Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

Naturally, I had no intention of preaching to those h*rlots, since they’re the followers of Ishtar’s faith, just like me.

Ishtar-sama, who advocated for the freedom of love, was the Goddess of Harlots and Dancers.

I entered the dark alley as I pondered over the matter. I figured some drunkard would’ve fallen asleep along this dark alley.

Upon walking into the dark alley, three men stood in my way. I was about to turn around upon seeing that things were about to become dangerous, but then, a tall and burly man sealed my path of escape.

「By chance, have you been looking for someone, onee-chan?」

The man blocking my way spoke with a deep and gruff voice.

「Indeed, so what's the matter?」

I glared at him.

「We might be able to help you. How about we help you to look for that person?」

「Oh, don't be so cold like that.」

The man outstretched his hand towards me.

「DON'T TOUCH ME!」

I swatted off the man’s hand, coiling back from his grasp.

「Tch, such a cold woman. Whatever… have some fun with us.」

The man’s smile turned into a vulgar sneer.

I heaved a sigh as I gripped on the handle of the curved sword sheathed at my hip.

I’m quite confident about my fighting abilities. From the way that they move, I can tell that they’re just some average Joes. Knocking them down would be easy peasy. But, the problem was taking care of the aftermath.

「My bad. I’m not someone that’ll be your playing mate.」

They might just be some penniless hooligan freedom fighters that couldn’t afford to buy a h*rlot. They’re just the lowest of the low, bottom of the rung people who couldn’t fight monsters and only targeted civilians that looked weaker than them. Honestly, trying to talk to them was simply an idiotic thing to do.

I ran towards the wall on the side.

「WUT?!!!」

I ignored the man’s scream. I kept running on the wall, jumped and then landed behind the tall man with a somersault. I didn’t stop there and continued to just run away, leaving that back alley behind.

「WAIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!」

Only an idiot would wait for them.

I kept running along the night streets of the city. When I felt that it was already safe for me to stop, I finally stopped running and heaved a sigh.

「Sienna.」

Someone suddenly called out my name.

When I turned to look who it was, it was a man standing there looking at me. The man wore a leather armor on top of his chainmail. Around the chest area of his leather armor was the holy crest of the God King, Oudith-sama.

That holy crest indicated him as the Law’s Knight of the Oudith temple. The Law’s Knights was an order of knights that maintained the public order and searched for criminals.

「Decius-niisan.」

This Law’s Knight was Decius, my older brother.

◆Dancer, Sienna

I strolled through the backstreets along with Brother Decius. I’d already given up on trying to find Marchas.

We were currently patrolling around the area with better public order than the previous area [the one in which I’d almost gotten assaulted.]

I recalled the event that happened earlier.

The area that we currently are at was an area for inns. There’s so many inn buildings standing next to each other.

The Republic of Ariadya was the transit point of many peddlers from other regions, mainly those from the Eastern region of the continent.

But the number of foreigners visiting this country has been on the rise for a while now. The main reason was none other than the Hero of Light. Many people had come from surrounding countries just to be able to catch a glimpse of the Hero’s figure.

Thanks to that, however, there were many thieves around that were aiming to rob these foreigners of their fortune. That’s why, my brother, the Law’s Knight has been patrolling this area.

Though the lighting that was installed on the top of the waterway on the roadside isn’t that bright, we could still see the road just fine since tonight was a full moon.

「That knight's attire looks really good with your diligent and serious look, Nii-san. You really are born to be Oudith-sama's knight.」

I praised my older brother’s attire.

Big brother Decius and I were born and raised in Ishtar’s temple. Our mother was a famous dancer and Ishtar’s shrine maiden, Ishpascia. There, she’d met and fallen in love with Nacius Paracletus, an Oudith’s Knight.

But, Outdith’s Knights couldn’t get married officially to Ishtar-sama’s Shrine Maiden, whose teachings were about the freedom of love. Thus, they’d eventually broken up.

Fortunately for my older brother, our father’s legal wife couldn’t give birth before she passed away. That’s why our father had chosen to adopt older brother as his heir in the end.

I’d barely been able to meet him after his adoption, but my older brother would come to visit Ishtar’s temple from time to time to visit me and check how I’m doing.

「Hahaha, I still have much to learn though… What about you, Sienna? Anything dangerous happen to you lately?」

My brother’s words made me recall the event from a while ago.

「Something like that can barely count as "danger" for me you know.」

I told him a white lie.

Different from Oudith-sama, Ishtar-sama’s believers weren’t restricted by a prohibition on lying.

「Really? Could it be that you're actually selling y-」

「I'm not doing that. You should know about that too, Nii-san. I'm a member of a troupe. I'm aiming to become a leading actor.」

I turned around to face my brother as I walked backwards.

A child raised in Ishtar-sama’s temple had to leave the temple once they reached adulthood. Most women chose to become h*rlots, but I didn’t choose that path.

Ishtar-sama was the Goddess of h*rlots, but her faith didn’t decree that every woman under her faith had to follow that path. Instead, they could choose to become an actor or actress.

Ishtar-sama was also the Goddess of dancers, which included dancers, actors, and actresses under that. That’s why, as the believer of Ishtar-sama’s faith, I chose the path of becoming an actress.

I was able to join the 「Donkey's Ears」 troupe since Leader Midas recognized my talent in dancing. This time, the leader has even entrusted me with the main role when we perform in the Alphos theatre. It’s a leading role for a famous story too.

Though I feel bad for Ainoe-neesan, I really wanted to be in a leading role.

「Yeah, I know. Arfelia huh, I'm looking forward to your performance.」

The drama I’m going to be performing in is Arfelia. It’s the story of a brave princess who goes on a journey to save her lover who’s been kidnapped by a witch.

The play had been postponed due to the celebration to praise the hero, but I did want my brother to come and see my performance.

「Sure. Make sure you come, Nii-san.」

I smiled happily when he nodded in reply.

「But, Sienna. What is your answer for that matter?」

I looked at my brother.

「That story again? Sorry but, I'm not going to convert. I love Ishtar-sama and have no problem even if I can't get married for life.」

My brother wanted me to convert to Faeria’s faith. But I had no intention of doing so. Just like my mother, I’m proud of the fact that I’m Ishtar-sama’s believer. That’s why I don’t care even if I can’t get married. Even if it’s not a formal(religious) union, I would be fine with a common-law marriage too.

「But, that's… too sad.」

My brother could barely squeeze out those words.

After he’d converted to the Oudith faith, it seems that my brother couldn’t take a man and a woman living together without being officially married. That’s why he’d ended up saying those words.

「Enough about me. How about you Nii-san, when will you get married? I heard that you received numerous marriage proposals.」

I redirected the conversation to my brother.

I mean, even from my perspective as his little sister, my brother was definitely a handsome man. Lots of noble girls from surrounding countries must’ve been flocking around him to get his hand in marriage.

However, it seems that my brother rejected them all.

「That's-no… I'm still in the middle of training. It's still too soon for me to think about marriage.」

I heaved a deep sign upon hearing that.

It seems that my brother is a little too strict with himself.

I realize that there must be so many people talking behind his back due to our mother’s background. That’s why my brother must’ve been pushing himself to act as a just and proper believer of Oudith.

Of course, I also realize that my brother’s serious nature is very well-matched for being a believer of Oudith.

But, as his little sister, I want to see the moment when my brother falls in love. Of course, I know I can’t force him to fall in love in the end.

It was at that moment when we were walking along the road along the canal that I saw someone’s figure walking in front of us. It was a man and a woman walking together. Though they might look like a pair of lovers at a glance, I realized by the next moment that the man was wearing a butler attire while the woman was wearing a noble lady’s attire.

They might be one of those foreigners that had come to catch a glimpse of the Hero of Light.

「Are they foreigners? What are they doing in this kind of place? The public order around this area might be better but, it's still dangerous during the night.」

I spoke with astonishment, completely forgoing the fact that I’d just encountered that danger just a short time ago.

Daytime aside, despite its fairly large road, it was still too dangerous to be walking along this canal in the middle of the night.

The woman might be a noble girl of a certain country who’d happened to befriend one of the people who live in the noble district. I mean, her whole atmosphere literally reeks of a noble lady.

Besides all that, this also wasn’t the right time to be taking a noble lady for a walk. Since it’ll be too late for us to save them if something happened after this, I must at least warn them of the dangers around here.

「Let's warn them… Can you wait for a minute, Sienna?」

My brother, who’d been thinking along the same lines as me, asked me to wait for him.

「Understood. Nii-san.」

My brother left me behind as he approached the two.

Those two people were looking up at the moon from the side road of the canal.

「You over there. May I have a moment with you two?」

My brother called out to the two as he approached them.

Upon hearing his voice, the woman looked towards our direction.

「… EH?」

I unintentionally leaked out a strange sound.

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