Chapter 48
Once the wall of paladins was breached, the priests lost their lives in an instant.
Even those trying to flee to save their own skins fell to the masked, mysterious assassins.
“Your Holiness!”
One man, possessing something resembling genuine piety, cried out as he searched for the Pope.
If he survived but the Pope died, wouldn’t he lose his head for the crime of failing in his duty?
But he was given no time to ponder this, as the priest’s head soon rolled across the ground.
“…….”
In the camp, now a bloodbath in an instant, only the tent at the center remained—the one housing the Pope and his attendant.
However, instead of surrounding the tent to capture the Pope, the assailants began removing their masks, one by one.
“Survivors?”
The one who asked was someone who had once appeared at the temple as well.
To the world, he was not perceived as a particularly influential figure, appearing rather to have been pushed from the seat of power by his younger brother, the Second Prince—
“None, aside from those inside the tent, Your Highness.”
Crown Prince Aldenas surveyed the tent.
Then, removing his black attire spattered with blood, he donned a relatively presentable shirt and stood before the tent.
“Your Holiness, are you within?”
“Of course. I have been waiting.”
Only then did a calm voice come from inside the tent, which had been quiet until now.
It was a composed voice, as if he had known exactly what would happen outside.
“Then I shall enter.”
Crown Prince Aldenas lifted the tent flap and entered.
Upon a rather well-made bed for a field cot lay a woman with deep green hair.
Of course, she was recognizable only by the unmistakable curves barely visible above the unusually thick blanket and her long hair.
Everything else was obscured by the Pope’s form.
The Pope, too, was dressed lightly yet formally, as if expecting a guest.
“And the person beside you?”
Aldenas inquired to confirm.
He was asking if this was the imperial princess who was to survive, as mentioned in the letter.
Pope Ian nodded.
Then, placing a hand over his heart, he grimaced.
Unless the thought had been exceptionally intense, the heart’s brand seal should not have reacted to such an indirect violation of Lekia’s will.
It seemed that brief thought had been quite powerful indeed.
The thought that I will definitely save you.
Ian’s gaze touched upon and then drifted away from Delonas, who had fallen into an exhausted sleep.
“Understood. We will treat her with the utmost care. Ah, and I have brought something as a token of our alliance.”
The Crown Prince approached him.
In his hand was something like a small stone, and Ian recognized the stone-that-was-not-a-stone at a glance.
“Is that not a royal artifact of the imperial family?”
One of the few objects passed down through the Archion imperial family that can block magic.
The Stone of Protection.
Even when Beakin’s magic was highly advanced, this was one of the reasons why directly harming Archion’s imperial family was so difficult.
And now, it was in the Crown Prince’s hand.
“What use is a royal artifact to a royal family that is already doomed to fall?”
Beakin’s magic is already being blocked by Archion’s holy water.
The reason the Stone of Protection is still needed, despite that…
“Please do not refuse this gift, offered as a token of gratitude for accepting my proposal, and as a sign that we are allies.”
As he said this, Aldenas’s eyes gleamed.
“More than anything, isn’t this a situation where you need it?”
It seemed the Crown Prince’s intelligence network was more formidable than imagined.
It meant he knew about the magical seal on me.
Sure enough, Aldenas’s gaze shifted toward Ian’s heart.
“…Of course, I cannot predict what sort of harmony it may create with the divine power within your body.”
“We’ll find out by trying it. For now, I accept it gratefully.”
Without hesitation, Ian undid some buttons of his upper garment and exposed his chest.
―Ssshk!
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