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“Teacher?”
“!”
When I called him, Damon seemed more puzzled than I was. He hastily stood up and approached me.
“Why are you here, Princess?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. When have you become a believer of the evil god, Madame Montmartre?”
‘When you’re not even a Northerner?’
It was highly suspicious.
Moreover, ‘Damon Deus’ was one of Hermann’s teachers.
“You don’t have to call me madame anymore.”
“How I call you is up to me.”
I stoically replied to Damon and checked his aura. No matter what I do, I still couldn’t read his aura properly but, at the very least, I could tell he was embarrassed.
‘So he wasn’t purposely waiting for me.’
What was worse was that he even had the look of Damon, the Lagrange knight that I know. His merciful shining amethyst eyes glanced at me.
“I’m asking why you’re here.”
“Who knows.”
Damon mumbled as he turned his gaze towards the slab of slate behind his back. I approached the half-opened casket and checked inside.
‘You touched the holy relic!’
The eye of the statue, where the relic must have been, was empty. I sympathized with Asmodeus whose eyes had been dug out and caught Damon sneaking out of the temple.
Since I grabbed him by his collar on the back of his neck, he ended up choking. Damon furiously scowled and slapped my hand away.
“What kind of impertinence is this? You seemed to have forgotten all the etiquette I’ve taught you.”
“Is it etiquette to leave without even saying your greetings?”
Besides, this was the North. The southerners’ culture was no longer my business.
“I was going to say my greetings. Outside.”
“Open your hands.”
“Pardon?”
“I told you to open your hands.”
At my urging, Damon was greatly perturbed so I grabbed his wrist. However, he showed no signs of opening his closed fist.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Do you think I wouldn’t know that you’re trying to steal from the temple? Did you forget my ability?”
Only then did Damon slowly open his hand. Hidden there was the yellow jewel clasped in his large hand.
He grabbed me in order for me not to steal the jewel.
“Isn’t this the jewel attached to Asmodeus’ statue? Let go.”
“I don’t know how you came to know about this jewel, but this is Hera’s holy relic. It was originally a relic left behind by the first Duke of Euclid.”
I knew that. So I brazenly rolled my eyes.
“Do you have evidence? I’m asking if you have evidence that this was left behind by the first Duke of Euclid. You don’t, right?”
“If it’s evidence, there is. If you look at the diary of the first Duke of Euclid – ack!”
I bit Damon’s hand holding my wrist and he let me go with a brief scream.
I quickly stepped back, holding on to the jewel.
“You’re not even a dog and you’re biting people?”
“I bit you lightly for the sake of our student and teacher relationship.”
“It considerably hurts though.”
I snorted at Damon’s grievance and tapped my foot twice on the floor. Fortunately, the temple was close to a forest so there seemed to be roots that touched the basement.
As if responding to my ability, the strong roots of the trees began to grow little by little.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding, but I don’t intend to hand the holy relic to Euclid.”
“Back off, Damon.”
“I will not. I don’t have any thoughts of fighting you, Princess.”
“I have.”
It didn’t matter whether he was really Euclid’s informant or not. In order for Dietrich to win the rose war, it was important to get my hands on the holy relics first.
“And you must have forgotten, but this is my turf.”
There was no reason to let him go unlike in the capital where Yuric and the children’s lives were held a hostage.
‘There are no eyes watching either.’
Boom!
The roots of the purification trees finally reached the bottom of the basement.
“You’re putting me in a tight spot.”
Damon sighed at the hard branches rising up from the ground. He soon created magic with just a whisk of his hand.
The geometric patterns that appeared in the air shoot out fires of different colors and destroyed my purification trees.
‘It was suspicious from the start.’
With that kind of ability, it was strange that he wasn’t in a leading role.
It was unpleasant to be entangled this way with someone who didn’t even properly appear in the original.
‘I really liked him better when he was a knight.’
Thinking there was something more I could ferret out from Damon, I reached my hand forward.
“Zagan.”
At my call, Zagan, who had only been watching, rushed in.
“Just don’t kill him.”
With my permission, Zagan began to target Damon with his gigantic claws.
The smashed floor shook, and Damon, unable to properly find his balance due to the demon’s attack from midair, staggered and laughed.
“Ha.”
“You know something about the relics of the sun god, don’t you, Teacher?”
“A person who handles Eredia’s powers and the shadow demons is asking me about the sun god? I think you know about it more than me.”
Damon burst into hollow laughter in disbelief.
“It’s even more interesting that you left the capital without destroying it.”
“It wasn’t a situation that would have changed even if we control it by force.”
On the contrary, we would have been criticized for being aggressive northern people and cursed at for using violence again.
“I told you earlier.”
Just in time, Zagan sunk his nails on Damon’s shoulder. He stared at me in the dark without even groaning in pain.
“This is my turf.”
To be honest, I didn’t think he would come clean.
I frowned at the determination in his jewel-like eyes.
────── 〔✿〕──────
“Oh my god.”
Oh my god, my head!
Oh my god, oh my god!
I snorted at Lancel hitting the ground in pain.
“Shut up, Lancel.”
“Our Princess! I thought you grew up well for a Lagrange!”
Lancel looked at Damon, who had passed out in the corner of my room, and wept.
“And now you’re already kidnapping men!”
“It’s not kidnapping! It’s an invitation!”
I had something to ask him so I just brought him to the castle. The temple was on the verge of collapsing due to the purification trees.
“Then why did you bring a man who has passed out? Should I call for a doctor?”
“No. They said that kind of wound will just heal with saliva.”
“Who on earth told you that? Even though he’s bleeding?”
Since Dietrich was like that, maybe a knight like Damon could also do the same. I roughly thought as I glanced at his shoulder which was dyed red.
“Dietrich has been injured many times worse than this.”
So Damon passing out while on the move wasn’t my fault but due to his weakness.
“Did you already cause trouble while His Grace is away at the moment? I can’t live up to my orders anymore.”
“Ah, then hurry up and die. You’re noisy so be quiet.”
“How could you say that!”
Lancel wept loudly at my abuse but didn’t leave the room.
“Lancel, stop it and call Sir Oslo.”
Damon didn’t give me any information about the holy relics until he passed out.
‘He won’t open his mouth easily.’
Oslo, who was close to Damon when he was a knight, might know something. I tied up Damon so he couldn’t move and then stepped out to the drawing-room.
“Princess.”
Oslo, who was my escort at the capital, liked me quite a bit. As soon as he found me, his aura ignited brightly.
I grabbed his hand and pointed to my bedroom.
“Sir Oslo!”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Sir Damon is lying in that room right now.”
“Damon?”
“I’m talking about that knight who was your friend.”
Oslo’s eyes widened at my words. He raised his voice as if he couldn’t believe me.
“Are you saying Damon has returned? I thought he had died.”
“The truth is–”
I tried to reveal Damon's identity to Oslo but I was forced to shut my mouth due to a sudden headache.
‘So the contract is still in effect even if Damon has lost consciousness.’
“The truth?”
“I can’t tell you right now. Sir, I have a favor to ask. It’s very important to Lagrange.”
Oslo was one of the faceless knights who was very loyal to Lagrange. Following me, he stiffened his jaw at my serious face.
“Do you know anything about Damon’s weakness, even if it’s something trivial?”
“Why do you need something like that?”
“There’s something I need to find out from that person but he never opens his mouth.”
Oslo’s lips twitched as he thought about it. With a serious face, he hummed and then opened his mouth as if he had made up his mind.
“I don’t know if I can say this myself,” Oslo whispered in a low voice. “But Damon’s weakness is probably me. If you threaten me, he would probably open his mouth.”
“...Oslo is Damon’s weakness?”
“Yes. What he fears the most is his friends sacrificing themselves for him.”
He looked at my puzzled face and the bedroom door alternately and took out a knife from his waist.
“And I am ready to lay down my life any time for His Grace and you, Princess.”
“No! Never mind! The point is, you just have to look like you’re sacrificing yourself, right?”
Dismantling Oslo’s serious suggestion, I called for Lancel again.
“Go and borrow Veronica’s whip.”
I thought of creating a scene where he’d faint again as soon as he opened his eyes. I rolled up my dress and started getting everything read.