The Age Of Arrogance

Gabriel turned pale and stuttered, then turned his head abruptly and looked up at Asha.

 

“You… deceived me… ?”

 

He was in a state of shock and confusion, the likes of which he had never experienced before in his life. However, Asha’s expression remained unchanged.

 

With the same cool face as when they first met, she spoke quietly, suppressing her anger.

 

“Why are you so surprised? It’s not like barbarians popped out of the magic circle.”

 

Asha’s hair fluttered in the wind that swept through the bell tower.

 

“And it’s not like you lost your people right in front of your eyes, so why are you so surprised and resentful?”

 

“Countess Pervaz…?”

 

“You attacked my castle and still expected kindness from me? That’s the surprising thing.”

 

Asha stood with her back to the moonlight, her face covered in a deep shadow, but Gabriel felt a cold gaze staring at him from within that darkness.

 

“W-what do you mean?”

 

As he protested, Asha muttered in an emotionless voice.

 

“You said you did it, but you didn’t want me to get hurt… or so you said?”

 

Gabriel gasped as the words he had whispered to the unconscious Asha came out of her mouth.

 

“You also said that if I had listened to you, you would have achieved your goal?”

 

“W-what do you mean by that…!”

 

“Do you think I’m giving you a chance to make excuses right now?”

 

Gabriel found it strange that Asha, who seemed ready to rush at him and swing her sword at any moment, was so unfamiliar.

 

Wasn’t she like the sunlight shining through the leaves of a zelkova tree?

 

Wasn’t she someone introduced to him by Libato, someone he could consider a spiritual companion in the future?

 

While he was lost in such confusion, Carlyle slowly approached him and said.

 

“I knew about the Holy Empire plan too. I gave the evidence to my father, and he died suddenly the morning he was about to announce it.”

 

A pair of blood-red eyes looked down at Gabriel and flickered away. It was even more creepy.

 

“It was a sudden death of unknown cause. Isn’t that a coincidence that even the 1st Verona magazine wouldn’t use?”

 

“What can we do? That’s the truth.”

 

“Truth? Well, I can’t shake the feeling that you’re lying behind the name of God.”

 

Those words touched Gabriel’s sore spot.

 

He had walked the thorny path that no one had taken, but had to take, in order to build the Kingdom of God. In the process, he had inevitably told white lies, but to say that he hid behind the name of God! It felt like his blood was running backwards.

 

“How dare you say such a thing to me…!”

 

Gabriel’s angry voice made Carlyle narrow his eyes and ask back.

 

“How dare I?”

 

The already cold air felt even colder.

 

“You use honorifics with me but don’t know your place? ‘Dare’? The second son of the useless Count Knox dares to say ‘dare’ to the prince?”

 

In the meantime, the nobles who had been upstairs came down.

 

Some of them had taken off their masks, not even caring that their identities would be exposed to Gabriel. It was even more breathtaking that those who showed their faces were all from families with knights.

 

Cornered, Gabriel involuntarily took a step back. He could kill them all with black magic if he wanted, but the nobles who had followed Carlyle here would not have come unprepared.

 

‘They must have told everyone that I was going to be here. It will be difficult to contain once my name starts being mentioned.’

 

As he hesitated, not knowing what to do, Carlyle made way for him.

 

“Go and report it quickly. Carlyle Evaristo has come to rebel.”

 

By declaring in front of the nobles that he had come to rebel, it meant that they had already sided with Carlyle. Perhaps, because of the plan to establish the Holy Empire that he just blabbered about…….

 

Gabriel clenched his teeth and looked around everyone there, and Carlyle shouted.

 

“Hurry up!”

 

“You will regret this, Your Highness.”

 

“Regret? I already have. Now it’s your turn.”

 

Gabriel took a step back, overwhelmed by Carlyle’s aura that felt like a huge wave that would engulf him.

 

He looked at Asha, who had finally trapped him.

 

She was also looking at him.

 

“I sincerely wanted to help the Countess. Why are you trying to go down a path that is not God’s will?”

 

“If you talk nonsense one more time, I’ll kill you.”

 

Asha no longer treated him as a High Priest.

 

It seemed like a bright red flame of anger was about to burst out from Asha Pervaz, who was made up of only colorless colors.

 

“…It’s a shame.”

 

Gabriel clenched his fists and turned around to leave the bell tower.

 

And that night, Beatrice declared a state of emergency.

 

* * *

 

“Archbishop Radrell!”

 

Archbishop Radrell, who was reviewing the final proofreading of the new imperial law with other priests in the temple’s study, was startled by Gabriel’s sharp voice and jumped up.

 

“High Priest Gabriel…? What’s going on?”

 

“Please revise the parts related to treason and criminal law in the revision law you are currently working on to the level of Elahe Law.”

 

“Yes?”

 

Radrell wondered why Gabriel was acting like this all of a sudden since morning.

 

It was difficult in many ways to align the imperial law with the Elahe Law, and the gap between reality and the law was particularly severe in relation to ‘punishment’.

 

This is because the criminal law of the Elahe Law, which has been passed down for a long time, was excessively cruel and did not guarantee the rights of criminals at all.

 

Radrell, who was already struggling with how to make it into imperial law, frowned involuntarily.

 

“Wouldn’t it be better to reflect that in the revision work that will be done later? There will be a lot of backlash right now…….”

 

“That’s right. Especially, there are many parts of the criminal law that need to be changed to fit reality, so it will take a long time to revise it.”

 

When not only Archbishop Radrell but also the priests in the study room let out voices of dissatisfaction, Gabriel replied with a face mixed with irritation.

 

“His Highness Carlyle has rebelled! We need a strong new law to effectively deter treason!”

 

“But if a law of the level of Elahe Law is suddenly announced, the prisons will be filled with lawbreakers in an instant.”

 

“Me and the Empress will take care of that, so just revise the law. It’s urgent!”

 

Gabriel added a word for fear that Archbishop Radrell would take his words as a joke.

 

“The revised law will be announced in three days. If you don’t finish it by then, your head might fall off, Archbishop. So don’t even think about sleeping from now on and work.”

 

The High Priest was threatening the Archbishop. However, no one in the room could blame Gabriel.

 

“I… understand. Let’s hurry.”

 

Radrell gritted his teeth and endured, but his displeasure that had not yet been hidden leaked out. However, Gabriel did not pretend to see him and came out of the study. It was not a situation where he could afford to be considerate of other people’s feelings.

 

‘There is no time, no time!’

 

After meeting Carlyle and Asha last night, he immediately rushed to Beatrice and told her that Carlyle had secretly entered Zyro.

 

[Are you saying that they framed the High Priest?]

 

[I am sorry, Your Majesty. It is my fault that I carelessly believed the words of Countess Pervaz because I wanted to get information about His Highness Carlyle as soon as possible.]

 

Beatrice did not doubt or blame Gabriel when he told her the story in a trembling voice that seemed to be in shock.

 

Gabriel changed the topic of the conversation to what he had to do next, not giving Beatrice time to think. Of course, that was also a more urgent matter.

 

[It’s earlier than I thought, but we need to revise the criminal law of the imperial law to the level of the Elahe Law and gather as many knights as possible to protect the castle.]

 

[There will surely be a lot of backlash if the law is suddenly changed.]

 

[There is no choice. It is better than ignoring the law and dragging in the Holy Order.]

 

Even under the current imperial law, treason was a serious crime, but the Holy Order could not interfere.

 

If the Holy Order could not unite with the Imperial Knights now, they could be overwhelmed by Carlyle’s army in terms of numbers, so the law had to be revised quickly. Ignoring the law and mobilizing the Holy Order would only give Carlyle a pretext.

 

[How about bringing in the knights of our nobles as much as possible?]

 

[Of course we should, but only the Holy Order is effective against His Highness Carlyle. Because of the blessing of Aguiles… .]

 

[Ah, that damn blessing! Once we establish the Holy Empire, I will remove Aguiles from the upper gods!]

 

Beatrice gritted her teeth, but she knew there was no other way.

 

She announced a state of emergency to prevent rebellion and announced plans to revise the law, just as Gabriel had suggested.

 

And she sent out men to capture Carlyle. However, there had been no news of Carlyle as of this morning.

 

‘That rat! Where the hell is he hiding?’

 

Unless Carlyle had dug a hole in the ground, it meant that there were more than a few people helping him.

 

Although many nobles had defected to Matthias’ side in the meantime, none of them were of any help in this situation.

 

There was no reason why Carlyle could not come to Zyro, and he had not done anything drastic yet, so it was not possible to issue a large-scale warrant for his arrest.

 

The only fortunate thing was that the high nobles were also being quiet.

 

‘They’re all just watching the situation right now. We have to find that Carlyle bastard and get rid of him quickly while we have this chance.’