CH 126

Lucion pretended not to know them and waited for Heint to approach.

Lucion looked back as the footsteps drew nearer.

“Lucion.”

Heint said, lowering his voice.

‘Lucion…’

Nowadays, the name Lucion was so famous that Quate reacted to the low sound.

Besides, the figure wearing the hood was strangely familiar.

Quate didn’t take his eyes off the person called ‘Lucion’ until he followed the man who appeared to be a knight.

“What’s wrong?”

Kran asked, lightly touching Quate, who was standing still.

“I heard that man said Lucion.”

“If it’s Lucion, is he talking about Saint Lucion?”

Miella interrupted abruptly.

“I don’t know. But he’s strangely familiar.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s just a feeling. I don’t know what to say about this either.”

Quate made an awkward expression and hastened his paused steps.

“If this Lucion Mr. Quate heard about is really the saint, that would be great. I want to meet him at least once even if it’s just a coincidence.”

Kran couldn’t hide his excited expression.

“Me too. He must be special to receive the title of saint. I really want to meet him and brag about it to Hamel-nim.”

Miella also smiled lightly, unable to hide her delight.

Quate was about to say that the person he just saw was also formidable, but he kept his mouth shut.

What if he was wrong?

He didn’t want to ruin their expectations for no reason.

* * *

“Is there something wrong?”

Lucion was very concerned about Heint, who kept quiet.

[Heint never acted this seriously.]

Bethel had just returned from examining in the direction of the carriage he had been riding in.

‘Still, what is going on?’

Lucion frowned.

―Hop! Is it because only Ratta, Hume, and Lucion ate the delicious food?

Ratta, who was following him, flinched.

―If Ratta knew this would happen, Ratta would have eaten less.

Ratta’s pupils shook as if her guess had already been confirmed.

[It’s not anything like that, so you don’t have to worry about it.]

Russell said, barely holding back his laughter.

“Ah. The gate is running out of time, so I came to pick you up.”

Heint acted as if nothing had happened, and as soon as he got into the carriage, he changed his expression.

“Lucion.”

“I’m listening.”

“It isn’t certain, but I think a warlock has appeared.”

“…?”

Lucion’s eyes briefly turned to Russell.

[The warlock might be hiding, but at least I haven’t seen any warlocks except you.]

Russell looked at Bethel.

Isn’t she more of a warlock detector than he is?

[I smelled about two of them. But it’s far from where Lord Lucion is. It’s not worth worrying about.]

Bethel shook her head.

‘…You don’t mean me, do you?’

At this point, Lucion was the only warlock who was close to Heint.

“What do you mean it’s not certain?”

Lucion asked calmly.

“It’s purely my gut feeling. I felt something sparking inside me.”

“What do you mean a spark?”

Lucion asked casually, but his insides were burning.

Maybe Heint was already aware of the light that chased the darkness.

“Ah. I don’t know how to explain it. Anyway, not long after you went to the market, my light reacted very briefly.”

Ratta, who was spinning to catch her tail, flinched for a moment.

Ratta carefully caught her tail again and glanced at Lucion.

At the same time, Russell’s expression became mysterious.

“The direction was in the carriage where the Prince Myronist was.”

‘…Damn it.’

At Heint’s continued words, Lucion chewed hard on his inner cheek.

In the mid-to-late stage, the skill he was learning was about to leak out.

“Didn’t the servant have the object of light? Brother also made a good guess of the bracelet I have.”

Lucion naturally stirred the conversation.

To make him think he was mistaken.

“…Hmm. Was I sensitive?”

Heint didn’t ignore Lucion’s words.

That could be true, too, since his own light was still reacting to Lucion.

“It could be. It is true that the reactions of darkness and light are similar, so it is confusing. There’s only a thin-paper difference. Maybe it’s because I’m not a priest, it’s difficult.”

‘Yes. Be confused. Don’t get used to it yet.’

Lucion prayed over and over again.

“Sorry… Lucion.”

“Yes?”

“By any chance, did you add one more object with light?”

“…How did you know?”

Lucion blinked.

“My light is responding more strongly than before.”

Heint’s eyes grew slightly sharper.

“I got another present.”

“You must have checked it beforehand, right?”

Heint immediately scratched his head and saved his words.

The friend Lucion talking about must be Young Lady Tella. He didn’t want to say anything unnecessary.

“Anyway, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Heint bowed his head.

“No, Brother. Isn’t it proof that you’re working hard to escort me? I am just grateful.”

“Because I owe you a lot. And it’s my job too.”

Then Heint loosened his stiff face and slightly raised the corners of his mouth.

Wheein!

With the sound of the gate being operated, the carriage that had stopped now departed.

* * *

“…Ha.”

Lucion lay down on the bed.

He didn’t know what it smelled like, but it was a pretty good smell.

He wanted to close his eyes right away, but he had work to do.

[Lucion.]

As Lucion got up, Russell raised his voice.

“Yes.”

[Shouldn’t you be more careful with Heint?  He has become more sensitive than before.]

“Even if you didn’t tell me, I’ll do that. Maybe Brother brought it up by mistake today. But I’m also in a state where my darkness has increased because of the black orb.”

[Just because the darkness has increased doesn’t mean you’ve grown. It is your darkness that has scretched out.]

Lucion let out a long sigh when Russell pointed out the truth.

“Yes. Now I have a reason to deal with the darkness better.”

―Lucion!

Ratta, who had been looking around the room, rushed in and buried her face on the floor.

“What’s the matter, Ratta?”

―Ratta made a mistake earlier!

“Mistake?”

―Well, uh, Lucion’s darkness has changed a little. So Ratta was flustered and made a mistake.

[I thought so.]

Russell put on a relieved expression as if he had found the answer to a quiz.

―Sorry! Ratta should have said it sooner. Ratta was so surprised, Ratta thought Lucion was going to scold her. So Ratta kept quiet.

Ratta sniffled with her head buried.

At that sight, Bethel covered her mouth with her hand, desperately holding back her laughter and turning her head away.

Isn’t that so cute?

‘…My darkness has changed?’

Lucion looked at Ratta and thought for a moment.

When he showed the darkness, it still looked dark.

What’s the difference?

“Ratta.”

When Lucion called, Ratta lifted her head and looked at Lucion.

Her eyes and ears drooped low, and she bit the ball nearby and put it in front of Lucion with a ‘beep’ sound.

―Ratta will give you what she cherishes… Ratta is sorry.

“You don’t have to give me the ball. I’m not angry.”

Lucion raised his finger and poked Ratta slightly, but she only flinched and didn’t respond.

Having left with no choice, Lucion tickled Ratta.

―Ratta is now, hehe, reflecting on her actions.

“You can stop reflecting on your actions. I’m not even mad.”

When Lucion let her go, Ratta once again hit her face on the floor with a stern look and sniffled.

―No, Ratta was bad. Ratta knew Lucion was almost in trouble. Ratta is reflecting, hehe, stop it, Lucion.

Lucion took out a candy.

As a side effect of using light to increase light resistance, he vomited blood a lot.

So he was used to carrying candies with a variety of flavors to refresh his mouth.

―Hop.

What he took out just so happened to be Ratta’s favorite lemon candy and Ratta immediately raised her head right away.

However, unlike usual, she seemed to be agonizing and not rushing in right away.

“You have to reflect in moderation. Do you understand what I mean, Ratta?”

Ratta nodded vigorously to Lucion’s question.

―Hn, Ratta understood. Ratta will continue it tomorrow.

[Puhahaha! You’re going to continue your self-reflection tomorrow?]

Russell burst into laughter, but Ratta could only look at the lemon candy.

“Ratta, what do you mean my darkness has changed?”

―Yes. The darkness has grown heavy. Ratta feels like they’re discriminating against Ratta and Lucion.

Receiving the candy, Ratta mumbled.

Ratta’s eyes twinkled as if they had been set up with stars.

“Discriminating?”

For a moment, Lucion frowned at his darkness that shook as if feeling it was unfair.

‘Stay still.’

At his words, the darkness calmed down.

He definitely felt something had changed.

When Lucion took out the darkness and looked at it, it came close to him as if hugging him.

“…What’s wrong with you? Is it because of the black orbs?”

The darkness had been obedient, but they hadn’t been exactly favoring him either, so Lucion asked in astonishment

[I think so? They didn’t like you this much. Well, it’s a good phenomenon anyway.]

“You mean I can handle the darkness more freely, right?”

[That’s right. If darkness follows your control, that means you can control it better, so your quality of black magic will increase accordingly.]

Contrary to his words, Russell wasn’t happy.

No matter how much he thought about it, he felt uncomfortable with the mysterious object called the black orb.

What if it harmed Lucion?

Lucion’s physical condition was already strange.

‘…Was I too hasty?’

Russell was tormented by worry and regret, repeating the same thought over and over again.

“Bethel.”

Lucion looked at Ratta playing with the ball and called Bethel.

She hesitated and answered.

Lucion’s expression was bright, so she felt strange for some reason.

[Yes, Lord Lucion.]

“Go to report point number 3.”

There were a total of four reporting points where spies were planted in Cronia to dig up Lucion’s own information and report it.

Since he had destroyed up to report point number 2, he was planning to destroy the rest as well.

[Are you saying you’re going now? Right now?]

Bethel’s eyes briefly turned to Lucion’s stomach.

The injuries were not light at all.

No matter how short the trip is, it would put more strain on his body than usual.

[Excuse me.]

When Bethel placed her hand on Lucion’s forehead, she could feel some heat transmitted to her fingertips.

[Lord Lucion, since you got the black orb, you haven’t been feeling well. Does it have to be today?]

As Bethel said, Lucion felt that his body was different from before.

It felt heavy.

He wondered if perhaps he hadn’t absorbed the power of the black orb yet.

“It has to be today. Perhaps my body will get worse, but there is something I want to do. The bastards from Neubra are excited thinking about how to cook me so they’re lowering their guards, I’m going to hit the back of their heads first.”

Lucion was amused and brought out his contact item.

The organization members should have arrived in the South by now.

“Oh, there’s more time to go.”

[You’re going again?]

Russell’s mouth opened wide.

“Yes. I have to get my hands on the branch in the South. This is where I am going to move the organization.”

Lucion had a mischievous smile on his face.

The night was long.

He wanted to clean up all the things he didn’t want to see and genuinely enjoy the feeling of being on a trip.

Russell rubbed his face and let out a long sigh.

[As you said, it’s a good opportunity to stab them from the back, but you don’t have to go around as if being chased, you know?]

“I’m not working as if I’m being chased, so you don’t have to worry. Bethel. Please.”

At Lucion’s request that continued once again, Bethel couldn’t bear to refuse.

She wanted to do anything for him.

[Okay, I’ll send you a signal.]

Bethel hesitated and left.

“Ah, Teacher, can you catch a ghost for me?”

Lucion’s gaze at Russell was infinitely clear.