TLS 07

Chapter 7

Just then, their eyes met.

Noah seemed startled and quickly looked away.

Gabriel could do nothing but stare at her.

Noah was smaller and more delicate than Gabriel had expected, and almost excessively… What was the right word to describe her?

“Pretty” didn’t quite fit.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t pretty, but there was definitely a better word.

Gabriel still hadn’t found the right expression by the time he parted ways with Noah on their first day.

It was only after escaping the dreadful situation with Lady Duvinchik and reaching the prayer room that he finally remembered.

The perfect word to describe Noah.

Cute.

It was a word he rarely had any reason to use, which was probably why it had taken him so long to think of it.

From that moment on, Gabriel decided to be careful around Noah.

He had a strange feeling about her.

But despite that resolution, Noah was impossible to overlook.

For one thing, her talent was incredible.

And that wasn’t all.

Noah was interested in Gabriel.

Romantically interested!

There was no way Gabriel could easily turn her away.

How much must she have liked him to invite him into her room and try to confess her feelings?

Was she attracted to his appearance?

But Gabriel might die during the Urbas subjugation…

Since he had decided to kill the Dragon, it was obvious that he himself would become a target, whether from the Dragon or from other people.

That was why he had stopped Noah from confessing.

No matter how shameless he might be, he had no intention of ruining the future of such an innocent priestess because of himself.

But still…

She had bravely gathered her courage, prepared some simple coffee and cookies in her room, and tried to confess her feelings to him.

Wasn’t that just too adorable?

Gabriel already knew that Noah was timid by nature and embarrassed to step forward despite her extraordinary talent.

He had only watched her for a short while, but he could already tell that she was cautious by nature.

And yet that same girl had tried so hard to confess to him that she had awkwardly circled around the subject, eventually bringing up the topic of family before finally forcing the words from her lips.

She had even sent the Holy Knights away so she could confess to him.

And this was before they had even set out for Urbas.

She apparently wanted to establish some kind of relationship with him—an engagement, perhaps?—before the subjugation truly began.

Gabriel covered his face with both hands.

“Your Eminence? Are you feeling unwell?”

“Ah, no. I think I should get some rest.”

With his usual polite smile, Gabriel slowly entered his room and closed the door.

The moment it shut, his body slid down against it.

He had said he was prepared to risk his life, yet he was already shaken by a priestess’s confession.

He had no dignity left.

“Noah, over here.”

Lina waved her over.

Noah had become close to Lina in just one day.

They were both timid by nature, which made things comfortable, and with only two women among the Controllers, there was also a strange sense of closeness between them.

Noah smiled brightly and went to stand beside Lina, only to suddenly stop when she realized she was standing quite close to Gabriel.

It was because of what had happened yesterday.

Gabriel had noticed that Noah wanted to refuse the Urbas subjugation and had effectively prevented her from even bringing it up.

That made Noah feel rather uncomfortable around him.

“I deliberately stood close to His Eminence. Handsome men are always right.”

At Lina’s lighthearted joke, Noah gave a small nod.

She secretly glanced at Gabriel.

Apparently, he had been looking this way too, because he gave her a small bow in greeting.

They exchanged an awkward greeting.

‘It wasn’t like my opinion was ever going to be accepted anyway. This is a matter of national importance. I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. This is so awkward.’

Gabriel also seemed uncomfortable around Noah.

‘He probably doesn’t want me to talk to him.’

Maybe the handsome man was already fed up with her.

Noah suddenly felt depressed.

“I heard we’re meeting the Holy Knights today.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Noah remember that today was the day they were meeting the Holy Knights who would accompany them to Urbas.

“Apparently Prince Ran Alcarai is also among the Holy Knights participating in this subjugation.”

“Prince?”

Why would a Holy Knight be a prince?

“Yes. Prince Ran Alcarai. Noah, you don’t know him?”

Of course she didn’t.

Noah answered with a flushed face.

“I work in the countryside… a very, very small place. News reaches us quite late.”

“Oh, really?”

Lina’s eyes lit up as she began explaining who Ran was.

Ran Alcarai.

He was a prince of the neighboring nation, Aranta. His mother was Juliet Coller, who came from the Ariel Empire.

Juliet, a young lady of House Coller, had demonstrated healing abilities and served as a priestess of the Church. Then she fell in love with the Emperor of Aranta—who had been a prince at the time—and married him despite fierce opposition from everyone around her.

Aranta and Ariel were vastly different in religion, culture, and many other ways. Marrying someone from that country was practically considered apostasy.

The fact that Juliet Coller was willing to endure such tremendous opposition and marry into Aranta proved that she was no ordinary woman.

Juliet later became the Empress of Aranta.

For a love story of the century, however, it had ended rather strangely.

Perhaps it was simply difficult for a foreign woman to become Empress.

It was also unclear whether the Arantan nobility had strongly opposed her, or whether the great love between the couple had simply faded over time.

In any case, Juliet had only one son, while the Emperor took several concubines in an effort to have more children and increase the number of his own bloodline.

Amid that competition, Juliet wanted to raise her son differently from the countless other princes of Aranta.

So, with special permission from the Emperor of Aranta, she sent fifteen-year-old Prince Ran to join the Holy Knights of the Ariel Empire.

Ran had been educated by the Holy Knights ever since, and now he was participating in the Urbas subjugation.

The explanation was so detailed that Noah looked at Lina again.

“You really know a lot.”

“That much is pretty normal in the capital…”

Lina smiled awkwardly.

“Does all this get written about in the newspapers?”

“Sometimes. But honestly, I just like collecting information about handsome men.”

“Information about handsome men?”

“Handsome men are precious.”

Noah thought she understood and gave a small nod.

Lina glanced around before leaning closer and whispering into Noah’s ear.

“Anyway, what’s important to us is that Lord Ran is going to Urbas with us, and that he’s handsome.”

“Is he really that handsome?”

It didn’t seem like much of a secret, so Noah found Lina’s cautious manner a little strange.

“His Highness is an Arantan, so he has black hair and slightly darker skin. But because he has Ariel blood, he’s said to be incredibly handsome, with an exotic yet strangely familiar appearance.”

‘Can “exotic” and “familiar” really be used together?’

Noah stared at Lina with wide eyes.

“When the mages promoted Princess Kyria using postcards and newspaper illustrations of her, the Church responded by promoting His Highness Alcarai and His Eminence Schulmann. There’s even a postcard with the two of them together. I’ll show you.”

Lina pulled out a postcard she had tucked inside her notebook.

On the right was Gabriel, standing elegantly.

On the left was a broad-shouldered man with black hair, standing back-to-back with Gabriel with a solemn expression.

“Did the Church actually sell things like this?”

“I think the Church was worried because Princess Kyria was attracting the people’s attention with her glamorous appearance.”

So they had been keeping an eye on her while pretending not to care.

But Noah was more surprised that such postcards even existed.

Maybe it was because she had lived in a small provincial city and was always behind on news and trends.

She found it strange to see the Church promoting itself through priests and Holy Knights.

She had never seen anything like this even when she was young at the Divine Power Training Center.

‘Then again, the Divine Power Training Center was rather isolated so everyone could focus completely on training their divine power.’

“These were limited edition, so they were expensive. Back then, Gabriel was still an ordinary priest, so he appeared on postcards like this. But now he’s a Cardinal… Still, don’t you think he shines even more in person? Whew!”

Lina looked back and forth between Gabriel in the postcard and the real Gabriel, wearing a blissful smile.

Gabriel was talking to Will about something.

While waiting for the Controller who had yet to arrive, Will seemed to be asking Gabriel various questions about the prayers used to awaken their abilities.

“Isn’t there a picture that properly captures the atmosphere of a real person…? Oh, I heard the mages recently invented something called a camera. They might use it to advertise during the Urbas subjugation.”

“A camera?”

It was the first time Noah had heard of it.

“They say it can imprint an image onto paper so realistically that it looks even more lifelike than a painting.”

“Wow…”

“Mages really are greedy, but you have to give them credit where it’s due. They’re good at making strange and amazing things.”

“Lina, you really know so much.”

“Hahaha. It’s nothing. When you live in the capital, you naturally learn these things.”

Lina laughed sheepishly.

A little later, Anas arrived, and Gabriel led the Controllers toward the Holy Knights’ training grounds.

Everyone seemed nervous about meeting the Holy Knights who would be joining them for the subjugation, so no one spoke during the walk.

“This is the Holy Knights’ training ground.”

The training ground was kept extremely clean.

Several straw training dummies stood scattered around a wide open field, while a number of Holy Knights stood in a line.

One of the Holy Knights at the front formally greeted Gabriel before also greeting the Controllers.

“Greetings. I am Darren Gould, Commander of the Holy Knights.”

Darren was a large, muscular knight with blond hair.

“Wow, he’s huge…”

Noah had never seen a knight that big before, so the words slipped out before she could stop herself.

Gabriel was tall, and so were the Holy Knights who served as his guards, but Darren was on an entirely different level.

Darren glanced at Noah and smiled warmly.

“Greetings, Priestess.”

“Ah, h-hello.”

Noah immediately decided that she absolutely had to stay close to Darren when they went on the subjugation.

Wouldn’t she be safer if she stayed beside someone this big and obviously strong?

Of course, there was Gabriel, the strongest Controller in the Empire.

But after what happened yesterday, she felt too awkward around him.

So she should probably stick close to the Commander instead…

“Following His Eminence’s orders, I have gathered the Holy Knights who will be accompanying you on the Urbas subjugation.”

Darren gestured toward the Holy Knights, and all the Controllers turned their eyes in that direction.

Every one of the Holy Knights was tall and handsome.

“Are Holy Knights chosen based on their looks?”

The astonished Noah whispered to Lina.

“I heard the requirements for Holy Knights in the capital are very strict. Apparently, when it comes to the Pope’s or a Cardinal’s personal guards, they even consider their family background and appearance.”

“My goodness.”

In other words, they were the absolute elite.

Then Commander Darren began introducing the Holy Knights one by one.

Heron Stockwell, Alexander Grimes, Steven Griffiths…

And Ran Alcarai.

Every Holy Knight looked valiant and impressive.

But the person who stood out the most was, without a doubt, Ran Alcarai.