Chapter 24
24. The Truth of Ideana
Shed frowned as Eclaus stared intently at him.
"What is it?"
His violet eyes reflected a subtle and cautious anticipation.
He seemed to be hoping for news that Liana Serpens had awakened.
Eclaus opened his mouth, imagining himself being sacrificed to that sharp edge for failing to deliver good news.
"Personal training is an excellent thing, but there's something important I'd like to discuss with you."
Eclaus's words meant, let's stop now and go inside.
Then Shed glared fiercely at Eclaus before turning his gaze away.
He nervously sheathed his sword and gathered the clothes he had taken off.
"...I'll send someone to let you know when I'm ready, so come up to the room."
Shed said that and left, his steps heavy as if he were about to cave in the ground.
A room that had been neatly furnished in no time.
On the desk temporarily placed beside the bed, all sorts of records, including maps and histories of Ideana, were piled up in disarray.
Next to it was a three-seater sofa that seemed a little small for Shed Lester to lie down on, and on top of it was a neatly folded blanket that had never been used.
The biggest problem was the cot next to the desk.
The bed where Liana Serpens was lying, where all of Shed Lester's attention had been focused since earlier.
"Ahem."
Eclaus cleared his throat, and the violet gaze that had been fixed on the bed turned to him.
Only then did he seem to realize that he had been talking about Eclaus and the Heretic.
"Don't worry. I intend to deal with the Heretic by any means possible."
Shed Lester spat out quietly between his teeth.
Surprisingly, his declaration was quite reliable. He was grinding his teeth with the look of wanting to kill the Heretic right away.
All the documents scattered on the desk must have been traces of him digging through them all night to find out about the Heretic.
After Liana was injured, he began to gather and search through all the information he could find about Black Magic and Heretics.
When he felt frustrated looking at the data, he swung his sword, and when he wanted to find answers while swinging his sword, he searched through documents and records.
For three days, he did everything he could.
But.
"Duke Lester. I admire your passion, but we know nothing about Black Magic."
He pointed out Shed Lester's irrational impulse.
As he said, Shed Lester was a reliable guardian.
There was also the belief that Shed Lester could stop the Heretic.
But that was only when Shed Lester possessed his usual cool reason and excellent intuition.
'The current Shed Lester is dangerous.'
Eclaus looked at Lupus, who was sitting precariously on the edge of his chair.
His eyes were deeply shadowed as if his eye sockets had sunken in, and his lips were dry like those of an anxious person.
For three days, he hadn't slept a wink.
Even during the conversation, he rolled his bloodshot eyes and glanced at the bed.
To be honest, Eclaus doubted whether he was even properly focused on this conversation.
Because what he said about the Heretic just now sounded like a soliloquy.
The current Shed Lester seemed somehow precarious.
It was as if, if the faint breath coming from that bed were to stop, the giant Lupus would also fall into an endless abyss.
"Has Your Grace also been affected by the Heretic's magic? We cannot act rashly until we accurately grasp their abilities."
Eclaus slowly returned Shed's thoughts to their original course.
Then Shed lowered his eyelids and bit his lip.
"Right now, we only have one Cleric. And even that one is ignorant about Heretics."
"...Indeed, an asset His Majesty the Emperor has bestowed upon Ideana."
Shed muttered.
In his cynical tone, it was hard to tell whether the 'asset' he mentioned was an asset or a disaster.
Eclaus could sympathize with either.
It was true that the Cleric assigned by the Imperial Family was incompetent in this situation.
He was a rookie who had only become a formal Cleric three years ago.
He was brought in because he was said to be specialized in purifying the land of Ideana, but he was not very reliable in dealing with Black Magic, setting up Guardian Barriers, or healing.
'Even when the Heretic came, he was just trembling.'
When a deep darkness covered the group and Shed was fighting the Heretic, the Cleric was huddled in the carriage, shivering.
The Cleric, who had not been out of the Monastery for several years, must have been pampered and raised while being revered by people.
At best, he would heal the wounded from the safest rear and mistakenly believe that he was in the middle of a war.
Without having been in the position of those whose lives were on the line.
That was the shortcoming of an asset who lacked practical experience and only graduated from a prestigious Monastery.
'His Majesty the Emperor must have thought it was too good to give Lupus a competent Cleric.'
Eclaus felt sorry for the Duke, who was anxiously fidgeting with his clasped hands.
He was such a pitiful man. To see him treated like this, even after obtaining the title of Duke and saving the Emperor's life.
"I received a response from the Temple that they will send more Clerics. They said they will also send a High Priest."
"A High Priest, who...?"
"It wasn't written there, but it will be helpful. If there are no problems, they should arrive tomorrow or the day after."
Shed Lester answered in a relatively calm voice, then pressed his throbbing temples with his fingertips.
Eclaus saw that tens of thousands of thoughts were racing through his head.
He could almost hear the sound of his brain working.
With a head that hadn't slept properly, he was constantly contemplating how to punish the Heretic.
"When the High Priest arrives, we might be able to track down the Heretic. We won't have to waste days struggling to complete a single Guardian Barrier."
"That's why. The arrival of the goods that the merchant guild was supposed to send seems to be delayed by a few more days. And just in case Divine Power healing is not possible, we have prepared medicine and first aid supplies..."
Bang!
At that moment, a huge explosion cut off Eclaus's words.
The startled Eclaus looked at the window, and Shed's head reflexively turned towards the bed.
Realizing that the explosion had come from outside, the two rose from their seats and ran out.
"Kyaa!"
"Everyone, get out of the way!"
"Step back!"
The place where people's screams were heard.
In the distance, the annex of the Ideana residence was collapsing.
Liana opened her eyes with a pain that felt like it was tearing through her body.
Her head was throbbing and her vision was blurry.
Above all, the stabbing pain in her abdomen scattered her thoughts.
She tried to retrace what had happened.
When she entered Paradell, the surroundings darkened, and Shed...
Then, in her blurry vision, she saw violet eyes.
"Shed...?"
As she squinted to see more clearly, she heard a strange voice.
"Nice to meet you, Ideana."
At that voice, Liana snapped to attention.
Forgetting even the pain, she raised her body and saw a man in a robe standing next to the bed.
"You are...!"
Liana could tell he was a Heretic without seeing his face.
She could feel a clear aura of Black Magic from him.
Shed? What happened to the others?
"Shed...!"
"Shh. It'll be troublesome if you call people. Unless you want me to kill them again."
He gently moved his fingers in the air as if playing a harp.
Then, from his fingertips, a black aura spread out and soon disappeared.
Liana closed her mouth at that.
The pain in her abdomen made her thoughts scattered.
'He said it would be troublesome if I called people... so he came to find me secretly.'
The others are still safe.
And to prevent others from getting involved, I have to cooperate with the Heretic.
"Your condition doesn't look good? It couldn't be just from being stabbed by a knife... You must have foolishly received treatment from a Cleric?"
The Heretic spoke in a light tone as if humming, and then laughed.
Even a penetrating wound from a knife was just an injury that Liana could quickly regenerate.
It wouldn't have been a serious injury that would have kept her in bed for days.
However, the Divine Power of the Clerics is fatal to those with the power of the Heretic.
The Divine Power of the Cleric that was poured in for treatment had actually become poison to her.
"Who the hell are you...?"
Liana asked, pressing down on her throbbing waist with her hand.
"You're Ideana, right?"
Instead of answering, the Heretic asked Liana.
Then Liana's eyes wavered.
"There's no way I could forget your face. It's all thanks to you that I ended up like this."
"How... How can you be alive?"
"Why? Were you a little embarrassed that I wasn't dead when you thought you had killed everyone?"
The Heretic's eyes, visible under his robe, curved lewdly, and a commotion arose on his pale face.
The scarlet scenery began to become clear in her blurry mind.
"No, I didn't try to kill you..."
It wasn't my intention. I was just...
Her stomach churned. Liana foolishly just kept shaking her head.
"Liar. You deliberately killed all the other test subjects. Because you wanted to have that power all to yourself."
"No! I, I was just scared."
Liana covered her ears at the Heretic's whisper.
Then the Heretic smirked at her.
"Scared? Are you kidding me?"
He didn't believe Liana's excuse.
"What do you have to be afraid of?"
The Heretic gently took her hands away from her ears.
"With your power, it's easy to destroy this empire, right?"
Violet eyes with a dark madness stared at her.
He knew.
The potential that Luise Ideana possessed.
The powerful force that destroyed this place, Ideana.
