Rimuru had always felt that he and Emiya Kiritsugu were actually rather compatible—if only Kiritsugu would change his belief that everything had to be done for justice into doing everything for his own interests.
More importantly, if he tried to get the scabbard ahead of time, it might very well cause the story to change.
But now, Rimuru sighed, feeling somewhat helpless.
He was practically in danger himself. It was only natural that ensuring his own survival and the Clock Tower's standing came first. As for seven years from now... where there's a will, there's a way. He would deal with it when the time came.
He just didn't know whether the Einzbern Family had already dug the scabbard out of Cornwall. Either way, he really ought to ask.
As it happened, the Einzbern Family's castle was also in Germany... Heh. Rimuru thought lightly. His true self was out of danger for the time being. Once he had recovered his strength and healed his injuries, that would be his next stop—
"Am I innocent?"
Three days ago, when Rimuru asked that question, the nun hadn't answered. She had only quietly shaken her head, then let him stay.
At first, Rimuru had been a little worried. But three days had passed, and the little courtyard where she lived—on a slope at the edge of this remote town—hadn't been disturbed in the slightest. A few priests and Executors had come by, but they had only made their inquiries at the gate.
That made Rimuru feel that the nun was no ordinary person, and he couldn't help growing curious.
He had wondered whether the nun had realized that he was merely someone afflicted by a curse. He had also wondered whether the eye hidden from view was a rare Mystic Eye, one that could see through sin. But in the end, his questions were crushed beneath the nun's quiet gaze and shake of the head. He got no answers at all.
Only now did Rimuru finally understand...
Perhaps, to her, when an innocent person cried for help and held out a hand, she would always reach out to save them in return.
How ridiculous.
Rimuru sat in the courtyard, looking at the sunset and the layers of bandages wrapped around his body. He felt a little scornful. Just moments ago, they had taken away the broom he'd been using to help clean the courtyard... and sent him here like he was a helpless invalid.
"This is what they call sneering at kindness out of righteous indignation."
"Bullshit!"
After Great Sage got under his skin again, Rimuru stood up in a fit of embarrassment and anger. He finally made his first attempt to defy the nun, storming over and snatching the broom from her hands. When she looked at him in confusion, he snapped, "Go back and rest! You're pregnant. Don't you have any awareness of yourself as a mother?!"
"..." The nun quietly blinked her single eye and stared at Rimuru for a while. Then she gave a small nod, turned around, and walked toward the room.
Phew. Watching her retreating figure, Rimuru let out a deep breath. I take back what I thought of her at first. This woman is nothing like Aoko Aozaki's acquaintance. They both like quiet and don't talk much, but she's far more saintly than Aoko—and... much more annoying!
If Aoko's quietness came from knowing exactly what she wanted and silently carrying out her decisions without letting others interfere, then this woman wasn't quiet so much as... spaced out!
"Honestly..."
The sun finally sank below the horizon. Rimuru quietly went through the process of clearing away the infection and curse from his wounds once more, then weakened the curse around his heart again. Feeling his vitality begin to return, he breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the woman praying quietly and the empty courtyard...
"By the way, you're pregnant. Doesn't your husband come home?"
Rimuru strolled over to her, bored out of his mind, and furrowed his brow as he asked, "I've been here for three days, right? It seems like he hasn't come back once."
"He sometimes takes a long time to come back." The nun seemed to have misunderstood what Rimuru meant. "So you can rest here without worry..."
"...That's not what I meant." Rimuru's mouth twitched. The way she put it made it sound like he was having an affair...
"Your wife is pregnant, and you're gone for so long between visits. That's too much, no matter how you look at it. Does he really love you?"
"..." At that, the nun opened her eyes and turned around.
In the night, Rimuru raised an eyebrow. That was... the first time he'd seen her smile.
It was as though... a flower on a frozen mountain had suddenly bloomed. Her face, which seemed to know nothing of smiles, had suddenly found the greatest happiness.
Beautiful and... delicate.
"Yes, he does." The nun smiled. "He loves me very much."
"Your Highness, we found them."
Under the pitch-black night sky, a blood-red moon hung quietly overhead. In a small town somewhere in Italy, shadows roamed as if the place had become a land of ghosts. The townspeople huddled together in terror. Princess of the Black stood quietly in a tree, coldly watching the few Dead Apostles imprisoned below by the Black Knight.
"You found them... Then kill them." Princess of the Black showed no mercy. "If the White Winged Duke won't teach you the consequences of breaking his rules, I'll do it for him."
"No, Your Highness, we are—"
Whoosh!
Blood sprayed across the sky. Princess of the Black turned away in disgust as a faint, ghostly flame climbed over the corpses, burning them to ashes. Then she looked coolly toward a cold-faced young man among the crowd. "As agreed, you should tell me where that vampire went."
"..." The boy looked at her coldly and said nothing.
"I dealt with the threat posed by the Dead Apostles. In return, you tell me where that Dead Apostle went." Seeing his silence, Princess of the Black jumped down from the tree and walked up to the boy, who was about her height. "I trusted you because I thought you were someone who kept his word. Wasn't I right?"
"But if you don't want to keep your word, I don't mind using the lives of everyone in this town to pressure you."
"I never meant to break my word. It's just that the direction he went in was the same direction you came from."
"Oh?" Princess of the Black's blood-red eyes flickered with surprise. Then she chuckled. "So you were using me..."
"You can kill me, but please spare the town..." He took out the money pouch Rimuru had left him. A trace of emotion passed over his cold expression. "He told me that not all demons are bad. Some of them can be reasoned with..."
"I originally planned to seek revenge on the Church, but I didn't have the courage. I knew that even if I went... I'd die there, and the whole town might lose the Church's protection as a result..."
"How interesting..." Princess of the Black straightened up and tilted her head. "Unfortunately, even though I like expanding my influence, this isn't my territory."
She reached out and gently stroked the money pouch. Then she chuckled. "There are plenty of objects carrying the scent of Dead Apostles on those two corpses. Go search them. Then take your money and head northwest. The White Winged Duke has plenty of subordinates over there, and quite a few Dead Apostles might take an interest in you."
"Good luck, little one."
"Revenge is always the greatest motivation."
What a... Princess of the Black thought mildly, a smile glinting in her eyes.
She thought the boy had plenty of potential, but she didn't like this kind of motivation. More accurately, people like him tended to have extreme personalities and a knack for attracting trouble. Given that her faction had always avoided provoking the Church, he was clearly better suited to the White Winged Duke's side—
Well, so be it if she was aiding the enemy. The Church was the real enemy, anyway.
"Your Highness." The Black Knight returned to Princess of the Black's side.
"Mm." Princess of the Black nodded and said softly, "I think I know which way he went."
"A clever little idea."
"He misjudged the Church's attitude, which led to them hunting him down. That means he couldn't keep going south. He had no choice but to turn back, so the boy wasn't lying."
"Speaking of which, it seems the White Winged Duke's side has caught the Church's attention?"
"Yes. But strangely, they haven't sent out any of their trump cards—not even a first-rate Executor."
"Then my future subordinate is in danger." Princess of the Black smiled. "The Church never puts all its eggs in one basket. Even if his scheme really did fool both me and the Church... the Church will certainly send its trump cards to block off his other escape routes."
She casually sketched out a map in the air and studied it for a moment, before finally settling on the small country called Croatia.
"Tell me... If I go save him now, do you think he'll be willing to follow me?"
Not likely.
The Black Knight raised an eyebrow and wisely kept quiet.
Silence settled over the night once more. Only Princess of the Black's crimson eyes shone brightly beneath the blood-red moon.
"Teacher, teacher! Look!"
By the time Eler came wobbling over to Rimuru, excitedly holding up a water ball bigger than her little head and gleefully detonating it to show off, Rimuru had managed to name her new spell Deep Water Bomb with a bemused smile.
Half a month had passed since Rimuru first met Princess of the Black.
During that time, Rimuru had taught with such a gentle and friendly style that his splendid yet practical water Magecraft had secured its place among the students. He had even started to resemble a celebrity professor from a later era. Eler's cuteness and lively personality had played an indispensable role in that success; at the very least... she had already subdued all the students in the foundational studies program.
The grand lecture hall for foundational studies had become the garden of the great demon lord Eler.
Perhaps after a long spell of misfortune, when good luck finally arrived, the favor of the Goddess of Fortune often came with it.
Rimuru had nearly finished clearing the injuries within his body. Only the wound around his heart, which was destroying his vitality, remained, still struggling feebly against him.
At the same time, Executor Vissera of the Church had been urgently dispatched to investigate or intercept Princess of the Black after her latest incursion. The Church's search for the White Knight, Brad, had also suddenly come to a strange standstill, as if they were completely at a loss.
Thanks to the nun's protection, the Church had completely lost track of him. Rimuru's own Magic Resistance was also enough to interfere with some forms of astrology and observation.
"So, if there really is a Goddess of Fortune, I'd rather believe she's the one."
Rimuru spread the cheese evenly, then carried a bowl of soup over to the nun, who was sitting quietly in a daze. "I still don't know your name, even now."
"That isn't important." Hearing him, the nun quietly shook her head. She gazed in a daze at the food and soup he had become increasingly skilled at making, then suddenly said, "The lingering trace of sin on you is growing weaker."
"Ah, if you mean the curse..." Over the past several days, Rimuru had gradually grown used to the nun's unusual way of describing Magecraft and certain mysteries. He had also realized that, though she was only an ordinary nun, she might know a thing or two about the supernatural thanks to her natural talent.
"In that case, it's time for you to leave."
Rimuru's hand paused as he arranged the cutlery. Then he smiled. "Ah, yes. It is."
"Thank you so much for looking after me all this time. I've asked you before, but if I leave now, I don't know whether I'll get the chance to repay you."
"Please let me ask you once more: why... did you save me?"
"Why?" The nun shook her head again, but this time she answered. "The innocent have no sin. And to see an innocent person in danger and not help them is also a sin."
"I see... Understood."
Rimuru nodded. Just as he'd suspected.
After spending all these days together, Rimuru had gradually come to understand this quiet, kind nun's personality.
He had also grown used to her occasional bouts of staring into space and her somewhat foolish behavior.
It made him worry and wonder, "Will she really be able to live safely on her own until her husband comes back?"
"Once I've fully recovered, I'll leave. I hope your husband comes back before then." Rimuru glanced at her belly, his words still tinged with disapproval. "I think I need to have a serious talk with him."
Even though he didn't know much about pregnancy, Rimuru had Great Sage. A quick look was enough to tell him that she was more than six months along, almost at the point where moving around would be difficult. He couldn't understand how anyone could leave his pregnant wife uncared for for so long. He even wondered whether her husband had abandoned her.
Still, the nun always kept quiet about her husband, and Rimuru couldn't bring himself to ask more.
Whether the nun had simply been unable to stand by and had carried out an act of salvation, or whether Rimuru would only remember that someone had saved him and look for a chance to repay her, the two had maintained the unspoken distance of chance acquaintances from beginning to end. Neither had ever asked about even the smallest detail of the other's past or daily life.
Night fell.
"It'll take at most another week to completely purify the last curse." Rimuru looked at the stars and murmured, "I hope nothing happens."
In the end, apart from that curse, which his opponent had created at the cost of eternal life and which had a conceptual effect much like True Magic, even the most powerful ordinary curses were still just "Magecraft." They were powerful and terrifying, but after enough study, there was always a way to cure them.
As for Rimuru's greatest fear—that his opponent had embedded a tracking spell in the curse—the nearly two weeks of silence had proved that his worry was unfounded.
Rimuru exhaled contentedly and stood up to go back to his room and rest.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the moon. For a moment, he thought he saw a flash of crimson.
He paused, then fell silent.
Mages had an intuition they couldn't afford to ignore. He had been worrying about tomorrow, worrying that...
"What's wrong?"
"We're leaving tonight." Rimuru's heart sank further and further, and he made his decision without hesitation.
But at that very moment, far away—seemingly at the edge of the world, but actually at the other end of this border town—a violent burst of magic exploded. A pillar of light shot up into the sky!
It scattered the clouds, drove away the fog, and illuminated the entire city.
"..." Rimuru watched the moon turn an even deeper red. More and more certain that Princess of the Black had arrived in the city, he was about to turn and leave when the nun, rubbing her bleary eyes, woke to the light that had illuminated the whole city and came outside.
"What... happened?"
"Go inside."
"?" The nun looked confused.
For the first time, Rimuru spoke to her in a vicious, commanding tone. "Now! Go inside! Lock the door—"
Whoosh!
Before he could finish, an endless storm of magic swept over the entire city. Rimuru took a sudden step back to shield the nun. In the quiet courtyard, a blood-red eye had already appeared in the shadows, while several hurried figures landed behind her. They were Executor Vissera and several Executors.
"This place is..." Vissera looked startled.
They had been shocked that Princess of the Black had gone so far as to unleash her power and break through their blockade, but they had never imagined... she would come here.
"You?!" When he saw Rimuru, he froze for a moment, then recognized the man who had fled from them half a month earlier.
But Rimuru had no time for the square-jawed Executor now. He turned straight toward the girl in the shadows, dressed in black.
"You really do... think highly of me." Looking at the Black Knight, whose flames were gradually kindling, and the White Beast perched above her with half-lidded eyes, Rimuru smiled bitterly. "You even revealed your identity just to keep me from escaping..."
Before you continue