Chapter 91
Catherine could only speculate to herself that perhaps he was most sincere when dealing with Angelina.
“Get caught, turn all our efforts into bubbles, and send the operation down the drain?”
Today, it seemed he had chosen sarcasm as his concept. It was the concept he maintained most often.
“Can’t you just say it’s not possible instead of being so sarcastic about it?”
“Well, you’re the one saying such ridiculous things.”
Catherine sighed at his cold retort. At first, his way of speaking used to hurt her, but now she was used to it and just accepted it.
“Sigh… I know we need to provoke the Order, but it’s hard watching people suffer right in front of us.”
“Anyone would think you were actually a Saint.”
“Do I have to be a Saint to feel sorry for suffering people?”
“You’re the one who agreed to do this.”
“I’m following along because Miss Flaubert made the plan and I trust it. I know it’s necessary to bring down the Order. It’s just… those people don’t know that, so it feels like they’re becoming needless sacrifices.”
“Oh, how saintly. Why don’t you become an angel while you’re at it?”
“…You really don’t know how to speak nicely.”
The Magic Tower Master approached Catherine as she grumbled quietly, and looked at the same scene she was watching.
The priests were turning away, grumbling, apparently having confirmed that the ‘Saint’ wasn’t in the ransacked restaurant either. One of them was a face Catherine knew well.
“I never dreamed I’d see Priest Derek like this.”
“We got him good, aren’t you satisfied?”
“I’m not sure if this really counts as getting him good. I feel… unsettled somehow.”
“….”
The reason she couldn’t feel completely satisfied was because of all the inn and restaurant owners who suffered damage like that restaurant.
Though she didn’t seem to realize this herself.
Aesi quietly observed Catherine’s troubled expression.
For a moment, he thought about how she resembled Angelina in the way she didn’t understand her own feelings well.
But he quickly dismissed the thought. There couldn’t be anyone in this world like his sister. Everyone else was primitive compared to Angelina.
“That level of damage isn’t even real damage. Think about what you’ve suffered from those bastards.”
“….”
“Don’t you need to properly pay them back for that?”
“The world doesn’t run on revenge alone.”
“Where’s the woman who said she’d endure anything if given the chance to bring them down?”
“Those words still stand. But this isn’t about revenge for what they did to me. It’s to prevent other kids like me… sacrifices like that child from happening again.”
“So your intentions are more noble and pure than mine?”
“There you go again, twisting things sarcastically. How did your mind get so warped?”
“You’re the strange one, having such pure thoughts even after what you went through. Anger and vengeance are like basic human instincts.”
“I’m plenty angry. It’s not that I don’t have thoughts of revenge. But the revenge I’m seeking isn’t for me, it’s only for that child.”
“That child, that child. Who exactly is this child you keep mentioning?”
“A poor child who was exploited by the Order’s evil deeds before me, sacrificed as a bud before seeing proper light.”
“There must be many such children.”
“The first Saint candidate. The First Flower.”
“The first… Saint candidate?”
The Magic Tower Master softly repeated her words as if he’d heard something surprising.
Meanwhile, Catherine, remembering that child, was overwhelmed with depression and sat by the window, hugging her legs and burying her face in her knees.
When she was scared, she used to sit side by side with that child and hold hands tightly… After that child left, fear became an emotion she had to endure alone.
“Poor Lina…”
“Wait, what did you say?”
The moment she quietly murmured the name of the child she missed, a sharp voice came from the Magic Tower Master.
A jarringly broken voice mixed in between today’s youthful voice that he had been concealing with magic.
It was none other than the Magic Tower Master. The fact that he was shocked enough for his magic to waver held great significance.
Catherine also lifted her head to look at him.
Though she couldn’t see his expression because of the mask covering his face, somehow she felt he must be frozen stiff. His body and all the air around him seemed frozen.
“Fake Saint.”
“…What’s wrong with you?”
Though it was the title he always used when referring to her, today it sounded somewhat sharp. As if containing many suppressed emotions, it seemed ready to burst at any moment.
“Tell me about that first Saint candidate who was your friend. ‘That child.’ Everything from your first meeting to your last conversation, without missing anything.”
At those words that sounded like a command, Catherine could only nod.
And so she began the long story of buried memories.
Chapter 14. What We Waited For Then
What would normally take a month to travel, Angelina and Blake achieved the feat of covering in just 6 hours.
They utilized the fact that large magic guilds had teleportation capabilities between them, just like how they could teleport out from the Magic Tower during their visit there.
They moved from the capital’s magic guild to the northernmost guild, and from there they used scrolls to jump to the next village, and then jumped again.
The reason people didn’t use this method was that those unfamiliar with teleportation could faint from sudden low blood pressure.
Even magicians who used scrolls daily complained of motion sickness, as they weren’t particularly comfortable to use.
But that wasn’t the real problem.
The reason why nobody used these convenient methods was because both teleportation and scrolls had the worst cost-effectiveness.
“Ughhhh…. Five million shillings just from my share…. ughhhh…”
Seeing nearly 80% of his annual salary disappear at once, Haley fell into despair, while Mason and Sean couldn’t hide their shocked expressions.
At least Laura maintained her poker face. She was used to seeing Ante spend even more extravagantly than this.
And unlike everyone else, Angelina wore a very refreshed expression.
‘To accomplish bucket list item #1 like this. I should mark it as successful again.’
She was delighted to have successfully completed the money-spending spree she had previously felt bad about not doing properly.
Meanwhile, Blake couldn’t shake off his bewilderment.
‘What if my memory is wrong and we did all this reckless thing for nothing…’
They had spent 300 million shillings just based on his words that he ‘thought he heard such a fairy tale,’ searching for a clue that might not even help.
Should he take it as a sign that she trusted him that much? Or was that amount of money just like having an expensive lunch to her?
As he had thought when she bid a billion for Artoas at the auction, Flaubert seemed to have a different sense of money’s weight than ordinary people.
It made him realize once again that money was both the most important thing and the most meaningless thing.
“I can see the entrance over there.”
Angelina, who had been walking cheerfully, excitedly spoke up when she spotted what appeared to be Kuns Village.
However, Blake stopped her.
“Wait.”
“Why? Is that not it?”
“It is, but…”
He frowned as he examined the village entrance.
“Something’s strange.”
“Strange?”
As Angelina wondered at Blake’s words, Mason chimed in.
“Your Grace is right… There wasn’t a wall like that before.”
Just as those words ended, they heard the sound of a horn going ‘Pwooo-‘
“What’s this all of a sudden?”
A startled Haley put up a barrier and implemented various defensive spells. Laura also tensed up.
Blake reacted faster than both of them. He reflexively hid Angelina behind his back and drew his sword.
Angelina also calmed her surprised heart while lightly gripping his collar.
“Was it like this when you came before?”
“Back then, they welcomed any visitors.”
Visitors were rare, maybe one or two a year, and most of them were people who had gotten lost and arrived by mistake.
So they used to welcome whoever visited.
But now that didn’t seem to be the case.
“I wonder if something happened in the past few years?”
Angelina carefully observed the situation while making her guess. But there was no way to know the answer.
The horn wouldn’t stop blowing, and after a moment, people appeared on top of the entrance and walls.
The gathered crowd was all holding weapons.
On both walls, those holding bows were also visible.
‘Maybe it’s hard to see because they’re far away… but it looks like there are children too.’
To Angelina’s eyes, most of them appeared to be teenagers.
Even those who seemed older had youthful appearances that suggested they had just reached adulthood.
“Stop right there! We’ll shoot if you come any closer!”
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