The journey from Avalon to Hart Town.
Esper studied the map for a bit; if she went by herself, it would only take half a day's journey.
But the problem was...
She cast her gaze upon Eladia.
No matter how she looked at her, the child did not seem suited for physical exertion. On top of that, she was barefoot.
Esper pondered for a moment.
“Why aren't you wearing shoes? Surely the Church isn't so poor that they can't even afford a pair of...”
It was a familiar question, and the moment Esper asked, she immediately realized the reason.
“Her Holiness said that being barefoot makes me more popular with the believers... so she doesn't allow me to wear shoes. Besides, I don't need them...”
Eladia spoke calmly.
“So you can speak in long sentences... Don't your feet hurt?”
Esper frowned.
“I'm used to it... Even if they get scraped and bleed, they will return to how they were...”
Esper scrutinized Eladia from head to toe.
“You don't need them... Then... forget it...”
After muttering this, she turned around, lowered her head, and led the way forward.
After they had walked dozens of meters, Esper stopped.
No.
What did she mean, she didn't need them? What did she mean, she was used to it?
“Why should I just let it go like that?”
Esper turned around, looking thoroughly annoyed.
“...?”
Eladia stood in place, her face still expressionless, looking at Esper as if she were looking at a painting she had no interest in.
Esper's gaze lingered on her fair feet for a few more seconds, and then she walked toward the side of the road.
This section of the main street was a commercial district, with a leatherworker's shop squeezed between a bakery and an apothecary.
All kinds of leather boots, sandals, and lace-up shoes hung on the wooden racks at the entrance, ranging from exquisite noble riding boots to coarse straw sandals.
Esper picked through them for a moment.
Her eyes swept across them, finally resting on a pair of brown, soft-soled leather shoes.
There were no laces; they were slip-ons.
“How much for this pair?”
“Three silver coins, socks included.”
Esper fished out three silver coins from the cloth pouch at her waist and slapped them onto the counter. Carrying the shoes, she walked back to Eladia and set the socks and shoes down on the stone slab by the Saintess's feet.
“Put them on. Otherwise, people will think I'm mistreating the Saintess.”
Her tone was stiff, like an order.
She didn't look at Eladia's face, pretending to look away indifferently.
Eladia looked down at the shoes by her feet and bent over.
She didn't object, simply complying with the order obediently.
Her slender fingers pinched the edges of the shoes as she slipped her right foot inside, and then her left.
...It felt very strange.
How many years had she walked barefoot in the stone rooms of the City of Holy Radiance?
She remembered the coldness of the stone slabs, but she didn't remember the sensation of shoes.
Until today.
Eladia stood up straight.
She tried taking a few steps, her lips twitching slightly.
“...Thank you.”
There was still no expression on her face, but the words were real.
Esper withdrew her gaze from a tavern sign and glanced at the shoes on Eladia's feet.
Not bad.
“This way, if we hurry, we can cut down on the travel time significantly.”
Esper turned around and headed toward the city gates.
“Make sure you don't get lost.”
Her tone carried a casualness that only surfaced when she spoke to someone from a long time ago.
...
The world outside the city was completely different from the one within.
Esper didn't take the main highway.
She made a turn at the boundary between the highway and a wheat field, stepping onto a narrow path half-hidden by wild grass.
“The highway takes the long way around. This path cuts through the wheat fields and connects to the hunter's trail. Follow that trail to the end, and you'll reach Raven Creek. Once you cross the creek, you're at the edge of the maple woods. It's a day faster than the highway.”
Constantine had provided her with this sort of intelligence before she set out.
Four feet behind her, Eladia walked along the narrow path in her new shoes.
At the end of the wheat field, the narrow path bent and plunged into a patch of low shrubs.
The branches of the shrubs intertwined overhead to form a natural archway, blocking out the scorching afternoon sun and causing the air to cool down.
Esper paused at the entrance of the shrub archway, stepping aside to leave enough room on the narrow path.
She glanced behind her.
Eladia was walking over from the end of the wheat field. The tops of her new shoes were already covered in yellow dirt, completely out of place with her robes and body, which were constantly kept pristine by the lingering aura of holy light.
“The hunter's trail is ahead. The path is narrow and there are lots of bushes. Your hair will get caught on the branches.”
Esper's gaze fell on the tips of Eladia's hair trailing on the ground. That blue river hadn't collected a single speck of dust or dirt, since the holy light naturally cleansed it.
But if it got tangled in something, it might still cause trouble.
“Do you want to tie it up?”
Eladia looked at her quietly.
“...I don't have a tie.”
“Oh, I do.”
Esper reached behind her head and pulled off the leather cord binding her hair.
Freed from its restraint, her long black hair cascaded over her shoulders and back, with loose strands falling beside her ears and cheeks.
“Here.”
Just as she was about to hand over the leather cord, her body froze.
If she got too close to Eladia, she would be hurt.
“Hey, you know, right... I...”
Esper's reflection was mirrored in Eladia's pupils.
With waist-length long hair and a classically delicate face, the girl before her possessed an indescribable air of nobility and elegance just by looking at her.
In stark contrast to this were her overly casual manners, her unvarnished frankness, and the sudden awkwardness of realizing something.
There was nothing else in Eladia's eyes.
Everyone looked at Eladia differently. The believers' gazes were filled with fanaticism and excitement; that person's was filled with pity and pain; Beatrice's was filled with amusement and disdain.
Esper was...
“...Yes, you are a demon...”
She held her breath, reached out, and took the leather cord.
Their fingers inevitably brushed for a fleeting moment.
Esper felt an extremely faint warmth, like touching a lit candle through a pane of glass.
It was the dissipation of the holy light, but much gentler.
Because Eladia had deliberately held her breath.
Esper retracted her hand twice as fast as she had extended it.
“Hey... you...”
Eladia resumed breathing.
Holding the leather cord, she lowered her head and clumsily gathered her hair behind her. Her movements were very awkward; she had likely never tied her own hair before.
In the end, she gathered all of her hair together, wrapped the leather cord around it three times at the back of her head, and tied a crooked knot.
Her long blue hair was transformed from a loose cascade into a thick, loose low ponytail. The end of the ponytail hung below her waist, but at least it was no longer dragging on the ground.
A few loose strands that hadn't been gathered fell from her ears and temples, brushing against her smooth cheeks and shimmering with a deep blue luster in the sunlight.
With her hair tied up, Eladia's face was fully revealed.
It was a delicate face. It lacked the overly bold and aggressive traits of her sister's, and it wasn't as immediately breathtaking as Beatrice's. Yet, she was beautiful from any angle, growing more attractive the longer one looked, like a sweet girl next door from the countryside.
She was very quiet, possessing a serene aura, like a girl who would read you bedtime stories and picture books when you couldn't fall asleep.
Esper's eyes lingered on that face for a second.
If judged solely by temperament and feeling...
The person she had met who resembled this face the most was...
...Esper averted her eyes.
“Let's go.”
She turned around and slipped into the bushes.
Behind her, soft footsteps followed.
...
The hunter's trail sank completely into darkness after nightfall, with only the short chirping of crickets and the long hum of unknown nocturnal insects interweaving.
Esper stopped and glanced back at Eladia.
“Do you need to rest?”
“The holy light nourishes my mind... Even without sleep, I can remain fully energized...”
“What are you talking about? Aren't you sleepy?”
“...A little.”
Esper stopped and set up a very rudimentary camp.
Her year as an adventurer had taught her many things she would have never bothered to learn before, one of which was setting up camp.
She built a fire, constructed a low shelter out of branches, and laid out grass for a bed.
“Go inside and sleep. I'll keep watch.”
As she spoke, Esper was squatting by the campfire, poking at the embers at the bottom of the fire with a damp branch.
Eladia stood at the entrance of the low shelter, watching Esper for a moment, before bending down and crawling inside.
The rustling of straw being compressed echoed from within the shelter.
The campfire crackled.
At some point, the chirping of the night insects became exceptionally clear, as if someone had turned the world's volume knob a notch to the right.
The hairpin at her temple gleamed with a dark red luster in the firelight.
She remembered that day, the hairpin that had clattered onto the ground.
Did Fina pick that hairpin up later? Or had it already been thrown away?
The campfire crackled.
“Fina...”
The voice slipped through her pursed lips, as faint as a wisp of smoke.
Rafina was only eighteen now, but she had already inherited that curse.
How long could her body hold out? Three hundred years? Five hundred years? Or a thousand?
Just how long did she have to suffer?
Esper bit her lip, biting so hard that the taste of iron spread through her mouth.
Does she still hate me?
The girl's forehead slowly lowered, resting on her crossed arms.
Her body trembled soundlessly.
The light of the campfire danced across her curled-up figure, casting her shadow onto the bushes behind her.
The straw inside the shelter rustled.
The door made of leaves was pushed open slightly from the inside, and a lock of azure hair spilled through the gap, shimmering with a deep blue luster in the firelight.
Eladia crawled out of the low shelter.
She didn't walk over to Esper's side, stopping instead at the entrance of the shelter.
She was about six feet away from the campfire, further than her usual four feet.
She saw a girl with her head buried between her knees, trembling continuously.
Her lips moved, but she didn't speak. Instead, she quietly sat down.
She didn't draw closer, nor did she make a sound, doing nothing that might disturb that trembling figure.
She simply sat there.
The campfire crackled.
Then, the trembling gradually subsided.
Esper raised her forehead from her arms.
She saw Eladia, unsure of how long she had been sitting there.
“...Why did you come out?”
Her voice was raspy, barely sounding like her own.
Eladia's lips twitched.
“I couldn't sleep...”
“Insomnia?”
“I can never sleep... Although I get sleepy, my mind remains fully alert... By the time I fall asleep... it's usually dawn...”
Esper lowered her head.
“Then go back and sleep.”
“Okay...”
Eladia murmured in response, but she didn't move.
Esper didn't urge her again.
The campfire crackled.
The two sat in the night, separated by the light and heat of the campfire, separated by their respective silences.
The chirping of the insects gradually changed its tune. The crickets' short trills faded, replaced by a lower, more drawn-out hum.
It was too quiet.
“Could you talk a bit more?”
Esper looked up.
She didn't look at the campfire, gazing instead at Eladia, who was six feet away.
“When it's this quiet... it makes me think of certain things...”
Eladia looked into Esper's eyes, seeing the emotion buried deep within them—a look of longing for someone.
“...I'm not very good at it.”
“Not good at talking? I thought you just didn't want to speak. Never mind, if you can't change it anytime soon, then let's leave it at that.”
After saying this, she pursed her lips and thought for a moment, before adopting a serious expression as if she had made a decision.
“Hey, Eladia.”
She spoke.
“Get a bit closer to me from now on. Otherwise, if others see us, they'll think I'm bullying the Saintess.”
“...?”
Drawing closer meant the concentration of the dissipating holy light would increase. From almost imperceptible to slightly warm, from slightly warm to a slight prickle, from a slight prickle to—
Esper sighed.
“Hurting... of course it hurts. But it's still bearable. When you reached out earlier, you hadn't even held your breath yet, and I felt I could still manage at a distance of about three feet. If it really gets too uncomfortable, I'll let you know.”
It had also hurt back when she sat in the sunlight to listen to Fina tell stories.
But she hadn't hidden away.
Because hiding from the sunlight meant hiding in the shadows, and Fina preferred the sun over the shadows—that glowing disk whose appeal Esper still failed to comprehend.
Esper had long understood that pain could be endured, as long as there was a sufficient reason to do so.
“...Though the bond between us is not forged out of morality or affection.”
Esper's voice dropped half a tone in the night, as if she were weighing the gravity of every single word.
“But since you've become my companion... I will do everything in my power to help you. Do you understand?”
Her tone was subtle.
Like a slightly arrogant piece of advice meant for someone from a long time ago.
For the first time, Eladia showed a different expression.
Previously, she had always been tranquil, like a corpse in a morgue.
But now, a different expression surfaced.
One of confusion.
Then, the confusion vanished. Perhaps not because she understood it, but because she didn't intend to.
“...I understand.”
Her voice was slightly louder than any of her previous replies.
Then, propping her hands on the dirt ground, her body slowly nudged forward, inch by inch.
It looked very clumsy, but she did it with absolute earnestness, as if carrying out some highly important command.
Six feet.
Five feet.
Four feet.
Three feet—
Esper's skin broke out in tiny goosebumps.
It felt as if someone were gently pricking her with countless microscopic needles.
It wasn't excruciating, but it was painful.
“This is close enough.”
They had drawn closer by a foot.
Such a distance was utterly negligible in most contexts.
But on this night, in this forest clearing wrapped in the hum of insects and the warmth of the campfire, this tiny distance symbolized a boundary actively crossed.
Eladia saw the extremely faint white lines on the back of Esper's hand.
The marks of holy light corrosion.
At a distance of three feet, her mere presence here, her very act of breathing, was causing harm to the person before her.
“...Will it scar?”
Her voice was still very soft, but within that gentleness, something else seemed to be mixed in.
For as long as she could remember, everyone had praised her with words like “great” and “selfless.”
Some meant it from the bottom of their hearts, others used it as mockery, but ultimately, it all pointed to a single reason.
They were benefiting from her.
“You are a giver, offering up your own flesh and blood to trade for the happiness and peace of all living beings—” Beatrice had once said.
No one had ever given anything for her.
Esper knew nothing of those things. She simply looked down at the back of her hand.
“No. It disappears half an hour after we step away.”
“I see...”
Eladia nodded, then lapsed into silence once more.
Esper tossed another piece of wood into the campfire.
The campfire crackled.
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