SS Chapter 21
Chapter 21. Goodbye
Tl: Warriormonk
Editor: Isleidir
They had moved to a location a bit further away, but the atmosphere between them remained just as awkward. Bishop Rain’s face was scrunched up, a result of him trying to think too hard. The situation that was presented to him remained that difficult to solve.
‘How bothersome.’
Bishop Rain straightened up and looked at Luke.
“First of all, there is something you need to promise me.”
“What is that?”
“What you saw just a while back, and the conversation we are about to have, must remain between the people here and never be revealed to anyone else.”
Luke stared at the Bishop blankly.
“Why must I promise you anything?”
The Earl jumped into the conversation, growling fiercely.
“Because if you do not promise, you will die by my hand.”
This time, it was Isabelle who spoke.
“Fine. If you kill Luke, you’ll be killing me as well. We will at least be together in death.”
Isabelle silently dug herself deeper into Luke’s arms. The Earl and the Bishop flinched as one. Isabelle was a woman that had every possibility of developing into a Saintess, and was a resource that they had painstakingly procured and unwilling to lose.
“Looking at the situation, you seem to be Lady Isabelle’s fiancée. Is that correct?”
“It is.”
“It is to my knowledge that the Lea Marquisate has already broken off the engagement.”
Luke shook his head, firmly denying the Bishop’s Intel.
“The breaking off of an engagement requires acknowledgement from the engaged. I never agreed to call off the engagement.”
“I also never agreed to break off the engagement.”
The Bishop silently looked at Luke, then at Isabelle, and lowered his voice.
“As you wish. Either way, I will only start negotiating once you both promise to take these secrets to the grave. Do you swear to do so?”
Luke pondered upon the issue for a moment before glancing at Isabelle.
“All right. I will promise to do so.”
“Just a promise does not suffice.”
The Earl glanced at Luke up and down with sharp eyes.
“Have you been knighted?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Swear an oath of secrecy on your honor as a knight. Only then can I trust you.”
Luke stared at the earl in the eyes as he said his next words.
“I, Luke Esteban, as an officially knighted member of the Esteban Earldom, swear on my honor that I will not share what has happened and will happen here and now with anyone else.”
The Earl and the Bishop visibly relaxed as Luke finished swearing the oath of secrecy.
“Now that I have made the oath, I believe it’s time for you to tell me about who you are and why you ma.s.sacred the holy knights of the church of Flora. And…”
Luke looked at the Earl with cautious eyes.
“Please tell me who the aura master is.”
“I will tell you everything.”
Bishop Rain silently but gladly began to explain all the circ.u.mstances surrounding the ambush.
“We are people from the church of Maal.”
At the mention of Maal, Luke glanced at Kurotan. Kurotan remained stone faced, not revealing any emotion.
From the very beginning, Kurotan has never trusted any human other than Luke. Even if they served or worshipped the same G.o.d, it meant nothing to Kurotan.
Bishop Rain continued on to explain what had happened five years ago. The crimes committed by Archbishop Aznan were revealed, one by one.
“We believe that the ambush today was a justified act of vengeance.”
Luke remained heavy faced after hearing out all of the Bishop’s explanations. He had not known that there was a seemingly sufficient explanation for the ma.s.sacre, but he also did not wish to blindly stand on the side of the church of Maal.
“That does not make the ma.s.sacre you committed right.”
“Of course not. However, we truly desperately need Lady Isabelle.”
It was normal for the strength of a church to be determined by the number of its members. This made it so that small churches, such as the church of Maal, were always desperate for high level priests, or Saints and Saintesses. Only then would the church be able to receive funding from high n.o.bles, or even approach them.
“Despite the situation, I think one thing stands to our advantage.”
“And what is that?”
“Unlike the church of Flora, our church of Maal does not forbid marriage for high ranking members of the church.”
“Is… Is that true?”
“It is. I myself am wed, and have children. You can trust me.”
“If that’s so…”
Luke’s face brightened with excitement. Isabelle also brightened up with antic.i.p.ation.
“Please, let us take care of Isabelle. After being baptized at the main temple, we can train her in the knowledge of handling holy power in a year. After that…”
Rain looked at Luke and then Isabelle.
“Whatever you two decide to do will be up to you.”
“Even so, if Isabelle is revealed to be a Saintess of the church of Maal, would the church of Flora not take any action?”
The Bishop flinched. Luke had just pointed out a fact that he was most worried about.
Just as Luke said, how could the church of Flora possibly remain still if Isabelle went missing for a year and then came out to the world as a Saintess of the church of Maal? Without a doubt, they would first move to kidnap Isabelle, then possibly interrogate her in order to find out the truth behind the ambush.
“It is our plan to have a retinue of faithful holy knights guard her.”
“The holy knights of the church of Flora vastly outnumber yours.”
“Th-That is true…”
Bishop Rain couldn’t come up with an answer and was stalling when the Earl spoke up.
“A lot of words.”
“…”
“Even if they wish to take her, they must first get through me. Do you think that is possible?”
Luke shook his head darkly. How could anyone oppose an aura master capable of ma.s.sacring thirty holy knights in an instant?
“Even if it is possible, if you take off with Isabelle now, you will be pursued viciously by the church of Flora. How could they do nothing when their holy knights are dead? Whoever is in her custody will be unable to avoid pursuit from the church of Flora.
The Earl took a look at Luke, who remained silent.
“So stop complaining and let the Bishop take care of her. Just as he said, our church allows high ranking members of the church to marry. Come find her after a year has pa.s.sed. I am the aura master of Sis Kingdom, Earl Wellington.”
The bishop turned to the Earl in astonishment when the Earl revealed his ident.i.ty.
“Ea-Earl?”
“It’s all right, do not worry about it.”
The Earl calmed down the Bishop and gazed once again at Luke.
“After a year, come find me and I will tell you the location of the monastery she will be training in. However…”
A strange smile spread across the Earl’s face.
“Come to me only after you’ve found a way to protect her from the church of Flora. Whether it involves becoming stronger yourself, or accruing influence.”
The Earl turned from Luke towards Kurotan.
“Looking at your apprentice knight, it seems you are quite talented in discovering and raising other talents. If you are to protect your woman, shouldn’t you try your best at anything you can do?”
Luke’s face turned ugly with a frown. It seemed that he would have to clean up the aftermath of the church of Maal’s ambush. However, he didn’t see any other way to solve the problem at hand.
‘Yes, it was my plan to elope with Isabelle at the first chance anyways. I must become powerful enough to protect Isabelle.’
Having made a decision, Luke looked into Isabelle’s eyes.
“Isabelle, do you trust me?”
“Of course. If not you, then who would I trust in this world?”
“Then trust me and wait just a year.”
Luke gripped his fists tightly.
“Not just the church of Flora, but no one else in the world will be able to touch you. I will become powerful enough to protect you from anything.”
“Luke…”
Isabelle’s eyelashes trembled. The Earl’s face turned ugly as Isabelle jumped into Luke’s arms once more.
‘G.o.dd.a.m.n younglings…”
Thankfully, no one could see his expression under the helmet.
“There is no other way as of now. Follow Bishop Rain and go get baptized into the church of Maal. I will be raising the strength to protect you in the meantime.”
“I trust you.”
“You can wait, right?”
“I’ve already waited five years. One year is nothing.”
“The next time we meet, I promise we’ll never have to leave each other. I promise.”
Luke rea.s.suringly patted Isabelle’s back for a while before turning to the Bishop.
“Please, take good care of her.”
The Bishop’s face brightened.
“Do not worry. We will put our brightest and most faithful minds into educating and training her.”
Luke then turned towards the Earl.
“I will come find you after a year. Please, let me know of her location when I do.”
“Only if you have become powerful enough to protect her from the church of Flora, of course. Whether that be personal power, or through influence.”
“I will see you after a year.”
And so, Isabelle left Luke. For the Isabelle who kept turning back to see Luke, Luke kept on smiling and waving his hand until she rode out of sight.
However, when she was finally out of his sight, Luke’s face tightened. A roar of pain ripped through his lips.
“Fate, why can’t you just leave Isabelle alone?”
His tightly gripped fists trembled, as his eyes turned red in anger.
“I will make Isabelle happy, no matter what I have to do. Fate, I will crush you with my bare hands if I have to.”
The only one around to hear his oath was Kurotan.
The annihilation of the party of holy knights from the church of Flora was soon reported to the soldiers patrolling the border. A team of investigators from the church of Flora soon showed up to the scene.
The scene, however, made the holy knights become pale.
“This was done by a single person.”
He pointed out his finger to the cleanly cut armor.
Along with the shield, he cut through the armor and body in a single stroke. This is an impossible feat even with the best magic blades.
The leader of the team of investigators, Lancaster, stiffened.
“Then…”
“They were cut down by an aura blade. In other words, they were ambushed by an aura master.”
“An aura master ma.s.sacring the holy knights of our church…”
Lancaster muttered in disbelief.
An aura master was not a figure so lightly spoken of. Most of the kingdoms and countries on the continent would rope in any aura masters by bestowing them with t.i.tles and land, as well as marrying a princess to them in order to make them a part of the royal family.
In other words, an aura master was the most powerful weapon that could be possessed by a nation.
“This is impossible. How could we possibly carry on investigations with aura masters?”
Because they were so powerful, their ident.i.ties were considered top secret by the countries that could move them. No one knew the ident.i.ties of aura masters unless they were in the very top cla.s.s of the government.
The investigation carried on, regardless of Lancaster’s worries.
All members of the escorting party were discovered in horrifyingly clean cut states. Earl Wellington had not left behind any survivors.
There was a single corpse, however, that was not discovered.
“We were unable to discover the corpse of the Saintess hopeful. It seems that it was an ambush in an effort to kidnap the Saintess hopeful.
“Well, that’s a relief. As long as she remains alive, we have hope of discovering who was behind the incident.
Lancaster coldly looked on as the corpses of the holy knights and priests were organized.
“No matter who did this, I will make them pay for you all.”
Just by discovering that the Saintess hopeful was possibly alive, Lancaster was able to cut down the list of possible suspects.
“If kidnapping the Saintess hopeful was their goal, then it was definitely an ambush by another church. The problem is figuring out which church.”
Right then, a single holy knight rushed towards Lancaster in a hurry.