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Translator: FusionX

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“You’re planning to stay here?”

“For now, yes. Since we’re not going to the south alone, it’s better to familiarize ourselves with each other, isn’t it?”

When I asked if it was okay for me to stay at the church, Adriana looked at me as if surprised.

Our conversation at the Moon Tower was simple.

Hearing about the schedule for going to the south, and obtaining permission to stay here.

Adriana, who hesitated for a moment, slowly picked up her teacup.

“Well. It’s something I couldn’t even imagine… It’s not that I dislike it. I just thought you would stop by briefly and return to the ducal residence.”

“I’m not particularly fond of home.”

It was a joke, but Adriana froze as she was drinking tea and quietly stared at me.

Her expression as she sighed had darkened.

I didn’t know what she had imagined, but it was certain that she had interpreted my words very seriously.

“…I see. Then I can provide you with a place to stay in the Moon Tower… but.”

“If it’s inconvenient for you, you can refuse. I can just go back to the ducal residence-”

“No, that’s not okay with me. You can stay in the Moon Tower.”

At her resolute answer, I closed my mouth.

With her transparent eyes gazing intently at me between her closed eyelids, I couldn’t even utter a question about Adriana’s incomprehensible attitude.

Why was she reacting like this to me going back to the ducal residence?

But she showed that only for a moment, and soon Adriana, who had returned to her original expression, opened her mouth hesitantly.

“There is one problem though.”

“A problem?”

“It’s the first time a man has been allowed in the Moon Tower. This space was used exclusively by me, so even if it’s on the lower floor, His Holiness the Pope might find it strange. Or Cardinal Verod.”

I tilted my head at her words that it was the first time a man had been allowed.

I clearly saw paladins down there, didn’t I?

Since she wouldn’t be unaware that paladins reside in the Moon Tower, it didn’t make sense in many ways that she didn’t know a man had never been allowed.

So when I asked, Adriana rather answered as if it was obvious.

“I’ve seen the paladins since they were young, so to think of them as men… yes, it’s a bit like that?”

Did she mean she had never thought of them as men in the first place?

Suddenly, the faces of the paladins standing below came to mind, and I inadvertently smiled bitterly.

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It was not normally allowed for outsiders to stay in the Moon Tower, but it was a different story if they were acquainted with the saint.

Since the princess also stayed occasionally, I was able to see the interior of the Moon Tower in a bit more detail as I went downstairs with Adriana.

As a place to receive the moonlight at the highest point, a faint light sparkled from the crystals embedded here and there.

The moonlight seeping in from the pillar placed in the center turned into mana again and supplied mana throughout the tower, and that mana became light, illuminating the tower brightly even on dark nights.

“I heard the Moon Tower was built when I was young. Since His Holiness the Pope received a revelation and came to find me, it has been under construction.”

“It must have been about 15 years then.”

“Come to think of it, I’m a year older than you Robert. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s true. I just turned twenty.”

Adriana, who chuckled for a moment, grabbed my arm for a moment to change direction.

Even if she knew the terrain around here, it would be difficult to move alone.

So she had no choice but to hold onto me.

Although she held me, it was just to move with me, but I let out a small sigh at the gaze I suddenly felt.

“Ahem.”

As I saw earlier, there were a “significant number” of paladins in the Moon Tower for Adriana’s protection.

The gender of the paladins was mostly male, and since they had been with her since Adriana’s childhood, they cherished her especially.

They probably felt uncomfortable with me for that reason.

Since I was a man they were seeing for the first time with Adriana, it would be strange in many ways.

Adriana was also at the age of becoming an adult now.

But I wanted them to understand that I had no particular intentions.

Even though I was holding her arm like this just to help her, the gazes of the paladins were all uniformly unsatisfactory.

“Robert? Is something wrong?”

“… It’s nothing.”

“I’ll show you the room where you will stay. We can walk a little faster.”

As if on purpose, a paladin passed by my side as Adriana’s voice was slightly more excited than usual.

I wondered what he was trying to do by tapping the hammer at his waist, but it wasn’t that I couldn’t understand their feelings at all.

If I were to describe Adriana with something, wouldn’t the word “pure white” suit her well?

A woman who had never been tainted anywhere, clean, and pure and innocent in every way.

The fact that she was unable to see ahead evoked people’s sympathy.

So it made them want to protect her and be more considerate.

Perhaps the paladins also saw Adriana with such feelings.

Since I also couldn’t help but feel my heart softening when I saw Adriana, I could understand even if they acted a bit fiercely.

As we passed the paladins like that and reached a certain point, Adriana, who had been holding my arm for a while, released her hand and abruptly stopped.

“Wait a moment. I think we just passed it. Isn’t there a door two steps back from here?”

“That’s right.”

“That might be an empty room. I don’t sense any presence inside.”

When I opened the door following her words, it indeed opened and a cold wind seeped in.

It was a room where no human warmth was felt at all.

A room that seemed to have been unused by anyone for a very long time.

However, the interior was decorated in a somewhat luxurious manner, so it seemed to be a room used for guests to stay.

“Miragen used to sleep here sometimes. Since there’s no other room that can be called a guest room, would you like me to give you a different room if you’re uncomfortable?”

“It’s fine. It’s been a long time, so it doesn’t matter. I’ll ask for your understanding separately.”

“Wait a moment. It’s probably dirty since it’s been empty for a long time.”

Adriana, who said that, then clasped her hands together and emitted holy power.

A brilliant light began to swirl around.

Like a small torch, the light gradually spread around, and tiny dust particles scattered and dispersed in the air.

After a bit of time passed, the dust in the room completely disappeared, revealing a room with only pure white color remaining.

“It’s a bit better now, right?”

“Didn’t you overexert yourself? You didn’t have to do this.”

“Overexert? Even if I look like this, I’m the saint, you know.”

I laughed softly at her slightly proud face.

It was a slightly different feeling from when I saw Adele.

Should I say it felt like looking at a white puppy?

I unconsciously reached out my hand towards her head, but then I realized she was the saint and withdrew my hand.

If I had patted her head like that, I would have been treated strangely.

Around the time I was staring at Adriana for a moment, Adriana, who turned her head towards me, secretly grabbed my arm.

“If you’re going to unpack your luggage in the room, it would be better to do it a bit later. Today is the day Cardinal Verod is here, so I have to let him know that you’re here.”

“When you say Cardinal Verod, do you mean the head of the paladins?”

Verod Alistan, I had heard his name several times in some rounds as well.

Although I didn’t have many contact points with the church, he was known as the strongest within the church.

When an order to subjugate me was issued, I had clashed with him a few times, so he wasn’t someone I couldn’t say I had no connection with.

He was old enough to be called an elder.

However, his strong and upright personality and incomparable military power made him stand at the peak of the paladins.

Adriana, who nodded her head saying that was correct, then opened her mouth slightly as if she had remembered something.

As if perplexed, she bit her lip slightly and opened her mouth.

“… Come to think of it, I had a short prayer today, but he won’t scold me for that, right?”

“Have you been scolded before?”

“Um, Cardinal Verod is like a father to me. He raised me almost on his own since I was young, and I met him much more often than other paladins. He still has the flower ring I made for him, you know.”

I was surprised to hear that the fierce-looking old man had someone he cherished.

When I fought him, it was like seeing a berserker.

He swung a hammer larger than his height back and forth, and when he got slightly injured, he healed the wound with holy power and fought.

His body wasn’t easily cut, so it was very troublesome when he charged at me like that.

Even while I was thinking that, Adriana continued to talk about Verod.

She said that although he had a tendency to overprotect her a bit, he was a kind person, and she seemed to have a considerable friendship with him.

As Adriana talked about him for a long time like that, she finally started talking about other paladins as well.

“The paladins always like me. The priests do too, but the paladins are particularly so.”

“It does seem that way.”

“Is that so? When I was young, they always followed me around, but when I said I disliked that, they said they wouldn’t do it anymore.”

“… Aha.”

So that’s why they’re secretly following her.

There were roughly five paladins following while hiding their presence.

I smiled wryly and glanced back.

Even when they made eye contact with me, they didn’t avert their gaze and instead sent me a sharp gaze.

It was a look that said I wouldn’t leave unscathed if I touched her.

I didn’t know what they thought of me.

I hoped they were just mistaking me for some scoundrel trying to target Adriana.

The way they looked at me was more like looking at a pagan than a scoundrel.

There were some who gritted their teeth when Adriana’s body touched mine.

I was just holding her to help, but if they heard what happened on the roof of the Moon Tower, wouldn’t they burst into tears?

“I think we’re almost there. I can feel Cardinal Verod’s presence.”

As she said, when I walked further following Adriana, I felt a fierce and powerful presence.

It was a pressure that made my body tingle just by getting close.

Since he was my opponent when I was called the Sword Saint, this was probably natural.

But perhaps because he was younger than I knew, his presence wasn’t as mature as back then.

“Verod!”

At Adriana’s voice, that presence began to move, and soon, along with heavy footsteps, an old man revealed himself.

His beard was not yet dyed white, but his physique was still large.

Revealing heavy armor that seemed to burst with muscle, along with a bright red cross in the center of his chest, he exuded a tremendous presence.

“Your Holiness, you’re here.”

“It’s been a while, Verod. You seem healthier than before?”

“Of course. I’ve been exercising diligently these days, haven’t I?”

Verod’s eyes as he met Adriana’s eyes were gentle.

It was a completely different warmth from the eyes I had seen, so a small laugh escaped for a moment.

He seemed to be gentle to people he really cherished.

Adriana, who had moved away from me, approached Verod and examined his body.

As a small amount of holy power seeped out and covered his body, Verod, who chuckled slightly, familiarly stroked Adriana’s head.

“I’m glad to see you’re doing well. But what brings you here?”

“It seems a guest will be staying in the Moon Tower starting today. I came to tell you about that.”

“Ah, a guest.”

As he took his gaze off Adriana, those gentle eyes instantly returned to the eyes I remembered.

A holy warrior who had gone berserk on the battlefield, meeting those eyes that seemed to be surging with deep twilight, my shoulders inadvertently trembled.

“A man?”

“He’s my friend, Verod. You might have heard his name, Robert Taylor.”

“Haha, friend?”

Even as he laughed like that, the murderous intent in his eyes looking at me gradually grew.

I knew he wouldn’t rashly move in front of Adriana.

The arm Adriana was holding was just trembling, but his body didn’t move beyond that.

But I could clearly tell that his attitude was different from the other paladins before.

If the other paladins just sent an unpleasant gaze, this paladin named Verod… I had a feeling that he would definitely be a threat to me.

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