The Age Of Arrogance

“……We were just incredibly lucky.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I mean it. From Gabriel’s point of view, we were incredibly lucky.”

 

The amount of divine power he poured out was less than when he healed Asha. It seemed that Gabriel had spread out much of the magic of the black magic circle, and Asha’s holy water had played a significant role.

 

If Gabriel hadn’t been carrying the holy water, it would have been impossible to destroy the magic circle even if he had poured out all his strength. No, there were many other factors that could have led to failure.

 

‘If I hadn’t learned the spell to remove magic at the temple when I was a child, if my grandfather hadn’t made me recite it over and over again, if I hadn’t practiced removing magic while healing Asha…….’

 

If it hadn’t been for those things, they might have already become dead souls at Gabriel’s mercy.

 

“Ha…… Hahahaha! Did God really send me to stop that bastard?”

 

Carlyle laughed refreshingly and collapsed onto the floor under the altar. Only now did his whole body ache.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“I wasn’t okay when I realized you were gone, but I’m fine now. My divine power will recharge if I rest for a bit.”

 

Asha wanted to point out that what he said could be very misleading. But there was something else she wanted to ask first.

 

“But…… how did you find me? I don’t even know where this is.”

 

At those words, Carlyle’s expression became so subtle that it was hard to tell if he was smiling or sad.

 

He stared into Asha’s clear gray eyes for a long time, then slowly raised his hand and gently touched the base of her collarbone.

 

“This…… You didn’t throw it away.”

 

“Ah……!”

 

Only then did Asha realize that she was wearing the magic stone necklace. And that it was the object that had revealed her location to Carlyle.

 

“Thank you for keeping it around your neck.”

 

Carlyle meant it.

 

The moment he realized Asha was gone, an unspeakable sense of foreboding ran down his spine.

 

At that time, he didn’t care about the savages or anything else. He felt like he was going crazy thinking he had to find Asha somehow.

 

[Where the hell are you, Asha!]

 

In the midst of his desperation, he activated the spell on the magic stone on the off-chance, and at that moment, the location of Asha’s presence was naturally drawn in Carlyle’s mind.

 

How should he describe that feeling?

 

The fear of knowing that she was in danger, and at the same time, the joy, no, the gratitude of knowing that she still had that necklace on her body…….

 

“Even if you accuse me of making excuses, let me say it one more time. It’s been a long time since I started to trust you completely. I swear.”

 

At his heartfelt confession, Asha felt a strange sense of embarrassment and scratched the base of her neck where his hand had touched.

 

“Well…… You didn’t lie. It’s true that this necklace saved my life.”

 

Asha averted her gaze and muttered, her appearance evoking a loveliness that was completely out of place in this bizarre room.

 

Carlyle flicked Asha’s nose and pretended to grumble.

 

“I told you to be careful. If you had become a hostage, things really would have gone according to Gabriel’s plan.”

 

“Not a hostage, it seems he was trying to inject me with dark magic and make me kill Your Highness. It seems that knocking me down and putting his mouth on mine was a way to inject dark magic.”

 

Carlyle’s face hardened again.

 

The urge to wake up the unconscious Gabriel and beat him until he passed out again surged through him.

 

“I believed in Your Highness. No matter what the High Priest’s dark magic was, Your Highness would have been able to stop me.”

 

“How could I possibly cut you down?”

 

Even the thought made his body stiffen. To cut down the body of that woman who had endured so many wounds and pain and lived.

 

So if Asha had been consumed by dark magic and run amok according to Gabriel’s plan…

 

‘I would have died by Asha’s hand.’

 

So they had barely turned back from the edge of a dizzying cliff.

 

But Asha, who had been listening quietly to his words, spoke with a firm face.

 

“I’ve been thinking, Your Highness needs to be careful with your words.”

 

“……Did I say something offensive?”

 

“Rather than being offensive… I feel like you often use expressions that could be misunderstood. Of course, I don’t think that way, but if someone else heard it, they might misunderstand.”

 

Carlyle was puzzled, not knowing what Asha was referring to.

 

“So, what kind of words…?”

 

“Like saying that your heart would drop, or that you couldn’t possibly cut me down… I don’t know if it’s because I’m a bumpkin from Pervaz, but if someone else had said that, I would have thought it was an awkward confession.”

 

The smile gradually disappeared from Carlyle’s face.

 

TL/N: Man will start hitting the gym fr:/

 

However, Asha was ignoring him and did not notice the change. She hid her uncomfortable feelings and clenched and unclenched her still tingling hand.

 

“Well, it wasn’t important. Let’s just go… .”

 

“It’s not a misunderstanding.”

 

“Yes…?”

 

Asha turned to Carlyle and the moment she met his gaze, her body stiffened like a small animal in front of a predator.

 

The look in his eyes, as if something was swirling hotly, was the same one she had seen in the middle of the battlefield where he had fought off the Igrams.

 

“It’s not a misunderstanding.”

 

“……”

 

For a moment, silence passed between them.

 

“That’s… what…”

 

Asha tried to make sense of what Carlyle had said, but he quickly closed his eyes and opened them again, avoiding her gaze as if nothing had happened.

 

“Anyway, we don’t have time to rest here for long. It’s still dangerous outside. Can you walk?”

 

The tension that had been hanging in the air disappeared in an instant as he pretended not to have heard anything.

 

“Ah… Yes, I’m fine. Are you sure you can stand up, Your Highness?”

 

“I’ll be fine.”

 

Thanks to the short rest, Carlyle seemed to have regained some of his divine power, and he stood up easily and helped Asha to her feet.

 

Asha felt his hand as he helped her up, and it felt strangely hot to her. But neither of them said anything more about the conversation they had just had or the body heat they were feeling now.

 

* * *

 

They dragged the unconscious Gabriel outside and immediately felt that the atmosphere had changed.

 

Unlike the beginning, Carlyle now had the upper hand.

 

Asha pointed to the wall where the magic circle had been and shouted.

 

“The magic circle is gone!”

 

“Maybe it’s obvious? That bastard Gabriel created all those magic circles.”

 

The magic circles, which had lost their power, disappeared, and the knights of Carlyle were able to fight strategically as the barbarians and monsters no longer increased in number.

 

“Your Highness!”

 

Lionel, who had been desperately searching for the missing Carlyle, ran up.

 

“Where the hell…! Oh? What is that…?”

 

“Oh, this? It’s Gabriel Knox, the High Priest and black magician.”

 

“Y-you killed the High Priest? If this gets out, the temple will…!”

 

“He’s not dead. It will be a pain in the ass to reveal that this guy is a black magician though.”

 

Lionel’s eyes widened at the sound of Gabriel being a black magician.

 

“Was the High Priest really a black magician? And he didn’t even use a separate black magician?”

 

Even Lionel, who had been suspicious of Gabriel until now, couldn’t believe it easily. That’s how much the biggest problem they had to solve now was proving that Gabriel was a black magician.

 

That’s why they kept him alive, but as Carlyle had said, Gabriel’s greatest weapon was his appearance that seemed like he had never told a lie and his slick tongue that was good at deceiving others.

 

If they were not careful, it could look like Carlyle took his anger out on Gabriel instead of Matthias or Beatrice.

 

“Anyway, that’s for later, and for now, let’s clean up the barbarians.”

 

“The magic circle became strange and then disappeared.”

 

“The High Priest’s black magic circle disappeared. So the other magic circles derived from it must have disappeared too.”

 

“I see! Those barbarian bastards used to run away to that magic circle when they were at a disadvantage, but now they have nowhere to go, so they’re like rats in a trap.”

 

Lionel’s grinning expression seemed to explain everything.

 

And sure enough, by the time the sun set, Carlyle’s knights had almost finished cleaning up the barbarians and monsters, and were entering a temporary truce while facing the Imperial Knights head-on.

 

Of course, it was a tense truce.

 

It was around then that Gabriel came to his senses.

 

“What is this! You are using a priest as a sacrifice for war! God and the Pope will not forgive you!”

 

As Carlyle and Asha had expected, he was briefly taken aback by the fact that he had completely lost his black magic, but then he immediately started acting like a victim.

 

“High Priest. You really chose the wrong career. You would have been a huge success if you had become an opera singer or an actor.”

 

“I know that Your Highness’ faith is shallow, but do not insult the priests!”

 

“I’m not insulting the priests. I’m talking about your ‘career’, so why are you generalizing?”

 

Carlyle smiled and puffed on his cigar.

 

The cigar, which he had been smoking for the first time in a long time, made him feel languid. It felt a little too strong, but it wasn’t bad for relieving his fatigue after the battle.

 

“Cut the crap and…”

 

He looked straight at Gabriel, who was reappearing through the dissipating cigar smoke, and said.

 

“Did you kill my father?”

 

There was a brief silence.

 

Only after confirming that there was no one around did Gabriel’s face show hatred for Carlyle.

 

“Why? Do you miss your father now? You ignored him so much when he was alive.”

 

“You’re surprisingly gloomy. Who said I missed him? I’m asking if you killed him or not.”

 

“I don’t know anything about that.”

 

Gabriel turned his head and replied coldly.