Here is the second chapter. This chapter really got me and slowed down my translations. There’s a line at the bottom that I couldn’t figure out the proper way to translate it. I racked my brain trying to figure it out. In the end, I still don’t know if I translated it correctly. Well, enough about me. Please enjoy.

The Double Crossing Sorcerer

「Reunion? ……Just who in the world are you reuniting with?」

When she harbored a question for the words that were probably not directed at herself but for someone else, Bernadette asked.

「Kukakah, fellows that are slow to understand usually get hated, you know? He might not look it but that guy, 『Yuu Yashiro』 is a smart guy.」

Maybe because he was happy about the subject of the question, the man joyfully talked, but Bernadette"s focus wasn"t directed at the man.

「Yashiro, san? You, and Yashiro-san?」

Those were the words that unintentionally came out.
Yuu and that man, whose face that was hidden in the dusky shaded hood was warped in rejoice, just could not be connected in Bernadette"s mind.

Bernadette already did not think of Yuu as an ordinary person.
But, being told that the man in front of her who was showing a half-mad smile and Yuu were acquainted, she realized that she didn"t know much about Yuu, enough for doubts to come to her mind. She knew too little about him.
Enough for her to be surprised that he had once interacted with a lunatic like this.

Enough to make her think that it was some kind of, mistake.

「Please stop it with the jokes. Why would Yashiro-san be acquainted with a criminal like you? Yashiro-san is a bit lewd and a pervert, but he thinks about how he can be useful to someone and is the owner of a fine heart. He"s different from people like you, sc.u.m that rests your laurels on top of acc.u.mulated misfortune of other people!」

Bernadette declared that while scowling at the deep crimson pair of eyes, but she reflexively gulped from the appearance of the man that received those words.

He was smiling.

「I did think that it might be possible but……it seems that you really don"t know anything. Both his true nature and his way of life.」

*Nitaa*. (A sinister smile).

For the man that greatly raised the corners of his mouth and smiled, Bernadette experienced fear.

「Yashiro-san"s……True nature?」
「That"s right. Yuu Yashiro"s true nature.」

Inside the man"s murky pupils, something glittered.

Ecstacy.

That word crossed Bernadette"s mind.

「Good person, bad person. That guy can"t be expressed by those alternative words. That guy"s true nature is the very thing that 『humans』 ought to be which contains the contradiction of sometimes moving by calculating profit and loss, and at other times moving without paying attention to gains and losses. ……However, despite being like that, there is something consistent in that guy"s actions. It"s 『conviction』. That guy will never do something that contradicts himself. He wouldn"t betray what he thought was right even if he died. Look, a contradiction was already produced. But that is exactly what the thing call humans do. Having no connection to both good and evil, because he is a 『Human』 full of contradiction, his existence is most appropriate for the 『Sacred Sword』.」

The man talked as if he could go on forever. In the middle of his talking that was already close to something like worship, Bernadette caught onto some words that she absolutely could not let slide.

「Sacred……Swor, d?」

「So, you really weren"t informed.」

The man replied with a smile to Bernadette who muttered as if she had just seen something that was unbelievable.

「The Sacred Sword……If I"m not mistaken, he called the Sacred Sword 『Al』. ……『Tenma Ruination』[1], the summit of swords that bisects every possible object and vanishes. Proof of a lineage of a soul continuing since the age of the G.o.ds. ……I can agree as to why the church views him as an enemy of G.o.d. He does possess enough power to be able to annihilate the armies of this world "all by himself" after all……」

Being told that much, there"s no way could have not noticed. However, Bernadette didn"t want to believe it.

「That"s a lie! ……That Yashiro-san is the 『Hero』!」

The Hero. He was a divine threat that, while being close to the nearby Amateru[2] that served G.o.d, let that Amateru die without helping, and moreover, mocked and looked down upon G.o.d. He may be advocated as the great man that defeated the Demon Lord throughout the world, but to believers starting with Bernadette, he was an enemy that couldn"t be allowed to live.
Certainly, they had the same first and last name, and his appearance was just as the information that arrived at the church had said. Normally, there would be no way that she would think he was something like 「a complete stranger that looked really similar」.
But there was a huge reason why Bernadette didn"t kill Yuu.

「I received an authorization from Archbishop-sama. ……There"s no way Yashiro-san is the Hero!」

This was it.

In regards to the Holy Ulquiorra religious organization, within the rankings, the highest is naturally the「Pope」. Following that is the Cardinal, Archbishop, then Bishop.
Within the religious organization, there is a great man that once traveled together with the Hero. Now in the position of an Archbishop, Bernadette reported to him about Yuu before departing from Lizwadia, but being clearly told that they were different, she was even told to protect the unrelated Yuu.

「Hou, that"s pretty rare for Yazuul. To think that he"d protect that guy. And here I thought he was an Amateru supremacist……」

Coming to this point, Bernadette finally harbored questions about this man"s existence.

There was only a single Pope and Cardinal each at a time, but there existed several Archbishops and Bishops. It"s true that normally when one uses the name of an Archbishop, their name would have to be attached and not just their rank, but the man in front of Bernadette specified the person just by her saying "Archbishop".

「……Just who are you?」

This man knew too much. About the Sacred Sword, about the Saint, and about the bishop who traveled with the Preceding Hero"s troupe and who was Bernadette"s boss.
From his many words that sounded like he was a person that was deeply connected with them, there was a mysterious power that sealed Bernadette"s magic. ……This man"s eeriness, was abnormal.

「My magic is……!? ……Could it be, the reason why I couldn"t use my magic that time was……」

Knowing about the Sacred Sword, knowing about Amateru, and then knowing about Archbishop Yazuul who was one of the heroes that saved the world, Bernadette knew of the person who would know all of that and who carried the unique ability to 『s.n.a.t.c.h away』 Maryoku in his body.

「『The Betraying Sorcerer, Zephyr Jiineca.r.s.el』!! To think that I would encounter the grave sinner that defiled Amateru-sama"s body with a blade……ッ!! Prepare yourself! I"ll turn that body of yours into a beehive and make you fish food!!」

Zephyr Jiineca.r.s.el. Once a heroic figure that also served as the leader of Leezelion"s Imperial Court Mages, he was one of the people that traveled as the Hero"s troupe in order to subjugate the Demon King, but, betraying the troupe in the middle of their journey, he was a heretic that placed an unhealable wound on the back of his former master, Amateru Olivia.

Due to him being a person she was not expecting, Bernadette completely lost her cool and shouted at Zephyr. But Zephyr only replied with a smile to all of that.

「Calm down, calm down. ……But still, can I have you believe me with this? That he, Yuu Yashiro……No, that Yashiro Yuu is the Preceding Hero.」

While the corners of his mouth warped to make a broad grin, the man talked.

「……You"re wrong. Yashiro-san isn"t something like the Hero……He isn"t something like the enemy of G.o.d!!」

She didn"t have something like irrefutable evidence. Moreover, there was probably no mistake that this man was the Sorcerer Zephyr that once traveled with the Hero and betrayed him.

But Bernadette didn"t want to believe any of it. It was because she could possibly think that that boy could be a villain that looked down upon G.o.d.
They were words that were shouted out partially out of desperation, but those words were confirmed to be the truth by the man in front of her.

「Of course he isn"t. ……Him, the enemy of G.o.d? That makes me laugh. If he"s the enemy of G.o.d, then wouldn"t that make all of the people in this world grave sinners? That guy who was summoned from another world without even knowing the reason, continued to fight while vomiting blood, got betrayed many times over, was engulfed by the karma of people, and yet stood and carried the world on his shoulders for the sake of the woman he fell in love with, why must he be treated this way!!? ……I must not be compa.s.sionate.[3] That guy, who couldn"t be married to Her Majesty, who couldn"t keep Her Majesty alive, and who couldn"t live in the land of Her late Majesty, but yet smiled and left this land, why is he grave sinner!!? ……Kuku, you must not be compa.s.sionate. Don"t you think so? That guy needs to overcome the sadness. ……And the thing that needs to be killed before going to meet such a painful thing, needs to be compa.s.sion!!」

Bernadette lost her anger for the man in front of her, whose vulgar laugh resounded, and only feared him.
Zephyr shouted that he thought that Yuu might be in grief and wanted to kill him. However, the fact that both were his true feelings was, whether she liked it or not, transmitted to her.

Contradiction.

Wasn"t Zephyr himself the personification of that? Bernadette cursed that in the innermost depths of her heart.
Translator’s Notes:
[1] Original: 天魔覆滅
[2] Written as 聖女 (saint or holy woman), read as アマテル
[3] I"m pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to translate this line. I still don"t know if I translated this right. Original: 不憫でならない