Chapter 19
Robert anxiously swept back his long bangs.
Memories he had struggled to forget for so long began to weigh him down.
‘Even here, they insist on Kadir Order…’
Before the Dephria Order was designated as the official state religion, numerous religions coexisted in the Rotandus Empire.
Among them, the Kadir Order, which worshipped Kadir, the god of wisdom, was the most prevalent.
Aligned with the empire's conservative traditions, the Kadir Order easily permeated the people of Rotandus.
The priests and ardent followers of the Kadir Order tattooed their foreheads with a mark signifying wisdom.
It was a tattoo modeled after the eyes of an owl, the symbol of wisdom.
Those who bore this tattoo were always meticulous about their behavior, no matter where they went.
The Kadir Order cautioned against excessive pleasure and luck.
'As you sow, so shall you reap' was the doctrine that ran through the Kadir Order.
As time passed, some of the Kadir Order's rules, which had been mere guidelines, gradually became coercive.
Everything from clothing to the food to be eaten on specific days was prescribed.
The followers obsessively adhered to the rules as if competing with each other. And they ostracized those who did not.
It was at this time that discontent with the Kadir Order's behavior gradually increased.
A rebellion broke out in the empire.
With the change of power, a new state religion was designated, and religions other than the Dephria Order began to lose their place.
The temples of the Dephria Order glittered with gold all year round. The Pope enjoyed even more extravagance than the Emperor.
Befitting the goddess of fortune, they regarded sudden luck as the most excellent value, rather than individual effort.
The offerings to be made to the temple each month were also determined by two sixteen-sided dice.
In the face of random luck, nobles and commoners were equal. It was the complete opposite of the Kadir Order's doctrine.
People cheered for the new state religion. And at the same time, religious persecution began.
The religious persecution strangely focused solely on the Kadir Order.
The movement to erase all traces of the Kadir Order intensified, as if to obliterate them completely.
All of Kadir's temples were demolished, and Dephria's temples were erected in their place. Even the temples in small rural villages were no exception.
The Pope of the Dephria Order declared the Kadir Order to be a religion of swindlers. He claimed that they had created absurdly strict doctrines to receive offerings from their followers.
At the time, the Kadir Grand Temple housed the Flame of Wisdom, which never caught fire and never went out.
The Pope used that.
The Pope extinguished the Flame of Wisdom in front of the crowd. Some of the Kadir Order's high-ranking priests knew that the Flame of Wisdom extinguished by the Pope was fake.
But they had already been captured, so there was no way to prove it.
After that, the real Flame of Wisdom disappeared.
The Pope did not stop there and poured out cleverly fabricated evidence.
In this way, a large number of disappointed Kadir Order members converted to the Dephria Order.
Nevertheless, there were followers who kept their faith.
However, there was nowhere to welcome the few remaining Kadir Order members. The persecution lasted for a long time.
Thus, time passed.
The fact that religions other than the Dephria Order had existed was forgotten.
However, only the negative record that the Kadir Order was a fraudulent group was passed down.
Now, the owl tattoo, which had signified wisdom, became a symbol of misfortune.
No one believed in the existence of Kadir.
Therefore, the Kadir Order members who barely survived and maintained their faith all wore hoods or kept their bangs long to hide their tattoos.
Most of them could not settle down and wandered around or lived in small villages in the mountains.
Young people from such families who denied their religion burned or cut off the tattoos on their foreheads that their parents had given them.
Robert was one of those young people. His family had been priests at the Kadir Temple for generations.
Despite the brutal persecution, the lineage was not severed.
Robert had an unhappy childhood because of his family's traditions.
He denied the existence of the Kadir god. All the god had done for him was bring misfortune.
If there was a real god, his family would not be living like this.
However, Robert could not easily escape the doctrines that had been ingrained in him since he was in his mother's womb.
He tore off his tattoo himself and ran out of his family, but the doctrines that had been ingrained in him since childhood relentlessly tormented him.
He wanted to kill himself every time he unconsciously acted like a follower of the Kadir Order.
Then he met Zeppelin.
Robert, who had left his family, worked as an informant.
He was investigating the requests of puppeteers who had been steadily disappearing for years.
He realized that most of the clues were pointing to the Devonshire County Manor, approached the manor, and was eventually caught by the Hounds.
Zeppelin did not rage at him but rather valued Robert's ability to gather information.
He offered to spare Robert's life in exchange for becoming one of his Hounds.
Robert could not refuse. Zeppelin had already taken his family hostage.
Zeppelin hid Robert's captured family somewhere and handed over censored letters and photos as a reward.
Even if he had abandoned his family, could he not ignore the ties of blood?
Robert eventually succumbed to Zeppelin.
A long time passed since then.
Thus, Robert became the oldest of the Hounds at the manor.
Then Alicia came. Most of the Hounds were assigned to her to tame her.
Zeppelin assigned only the most capable Robert and a few Hounds to Rebecca.
After Rebecca fell down the stairs, even they were taken away, and now Robert alone was in charge of Rebecca.
In fact, the purpose was more to monitor Canna than the already tamed Rebecca.
A young Hound needed a seasoned Hound.
As far as Robert had observed Canna, she was not one of Zeppelin's people.
For some reason, Canna seemed to pledge more loyalty to Rebecca than to Zeppelin.
And that suspicion turned into certainty when he saw Canna hugging Rebecca and jumping out of the second-floor window.
Rebecca was tall for a woman.
Even with Rebecca, who was a hand taller than her, in her arms, Canna landed on the ground with ease.
Robert whistled in admiration without realizing it.
‘The Count's ability to see talent is undeniable.’
Robert immediately followed the two.
The existence of God, which had been tormenting him all day, and his family's affairs were temporarily forgotten in his mind.
His gut told him that Rebecca was plotting something.
But even if he found out, he had no intention of reporting it to Zeppelin.
Robert had watched from the beginning how Zeppelin had married Rebecca.
It was not love. It was just an obsession with possessions.
So he always felt sorry for Rebecca. He occasionally overlooked her mistakes.
However, it was not just simple pity that made him interested in Rebecca.
Rebecca, as he had seen her so far, was a woman who perfectly conformed to the Kadir Order's doctrines.
She did not speak carelessly, did not indulge in luxury, and was humble.
And her face was so beautiful that even angels would be jealous.
If the Kadir Order were still prevalent, Rebecca would have been revered as a Saintess simply for her existence.
So, when he saw Zeppelin's heinous acts against Rebecca, she seemed like a pitiful Saintess who had fallen into the hands of a demon.
He had long wanted to save Rebecca.
He did not know whether this feeling stemmed from simple chivalry or from the Kadir Order's doctrine of not turning a blind eye to those in trouble.
Whatever the reason, Robert felt that he had a duty to prevent her from doing anything foolish.
* * *
“Good evening, Madam.”
It was Robert who emerged from behind the tree.
Rebecca was startled for a moment, then narrowed her eyes again.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and Robert's bangs fluttered.
Rebecca noticed a large scar running across the center of his forehead and smiled faintly.
During the time she was trapped in the room, Rebecca had organized her past memories.
In the process, Robert's family came to mind.
His family had knocked on the Count's Residence's tightly closed iron gates after Robert's modest funeral.
‘How could you do this! We were only just released from the island! Robert is dead… And you've already held the funeral! Robert was riding horses since he started walking! Please investigate again! If not, we will report this injustice to the Emperor without fail!’
The gatekeepers quickly gagged them and dragged them away, so she did not hear anything more.
However, Rebecca saw their faces clearly.
Robert's family was wearing black clothes with white collars and had the eyes of an owl tattooed in the center of their foreheads.
Rebecca had visited a village of Kadir Order followers on a trip with her father when she was young.
They told Rebecca about the Kadir god and their history.
Rebecca looked at Robert's scar and recalled the history of persecution she had heard at that time.
Zeppelin took hold of people's weaknesses and received their loyalty. The fact that he was from a family that worshipped the Kadir goddess would have been enough prey for Zeppelin.
The corners of Rebecca's lips curved into an arc.
Robert stared blankly at Rebecca for a moment. Her smile and the intertwined scent of lilac made him dizzy.
“Robert Crowley. Were you eavesdropping?”
“Eavesdropping? It's a coincidence. The moonlight is so good tonight that I just came out for a walk.”
“You're a really loyal servant. Even at this late hour, you're doing my work.”
“I'm just strolling through the garden. It's not work, it's just a moment of rest.”
“Crowley. I'm not a fool. I know very well that all the servants in the mansion are watching me.”
Robert stared at Rebecca with wide eyes. She did not seem to be blaming him in particular.
Robert tilted his head in confusion.
This was supposed to be quite a difficult situation for Rebecca.
If he said a word to the Count about her sneaking out, Canna could be whipped or something even more terrible could happen right away.
But Rebecca did not beg him not to tell. Instead, she confidently straightened her shoulders and looked up at Robert.
Clearly, she was sitting and he was standing, but Robert somehow felt that Rebecca was looking down on him.
Seeing Robert's flustered expression, Rebecca said.
“Don't be so surprised. I don't want to blame you. You're just doing what you're told.”
Robert asked back with a slightly dazed face.
“T, then…?”
Rebecca raised her head and looked at the bright moon.
Her pure white nape shone dazzlingly.
