Chapter 84. Closer to Body and Mind (8)

“What? Are you talking to me?”

“You should get your body and mind right first because you have been lazy in training and said useless things.”

“That, that…”

Dave, a knight who was trying to flirt with Annabelle, rolled his eyes and immediately started running, shouting his honor when he saw Ian’s cool face.

Everyone whispered at the sight.

“As expected… No matter how much they turn to a partnership because of the black magic, we can’t ignore the eight-year resentment.”

“He only complimented her a little, but he said 40 laps… The lord still really hates Annabelle.”

“If you’re a normal human being, you can’t forget those eight years of torment.”

“Since he is the leader, he can bury the old bad relationship and pretend to cooperate on the outside.”

So, no one in the Wade Knights had since approached Annabelle to praise her or get along with her.

Of course, Annabelle seemed to have nothing to do with it.

She even used all the items in the training room very comfortably and was guided by Leslie.

Of course, there were knights who decided to take a different route from Dave.

“Aren’t you being too comfortable? You once stirred things up like an idiot.”

One of the knights spoke up when Aaron was not around and blocked her bluntly.

Annabelle stared at her opponent while stretching and said.

“Then whom am I making it uncomfortable for? Anyway, don’t you think I’m stirring things in a conceptual way now?”

“But if you have a conscience, at least here…”

“What are you saying without any concept?”

“What? What?”

“If you’re going to pick a fight without concept, I’ll show you some.”

However, the knight who quarreled could no longer talk to Annabelle.

This time, Ian came up directly from afar.

“Billy Jankro.”

Ian stared at Billy with a burning expression.

“80 laps. Right now.”

“What? M-me?”

Billy’s quarrel with Annabelle was also a little bit of a reason to secretly appeal his loyalty to Ian.

“Why did I…”

So he was dumbfounded because he couldn’t accept the current situation.

“Don’t do anything to criticize Annabelle.”

“What?”

“I’m the only one who can hear Annabelle’s curse.” (tl/n: goodness Ian *face palms*)

Even Annabelle shut up at the words.

Her eyes, which were calm even when she was criticized by the knights, were filled with absurdity.

“Okay?”

Ian spoke firmly as if he were wedging.

Everyone was confused and busy organizing their thoughts.

“Will Ian… He really hates it when his knights are criticized.”

After some silence, someone with tremendous loyalty tried to wrap it up.

“Right. What kind of crazy person would want to monopolize it because they like to be criticized?”

“That can’t be true. It’s Ian, the standard of common sense and a living textbook.”

“He even joined hands with Annabelle, whom he hated for 8 years to root out the black magic!”

Everyone hurriedly nodded with uncomfortable faces.

In conclusion, the people of the Wade Knights could not flirt with Annabelle and could not swear.

Of course, they couldn’t help talking about this and that behind the scenes.

“Apart from absolute beauty… I think there’s something about her that fascinates people.”

“It’s different from the past. Her movements are like dancing.”

“The training time was incredible. I think it’s great.”

“Should I talk to her a little bit? If I can get cursed at, I’m even looking forward to it.” (pr/n: there are M’s all over the place lmao)

“I think I’ll feel like Ian if I get cursed at by Annabelle for some reason.”

Of course, it was self-evident that even those stories fell into Ian’s ear.

Soon after, Ian made a shocking announcement to the Knights.

“For the time being, the overall training will be supervised by Aaron Rainfield.”

Aaron was astonished at the words.

“Why did you give me such a hard task…?”

Ignoring Aaron’s words, Ian responded bluntly.

“I don’t like how everyone can’t take their eyes off Annabelle.”

“What?”

“Everyone seems to be unable to concentrate because of Annabelle.”

They couldn’t even ask questions because of Ian’s brutal eyes.

“From tomorrow, Annabelle and I will not come to the training ground.”

“Then what?”

Ian responded bluntly to Annabelle’s freaked out question, which was the first time hearing her remark.

“I’ll train alone in a remote place, so you should go too.”

~*~

There was much gossip inside the temple about the divine power of Bellinock, who was newly appointed to the position of High Priest.

This was because the more prominent candidates for the high-ranking government became high-ranking officials because of their personal circumstances, or as they were called out.

His strength was not measured numerically, and it changed a lot depending on the condition of the day.

Therefore, it was difficult to make an absolute comparison with others because only the person knew their own powers.

So, people could not openly doubt Bellinock’s divine power, but the rumors abounded.

It was unavoidable that Cessianne, who had proven her tremendous power to everyone through the paternity test, to Bellinok, who had guessed all the circumstances, was annoyed.

“Cessianne.”

Bellinock had a disposition to harass anyone who he felt offended him.

“You seem to be very interested in the world these days. Maybe it’s because you’re hanging out with Rainfield.”

“Yes?”

Like the owner of such a personality, Bellinock would call out Cessianne from time to time and make all kinds of accusations.

Today, she was called in after work and was being scolded needlessly.

“Even if you marry Aaron Rainfield and go to work in the temple, you must not forget that you are still a servant of God.”

Just because she worked in a temple didn’t mean she couldn’t get married. Saints and priests were recognized as a profession.

“I’m sorry, High Priest.”

The honest Cessianne answered cautiously.

“We haven’t met for a while, so there’s no talk of marriage yet. But even if we do get married, I don’t understand why it’s a worldly concern that is not befitting of a servant of God.”

“It’s because you didn’t do your best to serve God!”

“For example, what…”

Cessianne was consistently calm, but Bellinock was furious.

“Huh, for example? Did you memorize the bible? I can see how you’ve been slacking off without showing any effort on the subject.”

“…The Bible has a total of 3,029 books. Is the High Priest memorizing…”

“I was memorizing when I just took off my apprenticeship ticket!”

Bellinock was speaking quickly, fearing that Cessianne would chastise him from her words.

“Anyway, it means you can’t memorize. Transcribe them and any external events are prohibited until all copies have been transcribed.”

Cecianne tried to protest his absurdity, but she gave up.

In any case, she belonged to the temple, and she was obliged to obey the orders of the High Priest within the temple.

Even putting up the condition of ‘not attending external events’ meant ‘don’t go out of your way to the temple’.

Of course, the indomitable Cessianne did not collapse.

‘Somehow, I have to finish everything quickly.’

She immediately grabbed a parchment and trudged to her basement library.

‘To copy all 3,029 books…? How long will it take?’

It was very tedious to copy even from the first volume.

As with all temple people, everyone used to study only one book thoroughly.

Cessianne also memorized up to five books.

‘Should I write something I don’t know first so that I don’t get bored?’

No matter how much you put yourself in the temple, it was not easy to read all 3,029 books.

It was even written in ancient words, so it took a long time to interpret.

Everyone knew the content roughly, and few people knew the exact phrases.

Cecianne took out 2,817 books while circling the dusty library.

‘Oh? Let’s do this. It may be helpful to Annabelle. It certainly seems to be related to the movement of the divine power that blessings come down every time the origin of the black magic is broken.’

She sat right down and began transcribing

「How to transfer divine powers.」

「The power that has lost its owner becomes a form of blessing and can be converted into divine power. There are no side effects at this time.」

“This is like an explanation of God’s blessing to Annabelle. Then, what is ‘power that lost its owner’?”

Cessianne focused and quickly read the next phrase, but that was the end of the explanation.

“But I have to at least deliver this to you. I’ll ask her to meet me next time. Actually, Annabelle looks really cool carrying a sword around…”

And from the next verse, it was a description of people moving their powers between people.

“What does this mean?”

If it was easy, Bellinock would not have jumped to his position this fast.

He must have somehow transferred his power to overcome that sense of inferiority.

In the past, I think I remember hearing things like, ‘There is a way to transfer energy, but everyone has a reason not to’.

「However, it is possible to move human-to-human power under mutual agreement and two side effects follow.」

Cessianne blinked and soaked ink in a feather pen.