Afterimage (16)
Estelle looked at , then slowly relaxed the strength from her tightly clenched fist.
Then she let out a small laugh.
As if trying to sowhat ease the harsh atmosphere from just a mont ago.
She took out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket.
She flicked the bottom with her finger, and a cigarette popped out.
She clamped it between her lips.
She gestured with the cigarette as if telling to light it.
I approached silently and conjured a small fla at my fingertip.
Estelle confird the cigarette was lit, then took a deep drag of smoke.
And then, gently exhaling white smoke, she placed the cigarette she was holding into my mouth.
"When I see a woman so foolish she can't even rember the face of soone she t once, yet she's blasphemously talking about believing or not believing in God, it makes understand why there are so many heretics in the world."
Estelle said.
The smile on Seraphina's face remained unchanged.
"The clothes you're wearing are so utterly unlike what I'd imagine a Saintess to wear, I never thought you were the sa person."
"Well, I never thought you were the sa person either.
From what I heard, I thought your fiancé was a scroundel, a terrible, bug-like human, and a good-for-nothing who enjoyed tornting and harming others."
At Estelle's words, Seraphina could not reply.
A faint crack could be seen forming in the smile on her lips.
"When that one Demon crawled out before, you seed quite affectionate with that commoner next to you, weren't you trying to switch to him?
What was his na again...? Was it Kyle?
He seed like a stubborn guy who only spouted unpleasant things."
The smile vanished from Seraphina's face.
Her face twisted.
"I thought you two were lovers."
"Kyle was just... he only paid attention to because I seed a little depressed."
Seraphina's voice trembled faintly.
"You must have been depressed because of Lavin.
You were going to toss aside your original fiancé and switch to soone who seed better, weren't you?
You don't even properly believe in God, so you couldn't trust soone like Lavin, and you must have been looking for soone trustworthy, right?"
Estelle flicked her ashes onto the church floor, where there was no ashtray.
"Why, they say you esteed noble bastards marry based only on the other's abilities, wealth, and status, not love. At least humble commoners like marry to live happily ever after, just the two of us, with the one we love."
"......You might not know this, but rather than choosing myself, I'm marrying as my parents arranged. And even so, how could there be no love?
We've been together since we were old enough to run around, so there's no way I wouldn't love him."
"Then is it a hobby of noble ladies and gentlen to belittle and badmouth the person they love?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You were so noisy in the carriage, it was hard to forget the na Lavin.
'My fiancé is like this and that,' I thought, 'well-to-do nobles must all live like that.'"
Saying so, Estelle placed a hand on my shoulder and pulled close, hugging .
Her body was warm and soft.
"Recalling what you were chattering about back then, he was a piece of trash from the bottom of life, soone you couldn't associate with, but who would have known he'd be this kind of person?
When everyone else looks blurry, he appears clear, a person one wants to possess the mont they see him."
"So, you're saying you fell for Lavin just by his appearance?"
Seraphina asked.
Her voice seed to have thorns.
"That's not exactly wrong.
The mont I saw him, it felt like we had been together for a very long ti.
And sotis I've had so rather racy dreams."
Estelle rested her face on my shoulder, then lightly licked my ear with her tongue.
The damp, hot sensation sent shivers down my spine.
"......Get away from Lavin."
Seraphina's hand was trembling slightly.
I rembered the ti Seraphina killed Kyle.
I felt like I might be pierced through at this rate, but I thought Estelle would sohow cover for .
Even now, it felt like I was doing sothing awful to both of them, and I might be pierced to death and wake up in that room again.
"He wasn't the rude, eccentric, shaless person you said he was to others, after all.
On the contrary, he was kind and listened well to whatever I said."
Estelle whispered.
"With rumors openly spreading that her fiancé is a human-like trash, an bug-like bastard, instead of stepping up to protect and believe in him..."
Estelle's words were cut off midway.
"What the fuck do you know?!"
Seraphina shrieked.
Her voice echoed through the empty church.
"Did you see Lavin extorting money in the shopping district, or hanging out with those delinquent bastards and causing trouble!? When he was little, he even ignored my words..."
"No, I didn't. Lavin doesn't show that side to . Unlike with you."
"You haven't known him for that long, so he probably doesn't show you anything yet."
"No. God doesn't give anything to those who don't believe.
How would a disgusting person who blasphemously speaks ill and feels no sha, soone who can't even trust her beloved fiancé, know what love is?"
"......You."
"You've known Lavin for so long, yet you still haven't truly accepted him.
What makes you think a woman who slandered the person she loves and found his presence agonizing won't do the sa as a wife?"
Seraphina did not reply to those words.
Her dazed eyes t mine, then she stared at Estelle next to her for a long ti before speaking in a low voice.
"Even if you're a shaless and impudent person trying to take soone else's man, I thought I wouldn't mind accepting you as a concubine if Lavin wished it... but I still can't physically accept soone like you."
"No. As the Saintess, I am the true wife. You are... what should I call you?"
Estelle cackled.
"You really don't know your place. You seem to lack discernnt."
"Is it worse than you, who've only just t him, trying to butt in between us who've known each other for over ten years?"
"Is it just my imagination, or do I seem to trust Lavin more, despite having known him for only that long?"
Seraphina gritted her teeth.
The smile she had worn earlier had long since vanished.
"Why, they say there are won in brothels who sell well because they have good bodies and pretty faces, even if their personalities are awful.
That seems just about right for you.
Perhaps it would be more enjoyable for you to et various people and just occasionally see Lavin's face, rather than being with just one person?"
Saying so, Estelle seed to be looking around Seraphina, rather than at Seraphina herself.
Simultaneously, all the stained-glass windows of the church shattered.
Smash!
Both of them stiffened their expressions and glared at each other.
Sohow, if I stayed still like this, it felt like a scene would unfold where I'd be split in half and die, or only one of them would survive and claim .
In the past, seeing two people fight over who would take a piece of trash that no one wanted wasn't such a bad feeling, but this ti, at least, I had to live long.
Whether it was to save Lineta, whom I had personally crushed to death until no trace remained, or to prevent this idiotic situation from happening again.
I approached Estelle and, just like last ti, pinched the area where her armpit t the side of her breast.
"Eek!"
Estelle let out a strange groan, and the strength naturally drained from her body.
She looked up at with resentful eyes.
Tears began to well up.
I stroked her head.
After all, I, who had lived with her, knew very well how much the not-quite-normal Estelle was currently restraining herself.
I stroked Estelle's head as she stared blankly at , then touched her lips once and said.
"Thank you for enduring it."
"......You're telling to endure more, here and now?"
"Yes."
Estelle tried to push away, but then relaxed her hand.
"......Alright."
"If you endure more here, then I'll beco a kinder person, more suited for you, and soone who loves and cares for you more, right?"
I brushed off the difficult question with a laugh.
Estelle, seemingly a little annoyed, poked my shoulder with her right hand.
My body swayed, and it hurt so much I wondered if my bones had shattered.
I pretended nothing was wrong and walked over to Seraphina, who was still glaring at Estelle.
The look she gave wasn't particularly friendly either.
"Seraphina."
"......Mm."
She replied, but avoided my gaze.
"How did it co to this?"
"If you say that, I'll only want to bla you."
"The problem is that I'm too outstanding."
Seraphina let out a hollow laugh upon hearing that.
"So, just bla . At least for now."
"Because I treated you poorly?
Because I couldn't help you when you went through that with the family?
Because I never properly helped you, yet only blad you?"
Seraphina slowly approached.
"Because I wasn't always by your side when you went astray as a child?
Because I didn't defend you like this ti when father admonished you?
Because I didn't deny it when the Young Head tornted you and said harsh things about you?"
I almost stepped back but stopped.
All she did was cling to the hem of my clothes, catching her excessively rapid breath as she spoke.
"You hate now, don't you?
That's why you're going to switch to that, that woman, aren't you?
Because even I did nothing when Father and the Young Head brought up breaking off the engagent.
You're disillusioned with soone like now, aren't you?"
I scratched my cheek.
I stopped, thinking about what answer would prevent Seraphina from being hurt.
In a situation like this, where our relationship had already deteriorated beyond considering each other's feelings, thinking such thoughts now was ridiculous.
Our hearts were already tattered rags, too much so to even think about hurting each other.
Still, my heart, even if it's tattered and worn out and dies, it always finds a way to revive.
Because in a world where ti is a healer, I've been living through this ti a little longer than others.
"Yes."
I replied.
Seraphina's trembling hand stopped.
The tremor in the hand clutching my clothes ceased.
She raised her head and looked at .
A single tear rolled down from her right eye.
"N-no, I don't want that, love too."
"I still love you."
"Then don't abandon ."
"I would never abandon you."
I hugged her tightly.
Just like when we were children.
Her body was trembling faintly.
"Still, I can't ask you to get along well anymore."
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