Saint, You’re So Vulgar!

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Chapter 31: It Was a Falling for the First Time

After running without pause, a smile blossomed on Asher’s face.

“There’s the exit!!!”

In the distance, beyond the stairs, the starlit sky shone faintly.

His words brought joy to the faces of the missing persons.

So they ran further.

“Ah, ahhh!!!”

The dawn air enveloped them.

Earth, grass, trees, the sky, and the stars, and the wind.

The open nature, no longer dark cliffs, brought tears to their eyes.

Sighs that could be both relief and lament echoed everywhere.

Some prayed to the divine.

Others held each other, weeping loudly.

The sight of those who could relish their moment of escape in a condition where it wouldn’t be surprising to die tugged at Asher’s heart.

Asher smiled softly.

Rubena was utterly drained, sitting down with a “Huff…”

In that moment, Bershia came out after finishing her tidying up.

She let out a long breath while gazing at the open sky.

Asher approached and whispered.

“You’ve really done well! I can’t imagine what would have happened without the Saintess!”

It was inevitable that he ended up smiling widely.

It was indeed a fortunate moment.

Also, a moment where justice was realized together.

Asher hoped that Bershia would feel proud of this accomplishment.

So he spared no words of praise and continued to chatter on for a while.

At some point, Asher suddenly stopped speaking and looked up at Bershia.

Her expression still bore a hint of unease.

Asher’s face mirrored her unease.

“…What’s wrong?”

Bershia scanned the surroundings.

Then she looked back at the hole they came out of.

With a serious expression, she muttered,

“Something feels off.”

“Excuse me?”

“Why is this so easy?”

Asher tilted his head.

The implication behind her words was surely different from arrogance.

* * *

At the rear, it was the place Bershia had taken on.

Since Asher’s escape plan started in earnest, she had been in continuous battle.

The undertaking itself was not difficult.

It was simply because Asher’s physique was remarkable.

From the moment she entered into battle, the world slowed down infinitely.

The attacks of the heretics, rushing in like a swarm of locusts, were recognized clearly one by one, and under such conditions, figuring out countermeasures wasn’t hard at all.

Though Bershia’s experience was modest, her body was optimized for combat to such an extent that it didn’t pose a problem.

Strike, stab, shoot.

If there was one inconvenience, it was that her spiritual output was weaker than her original body.

Regardless, because she had such ease, something became clear.

‘Isn’t this too easy?’

The quality of the army hiding in this nest of hundreds of heretics was not very high.

Moreover, they did not give the impression of being disciplined.

There had to be a good reason for this oddity.

In the structure of the Church, which was reorganized around witches.

The heretics should have had a clear class system and hierarchy.

There should also have been military strategies to systematically operate them.

Yet, they were overly reckless.

They simply charged in like moths to a flame, and that was the end of it.

The speculation that they had not prepared for such a situation was overly optimistic, and Bershia was not someone who relied on such flimsy possibilities.

On the contrary.

She was always someone who accounted for the worst.

This aspect differed from Asher.

Having always been the strongest and resolving crises with his own power, he didn’t question the current situation because an “easy solution” seemed so natural to him.

‘…This is weird.’

The small sense of discomfort that began as a question expanded like a chain reaction.

Bershia was beginning to recall the moments just after she discovered this tunnel.

The discomfort enveloped her whole body, raising an ominous feeling beyond threshold.

And it was at that moment.

Rumble—!

The ground shook.

“…Sir!”

A booming shout echoed from below the cave.

Eventually, the identity of the voice became clear.

“It’s the Saintess—!!!”

It was Saturn.

He was rushing in, breaking through the passage, with a desperate tone.

The urgency reflected in his demeanor pierced through Bershia’s ominous feeling.

‘Is he in a hurry?’

In this situation, where the escape was already complete, what reason could there be for Saturn, who had gone to tidy up, to show such anxiety?

‘Why? What for?’

…The answer to that question was obvious.

Because it wasn’t over yet.

As the thought crossed her mind, the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together one by one.

From the very beginning.

It was strange from the very start.

‘They said the tentacles would abduct people if one crossed a certain area.’

However, as far as Bershia remembered, their party had not encountered any tentacles until they reached the prison.

‘And what about the rescue teams up till now?’

Among the missing persons, there was no rescue team.

By the narrative, there should have been a rescue team, yet among those who had been checked until escape, there were none.

‘Where did this information go wrong?’

The answer was clear.

The source of this information must have hidden or distorted something.

In the moment the pieces fell into place, Bershia turned her head.

And she could see it.

At the end of the group of the missing persons, there was Bourbon, the first of the missing.

He was someone who shouldn’t have been here.

‘It’s strange that you’re alive.’

Indeed, if resources were limited in this underground space, he would have experienced the worst health deterioration the longest of all.

Isn’t that odd?

His companions all lay dead, yet he remained alive.

Isn’t that suspicious?

With his exceptional health?

Due to his strong stamina?

Due to his strong survival instincts?

For such reasons, an ordinary man who appeared to be well past fifty could not have survived down here for over half a year….

‘…That doesn’t make sense.’

Thoughts and actions were simultaneous.

Bershia drew her sword.

It was the moment she charged toward Bourbon.

With a grin—

He smiled.

His whites were stained black.

Bershia’s eyes widened.

Bourbon’s mouth opened wide.

Within that throat, a red tentacle, taking the place of a tongue, quivered like a spearhead.

It shot out.

That was the enemy.

Asher’s instincts realized this in the realm of intuition.

He had to run and block it.

But, reaching it faster than what the body could manage was impossible.

Nor could he evade it.

It wasn’t a problem of the physique.

What that tentacle was aiming at the end—

“…Ah.”

…was Asher.

He too spotted Bourbon.

With a horrified expression, his face turned pale as he looked directly at Bershia.

Was it the gaze that triggered it?

…No, that couldn’t be the reason.

The instant he recognized the whole situation, Bershia moved before thinking.

Thud—

She pushed Asher away.

She stood in the trajectory, and at that moment, the tentacle was fired.

Whoosh—!

In a state of heightened concentration, time felt eternal in the moment.

So it was only later that Bershia realized she was sacrificing herself for Asher.

That her body acted before her mind could comprehend it.

‘Why?’

She saw Asher looking at her with a bewildered expression.

At that moment, she came to her answer.

She felt at ease.

‘Because I wanted to.’

That foolish face, looking unaware of the situation, worrying for her first even in such peril, dug deep into her heart over time.

Weighing her life against his, his life felt heavier by a bit.

It seemed better to vanish for him rather than living in a world without him.

Just a little over a month had shaped her that way.

She didn’t have the strength to endure more than that.

‘Ahh….’

Finally, everything became clear.

Bershia felt as if the hazy fog in her mind had lifted.

Indeed, isn’t it odd?

Why had she become so emotional only towards Asher, while no one else mattered?

Did she fear being hated by him, or did she desire to possess him?

That answer felt too cliché.

‘It was a falling for the first time.’

She had genuinely liked that clarity that had never existed in her life.

Bershia had, from some point onward, been utterly infatuated with Asher.

The only regret was realizing it too late.

But this would suffice.

Having Asher survive over a person as treacherous as herself would surely be a greater boon to this world.

If that was the reason why the divine had favored her, and if the transfer of her body was the reason for her existence, then that much she could accept.

Thus, Bershia tried to close her eyes.

However—

As had always been the case throughout her life.
Every moment that had made her pessimistic in life was particularly so.

This favoritism toward her had now saved her in the form of a covenant.

– If evil were to come, let it reach me first….

A faithful knight’s earnest prayer, unfortunately, brought forth the very thing Bershia feared most.

Vroom—!

A sensation of her soul leaving her body consumed her.

Immediately after,

Thud—!

With a shattering sound, Bershia fell to the ground.

At the same time, Saturn appeared and struck Bourbon down.

Boom—!

A sound echoed from afar.

Bershia felt dizzy.

Frowning for a moment, she finally raised her head.

At that moment, her blood ran cold.

“Ah…?”

A sigh escaped her.

Before her stood the body of Asher, who had moments ago been in her embrace.

He looked down at her with a blank expression, having been pierced through the solar plexus.

So it goes.

At this very moment, her body had returned.

* * *

“Cough…!”

A taste of blood filled her throat.

A fierce pain spread from her solar plexus.

Heat was coursing through her body.

It was poison.

Indeed, a particularly vicious poison.

Could she detoxify it immediately?

She didn’t know.

Her consciousness began to fade.

Her thoughts were wavering, making it hard to judge.

She couldn’t fall like this.

Yet amid all this, there was something fortunate.

‘It was me.’

She had been the one hurt.

Her body had returned to its original state, and thankfully, the Saintess, who had almost perished, succeeded in surviving after all.

To that, Asher smiled faintly.

As he had wished, the harm directed towards Bershia first reached him.

Their eyes met, and in that moment, Asher lost consciousness.

Thump—

He collapsed into Bershia’s arms.

His blood began to soak into her body.

* * *

Rubena covered her mouth.

The trembling that began at her fingertips showed no sign of stopping as it spread throughout her body.

In the distance, there were Bershia and Asher.

Bershia, covered in Asher’s blood, stared blankly down at him in her arms.

The focus in her gaze was fading.

Her expression was falling apart.

Rubena felt as if her heart had stopped.

Having perceived nothing, she could only ask why. That question lingered in her mind.

“Ugh…?”

A disturbance occurred precisely at that moment.

Thud thud thud thud—

The earth trembled.

Rumble—!

The heavens appeared to shake as if they would collapse.

Then the wind shrieked.

The thickets began to sway madly.

Amidst that chaos, above Bershia’s head.

Kiiiiiiiiing—!

A blood-red halo began to rise.

Rumble—!

Rubena looked up.

Her breath caught in her throat.

The dark night sky was being painted with crimson.