Don't Be Holy! - Chapter 27
Eir stepped back cautiously, finding the man’s unusual behavior extremely suspicious.
“……Yes. Somehow today, I seemed to learn well.”
When she answered with a voice full of wariness, he turned and began walking backward while looking at Eir. There was a clinking sound as the scabbard at his waist knocked against his body, and his eyes remained fixed on Eir.
“Didn’t you whisper ‘volte’ (damn it) the moment you saw me?”
Though startled by his accurate observation, Eir tried to maintain a calm expression.
“What do you mean? I said ‘vurte.'”
“Is that so.”
The man shrugged with an indifferent expression. Eir broke out in a cold sweat while keeping her gaze fixed ahead.
Though she had tried her best, he might have seen through some flaw in her acting. Moreover, unlike other villagers, he wasn’t affected by the ‘curse’, so he wouldn’t overlook contradictions like others did, but could store them away and think about them.
‘I need to send him away quickly.’
Eir had already delivered her message in the letter envelope from the witch to the cliff of Hylam at dawn today.
The moment she threw the envelope off the cliff, an owl that looked exactly like the drawing on the envelope suddenly soared up with the wind, snatched the white paper envelope with its talons, and flew far away somewhere.
Please safely reach that witch so she can send this man away.
Eir offered a brief prayer to God with that desperate thought.
Rubel, observing the woman’s face lost in thought, suddenly approached and whispered in her ear.
“[Lord, illuminate our inner selves and guide our path].”
It was a verse from a prayer.
“Eek!”
As expected, the woman jumped in surprise and instantly moved away from Rubel. He had already known she avoided prayers, but this confirmed it further.
However…….
“What’s with those hands?”
Something seemed odd about how she had crossed her hands over her chest as if she were about to be violated. She glared at Rubel while trembling. As if he had done something terrible.
But apparently not foolish enough to shout ‘what are you doing’ here, she answered while trembling pitifully.
“I-I’m comforting myself. Since it seemed like a prayer…… to offer that prayer.”
Then with a flash, moving so quickly her palms were barely visible, she clapped her hands together and interlocked her fingers.
“So you need to comfort yourself to pray?”
“We all do.”
“In that strange position as if you’re about to be violated?”
“If that’s how it looked to you, perhaps brother should examine his own way of thinking.” (t/n: Religious people can refer to each other as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’.)
Despite being a foolish idiot, she never backed down.
Even though she only spoke nonsense.
He could have ended things with the woman right here by loudly reciting prayers, but Rubel didn’t. Even he didn’t know why he was granting this spare.
‘Perhaps I just don’t want to break this peace I haven’t felt in so long.’
Thinking this, he stepped back and took a surrendering pose.
“I apologize if I startled you.”
“As long as you understand.”
“Aren’t you curious about what those words meant?”
Eir wanted to say she already knew, but unable to resist those eyes that wouldn’t leave her, as if testing her, she asked.
“What does it mean?”
“It’s asking for God’s help to know ourselves. Rather fitting for us, isn’t it?”
“Us? What do you mean?”
“I have no memories, and you…….”
The man’s eyes swept from the woman’s head to her toes. Eir narrowed her eyebrows at the unpleasant gaze.
“And I’m what?”
“For now, let’s just say you’re foolish, shall we?”
After insulting her so brazenly, the man shrugged with a look that suggested he was being lenient, then turned and started heading home without hesitation.
Eir stared at him blankly, dumbfounded, then hitched up her bag with irritation.
Eir followed him while snapping irritably, ‘Do you want to skip dinner?’ and the man let out a quiet sigh at Eir talking about food even in this situation.
