Chapter 73
But Ian, who could hear her either way, smiled softly.
And he remained beside her until her breathing grew soft and even, rising and falling in gentle rhythm. Only then did he rise silently from the place beside her.
Careful not to wake her.
It was time to go and fight.
Among all the popes in history, Ian’s external travels were frequent. The official reason: so many provincial temples had crumbled that countless souls could not properly receive the touch of Ephina, and he must go forth to minister to them directly.
It was a worthy course for a pontiff, but before that, there was a personal reason: he simply loathed being confined within the temple.
Of course, this was something the people did not know.
In any case, his frequent travels meant that when he announced his departure, no one raised a particular objection.
Not that Lekia had refrained from expressing displeasure at Ian’s habit of wandering beyond the temple walls since becoming pope.
“Your Holiness’s safety concerns me.”
So she claimed. But Ian knew better.
What if the supply of holy water were to cease?
Her true thoughts were plain upon her wrinkled brow. And so, before setting out, Ian never failed to provide holy water.
Thus Lekia assumed this journey was merely routine—like all the others.
So this time too, before his external schedule—
“Your Holiness, if you have prepared holy water, I shall transport it.”
Thus pressed by Lekia’s senior priest, Ian handed over the vials.
“My thanks.”
Lekia was one who understood how to manage people. He secured the loyalty of his senior priests by sharing with them a portion of the profits from selling holy water.
A pittance compared to the actual wealth and influence Lekia herself accumulated—barely the size of a mouse’s claw—yet still, by ordinary standards, an unimaginable fortune.
No doubt that was why the priest who received the holy water had such a gleam in his eye.
“How long, I wonder, before they notice?”
And so they had taken the vials without realizing that what they contained was merely plain water.
But that was not all.
—Vooooom!
Having met with Crown Prince Aldenas, Ian closed his eyes.
He began to withdraw his divine power—the power that had spread across the entire empire through the holy water.
Only one place remained where he did not reclaim it: near where Delonas sheltered. The holy water protecting her must remain.
—Fwoooosh!
Though others would not see it, Ian could. It was, after all, his own divine power. More than seeing, he could feel it—the power that had blanketed the empire now returning to his body, filling him to overflowing.
“I have reclaimed all my divine power.”
Ian opened his eyes. Such potent divinity surrounded him that for a moment, white light seemed to dance within his brown irises. Even Aldenas, a mere mortal, could sense the surging power; his eyes widened.
“Ohhh…….”
Observing the transformation, Aldenas gestured to his attending knights.
“Bring the vessels.”
In truth, the containers need not be commercial holy water vials. With sufficient divine power, even the filthiest ditch water could become purest holy water. The shape of the vessels mattered not at all.
Before Ian’s divinely gleaming eyes, Aldenas’s knights began arraying various containers.
—WHOOOOSH!
And over these vessels, torrents of divine power poured down.
Holy water was being created—so concentrated that it dwarfed even the vials Lekia had prized as his finest. This would become the wellspring of power that would transform the empire.
Aldenas clenched his fist.
The moment divine power vanished from the holy water, the first to notice were servants in noble households.
—Sploosh!
“Huh?”
A maid scrubbing a window with a cloth soaked in holy water blinked in bewilderment. Normally, the water would seep into the glass itself, dissolving grime and fingerprints as if absorbed by the very surface. But now—far from seeping—it splashed back onto her face like ordinary water.
She stared dumbly at the droplets trickling down the pane.
“Did I mistake it for plain water?”
Yet the vials brought straight from the holy water stores proved the same.
Soon, their masters, too, perceived the change.
“The tea feels strangely flat today.”
“Does it not taste different?”
Nobles who steeped their leaves in holy water exchanged puzzled glances.
—Shing!
Knights who used holy water to polish their blades wore similarly foolish expressions.
“This holy water—something is wrong with it.”
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