Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Lupera's Infiltration
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Lupera cautiously approached the Sky Tower.
She had even shed her usual pure white priestly robes, donning ordinary clothes instead.
Thanks to that, she reached the vicinity of the Sky Tower without drawing anyone’s attention.
‘Sneaking in won’t be easy.’
The area around the Sky Tower was an empty clearing.
Even in the ever-bustling imperial capital, this spot was desolate to the point of eerie silence.
In such conditions, even she couldn’t manage a covert infiltration.
‘Still, I have to try.’
Lupera drew upon her holy power.
Unlike other priests, it was an energy usable only by those who had directly received the Saint King’s grace.
Using it, she erased her presence as much as possible and stealthily drew closer to the Sky Tower.
‘So far, so good.’
Ordinary people wouldn’t notice her even if she brushed right past them.
But this was the Sky Tower.
A place frequented by some of the continent’s top mages.
Lupera never let her guard down, moving her feet with excruciating slowness.
‘Good.’
How much time had passed?
Though it was a mere fifty meters, it felt like over an hour had dragged by.
She stood before a door laughably small compared to the tower’s immense size.
If she could just pick this lock and slip inside, she could infiltrate the Sky Tower without being caught.
‘A door like this is nothing.’
Lupera carefully reached out.
Under the Saint King’s orders, she had assassinated countless enemies over the years.
Silently picking a simple lock like this was child’s play.
…Or so she thought.
The door suddenly swung open with a creak!
Beyond it stood a boy staring blankly at her.
“Who are you?”
The boy asked Lupera, who flinched in surprise.
“I-I...”
She hadn’t anticipated things going so wrong, so she stammered in panic.
But only for a moment.
‘Kill him.’
Murderous intent filled Lupera’s eyes.
He seemed to be a mage from the Sky Tower, but likely just a mana engineer or illusionist at best.
She could dispatch someone like that in an instant.
Lupera reached out.
No, she tried to, but couldn’t.
The boy moved even faster.
“Come in. Someone’s waiting for you inside anyway.”
“What?”
Only the bishop, Philoyan, knew she was attempting a secret infiltration here.
And he was waiting for her?
‘Who the hell?’
Forgetting her intent to kill the boy, Lupera froze.
“Ah, hurry up. They’re busy, so come on in.”
With that, the boy zipped inside.
‘I’ll go in for now.’
The infiltration had failed.
But if she could get inside, that was what mattered.
She didn’t need to kill anyone—just grab the intel and leave.
Lupera concealed the madness flickering in her eyes and followed the boy into the Sky Tower.
‘Hngh!’
At once, an immense pressure bore down on her shoulders.
‘Insane...!’
It was an unimaginable torrent of mana.
Her holy power instinctively rose to resist, but it was futile against such overwhelming force.
“Could you hurry up?”
The boy ahead urged her curtly.
Lupera was dumbfounded but gave up resisting for now and followed him.
‘I don’t know who’s waiting.’
She could decide her next move after meeting them.
Lupera endured the crushing mana as best she could, trailing the boy step by step.
Each footfall was agonizing, yet surprisingly, their destination was close.
“Go in here.”
It was a magic circle.
‘A teleportation circle?’
It resembled the ones installed in Aier’s central cathedral.
Lupera hesitated briefly, but followed after the boy stepped in first.
Flash!
A bright light carried her instantly elsewhere.
“...Where’s this?”
It was a modestly sized space with soft music playing.
A few tables and the faint aroma of coffee suggested it was like a café.
“Come in.”
The sole occupant was a pretty little girl who looked like a doll, addressing Lupera.
Her voice brimmed with benevolence and dignity, but it froze Lupera solid.
She knew exactly who the child was.
‘The Grand Duke!’
Why on earth was she here?
The one waiting for her was the Grand Duke!
Lupera had never imagined it.
“Well done.”
“Then I’ll be going. Enjoy your talk.”
The boy grinned at the praise and vanished back through the magic circle.
Now alone with her.
In this suffocating situation, Lupera’s eyes darted around.
‘Can I escape?’
Impossible.
Not difficult—utterly impossible.
The Grand Duke was among the strongest of the empire’s guardians.
She might even outrank the Saint King.
Fleeing from such a being?
She’d be crushed to death before taking a single step.
Lupera swallowed dryly, gauging Martes’s mood.
“Sit.”
Perhaps sensing her gaze, Martes lifted her teacup to savor the coffee’s aroma.
But Lupera had no intention of complying.
Sitting across from the Grand Duke?
For someone who’d come to steal from the Sky Tower, nothing could be more dangerous.
“I’m fine...”
“I said sit.”
Boom!
Her heart plummeted.
The voice was unchanged, yet a thunderous shock swept through her body like a lightning strike.
Unable to control herself, Lupera staggered and ended up sitting before Martes as ordered.
“Fine beans just arrived. You should try some.”
Martes poured coffee into Lupera’s cup.
The dark liquid filled it with a trickle.
Its rich, aromatic scent wafted up, but to Lupera, it looked like deadly poison.
“Did Mardetain send you?”
As Lupera stared at the cup with trembling eyes, Martes’s voice reached her ears.
She flinched.
It struck right at the heart of the matter.
Lupera swallowed and scrambled for a response.
But she didn’t need to answer.
Martes already knew everything.
“Using the ‘Saintess’ to divert attention and slip into the main tower to find the egg Mawok carried, right?”
Her tone was calm, but as Martes continued, Lupera’s composure crumbled.
“Though you didn’t foresee the ‘Saintess’s’ death.”
Martes sighed.
“I cannot yield the egg.”
“...Understood.”
Lupera forced out the words.
With Martes seeing through everything, fulfilling the Saint King’s command was impossible.
“Go back.”
Lupera’s head snapped up.
‘Go back? She’s letting me live?’
Unbelievable.
Letting her leave after sneaking into the Sky Tower with ill intent.
Hope flashed in her eyes.
“Go back and tell the Saint King this: I surmise his intentions. As master of the Sky Tower and lord of magic, I will tolerate no further actions.”
Lupera ground her teeth inwardly.
How dare she insult him.
But reality was that she couldn’t even protest with her power.
“...I will relay that.”
Suppressing her surging madness, Lupera bowed her head.
“Vanish from my sight.”
At the dismissal, Lupera’s form dissolved in light.
Alone now, Martes took a sip of coffee.
The bitter tang on her tongue mirrored her mood.
“It has come to pass after all.”
She could have prevented it, but failed.
She’d only realized everything after the fact.
“Thanks to that child, we preserved the divine beast’s egg, but the continent’s fate has twisted greatly.”
Martes closed her eyes gently.
“Chaos approaches.”
Visions of future events flickered through her mind.
Blood and death.
Betrayal and madness.
Corpses and rage.
She couldn’t say precisely what would happen, but turmoil was surely coming to the empire.
The wheel was already turning; it couldn’t be stopped.
“I can only hope less blood is shed.”
Martes thought of Seowoojin.
In the end, he held all the keys.
She fervently wished he would choose correctly.
Swish.
As Martes reached out, space tore open, revealing a large egg emitting blue light.
“Hwiraeteon.”
Divine beast.
She invoked the sacred and noble name.
“Ancient beast bearing the blue winds, I may need to call upon you.”
As if understanding, the egg began to writhe.
Crack.
Spiderweb cracks soon spread across it.
The birth of a divine beast.
An event after two thousand years.
* * *
“So, that woman was connected to the Apostles?”
Briani’s eyes narrowed.
Having suffered much at Reina’s hands, her hatred for the Apostles had reached its peak.
“It’s certain. The energy I sensed from Seong Yura wasn’t holy power at all.”
He also mentioned how she’d let that nuance slip during their conversation.
Briani trusted Seowoojin.
Otherwise, there was no reason for an SS-grade hero dubbed the ‘Saintess’ to suddenly go mad and slaughter knights.
“The problem is we have no way to prove it.”
Even if true, with Seong Yura dead, it couldn’t be verified.
No matter how justified the punishment, without proof, the emperor and the Shadow Duke wouldn’t let Seowoojin off.
“There might be a way.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
Briani’s eyes lit up as she asked.
“There’s the delegation from Aier.”
“The bishop came. He’s apparently been summoned to the emperor right now.”
“Interrogating them might yield evidence.”
Briani shook her head at Seowoojin’s words.
Suspicious or not, the bishop couldn’t be touched lightly.
“The bishop is nobility of such high standing that even the emperor must show courtesy. Even in my position as Grand Duke, touching him is a burden...”
“Not the bishop.”
Seowoojin cut her off.
Then he smiled.
“Lupera, was it? The cardinal in the delegation?”
Briani’s eyes widened slightly.
“No way?”
“The energy she carries matches Seong Yura’s perfectly. Isn’t that worth investigating?”
More than worth it—it overflowed.
If it turned out the cardinal had done something to Seong Yura,
Making her go mad, and Seowoojin had no choice but to kill her to stop it,
They could argue that convincingly.
It would also dispel some of the suspicion on Seowoojin.
“I’ll look into it.”
Seowoojin was confined and couldn’t move freely.
Briani decided to investigate Lupera herself.
“Thank you.”
Seowoojin bowed his head in gratitude.
But Briani waved it off.
“I’m doing it because I want to.”
She had no intention of missing a chance to shove it to the Apostles.