Adopt 201

Episode 201

“The Red Tower Lord’s immortality black magic didn’t fail. If the price had been insufficient, it wouldn’t have manifested at all.”

“Then… are you saying that’s just how the spell was meant to be?”

“I don’t know what the Red Tower Lord would think, but he is immortal, isn’t he?”

Cheshire spoke as if joking, but, horrifyingly, his words were true.

Neither Lady Cherry’s aura, nor Cheshire’s magic, nor even Giuseppe’s holy power could kill the thing that had once been the Red Tower Lord.

‘In the end, we learned nothing about the Veiled Ones.’

Our only accomplishment was safely defending Valico.

It was an unsatisfying conclusion on many fronts, but I decided to save the reflections for later and be grateful that we could return home safely for now.

‘I haven’t seen Leo in two weeks already.’

Thinking of Leo, longing began to well up where anxiety had been.

“Cheshire, can’t you use magic to take us back to the capital the way you brought Lady Cherry to Valico? It would take only a moment.”

“Well, it’s an extremely tricky spell.”

Since even Cheshire had summoned his staff, I supposed he was telling the truth.

Still, the moment I saw Cheshire smirking from his seat across from me, I sensed he was hiding something. After all, he always gave vague answers when he wanted to conceal something.

“Cheshire. You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”

At my words, Cheshire’s eyes widened, and he replied with an expression of real indignation.

“There’s nothing like that. How could I possibly deceive my lady?”

I turned my head toward Lady Cherry, who was sitting next to Cheshire.

“Lady Cherry.”

“Yes, there is something we’re hiding.”

At her blunt reply, Cheshire glared at her as if to say, “What are you doing?” and blurted out his defense.

“She made the request first! I turned her down several times, I’ll have you know.”

Cheshire’s words made it clear that some exchange had passed between him and Lady Cherry.

As I crossed my arms and looked at the two, demanding an explanation, Cheshire spoke first.

“Lady Cherry asked me to summon her by magic if anything dangerous happened to you in Valico.”

So that was why, when I met Cheshire in Valico, he hadn’t asked why I was there—Lady Cherry must have already filled him in on the circumstances.

“And?”

“And what?”

Cheshire feigned ignorance as if he had no idea what I meant. I immediately turned to Lady Cherry, and, once again, she replied honestly.

“It is forbidden to use magic to summon a living being.”

“Why is it forbidden?”

“Even if they seem fine on the outside, there’s a risk the core inside will be damaged upon arrival.”

“The core could be damaged?”

“It’s not usually a big problem. Maybe you’d go mad or develop brain trouble—like memory loss or something like that.”

I blinked in disbelief at Cheshire’s offhanded interjection.

“So, even though you both knew how dangerous it was to summon a person, one of you requested it, and the other agreed.”

“My lady, if you say it like that, it sounds as if there’s been some misunderstanding— I really did refuse several…”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Lady Cherry’s curt response cut through Cheshire’s feeble excuses at once.

Having been thwarted by Lady Cherry at every turn, Cheshire scowled at her with a sulky expression.

“Your Excellency, are you sure the core hasn’t been damaged?”

“You’re just the same as always.”

“Ah, so you were always crazy and I’d just never noticed?”

“Better to be called mad than to make lame excuses to my lady.”

I couldn’t help but be exasperated at the two men, now bickering once more.

Just earlier, they’d argued over who would sit beside me, and now they were at it again?

You’d think, after everything, they would be reflecting on how dangerous it had been— not picking another fight!

“Lady Cherry, Cheshire.”

Like sword and shield, Lady Cherry and Cheshire glared at each other before turning their gazes to me.

I rapped on the wall toward the driver to halt the carriage, then smiled menacingly as I spoke.

“You two return to the capital together. And on your way back, you can think about what you’ve done.”

“What? Why should I leave my lady behind…”

“My lady, just a moment…”

Bang!

Without waiting for their protests, I got out and shut the carriage door.

“How did they ever become so fractious?”

Leaving the now-silent carriage behind, I made my way to the temple carriage that had been following us.

After a light knock, a brief silence, and then, without resistance, the door opened to reveal Giuseppe’s face.

He must have been reading until just now—his golden eyes gazed at me steadily from behind his glasses.

“We need to talk.”

“…Please, come inside.”

As the carriage began to move again, an awkward silence filled the interior.

I broke it with a soft sigh, then asked the question that had been weighing on my mind.

“You once asked me if I could trust the High Priest.”

Before we were attacked by the black magician, he had asked me that.

‘Marquis, can you trust me?’

The answer I’d been unable to give then finally slipped from my lips now.

“Regrettably, I cannot trust you.”

I cannot trust him.

Perhaps that’s why, the day before, I’d refused the hand he’d extended in goodwill.

Even if it had brushed my fingertips by accident, I would have doubted whether he might glimpse my past through the power of Insight.

‘If he were to discover Leo’s existence…’

I didn’t even want to imagine how Giuseppe, a man who considered self-sacrifice a virtue, would react if he learned of the Star of Heroes.

Yet, it made no sense to ask Giuseppe to trust me when I, in turn, could not trust him.

“So, would you promise me one thing, so that perhaps I can come to trust you?”

Giuseppe replied at once.

“I will swear by the power of God, whatever it is…”

“No, I don’t need a divine oath.”

I cut him off and shook my head with a rueful smile.

“You don’t need the power of God to trust in people. Even a twelve-year-old at home understands that—how could I have forgotten something so simple?”

Perhaps this was what I should have done from the start.

Instead of probing his thoughts, hiding things, and proposing bargains, we might have found trust far less elusive if only we’d spoken plainly with one another.

I reached out my hand to him and spoke again.

“So just promise me this one thing. That you won’t judge me using divine power without my permission.”

“…”

“Let’s judge each other with human eyes, not those of a god, and see how talking goes. What do you say?”

Giuseppe stared down at my hand with an unreadable expression.

After a moment, he murmured to himself.

“You’re choosing the hard path, when there’s an easier one right in front of you.”

For once, there was no trace of a smile on his lips.

At last, Giuseppe bit at the end of his gauntlet, removed it, and slowly took my hand in his.

“I promise.”

Whether that oath in Giuseppe’s golden eyes was empowered by godly authority or not, I could not know.

All I could do was believe he would keep his promise to me.

---

Giuseppe’s carriage came to a halt just before dawn broke.

Upon arriving at the capital’s main cathedral, he immediately ordered his men to distribute descriptions of the surviving black magicians and issue a search order.

“High Priest, did the Saintess not return with you?”

“She is attending the funerals for those slain in this incident. She said she would not leave Valico for at least another week.”

“I see. You must be exhausted—please, take your rest.”

Giuseppe was making his way toward his lodgings out of habit when he stopped abruptly in the dark center of the corridor.

‘One does not need the power of God to trust in people…’

There was a note of bitterness in his muttered words.

Did she realize she had just denied the very foundation of his life?

Giuseppe had always judged everything through divine authority.

Now, for her to tell him not to judge her that way—it was impossible that such a sentiment could truly touch him.

Yet the reason he had taken her hand was due to a lingering doubt.

A distrust that perhaps—perhaps the vision shown to him by the divine power of Insight had been mistaken.

Seen through human eyes, not godly ones, she knew the value of a life and never turned away from those in danger; she was a good person.

The only one in his world of black and white to live on in shades of gray.

Yet even now, again, Giuseppe could not define her presence.

“Hah.”

A hollow laugh slipped from Giuseppe’s mouth. He resolved not to care anymore whether Belinda Blanche was good or evil.

The only thing that mattered was that she was needed to prevent calamity.

He repeated that fact to himself again and again, as if the moment he let his mind wander, the certainty would fade, subsumed by new meaning.