Chapter 139: Second night

Lemuel looks down at the piece of cake and feels the breakfast he ate this morning coming up. At a second where his mind is running wild from anxiety, he even thinks that if he never eats the piece of cake, he would not be required to show them his pitiful powers. 

When his sister Fiona activates her powers, the pure light gold aura envelops her body as if all the elements of nature are meant to revolve around her. The particles of light swirl around her figure freely like she controls the asteroids that come from the heavens. With that ability, Fiona can see beyond the line drawn at the horizon, and her eyes find direction.

As for him, he could only summon those pitiful incarnations that are the basics of letting the ability manifest. Showing his poor state to someone who has even gained the goddess's favor, wouldn't he just try to embarrass himself? He only wants a tranquil life, but everything seems to be pulling him to face what hurts his self-esteem the most. How long does he have to taste the dirt with his face being stepped on?

"If right now it is not convenient, then you can show me later," Kyrie tries to reassure Lemuel from feeling pressured.

"Paladin, why do you need Halinas's powers? What are you trying to get out of it?" Lemuel asks, unable to hold his countenance from falling.

"A happy ending," Kyrie murmurs after a pause to observe Lemuel, "A happy ending for a person I love."

Lemuel's dead eyes slowly revive, and he looks at Kyrie properly for the first time. He sees those eyes filled with a determination that made his heart race. What does it feel like to have such a conviction fervently burning inside? What does it feel like to have a direction so clear to walk on that doubts become obliterated from his own eyes?

Lemuel does not know. He lives his life like it is a chore as if he owes it to his mother, the grand duchess, and his sister Fiona. He knows that is wrong, but everything seems to weigh him down. He curses his heart for being weak because he cannot take the slanders from others. 

However, his heart is moved for the first time from mere words of devotion. Kyrie's appearance brings justice to the feeling blooming inside. Those golden eyes, silver hair, and pearl skin seem to come from something made out of light. Unlike him, he is like the embodiment of the dead night, obliterated once the sun awakens from its slumber.

Lemuel slightly blushes, thinking about who the paladin would so willingly go through so much trouble for. Love. Fortunately, that is a term he experienced from the heart thanks to his sister Fiona and his mother's existence.

Kyrie feels awkward getting so intensely stared at, "Is there something on my face aside from being handsome?"

Lemuel lets out a laugh and covers his mouth as soon as he realizes his discourtesy.

"Aren't you as shameless as always, Kyrie?" Laurel laughs while giving Kyrie a gaze that the cringe is running through her skin in the form of goosebumps.

"It's appreciation! I just have an appreciation for the pretty aesthetics of this world," Kyrie defends himself.

Unable to hold the urges, Lemuel laughs to the point he snorts. He has never heard of someone so sure of his own looks like the paladin.

"I do indeed think that Sir Paladin has good looks, probably the best I have ever seen…" Lemuel remarks.

"Come on, Lemuel! His ego is already past the heavens, and now that you say that, it might even reach to the god realm!" Laurel remarks, slouching on the couch. 

"Laurel, facts are facts… What can you do?" Kyrie shakes his head like it is an inevitable truth.

"I think Lemuel is good looking too," Federline blurts out.

Kyrie and Laurel suddenly freeze while Lemuel feels his face slowly warming up. Kyrie and Laurel exchange looks that basically say, 'That just happened, right?' The homie they know only cares about three things in life - food, money, and time to laze around. 

Lemuel pouts at Federline, "Don't make fun of me!"

Federline frowns while feeling confused, "How does telling you that you are good-looking mean making fun of you?"

Lemuel and Federline begin a fight over who is right. The two observing suddenly feel light-headed from the sudden surge of PDA, and these two have been so deprived of affection that tears are threatening to spill. They start to overthink about their own lovers and almost reach out to take a flower from the vase to determine if their lovers have abandoned them or not. 

Love me… Love me not… Love me… Love me not…

Kyrie clears his throat, stopping those two from arguing whether Lemuel is handsome or Federline is kidding around. Federline grabs onto the dessert plate to take it back, but Lemuel holds the other side of the plate. They both start to pull while staring daggers at each other. Kyrie's expression darkens. He picks up a butter knife and slashes the cake in half, clean cutting even the plate into perfect equal pieces. 

"Stop fighting…" 

Lemuel and Federline instantly sit back straight and take their hands off the plate.

Kyrie clears his throat, "Federline, make sure to bring here some people to guard the place."

"Tonight? Why tonight?" asks Laurel.

"The full moon normally lasts for at least three days, so probably the creature might come again. We still have no idea of what that thing is, so be on full alert."

"Yes!" Laurel and Federline reply in unison.

Kyrie stares at Lemuel and Federline and points to the cake cut in half, "Now eat!"

---

The second night with the full moon has come, and Kyrie stands by Lemuel as a bodyguard. The rest of the people hide in their position to strike at the right time. Kyrie looks over to Lemuel, who is silently accepting the role of being a bait. 

"You don't look like the grand duchess… Where are you from, Lemuel?" Kyrie strikes a conversation while waiting for the creature.

"I am from the Grand Duchy of Kelmeth. My mother is from this place, but she got married to the late Grand Duke Alan Kelmeth," Lemuel replies.

"So you came here because your powers manifested?"

Lemuel nods. After his mother died, the late grand duke has sold him to the Halinas without even asking about what he thinks. Although he does not mind at first since he has been in literal hell without his mother by his side, once he has arrived in Halinas and his worth is determined to be measly to none, he returns to live a similar hell.

"Must have been a hard change."

Lemuel widens his eyes, hearing those words. That is the first time anyone would say that after hearing that he has inherited the title of prince as the grand duchess's adopted son. They all tell him how lucky he is for gaining a title from the insignificant power he was born with. 

'It was.' 

Kyrie draws out his sword and yells, "Get ready!"

From the darkness of the garden, where the light from the palace building does not reach, a woman walks out from the shadows. She walks with no coordination, and her limps would twitch inhumanly as she takes a step. She lifts her limping head to look straight at Lemuel, and her stiff facial features start to twitch and mold into a wide smile.

She stops after a few steps, and underneath her skin, something starts to bubble. A black formless fluid bursts out, and from that woman's body, giant spider legs stretch out. More rustling sounds of grass start to resonate in the darkness. More and more of these creatures start to surface from the shadows. With the shape of a human being, all of them later burst into a formless black fluid, forming grotesque-looking creatures. 

[Why are these creatures so obsessed with the people with Halinas' unique bloodline all of a sudden? They did not act that way before...]

"Stay here," Kyrie tells Lemuel before popping a mana stone into his mouth. 

He drives the mana around his body, and three mana circles appear beneath his feet one after another. Those in hiding also come out and clash with those creatures wildly running toward them. The air fills up with screams, bangs, and clankings of metal. On the battlefield, Lemuel watches as giant icicles rise from the earth that trap those creatures inside. Other offensive elemental attacks start to appear on the battlefield after a while. Lemuel watches the creatures getting propelled into the air with wind magic or incinerated into ash with fire magic - magic spells that he could only imagine while reading about it.

The fight seems to be on their side, but then Lemuel sees Laurel with other guild members running towards the deeper part of the garden after a large number of those creatures.

"Don't go there!" Lemuel yells.

But, Lemuel is too far, and the place is too noisy that Laurel couldn't hear him. Federline turns to look quickly at Lemuel to see why he is yelling, so he follows with his eyes where Lemuel is yelling toward. He watches Laurel enter into the place where he got trapped with the hedges.

"Laurel!" Federline tries to get past a number of those creatures to get to Laurel, "Stop! Don't enter into that side of the garden!"

Laurel feels the tingling of her ear like someone is calling her, and she turns back to look at Federline, turning completely pale. The image of Federline yelling at her gets interrupted by the hedge upsurging in front of her. Laurel steps back and almost gets dragged from the walls of moving hedges that suddenly caught onto her clothes. In the nick of time, she cuts off the fabric hooked to the branches. Her companions are gone, and now, she finds herself alone with no idea where to go inside the maze.