CHAPTER 76……………
Even though it had been quite a while since the High Priest had left, Yankeller hadn’t moved an inch from his spot.
The fiery rage in his eyes had sunk into a cold stillness unlike his usual self.
Night had deepened.
Yankeller, his body stiff and unmoving, thought and thought again.
What could he steal back from the High Priest, the one who had taken everything from him?
Besides money, what else could prove the value of his existence?
“Arcana….”
Yankeller strode unhesitatingly toward the statue of the goddess Anishu.
When he was much younger, he had once followed the High Priest into the temple.
“Yann, look. This is Lady Anishu’s Arcana.”
Yankeller’s eyes had sparkled with curiosity.
“Father, if I use this, can I make great prophecies like Lady Anishu?”
“No, you cannot. Or rather, even if you want to, you never will.”
“Why not? There are pictures drawn on them, aren’t there? Can’t you just explain them by looking at them?”
“Now you see pictures, but when Lady Anishu used them, they were just blank cards without any images.”
“Without pictures?”
“Yann, this is a secret only the High Priest knows.”
The High Priest had knelt down to meet Yankeller’s eyes.
“Do you know what standard we use to distinguish those who claim to be Anishu’s incarnation?”
For a boy not yet ten years old, it was a difficult question. Yankeller tilted his head in confusion, and the High Priest pinched his cheek affectionately.
“It’s this picture. When someone claiming to be her incarnation uses the cards, the images must vanish. Only then can they be real.”
Though Yankeller was bright, he couldn’t fully grasp the meaning. The High Priest chuckled heartily as he stood.
“When you become the High Priest, I’ll tell you again. Not that it matters—an incarnation that has never appeared before won’t suddenly appear now.”
Pulling forward the goddess’s hand that held three cards, a hidden space was revealed.
The High Priest slid the Arcana back inside and spoke.
“Only the High Priest knows the true location of the Arcana.”
His voice was brimming with pride.
“So, Yann, if someone claims to be Lady Anishu’s incarnation and says they possess the Arcana….”
The High Priest gave a cruel smile.
“They are all fakes. Kill them on sight.”
“Ha….”
The dried traces of tears tugged at the skin around Yankeller’s eyes.
Annoyed by the feeling, he woke up and let out a sigh.
The dim dawn moonlight faintly lit the room.
“How long ago was that, and I’m still crying over it?”
The tears had already dried, but Yankeller angrily rubbed his eyes raw.
Back in the temple, he had been overwhelmed by uncontrollable emotions—worry for Everett, jealousy toward Kyle, and loathing for himself.
He had lain down with a splitting headache and must have dozed off without realizing it.
He sometimes dreamt when stressed, but never before had such vivid details resurfaced.
“The Arcana used by the goddess has no images….”
A memory he had completely forgotten.
For certain, the cards in Saintess Angelus’s hands had clear pictures engraved on them. That alone exposed her as a fake.
“He said to kill fakes on sight… so I should kill her, shouldn’t I.”
Snorting, Yankeller sat up and stared blankly at his bookshelf.
Philosophical Discourses of the Bartman Empire.
He kept his eyes fixed on the heavy tome with a title he hated to even touch.
After a long moment, as if resolved, Yankeller stood before the bookshelf.
The book was as heavy as its thickness suggested.
Grunting, he pulled it free and slowly ran his finger along its edge.
Click.
The sound of a lock releasing rang out, and a dazzling light burst from the book.
Strange symbols shimmered and faded on its cover in the blinding glow.
Several times this repeated, until at last the book slowly transformed into a box.
The moment Yankeller’s magical seal came undone.
“So the day has come to open this.”
On the day the High Priest had destroyed all of Yankeller’s books and magical tools,
Yankeller had taken the real Arcana, endured countless failures, and finally created a magical replica.
He placed the replica inside the goddess’s statue, while the true Arcana had remained tucked in his bookshelf ever since.
Because the High Priest himself had brought a fake saintess, he never realized the Arcana was also fake.
For the first time since sealing it away, Yankeller lifted the lid of the magically bound box.
“The tarot shop is gone, so maybe the tarot cards burned too. What Everett needs most right now might be cards.”
At first, he intended to craft new ones as a gift for Everett.
But when he saw Kyle sitting beside her, his mind changed.
He wanted to give her something that would seize her gaze instantly.
Looking down at the Arcana in the box, his cold eyes glimmered sharply.
Alfred left the imperial palace and went straight to Kyle.
“Is Lady Gronze all right?”
From outside the door, Alfred craned his neck, staring worriedly at Everett lying in bed.
“The healer has been and gone. Thankfully, the wounds from the explosion aren’t serious… but the traces of a beating she took before the blast will linger.”
“A beating? By whom?”
He had thought she was only injured in the fire.
“To hit a woman….”
Alfred’s face twisted in rage.
“Has she woken?”
“No, not yet.”
Alfred followed Kyle down to a small sitting room on the first floor.
There, Daisy had set out bread and hot tea.
Kyle leaned back deeply into the sofa, sipping at the tea.
“You must not have eaten a proper meal. Have some bread.”
“I have no appetite. I’m not hungry.”
In just a few hours, Kyle looked like he had lost weight.
“Kyle, how did you know there was a bomb?”
“Everett told me.”
“The Lady? How did she know….”
Kyle shrugged.
“Don’t know. Before she passed out, she warned someone would blow up the plaza.”
“I see… we’ll know for sure when she wakes. And also who struck her….”
“That too—we’ll only know once she wakes. Alf, did you send the knights to the plaza?”
“Yes. At your command, they began a full sweep immediately.”
“Arrest anyone suspicious without hesitation.”
“On the way here, I got Ventus’s report—some of the men they caught all had the same item.”
“The same item?”
Alfred pulled a glass vial from his coat and held it out.
“What’s this?”
“A substance forbidden by imperial law.”
“Powder?”
“Yes, explosive magic powder.”
Kyle grabbed the vial firmly, trying to open the lid.
“Careful. Once mixed, even a shock could trigger an explosion.”
“So this is what blew up the plaza?”
“Seems so. We’ll know after interrogation, but fragments of an identical vial were found at the second blast site.”
Kyle stood up.
“Got it. Lock up everyone with these vials in the underground prison.”
“Is that safe?”
The prison Kyle referred to wasn’t in the palace, but a private facility beneath Alfred’s estate.
“What do you mean?”
“If the emperor or nobles find out….”
“They should thank us for catching the culprits, don’t you think?”
Kyle waved Alfred off and went straight back to Everett’s room.
It was a dawn so mild there was no need to close the windows.
Thinking Everett might feel stifled lying in bed, Kyle left the window wide open.
He gazed at her, gently brushing aside her long hair.
“Everett, when will you wake up? With you sleeping like this, the world feels boring again, like before.”
He traced softly around the marks of wounds left on her face.
“Thanks to you, there were no more explosions at the plaza. How did you know it would happen? I’d pay far more than before if you’d just wake up and tell me.”
His low, slow murmurs filled the empty air.
“Alfred’s rounding up suspects now. Explosive powder, of all things….”
Kyle cupped Everett’s pale cheek carefully in his hand.
“Everett, just how much do you know?”
Her breathing was steady, but faint, and her face had yet to regain its color.
Looking at her made Kyle’s chest ache with a suffocating tightness.
“Do you want me to tell you what I felt when I first saw you?”
To calm his restless heart, he spoke quietly to himself.
“When I went to the temple to see Yann, you were glaring at the priests like you would kill them.”
Remembering the sight, he chuckled, though sorrow tinged the end of his smile.
“That day, the sunlight was dazzling, but to my eyes, you standing beneath it were brighter still.”
Kyle’s first confession, unheard by Everett.
He leaned closer toward her and continued.
“When I went north to hunt monsters, I once entered a cave. In its ceiling was a gem called Black Diamond. The moment I saw it, I thought of your dark eyes.”
Kyle gently wrapped her cold cheeks in both hands
