* * *

Yellow ribbons fluttered wildly across the wooden ship’s deck, attached to the shoulders of the clerical robes worn by the assistant priests of the Erdian Temple, renowned for their beauty.

The ship, carrying ten assistant priests—the lowest-ranking clerics in the Temple—three knights, and a senior priest in charge, was steadily sailing forward.

Among the group was Seo Woohyun, the saint of the Temple, who was desperately suppressing his nausea as the yellow ribbons brushed against his cheek with every gust of wind.

“I thought it wouldn’t be a problem since it’s just an hour-long trip by ship…”

Having never set foot on a boat before, Seo Woohyun had naively assumed he would be fine, but it was a grave miscalculation.

The creaking deck and the rocking hull were entirely unbearable.

Even stepping inside the cabin hadn’t helped; the incessant groaning of the ship, as if it might collapse at any moment, only fueled his anxiety.

It had reached the point where he preferred staying on the swaying deck, even though it was hard to maintain his balance.

“Are you okay?”

Fin, who stood beside Seo Woohyun, now pale-faced, asked with concern.

Seo Woohyun could barely muster the strength to lie.

“I don’t think I’m okay… But what can I do? I’ll just endure it a little longer.”

“The ship hasn’t been sailing for long; it’ll take some more time to reach the destination…”

As Fin glanced around in distress, unsure of how to help, Raullet, who had been standing nearby, immediately approached.

“Should I knock you out, if it would help?”

Raullet raised his hand subtly, ready to strike Seo Woohyun on the back of the neck without hesitation.

“She refused to hit me during sword training, fearing Erdian might scold his if I got hurt, and now she’s offering to knock me out? Does that mean I really look that bad?”

The idea of waking up already on the island was appealing, but the thought of being knocked out by a swordmaster’s hand was not.

Raullet might know how to control his strength, but Seo Woohyun didn’t believe his condition warranted such drastic measures.

“No, it’s not that bad…”

“Let me know if you need it.”

As Seo Woohyun nodded, hoping his seasickness wouldn’t worsen, someone else stepped forward with a surprising request.

“Excuse me, Knight… Could you, um, knock me out?”

It was Hexion, an assistant priest from the Great Temple, who had already emptied his stomach into the sea earlier.

With a sickly pale face, he shuffled forward hesitantly, clasping his hands together like a condemned prisoner awaiting execution.

Thud!

Raullet struck the back of Hexion’s neck with precision, catching his collapsing body and carrying him into the cabin.

Watching his quick and efficient movements, Seo Woohyun shuddered, swallowing nervously.

“The sound of that chop was more brutal than I expected…”

Even if he ended up vomiting over the side of the ship like Hexion, Seo Woohyun resolved never to ask Raullet to knock him out.

He looked up at the sky instead, finding some solace in the sight of fluffy white clouds drifting across a clear blue expanse.

The nausea seemed to subside slightly.

“How long has it been since we’ve had such clear weather for a voyage like this? Could it be that Lord Erdian blessed the priests’ volunteer work with such fine weather? Haha!”

The ship’s captain had chuckled heartily before departure, attributing the sunny day to the senior priest’s prayer for his family’s peace.

Seo Woohyun had dismissed it as a casual remark made out of gratitude.

But ever since he had ended his self-imposed seclusion and embarked on this second journey disguised as an assistant priest, the weather had remained remarkably clear without a single raincloud in sight.

“This area rarely sees the sun—mostly fog and rain,” the captain had remarked.

Seo Woohyun’s thoughts wandered to a lighthearted conversation he had once shared with Erdian.

“I told you I’d make it fun. Rain would ruin the trip, wouldn’t it?”

Erdian’s voice echoed faintly in his memory.

Even now, the dreamlike conversations they had shared remained vividly etched in his mind.

“Is Lord Erdian still lending his strength to me?”

The salty sea breeze brushed past his nose as he caught snippets of murmurs from nearby sailors.

“That ship over there is way too close.”

“Must’ve put a rookie at the helm.”

“Their appearance is… suspicious.”

“Their cloaks? From the embroidery, they look like priests of the Maha Temple.”

“Oh, I see.”

Seo Woohyun turned his head slightly, spotting a wooden ship sailing uncomfortably close. The distance was so short that he could clearly see the faces of those aboard.

“Isn’t this dangerous? Can ships even get this close?”

He didn’t know enough about ships to judge.

Surely, if there was a problem, the sailors wouldn’t just be whispering about it—they’d take action.

Just as Seo Woohyun was trying to calm himself, a shout rang out.

“Grappling hooks! It’s a pirate ship!”

The crew of the approaching ship threw ropes with grappling hooks, latching onto their hull.

The impact caused their ship to tilt.

“Who in their right mind attacks a ship full of priests?!”

“Captain!”

“Priests, over here!”

In the chaos of shouts and commands, Fin grabbed Seo Woohyun’s arm and pulled him.

“Sir Ciel, this way!”

Flustered, Fin inadvertently called Seo Woohyun by the alias he had used on their previous journey.

The ship was too small to accommodate everyone below deck for what was supposed to be just a one-hour trip.

The cabin doors, already crammed with assistant priests, remained tightly shut.

“Why won’t it open…?”

Through a small window in the cabin door, Seo Woohyun saw Raullet’s worried face.

He had been inside tending to the seasick Hexion but was now desperately trying to push past the frightened assistant priests and get outside.

“Foolish and pitiful priests! It’s not too late to change your ways!”

“Serving a god who cares nothing for this world is the greatest waste of time!”

“What good is a god who doesn’t even forgive the smallest of mistakes?!”

The coarse, cracked voice spouting such blasphemous words sent a shiver down Seo Woohyun’s spine.
He stiffly turned his head to see figures draped in bright red fabric, their bloodshot eyes glaring as they brandished swords.

“On a pilgrimage back from the holy city, the priests of the Erdian Temple were attacked just outside its bTemples, can you believe it?”

Those who attacked Erdian’s priests—judging by their vehement insults, there was only one group these assailants could be.

“Apostates?”

Apostates.

At first, Seo Woohyun had thought it referred to people who stopped believing in their god or turned to another deity.

But in the Erdian Temple, the term had a slightly different meaning.

“In our Temple, we use it for excommunicated clerics. Those who committed heinous acts under the guise of Lord Erdian’s name, satisfying their own greed, and even calling themselves saints—they don’t repent. Instead, they rebel and resort to such attacks.”

Just as Giselle had once explained, these people were undoubtedly former clerics who had been expelled for their crimes.

Now, filled with resentment, they had resorted to attacking their once-fellow clerics—and even hijacking a ship.

“Stay behind me,” Fin said in a trembling voice as the unsettling sounds of violence grew louder.

Though he was visibly shaking, he stood protectively in front of Seo Woohyun.

“Fin.”

“It’ll be okay. Lord Erdian will protect us.”

With a trembling voice barely holding together, Fin whispered faintly, his words interwoven with the clash of steel.

The sound came from the knights left on the deck, clashing swords with the heretics who had boarded the ship.

Seo Woohyun recalled the sharp, slicing noises, the visceral screams, and the sudden, overwhelming stench.

It was the same vivid scent of blood he had encountered in the mountains but hadn’t fully witnessed, thanks to Erdian shielding his eyes.

“So pathetic, sticking together like that.”

Even as Fin was thrown aside by a heretic’s brutal shove, his hand reached out weakly to shield Seo Woohyun.

Spurred by this, Seo Woohyun fearlessly grabbed the heretic’s forearm.

“You’ve got guts, kid,” the heretic growled in a coarse voice, raising an eyebrow with amusement.

Though he had killed the knights without hesitation, their ultimate goal seemed to be converting new heretics rather than mere bloodshed.

“…Are you defectors from the Temple?” Seo Woohyun asked, forcing a calmness into his voice.

Though he knew they had seized the ship and wielded their blades to harm, he had no idea where he found the courage to confront them like this.

“No, you’re mistaken. The one who betrayed us was Erdian, that wretched being. I won’t even call him a god—he’s the traitor who turned against us.”

“How did he betray you?”

Seo Woohyun needed to buy time for Raullet, who was still trapped in the cabin.

While screams and prayers filled the cabin, the heretic seemed to sense Seo Woohyun’s ploy and raised his sword high.

“So, you were stalling. What a pity, child. You won’t be joining us after all.”

Fin, pinned down on the deck by another heretic, writhed and screamed. Just then—

‘Whoosh!’

A searing red flame erupted, engulfing the heretic’s body.

It was fire conjured by Seo Woohyun, fueled by every last ounce of his immense but untamed divine power.

* * *