Don’t Be Holy! - Chapter 167

***

Around the time when Eir had fallen into Freidis’s grasp, Magnus, who had sold her out, had just returned to the imperial capital via the witch’s final teleportation magic, taking less than half a day.

“Ugh.”

Knights suffering from the aftereffects of the spell clutched trees and retched here and there.

Meanwhile, Magnus stood firmly on the ground, seemingly unaffected, perhaps due to the shadow power that had seeped into his body.

Having wandered through the forest in darkness, losing track of time, he felt a strange discomfort rather than relief when he saw the massive walls and the glittering symbol of the Divine Empire atop the spires visible through the leaves.

“What do we do now?”

Someone asked Magnus. He found himself unconsciously looking toward the central temple in the direction indicated by the spire’s flag.

The dizzying, somewhat empty feeling he had experienced when he first got into trouble as a young man ran down his spine. His body swayed, and he leaned against a tree. Only after confirming that his feet were firmly on the ground—as he had felt like he was floating in the air—did Magnus realize he was sweating profusely.

“Rubel will come after us.”

Those words slipped out between his thoughts. The exhausted knights raised their voices, as if asking what he meant.

“What are you saying? Lord Rubel is currently imprisoned in the central temple, isn’t he?”

“He’ll learn that she’s disappeared, and he’s not the type to wait quietly in prison. He’ll definitely come looking himself. We need to make a move before that happens.”

“So you’re not returning to the mansion? Didn’t you say you would deliver the witches’ secret to the master?”

The knights angrily questioned Magnus’s once again changed plans. Magnus turned to them with irritated, threatening eyes.

“Who said I wouldn’t? I told you, I’m doing this for the Divine Empire. But Father isn’t someone who would listen to this kind of thing. At least not now. Unless Rubel sets the stage for revenge against me.”

“Even so, you just handed a witch over to another witch…….”

The person about to say that closed his mouth.

He suddenly remembered that the woman had continuously helped them recover with divine power. Even those who had insisted until the end that it was false divine power couldn’t hold out and eventually accepted her help.

So how could they hold their heads high and still insist she was a witch?

But unlike the knight who closed his mouth out of a guilty conscience, Magnus spoke irritably without the slightest hesitation.

“It’s because Father is so biased that I have to go this far. Anyway, going home is dangerous. I’ll finish Rubel first, then go.”

“How do you plan to deal with him?”

The five knights gathered here wouldn’t even be able to restrain Rubel’s feet. Whether unaware of this or not, Magnus deliberately straightened his shoulders and looked directly at the sun.

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”

He would deal with his brother directly using the power handed over by the witch.

From the beginning, there was never any option to hand over the witches’ secret to his father. It was just a lie to reassure the others. Originally, he had received that magic from the witches on the condition that Magnus would personally deal with Rubel.

Moreover, when they handed it over, hadn’t they added that warning, just in case he had other ideas?

‘You can use this only in the situation we discussed. If you rashly try to open it, you, Magnus, as the caster, could be harmed, so be careful.’

Careful, my a*s. They probably meant if he wanted to preserve his life, he’d better do exactly as told.

Magnus thought irritably, lamenting how he had ended up in such a predicament.

Even witches were looking down on him now.

‘To set everything right, I must properly deal with Rubel.’

There would be no second mistake.

Magnus muttered this to himself as he turned away from the sun.

***

“We’ve finally located him.”

The knight bringing the news hesitated upon entering, faced with an unfamiliar scene.

Before him stood Abel, a high priest no less, tensely acting as a doorkeeper, and Rubel, who appeared utterly unconcerned despite having broken out of his cell.

“Come in quickly!”

Abel, trying to hide the mess his brother had created, hurriedly ushered Rubel’s subordinate inside, closed the door, and infused it with divine power to prevent it from being opened easily from outside.

Rubel lay on the prison bed, hands clasped behind his head, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. His posture was so relaxed that it seemed he was in the broken prison cell not to mitigate the incident but simply because there happened to be a bed there.

“So, where is he? Our brother.”