14 The Church

We make our way to the church, just to meet up with Ellyn. But to our surprise, we were not in front of the gate yet but the place was packed with people. We also noticed that there are a lot of guards guarding the place, preventing the civilian from swarming to the church.

We couldn't even approach the gate as we have to go through the tough crowd ahead of us. But seeing how many people there are in front of us, I somehow doubt that we will make it through.

And so I thought that maybe it's not today we will be meeting with Ellyn, as I do not wish to waste our time just to get through the crowd. Because we are on our date today, though I am not sure if Kather even remembers about that anymore.

Seeing her right now, it seems like she was quite determined to meet with Ellyn.

So I decided not to say anything and just follow what she wanted for now. As I do not wish her to be sad again… I just hope she realizes that I do not care about Ellyn that much compare to her.

"So you have any idea how we will get through this crowd?" I simply ask the obvious question to Kather just to know what she's thinking of doing now.

She looks at me before answering my question. She said something which I can only interpret as 'not really'. And so I decided to look around myself to find us a way in because Kather does want to meet Ellyn that badly.

After all, she is here for that reason. So I must find an entrance no matter how hard it is, it should not be too hard. At least that's what I think.

I see a few people trying to push their way through the crowd but they did not seem very successful in getting out of it. Even then, those who managed to squeeze themselves away looked tired after pushing through the mass of people. It does feel like everyone wants to reach inside that building except us.

But it seems like the hurdle doesn't end there, because even if they get to the front of the crowd. The guard wouldn't let them in no matter what they do… as if they are preventing anyone from entering the church at all here.

Though I could somehow grasp the reason behind it all… it might be the civilians gathering here to meet up with certain someone.

And that someone would be Ellyn. She has been announced as a Saint after all, so for sure a lot of people would want to see her. Most probably because the people here wanted her to treat or do something regarding an illness or curse.

Most of it might be a curse… most likely caused by the Archdemon.

I mean even if the capital is quite far from the battlefield, the effect of the Archdemon curse is quite strong. Even my village was affected by it before, but thanks god the attendee from the church come and cast a protection charm on our village.

Not to mention healing the one affected by the curse. It could affect us humans in a great way, the basic one is probably a terrible sickness. But the worst of them all was to become a demon itself.

Our village doesn't get those kinds of stuff, but I do hear rumors of humans becoming a demon. A lesser demon of course but it still could cause great damage to the unprepared villager.

That's why there's a crowd here, as the people here might fear that could happen. Thus need the help of the saint to prevent that from ever happening.

Thus makes me wonder something, why would there be this many people in the first place? Shouldn't the Saint could dispel this curse easily? I mean based on my own assumptions, a saint's power could rival the archdemon itself. In terms of magic of course.

If she won't dispel the curse, I bet these crowds will continue to grow more each day until it becomes unbearable.

When I was just about the put in the thought regarding this issue…

"Kather…" I hear one man calling her name. He seemed to recognize her. "You're Kather aren't you?" he asks.

He approached closer to us. Not that close though, since we are surrounded by hundreds of other people. The next moment, Kather turns around to face him. Her eyes widened when she saw his appearance.

It seems that he knows her well enough to call her directly. Or perhaps she knew him already… which kinda makes me wonder who was the man actually is?

As I observe further, I realize that both of them seem to be acquainted with one another. Though I cannot understand why Kather had such a reaction toward this person. Is it because she has some history with this man?

Which makes me a lot more curious compare to before. But I decided not to pose any questions here as I am sure things would unravel just by listening to their conversation.

The man approaches us while saying something along the lines of:

"…you came back."

At the same time, I notice the sudden change within Kather. From being sad to disgust, as if she doesn't want to meet this man at all.

Then she says something to him which made my stomach twist into knots.

'No.'

Those words were spoken clearly and without hesitation. Those simple three letters left a deep impact on me. They sounded like she means business here. Like she never cared about the man at all.

What happened between them anyway? Why she suddenly hates this guy? What kind of relationship did they share in the past?

My mind goes wild with questions. But unfortunately, I don't get any answers. Instead, I only got silence. No answer was given. Only silence… As both of them simply look at each other without saying anything further.

Finally, the man spoke again, His voice sounds almost disappointed, though I couldn't tell exactly how he feels about it.

"...then why are you here?"