TWCMH 07

Chapter 07

**To You Who Called Me a Temptress**

‘…A butterfly?’

Hugo quietly opened his palm, but the opaque butterfly he had crushed with his own hand had vanished without a trace.

What was it? The sensation that tickled his palm was far too soft and warm to be called a sinister power.

A pure light that carried no malice or coldness.

At first glance, it had looked black, but upon reflection, that wasn’t a color but the projection of a presence. A faint shadow, as if it had erased its own presence to blend into the dark veil of night…

Hugo quietly clenched the hand that had caught the butterfly and stared beyond the closed wooden door.

Was it the power of that ‘being’ inside?

Though he couldn’t see it, Hugo could definitely feel it. That there was ‘something’ beyond this door.

Something that stimulated the refined divine power within his body…

‘Is the Flona really inside there?’

Hugo narrowed his eyes, gazing at the unresponsive hut. He held his breath, sharpened his senses, and pursued whatever was hiding inside. His sharp eyes glinted keenly.

He had never seen a ‘real’ Flona, but in the past, he had seen countless ‘fake’ ones.

They were all women dressed in vulgar clothing, with jaded eyes and blatant desires, drenched in perfume, seducing men.

Whether fake or real, the important thing was that the existence called ‘Flona’ corrupted humans.

Demonic beings that incite desire and summon greed.

The Great Saint Calisto said in the scriptures, ‘All beings that deceive humans and cloud judgment are conceived from darkness.’ If the Flona truly existed, it was a dark entity that must be punished with the power of divinity.

Hugo lifted his coldly composed gaze.

And just as he raised his hand to forcefully open the closed door—

“Who’s there?”

A man’s voice came from behind Hugo.

Having already sensed the presence, Hugo turned around with an unstartled face.

A man was approaching from the other side of the darkness.

“Who are you to stand like that in front of my house?”

As the tall man strode toward Hugo, the knights guarding Hugo’s back stepped forward to block him.

“Who are you? State your identity.”

“Sir Rubelt.”

Hugo called out to Beatrix and ordered him to step back.

As if highly disciplined, Beatrix immediately stepped back. Hugo took the place of the retreating Beatrix.

“Are you the owner of this house?”

The man with dark green eyes, as deep as a swamp, answered politely.

“Yes. I’m working in place of the injured mountain keeper.”

“Mountain keeper… You seem too young to be doing that kind of work.”

His eyes slowly scanned the man. He was tall and broad-shouldered, enough to meet Hugo’s eye level, but traces of youth still lingered on his face.

“Or are you young?”

He had seen countless men of this age. In the temple, in the knight order, and on the battlefield. It wasn’t difficult to guess their age.

At most eighteen, or generously twenty.

At his murmured remark, a flash of irritation crossed the face of the man standing before him. Even that seemed guileless, betraying his youth.

“Whether I’m young or not is none of your business, is it?”

That was a fair point. What mattered to him wasn’t this young man.

As Hugo sneered and got to the point, the man’s eyes wavered slightly.

“We are the Holy Knights of the Temple. We received a tip that a witch is here.”

“…A witch. It seems the Holy Knights are chasing after empty things.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Open the door.”

“There is no witch in my house.”

“Then there must be something else.”

At Hugo’s sharp retort, Dietrich’s face hardened further.

The knights watching the two also exchanged glances, seeming to notice the man’s awkwardness.

A thicker tension flowed. The blonde man glaring at Hugo retorted in a suppressed voice.

“This is where I live alone. What would there be to look at in a place where a man lives alone? I’m sorry, but it seems you’ve come for nothing. Please leave.”

“I heard a newlywed couple lives here.”

At Hugo’s words, Dietrich responded with a deliberately insolent smile.

“There’s a woman who visits sometimes. It seems you took the words meant to keep things clean at face value.”

“The fire is lit.”

“I lit it. I just stepped out for a moment.”

“The door is locked as well.”

“Isn’t locking up before going out essential?”

Dietrich, having answered quite leisurely, chuckled as if to say ‘didn’t you know that?’ and stared at Hugo.

Hugo, who had been staring blankly at him with an expressionless face, subtly twisted the corner of his mouth upward.

“That’s a strange skill. If you’re outside, how did you lock the door from the inside?”

Dietrich, who had been answering boldly, stammered in confusion, his lips twitching.

Watching that sight intently, Hugo raised his hand and called the knights. The sound of plate armor clashing was chilling.

“Open it.”

“Yes!”

Just as the knights moved to approach, Dietrich blocked their path.

With a face as if being choked, Dietrich glared at each of the knights and demanded in a grinding voice.

“What right do you people have to enter someone else’s house…!”

At the question of rights, the knight with dark red hair approaching let out a snicker.

“Rights? We have more than enough rights. No citizen of Gargo, protected by the Temple, can stand before Lampez.”

Lampez…?

As his words finished, Hugo’s pennant fluttered in the wind. The emblem of the Paladins, hidden within the pennant, shone clearly.

It was already shocking that the Temple’s knights had come, but that Lampez himself had come in person was unbelievable.

Dietrich’s face turned as pale as a corpse.

The fact that Lampez himself had come meant he was certain that a Flona, or something even greater, was inside. Someone of such high status wouldn’t move for trivial matters.

‘No…’

If discovered, she would be dragged away without resistance.

He had to hide her at all costs, even if it meant death. Or at least, he had to buy his sister time to hide.

“E-even so, I am not obligated to open my door to you.”

“Surely you realize that being stubborn only makes you look more suspicious?”

“I’m simply displeased!”

As a mere mountain keeper dared to talk back, saying he was displeased, the faces of the waiting knights grew cold.

Within this country, most Paladins were nobles.

Divine power was a blessing bestowed upon the faithful, and the prayer rooms of the temple were too expensive for commoners to use.

Very rarely, divine power would sprout even among faithless commoners, but that was truly rare.

About one in ten thousand, and even then, they often fell into heresy or foreign cults, making them hard to find. If by chance such an exceedingly rare person was spotted, the temple would take them and raise them as priests.

Since Holy Knights needed to be able to wield swords as well as divine power, it was a status that commoners could hardly even aspire to.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything.

“……”

Knights who risk their lives, dedicating and fighting for their ideals.

Because they were directly bestowed by God with the power to annihilate evil, people respected and revered the Holy Knights.

Of course, unlike being revered, their missions were not always noble, but…

“Your displeasure has no bearing on my carrying out my duty. If you don’t step aside willingly, then so be it.”

‘So be it’ meant that he would no longer wait and would force the door open. Dietrich, his face ashen, ran to the door, spread his arms wide to block it, and shouted.

“Do not enter my house by force! Is the one called the Chain of the Temple going to use brute force to search a mere country mountain keeper’s house? Be ashamed of using such great majesty for such a petty purpose!”

“That bastard…”

At his desperate words, harsh curses began to escape the knights’ lips as well.

However, even as they displayed displeasure at the young man’s insults to their leader, they didn’t recklessly attack him.

Because the one who had been insulted remained utterly unperturbed.

Hugo, sighing as if tired, nodded toward the large man who was fidgeting with an expression of wanting to rush in immediately.

“Periart.”

As if waiting for that single word, Periart Dallas, who had been snorting, sprang from his spot and ran toward Dietrich, who was blocking the door.