HPV 14

Just as we were about to start walking (well, Banwes was, not me), before he could even take a single step, Paronai—the one at the head of the group and its leader—spoke up.

“But, you know… one of us has been missing for a while now.”

It was the sort of topic everyone knew about but deliberately avoided. Penzey let out a dry laugh and rolled his eyes. He even took a couple of steps back in advance. Only Paronai, not understanding the situation, looked confused.

“Be careful,” Yurichen warned.

Right at that moment—

“Yikes!”

Thwack!

With a slicing sound of air, an arrow grazed the tip of Paronai’s nose and embedded itself deep in a tree.

Paronai dodged just in time by jerking backward, now gasping for breath. Had his reflexes been even a little slower, the arrow might have pierced straight through his skull.

Bzhan’s hatred for humans was intense—arguably even worse than Banwes’s. Banwes, at least, had reason and accepted that he was a prisoner of humans, having resigned himself. But Bzhan was wild like an unbroken stallion, always ready to lash out at humans with his hind legs.

Paronai scanned the surroundings, eyes wide. Banwes, with me on his back, also turned to look in the direction the arrow had come from, but there was nothing there—just empty land.

Bzhan’s stealth, learned from the elves, was that good. He was nowhere and everywhere at once.

“I’ve bound him with a divine tool, so he can’t go too far from us. Even if you can’t see him, pay him no mind.”

Yurichen said the most arrow-worthy thing imaginable, completely unfazed. Even so, he didn’t ask Penzey or Paronai for protection. He merely shifted slightly—so that he was now standing close enough to me, slung on Banwes’s back, for our collars to touch.

…No arrows came.

A gaze, cold as ice, swept over Banwes first, lingered a moment in the empty air where Bzhan was likely hidden, and finally slid down to stop on my face.

“Will you be the guarantor for those who are not human?”

It was an impossible situation to process. Yurichen had already entrusted me with control over Banwes, and now he was asking me to take responsibility for Bzhan too.

Bzhan really wasn’t part of the plan…

With Banwes, at least there’d been that desperate moment in the fire. But I hadn’t done anything for Bzhan. He just made up his own story, sending me those sorrowful looks on his own.

Why, and how, was I supposed to take responsibility for that?

I already felt like my brain would burst trying to handle just one of them.

What kind of game character kisses another guy, anyway…

Last night’s events surfaced in my mind. Something like that had happened between a main character and a background character, yet here the sun was, rising like nothing had happened, and our journey had begun as usual. It was absurd.

All morning, I struggled to keep my thoughts in check. And I came up with a way to manage my anxiety, even if it was pathetic.

As long as I don’t get caught.

Even if he was a main character, the game didn’t show every detail of his daily life—what he ate three times a day, when he slept, or when he went to the bathroom. If you really looked at it, Banwes and I had no feelings whatsoever, so this thing could be considered no different from going to the toilet.

At most, it would probably only need to happen once every few weeks. Yeah.

Banwes’s back radiated heat. It was broad like a boulder, and hard like a jagged cliff.

“Put me down.”

I walked for a while on my own. When I did, everyone else had to slow their pace slightly to match.

Once I was gasping, on the verge of collapse, I reached out to Banwes again.

“Carry me again.”

The warriors and mages ahead sometimes made small talk, but the only words exchanged between Banwes and me were those. Once I caught my breath and my sweat dried, I would grumble and climb down again.

“I’ll walk.”

I wasn’t a real member of this group. At any time—right now even—I could part ways with them.

It’s not like I’m going to ask Banwes to carry me forever. I should build up stamina while I can.

But it wasn’t long before beads of sweat formed again on my forehead. My bangs grew damp and messy. Gasping, I came to a stop and held out my arms to Banwes once more.

“I can’t walk anymore.”

His red eyes gleamed inside the mask. He reluctantly picked me up again, drenched in sweat.

I’m seriously such a burden. Even I’m impressed with myself.

I knew I probably reeked of sweat, but I still buried my face into Banwes’s shoulder as if I didn’t notice. He flinched.

A burden character—aren’t they a perfect fit for a villain? Being a pain for no reason feels worse than being a villain. At least if I’m the villain, the others can hate me.

We stopped beneath a large tree to make a rest area for lunch. Yurichen was the one to suggest it.

“We’ll rest at set intervals. There are no plans that don’t include breaks.”

Always composed and rational, the high priest had actually never been outside the capital. This wild scent of grass, dust, and rainclouds was unfamiliar to him, raised as he was in the city.

He carefully examined the angle of each log as he arranged them one by one. He’d apparently studied the best way to stack firewood for the fastest ignition. He also spread out the cloths used as makeshift chairs with perfect precision, ensuring all six of us would receive an even share of the heat.

Even though tasks were divided among everyone, he took the lead more than anyone else. And seeing his pale, steady hands carrying firewood…

It made him look like a young pilgrim silently enduring a divine trial.

“Yuri, don’t go overboard. It’s not even cold—we don’t need a fire. Just forget all that and come lie down here for a bit.”

Though they weren’t particularly close, flirting with prickly beauties was Penzey’s signature move. He lay back on a rock and looked up at the sky, then stretched out his left arm toward Yurichen, inviting him to lie down.

Instead of lying down, Yurichen shaped his divine power into a sharp needle and jabbed it at Penzey, who yelped and clutched his forehead.

If that divine power touched me… would it hurt like hell?

Ever since I realized I have been carrying a demon in me, I’d been watching Yurichen nervously. If he found out, there was no way he’d let me go this time. Forget defecting to the temple—I might be outright executed.

Priests of Gaioh fell into two main categories: exorcist priests who protected citizens from demons, and consecration priests who stayed close to people, giving blessings and hearing confessions.

Yurichen had risen to high priest from the exorcist side. I couldn’t forget that. He was the very one chosen to drive out the demon possessing the black dragon, single-handedly.

And yet… even he hasn’t noticed what’s going on with Banwes or me. I don’t know if that’s lucky or not.

I was tasked with gathering and organizing everyone’s luggage in one place, but instead of carrying anything, I just ended up stuck in the pile, struggling. Banwes didn’t even glance my way, but Paronai and Penzey came over and each grabbed one of my arms, rescuing me from the swamp of gear.

“I’ve lived the kind of life where all I had to do was lift a spoon, so I don’t know how to do anything.”

Yurichen, who was neatly placing dishes with his knees tucked under him, took interest in my comment.

“You were raised in such comfort—why did you leave the Order?”

There was only one answer to that. I looked him in the eye and gave a big, bright smile.

“The treatment didn’t suit me.”

And it really didn’t. I spent every single day trying to find a way to escape.

This time, Yurichen pulled out a large loaf of bread, tore it into pieces, and handed one to each person. He gave me three.

“Please deliver these to the others.”

I made a show of carefully handling all three pieces to show there was nothing wrong with them, then gave one to Banwes. As for the other… there was no way I could find Bzhan with my abilities, so I just set it down on a rock behind us.

Guess I should pretend this stuff is too gross to eat.

I examined the bread, which was unusually white and soft like my skin.

Since it was travel rations, it should taste awful. Anyone raised in the temple would naturally turn up their nose at it.

I decided I’d just pretend to eat it. Resolving to fake it, I took a bite.

But it’s so fragrant and soft… it’s delicious. A few chews won’t hurt, right…?

The more I chewed, the more it mixed with my saliva into this thick, sweet flavor I couldn’t resist. Without even realizing it, I kept munching.

Paronai, who wasn’t picky and usually ate anything, quietly set his bread down. Then he spotted me, and his eyes went wide with shock.

Penzey hadn’t taken a bite either. He studied the bread briefly, then nudged Yurichen and muttered something to him—it sounded like he was scolding him.

But Yurichen reacted a little differently this time. He didn’t snap back like usual. In fact, he seemed a bit surprised as he collected the bread back from Paronai and Penzey.

He even reached toward me, but the moment he saw me eating, he froze.

All three of them stared at me like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

What now? I had no idea why they were looking at me like that, and the injustice of it all made me bristle. Was my acting that bad?

Yurichen spoke, voice trembling.

“That… wasn’t baked. It’s raw dough.”