TLSD 17

Chapter 17

“I trust you will all express your deepest condolences to the Young Duke of Schüpenhardt, who has been so tragically forced to violate his betrothal to the imperial family. If you have any objections to the Young Duke’s faithful sense of responsibility, I suggest you go and take it up directly with His Holiness, Pope Gregory.”

With a cold smile, the Princess finished her speech.

While the elderly lords rose from their seats, shouting in protest or standing with gravely hardened expressions as they muttered the name of Pope Gregory, a woman lounging crookedly in her seat spat out a curse and heaved herself up.

“……Damn this accursed Schüpenhardt.”

Harry, who had been lost in deep thought with a pristine and delicate expression, swiftly grabbed the woman’s wrist. Though his frame as the Commander of the Holy Knights was larger than that of many men, the woman’s bones were thick and sturdy enough that he could not enclose them with a single hand.

“My, my. Grand Marshal, where are you off to? His Holiness explicitly instructed you to attend the assembly in full and then sort out the pilgrimage schedule—”

“Shut the fuck up, brat. Stop pestering me.”

Harry let out a suppressed, breathy laugh.

“Grand Marshal, I’ve finally become a commander now, you know. Least you could do is use honorifics in the House of Lords chamber—”

Twisting her robust, muscular shoulder roughly, the woman shook off the Prince and strode forward, kicking open the golden doors of the House of Lords chamber.

Despite the frantic crowd control of the priests, the tide of people surged forward in an endless wave. Elio pressed herself tightly against a stone wall and unfurled her map.

…Schweitz, a massive northern fief surrounded by rugged dragon mountain ranges and national borders.

Bordering the capital to the west, sitting right beneath the Papal Territories to the south, and flanked by the Cyprus border and the dragon mountain ranges to the north, it felt almost completely isolated.

The thought of starting a new life in Schweitz sent a flutter of anxiety through her chest, while a tiny spark of excitement timidly reared its head at the same time.

Still, it was the largest territory in the empire. Surely there would be plenty of job opportunities.

If she could just land a position as a low-level healer, she would at least have food and lodging secured.

Elio nibbled anxiously on her lower lip as she folded up the map and tucked it away.

“Are we arriving tomorrow?”

“Probably.”

Cutting short the sweet rest she had been snatching in a quiet alley corner, she followed Carlos as he beckoned to her, stepping back into the thick of the pilgrims’ procession.

It was already the second week since they had left Aquitaine; the end of this grueling journey was finally in sight. To make matters worse, it coincided with the Archangel’s Birthday pilgrimage schedule, and a massive wave of crowds flooded the streets.

“Do they honestly believe praying will heal them?”

Carlos clicked his tongue coldly as a dense procession of wailing patients shrieked aloud, begging for miracles.

Elio staggered amidst the surging crowd, her brow furrowing in irritation. She let out a sigh toward a man who was clearly bound to mock the gods rather than believe in them.

“How desperate must they be to do that? Imagine if your own family fell sick. Wouldn’t you start praying to every single god in existence right on the spot?”

“……”

“You’ve never prayed to a god before, have you?”

“I have. Damn it all.”

At Carlos’s flat, unhesitating reply, Elio’s eyes widened.

“Why?”

“Because a family member was sick.”

Hearing Carlos reply so casually, Elio blinked in confusion and moistened her lips.

“It’s a good thing you’re healthier than you look.”

Carlos curved his lips slightly at the woman who had somehow endured two weeks of a punishing journey without a single word of complaint. Jostled by the crowd, he reached out to wrap an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side.

“Keep your hood up properly.”

He reached down and tugged her hood firmly back over her face, concealing the features she had been cautiously peeking out.

“W-well, you aren’t wearing yours properly either…”

Muttering under her breath and wondering which of his family members had fallen ill, Elio trailed off and hunched her shoulders. The throngs of people visiting the holy site were pushing through with such relentless force that colliding with them felt like crashing against solid boulders.

breaking out in a cold sweat, she instinctively grabbed the hem of Carlos’s cloak. Carlos let out a low sigh and pulled her tightly against his chest.

“Hold onto me and stay put.”

As Elio was pulled along by his guidance, the moment she caught sight of Greta standing rigidly right beside Carlos, she abruptly yanked her hand away from his cloak.

It was a purely reflexive action, driven entirely by the lingering weight of Greta’s gaze as it lingered thoughtfully over her hand.

“Lady. Are you holding up alright?”

Greta asked, standing tall and unwavering with a troubled look on her face.

Elio hurriedly shook her head, forcing the corners of her stiffened lips upward into an awkward smile.

“No, I’m fine. Just bumped into someone for a second. I’m okay.”

“You should hold onto me instead.”

Greta reached out a hand toward Elio, who was currently leaning against Carlos. Elio hesitated, meeting Greta’s softly creased eyes.

“Leon. What about the Holy Knights?”

“They’re still roaming around. Seem to be splitting into search parties. No idea why they’re hanging around here during the assembly period.”

While Carlos conversed with Leon, Elio swallowed hard, eyeing the smile and outstretched arm belonging to Greta.

She hated how awkward it felt. But if she refused Greta’s help and walked alone only to get shoved down by the crowd, that would probably be an even worse nuisance.

“Lady?”

Elio stood paralyzed, baffled as to why she was wrestling with such a trivial dilemma, before finally reaching out toward Greta.

At that exact moment, a muscular forearm wrapped firmly around her waist, and a hard, solid body pressed flat against her from behind.

“What do you think you’re doing when I told you to hold onto me?”

Carlos clicked his tongue at the flustered, reddening woman, pulling her even tighter into his embrace. Tugging her hood down further over her brow, he glared at Leon and Greta.

“Go on ahead to the Tarc Inn and secure rooms. Before those holy bastard knights beat us to it.”

“Commander.”

“Just go.”

When Carlos cut her off with a decisive tone, Greta looked at him with an expression of faint bitterness.

For some reason, Elio couldn’t tear her eyes away from Greta’s expression.

……Lingering attachment?

As if time had momentarily frozen, Greta’s expression played out in slow motion.

What on earth was the relationship between these two…?

“Grab my arm. Grab my waist. Grab my leg. Grab onto anything.”

Elio snapped back to reality as if a glass ceiling had just shattered above her. Carlos had completely caged her within his arm, hauling her flush against his body as he resumed walking.

“W-Wait, My Lord! I can walk!”

Buried almost entirely in the man’s embrace, the woman babbled like a goldfish out of water. Pressing flush against his dense, solid muscles made her brain feel as though it were being roasted over an open fire.

Any fleeting thought of ‘Is it really okay to hold onto you this tightly right in front of Greta?’ vanished instantly, leaving her mind completely blank.

The deeper they pressed into the crowd, the more she was surrounded by people towering far above her height. The overwhelming cacophony of prayers, curses, and shrieks sent her head spinning.

Gawking at the alleys packed so densely with horses and pedestrians that carriages couldn’t possibly pass—turning the place into a living, suffocating hell where anyone could easily be trampled to death—Elio parted her lips in disbelief, wondering if this was truly a spectacle desired by the gods.

“Proclaim the Imperial Prince as Crown Prince!”

“Hear me, everyone! Why do you suppose the dragons—the very embodiments of divine love—perished?! Why do you think the dragons once most cherished by the God Himmel continue to degenerate into corrupted evil dragons and overrun the world with monsters?! It is because this age is cursed! This is a world forsaken by the gods! We must purge the monsters with the light and glory of His Highness the Prince!”

The priests simply watched blankly, making no move to stop the men shouting at the top of their lungs to incite the common folk.

As Elio bit down hard on her lip to fight off her fading consciousness, Carlos pulled her waist tight against his body, soothing her in a low murmur.

“The gremlins are swarming thick enough to blot out the sky. Taking our chances on the pilgrimage route is still safer than trying to breach the mountain range.”

Elio expelled a hot breath and blindly groped for the man’s sturdy forearm.

“They’re thick enough to blot out the sky?”

Recalling the man who had previously scouted the area without a hitch, she asked in a thin, trembling voice.

“You managed just fine when you scouted it back then.”

“And you think I’d ever lose to some pathetic gremlins?”

Carlos clicked his tongue, reaching up to readjust Elio’s hood the moment it slipped back.

“It’s stuffy. Why do you keep pulling it down? I can’t see where we’re going.”

“I’m watching for you.”

“W-Well, I need to look too! What am I supposed to do if I only look at you?”

After a long, sweaty trek with both hands clutching at the hood that kept blinding her, the narrow downhill slope finally ended, and they reached open ground, letting her field of vision clear at last.

Trapped within Carlos’s arm, Elio was led along until he finally released her, at which point she collapsed weakly against the wall, panting for breath.

“My Lord. Um… is someone in your family sick?”

Carlos curved his lips into a wry smile and pulled out a cigar to light it. Amidst deafening cheers and shouts, the fireworks for the Archangel’s Birthday began to burst across the sky.

“Just watch the fireworks.”

Elio stared blankly at the man’s sculpted profile, which flickered and danced in the colorful light of the fireworks.

Red and yellow shadows cast a warm, flickering glow over the rugged, war-god-like jawline of the man beside her.

“Why are you staring?”

“O-Oh, I’m too short to see anything anyway.”

She retorted with a pout, her face flushing crimson. He let out a soft huff of laughter. Glancing around for a moment, he reached out. Gripping her hood down securely, he rose decisively to his feet.

“Good grief! My Lord!”

He scooped her up by the waist, lifting her high into the air. Her white skirt fluttered in the wind. Elio clutched frantically at his forearm, her jaw dropping.

A summer night overflowing with prayers of blessing and bright laughter.

Fireworks exploded across the twilight sky. It looked as though thousands of fireflies were dancing overhead.

“Can you see now?”

Could this be what the Archangel’s blessing felt like? Brilliant, illusion-like bursts of light cut across the black sky like a shower of shooting stars.

“N-No, I can’t.”

“Such a little shrimp.”

Carlos’s low chuckle rumbled near her. His strong hands lifted her even higher.

The man’s hands were burning hot, and the sweeping summer breeze brushed coolly against both her flushed cheeks.

“…I might be shorter than you, but I’m an average-sized adult woman. Don’t… treat me like a little kid.”

The humid air. The overlapping layers of laughter. The cool night breeze that made her hair flutter like a kite.

Experiencing a sense of liberation for the very first time in an unfamiliar foreign land, Elio stretched both arms out toward the sky and parted her lips in awe.

“Can you see now, milady?”

“Yes! I can see properly now!”

Elio replied promptly, putting on the air of a haughty lady.

“Ah. So it only works for ladies, I see.”

The man chuckled softly and hoisted her up even higher.

Soaring through the air just like the three-year-old child standing nearby, Elio finally burst into laughter alongside the man as she stared at the breathtaking fireworks she was witnessing for the very first time in her life.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

“No.”

Once the fireworks display ended, the food alley grew even more bustling.

As Elio watched the Holy Knights chattering away happily while holding chicken skewers, her gaze drifted back to the man beside her, who continued radiating an uncomfortable, stifling heat.

Should she dare ask whose family member was sick…?