chapter 30
30 – Liliana Aran (2)
“Nice to meet you, my name is Inquisitor Julius Tapnel.”
“I never thought I would meet the famous Julius Tapnel in person. Nice to meet you “My name is Rotani Aran, the lord of Aran.”
A sturdy man with long, blond hair neatly tied back, and a red-haired nobleman who looks weak at first glance but has a strange elegance.
The Bloody Inquisitor, Julius, and the Lord of Aran, Count Rotani, were facing each other across a large table in an old-fashioned drawing room.
Outside, there is a lot of noise from the voices of workers trying to somehow repair the hole-in-the-wall castle, and the voice of a young priestess teaching the knights discipline can be faintly heard.
-This is what a real person did?
-I heard that the Church of Telmere could conquer the continent if they wanted to. It seems that was true.
-These guys! Aren’t you coming to your senses? Life as a driver is really easy, huh? f*ck your heads, you guys!
When I move my gaze back to the cozy living room, the sight I see is Julius and Rotani facing each other, and Liliana Aran fidgeting next to the Count, covering her stomach and breaking out in a cold sweat.
“I think braiding my hair would be cool, right?”
And an innocent woman standing behind the strongest inquisitor, shaking her golden hair as she pleased.
A comical situation where the invaders are calm and the owners of this place are trembling.
Liliana Aran. No, the high-ranking demon ‘Taishan Serpent’ was feeling his head bleed as he faced the threat of death right in front of him.
I raised my pale face and looked at the man sitting in front of me, Julius Tapnel, and I noticed that he was smiling leisurely.
What does it mean, are they worried about how to kill him?
According to rumors, heretics are burned to death, and humans possessed by demons are said to have their eyes and tongue pulled out and thrown as food to livestock.
Feeling the tiny life writhing in her stomach, the Great Mountain Serpent, or rather Liliana Aran, gritted her teeth.
No matter what happens, the child must be saved.
Even if she falls victim to Tapnel’s power and falls into eternal sleep.
Liliana opened her small mouth and desperately poured out her words towards the interrogator, who was leisurely enjoying the tea in front of her.
“Ho, does black tea suit your taste?”
“Hmm, it smells really good. I don’t know who made it, but I really like it.”
The atmosphere is good. The Countess, who was beginning to think that perhaps the Inquisitors had not come to arrest me, continued her speech in a more subdued tone.
“I’m glad everything happened. “I made it myself, and I’m glad it suits your taste.”
“I see, even though he’s a devil, he seems to be good with his hands. Most of the other devils I’ve met are clumsy at these things.”
The air in the narrow living room with only four people becomes cold.
Liliana, who had begun to break out in a cold sweat, began to look at her, wondering if she should put her head down right now and beg him to just give birth to her child.
Was she pitiful?
Rotani Aran gently held her wife’s hand, but she held it reassuringly and growled at Julius, a man more vicious than the devil before her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. There is no heresy in our Aran. “Do you have any proof that my wife is the devil?”
“Hmm, there is definitely no evidence.”
Then wouldn’t it be okay to burn it?
He was deep in thought as he stroked my chin for a moment, and the words he came out as if they were a clear answer were truly too vicious for the human mind to think about, and Rotani raised the demonic power in my body, leaving at least Liliana a chance to escape. I tried to make it.
That is, until the woman whom everyone paid no attention to opened her mouth.
“Dang! “Then you can’t help it, are you scaring her while she’s in mourning?”
“… When did I scare you?”
“You’re giving it to me now with a menacing smile! “Are you doing this on purpose?”
“… It was an expression of intent that there was no intention to attack.”
“You said you were going to burn it?”
“It’s just a traditional joke passed down among the Heresy Questioners.”
“… ….”
Why is this joke so cruel?
An innocent woman tilting her head in bewilderment when she saw her husband’s killer smile.
The Aran couple, who saw Julius pinned down by Cecil, were frustrated because they had no way of knowing how the situation was going.
“… Isn’t it already over with you in the first place?”
“When did I say that?”
“Didn’t you say that you spoke with the Countess before leaving?”
“Oh, that? “I was sleeping so I went into his dream and talked to him. It would be rude to wake him up when he was sleeping.”
“Well, that wasn’t a dream?”
While listening to the conversation between Cecil and Julius, Liliana thoughtlessly asked a question, recalling a strange dream she had a few days ago.
Cecile, who was smiling and playing with her husband’s hair, looked at her Liliana and nodded.
“Yes, I asked you in my dream the other day. Did you really think it was a dream? “You’re fully human now.”
She laughs and whispers something in her husband’s ear.
Taphnell’s deputy listened quietly and then slowly lowered her head.
I don’t know what it is, but it seems like I’ve passed a critical juncture.
Clutching the hand of her husband who was looking at her with concern next to her, Liliana Aran spoke again with difficulty towards the demon and priest with her determined expression.
“So, what happened to my wife and I?”
“Well, because Julius is so stubborn, I came here because I thought that if he saw a demon and a human living well, he might want to have a second child.”
Is it really difficult to handle the girl-like liveliness?
The Count and Countess, who felt their energy being sucked out with every word of conversation, just hoped that this uncomfortable time would end quickly.
Cecil refers to such a couple. No, the Emperor’s Nightmare introduced it to my husband in a low whisper.
“Let me introduce you to ‘Taishan Serpent,’ the first of the released high-ranking devils to become human.”
A long time ago, when the Emperor’s Nightmare was being punished by an angel, the giant serpent who was beaten and sealed by Tapnel just because he was next to him blushed and panicked at his old nickname.
“Well, how did you know that nickname? “No way…”
“Yes! I am Julius’s wife, Cecil Lionelta, and the pinnacle of all devils! “It is the king’s nightmare.”
Cecil shows off her funny posture and shrugs her shoulders proudly at her husband.
Julius stares expressionlessly at his wife, who is behaving like she did when she was a little girl, with the corner of her mouth twitching.
After hearing about her shameful past, Liliana grabbed Count Rotani by the shoulder with a contemplative look on her face and began to shake him.
“Oh, no, I’m not that big. “Do you trust me?”
“… It’s okay, Liliana, I can accept whatever you are.”
“Oh, no, that’s not it, really….”
Looking at her red-faced face, steam was about to come out, so Cecil stopped teasing the devil who was about the size of her sister and cleared her throat a few times.
“Hmm, okay, it wasn’t that big.”
I think it’s not up to Taesan, but around Daesan.
Liliana, subjected to her temporal attacks, eventually buried her face in the arms of her beloved husband and did not lift her head.
Julius, who was watching that scene from afar, shed his attitude as an Inquisitor and spoke to Rotani in a more docile manner.
“You and your wife seem to be on really good terms. “May I ask what happened?”
“If you say so, will you spare my wife?”
“I don’t really have any intention of doing that. Since I’m currently demoted, I can do a little bit of sloppy work.”
Julius shrugs his shoulders and takes a sip of black tea.
Looking at him like that, Rotani thought a little.
Then why was Yeongju Castle destroyed?
Count Aran, shaking off the small question that was gnawing at his mind, took a sip of the black tea in front of him, wet his mouth, and slowly began to talk.
“Unfortunately, my love, Liliana, passed away two years ago during the plague.”
“There was a time like that.”
“I tried so hard to let her go for two years. However, at some point, I understood. She said that there are some things that time cannot heal.”
“… ….”
“Telmere said that the bodies of dead humans should be burned. But I couldn’t bear to burn her body.”
Lotani, with her eyes red, paused for a moment, suppressing the tears that threatened to burst out.
Julius, looking at that scene, thought without thinking.
He’s just like me.
“I knew it was wrong. But I couldn’t bear to let her go, so when her saint’s offer came, I gladly accepted it.”
“… The end of a bet with the devil is ultimately destruction.”
Julius thoughtlessly blurted out the words he always murmured in his heart, like a prayer to God, but Rotani could only shake her head when she saw him like that.
“I didn’t care if destruction came. “I just wanted to see it again.”
The living Liliana.
-Because honey wants a living Cecil and I am that Cecil.
The devil whispered to me on the path… No, Cecil’s voice and the voice of the nobleman in front of me echoed over and over again.
Julius took a deep breath and gestured for him to continue speaking, and the Count of Aran spat out his last words.
“I knew from the beginning that I lost the bet. But it didn’t matter. “Now that I was able to see her lively again, there were no more regrets left in her life.”
“So you admitted losing the bet in one day?”
“If I dragged on any longer, I was just afraid of waking up from the dream in the future.”
“For all that, you seem very happy right now.”
Julius, who had finished drinking the tea in front of him, pointed to the countess with his chin.
Even though she was scared, the devil held onto her husband’s arm and held her head high.
You really are like Cecil.
He gently placed the teacup on the table and slowly got up and adjusted his clothes.
A black uniform that seems to contain the screams of the devil.
The slayer, who burned and killed countless demons and heretics, nodded his head a few times and said goodbye to the count and wife.
“I heard you are having a baby. I hope the baby is born healthy. “Thank you for telling me such an interesting story.”
Julius extending his hand towards Rotani.
The Count, looking at his hand, hesitated for a moment and then tightly grasped the interrogator’s hand as if he had made up his mind.
“Thank you for your understanding. Thank you for saving me and my wife.”
“Well, I was in a similar situation, so I just turned a blind eye to it.”
Two innocent men held each other’s hands and looked into each other’s eyes.
Eyes filled with the power of a devil and eyes filled with the power of an angel.
Two men so different, yet so similar.
Perhaps it was because they had something in common, but Rotani continued to look at Julius without even thinking about letting go of his hand.
“… I hope you let go now.”
“I am truly sorry for saying this.”
The red-haired nobleman shed a drop of cold sweat, held the interrogator’s hand, and lowered his head.
“You need to reimburse me for the cost of damage to Yeongju Castle….”
Count Rotani, who succeeded his father, Lin Tau Aran, as ruler of the water city of Aran.
He was a lover who loved his wife dearly, but he was also a capable lord.
The lord, who had escaped the danger of death, quietly brought up the topic of money, and Julius, who was nodding thoughtfully, spoke concisely as if giving a clear answer.
“Do you want to die?”
Julius Tapnel, the man who single-handedly killed the most heretics and demons in history.
I think this was his limit.
It was a time in the late afternoon when I could only feel sorry for Count Aran, who had been suddenly struck by lightning.
***
“So what is this?”
“That’s harmful, I didn’t think about it before, but you shouldn’t see something like that!”
Surprisingly, the interior of Yeongju Castle has been repaired in good condition. Julius, who was calmly cutting a steak in a restaurant with a long table, suddenly spoke calmly to Cecil, who covered her eyes and clung to me.
For your information, the broken Lord’s Castle was completely repaired by the hands of the immortal priest, Emily.
The priestess, who waved the divine beast’s magical horn and performed a blessing ceremony to pray for a miracle to the main deity by roughly holding the horn and swinging it, is currently drinking wine from the bottle and blowing on the bottle.
He listened to the powerful sound of the bottle nabal, tapped the hand covering his eyes and spoke softly.
“I’m going to unpack this, it’s not polite at a dinner table.”
“Being polite isn’t important, I’m trying to prevent the breakdown of the family.”
A brown-haired woman shivering as if she had seen something scary.
What on earth was he looking at that made him do such strange things? Julius, curious, asked back with a small smile.
“Protect from something.”
“I’m protecting you from that monster.”
Cecil pointed at Liliana with her hand.
I opened one of her eyes and looked at her, but I couldn’t understand why she was like this.
“What do you mean it’s a hideous thing?”
“Profit! “I mean that one!”
Cecil must have forgotten her goal of covering her eyes, and now she pointed at her chest with both hands and shouted.
When Liliana saw that, she realized what made Cecil uncomfortable and shyly covered her ample breasts.
“Well, what are we going to do now?”
Did it actually feel like a provocation?
Cecil is shaking and feels anger all over her body.
Seeing her like that, her Julius laughed and shook his head.
“There is only one woman that catches my eye: Cecil Lionelta. “She’s so busy with just one person that there’s no way another woman could catch her eye.”
At his calm words, Cecile, who had been shaking, froze in the same position where she was waving her arms.
The ears visible through the shiny hair are bright red.
Cecile became completely mute when she saw her husband, who was usually blunt, but calmly said such things on special occasions.
Rotani, who was watching Julius and his wife’s comic, seemed to be impressed, even putting down the knife in his hand and applauding softly.
As expected, Julius was the strongest in the kingdom in terms of his ability to catch demons.
.
.
.
“There, there, no, hey there! “Butler, please come here.”
Perhaps completely drunk, the silver-haired priestess with her blushing face brandished a bottle of wine and called to the butler who was standing calmly in the corner.
Paton, the butler of Lord Aran’s castle, with her attractive mustache, bowed her head once in response to the call of her legendary priestess and approached her.
“Is there anything that makes you uncomfortable?”
“Is it over there? Listen to me, oh well? “Are you saying I foolishly missed Ethan right in front of me?”
Seeing Emily smelling like alcohol and being drunk, all Parton could do was smile as if she was troubled and nod her head.
After muttering for several minutes, Emily finally uttered her last words at the end of her long drunken speech.
At her last words, Parton’s smile disappeared and his face became pale.
The words that flowed into his ears were simple.
“Me? “I played a trick on the blood of those heretics.”
I taught you this last time, right? It is said to be the power to turn ‘flowable’ into holy water.
Faton looked astonished as he felt his blood begin to rise in response to the demonic energy within his heart.
“Did you really think I missed it? That can’t be possible. “I’ve been doing this for years.”
Emily Lidina.
The name of the woman most feared by heretics and demons in the kingdom before Julius.
Rom’s adoptive daughter and Julius’ teacher twisted the corners of her mouth and smiled at Ethan.
Early evening when the tail of evil peeked out.
In the eyes of the great priestess, the masked man who had been hiding crouching behind her appeared.