“Speak. Where is Lee Han?”
Without realizing it, Aina took a few steps forward.
Lee Han.
How much effort had she put into finding him up to this point?
Not only soldiers, but even the knight order had to be mobilized. Of course, it was under the guise of other missions, but that was merely a pretext.
Finding Lee Han had been one of Aina’s personal missions ever since the prophecy related to him came down.
“Tell me. Where is Lee Han?”
That was the reason she approached Claire almost pleadingly. But Claire, calm and unfazed, opened her mouth without even blinking.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“What?”
“I don’t have any reason or obligation to share that with you, Princess.”
“Claire… You!”
Aina’s face flushed red.
It was a rare sight.
Aina always paid attention to the image she presented to others. It was a kind of concept—a persona of calm composure befitting an emperor. So, it was uncommon for her to show such emotion or lose her temper, except when she was truly angry.
“Claire. You’d better start talking. Tell me everything you know about Lee Han. Otherwise, I’ll…”
“Are you going to hit me?”
“…What?”
“Oh, maybe not.”
Clap.
Claire clapped her hands and smiled as if she had just figured something out.
“You’ll probably stab me in the back again, like when you dealt with the Demon King, won’t you?”
The sword that stabbed Lee Han’s back during the battle against the Demon King.
That same sword had severed the Demon King’s head and then turned to aim at Lee Han.
“Claire!”
“Please stop calling my name here. I only forgive your rudeness because you’re a princess, but even that has its limits.”
“What…!”
“And besides.”
Claire took a deep breath and spoke deliberately.
“Aren’t you planning to kill Lee Han anyway?”
“…!”
Aina stopped in her tracks, frozen in place.
Claire, unbothered, continued to hurl her words.
“You don’t care about the destruction of the continent, do you? Even if the entire continent were to fall, you’d be satisfied as long as you could ascend to the throne.”
Her words were blunt, entirely unrefined for someone speaking to a princess of a nation.
So, Aina found herself stunned, momentarily at a loss for words.
“You want information on Lee Han? Then go ahead, t*rture me. But be prepared, Princess. I won’t go down alone. Do you really think the things you’ve said won’t be recorded anywhere?”
“Claire!”
Bang!
Aina’s fist slammed down on Claire’s desk, shattering it. Even so, Claire didn’t so much as blink.
Aina shouted in frustration.
“Why! Why are you so intent on destroying all the cooperation we’ve built over the years like it’s nothing?”
“Because that’s always been our relationship, hasn’t it?”
“Always?”
“Yes. From the moment Lee Han died, this was inevitable. We were all fools.”
Claire muttered with unfocused eyes.
“We all celebrated as if we had sold off a priceless comrade like Lee Han for a fortune.”
“It was the right decision.”
“To ignore the guilt of selling out a comrade, we threw ourselves into meaningless goals.”
“You desired it as well!”
“Only after hearing the prophecy that the entire continent would fall if Lee Han wasn’t found, did we begin to realize just how foolish we had been.”
“You can’t trust the words of those soothsayers!”
“And then, after meeting Lee Han again, we finally understood. We had crossed an irreversible line. With one impulsive decision, we had sold our entire lives away.”
“That’s…”
Before Aina could find the words to respond, Claire stood up.
She opened the door to her office.
“Leave, Princess.”
“Claire!”
“I will no longer provide political funding. You’ll need to find new sponsors from now on. Since you’ll be busy with that, I’ll take my leave.”
“You!”
Holding the doorknob, Claire added one last thing.
“This is the best courtesy I can offer you now.”
◆
“Come out.”
— Click
With Asmail’s guidance, the door to the Inquisition chamber opened.
The priest who had been desperately trying to capture Lloyd had no choice but to step back in the face of Asmail’s firm resolve.
“This way.”
Asmail walked down the corridor without saying much.
It was a different path than the one they had taken earlier.
“There are spells cast here to prevent prisoners from escaping.”
“Does the Holy Palace even use spells? Isn’t that more of a pagan practice?”
“Well, it’s all about interpretation—if it works, it works.”
“The priests who interpret the laws must have a hard time.”
“They do.”
As they walked, making light conversation, a loud voice echoed from further down the hall.
— “I’m telling you! My comrade is in there!”
— “Please, calm down. If you continue causing a scene, we’ll have no choice but to detain you again.”
— “Why is it that we were released, but our comrade remains imprisoned?”
The voices grew louder and clearer.
‘It’s the village chief.’
It wasn’t hard to recognize the owner of the booming voice.
“Your comrades seem to have a lot of faith in you.”
“…Well.”
Lloyd felt slightly embarrassed.
As they got closer, another voice joined in.
— “Didn’t I tell you? I am the Third Princess of the Britannian Empire. I will vouch for him. There’s absolutely no reason for…”
So much unnecessary worrying. Lloyd sighed lightly and pushed open the wooden door.
The interior of the tall arched building unfolded before his eyes.
Before him was a high-arched building interior. The pristine white marble and intricate engravings exuded an aura of sacredness…
“Lloyd!”
Thud.
A rush of heat hit him like being struck by a carriage. The village chief had engulfed him in a tight hug.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Chief… Could you let go?”
“I was so worried! They told me you were taken to the Inquisition chamber! No one ever comes out of there in one piece!”
Asmail’s lips curved slightly into a smile.
“Well, I’m alive, so isn’t that what matters? And please, step back a little. I can’t breathe.”
“M-my apologies.”
Princess Yulia approached, as the village chief was awkwardly scratching his head and putting some distance between them.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief.”
Her words were cold, but her eyes were filled with relief. She must have been really worried, though there was no need for that. As Lloyd awkwardly basked in the attention, Asmail and the priest guarding the door began to talk.
“Inquisitor, what is going on here? That man, Lloyd, is a wanted criminal, isn’t he? How is he even in the Holy Palace…?”
“I have finished my interrogation.”
“Does that mean… he’s innocent?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I see. However, it’s against protocol to allow any outsiders into the Holy Palace… especially someone who was previously wanted. It’s a procedural issue…”
In other words, the priest was suggesting that Lloyd and his group should be expelled.
Despite making it all the way into the Holy Palace, they were now in a difficult situation.
The princess and the chief looked at Lloyd, asking with their eyes, “Are we really going to be thrown out like this?”
“Of course not.”
“But how do you plan to avoid being thrown out? We have no options.”
That’s not something we need to worry about, Lloyd thought.
After all—
— Swish
Asmail, who had been speaking with the priest, turned to look at Lloyd, subtly nodding as if to signal something.
Even though they weren’t close, Lloyd understood what that look meant.
Nodding back, Lloyd watched as Asmail cleared his throat and walked towards him with deliberate steps.
“We sincerely apologize for any discomfort caused by our misunderstanding.”
Nod.
Asmail bowed deeply.
Lloyd, an expert at handling situations like this, immediately put on a dissatisfied expression and responded.
“Next time, do better, okay?”
“We will make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“I don’t need promises. What about compensation? You tried to lock me up. How are you going to make up for that?”
Lloyd’s level of pettiness was so high that even the passing priests stopped in their tracks to watch.
His behavior was rooted in the memories of his past life, shaped by countless experiences dealing with unreasonable customers while working part-time jobs.
Asmail responded, appearing troubled.
“Uh… what kind of compensation are you requesting?”
“No, we have come all this way from the distant Britannian Empire to visit the Holy Palace, haven’t we?”
“…Yes.”
“But being detained like this, we’ve lost our hotel reservations and everything. It’s extremely inconvenient.”
“Is that so?”
“I have saved money for decades for this trip. Do you see how tanned he is? He saved money by farming to come here as a devout follower of Deus.”
The village chief, who was being addressed, rolled his eyes as if he were flustered.
His acting was really poor.
“But to be detained just for walking around the main gate of the Holy Palace, not anywhere else. I don’t know if this is right. We should at least spread rumors or something.”
Asmail did a fantastic job pretending to sweat profusely.
“Then how about this?”
“What is it?”
“I will allow you to stay in the Holy Palace.”
The priest, who was taken aback by Asmail’s words, exclaimed.
“Master Asmail!”
“But there’s no other choice. They’ve worked so hard to come here, so if we just let them go, it wouldn’t align with the teachings of Lord Deus. Provide shelter and food for those who’ve come with such effort. You understand that, Priest.”
“But the law…”
“Let’s handle it this way. I will take responsibility as the one who invited them.”
The guard priest scratched his head, looking troubled.
Then, from behind, the village chief shouted.
“Oh dear! I’m so wronged, what am I going to do! 2… 20 years. Or was it 30 years? I spent 30 years farming just to finally come here.”
His acting is really something.
Setting aside the issue of his acting skills, perhaps embarrassed by the village chief’s booming voice, the priest hurriedly nodded.
“Ah… I understand. Please, come in quickly. And the approver is…”
“Let me handle it.”
Thus, Lloyd even stepped into the Holy Palace.
