NOVEL NEXT Episode 43
Episode 43
‘There are so many transcendents here, but barely any clerics.’
Lindsey had no intention of moving around recklessly.
‘I can wait until Bianca finishes the mission before carrying out the emperor’s orders.’
She decided to stay put in her room within the count’s mansion.
Even after she made this clear, Kenyan seemed uneasy.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he froze, his expression suddenly hardening.
Without waiting for the healing to finish, Kenyan stood up abruptly.
“What’s going on?! Is something wrong?”
“I hear fighting.”
“Fighting?!”
“Stay here. It’s dangerous.”
“I’d be safest next to you, wouldn’t I?”
Her remark left Kenyan speechless for a moment. Lindsey continued.
“I should probably learn the layout of the mansion too, just in case.”
After considering her words for a moment, Kenyan reluctantly agreed and started walking, pulling Lindsey along with him.
“Don’t leave my side.”
He grabbed her arm. Lindsey frowned but didn’t push him away. For the first time that day, Kenyan’s face relaxed a little, his constant scowl fading slightly.
‘Why do I feel so annoyed by that…?’
Even though it irked her, Lindsey let him be.
It wasn’t the right time to argue.
“Just stay calm.”
With those words, Kenyan wrapped his arm around Lindsey and leaped forward. It didn’t take long for them to reach their destination, and Kenyan came to a halt.
What they saw made Lindsey gasp, covering her mouth in shock.
A young boy, barely able to stand, was being beaten by several transcendents.
“Pathetic wretch!”
“We told you not to crawl out of the underground prison!”
Lindsey jumped out of Kenyan’s grasp and stood between the boy and the attacking transcendents.
Just as one of them was about to strike Lindsey, she braced herself.
‘This is going to hurt.’
Her opponent was a transcendent, and if his punch landed, she would be in pain for a long time. Lindsey pulled the boy into her arms and closed her eyes, preparing for the blow.
But the pain never came.
When she cautiously opened her eyes, she saw Kenyan gripping the transcendent’s arm with a look she had never seen before.
‘He’s never looked like that…’
Up until now, every time Kenyan had been angry, it hadn’t seemed genuine.
But now, the fury on his face was real. He looked like a demon, ready to tear the transcendents apart.
“P-please let go of my arm,” the pale transcendent stammered, trembling in fear.
Despite the plea, Kenyan’s expression remained icy cold.
The transcendent’s face grew paler by the second as Kenyan continued to hold his arm in a crushing grip.
Lindsey, shaken out of her daze, finally spoke.
“Why were you beating this boy?”
“He’s a criminal.”
“A criminal?”
“Yes, he escaped from the underground prison where he belongs.”
“What crime did he commit…?”
“We’re not allowed to say.”
Lindsey glanced down at the boy, her expression hardening.
Their eyes met. The boy was too terrified to speak, his face filled with fear.
‘And this aura…’
The boy’s energy was unmistakably that of a transcendent. And not just any transcendent—one in desperate need of healing.
‘They’re treating a transcendent like this?’
In the empire, transcendents held incredibly high status. The stronger they were, the more power they wielded, sometimes even escaping punishment for serious crimes.
“Is what they’re saying true?” Lindsey asked the boy.
He hesitated, unable to answer.
Seeing this, the transcendents smirked.
“See? He’s not denying it, so it must be true.”
“This is a matter for our territory. It would be best for you both to stay out of it.”
Without the boy’s confession, there was little more Lindsey could do to intervene.
But still.
‘I can’t just ignore this.’
She looked at the boy.
His eyes were empty, devoid of any hope, as if he had long stopped expecting any help.
Lindsey whispered softly as she looked at him.
‘Wait. I’ll come back to help you.’
⋆★⋆
Later that evening, during a meal with Count Rewan, Lindsey felt an overwhelming sense of unease. Seated with her were Kenyan, Bianca, and the count himself.
“You two are truly remarkable transcendents,” Count Rewan said, looking at Kenyan and Bianca with admiration in his eyes.
“Thanks to you, we’ve been able to eliminate many monsters.”
“……”
“You might even finish the mission ahead of schedule.”
He looked pleased as he spoke, but Bianca interrupted, her tone skeptical.
“Count Rewan, after returning from the subjugation, I noticed something odd. There are far too few clerics here.”
The count tilted his head as if puzzled by her statement.
“While the number of transcendents here is certainly high, there’s a noticeable absence of clerics.”
“That’s just how things are here.”
“How they are?”
“Yes, clerics don’t usually come to places like this.”
“That may be true, but…”
Count Rewan laughed heartily.
“Well, it’s not something to be too concerned about.”
Bianca watched him closely, her expression unreadable. Clerics, who provided healing, were essential to transcendents, and yet he dismissed their absence as if it didn’t matter.
“And I hear you encountered the fugitive from the underground prison?” Count Rewan smoothly changed the subject.
Lindsey nodded.
“What did you think?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Did you feel anything… unusual?”
“I thought it was strange.”
“Strange?”
“As Bianca said, it’s odd that there are so few clerics here, and it seemed unnatural the way you treated that transcendent boy.”
“I see.”
Lindsey frowned in confusion. She couldn’t quite understand the count’s intentions behind his questions.
He responded to her gaze with a cryptic smile, one that hinted at hidden motives.
Count Rewan turned his gaze to Kenyan and Bianca and spoke, his voice calm but his eyes gleaming with hidden intent.
“I heard you’ll be heading out for your expedition tonight. Leave the protection of the estate to us. There’s no safer place in the lawless territories than this mansion… I wish you both the best of luck.”
⋆★⋆
That night.
Lindsey awoke with a start.
“Where am I?”
She looked around, her mind still groggy. She had fallen asleep in her own room, but now, she found herself in a completely unfamiliar place.
‘Is this… the underground prison?’
She cautiously reached out to touch the bars in front of her.
That’s when Count Rewan appeared, his twisted smile sending chills down her spine.
“You’re awake.”
He grinned, his expression oozing malice.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“You haven’t heard the rumors, have you?”
“…?”
“The rumor that clerics who come to the lawless territories never return.”
Lindsey glanced around. It was just her and Count Rewan in this eerie space.
His eyes glowed with a sinister energy.
‘He’s completely lost it, hasn’t he?’
She couldn’t understand what had happened. She knew that Kenyan and Bianca had gone on their mission after dinner. She had stayed in her room the entire time for safety.
So why had she woken up here, trapped in a cell?
Lindsey stared at the count and asked, “Are you the reason clerics haven’t been returning? Did you kill them?”
“That’s right.”
“Why would you do something like that?”
“To create the perfect transcendent.”
“The perfect transcendent?”
“One that doesn’t need healing from a cleric.”
“And how is killing clerics supposed to help with that?”
Lindsey was stalling, trying to buy herself time.
“My wife was a cleric. She went to war and died… 20 years ago.”
“…….”
“Since then, I’ve always wondered why transcendents can’t be perfect on their own.”
The count’s eyes blazed with obsession.
“I found the answer. It’s because of clerics. Their existence prevents transcendents from being perfect by themselves.”
He was completely mad.
“So, I’ve been working to become a perfect transcendent. I extract divine power from clerics, so it’s always available to me.”
Lindsey’s expression darkened.
Count Rewan was clearly insane.
Espers and guides. Transcendents and clerics. Those bonds were inseparable. It wasn’t something a human could artificially manipulate.
‘This is nonsense.’
Even in Korea, where the connection between espers and guides had begun far earlier than in this world, attempts had been made to sever that link.
A world where espers didn’t need guides.
It sounded tempting, after all.
But in Korea, every attempt to create espers who didn’t need guides had ultimately failed.
There were temporary drugs that could stabilize espers, but that was only a short-term solution.
‘Eventually, they would lose their minds, suffer hallucinations, and go berserk.’
Count Rewan was proof of that.
His eyes had already lost their clarity. Lindsey could see that his deteriorating mental state was the result of meddling with the divine power of clerics, a force far beyond human control.