Chapter 71: Doubt (3)
“The Nisti family?”
Sister Helen answered softly.
“Of course I know them. But why do you ask?”
Vienna couldn’t answer the question, just like before.
She had been asked the same thing by Casey, but still couldn’t respond.
And just like Casey, Sister Helen picked up on the reason.
“...Is it because of that boy?”
“...Yes.”
“Hmm... I can’t imagine what connection that child might have with the Nisti family.”
Though puzzled, Sister Helen still smiled warmly at Vienna.
She shifted slightly to the side and patted the seat next to her.
“Come, sit down, Vienna. I’ll answer whatever you want to ask.”
Vienna glanced at her nervously before slowly sitting next to Sister Helen.
Sister Helen gently took one of Vienna’s hands, which were clasped together tightly.
Vienna flinched, her hands scarred, but soon felt a sense of calm wash over her.
Sister Helen’s hands were warm.
“Ask, Vienna.”
Swallowing hard, Vienna asked the same question she had asked the gatekeepers last night.
“...Do you know someone named Elza Nisti?”
Sister Helen thought for a moment, then shook her head.
“That’s a name I’ve never heard before. And I don’t think such a person exists.”
“...What?”
“The Nisti family isn’t a big one. It’s just the head of the family, Hian Nisti, and his daughter, Rose Nisti.”
“Only two of them?”
“Unusual, right?”
“...?”
Vienna tilted her head, confusion setting in.
If that was the case, why did Starchis go into that house?
Could it really have been for the marriage meeting at someone else’s home?
That would have been uncomfortable not just for Elza, but for Starchis too.
There’s no reason for both families to hold the meeting in such an awkward place.
Something was being hidden.
Vienna could sense that something was lurking behind all of this, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
“...Sister Helen, is there any reason to hold a marriage meeting at someone else’s house?”
“A marriage meeting?”
Sister Helen rolled her eyes playfully before answering.
“Hmm... if there is a reason, it must be something very unusual. But I can’t say I know.”
Vienna’s suspicions only grew stronger from Helen’s response. As expected, there was no valid reason to meet in someone else’s home for such an occasion.
Helen watched Vienna as she fell deep in thought. Then, with a soft chuckle, she gently pulled Vienna’s head closer, letting it rest naturally on her shoulder.
“Seems like your curiosity isn’t quite satisfied.”
“...”
“Vienna, how about we do this?”
“...?”
Sister Helen gently proposed a suggestion.
“By good fortune, the head of the Nisti family will be visiting tomorrow regarding this month’s sponsorship. Why don’t you stand by and observe?”
“...What?”
“When you can’t find an answer, sometimes it’s not bad to face it head-on. Maybe you’ll uncover a clue to your questions?”
Vienna swallowed hard at Helen’s suggestion. She knew that sitting around wasn’t going to solve anything. While meeting the head of the Nisti family might not change much, she thought she might at least learn something more than she knew now.
But one thing weighed on her mind.
Sister Helen was offering this opportunity with kind intentions. She thought Vienna was just trying to resolve her simple curiosity.
She didn’t know that Vienna had darker thoughts.
Ultimately, Vienna was doing this to take Starchis away from Elza. Helen didn’t know that Vienna was dreaming of something wicked.
Vienna knew. If her plans succeeded, she would be committing a terrible act.
Elza would feel the same pain that Vienna had experienced.
The agony of losing someone you love.
If she used the chance Helen was giving her to do such a thing...
She worried that the burden of the sin she’d carry might transfer to Sister Helen too, leaving her feeling guilty.
“...Ah...”
“Hmm?”
“...I can’t.”
Vienna bit her lip and struggled to respond. She wanted to go so badly. She felt that being there would help her uncover something crucial.
But she didn’t want to burden Helen with the weight of her own selfishness.
“...Why not, Vienna?”
Helen asked softly, stroking Vienna’s hair as she leaned on her shoulder.
“...The truth is... I’m planning to do something bad.”
For a moment, Helen’s hand hesitated.
Had she disappointed her? Vienna squeezed her eyes shut.
“...Pfft...”
“...?”
“...Hahahahahaha!”
“Sister Helen?”
Vienna lifted her head from Helen’s shoulder.
Sister Helen was laughing, covering her mouth with the hand she had been using to pat Vienna’s head.
It had been a while since Vienna had seen her laugh like this.
After laughing for quite some time, Helen finally spoke to Vienna.
“Ahaha... Ah, Vienna. How can you be so sweet?”
“...What?”
“Is that what you were worried about?”
“Sister Helen, I’m not that kind.”
Vienna especially felt this when Starchis was around.
Compared to him, she always felt small and far from good.
“No, Vienna. You’re kind. You just don’t realize it. You even turned me down just now for my sake, didn’t you?”
“...”
“It’s okay. Go ahead and attend this meeting.”
“What? No! I mean, I really am planning to do something bad...”
More than anything, Vienna didn’t want to smear Helen’s good name.
If it were just her own business, that would be different.
But she didn’t want to drag anyone else down with her.
“Vienna, it’s okay even if you do something bad.”
“...What?”
Vienna couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
The same Sister Helen who had always taught her to be good was now telling her it was okay not to be.
“I... I mean, but...”
Helen blinked a few times, then looked at Vienna with deep, penetrating eyes.
It felt as if she could see right through her.
“Vienna, what do you think about mistakes made without knowing?”
Vienna opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out.
Her mouth opened and closed, but her gaze fell downward.
Mistakes made without knowing.
She had never really thought about that.
“What if mistakes made unknowingly are worse than intentional wrongdoings?”
Helen asked softly.
“Even if you think you’ve lived kindly, that’s just by your own standards.”
“...But still-”
“Even the faithful are humans can’t always be good. They get angry, they get jealous. They throw tantrums. That’s normal. If you try to force a shape to be something it’s not, it’ll just return to its original form. You have to wait for it to change on its own.”
“That’s too hard, Helen...”
Vienna dropped the formal “Sister” from her address, calling her just as she had in the past.
Helen chuckled again.
“What I’m trying to say, Vienna? Is that you should just do what you feel like doing.”
Vienna looked up at her.
Those words reminded her of something she had heard once before.
When she had been drinking with Starchis, he had told her the same thing.
He’d asked if it wasn’t exhausting to always try to be good.
Said it seemed like she was wearing clothes that didn’t fit.
He’d told her it was okay to be herself, that she didn’t have to be perfect around him.
His words shook Vienna’s heart deeply back then.
It was one of the reasons she began to like him.
Since then, she slowly stopped pretending to be nice, becoming blunt and behaving as she had always wanted to.
“You must have had a hard time growing up in the church, didn’t you?”
Helen stroked Vienna’s head again.
“Sometimes I wondered if I was asking you to be too good all the time.”
Vienna felt tears welling up.
“It broke my heart to see you, as a little girl, glancing at things with desire but never reaching for them, and holding back even when you didn’t like something. But after you met that boy, didn’t you change?”
Helen’s eyes widened dramatically as she gestured with her hands.
“You became more honest, and cuter too. It really put me at ease. Haha...”
Tears filled Vienna’s eyes.
She had never realized. She thought that if she lived kindly, it would make Helen happy, but she hadn’t known that her lack of mischief also caused concern.
Helen really was someone who thought deeply about everything.
Helen hugged Vienna close.
“The important thing is, when you realize you’ve done wrong, you apologize and make amends. That’s how you learn and grow. We mature by making mistakes. If you’re always good, how will you have the chance to learn from those mistakes? The path doesn’t really feel like yours unless you walk it yourself.”
Vienna closed her eyes, quietly sobbing.
Even her ugliest parts were embraced by Helen.
She was forgiven for things she didn’t feel proud of.
It was clear that Helen had enough faith in her to say such things.
Vienna was overwhelmingly grateful for that.
The woman who had raised her with love, her mentor, was asked a question by Vienna.
“...Was Mom like that too?”
Helen leaned in and whispered into Vienna’s ear.
“Of course. When I was your age, I made plenty of mistakes too.”
****
-Rustle!
A scout from the Aide Party, ‘Fain,’ raised his hand, and everyone came to a stop.
The sleek man tilted his head, listening carefully.
Luss couldn’t hear anything, but Fain seemed to have picked up on something.
They had been acting cautiously for quite some time. If it were an opponent they could easily overwhelm, they would have hurried to rescue the missing A-rank party.
But their opponent was a Sky Imugi.
A creature closest to a dragon—an S-rank monster.
It was dangerous, even among A-ranks.
They couldn’t afford to act recklessly.
If they did, the members of the Aide Party could also be in grave danger.
Fain, still listening closely, whispered.
“...We’ve entered the Sky Imugi’s territory. I can hear its slithering.”
Stion nodded, signaling to Luss, who was positioned in the middle of the formation.
“Luss, take the lead.”
“...What?”
“...Stion!”
The vanguard, Boyle, and the spearman Fioren reacted immediately.
But in a dungeon, the leader’s word was absolute.
Especially with someone like Stion, who had undeniable charisma, there was little room for argument.
Stion’s gaze silenced both objections.
Boyle let out a low grunt, and Fioren bit her lip before following Stion’s orders.
Luss was scared, but this was what she had prepared herself for.
If her actions could help Starchis, she would do this a hundred, no, a thousand times over.
If doing this meant that Starchis would never fall again, she would do it without hesitation.
Nodding resolutely, Luss stepped ahead of Fain.
“...Move out.”
At Stion’s command, Luss cautiously took one step after another.
It was her first A-rank mission, and an ominous feeling wrapped around her.
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