I’d Rather Be Healed by a Pure-Hearted, Beautiful Demon Lord Than by a Yandere Saintess! ~Even if I Run Away, the Yandere Saintess Keeps Coming After Me. If I Get Caught, It Seems Like I’ll Be Forced Into an Engagement!?~ - Chapter 6

The Saintess Simply Pursues Love

“Saintess Erixia, we sincerely thank you for bestowing your light upon us!”

In the royal capital’s grand cathedral.

Erixia received the ecstatic cheers and prayers from the thousands of gathered citizens with a perfect smile brimming with benevolence from atop the altar.

Her pure white dress shone as if a halo emanated from it, and no one doubted that she was a goddess descended to earth.

“May the grace of God be upon you all.”

When she announced that in a gentle voice, the crowd’s fervor reached its peak.

In this country—no, on this continent—there was no one who did not know Erixia. With her unparalleled beauty and the sacred magic that seemed nothing short of miraculous, she healed and guided people as an absolute existence. That was Saintess Erixia.

—However, even in this moment, her mind was entirely filled with thoughts of just one man.

(Ah, Yukina… My beloved. Where are you right now?)

Without letting her smile toward the crowd falter in the slightest, Erixia’s thoughts flew to her escaped lover—Yukina Arclight.

It had been nearly two weeks since he vanished from the royal capital. To Erixia, that was time equivalent to eternity.

(Did I perhaps hurry my love a bit too much? Did that engagement certificate frighten you? It’s all right, Yukina. This time, I’ll prepare something even more wonderful that you’ll want to sign yourself. ♡)

Once the ceremony ended, Erixia returned to her private chambers in the grand cathedral and asked Captain Linus of the Holy Knights, who waited there, without changing her expression in the least.

“So, Linus. Have you found Yukina’s whereabouts?”

“Yes. That is… we still have not. We have mobilized intelligence networks across the continent, but his trail has completely vanished.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Erixia nodded slightly at Linus’s report. Not the slightest shadow marred her perfect smile.

But Linus, who had served her for many years, felt the temperature in the room drop subtly.

“There’s no helping it, then. In that case, let’s borrow a little of God’s power.”

With that, Erixia gently closed her eyes as if offering a prayer.

What she invoked was the highest-level detection magic permitted only to the Saintess: “The Clairvoyance of Divine Revelation.” It was a grand spell originally meant to scout for national crises or signs of disasters.

Yet she wielded it without hesitation for the search of a single individual.

(Yukina’s mana, Yukina’s scent, the glow of Yukina’s soul… Where, where, where are you…?)

Erixia’s consciousness spread across the entire continent, searching for traces of her escaped lover.

The northern snowfields, the western commercial cities, the eastern forest regions… But no matter how much she searched, there was no response from her beloved.

(That’s strange… It’s as if he vanished from the continent entirely.)

Suddenly, as her consciousness turned southward, it collided with a wall of powerful miasma.

It was the Demon King’s domain. Even with the Saintess’s sacred magic, the miasma was too dense; it blocked her from peering deeply inside.

“…I see.”

Erixia slowly opened her eyes.

Linus did not miss the dim yet burning light that dwelled in their depths.

“Linus. Search for Yukina’s traces along the southern highways. Focus especially on the paths leading to the Demon King’s domain. You will surely find something.”

“Th-The Demon King’s domain!? Surely he would not head to such a dangerous place…”

“Oh, my Yukina would never make such a foolish choice. It’s just a precaution, that’s all.”

Erixia smiled sweetly. But Linus could not believe her words.

The Saintess’s obsession with Yukina had long surpassed the realm of worship and twisted into something that could only be called fanaticism.

After Linus withdrew, Erixia opened a hidden door in her private chambers.

What spread before her was an eerie sight.

The walls were covered entirely with portraits of Yukina, and the utensils and clothes he had used were enshrined on an altar like holy relics.

In the center stood even a life-sized doll modeled after him sleeping.

“Ah, Yukina… On nights I cannot see you, all I can do is hold this child and sleep. It is so lonely.”

Erixia rubbed her cheek against the doll and whispered in rapturous bliss.

“But soon. Very soon, the real you will be in these arms…”

A few days later, Linus brought a report.

A button from the clothes Yukina had worn was found at the entrance to the forest leading to the Demon King’s domain. There was no mistake; the place he had fled to was the Demon King’s domain.

Upon hearing that report, Erixia trembled with joy from the depths of her heart for the first time.

“Oh! Oh, oh! What in the world!”

She began to giggle, her laughter tinkling like bells.

But that laughter lacked her usual benevolence and carried a somewhat broken ring.

“My dear Yukina. You must want to see me so badly that you fled even to such a filthy, terrifying den of monsters.”

But, she continued.

Her eyes gleamed with a mad intensity of love.

“It’s all right. No matter where you are, I will surely find you. And the wicked monsters who defile you—I will purify every last one of them.”

The Saintess rose to her feet. In her hand, she gripped a holy staff that radiated divine light.

“Now, let us go fetch you, my beloved. To our eternal nest of love.”

It was a declaration of war heralding the start of a pursuit of love that would engulf the entire continent.