NoGift

Harlequin was truly puzzled why the Pope chose this place to meet Argent Blackbourne.  If he was not mistaken, this cottage was like a retreat for the Pope.  He often went here to  rest.  Even he couldn"t just enter this place as he pleased.  And yet, the Pope didn"t hesitate to pick this place to welcome the duke.

Besides that, there were hardly any security in this area aside from the most basic magical tools.  But most importantly, the only Apostles here were Limos and the twins.  Both of whom were technically non-combatants.  If Solis wasn"t brought here by a va.s.sal from his Empire to attend the Festival of Creation, then the twins wouldn"t even be here.  Which would only leave Limos.

Harlequin wasn"t sure if the Pope was just confident of his skill to defend himself or he just didn"t care even if the duke retaliated.  Knowing him, it"s most likely the latter.  But that was not because the Pope looked down on the duke.  No, in fact, it"s more of the opposite.  Harlequin could see that, in some way, the Pope held a kind of morbid fascination towards Argent Blackbourne.  

He first thought that it was only because the duke could gather the three artifacts.  But so could Aurum Blackbourne.  And yet the Pope never gave her the same kind of attention.  So what was it that Argent Blackbourne had that could make a man like Lucern Faust so fascinated with him?

Harlequin could admit that the duke was interesting.  But that"s all.  In terms of ability and ambition, he couldn"t hold a candle against the Pope.  

Well, whatever the reason, he just hoped that it wouldn"t get in the way of their plans.  Although, frankly speaking, he wasn"t really worried that something like that might happen.  Lucern Faust might be a lot of things but he"s not the type that would stop things half-way.  Especially when it came to his goal.  Because that goal was everything.

No longer conflicted about that, Harlequin then thought of something that he forgot to ask.  "Your Holiness, are we really not going to pursue the whereabouts of the elf?"

He knew the elf was taken and he already suspected that that one behind it was Stillwell.  After all, he"d been wanting to put that elf as the finale for the auction.  What Harlequin didn"t expect was that the elf was also stolen during the auction, making Stillwell crazy.  They didn"t manage to get anything from him because the Pope killed him directly.  

The elf was related to someone who could probably lead them to another artifact.  Now, the elf was gone.  They didn"t know where he was or who took him.  But it seemed like the Pope didn"t care at all about that.   

"No.  He already exhausted his usefulness.  I no longer have any need for him."

Harlequin wanted to ask what the Pope meant by that, but Limos suddenly walked towards them.  She seemed to come from the dining room of the cottage.

"Your Holiness," she greeted respectfully, completely ignoring Harlequin.

"Is lunch ready?" Lucern asked.

"Yes, everything is as Your Holiness ordered."

"Good."  Lucern turned to Harlequin.  "Go and fetch our guest."

Harlequin bowed and then disappeared like a puff of smoke.

Seeing that Harlequin was going to pick up that Argent Blackbourne, Limos couldn"t help but show a worried expression.  

"The d.u.c.h.ess?" Lucern asked.

"I already removed my Gift.  She would probably wake up by tomorrow," Limos answered, biting her lip and wondering if she could ask the problem that had been bothering her. 

Finally, the Pope noticed her expression.  "Is there a problem, Limos?"

Limos hesitated for a bit, wondering if she could finally ask that question that he"d been wanting to ask.  In the end, she still chose to ask it.  "Your Holiness, I don"t mean any disrespect, but I just wanted to know, what if the duke refused to give the sword?"

Lucern gave a pampering smile.  "Are you worried about this?"

Limos" cheeks immediately turned red and looked down in embarra.s.sment.  "I"m sorry, I know it"s silly of me.  I"m just worried that after all these, Your Holiness still couldn"t keep the sword."   

"It doesn"t matter even if I ended up not having the sword.  Because everything will still go the way I wanted it."  

Limos showed a confused look.  "Then why--"

"Why go through all these trouble?"  Limos nodded.  Lucern only smiled meaningfully.  "Because Argent needed a nudge in the right direction."  He glanced outside the window, a faraway look appeared on his face.  "And maybe I just wanted to meet him again."

----------

"What"s the situation over there?" Argent asked the other side.  She was leaning on the wall of a building inside an alley, talking to Viper using her light brain.

"There are no knights or sign of any Apostles, only magical tools that can detect Mana," Viper answered.

Argent raised one of her brows when she heard that.  No knights?  Not even Apostles?  Did the Pope think that she posed no threat so he didn"t even think of guarding against her?  If so, then that was truly a naive move.  Something that someone like the Pope would never do.  So what was the reason?

"Still, don"t let your guard down."

"Are you worried about me?" Viper asked energetically.

Argent could almost picture him with his eyes s.h.i.+ning and looking expectantly at her.  She shook her had.  It seemed like their last talk didn"t affect him at all.  "Viper, be serious."

"I"m always serious," Viper said with a little pout in his voice.  "So, what are we going to do, plan A or plan B?"

"If you make sure that there"s really no one in the area or anything that could record our movements, then go with plan B.  Otherwise, proceed to plan A," Argent answered.

"Understood.  I"ll tell Lynx to be on standby."  She was about to end the call when Viper continued, "Argent, be careful."

"I will.  You too."

"See?  You"re really worried about me," Viper said, you could almost hear the smile on his voice.

As an answer, Argent ended the call.  After that, she ran towards the Northern forest.

It"s time to meet that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Pope.

When she arrived there, she didn"t wait for long until a man with long gray hair and a domino mask covering the upper half of his face appeared in front of her.  

"Welcome, milord," Harlequin greeted and made an elegant bow.

Argent remove the hood of the cloak he"s wearing, revealing her silver hair.  "Stop with the theatrics and just take me to your master."

"Then, please," Harlequin said, offering his hand towards Argent.

Argent knew he wanted to teleport her so she only snorted.  "There"s no way I"m going to touch you."

Harlequin suddenly remembered that time when he tried to teleport the duke and failed.  He had been thinking the reason behind that and the only thing he could come up with was because the duke managed to make a device that prevented people from using their Gifts against him.  Considering how he made that sPhone at such a young age, making something like the device he thought of was not really impossible.

"Is it because my teleportation won"t work?" he asked.

Argent sneered in disgust.  "No.  I"m just afraid you"ll infect me with some skin disease if I touch you."

Harlequin felt the popping of the veins on his forehead.  He"s really on the verge of punching this brat.  He took a deep breath and calmed himself.  "Follow me."

He no longer talked and just walked inside the forest.  Argent followed.  She looked at the back of Harlequin and a dark grin spread accross her pretty face.