NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Thud.
The door closed, and the bright smile that had been hanging on El’s face slowly faded away. The chilling silver eyes were distinctly cold.
“Excuse me, Your Grace.”
A knight in uniform revealed himself. El, no, Pope Elio or, removed his hood, enchanted with a mask and illusion magic.
His long, pale blue hair, emblematic of the Sun Temple’s Pope, flowed down to his waist. His skin was eerily pure and clear. A beauty imbued with the severe sacredness of a deity.
However, such a beautiful face left behind only a cold chill, making him seem less than human.
The knight staring at Elio gulped. Being in front of the divine envoy made the air freeze, and he felt frozen himself. With only his eyes moving, the knight attempted to escape the tension.
“……Meeting with Mir was… enjoyable… cough!”
“Shut up.”
A beautiful beam of silvery divine power choked the knight’s neck in an instant. While the breathless knight couldn’t utter a word, El opened a bottle of red wine on the table without even using a corkscrew.
“I’m in the middle of a reminiscence; you’re interrupting.”
His unfocused eyes endlessly stared at the spot where Kashmir had been seated. Elio, pouring wine straight from the bottle without even glancing at the glass on the table, truly looked insane.
Having served Elio for the first time, the knight with the light purple eyes understood why they sang of the Pope as a madman.
“Report.”
Elio, finally emptying a bottle of wine, wiped the red, blood-like liquid from his lips and commanded. The knight’s throat, finally freed from the choking divine power, let out a heavy gulp.
The authoritative silver eyes directed at him seemed to say he would be killed if he spoke nonsense.
“……This morning, Mir, who was hunting monsters, collapsed on his way home.”
“What?”
Crash!
The silver divine power shattered the wall to the knight’s right. A murderous glint flared up in Elio’s silver eyes. Cold sweat poured down the knight’s entire body as he faced that look, which seemed to want to tear him apart alive.
“Ah, as you know, Mir is sensitive to energy, so he had to maintain a considerable distance to observe. Therefore, I didn’t see him collapse, but it absolutely wasn’t because of an external factor! We took the collapsed Mir to the hospital and confirmed he was being examined!”
The knight continued to speak nervously, his expression anxious. Elio blinked slowly. The knight thought that the sudden calmness of Elio’s angry silver eyes was even more terrifying.
“What was the reason for his collapse?”
The knight hesitated for a moment but realized that lying would only make things worse. He tightly closed his eyes.
“……It was exhaustion.”
Crash!
The wall to the knight’s left crumbled. The knight’s large shoulders jerked. Regardless of how much the knight trembled, Elio gritted his teeth.
‘Why, why!’
Kashmir rejected Elio’s help. He could at least accept it once, but anytime the gesture was extended, he rejected it without hesitation.
That strong demeanor he loved acted the same in this regard.
There was nothing he could do. All he could do was extend a trivial amount of money, treat minor wounds, and watch from a distance.
Even after becoming a Pope with powers rivaling the Emperor, Elio felt a dreadful sense of powerlessness.
The cold silver eyes fixed on the knight. Elio briefly considered killing that fool out of anger. The knight’s body froze, feeling the genuine threat of death.
‘No one is worthless. People have no right to judge the value of others.’
However, he knew his love wouldn’t approve of such actions.
Elio sighed heavily. The urge to blow Helene up was suppressed only because of Kashmir.
“Get out.”
“Y-yes!”
Relieved to be alive, the knight took a deep breath and hurriedly exited the room.
Left alone, Elio, who had roughly washed his face, leaned his tired body back against the chair.
“Why… don’t you give me a chance…?
Why do you make me so miserable? I’ve finally reached a position where I can do everything, yet I can’t do anything for you.
The day the deep pink sun fell was too long. Having lost his deity, Elio lived perpetually in the night.
“Another night…”
Only the echo filled with deep longing filled the empty room.
‘I’m exhausted.’
A long day of work made him weary. Dragging his heavy body along, he caught a glimpse of himself in a shop window.
Wildly tousled long black curls with no time to tidy. Dark circles resting heavily beneath his eyes. Tired, lifeless deep pink irises.
His face revealed clear signs of exhaustion.
‘ARIA will worry if she sees this.’
He tried to smooth his pale cheeks in an attempt to soften his tired appearance, but his expression only grew more distorted, and there was no improvement. He shuffled his tired feet into the alley.
Then a sharp smell of blood tickled his nose.
“Surround him!”
He halted his steps, which were set to enter the alley. Quickly retreating, he surveyed the situation in the alley.
A man bleeding from a stab wound surrounded by masked figures.
No need for long consideration. It was a vivid scene at the brink of assassination.
“You’re a rat trapped in a cage now!”
The man, appearing to be the leader of the assassins, laughed maniacally. It was a laugh that was excessively melodramatic.
‘How cringe.’
The shock of someone actually saying such lines made my expression twist involuntarily.
“Who is your mastermind?”
The wounded man groaned as if the pain was intense, then narrowed his eyes sharply. His gaze was cold and straightforward, unlike that of someone about to die.
‘He’s a noble.’
It wasn’t hard to figure it out. Though he acted as a commoner, the dignity he maintained even in a dire situation couldn’t be hidden by his disheveled appearance.
‘He could very well hold a high rank.’
There were eight assassins surrounding the man. Despite all of them being skilled, he felt no energy emanating from the man.
‘They must have spent quite a bit just to deal with a regular guy.’
Skilled assassins never move for small change. The fact that they sent eight to deal with a man who wouldn’t win a fight showed he wasn’t just anyone.
“What’s the mastermind of the man who’s about to die doing?”
The man who seemed to be the leader sneered. The man with the wound, clutching his stomach, let out a painful laugh that was too bitter, causing me to frown.
“Yeah. Who else would want to kill me other than my beloved mother? I shouldn’t have asked something unnecessary.”
‘…Looks like quite the dysfunctional family.’
While my family was no shining example, my mother would never think of actually wanting to kill her daughters. With the wounded man, who seemed familiar with such situations and was calmly bandaging his wounds, I couldn’t help but feel pity for him.
“Haha! Sharp as ever! It’s unfortunate that such keen senses of yours will end here!”
Once again, the assassin, awkwardly laughing, raised his sword high and approached the man. The man, seeming to give up as he closed his eyes, looked sorrowful. I took in that sight, letting out a deep sigh.
My position in this situation was evident.
I flipped my cape hood down and pulled a mask from my pocket over my face.
‘I hope there’s no trouble later on.’
Letting myself get involved with assassins wouldn’t end well. This might lead to troublesome situations.
Still, no matter the cost afterward, I would save this man. I was convinced that if this moment came around again, I would act the same way.
‘Why, you ask?’
If I pass by, that man will surely die.
‘Life is valuable in itself. No one is expendable. Always remember that.’
Remembering the teachings of my ideals, I briefly closed my eyes. Just as life needs no reason to exist, saving someone requires no justification either. The man was still alive, and I could save him.
That was all that mattered.
Along with a fierce gust of magical wind, I lightly leaped and stood in front of the wounded man, blocking the assassins.
“What, who are you!”
The assassins aimed their weapons at me with confused expressions. I blinked.
‘Who am I?’
I glanced at the injured man.
With a face pale from his injuries and lips turning red amidst the pallor. Despite being a man, he had an appearance fitting for a beauty. His looks were dazzlingly beautiful.
‘Like a princess in danger.’
I couldn’t help but mutter my thought without a filter.
“I’m the prince on a white horse.”
The atmosphere instantly turned icy. The man, who became a princess in a moment, frowned, and the tense assassins stood there, blank-faced.
“You’re a madman.”
One of the assassins muttered. It was a look that perfectly captured the essence of someone seeing a total lunatic.
‘After all, they don’t know my face.’
I felt slightly embarrassed, but I shook it off and feigned nonchalance. Whether they saw me as a madman or not was of no concern.
‘Let’s finish this quickly.’
I carelessly reached for the sword at my waist, then abruptly pulled my hand back.
‘I don’t want to deal with a corpse.’
Although they were skilled, they were no match for a sword master. It was clear that swinging my sword carelessly would bring about death. I scratched my head slightly, a frown forming.
‘Is there any other weapon?’
Wondering if I could find something useful, I rummaged through my spatial pouch. Though it wasn’t unlimited, my space was still pretty wide, filled with random stuff.
Ignoring the onlookers staring at me like I was insane, I continued rummaging until I pulled out something long and smooth.
And then I was taken aback.
‘Why on earth do I have this…?’
I stared blankly at the object I had pulled out.
What I had retrieved was a long, shiny metal pipe.
“Ha ha ha! So you really are a madman!”
The assassin burst into laughter as if he would tear apart his insides. The wounded man, perhaps thinking I was here to save him, showed a defeated expression.
‘These bastards…
My brow twitched. I was not in a good mood.
“Even if you’re going crazy, at least do it elegantly! You’ve crawled into your own grave, urging your demise! You think you can face us with just that…?”
There was no need to refute the foolish words of the leader assassin, who was overjoyed. I simply infused energy into the pipe.
Swish!
With the sound of a rushing wind, a dark aura enveloped the pipe.