“What?”
Cecilia’s auburn eyes widened in disbelief.
Her gaze landed on the adjutant of the Knight Order’s squad, and she spoke each word with deliberate emphasis.
“You mean… Joel Crais offended the City Lord of Siofra, and he is now being detained in the City Lord’s manor?”
“Y—Yes!”
“And then the City Lord demanded that I personally go to collect him, otherwise he won’t release him?”
“Y—Yes! Lady Saintess!”
Cecilia felt a vein throbbing in her temple. She couldn’t understand how that fool had managed to achieve this.
According to the Oath of Morwickton, the City Lord of Siofra could not take hostile measures against the Saintly Practitioners of the three great Churches without sufficient reason.
If necessary restrictive measures were to be taken, they had to be approved by another Church simultaneously.
And yet, the City Lord had already detained him…
In other words, was another Church present and in agreement?
Could it be that he was detained specifically because he offended another Church?
After a brief moment of deduction, Cecilia felt certain that sending Joel Crais—that top-tier waste of a second-generation noble from the Holy Capital—to serve as a Knight Squad Leader was a long-planned conspiracy by those old fogies in the Holy Capital.
Their goal was surely to ensure her work in Siofra could never get off the ground.
Otherwise, why would this guy cause more trouble in the two days he had been in Siofra than she had in the nearly one month she had spent here?
Now, she had no choice but to meet the City Lord of Siofra ahead of schedule…
Clicking her tongue inwardly, Cecilia waved her hand to signal the handsome young knight to withdraw.
She instructed him, “It’s been hard on you. Go to the City Lord’s manor once more and tell the City Lord that I will visit as soon as possible. Please ask him to ensure he does not harm Crais’s life. Tell him to please show mercy for the sake of Grand Knight Commander Locklen.”
“Yes! Lady Saintess!”
“Sigh… Go on then.”
The handsome knight took his leave, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.
He had just been enjoying a banquet—how did things end up like this?
He had been minding his own business, enjoying the fine food, when the people from the City Lord’s manor kicked him out with cold mockery.
At that moment, with a fork in his hand and food still in his mouth, he had been completely clueless about the situation.
It was utterly pathetic. And now, he had to go back and humbly beg for mercy on behalf of that foolish superior of his.
Sigh.
There was no helping it. Since the Saintess had given the order, he couldn’t exactly push it onto someone else.
Lamenting his fate, the handsome knight desperately missed the time when the former Knight Squad Leader was in charge.
Back then, their only tasks were patrolling the city defenses and protecting the Saintly Practitioners.
Occasionally, they would extort some Adventurers who wanted to bail people out, but they had never been the ones needing to be bailed out themselves!
……
After consuming some fresh flesh and blood, the injuries on Lance’s body were nearly healed. Only his aura remained somewhat weak.
Because she had to return to the Restoration Army to do her best to retrieve information regarding the [Artificial Vampire] project, Noren was currently throwing a silent tantrum out of worry and guilt.
She stood alone in a corner, facing the wall and quietly wiping away tears.
Seeing this, Lance had no choice but to go over and comfort his younger sister in a soft voice.
“Noren, there’s really no need to worry. We have a Priestess Princess of the Elemental Tier backing us now. Those guys in the Restoration Army definitely won’t dare to do anything to me.”
Noren continued to wipe her tears, murmuring in a low voice, “It’s all my fault… it’s all my fault…”
Lance felt even more helpless. He had heard these words countless times over the past two years.
Clearly, the girl had fallen into a rut again, constantly blaming herself for every hardship they encountered.
Although the events of back then were indeed caused by Noren ignoring Lance’s warnings and diving headfirst into the [Artificial Vampire] project, Lance had never blamed his sister.
After all, Noren had been young and lacked judgment at the time, and he hadn’t been by her side often.
It was impossible to say he bore no responsibility himself.
Even though Noren didn’t talk about it, Lance knew how much she had suffered during those six months.
If punishment was required, Noren had already endured more than enough.
Looking at Noren standing there in her black and white maid outfit, sobbing, Lance stopped trying to offer comfort and instead gently patted her head.
Following this, Noren cried even harder.
She turned around and hugged Lance, burying her face against the cloth shirt he had just changed into.
Sigh.
“Stop making a fuss after you’re done crying, okay? When you get back, stay with your Sister Cecilia. Once your physical issues are resolved, you’ll go to the City of Wisdom to study properly. Your talent lies in magic; don’t resist learning.”
Despite Noren’s weeping, Lance used firm words to outline the future arrangements.
His tone was steady and allowed for no argument.
Noren, her face still buried, gave a slight nod before quickly shaking her head.
Then, she lifted her small face and looked up at Lance piteously.
“But I don’t want to be apart from Brother…”
Thump!
Lance’s slow-beating heart seemed to stop for a moment, and his mind blanked. In his memory, this was the first time Noren had ever acted spoiled and pleaded like this.
‘Should I agree… Noren is still young… and I’m her only blood relative…’
Faced with Noren’s plea, Lance’s previously firm resolve wavered instantly. But a moment later, he snapped out of it.
‘No! I can’t! Noren is too dependent on me right now! This decision is truly for her own good! I’m a Ghoul; there will be endless trouble in the future! Cecilia is now both a Saintess and a Cardinal; staying with her is much better than staying with me.’
Just as he thought this, two glows—one red and one white—suddenly appeared behind him!
Boom!
Both Noren and Lance were startled and quickly turned toward the light.
In the time it took to turn around, the two masses of light had already solidified.
Simultaneously, Lance felt his Mana rapidly dissipating, as if it were being siphoned away, and the source of that suction was the two spheres of light behind him!
“My dear disciple! I’ve come to save you!”
The voice of the Witch who had been missing for two days suddenly exploded in his mind again.
Now Lance realized what was happening.
It turned out that his Witch Master had really been busy for the past two days putting all her effort into summoning two Element Lords into the city.
And by the look of it, her efficiency had improved tremendously.
They had originally agreed it would take three days to break through Siofra’s summoning restrictions, but now, after only one and a half days, she had succeeded…
“Eh? You weren’t locked up?”
The Witch’s confused voice echoed in his head.
It seemed that for the past two days, she truly hadn’t had the spare time to pay attention to the situation in the physical world.
“Ah, that… Master, anyway, there’s no danger right now. Please quickly send Mr. Chillingus and Miss Anahita back. My Mana can’t sustain them for very long.”
The Witch, feeling a bit out of the loop, diverted a portion of her consciousness to browse through Lance’s surface memories.
She instantly understood the current situation.
It was good that there was no danger.
However, something occurred to her that caused her some confusion.
“Why were you just spiritually interfered with?”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.