Adopt 195

Episode 195

As if someone had tilted an umbrella over me, the rain that had been soaking me to the bone suddenly stopped.

The bursts of magical fireballs striking the translucent barrier surrounding myself and the small figure before me exploded like fireworks.

“How dare you…”

The anger radiating from her back was so intense that my opponent could barely contain her rage, her breaths coming in harsh gasps.

Cautiously, I called her name.

“Ophel…lia…?”

At that, Ophelia whipped her head around sharply.

Her eyes were slightly inflamed as she looked back at me, biting her lower lip and holding back her frustration for a moment before, with a wounded expression, her words spilled out in a torrent.

“You told me you were going back to the capital! I could understand if the High Priest did it—he’s always been that way—but how could even you deceive me?”

It was the first time I had ever seen the always optimistic and gentle Ophelia lose her temper like this.

The reason I hadn’t told her the truth was because I judged there was still a black magic informant left in the temple.

Since his appointment as the High Priest of this kingdom, Giuseppe had always been meticulous in keeping his face hidden from view.

As a result, only a handful of people knew the High Priest’s true face; thus, even a novice priest standing before Giuseppe shouldn’t have been able to recognize him as the High Priest.

I didn’t suspect Ophelia, but the fewer people who knew the plan, the better, and so I hadn’t given her any hint.

‘I never imagined she’d be this angry, though.’

While I hesitated before Ophelia, the roaring voice of the Red Tower Master pierced through the sound of rain.

“A mere fledgling saintess!”

Behind Ophelia’s shoulder, several magic circles flashed like bolts of lightning.

Even before I could point them out, the circles unleashed their attack spells.

Boom!

Yet every spell dissipated without leaving so much as a scratch on Ophelia’s barrier.

“Wh-what! How is this possible…?”

“Shut up! Can’t you see we’re having a conversation right now?!”

Without so much as glancing back, Ophelia snapped at the Red Tower Master, whose face, dumbstruck, quickly turned red and purple in rage.

The rain that had been weighing him down evaporated into steam, casting a thick, fog-like veil around him.

The Red Tower Master’s presence became ominous.

Yet, for some reason, Ophelia’s anger seemed even more threatening than his.

Still, we couldn’t just leave the Red Tower Master unattended, so I gestured toward him, implying we ought to deal with him first.

As if waiting for my signal, I heard slow, deliberate footsteps behind me.

Startled, I turned to see a man looking down at me, though I had no idea how long he had been there.

His deep red raincoat hood was pulled so low I couldn’t make out any features.

He seemed as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he remained silent, stepping out from Ophelia’s barrier and drawing his sword toward the Red Tower Master.

Almost instantly, a clash erupted behind Ophelia—a metallic clamor that sounded like a battlefield—but Ophelia stubbornly refused to take her eyes off me.

In the end, I managed to speak with great effort.

“The truth is…”

Even as I explained matters as concisely as possible, Ophelia’s anger would not subside.

She sighed, then spoke coldly.

“Give me your hand.”

Sensing her mood, I complied without protest, extending my hand.

A sacred, gentle light bloomed from Ophelia’s palms, spreading through my body and mending the bruises left by my fall.

“I’d like to help the Kerberos too, but since they’re magical beasts, the holy power would be poison for them.”

I was grateful just for her intention.

“Ophelia, thank you for saving me.”

“…Even so, I won’t forgive you for a while.”

Though her words were sharp, her tone and expression had softened considerably since before.

Soon, each of us cradled an injured Kerberos, quietly watching the duel between the Red Tower Master and the man.

Honestly, I wanted to help, but Kerberos were too wounded to move, and I hadn’t enough mana left even to summon one of Kao’s avatars.

Ophelia, who specialized in forming barriers and healing, was out of the question.

And more than any of that—

“Who is that man?”

He needed no help—he was holding off the Red Tower Master’s attacks with remarkable ease.

“I don’t actually know. He’s someone the Master of the Grey Tower sent.”

“Cheshire?”

“Yes. I was with the High Priest and the Grey Tower Master, but then we realized something must have happened to you, so I rushed over.”

Apparently, the discovery of the explosive magic tools was going smoothly.

They had even identified the location where the sword-wielding black magician had hidden one, but the problem lay not in the location, but in the tool itself.

“Cheshire is disarming the magic circle?”

“It’s designed to explode instantly with even the slightest jolt. So, in the end, the Grey Tower Master had to disarm the magic circle himself. That’s when we saw the flock of crows pour out of the spire where you were.”

The three people there instantly sensed that something had happened to me.

But Cheshire was too busy deactivating the unstable magic circle, and Giuseppe had to read the black magicians’ pasts to find the tools’ locations, so neither could leave.

So it was Ophelia who set out to see what had happened.

“The Grey Tower Master was suddenly in an awful mood, muttering under his breath, then reluctantly pulled out his staff. Next thing I knew, that man was standing at Cheshire’s side.”

There was something odd in Ophelia’s words.

It wasn’t the man inexplicably appearing at Cheshire’s side that caught my attention—it was that Cheshire had drawn his staff.

Cheshire, who could cast nearly all spells with a snap of his fingers, had actually taken up his staff.

I watched the man’s movements warily.

‘Terry once said a swordsman’s natural enemy is a wizard.’

Wizards could freely soar above the ground; unless a swordsman could send out sword energy, it was hard to neutralize a wizard. Yet, seeing that man, it didn’t seem to be an absolute truth.

The man knocked away every spell the Red Tower Master hurled at him with the flat of his blade, as easily as a baseball player returns a home run pitch.

“Gah! Damn you, you wretch!”

The Red Tower Master grew enraged watching his spells go flying, one after another.

“…”

The man simply bore it in silence, doing what needed to be done.

I narrowed my eyes, studying him.

That height and build. His bearing. The way he moved.

Though I hadn’t seen his face or even heard his voice, somehow…

‘He reminds me of Sir Cherry.’

No sooner had I thought it than the Red Tower Master suddenly turned his gaze on us, interrupting his fight.

Through the now-lightening rain, I could see the bloodshot eyes of the infuriated Red Tower Master glaring directly at us.

“Oh, he spotted us.”

“He seems like he’s got something to say—should we listen this time?”

“Hard to say. He just seems angry rather than wanting to talk.”

“Why is he angry at us?”

“Good question.”

We had already seen Ophelia’s barrier withstand several of his spells, so we exchanged words without concern. Meanwhile, a mad gleam entered the Red Tower Master’s eyes as he sought a new target for his wrath.

“Vermin! How dare you look down on me!”

Whoosh!

Dozens of fireballs rose around the Red Tower Master.

It was only then that Ophelia and I sensed how serious things had become and readied ourselves.

“I’ll turn this whole place into a hell of flames.”

It struck me that the old fool’s target wasn’t just us.

Ophelia hurriedly expanded her barrier to cover the nearby houses. At that very moment, just as an even greater number of fireballs gathered, ready to rain down like the flames of hell—

Wham!

A crescent-shaped bolt of sword energy came flying from somewhere and slammed the Tower Master into the ground.

At the same instant, the blazing fireballs vanished as if they had never existed.

“…”

“…”

Ophelia and I stared wide-eyed from the fallen Tower Master to the man.

The blow had been so fierce that it left a sizable crater where the Tower Master had landed.

The man strolled over to us with a calm gait and nodded as if to say his work was done.

Ophelia, still in disbelief, helped the late-arriving priests and mages bind the unconscious Tower Master.

Just as the man quietly tried to slip away, I blocked his path, narrowing my eyes.

He might have been swathed head to toe in that red cloak and hood, but there was no way I wouldn’t recognize him.

“Can you see properly in that thing?”

He nodded once.

“I doubt it. It can’t be possible.”

He shook his head in denial.

“Doesn’t it get stifling in there? Why don’t you pull that hood off?”

Again, he shook his head.

“You’re skilled enough to unleash sword energy—so why did you hold back at first?”

He’d answered my questions thus far with nods or shakes, but hesitated at this one.

My gaze grew even sharper.

Lowering my voice ominously, I asked,

“You’re Sir Cherry, aren’t you?”

It was not suspicion—it was certainty.