Chapter 18
Fiancée
"...Count Eclaus."
Carlisle's voice, which had been so uplifted just moments before, faltered.
Eclaus smiled brightly at the two of them.
"Any louder, and they'll hear you inside, you know?"
At Eclaus's words, Carlisle's jaw clenched tightly.
Carlisle, unable to hide his displeasure, greeted Eclaus and quickly left.
Eclaus chuckled as he watched the stubborn back.
"Sir Carlisle's loyalty to Duke Leicester is a bit excessive, isn't it?"
Eclaus said, averting his gaze from Carlisle.
"If you were to pick the knight who would give his life for Duke Leicester first, it would be Sir Carlisle."
Eclaus shrugged.
Carlisle was from Lupus, like Shed, so his respect and loyalty towards Shed were exceptional.
He believed he owed a great debt to Shed, who had made him a knight.
Carlisle was a knight who would do anything for Shed. It was just that it was sometimes too much of a problem.
"He probably didn't think about how his words would hurt Liana. He's blinded by his loyalty to his lord and is simple-minded."
Not that he was looking down on those from Lupus, but Carlisle was a man of little learning.
Opportunities for education were not readily available in Lupus, which was only natural.
As a result, Carlisle's combat skills were far superior to those of other knights, but he lacked social skills and was crude and simple in his thinking.
"I hope Liana isn't hurt by such words."
Crimson eyes gazed tenderly at Liana.
Liana found his attitude a little unfamiliar.
Was it because he wasn't born into nobility but came from a merchant background? He was kind and polite even to Liana, a commoner.
"Young Master Eclaus is kind."
"That's the secret to how the Vittel family became rich."
Eclaus joked lightly and smiled.
"Ah, now that I think about it, you said you worked for the Godwin family?"
"Yes."
"I've been to the Godwin family a few times for business, but I don't remember seeing you."
"Ah... I was always in the back."
The Baroness hated to see Liana come forward.
Because of this, she was made to work only in the kitchen, behind the fireplace, or in the laundry room.
Attending to guests was the job of other maids.
"I see. That's a shame..."
"Pardon?"
Liana asked back at Eclaus's murmur.
A shame? What was a shame?
The moment Liana blinked, the tent flap opened.
The sound of the tent flapping was as loud as the sound of a whip cracking, and Liana trembled in surprise.
"What are you doing outside instead of coming in?"
Shed Lester stood in the doorway of the tent.
Liana bowed her head before Shed.
"I, you didn't tell me to come in..."
"Eclaus left, so you should have come in on your own. Are you going to wait until I order you to do everything?"
Shed's gaze, laced with annoyance, turned to Eclaus for a moment.
Eclaus scratched the side of his head as he looked at Shed.
'Oh dear, Duke is really thorough...'
Shed must have already noticed that Eclaus was paying close attention to Liana.
Shed and Eclaus were quite friendly, but that didn't mean they could completely trust each other.
They were, after all, just business partners who were helpful to each other.
'Is he trying to find a weakness through Liana?'
Liana was a maid who served the Duke most closely, so she would have a lot of information to see and hear.
'No, is it something else?'
Eclaus smiled innocently at Liana and Shed.
"Come in."
Shed opened the tent door wide with his long arm and gestured to Liana.
Then Liana quietly entered the tent with a shadowed face.
Eclaus frowned at the sight. And he looked around for no reason. He wondered if anyone else had seen this scene besides him.
Fortunately, there were only stupid and simple knights around the tent.
They didn't seem to have noticed the strangeness of the two just now.
Not even Shed Lester and Liana Serpens themselves.
'This might be more dangerous than I thought.'
Only Eclaus noticed.
The way Shed Lester treated Liana just now was like a servant treating a young lady.
The Duke personally opened the tent door for the maid and waited patiently for her to enter.
The Duke's expression was fierce and the maid's expression was gloomy, but the Duke's actions were courteous and the maid's actions were elegant.
'This is a headache.'
Eclaus was a perceptive man.
In order to successfully complete the business in Ideana, it might be better if Liana Serpens was not around.
Meanwhile, in Müncher, the center of the Duchy of Lester.
"Y-you mean he went straight to Ideana...?"
A stooped man coming out of the Temple stopped in his tracks.
"Yes, only some knights and servants have returned. I heard that he plans to stay there for the time being until Ideana is stabilized, Giselle High Priest."
The Cleric bowed his head before the man with long silver hair.
Then the ends of the High Priest's eyebrows drooped sadly.
"H-he's been away from the main estate for a long time because of the war, and now he's going straight to Ideana..."
The High Priest's sky-blue eyes behind his glasses turned towards the main estate of Müncher.
The Lester family flag was flying at the top of the Müncher Castle spire, which had a long history.
High Priest Dietrich Lester buried his hands inside his wide sleeves and sighed.
"Why, why would he suddenly want to go to that filthy land first..."
He remembered the terrible land he had seen long ago.
As if a part of the world had rotted away, the land that had been hit by Black Magic was dyed pitch black.
The once rich and peaceful Ideana had been reduced to a cursed wasteland.
For this reason, the Temple sent Clerics to Ideana to judge the sins of heresy and purify the land.
Dietrich, who was then a High Priest candidate, was also one of the Clerics dispatched to Ideana.
He saw a city stained with Black Magic.
Paradel Castle, the center of Ideana and the main residence of the Ideana County.
His first impression of the place was exactly hell.
Death was piled upon death on the black land, and the air was filled with a disgusting smell.
Even the sky was black, as crows that had smelled the stench of death covered the sky.
After nearly a year of purification work, the Order recalled all the Clerics.
Clerics were highly skilled personnel, so they could not be tied down indefinitely to a barren land where progress was slow.
Had they thought that everything important regarding the Black Magic spell had been dealt with?
'The Imperial Family also gave up on Ideana when it became politically unstable...'
In the eight years since that incident in Ideana, the Empire had fought two wars.
They had faced several crises due to repeated invasions from Blancas in the north, and pirates were rampant in the sea, causing headaches.
Hunting down rampaging Demon Beasts in between was also a constant task.
The Pope decided that it was more important to heal the wounded on the battlefield than to purify Ideana.
All the Clerics who could use Divine Power were drafted to the battlefield or for rear support, and in the midst of the chaos, Ideana, which had been reduced to a land of death, was forgotten.
"It seems that Duke requested the dispatch of Clerics to the Temple in advance, but it seems that the Temple has not yet responded, Giselle High Priest."
High Priest Dietrich looked at the empty aviary.
It would be impossible to purify that much Black Magic with only one or two Clerics.
The Temple was probably having a heated debate over whether to send Clerics to Ideana.
"T-this is really troubling..."
As Dietrich muttered to himself, a woman was seen approaching the Temple gracefully, but at a faster pace than usual.
Everyone in the Temple cleared the way for her and bowed their heads. Even so, some people glanced up at her to admire her face.
Dietrich swallowed hard when he saw her.
"Giselle Marlehein High Priest...!"
Dietrich unnecessarily adjusted his glasses and greeted her.
Giselle Marlehein.
Shed Lester's fiancée and one of the Empire's only seven High Priests.
The Marlehein family's unique cool mint-colored hair rippled like the waves of the southern sea whenever the wind blew, and her beautiful golden eyes resembled the warm sun rising in the sky.
Her healthy and firm figure captivated the eyes of many men, and the High Priest's pure white Cleric robes added to her sacred and mysterious aura.
As the hem of her pure white dress sparkled in the cold early spring sunlight with her dignified steps, people couldn't take their eyes off her.
Giselle Marlehein stopped in front of the hunched Dietrich.
"I heard that my Darling has gone to Ideana, is that true?"
Her voice was as clear as if it had been written in neat letters.
Dietrich nodded awkwardly at the slightly raised corners of her eyes.
"I, I think so..."
The beautiful face hardened even more coldly at Dietrich's flustered answer.
"Wasn't it... announced that I was here?"
The beautiful corners of her lips trembled slightly.
"T-the star of the Temple has moved, so there's no way it wouldn't have been announced."
"And yet he went to Ideana?"
"Duke Lester must have wanted to open the gift that His Majesty the Emperor gave him quickly."
Dietrich shrugged and scratched his head.
Then her crimson lips moved in the shape of the words 'crazy bastard'.
Our elegant and sacred Giselle High Priest is offering another prayer of thanks to God, Dietrich thought.
She probably wants to send someone else to God's side again.
Giselle had this elegant habit of quietly offering prayers whenever God gave her trials.
