They say there’s no paradise where you run to.
Damn it. I didn’t want to learn the truth of those words in this way.
“Did you seriously think you could escape?”
The elf woman facing me, letting out a cold sneer. I gritted my teeth and placed my hand on the sword hilt.
A situation where I tried to flee from the enemy only to end up in the enemy’s mouth. There’s a limit to how unlucky one can be. At this point, I truly felt like cursing the heavens.
What on earth did I do wrong to be subjected to such trials one after another?
My only sins were tormenting authors with comments to make them go on hiatus and applying self-defense a bit too liberally. I felt utterly wronged.
“Seems you’ve forgotten my specialty after not seeing me for just a few months.”
Irina raised her right hand above her head and spread her palm wide.
Whoosh…!
The surrounding air gathered towards the center of her palm as if swirling, then quickly changed shape, writhing as if rippling.
From a sphere that looked like a compressed storm, to a translucent bird-like shape as if imitating an eagle.
“Spirit…!”
The elven racial characteristic, a wind spirit summoned by spirit magic.
Honestly, I felt stupid the moment I saw it. Knowing the opponent was an elf but not thinking of spirit magic, how could I be this dumb?
She had reason to be confident that I couldn’t escape.
She must have been monitoring my movements with wind spirits constantly since right after we parted. So that no matter where I ran, she could move one step ahead and wait for me.
It was a perfect checkmate that I couldn’t avoid or deny.
“Why don’t you try to deny it like before? Say you’ve got the wrong person. That you don’t know such a person.”
Irina lightly flicked her right hand, scattering the wind spirit back into the wind, then pushed back the hood she had been wearing to reveal her face.
“Ah, are you perhaps too embarrassed to do so now that you’ve been caught running away?”
Platinum blonde hair tied back and gem-like inorganic green eyes.
As if finding this situation extremely amusing, she wore a mocking smile like a cat that had cornered its prey.
“I wondered if it might be… indeed, it was you, Miss Brunhilde.”
Imelia, standing a step behind Irina, also took off her hood.
“I didn’t expect to meet you again here. I thought you would be in Pelmia.”
Sky-blue long hair and puppy-like brown eyes.
At first glance, she had an innocent and pure appearance, but her huge hips that couldn’t be hidden even by the black nun’s habit revealed her true nature.
A vulgar nature far, far removed from the virtues of a priest, such as purity.
* * *
Imelia Elsine Lawrence.
Unlike Irina, who had shown open disappointment when the original Friet was called an incompetent hero, she was the woman who had defended Friet until the end.
Saying that he would become stronger someday.
That she believed in the hero.
Friet thought this was because Imelia had a kind personality befitting a priest… but that was just an optimistic misunderstanding based on occupational prejudice.
Are all priests only good people?
Imelia wasn’t being considerate or comforting Friet, she was just intoxicated with her own image of being a priest in the hero’s party who gave warm words to the hero.
It was a kind of self-satisfaction.
Like the first saint who assisted the first hero, she was self-satisfied with the idea that she too was embracing and caring for the hero’s hardships.
She wasn’t sincerely trying to comfort and encourage Friet, but merely projecting herself onto the saint’s touching story to feel emotional pleasure and satisfaction.
Whether she herself was aware of this is unknown.
Anyway, Imelia was that deeply immersed in the legend of the first hero.
Especially in the love story between the first hero and the first saint.
For a perfectly fine noble lady to throw herself into the church and choose the path of a priest, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she was not just deeply immersed, but completely obsessed with that story.
The reason she volunteered for the hero’s party was also because of her desire to have a happy love with the hero like the first saint, wasn’t it?
I think it was mentioned like that in the novel. I think the Kim Seung-woo in the novel mocked her for that, saying her head was full of flowers.
However, the Friet in the early parts of the original work was not only extremely shy but also surprisingly weak, even earning the derogatory nickname ‘incompetent hero’.
Moreover, he was so insensitive that he couldn’t even notice when someone appealed to him romantically, so he was far from the kind of person who could fulfill her fantasies.
That’s why she betrayed him.
When Gunther came to her while she was unable to hide her disappointment at the gap between ideal and reality, and whispered sweet temptations, she fell for it completely.
Well, I can understand her falling for it.
A handsome yet masculine appearance mixing elven and human features. Unlike Friet who couldn’t achieve anything and was struggling, Gunther had enough power to build a solid position.
On top of that, he was also a hero just like Friet, only from a different country, so wouldn’t anyone find Gunther more attractive than Friet?
Moreover, fitting for a villain in an NTR novel, that bastard even had some special trait like ‘stallion’s huge member’ or something.
For these reasons, Imelia completely fell for Gunther both mentally and physically not long after meeting him.
Saying she had found the hero she was looking for, didn’t she lose her backdoor virginity within a week of meeting him?
If the first saint had seen that, she probably would have cracked Imelia’s skull, saying she had never done such a thing.
Well, Imelia herself is the type of person who considers everything she does to be the will and guidance of the goddess, so she probably feels no guilt about offering her body to Gunther or betraying Friet.
“This too is the goddess’s guidance. It must be a revelation to offer you, Miss Brunhilde, to Lord Gunther.”
See?
She’s even saying that kidnapping me is the goddess’s guidance. What exquisite blasphemy.
Does she even know what she’s saying?
Saying that offering me to Gunther is the goddess’s guidance. She’s treating her goddess like a pimp. Though she’s probably not even aware of it herself.
“…You talk as if it’s some divine revelation.”
I clicked my tongue between my teeth and placed my left hand on top of my helmet.
No warrant is needed for a criminal caught in the act. As Irina said, having been caught while running away, I had no more ways to deny it.
It would be meaningless to try anyway.
“Looks like you don’t even intend to make excuses anymore? That’s a shame. It was quite funny watching you struggle and try to read the situation.”
Irina smirked, pulling up the corners of her mouth.
“What’s funny is you. An elf whore who sold her body to a half-elf. Is there anything more ridiculous in the world than that?”
“…Your mouth has become quite loose. Did being an adventurer suit you that well?”
Seeming to have been scratched quite well, Irina glared at me with a face devoid of any laughter and answered with a growl.
Fact attacks are the essence of verbal fights. Since it was an undeniable truth even to herself, it seemed to have stung much more intensely than ordinary insults.
Unlike Imelia, who as a cleric had completely fallen for desire and pleasure, Irina had betrayed Friet for political reasons.
The elves’ homeland, Elfenland, had apparently ordered her to cooperate with Gunther.
Although only half, Gunther was a mixed-blood with the blood of high elves, who could be considered the upper class of Elfenland.
Irina accepted this ‘cooperation’ without hesitation, even knowing that it included physical demands.
On the condition that she be granted high elf status.
It meant that even if she had to sell her body, she wanted permission to enter Alfheim, the capital of Elfenland, the Fairy Fragrance.
I could understand the desire to enter the capital itself.
The wealth and civilization of the fairy country were concentrated in Alfheim, so elves who weren’t high elves had no choice but to wander the plains of Elfenland as nomads.
Or they could turn their backs on Elfenland and come down to human countries to live as foreigners in human civilization.
Either way, it wouldn’t have been a particularly appealing life from Irina’s perspective.
So, the moment she received the proposal to cooperate with Gunther, she must have seen it as an opportunity for social advancement and accepted without hesitation.
…Well, it’s not my business anyway.
“Looks like being a whore suited you well. I remember the last time I saw you. It was quite a spectacle.”
The sight of them lying side by side on Gunther’s bed, dripping something, was truly an unbearable sight.
“Oh, really? Consider it a preview. You’ll soon be in the same state. Probably even worse than us? Gunther’s been saving up for you.”
“Let him save up for a lifetime. Whether I live or die, I’m not going to his side.”
I answered, spitting out the words while unfastening the lock on my helmet with my fingertips.
Rather than becoming a trophy to be pounded all day long by something like a horse, like the two women in front of me, I’d rather commit suicide.
Why is that half-elf bastard so obsessed with me when he has so many women around him? It’s really fucking annoying.
“That’s not for you to choose, is it?”
“It’s not for you to choose either.”
I roughly threw off the unlocked helmet behind my head, drew the longsword at my waist, gripped it, and declared.
“Let’s do this. Irina Winter. Imelia Elsine Lawrence.”
“Even if you win, all you’ll be able to take is my corpse.”
The black iron longsword gleamed, reflecting the moonlight.