Episode 656: Saint Catherine (2)
Catherine? It was the first time I heard this name…
It had to be that way… Line had no interest in the Holy Kingdom of Bretus, and even if it existed, she couldn’t even know the name of the saint who was not known to the outside world…
However, the moment Line saw Catherine, she felt a strange feeling that is difficult to express in words.
Should I say it’s a feeling of friendliness? Should I say it’s a feeling of pity?
Catherine just stared at Line with eyes that didn’t know what she was thinking.
‘Does this person know me?’
Just when Line was starting to feel pressured by that gaze, a wide smile appeared on Catherine’s face.
“Oh my, who are you? “You’re so pretty.”
“yes yes?”
“What’s your name? Are you a student here?”
“Uh, my name is Leene. I’m a student here. I’m in first year now, but…”
“1 Grade? It’s a good time, isn’t it? Rather, what are you doing here? “Did you take care of this flower bed?”
My first impression was that he was somewhat adult and saintly, but now that he was actively asking questions like this, he seemed like a typical cheerful person.
Line was a little embarrassed, but answered honestly, thinking that she was not a bad person.
“I didn’t grow the flower bed here, but it was tended by a senior friend I know. I’m not feeling well for a while, so I’m taking a break here.”
“It’s rest… I understand… When I’m having a hard time, I often sit quietly in a place with no one around…”
“Oh, Catherine too?”
“Oh my, she’s so stiff when she says Catherine… Just call her sister, sister…”
“Oh no matter what…”
“Now, try following me, sister.”
“Oh sister…”
As Line muttered shyly, Catherine smiled brightly like a flower in full bloom.
“So cute…”
“By the way, Catherine, what are you doing here?”
“me? “I just came to Seorn as a guest and was bored so I was taking a walk for a while. Then I happened to see a paved path and came here, but I had no idea there were guests.”
“Ah, I see. This is a place that other people don’t often visit.”
“Yeah, it sure feels like that. Should I say it’s your own secret hideout? It gives me that feeling… I used to be like that too and I miss it…”
“Your sister too?”
“There were a lot of really difficult times when I was young. In fact, it’s still hard now, but back then it was so unbearable… So there was a time when I couldn’t bear it anymore and ran away to hide in a place where people wouldn’t come?”
It was an old story that started suddenly, but Rine was curious and listened to it.
“I was alone and sad, so I was sobbing and suddenly someone came…”
“Who who?”
“At first, I thought it was someone who ran away and came to catch me, but that wasn’t the case… It was a boy about my age. It turned out that the spot I was hiding in was a spot he often used. Do you know what’s even funnier?”
“What is it?”
“Usually, when a little girl is crying, you have to ask her why she is crying or where it hurts and reassure her that she is okay… But this is what that boy said as soon as he saw me… Get out…”
When telling Catherine to go away, as if she was repeating what she heard back then, she spoke in a solemn and hard tone.
“Yes? “Really?”
“Really? Isn’t it really absurd? Oh my god, there’s a girl crying and you can’t stand it! “Even thinking about it again, it really made no sense.”
“So what did your sister do?”
“How to do it…”
Catherine smiled cheerfully and said as if it was no big deal.
“He jumped right at me and ripped my head off!”
“····”
Liné pursed her lips at the unexpected answer.
When we first met, it seemed like we were saying something affectionately, but what we actually did from the beginning was a fight.
“When you think about that, if it’s truly a memory, it’s just a memory…”
“That’s right…”
“The reason I told you this story is because I coincidentally ran into you while looking for a place like this… I’m sorry, it wasn’t that fun, was it?”
“no! “It was really fun!”
“Hehe, are you really nice? Yes, you have such a good heart…”
Catherine was about to say something but swallowed her words…
“anyway! “It was fate that brought us together like this, but do you have anything to tell us?”
“Oh no, I…”
“Just looking at your face, it looks like you’re full of depth? “Tell me, maybe I can give you the right answer.”
Line hesitated to answer…
Because it was burdensome to tell all of my insecurities to someone I met for the first time today…
But somewhere in my heart, I felt a desire to tell Catherine everything…
It was an amazing thing…
I met this person for the first time today and I can’t believe I felt this closeness…
“That is…”
Yes, if you’re going to suffer alone like this, let’s seek advice from others.
It was a time when I wanted to say something in a slightly different way without saying it directly.
“You are here…”
A woman in white clothes with a tiara around her eyes appeared.
“I was looking for you, sister…”
“What? You came to me suddenly…”
“Since your sister has disappeared, of course you have to come visit her. The president of Seorn is coming out to greet you in person.”
“It’s a hassle, can’t you do it instead of me?”
“···sister·”
“Oh, okay, okay, you can do it.”
Catherine apologized to Line.
“I’m sorry… I was trying to listen to your story, but I suddenly got busy…”
“Oh no, I’m fine, really.”
“Still, I said I would listen, but my pride won’t allow me to end it here… Now…”
Catherine took out a piece of paper from her bosom and handed it to Line.
Line took the paper without realizing it and stared at Catherine’s face as if amazed by the warm feeling felt from the pure white paper.
“What is this?”
“You can come to me with this… This paper will tell you where I am… I won’t stay here for long, so if you’re going to use it, you’d better use it tonight…”
“You don’t have to do this…”
“I do it because I like it…”
Although she received it, it was too burdensome, so Line decided to not use it.
If it weren’t for Catherine’s next words…
“The scenery you saw in passing… I can tell you about it…”
“···yes? “How do you do that?”
“Then I’ll just go!”
Before Line could ask how she knew, Catherine was waving her hand and walking away.
She was truly a woman like the wind.
The woman with the tiara in her eyes who came to pick up Catherine stared at Line for a moment and then left the flower garden following Catherine.
Leanne, who was left alone, looked blankly at the paper in her hand.
I don’t know why, but as I held this, the throbbing in my eyes disappeared…
* * *
The priest who secretly followed Catherine out of the garden asked…
“Sister Catherine, are you okay? Right now…”
“It’s okay… That kid doesn’t know what his power is yet, so you can leave him alone…”
“But isn’t it against the Holy Emperor’s will to condone this even though you know it?”
“It’s not like that in particular… That child will definitely go to Bretus…”
“Do you see that kind of future?”
“well·”
Despite Catherine’s playful response, the priest had a hard time holding back a sigh, even though he knew it was something he was used to.
When she arrived at the meeting place, Catherine was able to see a white-haired woman waiting for her.
From afar, the hair was white, but when you look closer, the inside of the hair is light pink.
A beautiful and mysterious woman who looks like a mixture of white lotus and cherry blossoms.
“Nice to meet you, Elisa Willow, president of Ceorn. My name is Catherine.”
“It is an honor to meet you, Saint Catherine.”
Seeing Elisa skillfully responding to this situation, Catherine thought that it wasn’t easy after all.
She is a woman who achieved the 6th rank at a young age and even became the president of a magic academy called Seorn.
Even though this was a saint and I visited without prior contact, she was not embarrassed or surprised and responded calmly.
“If the saint had told us in advance that she would be coming, we would have welcomed her more grandly, but it’s a bit disappointing.”
“Do you think it would be regrettable? Rather, I feel burdened by excessive hospitality… It would be much more comfortable to see the President in a small way like this…”
“Oh, is that so? As expected, the saintess has a big heart. Shall we walk and talk for a while?”
“It doesn’t matter to me…”
Catherine walked with Elisa
The priest and the paladins who joined later tried to follow, but Catherine herself stopped them.
“Everyone, please wait here. I want to talk just between the two of us.”
“But, saint, we have a duty to protect your safety…”
“Why are you doing this when I say I’m fine? And this is Seorn… The president is also with us. Is there any danger?”
Catherine smiled and asked Elisa.
“Yes? “President…”
“Tell me this…”
Elisa spoke with a smile, but internally narrowed her eyes and revised her evaluation of Catherine.
Since she was a saint, I thought she would come here with no knowledge of the world, but she was not an ordinary person, both in speaking and in receiving things skillfully.
So the two walked along a quiet forest path.
“It’s amazing… There’s such a large and beautiful forest within the grounds… The fame of Seorn that spreads across the entire continent was not in vain…”
“Thank you for the compliment, but it is insufficient compared to the Holy Kingdom where the saint resides.”
“Bretus has many waterways, so it has its own beauty, but there are no such dense and large forests near the castle, so it sometimes feels desolate… I actually like it here more, don’t you think?”
“I would appreciate it if you could say that.”
Catherine said, looking at the lesser spirits wandering between the trees.
“Have you decided what to do, President?”
The question came sooner than expected, but Elisa was not taken aback.
“Of course… No matter how independent we are, how can we stay silent when the entire continent is in danger? Teachers, including me, also plan to participate in the crusade.”
Of course not everything…
Elisha didn’t bother to say anything.
Revealing only part of the truth, because that was the most important point in the negotiations.
“It’s an excellent choice. After all, we have to deal with the devil, and if the president is with us, we feel confident.”
Catherine added an afterword…
“By the way, I heard that Heathcliff worked as a teacher here. What kind of person was he?”
“····”
Elisha narrowed his eyes.
Are you suddenly asking me about Ludger?
‘what? ‘Is it really possible to think about it?’
Catherine is a saint, so of course she would have heard everything about Heathcliff’s actions.
If so, you would also know that I worked as a teacher here.
But what kind of person are you thinking?
‘Is this question being asked to define me as a heretic? So the question itself is somehow strange…
Elisa assumed the worst when Catherine first came here.
The place where Demon King Heathcliff stayed was Seorn, so even if Seorn itself was defined as a heresy, there was nothing to say.
But Catherine didn’t even say anything about it…
Is it because he is confident that Seorn cannot dare to touch him? Or complacency?
If that’s the case, why did you treat me one-on-one like this?
Elisha had a hunch…
Saint Catherine is at least fundamentally different from the people she knew from the Lumensis Church.
“He was a great teacher…”
At Elisa’s answer, Catherine stopped and stared at her.
“Mr. Ludger Chelisi…”
“What does that mean?”
“After the demon incident, Professor Ludgar Chelish went missing… He later came back, but the Empire took him away, claiming he was Heathcliff…”
Elisha intentionally brought up the story that Ludger was missing.
In other words, Ludger Chelish and Heathcliff are separate people, and Seorn is not related to Heathcliff.
Catherine smiled and nodded.
“okay·”
Although Catherine could have been angry at her for deceiving her or criticized her for being a treasonous manipulator, she agreed with Elisa’s words and moved on.
“I hope that Ludger returns safely as soon as possible.”
“Yes, of course. We are currently looking into everything, so we will hear good news soon.”
“That’s it. I’m sure you’ve gone through a lot as president, but I’m grateful that you took the time to meet me.”
Catherine said and stretched out her hand toward Elisa.
“Good luck in the future. It’s good to have a colleague who will have your back in the temple.”
“Sure·”
Elisa took Catherine’s hand and shook it.
Catherine said in a satisfied voice·
“Let’s go to Bretus together and defeat the Demon King.”
* * *
“As expected, it’s not here…”
Ludger could find no trace of Catherine in the castle.
Should I say I’m glad she doesn’t stay here…
Otherwise, should we feel sorry that things are going according to the Emperor’s will?
No matter what, a future in which the two would collide seemed inevitable…
“Catherine·”
The two people who were friends in the past have now become completely different people.
The saint and the devil…
The two were absolutely incompatible.
“I hope you don’t come to Bretus…”
