Chapter 48
Aquila Reschenhardt thought to himself.
‘Should I just kill him?’
All he had to do was plunge the dagger in his hand straight into the man’s heart.
The bastard was restrained anyway and could not do anything, and Aquila already knew exactly where to stab to kill him instantly.
And if someone asked why he killed him, he could just say this.
‘Ah. I already extracted all the information I needed, and it seemed fine to kill him. Wasn’t he only kept alive to get information in the first place?’
It would not even be a lie.
There was plenty of information inside his head already.
If he simply spilled where the Guild of Darkness headquarters was and what they were connected to, that would be enough.
No matter what was asked, Aquila knew most things about this world well enough to rattle off answers endlessly.
As for whether it was true or false, he could always ask for it to be confirmed again with the Scales of Judgment……
‘No. That place has a mad god. I should never go back there.’
Aquila did not want to ride the seesaw atop the scales again.
If the Scales of Judgment were not forcibly used, one would enter an ordinary room rather than standing on the scales, but who knew what might happen even there?
Whether Aquila was looking at him with contempt or not, Gilesha cleared his throat and spoke.
“Hm, hm! I do not know how the plan may have changed while I was imprisoned, but before I headed to Reschenhardt, the mud I scooped up from the swamp amounted to only a single handful.”
“…Only a handful?”
“Yes, yes! And I was the one who received that mud! But it was not meant to be used there. As you know—ah! Right! You must already know why I had it! To think I almost spoke presumptuously as if I knew something……!”
Gilesha chattered excitedly like a fish that had found water, then quickly shrank back.
Why stop mid-sentence?
Aquila frowned.
“That is enough. Then let me ask to confirm. After everything was finished, the mud was sent to the east—”
“Young Master!”
Aquila’s question did not continue.
From far away, Shen raised his hand high and called out to Aquila in a loud voice.
The allotted time was already up.
With an irritated gesture, Aquila ran a hand through his hair.
‘…So the corrupted soul currently in Belmaburn was not part of the plan back when Gilesha was heading to Reschenhardt.’
Since Gilesha had not returned with the mud so far, had someone newly scooped up black swamp mud?
‘…The gains are fewer than I expected.’
Aquila let out a silent sigh and glanced sideways at Gilesha.
In any case, the time was up, and it was time to withdraw.
“…Time is up. I am leaving. Stay quietly stuck in here.”
Just in case, Aquila wiped the dagger clean once more and turned around.
“Lord Claude. Are you going to continue staying among those treacherous unbelievers?”
Aquila paused for a moment.
It was a name he himself had given, yet one that now had to be forgotten, and that brought a faint sense of nostalgia.
But he shook the thought away, roughly ruffling his hair.
Once Gilesha was locked back into the carriage, he would mull over everything that had been said so far, and then he might notice that Aquila’s words were strange.
For now, he was too shocked by the mark Aquila had drawn to think properly, but he would eventually realize that there were too many inconsistencies.
‘…As long as he knows nothing about Belmaburn, my business is finished.’
Aquila gave him a brief look and pushed open the carriage door.
“Yes. As long as I possess this shell, I have no choice but to mingle among them. You will continue to remain silent.”
“Yes! Of course, of course! I will remain silent. Naturally. However, however, there is something I wish to say……”
Aquila turned his eyes toward Shen, who was running over.
“Please, please come back and collect this life someday. Salvation—grant me salvation…….”
A gaze filled with yearning.
Gilesha’s dull yellow eyes trembled.
Meeting his gaze, Aquila curled one corner of his lips upward.
“Wait for the time, Gilesha.”
At those same words he had spoken back then, heat rose to Gilesha’s face.
The words Aquila had left behind in the underground dungeon.
It was as if he had only now realized their true meaning.
‘Lucky bastard.’
Without sparing Gilesha another glance, Aquila stepped out of the carriage.
Judging by the temple knights moving about around the carriage, it seemed their brief stay in Celteng was also coming to an end.
“Young Master.”
Shen, who had come up close without him noticing, stared intently at him.
When Aquila held out the dagger in his hand, the attendant glanced at the blade once before carefully taking it.
“…Did you do something?”
He had clearly checked that nothing was on the blade, yet his instincts were eerily sharp.
Aquila, however, looked back at him with an innocent expression, as if asking what he meant.
“No. Nothing at all.”
Then he leisurely began walking toward where the priests were gathered.
The throbbing in his arm had faded, so he thought there was nothing to notice.
Aquila stopped in front of Ianpel.
“For all the fuss I made, the results were not particularly good. I did get answers to a few things, though.”
“He answered you at least?”
“Yes, well. He did say quite a lot of nonsense, though. But are we leaving now? The temple knights seem to—”
“Ah, may I have a moment?”
Before he could continue, Cahena suddenly stepped between them.
Her dark brown eyes settled on Aquila’s face.
“…May I ask what our little Young Master was doing earlier?”
“Me? Doing what?”
“Our Young Master smells of blood.”
Beside her, Heinen nodded.
As people accustomed to using blades, they seemed to have caught the scent of blood from the wound Aquila had inflicted.
“Either you slashed that man, or……”
Cahena’s dark brown eyes moved down from Aquila’s face to his left arm.
The spot where he had drawn a crescent-shaped wound with the blade.
At the precision of her gaze, Aquila’s expression stiffened slightly.
There were people sensitive to blood, but he had thought this much would be fine.
Apparently, it was not.
That meant Shen was probably sensitive to the smell of blood as well.
‘What kind of group is House Reschenhardt, anyway…….’
Even if Aquila did not immediately say what he had done, Cahena would not force the issue.
He was her young master, and she was his guard.
Still, suspicious eyes would continue to follow him.
No matter what he did, wherever he went……
It was bothersome either way.
‘Should I just invoke the dragon’s name? Or would it be better to claim that nearly dying awakened some sort of precognition skill?’
While pondering what to say, Aquila first undid his cuff links and rolled his shirt sleeve all the way up.
His gaze naturally drifted off into the distance.
“It is nothing much, but if we are talking about this—”
“Huh? That is strange?”
Cahena tilted her head in confusion.
She grabbed Aquila’s arm and examined it from side to side.
“There is no wound……?”
At her voice, Aquila immediately turned his gaze back.
‘…Huh?’
She was right.
There was no wound left at all on the arm he had cut.
‘…It did not hurt partway through. Was it because of the Sun God’s blessing?’
There was nothing else that came to mind.
But had the blessing not been largely useless until now?
In the end, it had been Yujelia’s divine power that helped.
The pain of the curse that shook his heart, the cracks in his mana vessel, mana exhaustion, the pain after using aura.
And even the dizziness that divine power did not affect……
‘External injuries… I have hardly had any, have I?’
Come to think of it, most of Aquila’s injuries had been internal rather than external.
He simply had not realized it because he rarely had opportunities to wound his arm like this.
He stared at his arm, then noticed a bloodstain left on the wrinkled sleeve he had rolled up and hastily straightened his clothes.
“See? You were mistaken. I did nothing.”
“Huh? But I clearly smelled blood, and I saw you rummaging around through the gap…… This is strange…….”
Cahena tilted her head with an incredulous expression.
And it was not just her.
Heinen’s expression was odd as well, and so was Shen’s.
‘…I will have to be careful how I act around these people.’
Aquila pushed Cahena, who was blocking the way, aside.
“I will report what I found out.”
“Yes, yes…… I am looking forward to hearing what you discovered.”
***
Since he had not learned much, Aquila mixed in things he already knew and gave a brief explanation.
First, the Guild of Darkness member’s name was Gilesha.
Second, just as the man had said, the mud that Celsia swallowed and turned into a monster was, to Gilesha’s knowledge, all that he had possessed.
He also honestly conveyed that even Gilesha did not know anything about the monster that appeared in Belmaburn.
No matter what, he could not go so far as to reveal where the Guild of Darkness was located.
“Then sending the orphans there and the mud monster are separate matters?”
“Most likely.”
“I thought they might be gathering orphans to feed to that monster.”
Ianpel tilted his head with a puzzled expression.
It was a reasonable thought.
However, across previous cycles, the children had died because of experiments, not because of that monster.
“Then we will keep the personnel dispatched to Belmaburn on standby…… and we should probably investigate the Temple of the Night as well. Whether in whole or in part, it is clear they are colluding with the Guild of Darkness.”
Until now, those who used black power, that is, corrupted divine power, had simply been known as members of the Guild of Darkness.
But with the incident at Reschenhardt, evidence had surfaced, and the Temple of the Sun had seized an opportunity to pressure the Temple of the Night.
Of course, Aquila cautiously suggested that the Temple of the Night and the corrupted sect to which Gilesha belonged seemed fundamentally different.
“And judging by how they insist that I must die according to the natural order, this likely will not end here.”
“Hm…… In that case, the Guild of Darkness will continue sending people to kill you.”
Since carrying out the Revelation of the Night was important, once they knew Aquila was alive, members of the Guild of Darkness would continue to come for him.
They likely already knew, seeing that Gilesha had not returned.
Still, Aquila was not particularly worried.
“House Reschenhardt is strong. Now that the internal issue of Celsia has been resolved, external threats can be dealt with somehow.”
It was a statement brimming with confidence, but Ianpel did not deny it.
Reschenhardt was a place at the pinnacle of martial might.
Once all those who had gone to subjugate the Frost Forest returned, it would not be an exaggeration to say that there would be hardly anyone outside capable of targeting Aquila Reschenhardt.
‘…Come to think of it, Lexenbert should be returning soon as well.’
It had been two days before the day Aquila collapsed from the Curse of Deadly Poison that Lexenbert had left Igrail leading the subjugation force.
Nearly a month had passed already, so it was about time for him to return.
Lastly, Aquila indirectly mentioned that Gilesha’s claim of not knowing anything might have been a lie.
“Yes, I have no intention of ending things like this either. But……”
As he spoke, Ianpel had been glancing at his Communication Bracelet, which had been flashing blue for some time now.
Having slipped away to Celteng while preparations for the Founding Festival were in full swing, he seemed to be receiving intense pressure.
“For now, since we have been delayed, I think we should depart first. Shall we split up between the carriages for a bit? It would be nice if we could learn something while riding in a shaking carriage.”
With a slightly irritated expression, Ianpel smiled.
Aquila glanced toward the carriages for a moment, then nodded.