As soon as Rou confirmed his breathing had stabilized and his trembling legs moved according to his will, he headed straight to the temple. Collapsing in a place with so many watching eyes would not be a good example as High Priest.
Naturally, there were many hands trying to hold Rou back, asking him to stay just a little longer, but Jes cut through all those pleas with an attitude as cold as ice.
Numerous people who had tried to invite Rou under the pretense of tea parties held in their gardens, untranslated ancient texts, and rock honey they claimed to have discovered while rock climbing went back disappointed.
When the story of the extremely precious rock honey came up, he had wavered a bit, but thanks to Jes’s firm attitude, Rou was able to steady his mind.
‘I overdid it today.’
Was it because a small soul was contained in a weak body? Even the slightest strain made his vision spin and left him dizzy. Moreover, when he realized that Brukisel wasn’t pleased even with his gift, he felt so sad and his heart felt empty.
‘At that time, I really felt like I was going to transform into a bumblebee.’
Rou didn’t want to be discovered as a bumblebee in front of humans. Especially not in front of Brukisel. Even with his current position as High Priest, he was someone who distrusted him. If he were discovered to be a bumblebee, how coldly would he look at him? Just thinking about it made him feel a bit forlorn.
‘I need to hurry back and rest. I’ll recover my stamina and gather evidence that the moldy one is planning bad things until Brukisel calls for me.’
When there had been no proof of Goddess Kaine, Brukisel had hardly believed he was the Goddess’s Representative. Even if he talked to such a person about state affairs, he naturally thought there was no way he would believe it.
Rather than stepping forward to relay it himself, sending Het had been along the same lines. It seemed like he would trust the words of Het, who had been by his side all along, more than himself who had dropped out of the sky.
‘Being a bit suspicious is a little tiring. But still, it’s a good attitude for surviving in this harsh world.’
Even when thinking to himself, Rou took Brukisel’s side. He grasped Jes and Yan’s hands (in truth, Rou had been grasped by the two of them) and walked at the front heading toward the temple. As if trying to ignore his somewhat darkened heart, only his footsteps were vigorous and energetic beyond measure.
“Th-this isn’t the right way, High Priest!”
However, Rou’s vanguard position wasn’t maintained for long. A beat late, Yan, who had noticed they had taken completely the wrong path, stopped walking. Jes, whose night vision was dim and didn’t know where he was going, also stopped abruptly at Yan’s words.
Thanks to this, Rou, who had been walking ahead, had to bounce back to where the two humans had stopped.
“Ah, really?”
This time, Yan, the only one with a good sense of direction, decided to take the lead. However, before long, the two humans and one temporary human had no choice but to stop their steps again. From far away, an earnest voice searching for Rou could be heard.
“High Priest! High Priest!”
The one running over while panting was none other than Het. Had he just asked him to relay a message to Brukisel, only to be turned away at the door?
Het gasped for breath, seemingly not having run so breathlessly in a long time, and opened his mouth with difficulty.
“His Majesty, His Majesty wishes to see the High Priest right now.”
“Brukisel? Right now?”
Rou’s eyes began to shine brilliantly like amber contained in a clear spring. To think Brukisel hadn’t brushed off or ignored his words but had stepped forward to meet him directly. This was the best reaction among all the things Rou had done for Brukisel so far. Rou, who felt great joy and hope even in small things, smiled brightly as if nothing had happened.
In inverse proportion to Rou’s brightening face, Yan and Jes’s expressions began to rot.
That guard knight had no tact. Right now, the High Priest had just seen a Vision and should be taking immediate rest. What? Going to meet the Emperor? Making him listen to the nonsense that heartless, bloodless Emperor would spout? Yan and Jes glared at Het with blazing gazes.
However, Het, accustomed to killing intent that crossed between life and death, didn’t notice the fierce looks from an old man and a young servant. At last, pleased with the High Priest’s bright face, he stepped forward to guide him to the Emperor’s palace.
“Good. Jes, Yan. I’ll be going then.”
“Pardon? Wait a moment. Going at such a late hour.”
“That’s right!”
“When Brukisel calls for me, how can I turn away?”
Rou was immersed in joy as if he had been waiting for this moment. At that sight, Yan’s heart ached. How could His Majesty the Emperor be so indifferent? The High Priest was always devoted only to His Majesty the Emperor, like a tale of unrequited love.
Unable to ignore that tearful love, Yan slyly grasped Jes’s hand. It was to prevent him from rampaging and blocking the High Priest’s path. Yan looked at Het and nodded, and Het, catching that signal, immediately urged the High Priest.
“Quickly……”
“Ah! Yes!”
Rou walked diligently following Het. Though Het was a bit shorter than Brukisel, he wasn’t short either. While it was realistically difficult to catch up to him with Rou’s small stride, he didn’t fall behind. It was because his heart was that earnest.
In case Brukisel changed his mind, Rou found his slow pace frustratingly unbearable. Fortunately, just before Rou’s patience ran out and he ordered Het to carry him on his back and run, Rou arrived in front of the Emperor’s palace.
The Emperor’s palace wasn’t as heavily guarded as expected. No, somehow, far from being heavily guarded, not even a soldier on patrol could be found.
Instead, the inside of the Emperor’s palace was as complicated as a maze. Walking down what seemed like a straight path would somehow lead back out to the central stairs. Even though one had only climbed one floor, looking up would reveal one had somehow reached the rooftop. Without a guide, even an assassin who had snuck in would likely get lost.
Het, befitting someone who had worked as an aide for a long time, guided Rou along the fastest route.
“Your Majesty. I have brought the High Priest……”
Before Het’s words could finish, the office door opened. The Emperor was sitting at a massive desk that radiated an imposing presence from afar, and the fact that the door had opened on its own was eerie. Het rubbed the goosebumps that had risen on the back of his neck and tried to find his composure.
“High Priest. Come inside.”
Het was about to hold the half-opened door when he froze solid under a cold, sharp gaze. Rou smiled once at Het as if to say it was fine, then easily entered through the gap in the open door. Because he politely closed the door tightly, it closed right in Het’s face.
And contrary to Het’s anxiety and nervousness, Rou approached Brukisel without hesitation.
This was the first time he had been invited into his space like this. The quill that seemed well-used, whether it was a favorite, the antique and spacious desk, and even the black bottle whose purpose was hard to guess—all of it bore traces of Brukisel’s scent.
Brukisel didn’t feel the need to offer him a seat, so he didn’t invite him to sit. An ordinary person would have noticed they were being ignored or felt pain from their legs going numb, but Rou was merely excited by the fact that he had entered Brukisel’s space.
“Brukisel. Have I become useful to you?”
Speaking first to royalty was a crime. But that only applied to ordinary nobles. It was difficult to make an issue of it with the High Priest on those grounds. Moreover, what that High Priest was babbling with an empty-headed face was somewhat true.
“……That’s right.”
The fact that he had to admit that fact was quite humiliating to Brukisel. It was like acknowledging the Goddess himself. It would be better to believe that information had leaked from somewhere and entered the ears of that clear-eyed madman.
Summoning the High Priest at this late night was also to confirm that.
That Mac was scheming something dirty behind the scenes. He already knew that too. He had simply been waiting for a better opportunity.
The dirtier someone’s background, the easier it was to monitor them by keeping them close, so he had simply handed over the vacant aide position. Mac was too busy wielding his increased power without even noticing that fact.
So if the information the High Priest knew matched his own, there would be a traitor in between. Then it would become quite a troublesome matter since the number of targets to deal with would increase. The fact that he would have to find a new interrogator in Het’s absence was also just bothersome.
“Tell me how much you know.”
Brukisel asked somewhat curiously, then hesitated.
Of course, that High Priest with transparent, gleaming eyes like glass beads didn’t seem like the type of person who could deceive others with lies. Moreover, he had even confessed that he liked him. But still, to ask so directly like this—wouldn’t this make it seem like he trusted him?
“Uhh…… Well, I didn’t see the face directly. I only saw a very partial scene……”
As if mocking his momentary anguish, Rou truly spoke honestly about everything. Naturally, since Rou simply wanted to protect Brukisel, there was no need to lie. In the sense that he wasn’t the type to deceive others with lies, Brukisel was correct.
“It seemed like someone was opening a secret passage in the Imperial Palace. Masked figures moving suspiciously came rushing in through that passage!”
“……Is there nothing more you saw?”
As he spoke, his worry amplified and Rou’s voice became increasingly agitated. Normally, if it had been someone else, they would have been immediately chased out for being grating on the ears, but since even when that fine voice rose a bit, it only sounded like a canary’s song, Rou could continue to remain in the Emperor’s office.
Brukisel pressed his forehead, bothered by something else. The information was completely different from Brukisel’s predictions. He had expected to see a scene of Mac directly involved in treason, and even if Mac did such a thing, there was no way he couldn’t handle it. Rather than that.
A secret passage.
The old Imperial Palace had many hidden secrets. From the musty legend that if you looked at the portrait of the 12th Emperor upside down, you could see the back of the lover he loved, to the passages Brukisel still occasionally used—there were various ones.
Brukisel was quite displeased that the High Priest, of all people, had come to know that fact.
“Did you see the passage directly?”
“Ah! Yes, on the right side of the outer castle wall, the third one. From the bottom, the seventeenth brick at precise intervals twenty-three times……”
Damn it. The High Priest knew in such detail.
