Chapter 209

When Roan threw out his clue, Lesper also seemed to have a hunch, as expected of a capable branch manager.

Lesper walked to her desk and pulled out a thick file.

“Let’s see, surely……”

*Rustle, rustle—*

After rummaging through the papers in the file for a moment, Lesper was soon able to find the information she wanted.

“They were unusual fellows, so I remembered them too. Those guys would have a rejection reaction just by touching holy relics, yet they are quite bold. Here.”

“Thank yo……?”

Lesper was about to hand the paper to Roan, but she pulled her hand back.

“But you see, the price of this information is quite high. Consider this a service, and let me ask you just one thing. Why the black mage smugglers? As I said earlier, it will become too dangerous for you if you get involved with those black mages.”

The Order of Yorus, at least, does not play tricks with the value of information.

So Lesper’s statement that the price was high must be true, but.

In her eyes, the worry for Roan seemed larger than the self-interest of getting her money’s worth.

Roan contemplated his words for a moment before answering.

“Because I cannot bear to watch holy relics be defiled by their hands.”

Roan seemed slightly angry.

Lesper felt admiration and pity simultaneously in her heart.

‘The young thing is already going to such lengths to seek revenge……’

Lesper had also recently heard that Roan had become the new owner of the Bell of Eternity.

Lesper spoke in a calm tone.

“The eye of Yorus shall be with you.”

Meaning that she would at least make sure Roan did not fall victim in vain to hands reaching out from the darkness.

In a normal playthrough, this would have been a significant help, but not this time.

“No, there is no need for that……”

Roan declined reluctantly.

‘Earlier, Espard and Sion did the same, so why does everyone keep stepping forward to offer unnecessary protection?’

It was closer to surveillance rather than protection.

Because Roan’s identity could be exposed if he was not careful!

“No need to decline. The enemy of the Darc family is the enemy of the Empire. The Order of Yorus is also a member of the Empire, after all.”

However, Lesper showed absolutely no intention of changing her mind.

Rather, she seemed to become even more resolute when Roan refused.

*Knock, knock—*

Just then, a knock resounded on the door of the branch manager’s office.

But for some reason, it sounded a bit urgent.

“What is it?”

— Branch Manager, there is something I must report urgently…….

The door opened, and a man who looked like a typical member of the Order of Yorus—meaning he looked like a thief—entered.

Then, for some reason, he glared at Roan while whispering to Lesper.

“Yes…… Yes. Huh? What did you say?”

As she listened, Lesper’s reaction gradually turned serious.

‘Did something happen?’

It was not that Roan had done nothing questionable in Gilsburg, but at least he had done nothing to provoke the Order of Yorus.

How politely had he behaved until now!

However, the Order of Yorus seemed to think otherwise.

Lesper spoke, her face distorting.

“You, how dare you lie to my face?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Roan replied with an expression that claimed ignorance for now.

In fact, he truly did not know.

“You clearly said you had no intention of punishing us with Vault Number 3!”

“???”

Roan tilted his head in spite of himself.

Naturally, the Corrupted Holy Mark was an item he would use, so there was no way he would find fault with it.

Unless Roan was planning to turn himself in.

“Sly brat, I just heard what you and the Saint of the Bell pulled at the market. Do you dare think you can deceive the eye of Yorus?”

“That was…… we happened to find a ring imbued with dark mana, and the Saint of the Bell simply couldn’t contain his temper.”

“You expect me to believe that? Why would the Saint of the Bell even be in the off-campus volunteer group in the first place?”

Lesper reacted as if it were an absurd claim.

Espard had a reputation for being that relentless when it came to black magic.

‘It wasn’t that I wanted to come with him either!’

Ordinarily, Roan would admit that his actions looked suspicious, but this time he was genuinely aggrieved.

Furthermore, if she had received a report, wouldn’t she know better?

The fact that he and Sion had stopped Espard from flying into a rage.

However, Lesper’s words did not end there.

“And, we have conclusive evidence that you entered here in cooperation with the Holy Emperor’s Palace.”

“Evidence?”

“No wonder…… I thought you knew too much about Yorus.”

Lesper snapped her fingers as if finding it detestable.

*Clatter—*

The door opened roughly, and two people entered at the same time.

One was a Yorus follower.

The other was someone whose face Roan knew very well.

“Sion?”

“D-Darc……!”

It was Sion, dragged in with a pale face.

‘Could the person following me since the hotel really have been Sion!’

Roan clicked his tongue.

He had refrained from detecting presence with mana to avoid needlessly provoking the Order of Yorus, and it had resulted in this mess.

Lesper raised her voice.

“Will you still deny it? Trying to sneak in a Saintess candidate! And what? You came with Professor Tyrmi and even Saintess Yusina? You made a deliberate plan! Why not just bring the Central Holy Knight Order while you’re at it?”

‘I can see why she’d be that angry.’

Only then did Roan realize why Lesper seemed to be overreacting.

To an outsider, they would undoubtedly look like a special task force that had come to find evidence of the Gilsburg branch’s involvement in black magic.

Furthermore, if she knew Roan had entered Acherandir, she would naturally know he grew up in the Holy Emperor’s Palace, making it an even more reasonable suspicion.

Of course, why such young students would perform such a special mission, or why Darc and a Saintess candidate would step forward directly, and so on.

There were loopholes like these if one thought about it in detail, but at any rate, that was how it looked from the receiving end.

‘No, more importantly, earlier she was saying the enemy of the Empire is her enemy and whatever……’

While Roan put aside his sense of injustice for now and pondered what to say to explain.

*Slightly—*

Sion, with a pale face, cautiously raised her hand.

*Glare—!*

“What is it, Saintess candidate? I am sensitive right now.”

Lesper asked with an expression that questioned if she had any right to speak at this moment.

“Um…… What is the punishment, and what is Vault Number 3…… and what is this cooperation……?”

Sion asked with a truly innocent and clueless expression.

She looked so innocent that even Lesper was momentarily at a loss for words.

‘Well, because she really doesn’t know anything.’

Roan let out a small sigh.

Seeing that reaction, Sion winced slightly and spoke again.

“Um…… Wasn’t this place the Darc family’s secret information network?”

“……What?”

That was the deciding blow.

* * *

“……So, you saw Darc sneak out of the hotel and just followed him?”

Lesper listened quietly to Sion’s words, then interrupted, unable to contain her dumbfoundment.

“Ah, yes.”

“Right, let’s say you just followed him to the temple entrance…… but how did you deceive the old man at the entrance?”

“I remembered what Darc said and……”

Sion blushed, as if embarrassed even to say it herself.

It would have been one thing if only Lesper were here, but with Roan, the party involved, right in front of her, it was even more embarrassing.

“I heard you even recited Volume 3 of the Scriptures of Yorus to the gatekeeper brothers.”

“I just memorized that too……”

“Oh dear……”

Sion squirmed.

Sion had failed to pass the gatekeeper brothers and was caught.

When two people who knew Volume 3 of Yorus appeared in a single day, and in succession at that, the gatekeeper brothers also found it suspicious.

But this time, even Roan was flabbergasted.

‘When a talented person is naive, that’s what happens!’

How could she memorize the scriptures so easily just by listening from a distance?

……Conversely, why would someone who could do even that get caught so foolishly?

Lesper was likely asking repeatedly out of curiosity about that point as well.

Because the identity of the Saintess candidate was certain enough that there was no need to verify it.

At any rate, combined with Sion’s pure character, who didn’t seem to know the first thing about conspiracies.

By Roan showing the ring on his finger, the Order of Yorus’s misunderstandings were almost entirely resolved.

Lesper tried to make sense of this absurd situation somehow and asked Roan.

“By the way…… to purify a ring. Don’t tell me you plan to do the same with the item in the secret vault?”

“Well, something like that.”

Roan nodded obediently.

The Corrupted Holy Mark, as could be guessed from its name, was a holy mark contaminated by dark mana.

Looking at Roan’s ring, it was natural to assume it was for a similar purpose.

“W-What? Darc, what else are you planning to purify?!”

Sion, who was shrinking back in the corner like a sinner—actually, she was indeed a sinner—raised her voice in surprise.

When it was extremely dangerous for one person to take charge of and purify just one item, two at the same time?

At that, Roan and Lesper glared at her simultaneously.

“Sion, you shut up.”

“Saintess candidate, you aren’t in a position to speak right now, are you?”

“Ah, yes…….”

Roan was annoyed that the smoothly progressing matter had needlessly escalated because of Sion.

Lesper was considerably heated over the fact that her branch had almost been breached by outsiders twice.

Likely with this incident as a turning point, the security of the Order of Yorus in Gilsburg would become much stricter.

‘But she didn’t get that mad at me.’

Even considering that, Roan felt Lesper was particularly harsh on Sion.

In fact, Sion was caught while trying to enter, whereas Roan actually got inside, so wasn’t Roan’s case worse?

The sight of Sion looking downcast like a scolded puppy was rather pitiful.

……Roan had completely forgotten the memory of almost having his neck pierced by Lesper’s dagger before he knew it.

Lesper, as if completely bothered by everything now, scribbled something on a small piece of paper and tossed it to Roan.

“You can just go and show this at Vault Number 3. The guy waiting outside will guide you.”

“I apologize for the great trouble.”

“The problem was that it was indeed too much.”

Lesper waved her hand dismissively, telling him to leave quickly.

As Roan walked toward the door, Sion, who was sitting, stood up stealthily.

“Saintess candidate, where are you going?”

“Yes?”

Lesper gestured with her chin to her side.

In that spot, the man who had drawn Roan’s face was still moving his brush.

“The Saintess candidate’s portrait is not finished yet.”

……As the price for attempting to trespass into the Order of Yorus, Sion also had to have her face recorded.

Since her face and characteristics would have already been obtained by anyone with decent information-gathering power anyway, unlike Roan’s, it was a cheap price to pay.

“Darc…….”

Sion sat back down and held back Roan’s steps with teary eyes as he prepared to leave.

She seemed to ask if he truly intended to leave her behind in such a scary place so heartlessly.

“……Fine. We’ll go together.”

“Ah, thank you. You didn’t have to go that far.”

‘As if you could even talk.’

Roan let out a deep sigh and decided to wait near the door for a moment.

In any case, sketching the portrait did not take very long.

— Branch Manager, please take a look.

Sure enough, the man soon stopped his brush and handed the paper to Lesper.

Lesper quickly checked the portrait and showed it to Sion.

“Saintess candidate, please take a look too.”

“Yes.”

Sion checked her portrait with a trembling hand.

Then, she opened her eyes slightly wider and looked at the man.

“Wow, you draw extremely well!”

— Haha, it’s nothing.

The person who was scared just a moment ago was gone, and she seemed genuinely amazed.

Roan also cast a glance at Sion’s portrait.

Mild eyes, delicate features, a slender face shape, and lips bearing a faint smile.

Roan glared at the man who drew the picture with sharp eyes.

*Glare—!*

— U-Um…… why are you doing that?

The man was suddenly frightened and took a step back.

“Isn’t it drawn too normally for the face of someone who was scared out of their wits until just now?”

— Pardon?

What is that supposed to mean?