🔊 TTS Settings
~Chapter 58~
The painfully awkward conversation finally ended when Gilbert arrived.
Brother Vincent took my physician and headed straight for the infirmary, where his fellow inquisitors were still laid up.
Having previously encountered Vincent at the monastery, Gilbert looked utterly shocked to see him now returned as the Inquisition’s Director. He was clearly reviewing in his mind whether he’d ever slipped up in front of that man.
Honestly, so was I.
“Your Grace, may I have a word?”
“Pardon?”
“Now, please. I think it’d be safer if we spoke outside.”
The moment Vincent left, I dragged the duke outside to the garden, where snow was piled up to our knees.
The wind was so bitter that there wasn’t a soul in sight, and every window was tightly shut, which—ironically—made it the perfect place for a private conversation.
The only problem was that I felt like I might freeze to death.
“Did you know Brother Vincent’s true identity?”
“I had a vague idea…”
I immediately regretted having half-listened to the duke before. The embarrassing memory of me desperately urging the entire knights’ order to search for Brother Vincent was flashing before my eyes.
I was mortified—so much so that, if no one was watching, I might have just ripped my hair out.
“But I never thought he’d be sent himself. I knew he was an inquisitor, but to think he’s already risen to Director…”
“Sorry, what did you just say?”
“It’s nothing.”
The wind was howling so loudly that I couldn’t catch his last words.
I was about to press him for more, but the duke gave me a faint, smiling look and changed the subject.
“Still, you were surprisingly calm and collected earlier, considering how startled you must have been. Even with Brother Vincent right in front of you, you didn’t look fazed at all.”
“Your Grace, did you know?”
“…?”
“When people get really scared, they actually lose their sense of fear. It’s sort of like—none of it matters anymore.”
That was exactly how I felt now.
When I first saw Vincent’s face in the mountains, I truly thought my heart had stopped. I ran through my memories, wondering if I’d ever made any blasphemous remarks in front of him or done anything suspicious enough to get me accused of heresy.
I thought and thought, but the list of possible offenses was so long that, in the end, I just laughed.
Not out of happiness, of course, but more in the way of someone who’s achieved enlightenment—pure resignation.
“Don’t worry too much. No matter how loyal he is to the Pope, he can’t make a move here in Lombard without my permission.”
“That’s… reassuring, I guess.”
“I mean it.”
The duke came to a stop.
I naturally stopped too, following in his tracks in the snow.
“No one will harm you on Lombard soil, Madam.”
“Your Grace?”
“So, as always, please do as you wish. That’s your charm, after all.”
“You really do have a talent for backhanded compliments.”
He chuckled at my sharp response. That natural atmosphere only unsettled me more.
I shouldn’t complain, given I’d been given a new life, but I hadn’t forgotten all the things the duke had done before our marriage to try and get rid of me—some from rumors, some pieced together from memories of my previous life.
‘Is he being sincere?’
Are those expressions and words just another performance?
What happens if I end up falling for this act?
‘My head hurts. The Duke of Lombard, Brother Vincent…’
Two men whose real intentions I couldn’t read, both fully capable of ending my life with a snap of their fingers.
When things got like this, I always turned to the best possible method of escape: reality avoidance.
“I have a favor to ask, Your Grace.”
“Anything, just say the word.”
“Can you push some budget my way? As much as possible.”
“…?”
In other words, I intended to create extra work for myself—drown myself in endless paperwork and overtime. If you’re buried in bureaucracy, you stop caring about your personal problems.
And so, I chose to walk straight into the arms of madness.
At the same time, Vincent was standing by a window, gazing out over the yard.
It was only an administrative estate, but as far as noble gardens went, the landscape was terribly bleak—nothing like the city of Argenbach, where flowers bloomed year-round.
“That physician’s got skills. Let’s just kidnap him and bring him back to the capital after this assignment.”
“Brother Matthew, remarks like that are disrespectful to the lady who kindly lent us her personal doctor.”
Vincent turned to the pair who’d been bickering noisily ever since they got here.
Even sprawled out and half-dead in the infirmary, they hadn’t stopped arguing.
“Why does a lady who just sits around doing embroidery all day need such a brilliant physician anyway? What, is she going to shatter every bone in her body? If we take him, he’ll be far more useful!”
“He already refused, you know.”
“Which is why we should just kidnap him—!”
“So, you two are feeling better, I take it?”
Vincent finally had enough and interrupted.
Elicia’s physician was undeniably talented. He’d set the broken bones perfectly, and his hands were quick.
It made it easier for Vincent to use holy power as well.
Not that they’d be sitting up anytime soon, but compared to the earlier groaning, their complexions looked much better.
‘Although, maybe I preferred them when they were just groaning in pain.’
Even with Vincent butting in, Judith and Matthew kept snarling at each other. If they could move, they’d probably have drawn weapons by now.
Thankfully, they couldn’t.
“By the way, what’s with that woman? She handles high-grade monsters like pets and yet claims to be just a civilian?”
“I find it hard to believe the lady is just an ordinary civilian myself.”
“That creepy creature—ugh! Part demon, part cat?!”
“The Duke was just as odd. He warned us to keep our mouths shut about the cat if we valued our lives. Doesn’t that mean he’s knowingly letting monsters roam his territory? Just as His Holiness foresaw, something’s very strange about this place.”
The Duke could have killed Judith and Matthew.
Vincent wouldn’t have let things go that far—it would have made his job much harder—but if it had escalated into a real battle, they wouldn’t have gotten away with a few broken bones and some internal bruising.
‘Such terrifying sword energy…’
Even Vincent shivered at the sheer destructive force.
A part of him even wanted to test himself against it.
“I do have something I’d like to ask, Vincent.”
“What is it?”
At that, Sister Judith spoke up quietly.
“I heard you spent some time undercover as one of the lady’s attendants. Yet your report to the Inquisition headquarters made no mention of her at all.”
“I was wondering the same thing. I almost mistook her for a high-class demon with a human mask, the amount of demonic energy she was giving off—but you didn’t report anything? Wait, don’t tell me…!”
Matthew’s eyes suddenly went wide.
“Is she the woman you were talking about?!”
Vincent said nothing.
Judith’s expression changed; it was the same look she wore when Matthew was about to make some colossal blunder.
“We can overlook personal indiscretions with women, but not with the lady. I’ll report this directly to His Holiness as soon as we return to the capital.”
“Feeling suicidal, are you, Judith?”
“Vincent!!”
Judith stared at Vincent in disbelief.
Matthew whistled as if amused, but he too looked genuinely shocked.
Yet the most confused person in the room was Vincent himself.
He’d always lived his own way.
He couldn’t remember his childhood. Vincent was born with powerful holy energy.
Per the long traditions of Argenbach, he’d been raised in the Great Cathedral, cut off from the secular world.
He didn’t know who his real parents were. Maybe they’d sold him off for a pittance of hush money, maybe not. Either way, it didn’t matter.
Everyone around him was in the same boat.
‘Haven’t seen Philip around lately—did he get assigned somewhere else? We were supposed to train together.’
‘Oh, you haven’t heard yet. Sorry, but Brother Philip…’
Holy power drew from life force.
He’d seen so many die without warning.
You could be alive today, but there was never any guarantee you’d see tomorrow.
Always standing in the brightest spotlight, but in truth not much different from a death row inmate—over time, madness began to creep into the eyes of Vincent and those around him.
No one could stop them from living as they pleased.
Some of them even reveled in their obvious privilege.
There were no regrets. No unfinished business.
‘But that woman… she makes me feel strange.’
