Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me
Chapter 36
The Great Temple of Light.
The upper levels were quiet.
Whenever they walked through the long corridors, the maids held their breath.
Even though only high-ranking nobles were permitted access to the temple’s upper floors, maids were still needed to do the menial chores.
The thoroughly trained servants were accustomed to silence.
No matter what happened, they never uttered a word outside about what they learned in the upper levels—
‘…….’
And in any situation, they never lost their composure.
‘……Why is that window open?’
A maid passing through the corridor spotted a wide-open window.
Because of the sheer altitude, the wind howled loudly.
Whooosh—
She approached to close the window.
Thud!
Slap!
“…….”
Four hands gripped the windowsill.
“……!”
The maid stumbled backward and fell flat on her bottom.
Through the window where the wind whipped violently, ghost-like hair fluttered.
One.
Two.
Heads popped up into view.
“……!”
It was a situation where the maid’s heart could have leaped right out of her throat.
“H-How… from this height…….”
The mental fortitude of a servant who had undergone years of rigorous training was formidable.
Without screaming, she handled the situation calmly.
“A-Are you ghosts?”
Ghosts in the Great Temple of Light? It was an utterly unfitting question, but the maid had no other choice than to ask.
High in the sky touching the clouds, at the summit of a dizzyingly tall tower.
She could never have imagined anyone climbing the outer wall.
“Ugh, move! I got here first.”
Straining. Two figures, a man and a woman, squeezed their bodies into the corridor.
They scrambled and squirmed through the narrow window gap.
“Pant…….”
“Phew…….”
Stepping onto the floor and catching her breath, Erica brushed back her disheveled hair.
Unable to find a way to the upper levels from inside, they had scaled the building’s exterior wall.
Somehow, as they picked up speed, it had turned into a race.
It seemed like a draw, leaving her wondering if they would have to head all the way to the Northern Snowy Mountain Region to settle who was the better rock climber.
“Erica. You know I touched down first by a split second, right?”
“Are you kidding? I got here first!”
“Why are you being so competitive? Do you really want to beat me that badly?”
“What are you talking about? I’m a Swordmaster now too, you know?!”
“Ah, right.”
“Ah, right?!”
Suddenly grabbing each other by the collar, the two shook one another back and forth.
The maid was on the verge of fainting. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
To brawl like common ruffians in the sacred Great Temple of Light—and on the upper levels, no less!
Just what kind of people were they?
The maid scurried backward on her bottom. She needed to run and report this to the High Priest immediately.
After scuttling back a few paces like that—
“Oh, excuse me! Hello!”
“Gasp.”
The maid caught her breath.
The man and woman who had seemingly dropped from the sky were walking toward her. She felt like she might wet herself.
“Excuse me, but may I ask you something?”
“Y-Yes…….”
“We’re looking for a person named Pechenik. Do you happen to know him?”
“P-Pechenik-nim! Y-Yes, yes! I know him. Gasp, n-no, I don’t!”
“……?”
The maid was on the verge of a breakdown. Her hands and feet trembled uncontrollably.
Erica looked at her for a moment, then bent down and extended a hand.
“If it puts you in an awkward position, you don’t have to answer. I’ll find him myself.”
“…….”
With a near-tearful expression, the maid stared at the hand Erica offered.
Are they really ghosts? she wanted to ask, for the hand was snow-white.
Though it was covered in tiny scars and hardened calluses.
“You don’t need to misunderstand or worry. I didn’t come to harm the temple.”
Yet the maid remained frozen on the floor, not moving an inch.
Erica pulled her hand back, feeling sheepish.
“Pechenik is my master.”
“…….”
“He hasn’t returned for a long time, so I came to look for him. That’s really all.”
Erica let out a small sigh, lost in thought.
What now? Should I search every single room on the upper level?
Just as she turned to Chaud to say something—
“……Really.”
The maid spoke up.
“……Are you really Pechenik-nim’s disciple?”
She met Erica’s eyes again, searching her earnest gaze over and over.
Finally, in a faint, half-doubting voice—
“……Can you, by any chance, drink beer while doing a handstand?”
“……? How did you know that?”
“……Is your special skill…… the duck dance?”
“……? Wait, how on earth do you know that……?”
She was checking the strangest things.
As if she had heard endless stories about a cute disciple from Pechenik day in and day out.
“……Is your name, perhaps……”
“I’m Erica.”
Color rushed back into the maid’s face.
* * *
Pechenik.
His original name was Pechenik Ripelsiyan.
Hailing from Tenearha, he was one of the continent’s foremost Swordmasters.
He had been so skilled that he was once appointed as the sword to protect the young Crown Prince.
During his active years, he was popular among his peers in the knight order and was best friends with the current Commander.
When he cast aside the glory of Tenearha and voluntarily surrendered his title of Count, high society was thrown into utter turmoil.
What a romantic, gossipy tale it made.
A man who lost his beloved wife and daughter in his youth, lived a lonely life in the knight order, and finally decided to retire to the countryside.
At the time, the Imperial Capital Syiad was rife with baseless rumors about Pechenik.
Yet Pechenik himself paid no mind to any of them.
For he had left the Imperial Capital with no intention of ever returning.
Syiad was an empty city.
A place without his wife and daughter. A place where, bound by the dignity of nobility, he could never once weep aloud.
He would never return, so there was no need to care about the idle rumors circulating in the Imperial Capital.
Rather, a new world had opened up from that moment on.
“……You little brats. I told you, you’re going to get hurt.”
Since leaving the Imperial Capital, Pechenik had felt empty no longer.
“Why do you act so much like my disciple?”
Raising the lovely Erica, Pechenik’s heart had been full and joyful the entire time.
“How old did you say you were?”
“Six years old!”
“Right. You must have about the same mental age as our Erica.”
To Pechenik, that child was an angel. Forever small and precious, no matter how many years passed.
“No wonder. The reason Erica keeps disobeying and toddling all over the place must be because she’s still so young.”
Erica was a fairy of joy and good fortune.
Since taking Erica by his side, there had been no regrets in Pechenik’s life.
It was a wondrous thing.
In a life that had once been nothing but regret, not a single regretful thing happened anymore.
“Giggle.”
“Hehe!”
The upper levels of the Great Temple of Light.
The Sky Garden.
The open view was breathtaking. A cool breeze blew.
That a lush green lawn and trees could flourish on this soaring rooftop was solely the work of Divine Power.
“Ehehe, caught you!”
“Again, let’s play again~!”
The young children being raised as candidates for High Priest ran around playing.
Watching the six- and seven-year-olds in ceremonial robes tumbling about, Pechenik fell into thought.
He missed Erica.
Yet even though he wanted to return to Dangtus, he couldn’t right now, which was troublesome.
‘……Is there really no way?’
Squeeze.
A pitch-black energy coiled tightly around his heart.
‘……The pain is bearable.’
Saintess Hielia had said it was best not to even expose himself to the outside air, but this was as good as it got.
‘……Even if I went back to the ruins, there probably wouldn’t be a solution.’
He recalled what had happened in the Ancient Ruins.
It had been pure curiosity.
Settling down in the Ruins Area and spending months deciphering ancient hieroglyphs day and night.
Finding the hidden wall that responded only to Aura.
Following the blue-glowing patterns deeper inside.
And finally, descending to the last room of the Ancient Ruins, a place no one had ever reached.
It had all been just curiosity.
‘……It was I who ignored the warnings covering the massive door.’
The moment he stepped into the final chamber of the ruins, realization struck with a thud.
This was a place I should never have entered. Now that I’ve stepped inside, it’s too late.
I’m going to die.
‘……A curiosity that would inevitably kill a man.’
It was the sanctuary where an ancient god slept.
A place where a mere mortal dared not reach. A realm that should never have been gazed upon.
The price for trespassing upon the sacred ground was harsh.
