Chapter 745
“Um, I have something I want to ask.”
Anna, who had been pretending as if nothing was wrong until now, spoke to Lete for the first time.
And it was a question.
Lete had already guessed, but she sat down beside her with a natural, unaffected look, pretending to know nothing.
“If it’s something I can answer, I’ll answer anything, Teacher Anna.”
“Well, it’s just that….”
When it came time to speak, Anna seemed anxious, her fingers fidgeting, her lips parting as if parched.
Lete said nothing, simply waited in silence.
“It’s an inappropriate question for someone of my position to ask… maybe I should just… later….”
“Is a Saint not human?”
Lete blurted it out.
“By chance you accepted the Essence of a Saint, so you’re just a priest who’s a little more outstanding than others. Does that mean you must always be morally superior, thinking in transcendent ways different from others? Are your human struggles not struggles at all, and must you just bury them deep inside forever?”
If other devotees had heard her, they would have leapt up in outrage at such blasphemy, but Lete’s words carried no hesitation.
It was natural. Because Lete herself was also a Saint.
Perhaps it was that shared sense of kinship coloring the atmosphere, but Anna did not find her words unpleasant. Rather, it felt as though Lete had voiced what she herself longed to say, and she felt relieved.
At last, Anna gathered her courage and spoke.
“Among necromancers… are there, um, good people?”
Lete blinked at the question.
“What?”
“Oh, that is, I mean….”
Anna clasped her hands before her chest and lowered her head.
“It was a bit shocking. To think that someone I believed to be a good person… was actually a necromancer….”
Anna had always read people’s eyes.
Since childhood, when she looked into someone’s eyes, she could tell if they were kind or wicked, could sense what thoughts they harbored, whether their approach carried good intentions. Her discerning eye was well known even among those around her.
Anna recalled the first time she met Richard.
At first glance, she was startled. As if shrouded in dense fog, his eyes were filled with a chaotic and turbid energy. She thought he was someone she should avoid.
But the more she spoke with him, the more she came to know him, another side revealed itself. Beyond the fog, within his pupils, there was a resolute will firmly lodged.
Even within the mist, it shone with presence, radiating light, it was magnificent. Anna had never seen such eyes before.
At their second meeting, that fog had lifted even more.
His pupils sparkled as vividly as the stars of the night sky. And especially when those eyes turned to her, they glowed with such intensity that Anna’s heart raced.
The prejudice she had harbored at first because of the fog seemed shameful in retrospect, he was a good man. She could see that his heart was deep and warm.
And yet—
“He was a necromancer.”
From a young age Anna had been raised under strict religious instruction. She had only ever heard evil spoken of necromancers, and it took root in her mind as an unshakable value.
Servants who made pacts with the Devil, monsters who violated even the final rest of the dead for pleasure, emotionless fiends who would kill their own parents and raise them as undead if it meant victory.
—Necromancers are evil, to be utterly rejected.
That was why Anna, as a Saint, had joined the war, fighting to protect the innocent people of the continent from such wicked beings.
But with the appearance of Richard, her entire common sense had been shattered.
“Did I misjudge him? Or, maybe necromancers too….”
Anna swallowed the rest of her words, unable to continue. She shook her head, as though trying to cast it off, then changed her question with a sorrowful tone.
“What should I do?”
She was unstable.
The Saint who had always appeared steadfast and filled with devotion was now shaken to her very core.
Lete stepped closer. Then she clasped Anna’s pale, slender hands tightly in both of hers.
“How you choose to live from here on… that’s not something I can answer for you, Teacher Anna.”
In Anna’s life, there had always been an ‘answer’.
There was no room for doubt.
Whenever doubt could have arisen, someone had provided her with an answer.
Her bishops, her environment, her society.
They had trained her simply to follow the answers handed down.
But now Anna was trying to think and decide for herself. If Lete gave her an answer, it would only bind her again in another form.
‘Truthfully, I don’t really know either.’
So thought Lete as she closed her eyes tightly.
She too was a priest, and had lost her parents to necromancers.
Though Simon was an exception, she had yet to completely understand and accept necromancers, her sworn enemies. Even now her faith and her heart clashed countless times.
But—
“But to your first question, that one I can answer with absolute confidence.”
—Among necromancers, could there be good people?
With a certain face rising in her mind, Lete spoke.
“There are good people. Without a doubt.”
Anna lifted her head at once.
“R-Really?”
“Yes.”
Lete shrugged her shoulders.
“Just as there are bad priests, it’s the same with necromancers. Darkness and holiness are merely differences in innate abilities, they are not absolute measures of good and evil.”
Lete was surprised at herself for speaking such words.
Anna, seeing her, smiled.
“You were thinking of that boy who came with Richard, weren’t you?”
Lete flinched as if struck by an unexpected blow.
“No! It’s got nothing to do with that brat!”
“Ahaha.”
Anna laughed softly.
Lete exhaled a long breath and continued.
“Forget doctrines and experiences, what matters most is your own heart.”
Anna followed suit, placing a hand on her chest.
“My heart.”
“Yes. It’s your heart, your feelings. If even that must be swayed by your title or circumstances, then what reason is there for us humans to live?”
“……”
“Let me ask again.”
With a serious face, Lete spoke.
“Teacher Anna, what is it you want to do?”
* * *
The latter half of the Hundred Years’ War.
A time when even the most atrocious strategic weapons, like the ‘Ashen Judgement’ and the ‘Faceless Fiend’, were deployed.
Regardless of Alliance or Federation, major cities were reduced to rubble by bombings, civilian casualties reaching their peak.
And through that latter half of the Hundred Years’ War, one theme runs.
The Sealed Letter.
After it became known that the Sealed Letter, long regarded as mere legend, truly existed, the Dark Alliance and the Holy Federation both struggled desperately to obtain the weapon.
Both factions had already used ancient civilization’s strategic weapons before, and they knew better than anyone the scale of their destructive power. Among them, the Sealed Letter was said to hold the greatest destructive might. Whichever side possessed it would surely seize the advantage in the war. It had become, in every sense, the ‘key’ to victory.
The Dark Alliance analyzed ancient texts within the Ivory Tower, while the Holy Federation scoured the records of numerous scriptures. Astonishingly, both factions’ estimated locations of the Sealed Letter overlapped to some degree.
The site deemed most likely to yield the relic was the Bahila Fiefdom. Each faction sent its strongest forces—Yona and the Saint of Miracles were dispatched there—and every other potential excavation site was fiercely contested as well. Borders and territories had all but lost their meaning.
Thus the war to secure the Sealed Letter dragged on.
And then, a great historical event occurred.
<The Sealed Letter was discovered at the Peripod front of the Dark Alliance.>
The Sealed Letter had truly been unearthed. Though the Peripod front was Dark Alliance territory, it was found in an excavation site under the Holy Federation’s effective control.
Thus the Sealed Letter first fell into the Federation’s hands, but, upon catching wind through intelligence, the Dark Alliance launched a surprise night raid.
They crushed the Federation’s forces and successfully seized the Sealed Letter.
Now the tide of war tilted steeply toward the Dark Alliance. The Peripod territory was relatively close to Roke Island. If they could transport the Sealed Letter to Roke Island and have it decoded at Keyzen headquarters, the Dark Alliance would secure victory.
But the Federation’s furious counterattack was not to be underestimated.
They immediately launched their forces to Roke Island’s coast, using sacred relics to summon a mighty atmospheric storm overhead. This storm distorted coordinates, preventing teleportation magic circles from functioning, and made it impossible to move the Sealed Letter into Roke Island.
Then they deployed their strongest priests, the Saint, the Arch Paladins, and the largest Holy Fleet, blockading the seas around Roke Island. They refrained from clashing with the necromancers within, and instead sealed the waters with their fleet, waiting.
The rest of their forces were hurriedly sent toward the Peripod front, aiming to secure the Sealed Letter once more.
The Dark Alliance, in response, redirected troops from outside Roke Island toward Peripod, and began massing naval power, planning to smash through the Holy Fleet by force and deliver the Sealed Letter to Roke Island.
And so naturally—
—Yona, the battlefield has shifted, proceed immediately to Peripod.
—Milady Saint, you will move to Peripod.
Richard and Anna too were rushed to the Peripod front where the Sealed Letter had been found. Without even confirming their feelings for one another, they had to mount the teleportation circle and move to the next battleground.
Meanwhile, soldiers from the Neutral Zone’s Bahila front also prepared to march to Peripod. Not all troops could be moved by teleportation; only key figures like Richard and Anna were sent, while the rest had to travel on foot to Peripod.
As the situation turned more urgent, Simon and Lete met again at their promised place.
“The Sealed Letter has been found a little earlier than history recorded, but events are still unfolding along the same path.”
Simon said, biting his lip.
“Soon, the ‘Legion’s Betrayal’ incident will occur.”
“We have to get to Peripod quickly!”
Lete shook Simon’s sleeve with a frantic look.
“I’m worried about the two of them. The Executioners must have gone there too! We have to get on a teleportation circle somehow….”
“It’s impossible.”
In the late stages of the Hundred Years’ War, with resources and money exhausted, teleportation circles were incredibly scarce.
Even at the Neutral Zone front, only one of Richard or Anna had been sent with great effort. The next teleportation circle to be completed was reserved for the aces of each faction, and for a watcher and servant like Simon and Lete, priority was low.
“What if we stole a carriage or a horse and rode there?”
Lete suggested, but Simon shook his head.
“The distance is too great. By the time we arrive on horseback, the Legion’s Betrayal incident will already have happened.”
“Hmm.”
As Lete sank into thought, Simon spoke.
“Aunt Israfil, she hasn’t gone to Peripod yet, has she?”
“No, but her priority is high, so she’ll probably leave on the next teleportation circle.”
Simon’s eyes gleamed.
“Good. Then let’s persuade Aunt Israfil.”
Lete grimaced as though she had been struck and looked away.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, it’s just….”
Lete twisted her hair nervously.
“You saw it too. Things have been awkward between me and Lady Israfil lately. Do you think it’s possible?”
“You can do it.”
Simon grinned and answered without hesitation.
“Besides, we both know what the Aunt Israfil of the future will be like, don’t we?”
“……”
After a moment of thought, Lete rose to her feet with resolve.
“Then let’s go. Before the Legion’s Betrayal incident begins.”
* * *
Six hours later, within the Holy Federation camp.
Israfil’s command tent.
Scribble, scratch.
Israfil closed her eyes, dipped her quill in ink with a reverent mind, and pressed it firmly to parchment.
<Letter of Protest> <Proposal of Tactics>
Her quill danced across the empty paper.
<At this crucial moment for Saint Anna’s safety, sending her into the enemy’s heart to play the role of deterrent is wholly inappropriate. The Saint demonstrates her true value only when under our side’s complete protection. As examples, consider the great victories achieved when…>
After swiftly composing her letter, she next examined a map. Her tent’s walls were plastered with maps of the entire continent. She tore several down, laid them upon the table, and drew lines decisively with her quill.
Scratch—scratch—
She marked friend and foe with nearby pins, traced expected lines of movement, considered terrain and even the enemy’s psychology in detail, then wrote more into her tactical proposal.
Strategies that prioritized the protection of the Saint of Miracles, while also maximizing the chance to seize the Sealed Letter.
<The enemy is focused on moving the Sealed Letter, but time is on our side. To break through our Holy Fleet, they will need far more naval power. What we must do is…>
Ssk.
The ink grew faint, the letters thin. Israfil dipped her quill again, but suddenly turned her head.
“Who gave permission to enter without leave?”
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