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She heard Kylian’s voice calling her anxiously. The Battle of Denver Bridge from the staff’s point of view was devastating. The middle of the bridge was completely blown away, and most of the knights who were fighting there did not manage to leave with their lives.
“Anais! Where are you!”
She could see Kylian in the smoke. His bright, golden eyes were so distinct that they could be instantly recognized even from a distance. He was running wildly into the wreckage of a collapsed bridge.
It was Alcad who was moving in the same direction as he was. Alcad’s eyes were really strange. He was originally a good-looking knight with brown eyes. Now he, with completely red eyes, drew his sword and headed toward that place with an expression she had never seen before.
She saw the Archivist’s gaze move accordingly, slowly. Even though Alcad was on the move, he found Anais easily.
Anais laid down as if she had passed out, but she had a sword in her hand. Anais was remembering that she hadn’t woken up at this time. When she woke up, it was already the camp.
“Hahaha!”
Alcad laughed and pointed his sword at Anais’ heart. The moment he lowered his sword.
“Ku-ugh…!”
“Alcad!”
It was Kylian who cut Alcad at once with a face full of anger. Kylian’s sword pierced Alcad’s abdomen, and he collapsed. He was running his hand over the wounded area, perhaps still not grasping yet what had happened to him. But he trembled in pain as his hand slipped from the blood coming from the wound.
“I-I… why… ah…”
Alcad stuttered and his pupils dilated. The red energy in his eyes had completely disappeared and returned to brown.
“Wife… ugh… Anais…”
Kylian reached his hands behind Anais’ knees and shoulders to pick her up and tried to get her up. But he slipped and fell to the floor, probably because of Alcad’s blood. Kylian took off his cloak, wiped his arms and chest, and held Anais again. He stood there for a moment, guessing from the sound of her breathing that she was still alive, and then started running up behind the bridge.
The record ended there.
“Sir Alcad’s eyes were strange.”
“…….”
“It was as if he was hypnotized…”
Anais said so and looked at the others. Then, Archivist Baldyk made a troubled expression, and the head of the Rey Sis Guards behind him kept his mouth shut.
“The person suspected of hypnotizing him is Saintess Lilith.”
“What?”
“When an autopsy had been performed on Sir Alcad’s body, holy relics were found.”
“Not magic tools?”
“Yes. Holy relics that are used by the Heretic Inquisitors.”
“…….”
“It was used by the Heretic Inquisitors in the Temple of Julias.”
Anais was speechless for a moment.
“Does that prove that Lilith, the Saintess, is the culprit?”
“At that time, we received the cooperation of a person with the ability to read objects’ memories.”
“…….”
Now, all of them are gone because Kylian made the magic tower like that.
“And as an accomplice, even Master Lionel…”
“What?”
“He turned out to be connected to the case.”
“What is that…!”
“The memories left in the holy relic cannot be read carelessly. So, I tried to trace the magic and divine power within it.”
Archivist Baldyk rummaged through some papers on the table. Then, trying to confirm his memory, he read them carefully and looked at Anais.
“Has Dame Lobelia also lost your memory?”
“What is that…”
“I had seen Dame Lobelia investigate this before. Here, your name is on it.”
Anais checked the name written on the knight’s uniform she was wearing. ‘Lobelia Clark’ was a name she had never seen before. Perhaps Archivist Baldyk must have known this name. But not the face.
Anais checked the paper with Lobelia Clarke’s name on it with her own eyes and then shut her mouth.
“My subordinates’ memories have been back and forth now. That’s why I brought her.”
Archivist Baldyk also shut his mouth, then spoke after a moment of silence.
“Well, I see. Hmm. The Magic Tower Master Has confessed about this.”
“What did you say… ?”
“After His Majesty, the current emperor, ascended the throne, he conducted a re-investigation.”
“…….”
“That’s the reason Master Lionel tried to revive Anais.”
Anais felt her heart skip a beat hearing this unbelievable fact. That her friend Lionel tried to kill her.
“You don’t even know why Sir Alcad cooperated?”
“Yes, but it turns out that Sir Alcad voluntarily swallowed the holy relic.”
“Why did he try to kill Lady Anais?”
Anais tried to say her name like a third person, but her emotions were already shaking.
“Because the Saintess asked for it. As a spy from another country, he must have been targeting the Young Duke, an official of the empire, but he must have had no reason to refuse.”
“The Saintess…?”
She asked again as she couldn’t believe it. She somehow seemed to be listening to the archivist, but heard the strings on the violin that were playing high pitched noise due to her stress. Her head was pounding. It wasn’t easy going through another betrayal after Lewarren’s betrayal.
At least Anais hoped not Lilith wouldn’t be like this.
“And the Magic Tower Master received a promise from the Saintess that she would help by providing enormous divine power so that he could use it for experiments.”
“…….”
“Because the Magic Tower and the temple are enemies, there was no priest who came forward for the experiment.”
Archivist Baldyk was speaking calmly, as if he was not on anyone’s side. Anais wondered if the archivist was lying, but lying about the situation wouldn’t make it any better.
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He was not directly involved in the matter, and he knew that the reason he took the position of Archivist was that he did not belong to any faction.
When she was the Young Duke, when she was concurrently serving as an official of the Imperial Palace, she used to pay attention to him. Based on his integrity and innocence, there was no way he would have misinterpreted this incident for personal reasons.
So Lilith tried to kill her. Then Lionel, who acted like a close friend to her, was involved, and Alcad, the escort knight who said he would protect her, tried to kill her as a spy.
When she thought that, she began to regret the things she felt in her life.
“Did Lady Anais do something wrong to deserve that?”
“I don’t know about that. However, the fact that the matter was revealed in detail was because Tower Lord Lionel passed his memories and proved it before going into a coma.”
“…….”
“Some of the Tower Lord’s memories are in the archives. Would you like to see that too?”
“Are these proof of this?”
“Yes.”
“…I see.”
Anais calmed her blank mind. She had to see them all.
“Is this a holy relic?”
“Yes.”
“I will do as I please.”
She couldn’t see the meeting between the Tower Lord and Lilith, but through the conversation between Alcad and Lionel, it became undeniable that there really was some kind of deal between them, and that Anais was the target of that deal.
“Why did His Majesty let the Saintess live?”
Anais, who had seen all the records, asked Archivist Baldyk a question that had popped out of her mind. It was also something she said because she wanted to believe it wasn’t real.
“Because Lady Lilith will be able to save Lady Anais.”
Anais really had to accept that even Lilith was a different person from the person she knew.
* * *
“Didn’t I say that I was right?”
As soon as Anais came out of Archivist Baldyk’s office, she had to head to the knights’ dressing room where she had changed her clothes earlier. She was stunned like a madwoman, then she slowly changed her clothes and took off her wig.
She was lost in thought, but Lacey, the captain of the Guard, clicked his tongue as he looked at her. He then dragged her to the office where Kylian was.
“Isn’t there a gate behind the Magic Tower?”
“Did you break into the Mage Tower knowing that?”
“I don’t remember. As I said, I really am not Saintess Lilith.”
“…….”
Kylian’s expression turned ferocious when that topic came up again.
“Then how did you know there was a gate behind there?”
“Because I absorbed my body’s memory.”
“There’s no way that’s possible.”
“Ask the High Priest of Death.”
It wasn’t a lie. When she settled into Anais’ body, she would often recall this body’s memories, like remnants left behind.
“You must have heard useless things from the second bishop Phileal.”
“Why is this useless? He said something very important.”
“…….”
Anais was now afraid of his firm face. The kind face she had seen before she died was nowhere to be found. Back then, he was really afraid of spiders. She had come to terms that it was all acting. Maybe she didn’t want to admit that.
“Your Majesty knows that all of this is wrong.”
“…….”
“It’s okay if Your Majesty continues to treat me so badly. Still, I will help Your Majesty forget Lady Anais and look to the future.”
“…….”
“I sincerely hope that Your Majesty will be happy.”
Anais really hoped that her sincerity would be conveyed this time. The image of him running with me on the Denver Bridge was still lingering under her eyelids like an afterimage. His expression of urgency and lips clenched in fear.
However, in contrast to that, the cold and clear eyes filled with hatred. Even so, he was a man who shone like a star. She felt that. Rather than Kylian admitting that his feelings weren’t love, she should have admitted that her feelings weren’t just a sense of duty.
Weren’t just a sense of duty. She can’t admit it because she thinks she’ll be miserable if she admits it.
“But this way doesn’t solve anything.”
“…….”
“Your Majesty, you know that.”
“…….”
“I will keep saying the same thing as long as I live. To turn Your Majesty back and return to the right path.”
Then Kylian smiled twistingly, opening his tightly shut mouth.
“Then I must kill you.”
Kylian really intended to kill her this time. He drew his sword and put it to Anais’s neck, not hiding his murderous energy and said.
“Even if you beg for help, it won’t work this time.”