“Sir Mercenary! Inside, there’s a monster inside! A monster has attacked the temple!”

Hearing those words, Seiden’s gaze frantically searched through the gaps in the crowd of people gathered there. However, nowhere could he see the girl with brown hair and blue eyes.

Then someone resolved Seiden’s anxious question.

“Bellota is inside! Bellota couldn’t get out!”

At that piercing cry, Seiden’s heart stopped, and the veil’s carcass on his shoulder fell to the ground with a thud. Immediately, his eyes rolled back, and it was an irresistible force that made him rush into the burning temple without thinking.

Seiden entered the collapsing temple, covering his nose and mouth as he searched every corner.

“Hic……”

Finally, he heard Bellota’s frightened breathing. Seiden immediately ran into the prayer room where the sound came from. There he saw Bellota, crouched in a corner of the prayer room, covering her mouth. The monster standing before her was looking at her hungrily, drooling. As the villagers had said, it was clearly a high-ranking monster.

“Bellota!”

When Seiden called out to her, Bellota’s eyes, which had been dropping tears while forgetting even to breathe, grew wide.

“Rick…?”

As Bellota murmured in disbelief, the monster, stimulated by her faint voice, bared its sharp teeth and lunged at her. However, Seiden’s speed was even faster than that opening. Drawing his sword, Seiden blocked her front and plunged his sharp blade into the monster’s body.

“Kyaah!”

Though unable to see, Bellota could feel everything happening and screamed, covering her mouth. A thin groan escaped through Seiden’s teeth. At the same moment Seiden had stabbed his sword into the monster, its sharp claws had pierced his side. Dark red blood was seeping from where the long claws were embedded.

“R-Rick…?”

When Bellota called out to him fearfully, he swallowed a deep groan and answered.

“I’ll… lure it away, use that chance to get outside.”

At those words, Bellota shook her head repeatedly.

“Go outside and send someone to the tavern. The mercenary band is still staying there, they’ll come to rescue us.”

“Th-then what about Rick……”

“I will hold on until then.”

That was a lie. Though his voice remained calm, his head already spun, and his vision swayed. His soul seemed to leak out through the hole in his side. The beast’s claws likely carried a terrible curse. He probably couldn’t hold on much longer. That’s why he needed to get Bellota out.

Seiden gripped tightly the sword handle still deeply embedded in the beast’s body and stared directly into its choking eyes. The three-eyed monster groaned in pain as it twitched, slowly trying to pull its hand from its side.

Three eyes…… Wait. Seiden’s eyes widened.

“……Bellota.”

When Seiden weakly murmured her name, Bellota, who had been frozen in tears until then, trembled as she looked at his back.

Seiden’s eyes blazed brightly. A few days ago, Seiden had heard about the beast from Bellota. Among her wistful words about wanting to see the fireflies that appeared in the village forest and her admirable resolve to serve in difficult regions after formally passing the priest examination, he recalled the story of the three-eyed monster.

“They say the monster called kurkroll has three eyes. Perhaps the monster that Mr. Tenor claimed to have seen was a kurkroll. Everyone says Mr. Tenor was seeing things because he was too tired…… If you ever meet that monster, just remember this one thing: the kurkroll’s weakness is its leftmost eye. If you attack there, the kurkroll will die instantly. Of course, kurkrolls are rare monsters, so you probably won’t encounter one.”

Finally recalling that memory, Seiden’s eyes flashed sharply. At that moment, the beast’s claws embedded in Seiden’s side pulled out completely. Simultaneously, his sword stuck in the beast’s body was quickly drawn into the air.

Keuheaak–!

And it happened in an instant. The beast that had stepped back lunged at Seiden again just as his sword plunged like lightning into its left eye.

Keu, heuk!

The beast’s body, precisely struck at its weak point, froze in place. Its long claws, aimed at Seiden’s neck, stopped precariously in front of his throat. All movement in the room stopped, creating an illusion that time had frozen.

And a few seconds later, the choking beast’s breath completely ceased. Seiden realized the beast was indeed a kurkroll as Bellota had guessed, and the weakness she had shared had worked perfectly.

“Ha……”

Only then did the tension leave Seiden as he released the sword he had been gripping tightly and collapsed face-down on the floor.

“Rick!”

Sensing this, Bellota crawled over to him, fumbling, and embraced Seiden’s body.

“Rick, n-no. Wake up……”

Seiden struggled to stay conscious as he looked at Bellota’s face, streaming with tears as she held him. Bellota’s crying face split in two then merged back into one repeatedly. His vision gradually blurred.

He felt Bellota’s trembling hands pressing down on his side where his soul was leaking out. However, even Bellota couldn’t stop a wound like this. As proof, despite her hands remaining in contact, the wound still burned as if scalded.

So this is how I die. As he faced death, a strange emptiness mixed with relief at having saved Bellota washed over him.

Seiden closed his eyes. It was fortunate. His life hadn’t held much meaning anyway. He could readily give up such a life for Bellota. Though it was regrettable to die without having properly confessed once, if he was going to die anyway, such things held no meaning.

However, his thoughts of heading straight to death’s river were twisted again by Bellota. When Seiden opened his eyes again, he lay on a bed in the barely unburned temple.

“You’re alive!”

The one who greeted his awakening was his colleague Levi. Seiden bolted upright and looked around.

“Bellota.”

When Seiden anxiously murmured with a hoarse voice, Levi looked at him with a pained expression.

“She collapsed. They say she used up all her energy saving you.”

At those words, Seiden’s pupils froze. Seiden looked at his side. White bandages were wrapped tightly around his side. Seiden recklessly tore off the bandages and looked down at what should have been an open wound showing raw flesh. However, his side had healed with only a dark red scar.

“They say even after pouring in the priest’s holy power, a scar remained because the wound was too severe.”

Clicking his tongue, Levi soon delivered grim news.

“Both you and she have been collapsed for three days already. It’s a miracle you even woke up.”

“Where is Bellota?”

When Seiden asked fiercely as if about to rush off to find Bellota right away, Levi’s face grew troubled. He rolled his eyes around, seemingly quite reluctant to deliver such news and opened his mouth.

“Today is her critical point. If she doesn’t wake up today, they say she won’t survive.”

At those bleak words, the ground crumbled beneath Seiden’s feet. His barely revived soul was dragged straight into hell.

* * *

Unable to even enter Bellota’s sickroom where she lay critically ill, Seiden paced the corridor and prayed for the first time in his life. It was a desperate prayer that he would give his life many times over if only she would live again. But if they didn’t save Bellota, Seiden would never forgive the gods.

Just as Seiden’s soul sank into hell and was about to be completely consumed, a miracle occurred. Bellota, who had been lying as if dead, opened her eyes. At the sound of breath filled with life force, Seiden’s soul finally found salvation. And in that moment, the direction of his entire life became very clear and distinct. An eternal conviction that was absolutely clear, certain, and would never change.

The next day, Seiden gathered the veil’s hide and went to visit Bellota.

“Rick.”

Having heard the whole story from the priests, Bellota welcomed Seiden warmly. Her face showed not even a hint of wanting credit for saving his life. Her bloodless, pale white face was filled only with gratitude that Seiden had saved her and the village.

“Sit here. How are you feeling?”

“Fine, thanks to you.”

At those words, Bellota’s cheeks reddened. Bellota ducked her head shyly with an awkward smile.

“Thank you. If it weren’t for you, Rick, I……”

Bellota bit her lip, unable to finish her sentence. It was because the terrible fear from that day vividly replayed. She knew that without him, she would have been helplessly devoured by the monster. What kind of thanks should she give to the savior of her life?

Bellota recalled the thanks given by those she had treated before. Those who brought personally grown crops or occasionally precious meat to express their gratitude. However, such things couldn’t express the emotions filling Bellota’s heart. She couldn’t convey the relief and sorrow she felt hearing his voice call her name, the gratitude she felt when she sensed life returning to him as he was dying.

Bellota had heard the priests’ conversation last night and knew the mercenary band staying in the village planned to leave soon. Unable to understand the meaning of her heart sinking at hearing that news, Bellota couldn’t sleep all night.

It was natural. For monster-hunting mercenaries to wander the continent. Moreover, now that they had killed the kurkroll they were after, there was no reason to remain in such a small village anymore.

Still, Bellota felt disappointed. It seemed like he had come to say goodbye. As proof, Seiden sat in the folding chair beside the bed, silently watching her for a long while.

Thinking of asking him not to go, Bellota firmly pressed her lips together, surprised at her own selfishness.

Ask him not to go? Who was she to say such things? It was already embarrassing enough that he had generously donated money he earned from hunting monsters to the temple. It was overwhelmingly thankful enough that he had caught the high-ranking monster that would surely have endangered everyone. What could she do to hold him back?