BUEC 37

chapter 37

“—Were we ever on the same side before?”

“Hah!”

What, why, what. Yurian waved her hand at Nora, telling her not to butt in and to just leave already. Then, regardless of Lucas glaring at her menacingly, she scratched the ear that had started itching from his unnecessarily loud voice.

Sure, they had formed alliances a few times when their interests aligned, but fundamentally, Yurian and Lucas were complete strangers. Even those brief alliances had never amounted to much and had always ended vaguely. If anything, she still owed him for the humiliation she had suffered back when they were in Ratem.

Planting one foot casually, Yurian tapped her shoulder with the Rod of Repentance and looked up at him with a delinquent grin. Sure, she intended to help the “Sinners of the Oracle” repent—but that didn’t mean she had to accept one-sided orders like this.

“So is that thing a holy relic or a Rod of Repentance or whatever? Fine. Repent me right now. The Tower Master’s time is expensive. I need to repent, reform, atone—whatever it is—and get the hell out of this damned temple.”

“Oh my, have you already entrusted forgiveness to me?”

Lucas ignored her attitude and said whatever he pleased. If he bore the title of Tower Master, he shouldn’t be stupid—so did he really not understand where the initiative lay in this situation? Or did he know and simply refuse to abandon his pitiful pride? In some ways, this man might be even more stiff-necked than Crown Prince Theorn of Opesi, who was nothing but arrogance given flesh.

Yurian didn’t even pretend to listen. She stood there and merely snapped her fingers. This was a rare opportunity—once this matter was over, a commoner like her and a Tower Master like him would never cross paths again. So unless that mouth of his learned some manners today, she wasn’t moving a single step.

“……”

Even faced with Yurian’s blatant noncooperation, Lucas didn’t look flustered or troubled. Instead, he quietly held out a hard-edged travel case in front of her. Then, opening the lock, he showed its contents to Yurian as she glanced sideways.

“One hundred and twenty million. All in cash.”

Inside the case were stacks upon stacks of gleaming gold coins.

“Ha—seriously.”

Yurian let out a hollow laugh, at a loss for words, alternating her gaze between the case full of gold and Lucas’s face. One hundred and twenty million—an amount she would need to save for 126 years without spending a single coin of her teacher’s salary just to touch.

For someone who was always obsessed with money to throw down such a fortune… he must really be desperate. Yurian snorted lightly and walked past him, grasping the handle of her room’s door.

“It’s cold. Why were you waiting outside? Let’s go in.”

One hundred and twenty million was far too much money to refuse.

“Your mouth’s stretching from ear to ear. Is money really that good?”

“Why don’t you ask yourself that question?”

Yurian accepted the bag of gold without hesitation and carefully hid it under the bed. Growing up in Ratem, she had been taught that noble ladies shouldn’t be greedy for money—but Yurian could say this without hesitation: there was no one in this world who disliked money.

Of course, if she truly loved money that much, she could’ve lived as an obedient noble lady in Ratem and inherited the duke’s vast fortune. But this was a different matter altogether. What she loved was my money. Her own assets. Her own funds. Money she could spend freely, wherever she wanted, without needing permission from a father or husband—money that was truly hers, not borrowed.

With one hundred and twenty million, I can’t buy a mansion with eight-horse carriages and a hundred servants on standby, but I could at least buy a two-story house with a yard and live without worrying about money for the rest of my life!

Repenting or holding a holy relic didn’t magically turn someone into an ascetic like a priest or holy knight.

“So, how exactly do you want me to help? Have you figured out what sin you committed?”

When Yurian asked in a voice sweeter and kinder than ever, Lucas’s face crumpled in discomfort. He shuddered as if goosebumps had risen and told her to just do things as usual. Damn bastard—she treats him nicely and he reacts like that.

“If I knew what sin I committed, I wouldn’t have come to you.”

“Oh, confident, are we?”

“I’ve thought about it, at least. Just like how you committed the sin of sloth and couldn’t fall asleep, or how strange phenomena happened around others, my sin is probably connected to some change that occurred after the Day of the Oracle.”

Ooooh. Yurian applauded his sharp reasoning in her head. So he wasn’t completely stupid after all. Still, this was only deduction based on clues anyone could see. The important part was something more personal—something tied to his private circumstances.

“I think it’s related to me constantly losing my wallet. That’s the only change I’ve experienced recently. It was something my younger sibling made and gave to me personally. Inside it was their portrait.”

“And?”

“My sibling is angry with me.”

The momentum drained from his usually cold, razor-sharp gaze. It didn’t suit him at all, so it wasn’t immediately obvious, but he seemed completely deflated. Lucas bit his lip tightly—strangely fragile—and buried his forehead into his clasped hands. That sorrowful, gloomy look matched his handsome face infuriatingly well.

“I failed to protect the only blood family I had. They must be unable to move on to the afterlife, burdened with resentment. So I thought—I should perform a necromantic ritual, meet them, and beg for forgiveness. What do you think? Not a bad plan, right?”

Oh—never mind, I take back what I said about him being smart.

Yurian was struck speechless at the sight of a man who studied the natural laws of the world and sought truth through magic casually bringing up necromancy. It seemed even geniuses couldn’t remain objective when it came to their own affairs.

“Did you forget what the High Priest said during Angela’s confession? Matters between people should be resolved between people. And besides, you reunited with your sibling eventually and lived peacefully together. Was your sibling really the kind of person to hold that kind of grudge?”

“That’s……”

Yurian shook her head slowly. If Hiss heard this, he’d be so wronged he’d claw his way out of the grave. Hiss Kalten—the younger brother Lucas, the Tower Master, treated like he’d give up his liver, kidneys, even his heart for.

The Kalten brothers lost their parents young and had their family taken over by a greedy uncle. Unable to endure the abuse, they ran away. In the chaos, Lucas lost Hiss in the crowd. Lucas, gifted in magic, was lucky enough to enter the Mage Tower and rise rapidly—but he always longed for his lost brother.

Years later, after Lucas reached adulthood, he finally reunited with Hiss. But Hiss, who had been sold to illegal slave traders, was already frail. Even so, he never resented his brother or cursed his fate. Joking that he was enjoying luxury too late in life, Hiss spent his remaining years in the finest care before becoming a star in the sky a few years ago.

“Oh—now that I think about it, there was something that bothered him.”

“What was it?”

“There was a benefactor who rescued Hiss from the slave auction. That person anonymously bought slaves and freed them. I thought that instead of such piecemeal methods, it would be better to wipe out slave auctions entirely—so I blew one up. But after that, I never heard anything about the benefactor again. I tried approaching someone reported to be doing similar things, but…”

Lucas trailed off, clearly unwilling to continue as unpleasant memories surfaced. Only then did he realize how long he had neglected the matter of his brother’s benefactor.

During his recuperation by Lucas’s side, Hiss had always wanted to meet that benefactor again. And just before his death, he had clutched his brother’s hand and asked him to apologize to them. But Lucas never understood what he was supposed to apologize for.

Could that be his sin? Failing to properly repay a debt of gratitude?

“What do you think? Should I look for the benefactor, even now?”

“—Let’s not jump to conclusions. Think it through carefully first.”

Perhaps finding the hypothesis plausible, Lucas sank into his own thoughts. Yurian subtly turned her head away and tapped the table with restless fingers.

It seemed she would have to retract the claim that the Tower Master was a complete stranger to her.

There was still a small, lingering bad connection between them.