mood grew grimmer by the day.

Yet even amid that grim atmosphere, there was always warmth around Renée.

"All done."

"Thank you. I've ended up in your debt again."

"Not at all."

Renée smiled as she answered the elf, then added a gentle admonition.

"You must come back unharmed next time. Um, Rimel, was it?"

"You remembered."

"Hehe..."

Renée's face lit up with a radiant smile.

Since Renée had begun treating them, the elves had been able to fight with greater resolve than before.

The first reason was that, so long as they remained alive, someone stood behind them who would somehow restore them to health. The second was their determination to keep the person who helped them with such a smile from being caught in danger.

After finishing another long round of healing, just as on other days, Renée returned to the campfire before Aedrin's roots and happily ate the soup Mari made for her.

"It's really delicious."

"Oh, Saintess, you're such a good girl! That brat Bera ought to watch and learn!"

Sitting beside Renée and chewing steadily on jerky, Bera narrowed his eyes at Mari.

If most people disliked one's cooking, surely the natural conclusion would be that something was wrong with it. Mari, however, believed the fault lay with those who failed to appreciate her food.

Thinking that such self-righteousness was precisely the sort of trait Renée must not learn, Bera answered through gritted teeth.

"... My apologies."

"Bah, never mind, never mind!"

As the meal continued, Friede, who had approached unnoticed, accepted some of Mari's soup and spoke while eating it.

"How are you managing with the healing? I feel rather sorry that my siblings may be burdening you too much."

"Not at all. I'm doing it because I want to."

"Mm, that's good to hear. On that note, might I ask a favor of you as well?"

"A favor?"

"I'd like to borrow your escort knight."

Bera had been staring blankly at Friede eating Mari's soup without the slightest concern. At those words, he raised his head and looked at them.

"I refuse. I am the Saintess's escort."

"Yes, which is why I would rather not have asked... But we are rather short-handed."

For a moment, Renée looked at a loss over Bera's firm refusal. Then she spoke.

"Go and help. I'll be all right."

"Saintess..."

"Sir Norn and Hella are here, aren't they? And Mari, too."

Looking troubled by her words, Bera turned his gaze toward the smiling Friede.

'What are you thinking?'

He was suspicious of why Friede had singled him out.

Bera did not trust Friede.

Even setting aside their connection in his previous life, he was not so charitable toward others that he would trust someone whose thoughts were so inscrutable.

He wanted to refuse again, but this was Renée's request. A request from Renée, who was working so hard right now.

"... Very well."

"Thank you."

"On one condition."

Of course, he was not agreeing without reservations.

As Friede tilted their head, Bera continued.

"I will operate alongside you."

If he left this place, Friede would pose the greatest potential threat. So if he was to leave, he had to keep Friede, at least, within his sight.

Friede readily nodded at his words.

"Mm, very good. If you and I are working together, adding anyone else would be a waste. Starting tomorrow, the two of us can operate separately from the others."

The plans were progressing rapidly.

Listening, Renée gave a start.

"Th-the two of you? Just the two of you?"

Her intuition, which had always been wrong, had reacted to those scandalous words.

"That's right. I understand your escort knight possesses considerable martial prowess. Wouldn't putting anyone else between us simply be a waste?"

Flustered and fumbling for words, Renée turned toward Bera.

"W-wouldn't it be dangerous with just the two of you? Perhaps you should go with the others..."

"It will be all right. I am not so weak, Saintess. Please rest easy."

It was precisely because there would be two of them that she could not rest easy.

"B-but still..."

"As your escort says, there's no need to worry. I have some confidence in my own strength as well. Should things become dangerous, I'll take him with me and flee."

"That won't happen. Just don't get in my way."

"Oh, it's good to see such confidence."

As the conversation continued without her, Renée grew even more flustered.

Her troublesome imagination began using the pair's bickering to paint an outrageous picture.

The battle has taken a perilous turn. Bera and Friede stand back-to-back, fending off their enemies.

They somehow manage to defeat them, but more pursuers arrive, and Bera raises his sword again to face them.

—"I'll fight them alone. You go back and tell the Saintess I'm sorry..."

—"Don't be absurd. I would never do something so disgraceful as abandon a companion."

—"Honestly..."

Bera smiles. Yet his breathing is ragged.

Noticing this, Friede thinks that this might be their final moment and speaks.

—"Come to think of it, we've never called each other by name."

—"What nonsense are you talking about?"

—"Bera."

At Friede's words, Bera clicks his tongue, then answers with a faint smile.

—"Friede."

Renée jolted!

Her face flushed bright red, and her hands trembled violently.

"N-no!"

It came out as a shriek.

Every eye turned toward her.

"What's wrong?"

Renée flinched. Unsure how to explain herself, she faltered, then bowed her head deeply.

Her eyes squeezed shut.

"N-nothing..."

Even Renée knew it would be embarrassing to tell others about her fantasies.

She felt utterly miserable.

Those fantasies seemed to be throwing her mind into turmoil.

As a result, there were things she had failed to consider.

Bera was not weak enough to lose to a few Noir, and Friede could not feel any emotion at all, including camaraderie.

Upon scrutiny, her fantasies were utterly implausible, but Renée had no room to think of that.

All that came to mind was regret: 'I shouldn't have told him to go.'

Renée was an eighteen-year-old girl who became a fool in the face of love.

* * *

The next day, at the entrance to the Great Forest.

Watching Bera cut down the Noir with single strokes, Friede let out an "Oh."

'He certainly is...'

Strong.

Friede had expected as much, but witnessing Bera fight firsthand revealed just how savage and overwhelming he was.

As always upon encountering a powerful fighter, Friede coolly calculated how a battle between Bera and themself would play out.

"Hmm..."

The answer was their own defeat.

Unless a miracle occurred, Friede would certainly lose.

Perhaps he truly did live up to the title of apostle.

As that thought deepened the look in Friede's eyes, Bera spoke.

"What are you doing?"

He had been shaking the blood from his sword when he reacted to that gaze.

Looking at Friede with suspicion stirring within him, Bera continued to think.

'They're not stepping in.'

All Friede had done was guide him to where the Noir were, then watch from behind.

It might simply have been a judgment that there was no need for Friede to intervene, but Bera was suspicious of the motive behind that behavior.

'Assessing my strength?'

It was a possibility he could not rule out. That was why he could not let go of the possibility that Friede had some hidden agenda.

His eyes narrowed of their own accord.

At that look from Bera, Friede smiled faintly and answered.

"You really are strong."

"Is that a problem?"

"A problem? I'm thinking how fortunate we are. How reassuring it is to have someone like you on our side."

The words were glib.

Without answering, Bera sheathed his sword and began walking again.

His suspicions were growing deeper.

Friede's glib manner, and the still-unexplained reason Friede and the elves had survived in his previous life, struck Bera as deeply suspicious.