Evening. Rain. Bar.
Calian thought it was a perfect combination.
If there was anything that didn’t quite add up, was it the fifteen-year-old boy who had looked for a bar in the rain on this night? Or perhaps it was the sight in front of Calian’s eyes right now?
He had thought he would find a group of Blue Warblers but had found a rather unexpected scene as soon as he had entered – the lips that were barely visible under the hood drew together in a straight line.
“It looks like I was in too much of a hurry,”
Calian said so, when he saw the woman with sea-coloured hair, wiping the glasses with a rag.
No matter who it was, they would have praised her beauty, the woman was so beautiful that she didn’t suit the bar at all. In a way, she was more beautiful than Silica too.
So it was weird.
In a bar run by such a beautiful woman, on a rainy night – there weren’t any customers and the smell of blood permeated the air.
The woman put down the cup and raised her head, looking at Calian through long eyelashes. Calian looked back and spoke in a low voice,
“Those outside are simply following me,”
“Don’t worry, I’m not cold-hearted enough to send knives to unrelated people. Cleaning up after them is tedious as well,”
It was clear that she had been waiting for Calian so Calian had spoken out of worry for Kyrie and the guards who had followed him – but she replied to his concerns with a smile.
Calian’s mouth twitched.
“Well, it seemed you were cold-hearted enough to send arrows to a poor man and an elf child so that’s a relief,”
“Since they had become people who were related,”
The woman smiled again as she said so to Calian.
Calian’s gaze turned to the seven bodies lying behind the woman. The number of bodies were the same as the number of those who had shot arrows at Calian’s party during the day. The woman followed Calian’s gaze,
“It was the same for them,”
The blue haired woman – the Blue Warbler, said.
—
Looking at Alan, who had come to visit him in the middle of the night, Rumein naturally took out his glasses and put them on. He thought Alan had brought him another stack of documents.
Alan, who saw his actions, smiled.
“I’ve just come because I was curious about something, please stay comfortable,”
“There’s no way that’s true,”
Alan smiled as he said to Rumein, who had finally began showing different expressions on his face,
“It seems I have lost a lot of trust,”
Only then did Rumein take off his glasses and go to sit down on the sofa. Now, looking at the wizard who no longer needed an invitation to comfortable seat himself across from him, Rumein said,
“I can’t believe you’re here at this time because you’re curious about something – it looks like the keeper of the crown is finally being treated as an informant,”
Alan, regardless of the complaints of his sudden visit in the late hours without prior warning, said,
“I remembered that the other day, your highness has been looking into the answers to my questions. As such, there was no need to take the difficult path and leave the person right under my nose, who might be able to satisfy my questions,”
In the past, when Alan had visited Rumein while working on creating the Mage Division, the documents Rumein was looking at were related to divine items and priests.
The King of Rivern had previously scolded Alan, saying it was something that should be seen in person – so now that he was here in the Kyris royal palace, he thought he would ask.
“I was just curious about how many clergymen and divine items were in Tensil and where they were,”
Rumein’s forehead wrinkled as he frowned slightly. It was the reaction to asking about Tensil of all things, in this climate.
“I really can’t tell if the Lord is asking about things he already knows or if you really happen to be curious,”
(T/N – Rumein refers to Alan as ‘kyong’ which is like an all inclusive way of saying ‘Lord’ or ‘Sir’)
This time it was Alan who frowned,
“Is there anything else related to Tensil’s priests?”
“Well, the envoys from Tensil are here for that very reason,”
Alan had of course been aware of the envoys visit, but he had not known the reason for it.
Rumein started at his desk as he continued to talk,
“Right now, there are 14 Priests in Kyris, and they have said they would take all but the one within the royal palace, so we should not ask for more – is what they said,”
Of course, the small and powerless envoys of Tensil could not have come to Kyris and said such provocative things. They had spun circles with their words, but either way, the situation wasn’t good for Kyris.
“From the start, Kyris has not requested personnel from Tensil but when things fall like this, it is rather unpleasant,”
Even the Priest in the royal palace had been sent to commemorate the wedding of Tensil’s Princess, Aisha and Rumein.
Everyone knew that the healing power of Tensil’s clergymen was extremely effective but it wasn’t enough that Kyris had ever done a weak thing like ask for more priests and nor was Rumein tyrant enough to bully them into doing so.
“They sent their own people to us in commemoration of this and that and now they’re talking as though Kyris had forced it on them to send their people to us – I was so dumbfounded, I had nothing to say back,”
Alan, who was listening to Rumein, laughed quietly. It was because the appearance of Rumein complaining about what had happened with Tensil was like a child who grumbled for a long time, saying that he had suffered something unfair.
“I don’t know to what extent things might have been lacking in their eyes, but I suppose it’s become difficult either way. They are unwilling to hear anything and must take back the priests,”
Rumein nodded,
“So what did you do?”
“I thought about finding every one of those priests and hanging them,”
Alan already knew he wouldn’t have said that – the moment he did that would be the moment war would have started with Tensil and Rumein would be very much aware of that.
“Well, I can’t do that since the only ones at an advantage if war breaks out would beat the Brissens in the current situation and taking Randell into consideration, I just figured I’d hold it down. So I just told them to find the Priests and take them back themselves since I wasn’t keeping a special eye on them or anything,”
“You did a good job, your majesty. But anyway, please give me their information, it is not me but Prince Calian who is curious,”
Rumein’s forehead wrinkled once again, as for where Calian was at the moment, Rumein had received the report which was why he frowned like that.
“He’s already in a place that has a priest, so why is he asking about it?”
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