Chapter 22
Moonlight leaking in through the central window illuminated the man’s figure.
The hem of a pure white robe, immaculate and unadorned by any golden embroidery.
The one who rounded the corner and revealed himself before Aquila’s group was the member of the Guild of Darkness who had been speaking with Martio.
Before the man could even finish his sentence, Cahena and Shen naturally stepped forward, as if to shield Aquila.
“At first, I thought you were merely a priest lingering around here after the meeting had already ended…”
The man swept his gaze over the two with an irritated tone.
Because Cahena was strikingly tall and Shen stood close beside her, Aquila was not properly visible within the man’s field of view.
The guild member cautiously appraised Cahena, who had boldly stepped forward and clearly did not look ordinary.
“There is no way a mere priest of the Sun God would have such a suspicious presence. Are you his subordinates?”
That was the conclusion he reached.
He had mistaken them for subordinates of Saint Ianpel, who had been digging into the Guild of Darkness.
After all, the only one who would deploy someone so skilled in this area was the Saint.
Cahena and Shen exchanged glances.
If he chose to misunderstand things that way, it would be all the better for them, but—
“You—You wretches! How in the world did you get in here…!”
Rapid footsteps rang out, and another person appeared before Aquila’s group.
Clad in a pure white robe lavishly embroidered with gold.
Martio, who had chased after the Guild of Darkness member that had suddenly gone outside before even moving Yujelia, recognized the familiar faces and raised his voice in aged fury.
He had not yet forgotten the humiliation he had suffered at Aquila’s hands that very morning.
“Do you think this is some safe place you can just barge into like this!”
Even as Martio pointed accusingly at Cahena and Shen, he glanced around restlessly.
“That noble! Where is he, and why are only you here! Hah! Could it be that your master, that shameless fellow, sent you here to order something—”
“Calling someone a shameless noble is a most unpleasant thing to hear.”
Until then, Aquila had remained still behind Cahena and Shen without any sign of displeasure, but at those words, he finally leaned his head out to the side.
“W-What…!”
Martio, who had been about to hurl out curses in one breath, froze with a bewildered expression when he saw Aquila emerge calmly from behind Cahena.
Not having sensed his presence at all and unable to see him, he had spoken rashly.
Of course, Aquila himself had not particularly minded staying behind them.
That would have remained the case, if not for the fact that the moment Martio uttered words insulting Aquila Reschenhardt, the atmosphere around Cahena and Shen had instantly changed.
A chilling killing intent, as though they would rush forward and sever his throat on the spot.
That pressure had been palpable from the two standing in front of him.
If Martio alone were the opponent, it would not have mattered, but he could not allow the Guild of Darkness member’s head to roll as well.
He needed to obtain information about Belmaburn.
Aquila reached out and pulled back their shoulders, stopping them.
“Aquila… Reschenhardt…”
The Guild of Darkness member murmured quietly.
He had known there was someone else behind them, but he had not expected it to be Aquila Reschenhardt himself.
Even in this corridor filled with bluish moonlight, Aquila’s hair was such a vivid crimson that there was no mistaking who he was.
The man’s eyes sank into darkness.
“S-So you even brought your attendants and snuck into this place!”
Martio stammered over his words, but perhaps the mere fact that he had been flustered wounded his pride, for he soon glared fiercely.
“No matter how much of a Reschenhardt you may be, this is not a place where you can so freely bring your filthy feet into such a sacred temple!”
He then shouted in a shrill voice.
The bishop thrust out his arm and pointed in turn at Aquila, Shen, and Cahena.
“The Grand Temple of Portplum will take this as a challenge to the authority of the temple! The god will be enraged!”
As before, Martio’s face flushed red and blue as he spewed his rage, and his fleshy jaw quivered violently.
Yet Aquila did not take the bishop’s words seriously in the slightest, nor did his expression change at all.
‘I do not know why the insults priests use are all the same.’
It was always the authority of the temple, or the wrath of the god.
If one wanted to provoke someone, at least some originality was required, but it was always the same lines, growing tiresome.
A deep fatigue settled into Aquila’s black eyes.
“If Raspalara truly intended to be enraged and strike us down with divine punishment, that should have happened long ago.”
“Hah! Yes, it should have been visited upon a shameless wretch like you long ago! Just your arrogant behavior toward me, the bishop of the Temple of the Sun—!”
“If that were the case, you would have been struck dead by lightning already, and we would not be facing each other like this.”
Aquila cut off Martio’s spittle-flecked tirade and swiftly looked him over from head to toe.
Then, quite deliberately, he shook his head from side to side.
“Lightning? Who on earth would it strike…! You cur! Why are you speaking while looking at me like that!”
Martio seemed not to understand at first.
But as Aquila’s attitude made it clear that he was the one being referred to, he flew into another rage.
“Reflecting upon yourself would be—”
Aquila rubbed his face with his palm as he shifted his gaze, then once again met the eyes of the Guild of Darkness member.
Even as Martio raised his voice, the man did not move, keeping his gaze fixed solely on Aquila.
The man’s face, standing with his back to the window, was steeped in shadow, yet within it something strange was swirling violently.
Even buried in darkness, it was far too intense to be ignored.
“Young Master!”
At Shen’s shout, he grabbed Aquila’s shoulder and yanked him backward.
CLANG!
At that very instant, a flash of light exploded before their eyes.
Sparks burst as sword met sword.
The Guild of Darkness member had lunged at Aquila in the blink of an eye.
GRIND.
The blade stopped without ever reaching Aquila.
That was because of Cahena, who had never taken her hand off her sword hilt, having reacted to the man’s suspicious movements.
“W-What, what is this sudden madness…!”
The movement had been far too fast to follow with the eyes.
Martio, who belatedly grasped what had happened, screamed.
But even the bishop’s voice did not stop the man.
The Guild of Darkness member withdrew his blocked sword, changed its trajectory, and swung the silver blade again.
CLANG!
The reunited blades cried out sharply, loaded with tremendous force.
“Aquila… Reschenhardt…”
The man murmured in a sinister voice.
Up close, his face was filled with naked killing intent, as though he would kill the person before him no matter what.
He drew his arm back once more.
Then he tried again to drive the tip of his blade toward Aquila’s vital points.
“Where do you think you are going!”
But Cahena was not one to stand by and watch.
She immediately struck aside the blade that was focused solely on Aquila, as though she herself did not matter at all.
CLANG!
The impact was even heavier than when the man had attacked, sending out a deeper resonance.
A brief exchange.
Yet in that instant, as strain seemed to seize the man’s wrist, Cahena did not miss the opening.
Her dark-brown eyes gleamed sharply.
SLASH!
“Ghhk!”
The man swallowed a boiling scream as he clutched his wrist.
Cahena had severed the right hand that held the sword.
Blood spurted from the cleanly cut surface, precise enough to display her skill.
CLATTER!
The right hand that had been attached to the man’s body flew backward and fell at Martio’s feet.
“Aaaaargh!”
Martio stood there dumbfounded for a moment, unable to comprehend what had happened, before screaming and panicking.
He scrambled backward to avoid the severed hand and pressed himself against the wall.
The short blade that had been knocked free spun several times across the marble floor on its own.
The sound of the silver blade scraping as it rotated across the marble.
Before that sound could even finish, the man, still clutching his bleeding wrist, tried to move again.
Cahena immediately grabbed him by the collar and slammed him down by kicking the back of his knee.
CRACK!
“…Kgh!”
Though it was merely a kick, a serious sound came from the man’s leg.
In all likelihood, the bone had cracked or broken outright.
Unable to endure it any longer, the man collapsed forward with a pained groan.
“The one I followed earlier did not scream loudly when I cut him at first either. These fellows seem better trained than expected.”
Cahena spoke in her usual tone as she casually placed her foot on the writhing man’s back.
Even with his wrist severed and his leg broken, the man was still trying to rise.
As expected of members of the Guild of Darkness, they were clearly hardened to pain.
They would have been trained to keep moving even after being cut or maimed.
But—
“Our little young master, is this someone you know?”
Cahena asked because, even while sprawled on the floor, the man’s eyes were still filled with killing intent directed at Aquila.
No matter how obsessed the Guild of Darkness might be with mission success, harboring this level of emotion over a mere assignment made no sense.
To those who committed murder as a matter of course, Aquila should have been nothing more than a target to be eliminated.
Aquila shook his head, looking uncertain.
“There is no way the Young Master would know someone like this.”
Shen was the one who spoke up to refute the idea.
From the moment he had seen the man’s face, he had been unable to conceal his discomfort.
Above all, the man’s unsettling gaze was strange, as though he were possessed by something, and even a casual look made it clear that he was not normal.
“What do you think of my social circle, Shen?”
“Pardon? Yours, Young Master?”
“About my friends, for example.”
Shen did not know about Aquila’s past, so Aquila had asked sincerely, but it seemed to sound different to him.
“You hardly ever leave the estate, Young Master. What friends could you possibly have? And after failing to become friends with Lady Raiesel, you said yourself that you did not need friends anymore.”
The attendant continued in a matter-of-fact tone, as though stating the obvious.
“Are you saying I am not your friend?”
“Me? I am your attendant, Young Master.”
Shen’s eyes widened as if he had heard something truly strange.
‘So I have no friends.’
When he recalled the vague records and rumors surrounding Aquila Reschenhardt over the past twenty-nine cycles, it was not strange that he had no close companions.
That meant that as long as he was careful around the people within the Reschenhardt Estate, there was little chance of his identity being exposed elsewhere.
Aquila nodded slowly, as if he had come to terms with it.
“Wow. The two of you really sound like people who have no friends at all.”
Cahena burst into laughter, utterly mismatched with the situation.
“Anyway. I have never seen him at the Reschenhardt Estate either. The Vice-Captain has not, right?”
When Shen glared at her, Cahena cleared her throat and nodded.
‘If even after looking at him like this he does not ring any bells, then he must be nothing more than a passing extra.’
Aquila looked down once more at the Guild of Darkness member who was staring up at him with bloodshot eyes.
Seeing the man sprawled on the floor did not stir any fresh pity in him.
He could easily imagine the children the Guild of Darkness had bought and sold, and the blood that had stained the man’s hands.
As the man’s gaze met Aquila’s, he began to mutter in a voice barely audible.
“Ah… yes, that is it! A demon, a demon is lurking within your bodies…!”
At that moment, Martio, who had picked up the fallen sword, pointed its tip at them and shouted.
“But if—if you let me go like this, I will not report the crime of spilling blood in the sacred temple anywhere! So please…!”
Though Martio’s voice was still full of bluster, his face was deathly pale.
“Bishop. You do not seem to understand your current position.”
The moment Cahena said that and shifted her attention—
HUMMMM!
A faint swirl of Mana began to gather, subtle enough that ordinary people would never notice it.