“……Viscount Eclas.”

Carlyle’s voice, which had been heightened until just now, softened.

Eclas smiled gently while looking at the two of them.

“If your voice got any louder, it would be heard inside, wouldn’t it?”

At Eclas’s words, Carlyle’s jaw clenched tightly.

Carlyle, not hiding his displeased expression, greeted Eclas and swiftly left the place.

Eclas smiled at the stubborn retreating figure.

“Sir Carlyle’s loyalty towards Duke Lester is a bit excessive, isn’t it?”

Eclas said, taking his eyes off Carlyle.

“If we were to choose the knight who would be the first to lay down his life for Duke Lester, it would be Sir Carlyle.”

Eclas shrugged his shoulders.

Carlyle, being from Lupus like Sched, had a unique respect and loyalty towards Sched.

He felt deeply indebted to Sched for appointing him as a knight.

Carlyle was a knight who would do anything for Sched. The problem was that it could sometimes be excessive.

“He probably didn’t think about how his words might hurt Lady Riana. He’s simple-minded, blinded by loyalty to his lord.”

Not to disrespect those from Lupus, but Carlyle was a man of limited education.

It was natural, as educational opportunities were rarely given in Lupus.

As a result, while Carlyle’s combat abilities far surpassed other knights, he lacked social skills and his thinking was rough and simple.

“I hope Lady Riana wasn’t hurt by such words.”

Crimson eyes gazed kindly at Riana.

Riana found his attitude a bit unfamiliar.

Was it because he wasn’t a born noble, but of merchant origin? He was kind and polite even to Riana, a commoner.

“You’re very kind, Young Master Eclas.”

“It’s the secret to how the Bitel family became wealthy.”

Eclas joked lightly and smiled.

“Ah, come to think of it, you said you worked at the Godwin household, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been there a few times for business, but I don’t remember seeing you.”

“Ah…, I was always in the back.”

The Baroness disliked Riana being in the forefront.

Because of this, she was only assigned to work in the kitchen, behind the fireplace, or in the laundry room.

Greeting guests was the duty of other maids.

“I see. That’s a shame……”

“Pardon?”

Riana asked, hearing Eclas’s murmur.

What was a shame?

As Riana blinked, the tent flap of the camp opened.

The sound of the fluttering tent was as loud as a whip cracking on a horse, making Riana flinch in surprise.

“What are you doing outside without coming in?”

Sched Lester stood where the tent flap had been lifted.

Riana bowed her head before Sched.

“Well, you didn’t say to come in……”

“If Eclas left, shouldn’t you have come in on your own instead of waiting for each and every order?”

Sched’s gaze, uttering an irritated voice, turned momentarily towards Eclas.

Eclas scratched his temple as he looked at Sched.

‘Oh my, the Duke is truly vigilant……’

Sched must have already noticed that Eclas was closely observing Riana.

Although Sched and Eclas were on quite good terms, they weren’t close enough to completely trust each other.

They were merely business partners who benefited from each other.

‘Afraid I might dig up some weakness from Lady Riana?’

Being the maid closest to the Duke, Riana would likely have access to a lot of information.

‘No, is it something else?’

Eclas looked at Riana and Sched with an innocent face and smiled gently.

“Come in.”

Sched opened the tent flap wide with his long arm and nodded at Riana.

Riana then quietly entered the tent with a shadowed face.

Eclas furrowed his brow at the sight. He then unnecessarily looked around. Wondering if anyone else had seen this scene.

Fortunately, only dumb and simple knights were around the tent.

They didn’t seem to have noticed the oddity between the two just now.

Not even Sched Lester and Riana Serpens themselves.

‘This might be more dangerous than I thought.’

Only Eclas noticed.

The way Sched Lester had just treated Riana was like a servant attending to a lady.

For a Duke to personally open the tent for a maid and patiently wait for her to enter.

Though the Duke’s expression was fierce and the maid’s face was gloomy, the Duke’s actions were courteous and the maid’s behavior was elegant.

‘This is troublesome.’

Eclas was a perceptive person.

He thought that for the successful completion of business in Ideana, it might be better if Riana Serpens wasn’t around.

Meanwhile, in Munher, the heart of the Lester Duchy.

“Y-y-you say he went straight to Ideana……”

A hunched man coming out of the temple stopped in his tracks.

“Yes, only some knights and servants returned. I hear he plans to stay there until Ideana stabilizes, High Priest.”

The priest bowed before the man with long silver hair.

The corners of the High Priest’s eyebrows drooped dejectedly.

“H-he was away from the main castle for so long due to the war, and n-now he’s off to Ideana again……”

The High Priest’s sky-blue eyes behind his glasses turned towards Munher’s main castle.

The Lester family flag waved at the top of the spire of Munher Castle, which held a long history.

High Priest Dietrich Lester buried his hands in his wide sleeves and sighed.

“W-why did he suddenly decide to go to that filthy land first……”

He remembered the terrible land he had seen long ago.

As if part of the world had rotted, the land afflicted by black magic was stained pitch black.

Ideana, once prosperous and peaceful, had fallen into a cursed wasteland.

Because of this, the temple had dispatched priests to Ideana to judge the sins of heretics and purify the land.

Dietrich, who was a candidate for High Priest at the time, was also one of the priests dispatched to Ideana.

He saw the city tainted by black magic.

Paradel Castle, the center of Ideana and the main residence of the Ideana Count’s family.

The first impression of that place was exactly like hell.

Death was piled upon death on the pitch-black ground, and the air was filled with a nauseating stench.

Even the sky was black, covered by crows drawn to the smell of death.

After being devoted to purification work for nearly a year, the order recalled all the priests.

As priests were high-level personnel, they couldn’t be tied indefinitely to a barren land with slow progress.

Did they think it was enough since all the important processing of black magic spells was finished?

‘The imperial family also abandoned Ideana when it became politically unstable….’

In the 8 years since that incident occurred in Ideana, the empire had fought two wars.

They faced several crises as Blancas in the north launched successive invasions, and pirates plaguing the seas caused headaches.

Hunting rampaging magical beasts in between was not left out either.

The Pope judged that healing the wounded on the battlefield should take priority over purifying Ideana.

All priests who could use holy power were drafted for battlefield or rear support, and Ideana, which had fallen into a land of death in a time of chaos, was thus forgotten.

“It seems the Duke has requested the dispatch of priests from the Great Temple in advance, but there appears to be no answer yet from the Great Temple, High Priest.”

High Priest Dietrich looked at the empty messenger bird cage.

It’s impossible to purify that level of black magic with just one or two priests.

The Great Temple is probably embroiled in heated debates about dispatching priests to Ideana.

“This, this is troublesome……”

Just as Dietrich was mumbling to himself, a woman was seen approaching the temple elegantly, yet with steps faster than usual.

Everyone in the temple made way for her and bowed their heads. Yet some raised their eyes slightly to catch a glimpse of her face.

Dietrich swallowed hard upon seeing her.

“H-High Priest Giselle Marlhein…!”

Dietrich unnecessarily adjusted his glasses as he greeted her.

Giselle Marlhein.

Sched Lester’s fiancée and one of only seven High Priests in the empire.

The refreshing mint-colored hair unique to the Marlhein family rippled like the waves of the southern sea with each gust of wind, and her beautiful golden eyes resembled the warm sun rising in the sky.

Her healthy and firm figure captured the eyes of many men, and the High Priest’s snow-white priestly robes added a holy and mysterious feel.

As her proud steps were followed by the fluttering of pure white robes sparkling in the cold early spring sunlight, people couldn’t take their eyes off her.

Giselle Marlhein stopped in front of Dietrich, whose shoulders were hunched.

“I heard my fiancé went to Ideana, is that true?”

Her voice pierced the ear as clearly as if written in neat letters.

Dietrich awkwardly nodded in front of her slightly upturned eyes.

“It, it seems so……”

At Dietrich’s clumsy answer, her beautiful face hardened even more coldly.

“Didn’t you…… inform him that I was here?”

Her beautiful lips quivered slightly.

“The, the star of the temple has moved, how could that not have been known?”

“Yet he still went to Ideana?”

“It, it seems Duke Lester was eager to unwrap the gift given by His Majesty the Emperor.”

Dietrich scratched his head while hunching his shoulders.

Then her crimson lips moved in the shape of the words ‘crazy bastard’.

Our graceful and holy High Priest Giselle is offering another prayer of gratitude to God, Dietrich thought.

It seems she wants to send someone else to God’s side again.

Giselle had a noble habit of quietly offering prayers like that whenever God sent her a trial.