Traveler from Type-Moon, Demon Lord Rimuru!

Rimuru always felt that he and Emiya Kiritsugu would actually get along quite well, provided the man changed his "everything for justice" philosophy to... "everything for his own interests."

Furthermore, a more critical point was that if he were to seek out the scabbard prematurely, it would very likely trigger a shift in the plot.

But for now, Rimuru sighed with a hint of helplessness.

He was nearly in danger himself, so naturally, prioritizing his own survival and his status within the Clock Tower was more important. As for seven years from now... there's a bridge for every river, he'd deal with it when the time came.

He just didn't know if the Einzbern family had already dug the scabbard out of Cornwall, but regardless, it would be better to ask about it.

It just so happened that the Einzbern castle was also in Germany... Heh, Rimuru thought lightly. His main body was temporarily out of danger; once he recovered his strength and healed his wounds, that would be his next stop—

"Am I without sin?"

Three days ago, when Rimuru asked this question, the nun did not give an answer. She simply shook her head quietly and let him stay.

At first, Rimuru was a bit worried, but as three days passed, the small courtyard located on the slope of the highlands at the edge of the remote town remained completely undisturbed. A few priests and Executors had visited, but they only stopped at the door.

This made Rimuru feel that the nun was no simple person, and he couldn't help but grow curious.

He had suspected that the nun recognized him as someone cursed, and he had also wondered if her covered eyes were rare Mystic Eyes capable of seeing through sin. But in the end, his questions were only shattered by the nun's quiet gaze and head shakes, leaving him with no answers at all.

Only now did Rimuru finally understand...

Perhaps for her, when an innocent person cries out for help and reaches out a hand, she is bound to offer a helping hand in return?

How ridiculous.

Rimuru stayed in the courtyard, watching the sunset and the layers of bandages on his body, feeling a sense of mockery in his heart. Just a moment ago, his broom had been snatched away because he was helping clean the yard... he had been shooed away like a useless invalid.

"You are mocking kindness out of a sense of self-righteous indignation."

"Bullshit!"

Once again broken by the Great Sage, Rimuru stood up in a fit of anger. He finally launched his first act of defiance against the nun, storming over to snatch the broom from her hands. Facing her puzzled expression, he barked, "Go back and rest! You're pregnant, don't you have any self-awareness as a mother-to-be?!!"

"..." The nun blinked her single eye quietly, stared at Rimuru for a moment, then suddenly nodded gently and turned to walk toward her room.

Phew. Watching her back, Rimuru finally took a deep breath. I take back my initial impression; this woman is nothing like Aoko Aozaki's acquaintance. Although they both like quiet and don't talk much, she is far more of a saint than her, and... far more annoying!

If Aoko Aozaki's quietness was the kind where she had her own opinions on everything and silently executed her own will without being disturbed by others, then this woman—rather than being quiet, she was just dense!!!

"Good grief..."

As the sun completely dipped behind the mountains, Rimuru once again quietly and repeatedly cleared the infection curse from his wounds. After weakening the curse around his heart once more and feeling his vitality begin to return, he sighed in relief and looked at the woman quietly praying, as well as the empty courtyard...

"Speaking of which, you're pregnant, doesn't your husband ever come back?"

Rimuru walked over to her side, bored, and asked with a frown, "I've been here for three days now, and it seems he hasn't returned once."

"He only returns once in a long while." The nun seemed to misunderstand Rimuru's meaning and said softly, "So you can rest assured and continue your recovery..."

"...That's not what I meant." Rimuru's mouth twitched. That sounded just like an affair...

"Your own wife is pregnant, and he only comes back after such a long time? That's too much, isn't it? Does he really love you?"

"..." Hearing this, the nun opened her eyes and turned her head.

In the night, Rimuru raised an eyebrow. That was... the first time Rimuru had seen her smile.

It was as if... a cold, icy flower had suddenly bloomed. A face that had never known what a smile was suddenly beheld the ultimate happiness.

Exquisitely beautiful and... delicate.

"Yes, he does," the nun smiled. "He loves me very much."

"My Lady, I've found them."

In the pitch-black night, a blood-red moon hung silently in the high sky. In a certain town in Italy, shadows roamed like ghosts. The villagers huddled together in terror. The Princess of the Black stood quietly on a tree, looking coldly at the few Dead Apostles imprisoned by the Black Knight below.

"Found them... then kill them," the Princess of the Black said mercilessly. "If the White Winged Duke won't restrain you, then I will teach you the price in his stead."

"No, Your Excellency, we are—"

Swish!

Blood splattered across the sky. The Princess of the Black turned her head away in disgust as eerie flames crawled onto the corpses, burning them to ash. She looked coldly into the crowd at the indifferent-looking boy. "According to our agreement, you should tell me the whereabouts of that vampire now?"

"..." The boy gave her a cold look and remained silent.

"I helped you deal with the threat of the Dead Apostles, and you tell me the whereabouts of that Dead Apostle." Seeing this, the Princess of the Black jumped down from the tree and walked up to the boy, who was about her height. She said softly, "I believed you were a man of your word, which is why I trusted you, isn't it?"

"But if you don't intend to keep your word, I don't mind threatening you with the lives of everyone in this town."

"I didn't intend to break my word. It's just that the direction he went is the same direction you came from."

"Oh?" The Princess of the Black's crimson eyes flickered slightly, then she chuckled softly. "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 flicker of emotion crossing his cold face. "He told me that not all demons are bad people, and that some can be reasoned with..."

"I originally intended to go to the Church for revenge, but I didn't have the courage. Because I knew that even if I went... I would die there, and it might even lead to the whole town losing the Church's protection..."

"Interesting..." The Princess of the Black straightened her body and tilted her head. "Pity, although I like to expand my influence, this isn't my territory."

She reached out and gently stroked the money pouch, then suddenly chuckled. "Those two Dead Apostle corpses have quite a few items on them that carry the scent of the Dead Apostles. Go search them. Then take the money and head northwest. There are many of the White Winged Duke's subordinates there; I suspect there are plenty of Dead Apostles there who would be interested in you."

"Keep it up, little one."

"Revenge is always the most powerful motivation."

Princess of the Black flashed a smile in her eyes, thinking faintly.

She felt this boy had potential, but she didn't like this method of using revenge as a driving force. To be precise, such people often possessed extreme personalities and the ability to attract trouble, especially since her faction had always disliked provoking the Church. This person was clearly more suited for White Winged Duke's side—

Well, if it's aiding the enemy, so be it; the Church is the greatest enemy anyway.

"Princess." Black Knight stood back behind Princess of the Black.

"Mm." Princess of the Black nodded and said softly, "I think I know which way he went."

"A very clever little idea."

"He miscalculated the Church's attitude, leading to their pursuit, so he certainly couldn't continue heading south. He had to turn back, so the boy didn't lie."

"Speaking of which, it seems White Winged Duke's side has been targeted by the cathedral?"

"Yes, but the strange thing is, they haven't deployed their trump cards, not even a first-class Executor."

"Then it seems my future subordinate is in danger." Princess of the Black laughed, "The Church never puts all its eggs in one basket. Even if his calculations did indeed fool me and the Church, the Church would certainly have spread out its trump cards to block other escape routes."

She reached out and casually traced a map, stared at it for a moment, and finally landed on a small country called Croatia.

"Tell me... if I go to save him now, would he be willing to follow me?"

Unlikely.

Black Knight raised an eyebrow and wisely remained silent.

The night fell into silence once again, with only the red eyes of Princess of the Black shining intently, accompanied by the blood moon in the sky.

"Teacher, teacher! Look!"

When Eler stumbled toward Rimuru, holding a water ball larger than her own head high, and excitedly detonated it to claim credit, aside from Rimuru being caught between laughter and tears as he named her new spell "Deep Water Bomb," it was already half a month since Rimuru first met Princess of the Black.

During this time, Rimuru's gentle and kind teaching style, combined with his flashy yet practical water magic, had officially secured his position among the students. He even developed a style reminiscent of a celebrity professor from later generations. Amidst all this, Eler's cute and lively personality played an indispensable leading role; at the very least... the students of the entire basic curriculum had been suppressed by her.

The large classroom for basic subjects had completely devolved into the garden of the Great Demon King Eler.

Perhaps after enduring a long streak of misfortune, when luck finally arrives, the favor of the Goddess of Fate often accompanies it.

Just as Rimuru completely cleared the wounds within his body, with only the final injury at his heart—which was destroying his vitality—lingering and struggling with a trace of unwillingness, the Church's Inquisitor Vissera was urgently transferred elsewhere to investigate or block the tracks of Princess of the Black due to her latest incursion. Meanwhile, the Church's pursuit of White Knight Brad also seemed to fall into a strange stagnation, as if they had suddenly become headless flies.

Because of the nun's protection, the Church had completely lost his trail, and Rimuru's own magic resistance was sufficient to interfere with some astrology and scrying.

"So, if there really is a Goddess of Fate, I would rather believe that it is her."

Rimuru spread the cheese evenly and then brought the soup to the nun who was quietly lost in thought. "Until now, I still don't know your name?"

"That is not important." Hearing this, the nun shook her head quietly. She looked distractedly at the craft and soup he was becoming increasingly skilled at, and suddenly said, "The lingering scent of sin on you is getting weaker."

"Ah, if you're referring to the curse." Over the past few days, Rimuru had gradually grown accustomed to her descriptions of mages and certain mysteries. He also understood that even though she was just an ordinary nun, she might indeed have some level of awareness regarding the mysterious due to her talent.

"In that case, you should leave as well."

Rimuru paused while setting down the fork and spoon, then chuckled softly, "Ah, it is time to leave."

"Thank you so much for your care these days. Although I've asked once before, I don't know if I'll have the chance to repay you after I leave."

"Please allow me to ask again, why... save me?"

"Why?" The nun shook her head gently once more, but replied, "The innocent have no sin, and to stand by and watch an innocent person die is also a sin."

"Is that so... I understand."

Rimuru nodded. Was it exactly as he had guessed?

Unknowingly, through their days together, Rimuru had more or less come to understand the personality of this quiet and kind nun.

He had also gradually grown accustomed to her occasionally spacing out and her somewhat clumsy behavior.

This made him unable to help but feel a sense of dissatisfaction and doubt: "Before her man returns, can she really live safely on her own?"

"Once my injuries are completely healed, I will leave. I hope that before then, your man will be able to return." Rimuru glanced at her stomach, his words still tinged with a bit of dissatisfaction. "I feel I need to have a good talk with him."

Even though he didn't know much about pregnancy, Rimuru, possessing Great Sage, could tell with a single glance that her stage of pregnancy had definitely exceeded half a year, almost reaching the point where movement was difficult. Even so, he truly couldn't understand a guy who wouldn't return to take good care of his wife. He even suspected whether the man had abandoned her and left.

However, the nun always kept silent about her husband, and Rimuru couldn't ask too much.

After all, whether it was the nun completing an act of salvation simply because she couldn't look away, or him remembering that this person had saved him and looking for a chance to repay her, the two had tacitly maintained the distance of strangers from beginning to end, never discussing even a shred of each other's past or life.

Night.

"Purifying the last trace of the curse will take at most another week." Rimuru looked at the stars in the sky and whispered softly, "I hope nothing happens."

Ultimately, aside from that conceptual curse which the other party had cast at the cost of her own eternal life—producing an effect similar to magic—no matter how powerful ordinary curses were, they were merely "magic." Although powerful and terrifying, after a period of research, one could always find a way to cure them.

As for Rimuru's greatest fear—that the other party had applied a tracking spell within the curse—these past two weeks of silence had proven that it was merely a needless worry.

Rimuru exhaled comfortably and stood up, preparing to return to his room to rest.

Suddenly, his peripheral vision swept across the moon in the sky, as if he had caught a glimpse of a crimson hue.

He froze slightly, suddenly falling into silence.

A magician possesses intuition that they must trust, and he had been worrying about tomorrow, worrying about...

"What's wrong?"

"We leave tonight." Rimuru's heart grew heavier, and he made his decision without hesitation.

However, just at that moment, from a distance that seemed to be at the edge of the horizon but was actually at the other end of this small border town, a violent burst of magic erupted, transforming into a pillar of light that shot straight into the sky!

It scattered the dark clouds, dispersed the thick fog, and illuminated the entire city.

"..." As Rimuru watched the moon turn an increasingly eerie red, becoming more and more certain that the Princess of the Black had already arrived in this city, he was just about to turn and leave when the nun wiped her hazy eyes, awakened by the light that had completely illuminated the city, and walked out.

"Has... something happened?"

"Go inside."

"?" The nun was bewildered.

Yet, for the first time, Rimuru spoke to her in an unquestionable, fierce tone: "Now! Go inside! Lock the door tight—"

Whoosh!

Before he could finish his sentence, an endless magic storm assaulted the entire city. The moment Rimuru stepped back abruptly to shield the nun, a pair of blood-red eyes quietly emerged within the secluded courtyard. Behind her, several hurried figures landed rapidly; it was the Inquisitor Vissera and a few Executors.

"This is..." Vissera was somewhat stunned.

They were already astonished that the Princess of the Black would go so far as to release her power just to break through their blockade and encirclement, but they never expected... that it would be here?

"It's you?!" When he saw Rimuru, he was slightly taken aback, but he still remembered this fellow who had suddenly fled when facing them half a month ago.

However, Rimuru had no time to pay attention to this square-jawed Executor at this moment. Instead, he turned his head directly to look at the girl in the black dress standing in the shadows.

"You really... think highly of me." Looking at the Black Knight whose flames were gradually burning with an eerie intensity, and the White Beast with half-closed eyes hovering above her head, Rimuru revealed a bitter smile: "To prevent me from escaping, you even went so far as to reveal your identity..."