Chapter 24. I Will Protect You

That night.

Faye was packing my luggage.

“Miss Seraphina, if there’s anything else you’d like to take with you, please let me know. I’ll get it for you as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.”

“This is already enough. Thank you, Faye.”

Looking at the neatly stacked luggage bags in the corner of the room, I was overcome with complex emotions.

Am I really going?

It was a foregone conclusion that I would be leaving for my deployment site this week, regardless of where it was.

If I were to go where Mihail is, I could delay the departure date by a day or two and go more comfortably, but if I went with Claude, it would be a different story.

Since their situation was urgent, we would depart as soon as possible.

“If you need anything, please call me.”

I waved my hand at Faye, telling her to go in and rest comfortably. Then I slowly looked around the room I was left alone in.

Ah.

It’s only been a month since I stayed in this room.

Why does it feel like my home?

Trudge, trudge.

With slumped shoulders, I headed towards the window. As I rested my chin and looked up at the night sky, thoughts came flooding in like a tide.

I feel unsettled.

The stars are beautiful and the crescent moon has risen prettily, but only my mood is miserable.

Honestly, it still doesn’t feel real.

“The Grodes Mountains…”

How terrifying and dangerous a place could it be?

Johann said he needed a day to think, but I was perceptive enough. In the end, my deployment site would be that treacherous northern land.

“How dangerous must it be for him to worry so much…”

I spoke like a sigh.

In fact, sighs kept flowing out continuously.

My anxiety grew proportionally to Johann’s serious contemplation. It meant I was going to a place where the probability of dying was that much higher.

To begin with, Seraphina is an extra.

She’s destined to die before the female protagonist Aveline appears like a bright star.

I clenched my fist.

‘Not yet.’

There’s still time.

I knew the battle where I would die.

At least I didn’t die in the north.

Then it’s all fine.

As I was thinking this, I sensed a presence outside the window. More precisely, I heard footsteps. Looking down, someone was standing in the darkness.

“……?”

Is it Johann?

It was hard to see clearly because it was dark. The shadow was thick as they were standing under the shade of a tree.

“Your Majesty?”

I asked, cupping my hands around my mouth like a megaphone. Then the man under the shade took a step forward.

His face is revealed under the moonlight.

Hair darker than the night sky. Below that, red eyes glowing coldly. A man with a cold and frightening impression, befitting someone who lives in a cold land.

“Your Grace Denhague?”

I opened my eyes wide in surprise.

Why is Claude here?

He was looking up at me with a quiet gaze. Soon, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Purifier Seraphina.”

Claude called me that way, as if he only wanted my ability. Always attaching ‘purifier’ before a person’s name.

“Your purification ability is still rough.”

“That’s because I’ve never properly practiced.”

He lowered his head and muttered softly, “Is that so.” The night air was so quiet that even small whispers carried well to the upper floor.

Rustle. Rustle.

Chirp. Chirp.

Whoosh.

All sorts of sounds from nature seep into my ears.

The sound of leaves rubbing against each other. The sound of insects chirping. The gentle wind that comes and goes somewhere.

Amidst these sounds, Claude’s baritone voice pierced through the air.

“Do you really faint often?”

It seems that was what bothered him.

After pushing so forcefully like a bulldozer to get the purifier as support.

However, with his next words, I could somewhat understand why Claude was being so adamant.

“I rushed all the way here after seeing a single headline about a purifier appearing after several years.”

Ah, right. Then it would be hard to give up.

I understand.

Of course, that’s separate from not wanting to be deployed there.

Claude’s voice continued.

“I didn’t say this earlier in front of that bastard Johann.”

Seeing him boldly call the Emperor ‘that bastard’, I felt a strange sense of kinship.

I call him that in my mind too…

Anyway, he was now talking about my biggest weakness. I listened seriously.

“In the Grodes Mountains, mostly mid to high-level undead appear. You might encounter skeletons, durahans, and if you’re unlucky, even liches.”

Liches could be considered death mages, and undead that could use magic were very dangerous.

“If you faint at the sight of ghouls…”

Claude paused as if pondering, furrowing his brow, then continued.

“If you just close your eyes, you won’t faint in front of high-level undead?”

“Well…”

I couldn’t answer clearly.

His cold red eyes seemed to pierce through me.

My conscience was pricking me.

But at this point, I couldn’t confess that I had never actually fainted. I didn’t want to get on the bad side of Claude, who already had a fierce personality, from the start.

I swallowed dry saliva.

“I’ve never seen high-level undead before.”

“I see.”

Claude’s short mutter somehow felt like he was saying, ‘Then we’ll have to test it.’

I hastily added. Although I didn’t faint, it was true that I felt tremendous fear when seeing undead. I felt it clearly when I saw the ghoul today. That chilling sensation crawling up my spine.

“I became an orphan because of the undead.”

“……”

“It must be trauma.”

“……”

He was silent for a while.

There are many orphans in this world. Many who have lost children, parents, siblings. It was a common occurrence.

But…

We shared a moment of silence.

The childhood memories that have now become mine.

The scene of a ghoul, bigger than my body, trying to pounce on me as if to devour me, choked my throat like a nightmare.

Ah.

What was that?

Did I see it wrong because of the darkness?

It seemed like Claude’s gaze deepened for a moment as he looked at me…

“I can’t not take a purifier.”

He broke the silence.

I quietly inhaled at his words.

“But I promise one thing.”

An obligatory and businesslike tone.

“I will definitely protect you from dying.”

Perhaps because it was a hero saying it, it somehow felt reassuring.

* * *

“Ow! Oww! Ouch!”

I kept making strange noises as pain stabbed my backside. Claude frowned and glared at me.

“You’re quite noisy when riding.”

“But ouch! It’s my first time, so! Oww!”

“Didn’t you say you’ve been to battlefields as a healer mercenary?”

“At that time, Marc carr, ied meee! Oww!”

“……”

I could feel Claude’s gaze that seemed to have a lot to say, but I didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to him.

That’s right.

I was currently learning horseback riding.

Sitting alone on the saddle, my riding sense was quite poor. No, it was the worst.

“Is it usually this ba…! Kyaa!”

“Careful.”

Thud.

Claude caught my body as I lost balance and fell off the horse. He jumped off his horse in that brief moment.

The two horses we were riding abandoned their owners and galloped away, clop clop. Watching this, Claude rounded his index finger and whistled.

Wheee!

At that, his horse turned around and came back to its owner.

My horse just kept going straight. I could see the stable manager soothing my horse and bringing it back this way.

Having resolved the situation, Claude looked down at me with a frown.

“Can’t you even keep your balance properly?”

“Well, it’s really my first time riding alone. When I rode behind Marc, it didn’t shake this much…”

It was true.

I glared at the brown stallion borrowed from the imperial stables for this one-time use and continued speaking.

“That fellow seems particularly fidgety.”

“It does seem to have a bit of a temper.”

“When I get my own horse, I’ll train it well and be able to ride like Your Grace.”

After I poured out words that sounded like excuses, Claude looked at me as if asking, ‘Really?’ His gaze was full of doubt.

Ugh.

Wouldn’t anything improve with practice?

That’s when Claude skillfully leaped onto his black horse and extended his hand to me.

“……?”

“Get on.”

“Why?”

“You have no sense at all, so I don’t know where to start teaching. First, get a feel for maintaining balance. It’s not bad to get used to the feeling with this well-trained warhorse.”

Oh…

That made sense.

I grabbed his outstretched hand and climbed onto the saddle.

“Wow.”

It’s incredibly majestic. The stallion I just rode couldn’t compare to this one. I thought it was bigger in size, but the substance felt from its muscles was extraordinary.

Slap.

As he swung the reins, the black warhorse started to dash forward. It gradually increased speed.

“Remember this rhythm now.”

I nodded at the unwavering baritone voice resonating in my ears.

Through Claude’s upper body touching my back, I could hear the sound of a healthy heartbeat.

It’s stable.

And so we freely galloped around the riding ground.

We rode and rode for several laps.

Ah.

It feels good.

The wind is refreshing, and the speed hitting my skin makes me feel alive. Above all, there was a sense of stability as if becoming one with the horse. I realized how terrible it was when I had been bouncing my backside out of sync earlier.

That’s when Claude suddenly started to slow down.

“We could ride more…”

As I was making a regretful sound, I trailed off as I looked in the direction he was pointing.

“Huh?”

Johann had been watching us, I don’t know since when. Jesuf was with him too.

As we turned the reins and approached closer, Johann’s expression gradually became clearer.

But…

Why is he looking at us with such a stiff face?