Chapter 85

Chapter 85. Closer to Body and Mind (9)

「First, if you keep the transferred divine power in your body for a long time, there will be side effects. Therefore, it must be exhausted immediately.」

This meant that he could not continue to have the power he received from others.

「Second, after using the transferred divine power, all kinds of thoughts, emotions, and memories are shared with each other.」

“Wow, that’s terrible.”

Cessianne murmured, shaking her body.

The concept of sharing emotions, memories, and thoughts was a huge penalty.

“Who would want to share the divine power in such unfavorable conditions?”

Even mutual agreement was necessary, so it could not be taken by force.

“…But the great villains will do something about it.”

Cessianne calmly turned to the next chapter and continued her writing.

She didn’t forget to curse Bellinock inwardly.

‘While I am suffering like this, the High Priest may be resting comfortably by now.’

But Cessianne’s prediction was wrong.

Bellinock was sighing deeply in agony.

He had been unable to sleep these days because of the thought of facing Carlon.

He told Carlon that he couldn’t find the origin of the third black magic, but Carlon did not accept that.

It was his command to find it somehow.

Of course, the ‘origin of black magic’ from another world was not something that could be known from this world.

The first two were discovered by sacrificing two powerful ancient magical items deep within the imperial palace.

And since there was nothing more to offer, he joined hands with Bellinock to find the other one.

The only contract the priest could make with the devil was to offer a huge amount of divine power.

The divine power was the power of blessing to benefit the people of this world, so just making it disappear meant betraying the god and the empire.

Desiring for the seat of the high priest, he quickly grabbed Carlon’s hand, but when he offered his divine power, the demon did not answer. It was because he lacked power.

The urging continued.

And he replied that when Carlon left the Empire, he couldn’t do it even after all this time.

But the answer from Carlon was firm.

「Even if you lose your divine power, find the origin of the third black magic.」

Carlon was now returning to the Empire.

He said he was coming much faster than he even planned to cast a high-intensity acceleration spell on the carriage.

“Find the origin of black magic. Then I will make you a high priest.”

Bellinock had always been a weakling to Carlon.

It was because it was Carlon who put him in this position, who had risen to the top of the nomination list, but lacked the confidence to become high priest.

It was the power that made even a priest with insufficient power into a high priest.

Of course, if you gave your power to the devil, your next life would be completely ruined…

‘I do not know! I’m only living this life! Still, this is a bit…’

Bellinock sullenly touched the note.

A way of stealing power.

‘But divine power is not a measurable force. I don’t even know exactly who has the most divine power.’

Of course, there was one person who must have possessed tremendous divine power.

However, it was also a condition that it was made under mutual agreement, so sharing thoughts, memories, and emotions was too dangerous.

So Bellinock wrote a candid answer explaining why he couldn’t steal the power.

A few days later, however, Bellinock received a letter that went beyond his guess.

「It doesn’t matter if it’s shared. We can kill them.」

~*~

(Annabelle’s pov)

A few days had passed since I entered the Duke of Wade.

“Annabelle? No, how did you suddenly become so agile? Is this possible?”

When I raised my sword in front of Leslie for the first time after killing the deer, Leslie was astonished.

In the end, I told her that I was given an eye that could tell the origins of black magic, and that every time I broke it, I was blessed.

It was because Leslie could certainly be trusted.

“Right. So that’s why the two of you went around breaking the origins of black magic together?”

Perhaps because there was a record of two achievements together, Leslie accepted it easily.

And she said it was funny.

“Then you have become a colleague and rival with Ian! It’s really fun to have a relationship like that. It’s perfect for growing up with each other.”

“Yes, it is fun.”

Ian added, after saying it was fun with a serious face that looked like it was the most uninteresting thing in the world.

“So, as my mother said, I decided to take special care to help each other grow.”

Upon hearing this, Aaron’s expression became slightly strange and he muttered sadly.

“If it’s special care… Hmm, I guess I’ll have to stick with Ian all day. I would like to express my condolences in advance to my sister who will have the most boring days in the world.”

First of all, Aaron was right about being with Ian all day.

“Annabelle, come with me.”

Whereas in the old days it was me who visited him every morning, now he was visiting me every morning.

So, it used to be like this.

First, I get rid of the gatekeeper and enter the training ground of the Wade Knights.

At first, a few knights got in my way, but later they realized it was just a waste of time.

After that, they would immediately open the way to Ian.

Now, a very different but similar scene was unfolding.

First of all, Ian appeared in the garden not far from the annex from the wind to start a morning warm-up exercise.

“Come on, Annabelle. It’s training time. Go quickly.”

Then he knew and patted my back.

Both mother and father had the belief that ‘Ian Wade would definitely make our daughter stronger’.

And in a very right and wonderful way.

“If it’s Ian, we can trust him. No matter how bad the relationship is, he will lead his colleagues with a sense of responsibility.”

That was correct.

But the problem was that we weren’t strangely bad friends.

After being pushed back by his family and following him all morning through the large gardens of the Duke of Wade, Ian always handed me water.

I was always thirsty around that time, so I had no choice but to accept it.

“Come on, I’ll add a mint leaf and you’ll be energized.”

“Yesterday there were two, but reduced to one?”

“I wrinkled my nose a lot when I put two in.”

Even the temperature was just right enough to empty a bottle in an instant.

Except for the first few days, I didn’t even go to the training ground.

Because of Ian’s insistence that the knights neglected training to watch us, we would usually train alone in a remote garden.

I spent the morning with Ian sword fighting, but the aspect of the match was completely different from before.

In the past, it was just one-sided, but now we can compete for a long time.

To be honest, I didn’t know how many talented people Carlon would bring, but it didn’t seem like it would be easy to be stronger than I was now.

Of course, we had a strategy in place to prepare for that.

And words that would never have come out before came out of Ian’s mouth.

“Do it one more time.”

Originally, I was the one who rushed to fight one more time, though.

However, Ian only pushed me until I was exhausted and then gave me an appropriate break.

I knew it when I was learning to dance before, but Ian was a human with very high qualities as a teacher.

He knew how to extract the best efficiency according to the level of the student.

“Come on, here’s the handkerchief. Wipe off your sweat.”

Of course, other qualities were also high.

“Rehydrate again.”

This was also my experience at Caronda.

“Here’s a blanket because your body temperature may drop.”

But I didn’t know he would be this way in real time even if we weren’t pretending to be fake lovers.

“Don’t sit on the grass recklessly because you’ll get bitten by insects. Sit here on the rug.”

“Ian.”

I kept my mouth shut, enjoying the comfort of my heart, and ended up saying a word.

“You don’t have to lift your arms and legs like this. Aren’t you overly good at it?”

“It’s natural.”

Ian said with a blunt face.

“Because I’m good at everything.”

“Yeah, you’re good at everything.”

I replied, shaking my head.

“Even answering without saying anything.”

“I hope you don’t feel pressured.”

“That’s not true.”

I said leisurely while sucking on the candy that Ian had prepared for the sugar filling.

“I am not a person who is burdened with the favor of others. I’ve never had a favor.”

“You have hair in your mouth.”

His fingers carefully pulled the hair off my cheek.

For a moment, our eyes met, but I stopped breathing for a moment because the sensation of his fingertips touching me was strange.

During the match, there was a lot of tumbling, but I couldn’t understand why I instinctively flinched at such a small touch.

It must have been the same with Ian.

Still, he reached out to me and said to the end.

“Give me the candy cane. Don’t keep messing around. My hands are dry.”

“Ian.”

I sighed as I held the candy in my hand.

“Honestly, I can understand that you are serious about my training.”

Everyone in the duke’s house thought he had special care for me as a colleague.

And I didn’t find it strange at all.

Although Ian was blunt, it was because he was known for taking care of each member of the Knights with meticulous attention to detail.

But no one would have thought Ian would be this caring.

“Why are you so serious about being so perfect in this?”