A Duty Cannot Be Begged For

The threat to her life was nothing like the one she had felt in the Demonic Cave.

Compared to the moment when demonic beasts had come snapping at her from every direction, the present was almost absurdly peaceful—laughable, in a sense. That didn't mean she felt nothing toward the energy in question, though. The demonic energy drifting in from far away unsettled her, raking across her skin like a nail dragged gently but insistently over bare flesh.

And above all, the important thing was that this energy was drawing closer by the moment.

"What is the matter?"

"Vice-Commander!"

Asselin, who had approached Libitina after sensing something strange about her, froze at his aide's urgent call. The aide did not come near, whether out of respect for orders or something else, but urgency was written plainly across his face.

"Wait here a moment."

In the end, Asselin reluctantly turned away from Libitina. Even as he left his post, he left her restraint unfastened—a courtesy, it seemed, toward the woman who so stubbornly insisted she was a Saintess.

Though this was her first real chance since slipping free of Asselin's watch, Libitina made no attempt to approach anyone. She simply stood rooted in place, gazing quietly past the edge of the forest, then let her eyes slide sideways. Not far from her—yet far enough that their conversation should have been inaudible—Asselin was receiving reports from the aide knights.

No, correction: for an ordinary person it would certainly have been inaudible, but to Libitina as she was now, their voices reached her in broken fragments.

"Why?"

Asselin rebutted in a short, incredulous tone, and the aide standing across from him wore a troubled expression.

"We confirmed it clearly. Just a few days ago…."

"And now they've appeared out of nowhere?"

The conversation was far from complete, but Libitina could piece together what they were discussing well enough. She turned her gaze back toward the forest.

The only reason she had been able to become the Saintess's personal handmaiden was her knack for tending to the woman anywhere, under any conditions. Even on the middle of a battlefield, reeking to high heaven with the stench of burning monster carcasses, she alone had seen to the Saintess's clothing and prepared water for washing while the other maids gagged and reeled. All those campaigns had left her head stocked with knowledge of the regions they passed through.

Naturally, she knew the character of this place and the lands around it as well. Five hundred years had passed, so the memories might no longer match reality—but still.

"Then…."

"If it's only Ant-on, we could quietly handle—"

"But if…"

As she watched Asselin and the aides lower their voices and gravely debate, Libitina looked down at her own feet.

"…It is written: a life corrupted by evil shall rightly be redeemed, for this is the sacred duty of the blessed seeker."

The verse of scripture Saintess Livia used to murmur just before plunging into a battlefield rose unbidden in her memory. She had always assumed it was merely a habitual prayer, a phrase repeated so often it had worn smooth. Apparently, though, Livia's prayer had been no mere habit—it had been something absolute, an irresistible command.

Libitina felt the power beginning to churn inside her, pulling her toward the evil that lay beyond. It was a strange sensation, one she had no words to describe.

When she had clawed her way out of the Demonic Cave, she had been barely in her right mind at all. From the moment of her awakening she had burned with fever, and clutching her muddled wits, she had bolted forward like a madwoman and nothing else.

In the course of that flight she had shaken off the demonic beasts that charged at her, hacked them down, shoved them aside, blown them apart—she couldn't even tell whether what streamed over her skin was their bodily fluids or their blood, splattered across her as they detonated.

Time and again she wielded her holy power in a desperate bid to survive, collapsed, slipped into darkness, and then snapped back awake, dragging her seething, scalding body onward toward the entrance. One small mercy: even while she was unconscious, her holy power raged unchecked, and so the beasts never dared attack her.

Unlike her desperate fight in the Demonic Cave, her mind was clear now—and perhaps that was why the thing she needed to do next was etched into her head with startling clarity.

While Libitina stood dumbly trying to smother her senses as they sharpened by the minute, Asselin strode up to her. He regarded her with a puzzled look—she was radiating some odd aura—then spoke in a brisk tone.

"I apologize for the wait. Something has come up, so…."

"Ant-on are docile monsters, you know."

"I beg your pardon?"

Libitina, who had been staring at the ground this whole time, lifted her eyes.

"They hardly ever come up to the surface in the first place."

She remembered the trade road that had been used for a decade by people who didn't even know it ran through an Ant-on habitat. Ant-on nests lay buried deep underground, nearly impossible for humans to detect, and had a few of them not turned demonic and raided a trading caravan, that nest might have gone undiscovered forever.

Back then, the Order had launched a large-scale purge of the Ant-on. The survivors abandoned their habitat and fled deeper into the earth, and the Order had not bothered to pursue them. It was as good as an admission that they weren't dangerous enough to be worth hunting down.

Conversely, when such a monster turned unusually aggressive, it meant one thing: it had been tainted by demonic energy and become a demonic beast.

"The Ant-on blocking the road isn't an ordinary monster. Five knights would struggle against even one of them. Because it's a demonic beast."

Libitina pressed on without hesitation.

"I can purify it."

"Purify it?"

Ah. He's never seen holy power. That was surely why he didn't know that fighting a corrupted monster and fighting an ordinary monster called for entirely different methods. Without holy power, one couldn't even know that purification was possible.

"A monster tainted by demonic energy can be purified with holy power."

Measured against the demonic beasts she'd faced in the cave, the energy she felt in the distance was not strong. Libitina knew, with certainty, that she was more than capable of handling the Ant-on out there. The holy power inside her surged as though it would overflow at any second, and her eyes lit up with zeal.

Sadly, her enthusiasm didn't land on him in even the slightest degree.

"It seems you overheard our conversation a moment ago. That you're so well-versed in monsters is certainly surprising. We already know the Ant-on's habits, but I'll take your warning under advisement."

Asselin said it coolly, the corners of his mouth tugging up just enough to produce something barely resembling a smile. She could understand his reaction well enough, so instead of snapping at him, Libitina explained calmly.

"With my holy power, I can deal with that monster easily."

"Knight Hina! You look thoroughly exhausted. Go and see to her condition."

Asselin turned his head away as if he'd heard quite enough and called for Hina. Hina, who had been standing by nearby in case of emergencies, scurried over. Once he confirmed she was at attention, Asselin spoke in an icy voice.

"Urgent business has arisen up ahead, and I must step away for a time. If you need anything, speak to Knight Hina."

"Wait—!"

Asselin, already turning to leave, glanced back at Libitina.

"For assistance with washing and dressing, I imagine Knight Hina would be more convenient than I. Given the unusual circumstances, I'll grant you that much consideration."

Hina, utterly lost, looked back and forth between Libitina and Asselin with bewildered eyes. But Asselin offered no further explanation, and this time he truly did walk away.

And Libitina, left behind, glared daggers at the back of his head, her face twisted with indignation.

What does he mean, 'washing and dressing'? And why say it like that? That was mockery, pure and simple—I'd stake my life on it!

"Er, um. For now, why don't you wait in the barracks?"

Hina, warily watching the fuming Libitina, suggested it as casually as she could manage.

Libitina, who had been muttering sourly at her lips, whipped her head around to face Hina.

"Knight Hina?"

"Yes? Oh—yes."

"You looked after me while I was unconscious, didn't you? Thank you."

At this belated expression of gratitude, Hina waved her hands with a dazed look on her face.

"It was nothing. I only…."

"By the way, I heard you're a monster researcher."

A faint flicker of wariness crossed Hina's face.

"Did the Vice-Commander mention it, by any chance?"

Even as she asked, her expression was dubious—the look of a subordinate who knew perfectly well her superior would never have volunteered such a thing.

Of course Asselin hadn't told her. Libitina had simply overheard knights chattering about the poor monster researcher who'd been yanked from her post in some other region and hauled out here without warning.

Libitina smiled brightly at her. Confronted with that radiant smile, Hina blinked, half her wits scattered.

"The demonic energy that's accumulated in your body is probably because of that, I'd wager."

Faith, after all, cannot be obtained by begging—it must be made to answer of its own accord.