Chapter 183
It was well known that Count Basilian was an outstanding mage. After all, he had studied under Duke Ivroiel for a long time.
But from a certain point onward, Kierne had stopped using magic altogether. He was someone who rarely ventured beyond the eastern Black Forest in the first place.
So it was Cyanor who raised a question that no one had ever posed before.
Chesha and Serea, sensing Cyanor’s intent, saw their faces harden.
After becoming a black mage, Kierne had never once used magic in public. There could only be one reason for dredging up that fact right here and now.
The Holy King must have uncovered Kierne’s secret as well.
But unlike the others, who stiffened with tension, Kierne merely narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Why would you be curious about something like that?”
As if the words were utterly unexpected, he countered with a show of surprise.
“Are you interested in me?”
“……”
Cyanor stared at Kierne with incredulous eyes.
Serea let out a groan of distress and covered her face with her hand.
“Such an embarrassing disciple, no matter where you take him……”
Chesha deeply empathized with Serea’s low murmur.
“Answer the question.”
As Cyanor pressed him again, Kierne openly furrowed his brows, blatantly revealing his displeasure.
“Do I have to perform some magic tricks here? I’m not a clown.”
It was a rude retort, devoid of even a shred of respect for the Holy King.
Yet Cyanor did not erupt in anger.
“Isn’t Count Basilian a black mage?”
The declaration of heresy, issued directly from the Holy King’s lips, froze the room solid.
In the icy atmosphere where no one dared breathe deeply, Kierne burst into giggles.
He neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply shrugged his shoulders and casually fired back.
“Then again, Holy King, rumors abound that you conducted experiments on fairies. They say you committed atrocious acts in the name of God, prompting the head of the inquisitors to stage a rebellion……”
Kierne, stripping every trace of mirth from his face, asked coldly in return.
“What do you make of that?”
Cyanor exhaled a long sigh. At the end of his drawn-out lament, he regarded Kierne with sorrowful eyes—the gaze of a Holy King seeking to redeem a fool ignorant of God’s will.
“I was seeking a way to eradicate the monsters of the Black Forest.”
After the incident in which monsters appeared in the Holy Empire, the secrets of the Black Forest and its creatures became known across the entire continent. At the time, Chesha had purified the monsters using fairy power, which had also propelled the Basilian family to fame in an instant.
“I was researching methods of extermination using captured monsters. I couldn’t leave such a heavy burden solely on the Basilian family. This is, after all, a duty of the Holy Empire as well. To mistake it for experiments on fairies—it’s utterly preposterous.”
Cyanor paused briefly, casting his eyes downward. The short silence drew everyone’s attention even more intently.
“But in the course of my investigation, I uncovered something suspicious. Until now, I’ve held my tongue, lest it cast doubt on the Basilian family’s loyalty.”
He lowered his voice gravely and posed the question.
“As Sionel Hilderd, Holy King of the Holy Empire, I ask you: Has the Basilian Count family not been the one creating these monsters?”
Kierne let out a scoff of disbelief.
But Cyanor’s words were far from over.
“The reason monsters suddenly appeared in Hilderd—that, too, falls perfectly into place if the Basilian family summoned them.”
“……”
“Starting with the fact that only the Basilians can handle monsters… Doesn’t that defy sense from the outset?”
Cyanor fixed Kierne with a steady gaze.
“I mean to punish the traitor Hailon and rescue the young fairy from the Count Basilian, who has perpetrated these horrific heretical deeds.”
His eyes turned toward Chesha.
Chesha saw the hand extended in her direction.
Cyanor called to her in a gentle voice.
“Come here. I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll save you now.”
Chesha openly scowled.
‘What kind of insane nonsense is this?’
If she followed her heart, she’d split his head open with an axe.
But she held back, just this once. This wasn’t the moment to act on impulse.
Chesha waited for Kierne’s response.
This time, Kierne couldn’t reply so readily. He simply stared at Cyanor with an impassive face for a while.
Then, abruptly, he burst into laughter.
“Haha, ahaha……”
This time, as if he’d truly lost his mind, he laughed with wild abandon.
The sharp peals of laughter ripped through the air, rendering the surroundings utterly still.
No one dared interrupt his mirth; overwhelmed by an indefinable presence, they could only remain crushed into silence.
“So that’s your true intent. Truly impressive.”
Kierne, who had laughed himself into a frenzy, wiped the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
He slowly regulated his breathing.
Amid a faint chill of unease, Chesha suddenly realized something.
Thanks to Hailon blasting away every light, the banquet hall was enveloped entirely in darkness.
The shadows blanketing every inch flickered with an ominous menace.
Faced with this bizarre spectacle for the first time, people gasped for breath, unable even to scream.
“Since you desire it so fervently, it’s only right that I oblige.”
His red eyes gleamed with eerie light.
“With the sight of me wielding magic.”
Shadows surged upward.
As the darkness stretched out, Hailon followed by swinging the Chains of Condemnation.
With chains and shadows engulfing every direction, Cyanor bellowed.
“Punish the heretics! These ones must be slain!”
“Protect His Majesty the Holy King!”
The Emperor, his face ashen with fear, shouted urgently as well.
All the imperial knights stationed in the banquet hall drew their swords.
A few knights attempted to summon reinforcements from outside, but they couldn’t exit the hall.
The same held for the nobles trying to flee.
The doors to the banquet hall, which had opened and closed without issue until moments ago, now refused to budge.
The windows, too, were impassable, as if barred by some invisible barrier.
“Belzeon and the twins must be handling things well.”
Serea sighed, sketching a magic circle with one hand while pulling Chesha along with the other.
“Must you always turn rebel to find satisfaction……”
Her tone was laced with mock exasperation, yet she couldn’t conceal her tangled emotions.
Chesha felt much the same.
‘If things go this way, Basilian and Hailon will be branded for good.’
Even if they killed the Holy King here, the consequences loomed large.
They’d be stamped as criminals across the whole continent.
From behind Serea, who was fending off the knights’ blades, Chesha rapidly turned over ideas in her mind.
‘Isn’t there some good solution?’
As Chesha mulled it over, the battle unfolded methodically.
Though it was just Kierne and Hailon against dozens of priests and knights, the latter were the ones being driven back.
‘This is odd, too.’
She couldn’t fathom why the Holy King had launched into all-out war, knowing full well that raw force was no match.
‘There has to be something more to it.’
Cyanor wouldn’t charge into a battle with such a foregone conclusion.
Not even if his own death could sully Kierne and Hailon’s reputations.
After all, his aim was eternal life.
In that moment, an intuition grazed Chesha.
“…!”
Simultaneously, she sensed an energy that was strange yet familiar.
Chesha looked up at the sky.
A sinister sound seeped from the dark night heavens.
It was a terrifying noise that prodded at humanity’s primal fears.
With a thunderous rumble like rolling thunder, the sky tore apart.
From the yawning black fissure, pitch-black forms began to writhe and cascade downward.
They were monsters.
