Chapter 210

The man let out a dumbfounded sound.

Although it was true that the man changed the expression slightly, it was strictly just the expression.

He had merely drawn her with a normal, easily recognizable expression since Sion would not always be scared……

Furthermore, Roan was also doing that level of calibration (?).

“Here, was Sion smiling just now?”

“Ah, no?”

“The eyes. She wouldn’t have been smiling with her eyes either.”

“Ah, right.”

“It is not just that. Also…….”

— Th-There is a reason for all of that!

Pointers and criticisms came out endlessly!

Lesper sighed as she watched Roan bickering with the man.

*Beckon, beckon—*

And she quietly beckoned Sion, who had no idea what was going on.

“Take a look at this.”

What Lesper handed over was Roan’s portrait from earlier.

As Sion tilted her head, Lesper let out another sigh and whispered.

“He is complaining about why he was drawn so scarily.”

“……Ah.”

Sion nodded only then.

‘It looks like it was drawn well and looks just like him, though……?’

However, she could not understand Roan.

At this level, even someone who did not know Roan at all would say, ‘Oh, it’s that person,’ upon seeing him on the street.

Why was he dissatisfied?

“Is he a battle-hardened partner, or a kid suited to his age? Which is it?”

Sion pondered briefly at Lesper’s question, then shook her head.

“I don’t know either.”

Around that time, Roan, who had finished his inconclusive debate with the man, glared at Sion.

Since they seemed to have no intention of modifying the portrait, he had become even more sensitive.

“Are you not going?”

“I-I’m going!”

*Step, step, step— Click—!*

Once Roan and Sion went outside, the branch manager’s office became as quiet as the immediate aftermath of a storm.

Lesper let out a deep sigh.

“Now it finally feels like my room……”

Lesper was extremely fatigued for someone who had just had two sixteen-year-old freshmen walk in and out.

* * *

Meanwhile, Roan and Sion headed toward the secret vault, following the holy knight of the Order of Yorus.

Roan glared at Sion and spoke.

“Tailling someone doesn’t seem like the sort of thing a Saintess candidate should do. The Holy Emperor’s Palace would be thrilled to know.”

Sion’s face turned red, as she also felt there was no room for excuse.

However, she was also extremely aggrieved.

“I-I admit it. But I had my own reasons too!”

“Reasons for tailing?”

Roan reacted as if it were absolute nonsense.

There was no evidence that he was doing something illegal—even though he was—and there was no reason for Sion to follow him.

If she had at least told him she was following, the branch manager wouldn’t have misunderstood like that.

“I, I really thought this place was Darc’s secret information network…….”

Sion spoke in a trailing voice.

Roan was dumbfounded.

“That damn secret information network…….”

“H-Hiek—”

*Wince—!*

As Roan’s atmosphere turned murderous, Sion shrank back instinctively.

Roan paid no mind and fell into his own thoughts.

Should he have corrected the absurd misunderstanding when it first arose?

‘Then again, even if I told her then, she wouldn’t have believed it.’

In a way, it felt like what was bound to happen had happened.

‘Yes, it’s all my karma, my karma.’

Roan let out a deep sigh and spoke to Sion as if admonishing her.

“Did it not occur to you that if I had a secret information network of this scale, it would be no different from having already rebuilt my family?”

“Ah?”

Sion tilted her head.

‘C-Come to think of it, that’s true.’

She had merely followed him headlong at the thought of finding evidence of a secret information network, without considering that far.

To make such a mistake as the daughter of the Beatrice family, a renowned information family of the Ricardo Kingdom!

Sion shrank even further.

Then she asked Roan in a barely audible voice.

“Then…… what is this place?”

Roan answered as if asking why she was questioning something so obvious.

“It is simply a branch of the Order of Yorus. Do you know what the Order of Yorus is? It is a place that serves Yorus, the God of Night, and is also called the Thieves’ Guild. There are several branches in the Ricardo Kingdom as well……”

“I-I know that much!”

No matter what, wasn’t this treatment treating her too much like a child!

‘Aren’t you a child?’

Roan tilted his head.

Sixteen was plenty young.

“Ah, my apologies if you knew. I thought other classmates might not know.”

*Boom—!*

Sion looked extremely shocked and hurt, her eyes welling up.

“N-No matter how much of a nuisance I am, to compare me to Demona…….”

“I didn’t say that much…….”

Since the Order of Yorus was not a mainstream order, he had simply spoken based on the standard of the average Acherandir student.

Sion asked, mumbling in a tearful voice.

“I wondered if…… maybe Darc had formed an alliance with the Order of Yorus…….”

“Aha, good idea. There are several constraints, but I should consider it.”

Roan, seeing that Sion’s emotional damage was too severe, nodded deeply as if he had just realized something.

If Roan were not a black mage, well, he might have actually pondered it.

However, Sion instinctively felt that Roan was pretending to agree for her sake.

Although the situation had gotten tangled up, Sion was also the type who couldn’t stand being in someone’s debt.

‘I will definitely repay this two or three times over someday!’

……It was Sion, engraving the favor deep in her heart as if vowing revenge.

“I was simply in the wrong…… I’m sorry. I won’t tail you in the future.”

“Good idea.”

Roan nodded with satisfaction.

‘Since I’ve created a debt for now, she’ll let me off at least once if I get caught later.’

At this level, it was like taking out an insurance policy at a fairly cheap price.

At any rate, while they conversed like that.

— Here it is.

The holy knight paused and spoke, pointing forward.

When Roan and Sion shifted their gazes, a truly massive vault was embedded in the wall.

Were it not for the vault’s characteristic dial and iron door, it was large enough to be mistaken for a room.

Roan nodded to the holy knight and approached the vault without hesitation.

Then he handed the note he received from Lesper to the vault keeper.

— Hmm. Verified.

The vault keeper burned the note and began to open the vault door.

*Click-clack—!*

Injecting holy power into the vault, spinning the dial, inserting the key…….

Sion, who was watching, asked with a slightly pale face.

“Just what is inside there?”

Although the vaults she saw in her family were fairly large, they were not locked to this extent.

Judging by Lesper bringing up purification, it seemed correct that it was an item imbued with dark mana, but…….

However, Roan merely watched the process of the vault opening and did not give an answer.

‘Since I cannot explain the purpose of the Corrupted Holy Mark.’

And it was a question that would naturally be resolved once they went inside anyway.

*Clink— clink— clank—!*

It took approximately one minute for the vault door to open.

When the vault keeper held the open door and gestured inside, Roan and Sion moved their steps.

There were a few lights inside the vault, so there was no issue securing visibility.

A pedestal in the middle of a considerably spacious area.

Upon it, the Corrupted Holy Mark was stored, floating inside a thick glass box.

“A half-mark imbued with dark mana?!”

“……You describe it quite in detail.”

Sion was startled upon seeing it.

She knew it was an item related to black magic, but she hadn’t expected it to be something like this!

A holy mark was literally a token engraved with the emblem of a god.

Just what had happened for dark mana to be imbued in such a holy mark?

Furthermore, once damaged, a holy mark ought to be burned immediately.

In other words, by any measure, the Corrupted Holy Mark was extremely profane and ominous in the eyes of clergymen.

Roan spoke in a calm voice.

“It is the Corrupted Holy Mark.”

“Pardon? Ah…… it indeed looks that way.”

Roan was stating the exact name of the item, but Sion failed to notice that far.

For no other name to call it other than the term ‘corrupted holy mark’ had come to her mind.

Sion examined the holy mark with a wary gaze.

“This emblem is…….”

“Hmm? Can you recognize it?”

Roan tilted his head upon hearing that.

‘It is not known which god the emblem on the Corrupted Holy Mark belongs to.’

At that, Sion looked back at Roan meaningfully.

*Gulp—*

Was there some hidden combination to this as well?

“……I can’t recognize it at all.”

“…….”

Of course.

Roan shook his head.

Getting one’s hopes up for nothing.

“I feel sorry.”

“Pardon? For what?”

“I feel sorry for Demona.”

“What does that……”

Sion wore a puzzled expression at the sudden mention of Demona’s name.

However, as expected of the clever Sion, it did not take very long to understand the meaning.

“Darc! Take that back right now! No, cancel it immediately!”

“As you said, the god of the Corrupted Holy Mark is unknown. It was probably distorted as dark mana became imbued in it.”

Roan said what he had to say, not caring whether Sion was throwing a fit.

With that, he opened the glass box and took out the holy mark inside.

*Whoosh—!!!*

At the same time, the dark mana residing in the holy mark began to rampage wildly.

“Ugh—!”

Sion, who had been jumping up and down telling Roan to take back the words that she was worse than Demona, was also startled.

Sion held her arm up as if to block her eyes and looked at the holy mark and Roan through the gap.

The holy mark of the unknown god seemed to bare its fangs at Roan like a wild beast.

A pressing moment, as if Roan’s entire body would be encroached by dark mana at any second.

However.

*Whoosh—!*

As Roan also began to draw out his energy in earnest, the atmosphere slowly began to change.

The brilliant holy power emerging from Roan—which was, of course, dark mana—gradually pushed away the holy mark’s dark mana.

‘Wh-What is that!’

Sion broke into a sweat as she realized the meaning of the scene.

She had heard of it while receiving education at the Vatican.

Whether they were holy relics or magic tools, those with their own history did not yield submissively to humans but chose their masters.

The Bell of Eternity that Roan obtained from Espard was also of that category.

For the most part, the testing process was moderate, and even if they did not recognize someone as their owner, it would end at the level of hiding their power.

But what on earth was this violent clash of energies!

The white Roan and the black Corrupted Holy Mark were like a life-and-death struggle between a clergyman and a black mage.

Like a fierce fight between black and white on a Go board.

*Rumble—!!!*

They blended together, continuing a push-and-pull battle.

“Darc! Stop it! Put down the holy mark! It’s dangerous!”

Sion shouted at the top of her lungs, but there was no guarantee it was reaching Roan.

Roan merely glared at the holy mark in his hand and focused, not casting a single glance at Sion.

Sion even shed a tear, fearing Roan might fall into danger at any moment.

“Darc, it’s dangerous! Please…… please……!”

Although she had thought of Darc as a rival until now.

Although she was occasionally so annoyed she didn’t know what to do when he teased her.

Sion knew very well.

The fact that she was able to adapt excellently to Acherandir because Roan was there.

The fact that she wouldn’t have made the friends who became more precious than anyone else if he hadn’t been there.

Sion’s fragile body felt as if it would be swept away and thrown back by Roan’s and the holy mark’s energies if she relaxed even slightly right now.

Sion’s hem fluttered, unable to stay still for a single second.

Perhaps the clothes she bought new today might get torn.

She didn’t care about such things.

But how much longer could Roan, who was at the center of the conflict, endure?

No matter how great Roan was…….

*Cling— clang—*

For some reason, it also seemed as though Roan’s white energy was turning black bit by bit, very slightly.

Sion shouted in an even more desperate voice.

“I can no longer imagine the school without Darc anymore! Rafia and Riel feel the same way—”

Imagine—????

*Snap—*

Inside the vault became quiet like a lie, as if the battle between Roan and the holy mark had never taken place.