“You must have had a hard time coming here.”
The Pope opened his mouth in front of a well-set round large table.
“It’s not a short distance from the capital to the east, and the road must have been rough.”
“But since you invited us, it’s only natural that we came.”
Zion responded with a bright smile. Arundel, who saw his expression from the side, felt her heart flutter anew.
She knew it was a diplomatic smile, but that beautiful smile harmonized with his harmonious features and his soft voice.
“But I didn’t know they were also part of this.”
Zion looked at Lucas and the priests sitting next to Cain.
“Ah, I heard they came with you, so I prepared a place together. If you’re uncomfortable…”
The Pope looked at Zion, wondering if he had made a mistake.
As Zion said, the table was occupied by Zion, Arundel, Cain, Lucas, and two priests from the Elbis Temple.
Arundel looked around with a feeling of emptiness. Something was missing, Hills was not there.
“It’s okay. The more people there are, the better the place is.”
Zion said with a meaningful smile. Only then did the Pope sigh in relief.
“You must be hungry, please eat.”
With the Pope’s words, the meal began. Arundel nudged Cain, who was scooping soup, with his elbow.
“Cain.”
“Yes?”
Cain looked at Arundel, wiping his mouth.
“Where did Captain Hills go?”
It was a word that felt odd to her mouth. ‘Captain Hills.’
“But to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, she was using honorifics in front of others.
“I don’t know. He said he was going to patrol the area as soon as he arrived and hasn’t come back.”
“Really…?”
“You don’t have to worry. He’s not the type to get into trouble.”
Cain started to scoop up the soup again with a nonchalant face.
There was a reason why Cain was acting so calmly. It was because he had also learned about Hills’ true nature later on.
A while ago, the news that a person of unknown origin had become a knight captain had caused a stir in the palace, and soon the news that this unheard-of knight captain had taken control of the knights was passed on.
So Hills unintentionally became a celebrity in the palace.
‘Well… I’m not worried about him, but I’m worried that he might cause an accident…’
As expected, it seemed to be too much to stay in the temple. Often doing it unconsciously, he was really a demon inside and out.
Fortunately, Zion showed no signs of looking for Hills. Rather, sometimes it seemed like he was treating him like an invisible man.
“I heard that the reason they were called to the temple was to reward them.”
Zion, who finished his meal early, opened his mouth. His gaze turned to Lucas.
At the sudden question, the fork heading towards the Pope’s mouth stopped in mid-air.
“Hmm, yes. As you may know, the priests of the Elbis Temple, centered around Lucas, have been of great help in the demon subjugation.”
“What do you mean by rewarding, specifically?”
Zion asked, wiping his mouth lightly with a napkin. As the Pope hesitated to open his mouth, Lucas’s voice came first.
“It’s money.”
The blunt word from Lucas’s mouth and his gentle voice didn’t match, and Arundel thought she had heard wrong for a moment.
“It’s because of money. That’s why we ran all the way here.”
But she hadn’t heard wrong. He continued with a smile.
“It also included a condition that if we help treat the plague patients around, you will give us more reward money.”
The Pope blinked his eyes as if he was in trouble.
Arundel, who had been looking at the two of them alternately, recalled the subtle greetings between the Pope and Lucas.
There was a strange sarcasm in Lucas’s tone at that time, probably because of that reason.
The Pope had bribed Lucas with money, and Lucas, who needed money, had no choice but to accept the Pope’s request, but it seemed that he still had a grudge in his heart.
“I understand that you may feel bad, Lucas. But we were in a hurry.”
The Pope protested his innocence. Lucas let out a small laugh.
“If it weren’t for ‘that thing’ that was unilaterally notified by the temple, I would have happily run all the way here.”
That thing? Arundel quietly listened.
“It’s difficult if you take that thing emotionally. It was the best choice for us. Didn’t we offer not bad conditions?”
The Pope was sweating profusely.
Zion, who was listening to the conversation with a bored expression and resting his chin, lightly tapped the table. Naturally, everyone’s gaze turned to Zion.
“The conversation is getting long. We’re tired, so we’ll get up first.”
As Zion spoke softly with a blank face, the Pope got up with a look of surprise.
“Oh my, I made such a mistake in front of the guests…!”
Zion didn’t answer, but reached out his hand to Arundel, who was sitting next to him. She understood his behavior at that moment.
‘I could get up on my own…’
But not disliking it, she carefully placed her hand on top of his palm. With a strong pulling force, she got up from her seat.
When she went outside, the considerably cooled night air brushed against Arundel’s skin.
She wanted to stay and ask Lucas what ‘that thing’ was. She was concerned because it seemed to be related to the Elbis Temple.
However, such thoughts soon evaporated from her mind.
Because Zion’s hand, held in the cold air, was warm. The warm body temperature made Arundel’s brain mushy.
Her heart was ticklish for no reason.
Arundel glanced at his side profile. His hair was gently fluttering in the wind.
In the moment when her gaze was distracted for a while, Arundel’s foot got tangled and she staggered.
Zion, who was looking ahead, quickly turned his body as if he had eyes on the side, and caught Arundel who was about to fall. When she came to her senses, she had her hands around his neck.
“..…”
His face was too close.
Thump thump.
Her heart was beating hard again.
“I always welcome you falling on me,”
Zion said with a mysterious smile. There was laughter in his voice.
“But not here. I don’t like anyone seeing you.”
At his teasing words, Arundel stood up.
“That… that’s not it.”
“I’m disappointed, I was expecting it.”
Arundel turned her gaze, feeling like her face was about to explode. But even the sweet voice coming from right next to her was highly stimulating.
“I’ll take you.”
Zion, who thought he should stop teasing, withdrew the laughter from his voice and held Arundel’s hand again.
As they started walking again, Zion asked.
“Aren’t you uncomfortable?”
“What?”
“Being in a strange place. There are no maids, right?”
Arundel shook her head.
“It’s comfortable if they’re there, but it’s not uncomfortable if they’re not.”
“That’s a relief. I was worried.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s harder than being in the palace. The food doesn’t suit your taste, the road is rough, and there’s more to do outside.”
Arundel burst into laughter for a moment.
What for…
It seemed that Zion thought of her as a plant sheltered in a greenhouse.
It was a bit absurd to think that way even after seeing her swinging a spear.
“No. I might have come without thinking that much.”
“That’s a relief then. I was blaming myself for making you suffer because of my bad heart.”
When Arundel blinked her eyes without understanding, Zion kissed Arundel’s forehead with a smile. As the soft touch moved away, a voice came.
“I wanted you to come with me because I didn’t want to be away from you for a long time.”
With a peck, he lightly pressed his lips against Arundel’s cheek and then pulled away.
“I was anxious that you might have disappeared while I was away.”
And finally, he pressed his lips against Arundel’s. Arundel’s eyelashes trembled finely as she closed her eyes.
He had kissed her quite a few times, but she never got used to it. Her heart was pounding so hard that she thought her heart would burst.
When his lips parted, the cold night air swirled around her lips. Zion’s pupils were entirely directed at Arundel.
What is he so anxious about?
But upon knowing that she would really leave someday, Arundel felt anxious.
“Shall we go now?”
Fortunately, the conversation did not last long. She didn’t have the courage to ponder whether Zion knew something.
Arundel, who had parted with Zion and entered her room, sat down leaning her body against the bed.
She bowed her head and looked down at her palm. With a little concentration, divine power gathered in her palm.
‘85%… no, about 90%.’
Most of the divine power had already returned. The day to return to heaven was not far off.
Arundel bit her lip.
Wasn’t it what she had been longing for? She had been waiting for the day to return to heaven. She had completed the mission given by Mannheim and could return with dignity.
And in times like these, she should return to being an Archangel as soon as possible to restore the balance of the world.
‘But why…’
Arundel closed her eyes and put her arm on his forehead. She felt as if she was sinking into a deep lake.
‘No.’
She suddenly got up from the bed.
She wanted to recover her depressed mood by feeling the outside wind.
Arundel picked up the coat that had been left at the door and quietly left the room.
Even though it wasn’t this cold when she was with Zion earlier. Whether it was because of her anxious heart or because the night was deep, she had to button up her coat in the cold night air.
She walked aimlessly for a while. It was quite late at night, but she didn’t think she would be able to sleep.
‘Should I go look for Hills?’
She hadn’t seen him since she entered the temple. It was the same now. She knocked on the door of the room he was assigned to, wondering if he was there, but there was no answer.
Just in case, just in case something happened to him, she was worried. And it was boring to spend this long night with her eyes open.
Arundel decided to look for him for the sake of it. Fortunately, there was a not-so-high wall nearby.
When she spread the divine power to the tip of her foot, her legs became light. After stretching her legs a few times, she jumped up and grabbed the end of the wall.
And when she exerted force on the place she had stepped on again, she was able to climb over the wall without difficulty.
Outside was pitch black without a single ray of light. When she gathered divine power in her hand, the surroundings brightened.
She felt it again. Gratitude for the divine power. It was so convenient to have it back.
‘Where could Hills be?’
Arundel thought about where Hills might be. If it’s a place where there are few people, he often sleeps in trees, so there was a high chance he was in the forest.
Even if she couldn’t find him, it didn’t matter.
Just think of it as a walk. Arundel shrugged her shoulders.
However, contrary to Arundel’s vague thoughts, the situation unfolded.
“You are…”
She had not been in the forest for even 10 minutes, when she encountered an unexpected being.
