Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: The Impostor and the Red King
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Roy was nimbly scouring the forest.
‘Nothing.’
But it was all for naught.
Theo Levatan had raised a huge fuss, shouting that Juliet had vanished, and sure enough, he was right.
Roy wiped the bead of sweat trickling down his jaw.
He had searched not only the Terrarium but every forest near Lucerne, yet found no trace.
‘Juliet…’
Roy began to feel a parched thirst.
This particular thirst could only be quenched by the scent of his awakened mate, and the anxiety that had been suppressing it until now had finally erupted.
If this state persisted, he would end up gnawing his own fingers to bits.
That was when it happened.
“What are you doing there?”
“Juliet…?”
A woman peeked out from behind a tree.
“Yes, it’s me. What are you doing there?”
“Juliet…”
His legs buckled, strength draining from them.
Roy staggered toward her, reaching out to pull her into a fierce embrace.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you? Where on earth have you been all this time…?”
“Were you worried?”
“Of course! Do you know how much I…?”
“I’m sorry, Romeo.”
“Romeo?”
Roy froze.
Juliet tilted her head with an innocent expression.
“What’s wrong, Romeo?”
But Roy released the Juliet in his arms and swiftly stepped back.
“Juliet would never call me Romeo.”
For some reason, she stubbornly insisted on using his pet name.
It hadn’t mattered before.
“What are you talking about, Romeo?”
“Who are you?”
Kriik, kriik, kriik.
With a chilling sound, Juliet—no, the thing’s—neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
“Busted?”
It grinned, and at the same time, a blade protruded from the arm of the doll wearing Juliet’s skin.
“...!”
The thing swung the blade menacingly. Roy dodged nimbly, but the doll had two arms. Thus, two blades came flying.
‘Ugh!’
Roy desperately twisted his body to evade, but sensing it was too late, he tried to minimize the damage.
That was when it happened.
Clang!
Before the doll’s blade could reach Roy, a sword strike flew in from somewhere and precisely cleaved the doll’s body.
“...!”
“Pathetic. As expected.”
Roy jerked his head up to see Lennox Carlyle standing there, casually tilting his head with a mocking sneer.
“Can't even recognize your own woman?”
He shook off the substance clinging to his blade. What smeared on it after slicing the doll was not red blood, but some unknown black, viscous liquid.
It was pretending to be human, but it wasn’t.
From the fallen doll’s waist, not blood but a strange black liquid oozed out.
Then Lennox exaggeratedly feigned surprise and sneered.
“Oh, right. She was mine from the start.
My apologies, kid.”
“Ha…!”
Roy let out a hollow laugh, but he undeniably owed the man his life. Roy took a light breath, stood up in one fluid motion, and asked.
“How about it?”
Roy shrugged.
“Truce?”
Lennox Carlyle replied without a smile.
“I don’t join hands with beast whelps.”
“Snap!”
“Ugh!”
With that, he hurled the Onyx he held in one hand at Roy and left the forest first.
“Ow!”
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
Suddenly lumped together with Roy as a beast, Onyx vented his dissatisfaction by thumping his tail against Roy.
***
The final event of the Breeding Festival, on the seventh and last day, was undoubtedly the ritual personally officiated by the Pope.
It involved summoning a fragment of the Main God Ifrit’s holy body.
The ceremony where the goddess’s light poured from the heavens was the highlight of the Lucerne Breeding Festival.
It was to demonstrate that the goddess’s blessing accompanied the Pope.
The origin of mana came from the evil gods.
In contrast, the origin of divine power stemmed from the Main Goddess Ifrit.
Of course, mages didn’t serve the evil gods in the same way priests served the Main God, but the priests took pride in being fundamentally different from those misguided mages.
“Where is His Holiness?”
However, the situation inside the Terrarium on the eve of the ritual was far from proud.
The temple priests were running about in chaos.
“Have you still not found him!?”
With the ritual imminent, Pope Sebastian had suddenly vanished without a trace.
Cardinal Solon, the First Attendant who assisted the Pope, was at his wit’s end, practically jumping out of his skin.
“You idiots! If you don’t find His Holiness the Pope, none of you will escape unscathed!”
Cardinal Solon flew into a rage, urging the priests on.
Yet despite combing through the Terrarium and all of Lucerne, there was no sign of Pope Sebastian’s whereabouts.
Slurp.
‘…At a time like this, tea?’
Cardinal Solon whipped around with bloodshot eyes at the sound of leisurely sipping, unable to contain his fury.
“Cardinal Gilliam! Aren’t you worried at all? Does tea take priority right now? His Holiness has been missing for hours!”
Cardinal Gilliam shrugged.
“I wonder if that question is even worth answering. Of course I’m worried. Besides, isn’t assisting in the ritual the role of the First Attendant, Cardinal Solon?”
“...Damn it all!”
“More importantly, I hear another person has gone missing.”
“What are you trying to say!?”
“Heh.”
Cardinal Gilliam’s eyes gleamed meaningfully.
“That young lady, the granddaughter of Lionel Levatan.”
“...”
Cardinal Solon suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
“Why are you like this, Cardinal Solon?
We both saw it with our own eyes, didn’t we?”
In the eastern Kanabel Village, the Statue of the Mourning Saint that Cardinal Gilliam had personally gone to great lengths to procure.
“The moment His Holiness first saw that statue, he shed tears.”
And astonishingly, not long after, a woman with the exact same face as the statue appeared at the Papal Court.
It was the missing Juliet Monad.
“Don’t you think the timing is too coincidental, Cardinal Solon?”
Tap, tap, tap.
Gilliam drummed the table.
“A few hours after that young lady vanished, His Holiness disappeared in the same manner. Think about what that means.”
“I know full well!”
Suddenly, Cardinal Solon, who had been keeping his mouth tightly shut, shot to his feet.
“Oh, you do?”
“Of course! It’s obvious!”
Cardinal Solon bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“Listen up, everyone! We’re issuing a wanted notice for the culprit who kidnapped His Holiness the Pope!”
“W-What?”
Before the flustered Gilliam could intervene, Cardinal Solon shouted.
“Her name is Juliet Monad! The wench is the granddaughter of the infamous criminal Lionel Levatan! Find that woman first! Now!”
“W-What is this nonsense, Solon!
Hey, you! Think about this rationally!”
The panicked Gilliam jumped up and pointed accusingly.
“She went missing first, so obviously she’s the victim!”
Not to mention the statue as evidence!
But Solon plugged his ears with both hands and started screaming.
“I don’t care, I don’t care! So you want to brand His Holiness a kidnapper? You must be the mad one! You’re saying we all die together, is that it!”
Solon stormed out and began issuing orders to the priests.
“Why aren’t you issuing the wanted notice for that wench! That wench has our His Holiness…!”
“You’ve truly lost it! You need to retract this now…!”
“Hey, let go! Find that wench first!”
It was then, as the two cardinals grabbed each other by the collars in a brawl.
Thud.
“...?”
The two cardinals froze at the heavy noise.
Thud.
“W-What is that sound?”
Thud.
The repeating noise seemed to be drawing closer.
“Wait, that sound…”
Boom!
With a final thunderous crash, the firmly shut doors of the cathedral flew open violently.
The earlier noises were from someone forcibly opening the doors all the way to their Ninth Chamber.
It was clearly forced.
Because…
“So you’re the ones who stole my granddaughter.”
Step, step.
A red-haired old man, slightly limping on one leg but impeccably dressed in white vestments and leaning on a swordstick in one hand, glared at them.
“Is that you bastards?”
It was the Red King, Lionel Levatan.