Chapter 194: My Executioner Chose the Village Over Me

A minute later, the girl was sitting on Elise’s lap while the Saint cleaned soot from her face with a damp cloth.

No one important was watching her. She wasn’t speaking to wealthy citizens, there were no officials nearby, and she didn’t even seem aware that Raven was still there.

The girl’s mother started coughing.

The child tried to stand.

Elise held her gently in place.

"Your mother’s all right. Let her breathe."

Raven could hear her from where he stood.

Elise stroked the girl’s hair before looking toward the priestess treating her mother.

"Lungs?"

"Moderate damage. The reagent adhered to the tissue."

Elise extended one hand.

"I’ll clear it."

Halven appeared again.

"Elise."

This time, Raven heard him clearly.

Not Saint.

Elise.

She looked up.

"What?"

"You’ve already spent too much."

"I still have enough."

"We have other priests."

"And she has deep pulmonary damage."

"You also need to—"

Elise looked at him.

Halven stopped.

Not because she looked angry.

Because both of them already knew how the argument would end.

Elise handed the girl to another woman and knelt beside the mother. White light appeared around her hands, weaker than before but still steady.

Valeria watched in silence.

So did Raven.

Elise’s presence diminished another degree.

She could have stopped healing. She could have conserved her mana or gone after Raven the moment the fire stopped spreading.

She did none of those things.

Valeria finally spoke.

"Well."

Raven didn’t answer.

"Did you find the end?"

Elise had one hand over the woman’s chest and the other supporting her head. White light drew something dark from each ragged breath.

Raven took a moment to answer.

"Not yet."

Valeria drank some water.

"That bothers you."

"Yes."

"Because it would be easier if she were a hypocrite?"

Raven looked at her.

Valeria held his gaze without any trace of mockery.

He turned back toward Elise.

"Yes."

"At least you admit it."

"It would be simpler."

"To kill her?"

"To classify her."

Valeria smiled faintly.

"That sounded much more like you."

Raven didn’t argue.

The emergency finally ended near noon.

Two buildings had been destroyed. A third would need extensive repairs.

No one had died.

That last part seemed improbable.

Roland appeared carrying bread and some meat.

"The shop is still open."

Valeria looked at the food.

"Who sells food during a fire?"

"Someone with good business sense."

Raven took a piece.

"What did you hear?"

Roland bit into his own.

"The Church arrived last night. They were supposed to leave this morning."

"They delayed."

"Yes."

"Who gave the order?"

Roland glanced toward Elise.

"She did."

Raven had expected that.

"How long?"

"At least half a day. Probably more."

Valeria sat on a crate.

"That gives us distance."

"Yes."

Roland looked at Raven.

"We could leave now."

Raven continued watching Elise.

She was standing.

Finally.

She looked tired.

Not exhausted, but for the first time Raven saw her as something other than an absurd reserve of mana wrapped in white and gold.

Brother Halven offered her water.

Elise accepted the cup and drank.

Then she saw Raven.

This time, she looked directly at him.

Neither moved.

Raven expected her to approach.

Instead, Elise raised the cup slightly.

A greeting.

Nothing more.

Raven frowned.

Valeria noticed.

"That was strange."

"Yes."

"Aren’t you going to return it?"

"No."

Elise took another drink.

Roland looked between them.

"Is this the beginning of a very uncomfortable friendship?"

"No," Raven and Valeria said at the same time.

Roland smiled.

"Interesting."

Raven decided to leave twenty minutes later.

Not because Elise had started looking for them.

Precisely because she hadn’t.

The horses were ready. Roland checked the saddles, Valeria secured the bags, and Raven performed one final inspection of the Mk.I.

When he finished, Elise appeared.

Without her sword.

Again.

That was beginning to look deliberate.

She stopped several meters away.

Raven didn’t move his hand toward the rifle.

Predator’s Instinct remained quiet.

"You’re leaving?" Elise asked.

"Yes."

"I could ask you to stay."

"You could."

"You wouldn’t."

"Correct."

She sighed.

"You keep making this difficult."

"You tried to immobilize me."

"To examine you."

"That doesn’t improve the sentence."

Elise almost smiled.

Almost.

"How’s your arm?"

Raven flexed his left hand.

"Functional."

"I didn’t mean to injure it."

"I know."

Elise studied him.

"Does that mean you’re starting to trust me?"

"No."

The answer came too quickly.

Valeria hid a smile while tightening one of the straps.

Elise looked genuinely disappointed.

"You could have taken slightly longer to answer."

"Would that have changed anything?"

"No."

"Then I saved time."

This time, she actually smiled.

Raven hadn’t expected that.

Elise looked toward the village.

"I’m not going to follow you today. There are people here who will need treatment for several more hours."

"I assumed as much."

She looked back at him.

"Then you know you can gain quite a bit of distance."

"Yes."

"And you still waited until the fire was under control."

Raven didn’t answer.

Elise waited.

So did Valeria.

Roland became extremely interested in adjusting a saddle.

Raven finished putting away one of his tools.

"The fire was between us and the exit."

Elise looked toward the completely clear road leading in the opposite direction.

Raven followed her gaze.

"There was smoke."

Valeria laughed.

Raven ignored her.

Elise chose not to press the issue.

"Thank you for helping."

"I didn’t do it for you."

"I didn’t say you did."

That left Raven without an answer for half a second.

Elise seemed to enjoy that far too much.

"We’ll see each other again," she said.

"Probably."

"And I’ll ask you again to let me examine you."

"I’ll say no again."

"Also probably."

Raven mounted.

Elise stepped back.

"Raven."

He looked at her.

"I’m not pretending."

The statement was quiet.

No drama.

Raven didn’t answer immediately.

"That’s part of the problem."

Elise frowned.

Raven pulled gently on the reins.

"It would be easier if you were."

Then he rode away.

---

Half an hour later, Brackenford was no longer visible.

Roland rode ahead.

Valeria remained beside Raven.

For a while, she said nothing.

That was suspicious.

"Say it."

Valeria looked at him.

"What?"

"Whatever you’ve spent the last ten minutes deciding whether to say."

She smiled.

"You’re starting to like her."

"No."

"I didn’t say you trusted her."

"I don’t like her either."

"Of course."

Raven kept his eyes on the road.

Valeria let several seconds pass.

"What did you find?"

"Where?"

"In the performance."

Raven understood.

The girl.

Her mother.

The mana Elise had spent.

The delay she had accepted voluntarily.

The way she had left Mercy several meters away while treating the wounded.

There had been no audience she needed to impress and no tactical advantage to gain. If it had been an act, it was an extraordinarily expensive one.

"Nothing."

Valeria waited.

Raven continued.

"That’s the problem."

"Because she really is like that?"

"It appears so."

"Then maybe you should stop calling her your executioner."

Raven looked at her.

"She offered to kill me painlessly."

"Yes. That complicates my argument considerably."

Raven returned his attention to the road.

Valeria laughed, then grew serious.

"But now you know something."

"Several things."

"I don’t mean tactically."

Raven didn’t answer.

Valeria sighed.

"Of course you meant tactically."

"Capturing me isn’t her highest priority."

"What is?"

Raven remembered Elise kneeling amid smoke and ash.

"People."

Valeria nodded.

"That may matter later."

"Yes."

She looked at him from the side.

"Don’t use civilians."

Raven turned his head.

Valeria held his gaze.

"I don’t think you would. But I needed to say it."

"I don’t need human shields to manipulate a priority."

"Good."

"I only need to know the priority exists."

Valeria remained quiet for a moment.

"That was exactly the kind of answer I expected."

Raven wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment.

Probably not.

They continued down the road.

Behind them, a Champion had spent a large portion of her mana saving strangers instead of continuing her mission.

Tactically, that was a weakness.

It was also something else.

Raven still didn’t have a comfortable category for it.

That bothered him far more than it should have.