~Chapter 14~
“Are you satisfied now? With this, the Kinzello family can treat all the awkward matters related to the previous kidnapping incident and its entanglement with the Holy See as if they never happened. No complaints, right?”
“Yes, yes! Good! You must promise to read it all the way through!”
“Yeah.”
“Really?!”
“Y.”
“……? Something about your answer feels strange……”
“Ah, I said I got it!”
“Thank you!”
Upon hearing the Emperor’s answer, Ivyn started bouncing up and down like a child.
*Tsk.*
The Emperor merely frowned at the sight and clicked his tongue.
“Tell Dylan Kinzello that I’ve finished the negotiation with him. Don’t forget.”
“Yep!”
“If you’re done with your business, get lost now.”
“Yep!”
—
After that, time passed quickly.
Ivyn spent her mornings attending theory lessons on necromancy from her immediate family and her afternoons doing practical training in the outdoor training grounds.
“Has she found some stability now?”
The old butler asked Dylan, who was standing with his back to the window.
Dylan was looking at Ivyn in the training grounds raising a small rabbit undead while conversing with the old butler in his office.
“It seems so.”
“It does seem like the young lady has changed a lot since that incident. Things one couldn’t have imagined before. And the content of that letter too……”
The old butler glanced meaningfully at the gilded paper spread out on Dylan’s desk.
*Ahem.*
Clearing his throat slightly, Dylan wore an expression of mild discomfort.
—
**Dylan,**
**How are you? The reason I’m writing this letter is that there’s something to discuss regarding your youngest daughter. I don’t know if you’re already aware, but not long ago, your daughter came to see me and proposed her own solution to conclude that unpleasant incident with the Holy See from before, then left. I distinctly ordered your daughter to ‘accurately convey this situation to the head of the Kinzello family,’ but I couldn’t quite trust it, so I’m informing you separately via this letter. Ask your daughter for the details.**
**And please, teach her to formally report in writing in advance when she’s coming to see me from now on. Lately, just hearing rustling sounds around me makes me jump, all because of your daughter. No matter how close the Kinzello family and the Imperial family are, this is a bit much, which is why I’m saying this.**
**No reply is necessary.**
**– Your Emperor, Rociniel Dominias Jean Marchand**
—
“…….”
The area under Dylan’s eyes, which were looking out the window, twitched slightly then subsided.
*’It’s probably nothing. Haha, it must be nothing.’*
That’s right.
He was gaslighting himself.
—
* * *
—
“I am deeply disappointed in you, Knight.”
Inside the central audience hall of the Holy See.
Amidst towering pillar-like structures shaped like inverted triangular fangs and a ceiling densely covered with tiles reminiscent of snake scales scattering light to create an eerie atmosphere.
Pavella, seated regally on a marble throne with her eyes half-lowered, gazed down at the knight kneeling before her.
The oval-shaped stained-glass windows on either side of the ceiling, centered on Saintess Pavella, seemed to look down upon the knight alongside her like reptilian eyes.
“……I have no face to raise my head.”
The knight of high pride, clad in pristine white, was not one to easily assume a submissive posture before anyone, but this time was different.
The captive captured by the See had escaped.
Right from under their noses.
For Theodore, who had enjoyed the See’s absolute trust until now, it was a mistake grave enough to repay with his life.
“What was the mission entrusted to you, Knight?”
Saintess Pavella, as if seeing Theodore for the first time, scrutinized his handsome face for a long time before slowly, deliberately enunciating her words.
“It was to interrogate the necromancer family’s captive and extract a confession.”
“Was that all?”
Theodore remained silent for a moment.
Then he spoke heavily.
“You said to execute immediately without reporting to superiors if they refused to cooperate with the interrogation.”
“And then?”
“…….”
“What I’m curious about is why, for what reason, you kept the captive alive for such a long time.”
The Saintess trusted Theodore’s honesty.
He was not one who would dare tell a lie before her.
Had he not been raised that way since he was very young?
What she was curious about was the sudden variable, the change in his state of mind.
“I am sorry, Saintess.”
“That is not the answer I wish to hear.”
“I made the captive drink liquid imbued with divine power…… but no reaction appeared.”
A peculiar light briefly flashed and faded in Saintess Pavella’s eyes as she heard his answer.
It was a gaze seeking to discern something.
“And so?”
“I foolishly…… was deceived by their…… acting, and ended up buying time until reinforcements arrived. It is entirely my failure. I am sorry.”
Theodore bowed his head so deeply his forehead touched the floor.
It seemed an unbearable tide of guilt and regret was surging within him.
The cold aura of the marble swirled around his forehead.
“Due to my misjudgment, too many soldiers suffered innocent sacrifices. Please grant me leniency to repay this debt with my life, Saintess.”
A peculiar smile spread across Saintess Pavella’s lips as she listened to Theodore’s confession.
*Swoosh.*
She descended from the throne, approached the knight kneeling before her, and drew a large holy sign over the pristine white knight.
“If you truly wish to honor the sacrifices of the holy warriors, bring victory before the holy war, not your life.”
The Saintess’s hand rested on the knight’s shoulder.
What followed was a passage from the Flulla Prophecies.
“The God who created heaven and earth said, ‘The knight wielding the sword of light shall burn the wicked enemies with holy light.’ The holy knight shall defeat the wicked enemies with the sword of light and save humanity…… Knight Theodore Leitner, I firmly believe you are the knight written in that prophecy. Please, do not betray my faith.”
“……I will remember.”
“I will always be by your side on that path you walk. Now rise.”
Theodore rose from his position, bowed deeply to the Saintess with a respectful attitude, and then, receiving Pavella’s blessing, devoutly kissed her hand.
“You may go. Elder Mateo will be waiting outside.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
The Elder and Theodore met before the audience hall door.
In the span of a few days, the Elder seemed to have aged and withered further.
The deep shadows under his prominent cheekbones had grown more distinct.
He seemed to have expended much energy dealing with the aftermath of the recent incident.
“Elder.”
“Ned.”
Theodore’s face stiffened at the Elder calling him by that name.
Ned.
That was the name Mateo had called Theodore since before he became an Elder, back when he was an assistant priest.
―*Father…… I, I heard what the kids are saying. They say I’m a monster and that my parents died because of me. That’s why the house caught fire. Because I’m a cursed child……*
―*That’s a lie, Ned.*
*A young bird with a broken wing, its breath cut short.*
*That small bird was wrapped in white paper.*
―*You are not cursed, you are special. The fire at your house…… was because of your parents’ sins. It was the burden of fate they had to bear.*
―*Do not be afraid. You are a chosen child.*
*His horrifying childhood.*
*The firm hands of the priest that had enveloped the shoulders of young Theodore, wandering in a limbo of a stigmata that was neither curse nor blessing.*
*Already over a decade had passed since that scene.*
*The child had become a sturdy adult, and the young assistant priest had become an Elder of advanced age.*
“…….”
“You’ve worked hard.”
Theodore suddenly wanted to ask the Elder.
Was that child still a sinner?
Had he still not purified the impure blood flowing in his veins?
“The Saintess is waiting.”
“Right.”
The two exchanged a brief, silent greeting and went their separate ways.
*Step, step.*
The path towards the throne where the Saintess sat felt unusually long to Mateo today.
“What became of the tail attached to the tail?”
The question that fell upon his bowed head as soon as he paid his respects before her.
*A tail attached to another tail.*
It referred to another agent attached to the Holy See’s agent who was tailing the Kinzello family’s youngest daughter.
“Unlike before, their guard is so tight there isn’t even a needle hole. Especially around the youngest daughter, there’s something like an unidentified spirit following her, making approach extremely tricky. For the time being, I suggest we keep our distance and observe until their vigilance subsides somewhat.”
“A spirit, you say.”
“Yes, Saintess. It seemed like a kind of pitch-black energy used by necromancers. It seems Ivyn hasn’t noticed him yet, though……”
“Understood for now. Continue to keep watch.”
“I will report immediately if any unusual developments are found.”
*Thud.*
After even Elder Mateo withdrew from the audience hall.
In a corner of the hall, now plunged into deep silence, a blue flame *whooshed* into bloom.
What appeared within it was a small mountain village at the far eastern edge of the empire.
“Just because a rat has escaped doesn’t mean the witch hunt has ended in failure.”
As Pavella’s chilling gaze turned toward the flame, the flickering fire froze with a *crackle*.
—
* * *
—
A few days later.
The main square of the commercial district was bustling unusually compared to normal.
The first to gather before the bulletin board were groups of merchants who traveled far for trade.
Then, passersby began to gather one by one, listening to their stories, and the crowd swelled like a snowball before anyone knew it.
“Did you hear? A dreadful epidemic is spreading in the eastern region.”
