Chapter 174: Woo Acrea Ire’s Story
He had immediately changed his words, but it seemed like his question had lingered in her mind.
“Master Fritz is going to win again this time, right?”
When they met again at the training grounds, she asked him the same question, as if on purpose. He, feeling like he was being tested, gave her the expected answer, unlike before.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Shina would win.
That was what Shina Fritz had decided, and that was what Reeves Acrea had decided. So his doubts didn’t matter, the world had to revolve around them.
“Do you remember? You asked if there would ever be a day when Shina loses.”
But while he was frozen in place, Sue Byron had already found a new answer.
“I think that day is today.”
Shina had really lost. To Raines Noel, who had once tried to kill Sue Byron. He couldn’t believe the outcome and just stared blankly at Shina, who was lying on the ground.
Shina Fritz had lost. To Raines Noel.
Unlike him, who couldn’t accept reality, she was more delighted than anyone else in the arena, watching Raines Noel raise his sword and declare his victory.
“See? I was right.”
She smiled triumphantly, as if she had defeated Shina herself, as if she wanted him to acknowledge Shina Fritz’s defeat.
That was the second time he had seen Sue Byron’s genuine smile.
***
Reeves and Melaine Vava’s broken engagement was announced as soon as the Athletics Festival ended. It was Enzhe’s doing, just like with the engagement announcement.
Reeves, as always, didn’t get angry, he just chuckled, as if he found Enzhe’s antics amusing.
“Well, let’s all go wild.”
He had said that, but Reeves was actually the one who had used Enzhe to leak the information. He had taken the opportunity, while Marquis Yuna was away from the capital, to quickly finalize the broken engagement.
“Woo, don’t get involved with Melaine Vava anymore.”
He had received the order and obeyed. He had heard rumors that Vava had joined an unknown subordinate religion, but he deliberately ignored them. It seemed less likely that there would be any unnecessary problems now that she was involved with a subordinate religion.
Until he encountered Sue Byron again.
“Oh my, Master Acrea, are you leaving already?”
“No, I still have some work to do. Byron, why are you still here?”
“Hehe, I was just stopping by the library, and I’m about to pack up and go home.”
She was making up obvious lies, her swollen hand hidden behind her back.
He couldn’t say anything to her, seeing her exhausted face, even though she was the bad one. And Reeves had long ordered him not to get involved with Enzhe’s schemes. So he had pretended to be fooled.
“Master Acrea, do you know that Lady Melaine has joined a subordinate religion?”
“Ah, really?”
“…Lady Melaine… She joined a subordinate religion called the Holy Demon Religion after her engagement was broken.”
She kept talking about Vava, her voice filled with concern, as they walked up the stairs together. He had initially thought it was just gossip, but her tone became heavier.
She should have been indifferent to the news of a broken engagement between nobles.
“So… I’m worried about Lady Melaine. I mean, she suddenly joined a subordinate religion I’ve never even heard of… I don’t even know if it’s a legitimate place…”
But as he listened, he realized that she wasn’t really worried about Melaine Vava’s broken engagement, her attention was focused on something else.
‘Holy Demon Religion…?’
He asked her if she was worried, a vague suspicion forming in his mind, and she nodded firmly.
“Yes, I’m worried. I’m so grateful to the Imperial Family and the Grand Temple.”
Sue Byron would often bring up strange topics.
Raines Noel’s fate, which had nothing to do with her, Shina Fritz’s defeat, the subordinate religion Melaine Vava had joined.
He knew she was asking for his help.
‘Don’t get involved with Melaine Vava.’
But he had no reason to help her now. In fact, there were several reasons why he shouldn’t.
“I don’t think it’s something you should be concerned about, Byron.”
Her eyes fell at his words, drawing a line.
It seemed like she had been expecting something from him. He wasn’t that kind to her.
“The Holy Demon Religion? Woo, why are you suddenly interested in this?”
So he couldn’t understand why Reeves had suddenly found documents related to the Holy Demon Religion on his desk. It was a coincidence that he had had his servants prepare the documents.
He hadn’t been looking into the Holy Demon Religion because of Sue Byron.
He knew it was a childish excuse now, but he still desperately defended himself.
“…Look into it if you’re curious. She might be up to something, dragging the marquis’s daughter into it.”
“….”
He wasn’t getting involved with Melaine Vava, he was simply concerned about the corruption of a subordinate religion that had sprung up near the capital.
It was the Acrea grand duke family’s duty to find and remove the rotten parts of Atlantis, as entrusted to them by the Imperial Family.
“Did you like Melaine?”
So he couldn’t understand why Reeves had suddenly asked him that. It was baffling, and he didn’t even want to know the answer.
“She’s someone who was almost your wife, Brother. I don’t have any personal feelings for her. I’ll handle the documents myself if you’re not interested. I was just planning to read them and be done with it.”
“…Hmm, Woo, you…”
He started to say something, then stopped.
“Never mind. Woo, if you’re that concerned about this subordinate religion called the Holy Demon Religion, go investigate it yourself… Don’t use anyone else, go to their chapel yourself and see if there’s anything suspicious. If you’re that determined.”
He wasn’t sure if he was being told to investigate it or not.
He couldn’t understand his brother, who was smirking.
And at the same time, he was curious about what he had meant by “that determined.”
Why was he trying to uncover the corruption of an unknown subordinate religion for no reason? Where was this motivation coming from?
‘For Reeves. For the Acrea family.’
He had to convince himself that it was true, forcing himself to accept it by layering his emotions.
He could only move if he thought that way.
***
He had frozen, his body stiff as a board, when he saw the familiar figure in the unfamiliar place.
“I didn’t expect to see a familiar face here.”
Sue Byron was diligently filling out a register. Her face, seeing him, was also filled with surprise.
Her messy hair and shabby clothes made her look nothing like a noble of the capital. She was probably thinking the same thing about him.
He received the register from her and saw a familiar name on the last line.
Marie.
He recognized it as her alias.
‘She’s using the same alias she used at the September Festival.’
The scribbled handwriting was like a drawing, perfectly imitating the letters used by commoners.
Sue Byron, after parting ways with him at the academy, had been investigating the Holy Demon Religion on her own and had lost her servant. She had come to the chapel to find her. And it wasn’t her first time here.
She had asked him why he hadn’t used anyone else, when he had told her that he had come to the chapel under Reeves’s orders, but that was what he wanted to ask her. If this place was really as corrupt as she suspected, she wouldn’t be safe either.
But she had just evaded his question, refusing to give him a proper answer.
‘Should I have told her that I was investigating it?’
It was too late to regret it now. He hadn’t even realized he was regretting it back then.
Anyway, they had continued to act together at the chapel, since they knew each other.
“You said you were worried about Melaine before. Why were you suspicious of her?”
“I couldn’t help but be worried when a Skia, the second daughter of the Vava marquis family, suddenly joined a local subordinate religion. What if they were using brainwashing magic or something?”
Sue Byron seemed to be convinced that the Holy Demon Religion was a corrupt religion, even though she had no evidence.
She must have been worried about Melaine Vava and her servant. He had dismissed it as such at the time.
“Here, take it. I have another one.”
The problem had started after he had received the silver raven pendant from her. He had felt a strange sense of dissonance emanating from the shiny raven pendant. Sue Byron hadn’t even looked at him, as if she hadn’t noticed.
It didn’t take him long to realize that the dissonance wasn’t just his imagination.
“Take that off for a moment.”
“Ah… Yes.”
As the high priest started to measure Sue Byron’s soul level, a certain amount of magic power started to drain from the pendant. And he vaguely sensed a surge of negative energy coming from the high priest.
“I apologize, High Priest. This child is not feeling well. She’s been looking pale since this morning, so I would appreciate it if you could be considerate of her.”
He had immediately stopped Sue Byron’s soul level measurement, before he could even identify the nature of the negative energy.
Luckily, the high priest had quickly given up on her and turned to him.
“Follower Louis, your soul is very pure. This pure… Yes, it’s comparable to Saint Melaine.”
“Is my soul that pure, High Priest?”
“Yes. You’re not quite ready to be called a First yet, but you’re almost there. You could be promoted to First with a little more training in Second class.”
“That’s an honor.”
The unknown magic power contained in the pendant continued to drain as he spoke to the high priest. He realized then that a high-ranking magic spell was cast on the pendant.
“You’ll join the Holy Demon Religion, of course, Follower Louis?”
He couldn’t even sense that a spell had been cast on it, let alone decipher the formula, but after reviewing the situation, he could roughly guess what kind of magic it was.