“Eithne!”
A cheerful call of a kid rang through the grand hall, jumping across the bustling crowd to reach a person who isolated herself next to the wall. Eithne escaped the preoccupation to look for the voice’s owner. Under the warm light of a glory banquet, she saw a familiar kid running on his toe with a brightest smile.
“Haven’t seen you in a while, Rigel.”
The boy had changed his rustic appearance and turned into a formidable aristocrat after a few days staying in the duchy, but he could not conceal the childish excitement about seeing the priestess again.
“Where is Rogers?” – Eithne asked.
“He is… uh… somewhere else…”
Rigel hesitantly answered, fidgeting his fingers. It was highly likely that he had just escaped Rogers to run frantically to Eithne. She patted his shoulder.
“How have you been recently?”
“I’m good! There were a lot of pretty things in the duchy, like big greenhouses and …”
Realizing the priestess overlooked the fact that he ran away from the boring adults, Rigel quickly told everything he had seen and experienced in the Solinue’s mansion, hoping to change the topic. The boy even waved his arms to illustrate the situation, making Eithne have to chuckle at the energetic kid.
“Urgh… I can’t believe it. Why are there so many peach desserts?”
Hesata came back after he scanned around the tables for sweet foods. It was currently peach season, so 80% of the desserts were related to peach. More than that, there were some rumors saying the Queen’s favorite fruit was also peach.
“My god those liquid meals are still haunting!” - He pulled his hair.
The red-haired priest was going to find Eithne when he saw a kid talking to her. Hesata greeted the boy with a smile on his face.
“Oh my! Is this Rigel Solinue that you told me?”
“H.. Hello! You’ve guessed my name right. Nice to meet you.”
Rigel was surprised by the sudden appearance of a very tall man behind him. It was the first time he had encountered another individual of the tall species beside Eithne. The shadow of the red-haired man was large enough to fully engulf Rigel, making the little boy seem humble like a pebble between two huge towers.
While Hesata was talking to Rigel, Eithne moved her gaze to the highest terrace of the hall.
This evening banquet and later, a ball party was meant to be held until dawn, during which nobles would celebrate the first hour of the Queen’s birthday when the sun rose. The banquet was going to end after the dessert serving, and they would rest for a bit after the meal to prepare for the next ball.
The star of this event, the Queen, was sitting on the highest terrace with an envoy from the Quenaz Empire, and the Saint of the Peace temple. Eithne did not know what they were talking about, but she constantly had an ominous feeling about this.
An enemy declaring to destroy Lumovas was sitting with the Queen of Lumovas. That might be worrying.
‘What are you scheming, Raphael?’
On the highest terrace of the grand hall, where the stars shone above their head through the clear glass roof, the Queen was leisurely playing chess with the envoy from the Quenaz Empire, while the Saint was spectating the match from aside.
“Her Highness, about the sea route…”
“It’s your turn.”
“Ah yes.”
Every time the Quenaz’s envoy spoke about the sea route, the Queen brutally cut his sentence. She fluttered the red fan and glanced at the Saint.
“What do you think of this move, Saint?”
“This lowly servant dares not to judge Her Highness’s tactic.”
“Hm?”
As soon as the envoy heard the slightest dissatisfaction in the Queen’s tone, he flinched. The Queen folded her fan. Her gaze returned to the chess table. It was hard to guess what she was thinking behind those beautiful cherry-colored eyes, and her action indicated neither enthusiasm nor concurrence that the envoy expected. They had been playing this meaningless chess for an hour and the envoy had done everything he could to please the Lumovas’s Queen, yet she did not allow him to talk about the offer of the Quenaz Empire.
‘Tsk!’ – The envoy lost his patience gradually.
He was annoyed by the Queen, but he had to hide his true emotion. Normally, the envoy would express his displeasure to the Lumovas’s royalty since he believed Quenaz was superior to every country. Such intention was erased when an audience with the Queen of Lumovas happened in the presence of the Peace God’s messenger, Saint Raphael Ascian. As a result, this religious man did not dare to display any arrogant attitude when God was observing him through the Saint. Even so, it was getting harder to control his feelings.
Subconsciously, the envoy threw a desperate look at the Saint, hoping that nice person would help him out somehow. However, Raphael only smiled quietly as if he was unaware of the current situation. His expression was bright and holy, but it clearly indicated: Don’t look for me. I’m just an ornament here.
“Don’t be distracted during a chess match.”
The Queen raised her eyebrows. She leaned back on the soft armchair, using the red fan to cover the lower half of her face. The velvet gown embraced her voluptuous figure like an igniting flame, whilst the ruby tiara resting on her smooth hair also emitted a sense of high heat. And the Queen's eyes, which perfectly matched with the accessories, fixed on the envoy and drowned his reflection in her irises under the sweet but dangerous cherry hue.
The ruler of Lumovas twirled a strand of her hair. Long ago, someone told her to dress in red on merry days to accumulate luck, so the Queen had put on every red thing she had to maximize the efficiency of fortune. Although she hated to admit that it was not how fate worked, the Queen’s superstition urged her to welcome every chance that she could snatch.
“Tsk, tsk.”
The royal woman clicked her tongue. The envoy had been giving her many chances to win the chess, but whenever she was about to achieve victory, the Queen oddly turned her chess back to elongate the match. Her manipulation somehow trapped him in the chess play for an hour already.
‘Urgh!’ – The envoy wiped his nose in anger as he thought. ‘This wench is probably buying time…’
He must finish this bullshit game as swiftly as possible, then handle the trading between two empires.
Meanwhile in the banquet hall, Eithne met the Imperial Prince and the ‘female lead’ again. As if fate had connected those people together, Rigel Solinue instantly got on with prince Azriel Daneva and the female lead, Noori Gynren, who barged in the boys’ conversation to look for some friends. These main characters were attractive poles to other kids, so they started to gather up to have a chance to speak with the prince and the ducal heir, also get to know the beautiful daughter of count Gynren.
“Hold on…”
Hesata wiped the sweat on his forehead. He tried to sneak out of the children's mob but Rigel, Azriel and Noori were following him like baby ducks, therefore, the rest of the children also chased after him.
“Haiya…”
Eithne enjoyed the peach tart while she was watching the red-haired priest struggling. Somehow, the tart tasted better than usual.
Who could have guessed that Hesata was the kind of adult that those ambitious main characters like the most? The little prince had seen Hesata fighting so he deeply admired the priest. He then told his new friends Rigel and Noori about this amazing person. Noori saw the tall and handsome man as a brave knight in her bedtime story, while Rigel wanted to learn more about the person who fought on term with Eithne. Moreover, Hesata was nice with kids and willing to tell everything with them, resulting in the children perceiving him as a beacon to follow.
‘HELP ME!’ – Hesata gave a signal to the priestess who was eating cake in pleasure.
The kids started to grab his pants so he could not escape.
‘Children are scary!’ – He panted.
Eithne gave him a thumbs-up. She grinned evilly and watched him enthusiastically, then she took a mouthful of cake as if she was seeing an interesting show.
“You…”
Hesata gritted his teeth. He was about to run away, suddenly, the ground beneath his feet shook violently.
BAAAANGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A loud explosion occurred somewhere near the hall, shaking the entire building in mayhem.
“Damn it!”
Hesata quickly covered the kids. A large magic circle appeared in his hand, it turned into a hemisphere barrier to protect the children from falling vases. The magic detecting alarms started to yell loudly because of Hesata’s unauthorized magic casting.
“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!”
“Protect Her Majesty the Queen!!!”
The nobles started to scream in panic, some people cried for their children’s names. They ran to the entrance, trying to escape from this place.
CLANG! CLANG! SLAM!
Large chandeliers fell off from the ceiling and slammed on the floor. Their beautiful frames were distorted and crystals shattered all over the ground. It was fortunate that nobody got stuck beneath it.
Crack! Crack! Crack! The cracks spreading on the wall were as fast as lightning, but they immediately stopped when countless magic circles appeared on the wall. The defense mechanism of this building had been activated.
“What happened?”
The Queen had stood up from her chair to observe the situation from the highest terrace. The envoy had plopped down on the ground when something exploded. He grabbed on the Saint’s ankle, trembling with fear.
“Save… save me Saint.”
“It’s alright. Don’t be scared, I’m here.”
Raphael patted on his shoulder to calm the envoy down. At that moment, a servant ran frantically to the terrace.
“Your… your Majesty! The building of Quenaz’s faction exploded!”
“What?!”
The envoy rose up when he heard the servant say. Raphael bent down to speak with the man sitting on the ground. His sorrowful expression instantly captivated the envoy.
“I will send priests to save Quenaz people. Don’t worry, I will help you as much as I can.”
‘He is the true Saint! I’m so lucky.’ – The envoy thought. “Thank you so much. I’m indebted to you!”
“There’s no need to thank me. Now, please evacuate as soon as possible.”- Raphael helped the envoy to stand up and showed him the exit.
“Of, of course!”
The envoy quickly stood up and ran down the stairs.
“Your Majesty, we should go too!” – The servant said to the Queen.
“Alright.”
The royal woman lifted her gown to follow the servant. Amid the chaos, she was still calm and as elegant as ever.
When all of the people left and only Raphael remained on the terrace, the Saint smiled faintly.
He stood organizing the messy chess table, as if nothing serious had happened. The chaotic atmosphere and screams had become a harmonious symphony in his ears, and it somewhat inspired the burning passion deep in his heart that this man could not stop a happy humming coming from his mouth.
When Raphael finished putting back the chess pieces in their original positions, he picked up a black bishop piece. This was the black chess that the Quenaz’s envoy had played earlier.
“Hmph.”
He smiled and threw the bishop piece off the terrace.
Clang! The ceramic chess piece fell from a high distance and shattered as soon as it touched the hard ground. In the middle of turmoil, hardly anyone noticed a small chess piece breaking.
Except for one person. The chess fell right before her shoes.
“Oops… Almost hit your head.”
Raphael could see the burning gaze of the priestess direct to his face. The Saint cupped his hands around his mouth like he was about to shout loudly, but instead, he whispered:
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“I’m sorry.”
Then the man grinned ruefully before he turned back to exit the terrace.
__
The first hour of the Queen’s birthday was disastrous.
Dark, confusion, injuries.
However, nobody was permitted to leave the Imperial Castle, because the Queen needed to investigate the culprit behind the explosion.
“Sniff! Sniff! Mama…”
Noori started to cry out of anxiety. She was only seven years old, the youngest girl among the kids in the banquet, so Rigel had to grab her hand to ease her mind. All the children were gathered at one place, thanked to Hesata’s protection, they evacuated safely without losing a single strand of hair. The Imperial Prince, who was the most mature and responsible, led the children to priests of Peace temple so they could receive medical treatment if necessary.
Several nobles were hit by falling objects earlier so the Peace priests were healing them. Imperial knights were digging up the ruin of the building, which the Quenaz’s emissaries used to stay, to find survivors. They turned off magic detecting devices around the area so the mages could use magic freely to speed up the process.
“Survivor found!”
Hesata lifted a collapsed wall up easily with just one hand, shouted loudly to notice the knights and priests of Peace temple.
“Another survivor!”
Two priests from Raphael’s group also helped find the missing people. The knights and mages would help them to remove the debris at the place they pointed.
Eithne was standing behind Demir Noceur, who was watching the rescue operation from a safe distance. She saw the Captain of the Imperial Knights approaching the High Priest.
“Teacher…” – He whispered.
However, Demir raised his hand to stop the Captain speaking.
Eithne glanced at the Peace priests. They were moving injured people into a temporary tent used for emergency treatment.
Most priests of the Peace temple were blessed with the ability to heal other people. They were also the only people that were able to produce healing potions by concentrating their power in holy water. Therefore, nobody dared to offend them or else the Peace priests would refuse to sell the precious potions. Indeed, it was a monopoly.
‘Raphael must be rich…’ – Eithne rubbed her chin.
If she was not wrong, that villain must manipulate the income of the temple to benefit himself already. However, it was said that the Saint of the Peace temple was bestowed with offensive power to repel the dark instead of healing ability like other priests, so it was likely that he had to exploit his underlings to have precious potions for himself.
The envoy ,who had sat with the Queen earlier, was scavenging the debris of the building, anxiously looking for something. Raphael Ascian followed the envoy to offer his help, smiling slyly like a snow fox. Meanwhile, other two Peace priests also looked back and forth too many times at locations where injured people were found.
‘Those people look suspicious…’- Eithne squinted.
The envoy, Raphael and his two subordinates. Why did they seem like looking for something else, not survivors?
“High Priest, I will go to give them a hand.”
The priestess bowed slightly at her superior, after Demir Noceur nodded, she immediately left for the rescue site.
Eithne got down on one knee at the edge of the ruin. The explosion had wreaked havoc on a huge mansion with at least five floors, resulting in a mountain of debris. She snuck her left hand under a big piece of broken wall. Dark power escaped from her fingers and hid themselves among the darkness beneath the debris to spread as far as possible. Using the chance that the magic detecting devices were turned off, she tried to find something special that Raphael might look for as well.
Obviously, she had to avoid getting too close to Raphael or other Peace priests, otherwise they might notice an abnormal magic circulating under their feet.
‘Hm… I can’t sense any peculiar energy source… Am I wrong about them?’ - Eithne tilted her head.
No sooner had she begun to doubt herself, Eithne spotted one of Raphael’s subordinates tugging out a piece of paper from the scrap. The priest then stealthily hid it in his sleeve.
‘Oh ho…’
Eithne extended the dark power to the place under the priest’s feet. Coincidentally, her power passed the standing place of the Quenaz’s envoy and his subordinate, who were using noise canceling devices to discuss with each other. Eithne did not expect to hear anything from above, but the voices spontaneously transferred into her mind.
“What should we do now, sir?”
“Those bastards! This useless royalty can’t even stop a terrorist from entering the palace.”
“What if it was Lumovas’s plan?”
“Urgh, I can’t go back until Lumovas’s ships fall into sea monster’s mouth. Enough talking! The contract of sea route is still missing. Keep finding!”
“Yes, sir!”
“…”
‘Oh God, I’ve heard something dangerous.’ – Eithne pressed her lips together so she would not laugh out loud in excitement, but her mouth formed a hysterical smile anyway.
She did not know that the dark power could be this useful, even surpassing the device’s noise cancellation.
“Tsk.”
The priestess clicked her tongue and stood up. It was highly likely that the Quenaz’s contract already fell into Raphael’s hand, since a Peace priest picked it up earlier.
“Now, what should I do with this information?” - She looked around.
Raphael was standing with the noble children, who had to gather here to wait for their parents being investigated by the Queen. He seemed to get along pretty well with them, but his smile was a bit… struggling???
His expression was exactly the same as Hesata earlier.
Noori Gynren the heroine was hugging his leg and wiping her nasal mucus on his pants. Some spoiled brats were yapping nonstop about their tiredness and demanding to go home. Meanwhile, the timid kids were tugging the Saint’s robe to gain a sense of security. They also fought each other to win over the place standing next to the famous god’s agent. Even if Raphael Ascian was an amazing Saint, his gaze eventually turned desperate in this nerve-racking reality.
“I want to go home whoaaaaaa….” - A child cried.
“Shut up you’re so loud.”
“How dare you say that to my sister? Take this!” - A boy threw a handful of dirt to another kid’s face.
“Ah! Whoaaaaa! Mommy!”
“Your Grace! He hit me!” - A kid told Raphael.
“You’re ugly!”
“You bad-mouth me!”
“Take another dirt!”
Raphael looked at everything silently with a stiff smile on his face. The Imperial Prince wearily sat down next to scruffy Rigel, who was unluckily caught up in other kids’ rioting that his clothes were dirtied by stray dirt bullets. Azriel Daneva the Prince had given up in stopping the children from causing trouble, as if it was a forewarning that his future as an emperor would be hard to deal with those succeeding aristocrats.
Eithne witnessed everything speechlessly.
‘It must be hard to be a Saint…’ - She thought.
In front of public eyes, Raphael could not be harsh with the children so he must endure this.
The Saint’s pitiful eyes suddenly directed at Eithne.
‘Hah? Now you’re looking at me?’ - The priestess frowned. ‘I won’t help you.’
“…”
Thankfully, the Queen finally released the nobles so they came to pick up their kids. The crowd then dispersed in relief.
__
Eithne stepped on the sill and escaped the toilet room through the window.
She actually needed to use the toilet, not a fake excuse to escape from the High Priest. However, she had just seen a person sneakily dashing across the tree branches, which was too suspicious for her to ignore him. Whoever’s subordinate he was, Eithne wanted to eavesdrop on them. It would be best if he was Raphael’s underling.
‘You’re a Peace priest, yet you make me anxious and I can’t take a shit in peace.’
Eithne landed quietly on the ground. The magic detecting devices were operating again, so she could not use her power or else they would set off. The priestess’s eyes turned dim. In the dark, it seemed natural that hardly anyone was able to realize her abnormal state.
She chased after the direction of the mysterious man. Her steps were quiet and smooth like a snake sliding behind its prey, while she cautiously hid her breath and noticed the surroundings. After a while, the man in black clothes jumped off the tree and landed on the ground. Eithne stopped chasing and hid behind a large tree trunk. They were in the royal garden behind the collapsed building of the Quenaz’s envoy.
‘Hm… I can hear the breath of one more person coming. Who would it be?’
However, Eithne was wrong this time. There were two white figures coming to meet with the man, they were Raphael and another Peace priestess. The living presence that Eithne sensed was the priestess.
‘Huh…’ – Eithne squinted.
“Nothing found” – The man in black reported.
He was probably the priest who had picked up the paper from the ruin.
Raphael nodded indifferently. He was cold unlike before, whose eyes were rid of the fake saintliness that only cruelty and malice remained. Raphael took out a bag and handed it to the priest in black.
“Bury this.” – He commanded.
The priest nodded and returned to the original route that he had taken to get to this place. Raphael and the Peace priestess looked at him until his back was fully engulfed in the woods’ shadow, the Saint told his underling:
“Let’s go.”
The priestess nodded.
Eithne smiled. In the silent darkness, her presence became insignificant.
As soon as the Peace priest stepped past the tree trunk, she grabbed his neck from behind.
“Wha…cough!”
“May I have this bag?”
The War priestess easily overpowered the Peace priest and snatched the bag from him. The man was terrified, but his neck was choked tightly so he could not yell out. The priest drew a short knife from his back pocket to stab her arm, but Eithne was faster.
She conveniently slammed him to the nearby tree trunk.
Bam!
The tree was knocked to the ground with a hole on its body, while the Peace priest instantly lost his consciousness in Eithne’s hand.
“Too much force…”
“Let go of him!”
Eithne heard the shout of a woman. Raphael and the priestess had returned when they heard the sound of the fallen tree. The Peace priestess was glaring at Eithne.
“Hm? Please repeat?”
The War priestess spoke eerily. She lightly lifted her chin, dragging the fainted Peace priest out of the dark shadow. There was no moon or star tonight. The sky was condensed with ponderous clouds, from which the heavy darkness dropped down to the mortals on earth. However, Eithne was already a part of the dark, so only the Peace priests found it hard to breathe in this atmosphere.
The Peace priestess suddenly felt extremely dizzy. When she was about to fall on the ground, Raphael stepped up to cover her. His strong aura was released to cancel Eithne’s influence on the priestess so she could stand up again. Raphael signaled her to move back while he faced the priestess of War temple.
“Would you mind releasing our priest?”
The Saint remained calm and even talked politely, but his voice lacked minimal warmth. Darkness was a veil draping over Eithne’s face, hiding her expression completely from Raphael’s sight.
“I don’t know. He could be an important clue…” – Her answer was vague, and there were sounds of her hand picking up an object from the bag. “Where did you find these impressive bombs?”
“Haha. It seems that you don’t want to return our property.” – Raphael smiled. “Alright then.”
CLAAAANGGGGGG!
In an eyeblink, lightning crashed with an invisible force, generating metallic sound of blades cutting each other. Raphael already appeared above Eithne, electricity currents ran down from his hand like a whip coming down at her head. At the same time, invisible blades were also flying up to defend against his attack. Eithne’s expressionless face was revealed in a flashing of light.
Both of them flinched.
‘Why none of those magic alarms is set off?’ – They thought of the same thing.
However, they would think deeply about it later, since the most important thing right now was killing each other.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Eithne stood at the same place controlling invisible blades to clash with Raphael’s lightning whip. There was no magic circle being casted during the fight, they just fought each other with their own strange power.
Eithne glanced at the unconscious priest next to her feet. She had a feeling that Raphael was not fighting at full strength, and his attacks were always trying to avoid his subordinate.
‘What a good boss he is.’ – Eithne thought. ‘Or this priest must be very valuable that a villain had to fight to save him.’
She smirked. The dark power ignited from desperation escaped her body to form a silent field between her, the fainted priest and Raphael, locking the Peace priestess outside. In this way, that priestess could not find a chance to save her peer.
Raphael coldly looked at Eithne. He disappeared in an instant.
‘!!!’ – Eithne flinched. ‘Why couldn’t I feel his presence in this field?’
It was completely different when she was fighting with Hesata in the dark field. She could hear every breath and even blood flowing in Hesata’s body, but her opponent should not be able to do the same.
However, Eithne sensed nothing right now.
Her left cheek suddenly felt itchy. She dodged to the right quickly. A bolt of lightning cut through the dark right at the previous position of her neck. Eithne looked down. The unconscious priest was already stolen.
“Tsk!”
Eithne felt a disruption of power at the edge of the field. Raphael’s lightning punched a hole through her black barrier. It was enough for him to carry his underling and escape.
The Saint quickly threw his subordinate at the Peace priestess.
“Catch!”
Hardly had he freed himself from the human baggage, Raphael turned back to stop an invisible blade from cutting his neck. The Saint gritted his teeth furiously while he was constantly pushed back that his shoes created two lines on the ground. His arms were shaking as they crashed directly with the invisible blade which the lightning power on his arm destroyed after a second. He quickly stabilized his body, but Raphael had to raise his arm again to stop a side kick from Eithne.
Bright white lightning currents gathered at his other hand to form a spearhead, Raphael instantly hammered Eithne’s leg with it before she got the chance to withdraw.
Crash! The destructive white electricity fiercely cut the solemn black power protecting her leg, exploding the flesh on her calf. Eithne was forced to step back.
‘What kind of unprecedented magic is this?’ – She furrowed her eyebrows.
The pain on her leg was not as important as the fact that Raphael’s power was even more opposing to her darkness than Hesata’s crimson fire. Moreover, she did not remember if the comic had revealed the villain's ability in the latest chapters yet.
Raphael huffed and puffed, but quickly, he smiled.
“I’d love to stay longer, but I’m busy so see you another time.”
He suddenly disappeared and a bomb replaced his position.
“Shit!” – Eithne panicked.
She ran away in a random direction, hoping the bomb would not explode too soon. If the bomb's impact was as large as the previous explosion, she would undoubtedly be dead. Eithne ran as fast as she could, in a moment of panic, she thought of finding a place to hide.
After dashing through a grove of pine trees, she saw a large decorative boulder in the middle of a colorful flower bed. Without much thinking, she jumped behind the boulder. Unexpectedly, this boulder was already occupied.
The white-haired man that she had just fought earlier looked up at her in surprise. He was crouching down and covering his ears, probably trying to protect himself from the bomb.
“Oh hi…” – Eithne awkwardly waved at him.
“Wait, hasn't the bomb exploded?” - Raphael was google-eyed.
“How should I know???”
“Uh… OK, bye.”
Raphael got on his feet trying to run away.
“Not so fast!”
Eithne’s eyes turned dim again. Her vision shattered into separate frames like panels in a comic’s page, oddly locking Raphael in one frame. Everything seemingly moved slower to the point that they almost stopped, turning into beautiful realistic artworks of an unrealistic fantasy dream of the comic’s author.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Electrical currents spread out from Raphael’s body to tear down the strange force hampering his movement. He eventually broke free from Eithne’s frame, however, the invisible blade successfully slashed his left shoulder. Blood quickly flowed out from the cut on his shoulder, dying his white robe in red.
BANGGGG!!
At that moment, the bomb Raphael left behind finally exploded. Eithne staggered in the blast and lost her concentration on him. Using this chance, Raphael escaped and disappeared.
Eithne sat on the ground, panting for breath.
“He got away…”