Chapter 59 – Veronica of the Flame Hair

The Mage Commander dressed in pure white robes hurriedly visited the Director of Palace Affairs with a stiff, hardened expression.

When he, whom he had hosted in the VIP room, came to see him, the Director of Palace Affairs expressed his doubt.

“What is the matter? Requesting to see me so suddenly.”

There was unmistakable displeasure written on the Mage Commander’s face.

“I heard that the mages detaining the Director of the Inquisition Bureau were taken down by clerics who suddenly barged in.”

“No way. Does that mean the Director has been released?”

“I would rather ask you. Why did the clerics attack us?”

The situation became awkward.

All clerics should have been under his command.

How could they have attacked?

“I cannot understand. Is it really true that the clerics attacked?”

“Or are you saying my subordinates made an erroneous report? They said an unidentified knight and armed clerics attacked after even breaking their seals. Thanks to that, my position as someone who came to help the Holy Order has become very awkward.”

“A knight? It wouldn’t be Rosenkreuz, right?”

“I heard it was not a vampire knight. Is there someone else in the Holy Order who can do such a thing?”

There might be several, but only one person came to the Director of Palace Affairs’ mind.

“It might be that inquisitor who escaped this morning.”

“Your Excellency, this is not a matter to be taken lightly. My subordinates are on the verge of dying while helping you.”

His awkward expression lasted only for a moment.

Clear anger washed over the Director of Palace Affairs’ face.

“Look here, Mage Commander. Don’t you know that you losing him was a bigger mistake? If you had properly restrained that inquisitor this morning, would such a thing have happened?”

“Your Excellency…”

Unable to hold back his anger any longer, the Director of Palace Affairs even pointed his finger at him.

“I am sure I told you clearly to deal with him no matter what. Bringing even you arch-enemies into this matter was all so I could completely take control of the Holy Order. Yet because you handled the job like that, now even the Director is about to be released. What happened to the Director?”

Suppressing his anger, the Mage Commander relayed the story he had heard.

“I only heard the report up to the point of entering battle. If he is alive, contact will come.”

“If it doesn’t come, then it means failure. The Director might be released soon.”

“Wasn’t it you, Your Excellency, who told us to keep him alive?”

“Are you blaming me now? I am sure I told you to detain those two inquisitors and kill them. The ones who failed in that were you. Not me.”

The Director of Palace Affairs became afraid that he had brought them in to attack the Inquisition Bureau.

In the worst-case scenario, if the Director returned and plotted a counterattack, he would be pushed to the edge of a cliff.

“If that guy returns, it is the end. Stop the Director from entering the Inquisition Bureau by any means necessary. If even the inquisitors who were won over turn back, then it really is over.”

“It would only be the end for you, Your Excellency.”

“What?”

“Am I your subordinate, Your Excellency? I came here to help. I did not come all the way here to have a finger pointed at me by you.”

Both felt their anger boiling over, but blaming each other yielded no answers.

Calming his anger, the Director of Palace Affairs made a request that sounded like an order in a voice as low as possible.

“Mage Commander. This is the last time. Stop the Director from entering the Inquisition Bureau. You may kill him. Just stop him by any means.”

“Then what will you do for us, Your Excellency?”

“Haven’t you already taken everything you could? Did you think I wouldn’t know what kind of nonsense you guys are pulling here? I know everything and am turning a blind eye, yet you want even more?”

The Mage Commander let out a cynical laugh.

“Your Excellency, it is fine for us to just withdraw like this. As you said, we have achieved our purpose to some extent, so we have nothing to regret either.”

“Is that so?”

The Director of Palace Affairs smiled bitterly.

“Fine. In that case, I will give you a Holy Relic. Will you still refuse even then?”

“Did you just say a Holy Relic?”

“It is a treasure of the Holy Order. Will you still refuse even then? You wouldn’t reject this.”

“Not at all. If you are offering a Holy Relic, Your Excellency, we have no reason to decline.”

Since it was now a simple transaction, the Director of Palace Affairs did not step forward with a good impression either.

“Then I will also speak comfortably. It is a transaction anyway.”

The finger-pointing began again.

“Stop him no matter what. If the Director enters the Inquisition Bureau, the Holy Relic will be nothing but a dream.”

“Your Excellency, you must keep your promise.”

“I don’t keep things like promises very well.”

Before embarrassment could form on the Mage Commander’s face, Vane’s words continued.

“Instead, I keep transactions well. So stop him no matter what.”

Finishing his meeting with the Director of Palace Affairs, the Mage Commander moved back to the VIP room.

In that place was a witch of the Purgatory Coven.

Veronica of the Flame Hair.

“It seems the Director has escaped from the villa and is planning to return to the Inquisition Bureau.”

Veronica reacted to Mage Commander Aren’s words.

“It’s a mess here too. But how long do we have to stay here? It seems the work is mostly finished.”

“Did you eliminate the Jaeger family’s inquisitor?”

“I burned him. Like my hot hair.”

Her hair was enveloped in flames in an instant, then subsided.

“He promised me a Holy Relic.”

“Did you just say a Holy Relic?”

A treasure of the Holy Order.

The Director of Palace Affairs seemed cornered enough to hand that over.

“The Director of Palace Affairs is quite something. To offer the Holy Order’s treasure, which has been protected for the last several hundred years, just for his private purposes.”

“Instead, he set a condition that we must block the Director from entering the Inquisition Bureau. I want to go and stop him myself, but as you can see, I have to guard this place.”

“Then does that mean the opportunity comes to me?”

It seemed Mage Commander Aren also coveted the Holy Relic.

“If you stop him, I will lend you the Holy Relic.”

“Lending, and not giving?”

“Lending it should be enough. Otherwise, I will go and stop him. Then there won’t be any need to lend it.”

The Magic Division and the Purgatory Coven.

Although they were together now, they were originally factions that kept each other in check within the Magic Tower.

“Lending it… I don’t really like it.”

“You just have to stop the Director. With someone of your caliber, shouldn’t you be able to do it easily?”

The corners of her mouth curved up.

Confidence.

“Because that is far too obvious.”

* * *

On the road where the gate entering Basilica was visible.

The main gate was guarded ironclad not by clerics, but by the green-robed mages.

All entry from the outside was controlled.

Seeing this, Rashid spoke to the Director beside him.

“There is double the guard than usual. They probably noticed that you escaped, Director.”

“They must have contacted them. Since we caused such a commotion.”

“If it is like that, it will be hard to enter. They are blocking entry itself completely.”

“Then are you saying we should climb over the wall?”

“No. You have your reputation as the Director, is climbing over a wall acceptable?”

Rashid pulled the bike’s throttle hard, faking an acceleration.

“I will break through.”

Although there were following clerics, him stepping forward was easier on his mind and faster.

Moreover, since he was even wearing his mana armor, there was nothing to fear.

Rashid looked at his status window that appeared in his field of vision.

Body [H]: 14+5

Sense [S]: 19+5

Mana [A]: 14+5

Mind [M]: 13+5

◇ Traits: [Eighteen Martial Arts] [Critical Hunter] [Speed Demon] [Double-Edged Time] [Swordsmanship Expert]

– Mana increased by 238% due to Lucifer’s Blessing

His mana stat was approaching 19 before he knew it.

It was all due to Lucifer’s stat-boosting effect.

‘If I can’t break through that with this, I might as well go die.’

“Follow me slowly.”

Rashid accelerated the bike rapidly.

Speeding along with a roar, he transformed like a Sword Gang and crashed directly into the gate.

The bike was shattered and several barricades lay scattered, but the person in question stood tall, showing off his fine condition.

The mages guarding the entrance wore embarrassed expressions, then soon began to shoot magic bullets at him.

But not a single one reached Rashid.

To the point where the word ‘overwhelming’ was indeed appropriate.

Rashid literally blew up the gate itself in an instant.

The Director, who followed late, left a brief comment to him who had blown away the gate.

“You were a hotter-tempered person than I thought. I didn’t expect you to crash directly into it.”

“Is that so? Because I don’t really like calculating things as much as you’d think.”

One of the following clerics gave his bike to him.

“Inquisitor, ride this. I will double up with someone else.”

Since they had already arrived at Basilica anyway, the bike lost much of its significance, but going to the Inquisition Bureau was urgent.

Leading the way again, Rashid soon came to a stop on the road in view of the Inquisition Bureau.

Around the Inquisition Bureau, the number of mages was reaching almost a hundred, as if the entire Magic Division dispatched to Basilica was guarding it.

Not only were there mages, but the purple-robed Mage Captains commanding them also numbered in the dozens.

Furthermore, the mages who received the news were showing up one after another, crossing through portals.

At that level, it was safe to say a single magic division was guarding the front of the Inquisition Bureau.

“It seems they really hate the idea of the Director entering the Inquisition Bureau.”

“So it seems. It won’t be easy.”

“If we have to break through that to enter, then we must break through.”

“I will help too. Though I am old, I can sufficiently do my part as an inquisitor.”

Rashid shook his head.

“That is for people like us to do. You may wait here comfortably, Director. Carl, guard near the Director. He will be lonely by himself.”

“Yes, I will guard the Director.”

Rashid turned back and said,

“Did you call everyone?”

The cleric leaders nodded all at once.

“Yes, once you give the signal, everyone will come out.”

“Since we command all the Basilica clerics, unless there is a major issue, they will probably help you, Inquisitor, to retake the Inquisition Bureau.”

It was not only they who were raiding that place.

Did they know by any chance?

That this was the very heart of the enemy.

Rashid raised the corners of his mouth inside his visor.

‘This place will be cleared out even faster than the villa.’

A place guarded by over a hundred mages.

Even the clerics wouldn’t dare attack easily.

But Rashid was different.

Wearing even Lucifer, there was no such thing as fear to him.

Once again, a roaring magitech bike sped toward the front gate of the Inquisition Bureau.

The gazes of the mages gathered all at once, and soon after, his dash, which shot like a Sword Gang, caused dozens of casualties and came to a stop in the center.

As the pitch-black knight wearing the mana armor showed himself, the Magic Division reacted all at once.

Countless spells were sprayed and tried to constrain him, but they were only mercilessly slaughtered by his slashes putting forward the Sword Gang.

A massacre began where resistance itself was meaningless.

Also, as if that was the signal flare,

the clerics who had been holding their breath and waiting for the moment around the Inquisition Bureau attacked all at once.

They were all clerics stationed in Basilica.

Their number was in the hundreds.

Under an almost overwhelming suppression, Rashid looked around the chaotic surroundings.

Even without him having to step forward, the clerics were suppressing the mages with overwhelming numbers.

‘Why come to someone else’s house to cause a mess anyway? They should have just stayed cooped up in their own home.’

His thought that it would proceed smoothly lasted only for a moment.

In front of him, a witch with burning hair descended and landed as if descending from midair.

The shockwave acted just like a spell, and dozens of mages and clerics caught in it were thrown noisily around.

Yet the knight standing tall in front of her was not shaken at all.

Rashid looked at her intensely burning hair.

‘Veronica of the Flame Hair?’

Only one person in this world had hair that burned red.

“Are you a witch of the Purgatory Coven?”

To Rashid’s indifferently tossed remark,

she, whose entire body as well as hair was engulfed in flames, smiled faintly.

“You recognize me well. Was I that famous?”

“People with flame hair are not that common. Witch Veronica.”

“Are you perhaps the inquisitor who broke the restraints and escaped this morning?”

“If I am?”

Rashid’s visor rose.

Since it was a face he had nothing to hide anyway, he showed it openly.

“Why come to someone else’s house to cause a mess? You haven’t already forgotten the taste of the witch hunts you suffered in the past, have you?”

“How could I forget that?”

Her face, freezing for an instant, gleamed with distinct killing intent.

“It is still as vivid as if it happened yesterday.”

She returned to a pleasant expression again.

Having a colorful array of expressions was her trait, and a characteristic shown by witches.

“More importantly, how did you break the restraints? I had never even thought such a thing was possible.”

“If I tell you, will you withdraw quietly?”

The Holy Order and the Magic Tower.

Although they were arch-enemies, they restrained themselves from clashing with each other as much as possible.

Because even if they fought, there was nothing to gain for either side.

“No. Never.”

“Why don’t you just back off at this point? If you withdraw here, we won’t make a big issue of it either. This is all the work of the Director of Palace Affairs.”

She shook her head.

“I am sorry, but since there is something I was promised, that will be difficult.”

“A promise? Could it be a Holy Relic was promised to you?”

“Wow, you’re like a ghost. How did you know that?”

“If it is the Director of Palace Affairs, he is more than capable of doing that. That’s why he pulled this bullshit, isn’t it?”

“Anyway, even if only because of that Holy Relic, it seems I need to stay a bit longer…”

Her gaze reached the Director who was far off.

“And if I only block you, it seems that Director won’t be able to enter here either. What should we do about this?”

Veronica of the Flame Hair.

An executive of the Purgatory Coven.

If he were wearing Black Claw, she was an opponent he would have been cautious around, but…

not now.

“Telling you to simply back off was for your own sake. I usually don’t spare people.”