The Villain Carries the Holy Sword – Chapter 102.1

Chapter 102.1: Falling Stars of Spring (1)

The temple of ‘Where Spring Falls Asleep’.

Caterina cautiously followed behind Edmund. Under normal circumstances, she would have immediately delivered punishment upon learning of anything related to witches.

Gulp.

But it was different this time.

The moment she laid eyes on the translucent figure of a woman deep inside the temple, her heart pounded in her chest.

“Chloe, how have you been?”

Edmund greeted the woman with violet eyes. His words were as curt as ever, but the warmth contained within them was something she had never witnessed before.

《H… How?》

The woman slowly blinked her large eyes.

Although her figure was blurry and difficult to discern, Caterina could clearly sense Chloe’s astonishment.

Edmund approached her.

Then, uncharacteristically, he spoke with a gentle smile.

“I’ve managed to survive, one way or another.”

《You……》

Whooooosh—

Chloe stood up.

However, she didn’t walk on two legs. Instead, she floated in the air like a ghost. She examined Edmund, who stood upright, from head to toe.

《How could I be well? I’m already dead. Besides, my one and only husband walked right into the jaws of death.》

Her words were brusque.

But the smile that spread across her face was impossible to conceal.

“I’m sorry.”

It was as if Chloe had been longing to hear those words from Edmund.

《Welcome back, Edmund.》

In a world where even the undead roamed freely, the existence of ghosts was not out of the realm of possibility.

One of the duties of a priest was to exorcise such spirits.

“What…… exactly are you?”

Caterina, who had been observing their exchange, questioned in a voice laced with thorns.

She was very familiar with ghosts and undead, but the translucent Chloe was something different from them.

Chloe gestured to Edmund and floated toward the Saintess.

She stopped just before the Holy See’s paladins, who had crossed their weapons, could approach any closer.

《I am Chloe Ethelred. The wife of that stoic man over there. You’re the Saintess, correct?》

“……That is correct.”

《I never imagined I would meet you in person like this. It seems you hardly aged a bit, even though it’s supposed to be quite a while from now. You must have a constitution that defies aging.》

“In person?”

At Caterina’s question, Chloe realized she had omitted something crucial. Clapping her hands, she reintroduced herself.

《You might have already guessed, but I am also Chloe, the Witch of ‘Dreams Unsleeping.’》

‘Lalangde Zodiac’—a map that combined the City Alliance’s technological prowess and the Holy See’s divine power to measure and track the fluctuations of witches’ magic across the world.

As the ‘Lalangde Zodiac’ served as the primary basis for the Inquisition, Caterina possessed an extensive knowledge of witches.

“A witch whose attribute is ‘wind’ rather than a specific region is quite formidable……”

She could deduce the nature of a witch’s powers simply by hearing their alias.

Chloe crossed her arms and floated in the air, waiting for her to continue speaking.

“If your alias is ‘The Wind That Cannot Dream’…….”

Witches have their own characteristics and attributes, so this information can be inferred from their aliases.

For example, ‘Unseen Forest’ means that the attribute that the witch can exert her power on is ‘forest,’ and ‘Unseen’ means the characteristic that the witch possesses.

In other words, Glumiêm, the witch of ‘Unseen Forest’ and the elf queen, can freely use her ‘miracle’ as a witch as well as the power of an elf in the forest.

Caterina tilted her head and stared at Chloe.

Thanks to the records of witches she had seen so far, she was able to come up with an answer.

“Your ‘miracle’ is to see the future.”

Chloe’s eyes widened.

It was closer to the joy of a child receiving a long-awaited gift than being surprised by a sharp attack.

《As expected of the Saintess!》

“Since your attribute is wind, you can move like the wind, and you must have seen the future every time the wind blows.”

《Oh my, oh my! You’re almost spot on! You’re the first person who could figure out my identity just from my alias. Of course, I’ve only told people that.》

She didn’t seem like a witch.

She didn’t even seem like the wife of a count.

She was like a young girl in her late teens.

Caterina and the Holy See’s paladins grew increasingly wary of Chloe due to this dissonance.

Chloe seemed to sense their apprehension.

《Oh dear, Edmund. It seems these people aren’t too fond of me.》

“I’ll explain.”

Edmund looked at Chloe, who was clinging to him, with warm eyes and reached out his hand.

Woosh—

Chloe tried to grasp his hand, but it passed right through her.

“It’s true that Chloe is dead.”

He then turned to the Saintess and her entourage, who had been watching the scene unfold, and continued.

“And Chloe here is a ‘dream’ she left behind, a manifestation of herself from when we first met.”

The moment those words registered in her mind.

Caterina felt an instinctive wave of unknown revulsion surge through her body, from her toes to the top of her head.

Clench—

The reason she had remained composed despite the presence of a witch was that the witch in question was already deceased.

However, if she were to act solely on her surging emotions, she would have wanted to punish Chloe on the spot. But Caterina remained steadfast.

If she were to be swayed by such inexplicable discomfort, she would have long since abandoned the title of Saintess.

Caterina suppressed her emotions with effort and spoke.

“You say she left behind a dream?”

《My way of seeing the future is special. You almost got it right just now.》

“Yes.”

《I can see the future wherever the wind blows.》

“……!”

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