A ferocious growl echoed in the distance, announcing the presence of yet another monster. Of course. There was always one more, turning up late just to cause trouble.
“Hmm. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't find it now.”
Seiyen glanced from his broken sword to his useless leg, a sardonic smile twisting his lips.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps sent tremors through the ground.
So this is how it ends.
Sensing that death was near, Seiyen slowly closed his eyes.
Yelp!
“…?”
The monster that had seemed ready to pounce on him and devour him suddenly let out a dying shriek and fell silent.
The cry was so feeble and pitiful that it seemed impossible it had come from the creature responsible for those thunderous footsteps.
What was that?
Sensing something was wrong, Seiyen's eyes flew open.
In the sudden silence, he became aware of another presence.
“Seiyen Martis.”
A voice called his name from somewhere beyond the mist obscuring his vision.
It was a voice he had never heard before.
Who is that? Has someone come to rescue me?
Seiyen's heart, which had all but surrendered hope, began to race.
He searched desperately for the source of the voice. Then, without warning, the mist before him parted cleanly in two.
“…?!”
How did they get here so quickly…?
Seiyen's eyes widened as a woman appeared before him.
“Get up.”
He looked up at her face as she gazed down at him, and his astonishment only deepened.
“Uh… uh…”
His mouth fell open, and an incoherent sound escaped his lips.
The woman who had appeared as though by magic was so beautiful that he wondered whether she was an illusion conjured by the Black Thorns.
In all his eighteen years, he had never seen a woman so stunning.
Completely forgetting the danger he was in, Seiyen stared at her, unable to tear his eyes away.
Even the hateful mist of the Black Thorns seemed enchanting around her, as though transformed by some mysterious spell.
Her wavy, deep-blue hair shimmered like a night sky filled with stars, while her snow-white skin seemed to glow softly amid the dreary thorns.
Her delicate features were so perfectly proportioned that he couldn't help but marvel at them.
The knee-length black dress she wore looked as though it had been made expressly for her.
Never in his life had Seiyen encountered anyone so mysterious or so beautiful.
And it wasn't merely her appearance. She possessed an effortless air of authority, as though looking down her nose at others came as naturally to her as breathing.
It made him want to fall to his knees and worship her.
While Seiyen sat overwhelmed by the commanding presence radiating from her slender figure, she spoke in a voice that sounded to him like a divine revelation.
“How far has the poison spread?”
“…Pardon?”
“Your lower body. Is it all right?”
The goddess's gaze shifted to his injured leg.
The urgency in her voice made her concern for him unmistakable.
Goodness, how kind she is.
Deeply moved, Seiyen nodded as though entranced.
“Yes. I'm fine…”
His bones were fractured, and the poison had begun to spread, but he believed a few days of rest would be enough to recover.
The kind goddess, however, seemed unconvinced. She stepped closer and questioned him again.
“How fine is fine? Can you stand?”
“Of course. My legs are a little numb, but I can still move.”
Eager to put her mind at ease, Seiyen braced himself against his broken sword and sprang to his feet.
“No. Not that.”
Wasn't that what she wanted?
The woman shook her head in dissatisfaction. Then she lowered her voice as though confiding a secret.
“Can it… stand?”
“…What do you mean?”
Seiyen ventured the question cautiously, thoroughly confused. Even the little black lump dangling from his shoulder tilted its head in curiosity.
“I'm asking whether it's standing.”
“…?”
“What's with that expression? Can't you feel anything? Is it already too late?”
With no idea what she was referring to, Seiyen glanced around helplessly.
I'm already standing, so why does she keep asking? What exactly does she want to see standing?
His bewildered gaze eventually dropped to his lower body, which was planted firmly on the ground.
Of all the things down there, the only other thing that could stand is…
“…?!”
The realization struck, and his eyes fixed on one particular spot.
Then, as though he had seen something he shouldn't have, he jerked his gaze back to Sarah.
No. Surely not.
Someone so beautiful and mysterious couldn't possibly have come all this way just to ask something so indecent… could she?
“Y-you're not seriously asking me to check my…?”
Desperate to deny what was happening, Seiyen couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.
Before he could dwell on it any longer, the goddess raised her voice, scolding him for wasting time.
“Why are you just standing there? Hurry up and check! Do I look like I'm joking?!”
She didn't look as though she was joking in the slightest.
That made it even more terrifying.
The idea that someone would ask such a thing the moment they met him was beyond belief. Yet here she was, doing exactly that.
Seiyen's face went ashen.
At the same time, every trace of his infatuation with Sarah shattered.
“What on earth are you talking about?!”
“So you're not going to check? Shall I do it myself, then?!”
As he recoiled in horror, she rolled up her sleeves with such determination that he feared she might actually carry out her threat.
What the—? She's no goddess! She's a pervert!
Finally realizing the danger he was in, Seiyen clutched the front of his shirt and cried out desperately.
“F-fine! All right! I'll check as soon as we get out of here! Just stop, please!”
***
Driven by the superhuman strength Seiyen had somehow summoned after finding himself cornered by an unexpected pervert, the two were making steady progress toward the exit.
Sarah led the way, while Seiyen followed behind, slowed by his injured leg and watching her warily.
“Um, by the way… who are you, miss? Our guild doesn't have any immunes…”
Eventually, curiosity got the better of him. After a long silence, Seiyen cautiously asked who she was.
He was certainly sociable, addressing a woman he had only just met with such easy familiarity.
“Your captain's slave.”
“…?!”
Sarah, on the other hand, was hardly a model of sociability.
Her casual reply made Seiyen gasp in astonishment. The revelation had clearly taken him by surprise.
Sarah, who had been repeatedly rubbing her temples, snapped at him irritably for lingering instead of catching up.
But Seiyen stood rooted to the spot, stunned by what he had heard. When he finally spoke, his tone was unexpectedly serious.
“Really? You're actually Captain Enoch's slave? That can't be right. You're an immune, aren't you?”
“Yeah.”
“That's strange… Everyone in our guild absolutely hates immunes.”
“There it is again.”
Immune. Immune.
Sarah was thoroughly sick of hearing the word repeated instead of her name.
“What exactly is an 'immune,' anyway? Why does everyone lose their minds the moment they see me?”
Seiyen looked at her in disbelief.
“What?! You're an immune and you don't even know what that means?”
“I don't. I've lost my memory. When I woke up, I was already in the hands of slave traders.”
She hadn't meant to sound pitiful, but her apparent ignorance earned her a sympathetic look from Seiyen.
“Your eyes. They're the color of Antares, aren't they?”
He pointed to his own eyes as he revealed something no one had bothered to tell her.
“They're proof that you've been involved with black magic somehow. Specifically, with the Antares Church.”
Apparently, anyone with violet eyes was regarded as a pawn of the Antares Church.
“Aha.”
Sarah gave a hollow laugh. The revelation was unexpected, though not entirely surprising.
Since when had violet become the color of black magic?
She had possessed these eyes long before becoming a black mage. She had been born with them.
Perhaps it was vanity, but Sarah couldn't help wondering whether her own influence had turned violet into the symbol of black magic.
She briefly considered whether she ought to feel proud or bitter about it.
I'll be proud.
“…Yeah. I suppose I can understand why they'd hate me.”
Sarah nodded. Whatever her personal feelings, she could at least understand why the people here reacted so violently to her appearance.
From their perspective, it was as though someone allied with the very people who had brought devastation upon the world had suddenly appeared among them.
Even Sarah would have glared at such a person.
“It's more than hate.”
Apparently dissatisfied with her choice of words, Seiyen corrected her with a grave expression.
“They loathe you.”
“…”
“And the captain, especially! He really, really, really hates black magic!”
Having emphasized just how much Enoch would despise her, Seiyen immediately gave her a worried look.
“But why would he bring someone like you here?”
He still couldn't understand why Enoch would have taken an immune as his slave.
By now, Sarah was beginning to wonder the same thing.
“Then why did he put his tongue in?”
If Enoch hated immunes so much, why had he been so eager to slip his tongue between the lips of someone he supposedly despised?
“What?! You've already gone that far with the captain?!”
Seiyen had overheard her muttering and reacted with open astonishment.
“Miss… are you sick or something?”
His next question, however, seemed to come out of nowhere.
Sarah had expected him to jump up and accuse her of lying at the mere suggestion that Enoch had kissed an immune.
Instead, he had immediately asked whether she was ill.
“What are you talking about? You're the one who's sick—”
And who was the one who nearly got into serious trouble just now?
Sarah was about to dismiss his concern with an irritated retort when—
“…Yeah. Maybe.”
A memory flashed through her mind, and her voice grew quieter.
She remembered how the wound on her forehead had vanished without a trace after Enoch kissed her.
Does he know about Enoch's ability too? How did he find out? Could he also be…?
“…”
Sarah found herself staring at Seiyen's lips.
She hurriedly shook her head, trying to drive the unwelcome image from her mind.
“So, it still isn't standing?”
Eager to conceal the inappropriate thoughts that had just crossed her mind, she abruptly returned to her earlier question.
Her motive might have been questionable, but the matter itself was important to Sarah.
Although she had been chatting with Seiyen, part of her attention had been fixed on something behind her for some time now.
“I told you, I'll check when we get outside! Are you trying to curse me or something?”
Exasperated by the repeated question, Seiyen finally snapped.
She had already made him so anxious with her relentless questioning that he was beginning to fear even the parts of him that had been functioning perfectly well might stop working.
“Then why are you still whining?”
Ignoring his distress entirely, Sarah rubbed her temples as though suffering from a headache and accused him of something he hadn't even done.
After being repeatedly misunderstood, Seiyen looked at her with genuine concern.
“What do you mean, whining? Miss, are you all right? You've been breaking out in a cold sweat for a while now…”
“Ugh! I heard you! Stop whining! I'm doing it right now!”
There was no reason for her to lose her temper, yet Sarah suddenly clapped her hands over her ears and shouted.
She kept yelling about the noise, looking for all the world as though she were struggling against something invisible.
I'm seriously going to lose my mind…!
And in truth, Sarah really was fighting something no one else could see.
More precisely, she was struggling against the shattered future that would have awaited Seiyen if she hadn't come here today.