Without hesitation, I answered Erica’s question.
“It’s a good opportunity, so you should accept it.”
Was there any reason to refuse this offer? She would be the disciple of a radiant knight. It could be an opportunity that would never come again in her life.
“Do you think so too?”
Still, Erica had a hesitant expression.
It seemed like she wasn’t particularly drawn to the opportunity to rise in status so quickly.
Of course, it’s her life and her choice, but if I were in her shoes, I would have accepted it without hesitation.
“Do you not want to become a holy knight that badly?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to. I just can’t find the meaning in it.”
“You said you wanted to become a nun. If you look at it that way, there’s not much difference between a nun and a holy knight.”
Erica hesitated for a moment before agreeing.
“Well, I guess so. But if I become that person’s disciple, I’ll have to leave this monastery.”
“Ah, you don’t want to leave your friends and go somewhere else?”
“No... I’m okay with leaving those guys. I just don’t want to leave the monastery.”
She said that, but it seemed like that was the biggest reason.
I wonder if she’s telling me this story because she wanted to hear a specific answer from me.
During the time I spent in the monastery, all I did was exchange greetings with her whenever we crossed paths. Were we close enough for her to come to me for advice?
“Think carefully and do what you want.”
That’s what I told her.
Still, I decided to give her a more sincere answer.
“It would be good to follow the radiant knight and experience a wider world, but it would also be good to stay in this monastery and enjoy a modest happiness. Even if you choose the latter, I don’t think it’s foolish to kick away your fortune. No one knows the future, so we don’t even know which one is the regret-free choice.”
Erica replied, grumblingly, to my words, “It’s such a vague answer.”
“It’s your life, after all. And regardless of which one I suggest, you probably won’t listen to me, anyway.”
She fell silent, unable to deny it, and then burst out laughing.
“True. Anyway, thank you.”
As she turned to leave the room, she looked back and said, “Oh, and please say goodbye when you leave. I’ll send you off with a smile on my face.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Well, if you don’t, I’ll ask Priest Tane. And will you keep hiding why you collapsed in the forest until the end?”
I waved my hand irritably.
“Just get out of here.”
“Okay.”
Erica replied indifferently and went out again.
I continued to ponder my thoughts as I stared at the closed door.
***
“Hey, if she became a disciple of Sir Jerel, will she have to leave the monastery?”
Tom murmured, tinkering with his cup absently.
Hearing this, Heron, who was sitting next to him and reading a book, closed it and answered.
“Probably, right? I doubt she will continue to stay in our monastery and maybe she will even receive a Pope’s decree.”
“Hey, the Pope’s decree... that’s really a great opportunity for promotion, isn’t it? But what’s Erica’s problem? If it were me, I would have kneeled down and bowed as soon as the Sir Jerel said so.”
“Why state the obvious? Does that girl have the personality to want that kind of thing?”
“That’s true, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Sometimes I don’t understand what she’s thinking at all.”
Tom, leaning back in his chair, let out a frustrated and dissatisfied sigh.
Looking at Tom like that, Heron asked him, “But are you fine with this?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“If Erica really became Sir Jerel’s disciple and left the monastery, wouldn’t it matter to you?”
“What are you saying? If that happens, there’s nothing more I could ask for. Do you think I will be jealous of her or something?”
“No, it’s not that...”
Tom took the water cup he was holding and brought it to his mouth while letting out a sigh.
“You like Erica, don’t you?”
Then, at Heron’s continued words, he spewed out the water he was drinking.
Tom, who was coughing with a rattling sound, looked at Heron in complete confusion.
“What, what, what are you saying? Who likes whom? Me like her? Who would like a stubborn girl like her?”
“Tom.”
Heron looked at him with pity.
“Except for Erica, everyone else knows. Do you think you’re hiding it well until now? So, just put everything aside and tell me honestly. Do you really want Erica to become Sir Jerel’s disciple?”
Tom scratched his head, avoiding Heron’s gaze.
It had already been three years.
Tom, Heron, and Erica had entered this Robelgio Monastery almost at the same time.
Tom and Heron had lost their families to war, while Erica had become an orphan due to the havoc caused by demons.
When they first arrived at the monastery, they were despairing about their situations and were busy trying to get along with each other. However, they eventually became close through their fights and eventually, the three of them began to naturally hang out together.
And as Heron said, Tom had feelings for Erica.
He thought he had hidden it perfectly, but everyone except Erica, who was oblivious to such things, knew about it.
After a long silence, Tom said in a helpless tone, “I told you, I wished so.”
“....”
“Of course. Erica doesn’t want to leave the monastery. But I was hoping she would sincerely consider accepting Sir Jerel’s proposal. Then, she wouldn’t be stuck in this remote monastery forever. She has the potential to become someone much greater than she is now.”
Tom’s words were sincere, without any hint of falsehood.
Blocking the future of a precious friend due to such petty selfishness was unimaginable for him.
Heron shook his head.
“She didn’t want something like that in the first place.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want it right now. But who knows what might happen in the future? She doesn’t dislike becoming a holy knight, she just thinks there’s no reason for her to become one. Do you really hope that Erica will refuse the proposal?”
“Of course not. I’m just as frustrated as you are.”
“Should other nuns to help persuade her? Maybe it will have the opposite effect?” one of them suggested.
“Are you kidding? Give up,” the other responded.
They hadn’t yet told other members of the monastery about Jerel’s proposal because they knew Erica’s stubbornness.
If others found out, it would turn the monastery upside down, and they would likely pressure Erica as a group to accept the proposal. If the situation became too big, she might reject the proposal outright without further consideration.
“We still have a few more days, so let’s work hard to persuade her during that time. But if she doesn’t change her mind, there’s nothing we can do,” Tom said, nodding his head.
“And if she has to leave the monastery, then I’ll just confess to her,” he added.
Heron’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Out of nowhere? Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” Tom replied. “It’s better to do it then. If she takes it seriously and rejects me, I might as well die.”
Tom stretched and said, “Time’s up. Let’s go eat dinner.”
The sun was almost setting, and the sky was painted with a crimson hue.
The two finished their conversation and stepped out of the room.
After leaving the building to search for Erica and head to the restaurant together, Tom and Heron saw a few of their peers gathered in the yard.
Among them, they saw a boy with a nosebleed and approached them.
“Hey, what’s going on? Matt, why do you look like that? Did you get into a fight with someone?”
The situation involved the injured boy being comforted by the surrounding children.
Another girl explained what had happened instead of the injured boy.
“He fought with Rex. That jerk provoked him and started asking for a fight again.”
Even without hearing the detailed explanation, Tom and Heron could roughly understand the situation.
The boy who had broken Matt’s nose before was Rex.
As he still could not mix with the monastery kids, he was always picking fights with other children.
While Heron examined the boy’s wounds, he asked, “Where’s Rex?”
“After I gave him a good beating, he ran away. He’s just a pathetic kid.”
The boy still seemed angry as he spoke.
At that moment, another boy spoke up.
“Rex ran into the forest behind the monastery.”
“What? Why there?”
“I don’t know. We were just discussing what to do now.”
The forest behind the monastery, where several priests and knights had gone missing before.
It was a place where the people of the monastery rarely went due to rumors of unknown monsters living deep within.
“Just leave him be, that jerk. He’ll get scared and come out on his own in a while.”
Tom frowned and looked back at the forest behind the monastery as he spoke.
“First of all, wash your face. I’ll look for him once, so do it quietly.”
“What? Just leave it.”
“What if he doesn’t come back? It’s already almost dark. And Erica broke his nose not long ago, so if the nuns find out, they can’t just let it go this time.”
It would be better to quickly find and bring Rex back before things get more annoying.
Heron said, “I’ll go with you.”
“It’s okay. Find Erica and go to the restaurant with them first. It won’t take long.”
Before Heron and the other children could say anything else, Tom immediately turned and ran towards the forest behind the monastery.
“Anyway, that brat Rex...”
Rex, who had recently come to the monastery, still wasn’t adapting well to the life here.
Tom, who was similar to Rex when he first came to the monastery, was understanding and letting it go, but it seemed like trouble was happening more often as time went on.
Thinking that it was time to properly deal with the situation, Tom went into the forest without hesitation.
“Where did he go?”
Since all the talk about monsters was just rumors, and disappearances were just past incidents, there was no real fear. In fact, Tom, Heron, and Erica had come to the forest secretly a few times before, under the noses of the priests. Of course, they did it when it was bright out.
Since it was obvious that Rex couldn’t have gone too deep into the forest, Tom searched around the outskirts of the forest. He had to find Rex before it got too dark.
“...”
Something finally came into his view after wandering around for a while.
A leg that suddenly sticks out of the dense bushes.
Tom immediately realized that it was Rex’s leg, and he felt relief and doubt at the same time. He hurriedly approached to take a closer look and said, “Rex, you crazy bastard! What are you doing here?”
Tom pushed through the bushes and went inside.
But he could only freeze at the inexplicable sight that unfolded before him.
“Huh?”
At the sudden noise nearby, Tom turned his head. His face slowly turned pale.
Tom and Rex didn’t return from the forest until morning.
