TILPO 07

Chapter 07

In the midst of it, their eyes met, and Noah seemed startled, quickly averting her gaze.

Gabriel could not say anything and simply stared at Noah.

Noah was smaller, more delicate, and almost excessively… What was the right word for it?

“Pretty” wasn’t quite appropriate.

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

Gabriel couldn’t find the right word even by the time he parted ways with Noah on the first day.

It was only after escaping the excruciating situation with Lady Dubinchik and arriving at 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 why it had taken him so long to think of it.

From that moment on, Gabriel resolved to be careful when dealing with Noah. He had a strange feeling about her.

However, that resolution became meaningless because Noah was a priest who stood out.

For one thing, Noah’s talent was extraordinary.

But that wasn’t all. Noah was even 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 to her room and try to confess her feelings?

Was it his appearance she liked?

But he might die during the upcoming Urbas subjugation…

Since Gabriel was going there determined to kill the dragon, it was obvious that he would become a target, whether from the dragon or from other people.

That was why he had stopped Noah’s confession.

No matter how lacking in conscience he might be, he had no intention of ruining the future of an innocent priest because of himself.

But the thought of her boldly trying to confess to him while placing simple coffee and cookies in her room…

Wasn’t that incredibly adorable?

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

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

And yet, that same Noah had painstakingly worked her way around the subject, even bringing up the topic of family before finally forcing herself to speak because she wanted to confess to him.

She had even sent the holy knights away so she could confess to him. And this was before they had even set out to subjugate Urbas.

It seemed she wanted to establish some sort of relationship with him—perhaps even an engagement?—before the subjugation officially began.

Gabriel covered his face with both hands.

“Your Eminence? Are you feeling unwell?”

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

Gabriel entered his room slowly with his usual polite smile and closed the door. The moment it shut, his body slid down the door.

He had declared that he was willing to risk his life, yet he had been shaken by a priest’s confession.

It was humiliating.

“Noah, over here.”

Rina waved to her.

Noah had become close to Rina within a single day.

They were both timid by nature, which made them comfortable around each other. There were also only two women among the controllers, so Noah somehow felt psychologically closer to her as well.

Noah smiled brightly and stood beside Rina, but then she suddenly stopped when she realized that she was standing quite close to Gabriel.

It was because of what had happened yesterday.

Noah felt uncomfortable around Gabriel, who had apparently realized she was going to refuse the Urbas subjugation and had prevented her from even bringing it up.

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

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

She secretly glanced at Gabriel, only to find that he seemed to have been looking this way as well. He gave her a slight bow in greeting.

An awkward greeting passed between them.

‘My opinion wasn’t going to be accepted anyway. This is a matter of national importance. I shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. This is so awkward.’

Gabriel also seemed uncomfortable around Noah.

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

Perhaps that handsome man had already become fed up with her.

Noah suddenly felt gloomy.

“I heard we’re meeting the holy knights today.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Noah remember that today was the day they were supposed to meet the holy knights who would be accompanying them on the Urbas subjugation.

“Apparently, His Highness Alkarai is among the holy knights participating in this subjugation.”

“His Highness?”

Why would a holy knight be addressed as His Highness?

“Yes, His Highness Ran Alkarai. You don’t know about him, Noah?”

Of course she didn’t.

Noah answered with a flushed face.

“I work in a provincial… very small place, so news reaches me quite late.”

“Oh my, really?”

Rina’s eyes lit up as she began explaining who Ran was to Noah.

Ran Alkarai.

He was a prince of Aranta, a neighboring country, and his mother was Juliet Coller, who came from the Ariel Empire.

Juliet, who had been a young lady of House Coller, possessed healing powers and had served as a priest of the church. She eventually fell in love with the Emperor of Aranta—who had been a prince at the time—and married him despite everyone’s opposition.

Aranta and Ariel differed greatly in religion and culture, so marrying someone from that country was essentially considered apostasy.

Juliet Coller, who endured such fierce opposition to marry into Aranta, was certainly no ordinary woman.

Afterward, Juliet became the Empress of Aranta. It was an amusing ending for what had been called the love of the century.

Perhaps it had been difficult for a foreign woman to become Empress?

It was impossible to know whether the opposition among Aranta’s nobility had been severe or whether the love of the century had simply faded away in the end.

In any case, Juliet had only one prince, while the Emperor took several concubines, supposedly because he wanted more children, thereby increasing the number of his descendants.

Amid such competition, Juliet wanted to raise her son somewhat differently from Aranta’s numerous princes.

So, with the special permission of the Emperor of Aranta, she sent the 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 he was now participating in this subjugation.

Noah looked at Rina again after hearing such a detailed explanation.

“You really know a lot.”

“That’s not much for someone living in the capital…”

Rina gave an awkward smile.

“Do all these things get published in the newspapers?”

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

“Information about handsome men?”

“Handsome men are precious.”

Noah nodded slightly, feeling like she understood.

Rina discreetly looked around before whispering into Noah’s ear.

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

“Is he really that handsome?”

It wasn’t as though they were discussing some great secret, yet Rina’s cautious manner was strange.

“His Highness is from Aranta, so he has black hair and slightly darker skin. But because he has Ariel blood as well, he’s said to be a handsome man with an exotic yet somehow familiar appearance.”

‘Can the words ‘exotic’ and ‘familiar’ really be used together?’

Noah stared at Rina with wide eyes.

“When the mages promote Princess Kyria with postcards and newspaper illustrations depicting her, the church promoted His Highness Alkarai and His Eminence Schuliman. There was even a postcard with the two of them together. I’ll show you.”

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

On the right was Gabriel, depicted in an elegant pose. On the left stood a well-built black-haired man with a solemn expression, their backs against each other.

“The church sold things like this?”

“Since Princess Kyria’s glamorous appearance attracts the people’s attention, I guess the church was worried too.”

It seemed the church had been paying attention to her while pretending not to.

More than that, Noah was surprised that such postcards even existed.

Perhaps it was because she lived in a small provincial town and was always behind on news and trends. She found it fascinating that priests and holy knights were being used to promote the church.

She had never seen anything like this even when she was training at the Holy Power Training Center as a child.

‘Well, the Holy Power Training Center was rather isolated so that we could focus entirely on training our holy power.’

“This was a limited edition, so it was expensive. Gabriel was still an ordinary priest back then, so he appeared on postcards like this, but now he’s a Cardinal… Still, isn’t he even more dazzling in person? Ahh!”

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

Gabriel was talking about something with Will.

While they waited for the controller who had yet to arrive, Will seemed to be asking Gabriel various questions about the prayers needed to manifest abilities.

“Isn’t there a picture that properly captures the atmosphere of the actual person…? Ah, I heard the mages recently invented something called a camera. They might use it for advertisements during the upcoming Urbas subjugation.”

“A camera?”

It was the first Noah had heard of it.

“They say it can imprint something onto paper much more realistically than a painting.”

“Wow…”

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

“You really know a lot, Rina.”

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

Rina laughed sheepishly.

A short while 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 accompanying them on the subjugation, so they remained silent as they walked.

“This is the holy knights’ training ground.”

The training ground was kept remarkably clean.

Several straw figures stood scattered around a wide open space, while a number of holy knights stood in a line.

One of the holy knights standing at the front respectfully greeted Gabriel before greeting the controllers as well.

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

Darren was a large, muscular knight with blond hair.

“Wow, he’s huge…”

Noah had never seen a knight that large before, so the words slipped out of her mouth.

Gabriel was tall, and so were his guards, but Darren was incomparably larger than them.

Darren glanced at Noah and smiled warmly.

“Greetings, Priest.”

“Ah, h-hello?”

Noah decided that she should stay right beside Darren when they went out on the subjugation.

Wouldn’t she be safe if she stayed close to someone who was this big and obviously strong?

Of course, there was also Gabriel, the Empire’s strongest controller. But after what had happened yesterday, she felt awkward around him, so perhaps she should stick with the commander instead…

“As His Eminence instructed, I have assembled the holy knights who will be accompanying us on the upcoming Urbas subjugation.”

Darren extended a hand toward the holy knights, and all the controllers turned their eyes in that direction.

All the holy knights were tall and handsome.

“Are holy knights normally selected based on their looks?”

Surprised, Noah whispered to Rina.

“I heard the capital’s holy knights have very strict requirements. Apparently, they even consider family background and appearance when selecting guards for His Holiness the Pope or His Eminence the Cardinal.”

“My goodness.”

In other words, they were the ultimate elite.

At that moment, Commander Darren began introducing the holy knights one by one.

Heron Stockwell, Alexander Grimes, Steven Griffiths…

And Ran Alkarai.

Every holy knight looked valiant and impressive, but the one who stood out the most was, naturally, Ran Alkarai.