CH 197

I looked at him a little surprised. Here he was, on the verge of executing two high-ranking members of the Cardinal Order, and yet he remained cool and collected. As I gazed into his eyes, I could see a glimmer of concern beneath his steely gaze. He was worried that I might have been offended by their insolence, and I found myself slightly relieved by the way he thought of me rather than his anger.

But in fact, my patience had reached its limit. This world is not a very easy place for women, but there was a degree. To treat a hard-working person like a prostitute was too much.

“Do you think I’ll just let this slide?”

I smiled gently as if I were a true saint.

“I’d be happy to give you the opportunity to meet the great Mr. Teres.”

“Oh no…!”

“Saintess, please!”

In response to my answer, two cardinals called me with thin faces. It was actually the funniest thing for Dylan to look at me with surprised eyes. He looked as if he had never imagined I’d say such a thing.

I don’t want to see a cardinal treating me like the emperor’s mistress, but I didn’t mean to kill anyone in front of my eyes.

“But I don’t want to give such a good opportunity to the cardinal who insulted me, so what should I do?”

Ridrian smiled as if he realized that I was deliberately delaying the conclusion.

“Come to think of it, there are many people here who can use divine power.”

“No, you can’t!”

This time, both Robanu and Dylan shouted, but the emperor had no intention of tolerating it any longer. He coolly parried Dylan’s sword with a firm expression.

Clink! The sound of metal colliding echoed throughout the room, and my ears rang.

“Ugh!”

Dylan was pushed back by the emperor’s strength and stumbled, his desperate attempt to protect the higher-up was pitiful.

Taking advantage of the moment when he pushed Dylan away, Ridrian struck his sword down.

“Ahh! Ack!”

“Your Majesty!!”

All sorts of screams erupted from the people in the room.

“I’ll give you silence as a gift. I hope you like it.” My heart stopped at this.

After lowering his sword, Ridrian unexpectedly threw a taunting remark and stepped back. Dylan, with an unusually pale face, looked at the high priest and then glared at the emperor, clearly furious at what had just happened.

Since I was blocked from view by Ridrian, I couldn’t see what happened to the cardinal. Curious, I tried to crane my neck, but Ridrian grabbed me.

“Don’t look.”

“Where did you strike him? You didn’t kill him, did you?”

I asked him in a small voice that only he could hear, and he finally smiled, his face relaxing. It was a soft smile that was hard to imagine from someone who had just been so angry.

“I asked him to be silent without killing him. I only roughly cut his vocal cords, holding back my desire to cut his throat and kill him. It would be nice if he learned that silence is a virtue from this opportunity—”

“—Are you fine?”

“Y-yes. To be honest, it feels kind of refreshing. Thank you for defending me, Rian.”

I stood behind him, trying not to be seen by the officials, and tightly held his hand.

In the meantime, the priests and Dylan were not in their right minds as they tried to heal the wounded Cardinal Robanu who had been slashed in the throat. This was a minor injury for a priest for divine magic would heal his wounds.

However, they acted as if he might die any minute. As I thought about this absentmindedly, I suddenly realized something.

‘Wait a minute. Someone is hurt, and I’m too numb to react. Have I become too used to being around Rian? Wasn’t I the type to faint at the sight of blood before?’

“It’s not like that. It’s just that since he’s safe, you’re having those thoughts,” Ridrian said, grinning a bit more relaxedly this time.

For a moment, I thought he might have developed some kind of a power to read minds. When I looked at him in surprise, he laughed wryly.

“Don’t make such a cute face. Do that face when you’re alone with me.”

“Rian!”

I shouted softly at his sly lines. Still keeping me out of sight, he glanced back and shrugged.

Raven watched the mess and sighed briefly, fixing his glasses.

“I’ll get a formal reward from the church later. Thanks to you, I think my life expectancy has been reduced by a few years.”

He addressed me.

“We will leave the correspondence work to the Viscount Lesprey anyway, so you can write whatever you want.”

*Correspondence work- making of reports and plans

“What?”

No, what if I write there to give up the papacy?