Chapter 117. Running Away

You bastard.

I wanted to curse Johann to his face, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that to the emperor.

Instead, I conveyed my feelings through my eyes.

I really hate this, I really do.

Did my sharp feelings get through?

The smug smile on Johann’s lips slowly disappeared.

The gradual change in his expression etched itself into my mind. Even though it was good that I hurt the wicked man who tormented me, strangely, my heart felt pricked as well.

Why do I feel this way?

I couldn’t handle being there anymore, so I turned away. I walked past the entrance without a destination.

I was running away.

I had nowhere to go, so why did I have to leave my own home like this?

Those annoying heroes.

Has it been a week since I left the house, or two weeks? In just half a day, they made the house like that? Are they staging a protest to stay indefinitely?

“How can they leave their place for so long?”

Just disappear from my sight already!

Is it okay to turn your back on the world like this?

Even if others don’t know, I’ve seen the reality of the continent firsthand. The periodic durahan army in the Sahar Desert and the relentless battles with the undead in the Grodes Mountains.

What kind of trick is it to decorate the room as if they’re planning to settle here?!

“Aveline!”

I walked forward, fuming.

“Why aren’t they going to Aveline? It’s completely weird!”

“It seems you’re the weird one.”

“……!”

Startled, I turned around. At the same time, Claude grabbed my wrist, stopping me.

“Wha-what is it?”

I asked, flustered.

How long had he been following me?

Claude looked down at me silently, with an expression devoid of any amusement.

Even without words, the pressure was intense. Nervously, I swallowed dryly.

How much time passed like that?

Finally, Claude’s lips, which had been binding me with his blood-red eyes, opened.

“Why do you think I’d give up on you just because Purifier Aveline appeared?”

“What?”

“The more useful purifiers there are, the better.”

That’s true, but…

I had always thought Aveline would replace me. I never imagined a future where we worked together.

“The situation in the Grodes Mountains isn’t good.”

Claude’s voice was quite serious.

I recalled the last time I went to Hilton Castle. I rushed there after hearing it was an emergency, only to find the situation already resolved, leaving me dumbfounded.

But…

“When I left, it was an emergency. The Northern Knight Order is doing their utmost.”

His eyes, expression, and voice were all so serious.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I was a little shaken. I tried hard not to think about it, but the people of Hilton came to mind.

Not only Kiel and Austin, but also the people who kindly greeted me every time we met. The Northern Knight Order, who remained loyal despite all the hardships.

<We are so happy that Miss Seraphina is with us.>

<Don’t you really know how to heal? I heard you originally worked as a healer mercenary.>

<You must not faint. Do you know how worried His Grace was?>

<Of course, we were all worried together.>

<If anything happens to Miss Seraphina, we’ll flatten the entire Grodes Mountains.>

Damn it.

The casual conversations we had during the march randomly came to mind.

Stop it, stop.

I really had a hard time.

“Won’t you come back?”

“……”

“We need you.”

“……”

Claude’s voice wasn’t loud.

But the impact of his words shook me entirely.

This is not something to decide emotionally.

I might really die.

Even though the Battle of Agulena has passed, I fainted several times in the Grodes Mountains. And in the original story, I was destined to die while unconscious.

“Purifier Seraphina.”

The title I was called by every time, the name I was called by every time, approached me with a different weight.

A divine role, purifier, said to appear with the probability of a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

Everyone flocks to the Imperial Palace to take the purifier test, hoping to have a good life…

Isn’t it good to be chosen?

Not at all.

It was too heavy.

It was suffocatingly burdensome.

“Come with me. If you say you want to go to Hilton, even that bastard Johann won’t be able to stop you.”

Claude’s grip tightened around my wrist.

His earnest face looked straight at me. His red eyes, which often glared at people intimidatingly, were incredibly noble at this moment.

They belonged to someone who wanted to protect.

Something as vast as the world.

In the end, I avoided his gaze.

I twisted my wrist out of Claude’s grasp. Even though I didn’t use much force, Claude let me go.

Ouch.

Sometimes, even without words, you can feel the other’s emotions.

I could tell that Claude was disappointed in me.

That fact stabbed my heart like a dagger.

Unable to bear seeing Claude’s face, I turned around and walked away. I was afraid to confirm with my own eyes that he was truly disappointed in me.

* * *

“Sera?”

With nowhere to go, I didn’t wander the streets but went to Cyril’s house.

I just couldn’t be alone.

I smiled awkwardly, forcing a grin. I wasn’t in the mood to laugh at all, but I couldn’t ask for a favor with a stern face when I came to impose.

“Hehe, Cyril. Could you let me stay over?”

Cyril seemed surprised.

He looked at the crimson sky of the setting sun and then met my gaze again.

“Did something happen?”

“No, it’s just…”

How should I explain this?

The three heroes have each taken a spot as if they’re planning to stay indefinitely, and Johann threatened that he wouldn’t accept my resignation even if dirt got in his eyes, which upset me, so I left home…

“Come in first.”

Cyril let me in.

I obediently walked inside. Somehow, I felt like I was in a pitiful situation. Well, it’s not entirely incorrect.

“Make yourself comfortable here.”

Cyril quickly assessed my state and disappeared somewhere. I sat quietly on the living room sofa, looking around.

It’s my first time inside the house.

It was a house with a lot of dark brown wooden furniture. The floor color was generally dark too.

Did Cyril always smoke cigars?

I belatedly detected a smell I hadn’t noticed before and sniffed the air. In the corner of the living room, there was a small table and chairs, and there was a cigar in the ashtray that had clearly been extinguished just now.

He must have put it out in a hurry when I arrived, as it wasn’t even half-burnt.

“Sera, drink this.”

At that moment, Cyril returned.

He held a cup of tea with white steam rising from it.

“It’s tea that calms the mind.”

“Thank you.”

I took the tea from him and sipped it. The fragrant smell truly seemed to soothe my mind.

Cyril, who had been surprised at my sudden arrival, no longer pressed me for details. He just quietly stayed by my side.

Why does that make me so grateful?

I was sipping the tea when I turned my head. Cyril’s worried face filled my view.

“Cyril.”

“Yeah.”

“I lost my home.”

“…What?”

His eyes widened in surprise, then crumpled like a sheet of paper. It seemed like he muttered a curse, but his voice was too low to be sure.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that I lost it, but that I ran away, but well.

Cyril touched his chin with a serious expression, then suddenly smiled brightly.

“Then stay here, Sera.”

“Really? Is that okay?”

Being here with Cyril was much more comfortable than being suffocated among the three heroes. I smiled and accepted his offer.

“Thanks, Cyril!”

“It’s nothing…”

At that moment, Cyril’s expression suddenly hardened.

“But Sera, did you just escape from the heroes?”

“Huh?”

“Did you get out of that house?”

“Uh… I guess so?”

I rolled my eyes and replied.

Cyril mentioned he was preparing a new hideout. And since he was the master of the information guild with many capable subordinates, things were probably progressing smoothly even if Cyril stayed here.

The problem was me.

The key was how to escape from the three crazy guys who had come all the way here to find me.

“Sera.”

Cyril grabbed my hands with an admiring look in his eyes.

“You did it. That difficult thing.”

“Uh, uh. I guess so.”

I nodded awkwardly.

It seemed I had succeeded in escaping from the three crazy guys.

It was an opportunity.

* * *

Mihail looked up at the night sky.

The room was decorated to his taste, and now he just needed to stay here leisurely until he persuaded Seraphina and returned to Sahar.

<I’m not your possession, Sir Andantino.>

One thing bothered him.

Ha.

Mihail snorted.

However, unlike his habitually relaxed expression, he was inwardly anxious.

He thought it was his, but it wasn’t…

So what should he do?

Everything Mihail had wanted so far had been his.

But Seraphina was an exception.

Now, all he could do was ask her to show the light of purification. Because he had lost even what had been allowed to him before due to kissing around unnecessarily.

<Sir Andantino, I don’t like it. Please don’t.>

He used to be able to do whatever he wanted with a flick of his hand.

“Hahaha.”

Why does she dislike so many things?

Then would she also dislike being found at this hour? What should he do if he’s worried?

Mihail nervously ran his hand through his platinum blonde hair. His eyes, looking at the darkened sky, were filled with irritation.