Selma Zayin.
The woman who was the previous saint approached the burned carriage while we were on guard.
The surroundings bore signs of a battle, and the carriage had been burned, along with what seemed to have been guards armed with weapons. They had been killed.
Killed and processed, then carefully burned.
Eva covered her mouth, and Aria looked pale.
I felt unwell, too.
(...Come to think of it, that was the first time I directly killed people.)
The adventurers who had attacked in Aramsass were made to not return, but I hadn't been the one to directly strike them down.
I was feeling strangely sick when Clara approached my side.
"Riel, there's one person alive. They've lost consciousness and are badly injured, but they're somehow safe."
I nodded and headed over.
Gastone Bonini, the former High Priest of Zayin, seemed intent on giving the dead a proper burial.
However, there was no time, so he was using magic to dig holes and bury the bodies.
"...I wish we could give them a more proper burial."
Selma said that, but Gastone was shaking his head. He must have understood that staying here was dangerous.
Clara tugged at my sleeve.
"Riel, I don't want to say this, but I must. Why did you accept this commission, and why did you listen to their whims? We should have departed immediately."
What Clara said was correct. It was correct, but I had my own reasons.
Mainly, the Successive Heads inside the Jewel.
The Third Generation.
'I'll do them a favor here, and then have them rely on me back in Baim. Fortunately, I've had Novem and the others searching for a base in Baim too. We're planning to purchase a fairly large base, so we'll be able to hide people there!'
Leaving Novem, Miranda, Monica, and Shannon behind served the dual purpose of intelligence gathering and securing a base in Baim.
Ideally, I would have brought Monica along, but I left her behind since the purchased base would need cleaning.
Monica, seeing us off, looked incredibly lonely.
The Sixth Generation too.
'We need to leave a good impression. And while we're at it, let's extract some useful information to really dig deep, Riel.'
The Successive Heads were more animated than usual.
I wanted to sigh, but I held it back and turned my gaze to the survivor. He hadn't regained consciousness yet, and we'd begun treatment with the medicine we had on hand.
The Fifth Generation.
'...Something's suspicious. They went through all this trouble to destroy evidence, yet there's a survivor. That just doesn't sit right. Did they plant something?'
I looked at the surviving man but couldn't find anything unusual. Even checking with my Skills, I learned nothing.
(I should have brought Shannon along. Instead of leaving her behind as cleanup crew, she could have been more useful here.)
It was too late now, but I regretted not planning the party composition more carefully. I turned to Clara.
"Well, doing them a favor isn't the worst thing. Also, keep an eye on the survivor. Something about him is bothering me."
Clara nodded and went to relay my words to the rest of our companions.
I turned my gaze to Selma, the former Saint.
Beside her stood a girl in a hood. From how everyone around her was behaving, she seemed to be treated with as much care as Selma — clearly an important figure.
As I kept watch of our surroundings, I noticed the pursuing group was closing the distance.
(They haven't given up. They must be gathering numbers for another attack.)
They were experienced in combat—a group willing to self-destruct.
Beyond their numbers-oriented equipment, their movements told me they weren't common bandits.
There was a possibility they had poison hidden in their weapons, and they likely carried concealed arms as well.
(Annoying. A greatsword would be a bit rough. And the bow has already been countered too.)
I hadn't expected them to adapt so quickly, but it seemed they truly were battle-hardened. Deciding that fighting with Jewel as a greatsword was too dangerous, I held back.
The bow, too—word had already spread, and they may have prepared countermeasures.
While I was weighing my options, Gastone approached us.
"Sorry to take up your time. Let's depart immediately."
I nodded and gave instructions to my companions. We would have everyone board the Porter, and we ourselves would guard the rear.
I thought to take the wounded under our care as well.
"We'll take the wounded with us."
When I said that, Selma stepped forward and shook her head.
"I can't impose that much on you. Besides, I'd like you to focus entirely on the escort. The injured have served us for many years. Please allow us to tend to them."
From within Jewel, the Seventh Generation's voice came.
"...Forcing them to hand over their people isn't an option either. Even if they sensed something was off, attachment to their own would cloud their judgment. Rael, he probably won't wake for a while, but keep an eye on him."
The Fourth Generation agreed.
"I'd like to remove as many risk factors as possible, but forcibly separating them won't earn us their trust."
If there was even a suspicion, we couldn't simply keep them restrained.
There were concerns, but we decided to follow Selma's wishes. However, the Third Generation offered a suggestion.
"Rael, tell them to put the important people in a lightly loaded carriage so they can escape if needed. At the very least, let's keep the damage to a minimum."
Simply calling something suspicious wasn't going to move things forward. I gripped the Jewel and proposed the Third Generation's idea to Selma and Gastone.
The road back to Baim.
Positioned at the rear of the group, we could see the three carriages moving ahead of us.
They'd been stripped of various things, but the construction was solid. Given that both a former Saint and a High Priest were riding in them, they probably hadn't been prepared just for this occasion.
May climbed up onto the roof and spoke to me while looking behind us.
"Hey, I'm a little curious about something."
"What is it?"
I turned around. May was sitting cross-legged on the roof, and without looking at me, she said:
"What if those guys who attacked us before show up? Do we run? Do we fight?"
I answered May's question.
"We run if we can. I'd like to think they won't chase us all the way to Baim. But if we can fight, we crush them."
There was a possibility the enemy could infiltrate Baim and ambush us. Fortunately, the ones who'd attacked us had followed along, and there was no sign they'd sent companions elsewhere.
There were twelve of them.
We didn't have many fighters, but this time we had May. Among our current roster, she'd be the most dependable one.
Aria and Eva were reliable too, but the problem was their hesitation.
I couldn't exactly say I didn't have any either.
(Sigh... going soft when the moment arrives, huh? But if you hesitate, you die. I can't afford to die here.)
After steeling my resolve once more, May turned her face toward me.
"Then let's settle it up ahead. The road narrows there, and since they're in a hurry, they're probably heading that way too. Laiel is boosting the group's speed with Skills, so they're getting a little desperate on their end."
With the Skill[Speed], the group's speed was being boosted. If we pushed it, we might be able to escape as things stood.
"Do you have some kind of plan?"
When I asked, May grinned.
"No plan. I'm a Kirin, after all. I've dealt with humans trying to catch me before, and they were an especially troublesome bunch. No matter how far I ran, they kept chasing, so I had no choice but to take them down. But if you just grind them down bit by bit, the survivors get smarter and set more traps and recruit more people, so wiping them all out in one go was the way to go."
(Are you saying we should deliberately spring a trap to lure them in?)
I was nodding along when the Fifth Generation's voice came from Jewel. I ignored it.
'May's had a rough time too, huh. I'm tearing up here.'
May flashed a wicked grin.
"We'd kill people too if we were backed into a corner. But when that happens, you take out the troublesome ones all at once. You play like you've fallen for the trap and strike the moment they all come pouring out."
Sure enough, she really was telling me to let ourselves get caught.
"That's dangerous. If we get surrounded, people will get hurt. It's not just you here."
At that, May looked at me and scoffed.
"I'm joking. Laiel, you should trust your own abilities just a little more."
With that, May turned her gaze toward the rear—and fell silent.
———Inside the carriage.
Selma spoke to the girl sitting beside her.
"Aura, what's been troubling you since a while ago?"
The girl sitting beside her was Aura. With her long wavy brown hair, she had a delicate frame.
It was Selma who had brought her away from the Zayin household, owing to the circumstances of her competing as a saint candidate against the current Holy Maiden, Remis Zayin.
"It's nothing, really. But I'm glad we ran into those adventurers along the way. They seem like pushovers, so they should be easy to handle."
When Selma narrowed her eyes, she gave Aura a warning look.
"Even after we helped you, that's the attitude? You'd be perfect if it weren't for that."
She had the education, but Aura was also a beautiful girl. Selma and Gastone had backed her, recommending her as the next saint candidate.
Of course, she wasn't chosen just for her looks or her learning.
Like Selma, Aura belonged to the moderate faction. Over twenty years ago, Zayin was a religious nation that repeatedly engaged in warfare.
They attacked neighboring countries, raiding and pillaging.
But the surrounding nations weren't the type to take such treatment lying down. They similarly invaded Zayin's territories, causing suffering to its people.
Aura slung her legs up on the seat in front of her, lounging in a posture that hardly seemed fitting for a saint candidate.
"If you run, you'll be chased. You should have just stayed quietly in the temple at Zayin. Those idiots in the Holy Knight Order just don't want a priestess meddling in politics."
The so-called idiots of the Holy Knight Order were Zayin's knights. A knight order sworn to serve the saint under the name of the Goddess. But in substance, they weren't much different from the orders of other countries.
No, in terms of being terrible, the Holy Knight Order was worse than those in neighboring nations.
Their long history of raiding and their mindset remained deeply rooted even during Selma's rule, and she couldn't reform it.
As a result, extremists coalesced into an anti-Selma faction. The one they recommended was Remis.
Selma sighed and then apologized to Aura.
"I'm sorry you got dragged into this. But if only we had fled, it surely would have affected you as well."
Aura stared at the ceiling.
"That's why I never wanted to be a saint candidate. There were others, weren't there? Just seat a slightly dim-witted priestess in the chair, that would've been fine, but no, she had to try and rule."
Selma pressed her hand to her forehead. She must have a headache.
"And if you just kept launching wars at your neighbors like you did for years, you'd only be resented. By the time I came along, the neighboring countries had formed a coalition to try and crush Zayin."
Aura laughed.
"Wouldn't that have been better?"
"There's no way that would end well!"
Inside the carriage, the two fell silent.
After a while, Aura spoke up.
"...If I could just flee to Baim, I'd like to live out my days there in peace."
Selma shook her head.
"That would be fine in theory. The question is whether we can actually make it to Baim. The adventurers we hired seem capable, but who knows what will happen."
Selma had a good idea which unit was pursuing them.
They were the extremists — the assassination squad maintained by the Holy Knights.
Operating under the banner of secrecy, they committed all manner of atrocities and worked in the shadows. Even among the Holy Knights' elite, they were a troublesome bunch.
However, their numbers were not that great.
Selma was thinking that if they could make it to Baim, they could return to their homeland.
Aura, switching her legs as she looked at Selma.
"Wouldn't it have been better to just get along with those fools? You could have done that, Lady Selma, couldn't you? In fact, weren't you saying ten-odd years ago that you wanted to hand off to a successor and build a shrine out in the countryside?"
When Selma's expression went flat, Aura began grumbling away.
"I wanted to retire and start a family too, you know... But Gastone kept begging me. On top of that, I couldn't find a suitable successor, and to make matters worse, the Holy Knights were pushing back and became impossible to work with. Relying on adventurers only made them angrier... What was I supposed to do? I just wanted to retire, move out to the countryside, and get married."
Faced with Selma's sudden spiral into complaint, even Aura felt she should offer some kind of support. Aura owed Selma a debt, after all.
She had been able to serve as a shrine maiden at the Saint's side, and Selma had been kind to her.
"Lady Selma, you should settle down quietly in Baim too. Why not get married, for starters..."
The moment Aura said that, Selma broke into a smile.
"Aura, do you think anyone would want a thirty-six-year-old like me? It's hard enough ten years younger than that."
Seeing that knowing smile, Aura felt a pang of sympathy.