Ch.203Revelation (17)

Another day dawned. Kain, Maria, and the genealogist Huber visited the document room. Within 30 minutes, Kain called the two over, saying he had “found Laios’s hometown.”

Huber sincerely congratulated Kain and Maria. Receiving such excessive praise that it was almost embarrassing, Kain suspected it might actually be appreciation directed at the genealogist himself for “not having to look through boring documents.”

“So, what are your plans now?”

“We’ve found what we needed, so we should depart. Thank you for all your help.”

“I only did what was necessary. My goodness, to think such things are scattered across the land. It’s unacceptable. Truly unacceptable. I wish we could be of more help…

Well, when Liliana becomes the Knight Commander, she’ll naturally march out. Just wait a little until then!”

Huber patted Kain’s shoulder. He seemed to have no idea that Kain and Maria were planning to break Lily out and escape.

“By the way, the delegation is leaving today as well. When they depart, security will be tight, so if you’re going, you’d better hurry.”

As always, Huber personally guided them. They passed through rooms that all looked the same. Doors that were locked yesterday were open today, and conversely, doors that were open yesterday were now locked.

Despite staying for several days, they couldn’t get used to this maze-like structure. That’s why Maria, walking behind Huber and Kain, shook her sleeve once to reveal a hidden dagger.

She carefully carved marks on the doorframes of each room they passed through. She scratched them so delicately that no one but the person who made them would notice they were there.

Eventually, the two reached their cabins. They each retrieved the bundles they had packed in advance. Just one backpack each, not much. Maria handed hers over to Kain.

Carrying both bags, Kain headed toward the guest stables. Maria retraced their path. She hid in the shadows when White Blood soldiers marched by in formation, and moved quickly when no one was watching.

On the path toward the central road, she came across a storage shed where shovels and other tools were kept for when snow accumulated. Maria carefully opened the door. When she opened a box in the corner, she found what she was hoping for.

Casual clothes worn by the White Blood members. Lily, Boehm, and Bom had stolen and stashed them there the night before.

Maria quickly changed her clothes. She wrapped cloth around her face and pulled her hood down low, like members unaccustomed to the cold.

But something was missing. After a moment’s thought, Maria wrapped a thin wooden stick with thin white leather. It looked just like a scroll. If she ran with it looking urgent, she would appear like a member delivering a message.

Fortunately, Maria reached the main fortress without incident. She found her way by following the marks she had made. She moved carefully along the blue carpet on the floor as Kain had instructed.

‘My body feels light.’

Her body felt unusually light for an infiltration after so long. She suddenly recalled when she first arrived at the village chapel. Unaccustomed to the high altitude, her head had ached despite continuous breathing, and her body had felt weak.

But now it was different. Her movements were definitely smoother and more flexible. Perhaps it was because she had removed all the leather bindings that had constricted her body.

Now only one leather binding remained, tied around her left wrist. All the other seals had been broken anyway. Some she had undone herself, while others, though unwanted, had been broken by her mother who dwelled within her.

Her father Heinrich couldn’t answer what would happen if all the seals were broken. He didn’t know either. Even her mother Elisabet hadn’t spoken about it. He could only assume that the seals were binding Maria’s powers.

As the daughter of an inquisitor who wielded fire and light, and a witch who controlled darkness and shadows, theoretically she could use both powers. Moreover, Elisabet’s bloodline was said to be powerful through generations.

But at least Maria had never manipulated darkness and shadows. When she first manifested light, Heinrich had wept with joy.

From the moment she manifested light, her path as an inquisitor was set. There could be no other way. One day, Heinrich had said, “You don’t know how fortunate it is that you can’t control shadows and darkness.” If she could, he said, she would have been burned at the stake.

“How nice for you, Father.”

That was how she had sarcastically responded then.

But after leaving Magdeburg, experiencing countless events, and receiving the unintended help from “the mother inside her” that had once felt awkward and burdensome, Maria’s thoughts gradually changed.

Lily could sometimes be frustratingly stubborn, and Kain occasionally seemed to act so recklessly that he might be insane.

But both were precious companions. They were the first friends she had truly met and accepted deep in her heart. And Maria knew that Lily too had suffered for a long time because of her parents.

“I don’t know what you’ll think, but I envy you, unni.”

“Why?”

“Because your parents love you and want to protect you.”

One night, Lily had muttered those words. She couldn’t remember exactly where it was. All she knew for certain was that they were both completely drunk. Was it in a city with a beautiful lake, or an evening in the forest where they had lit a bonfire and eaten their fill of meat?

“I don’t know. I just think we’re both too good as daughters. No, don’t add anything. You’re good. If it were me, I would have said ‘live well’ and turned everything upside down before leaving.”

“I did that.”

“You turned things upside down?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then you’re good. I did. Not that I’m proud of it.”

It had been a miserable life. Where in the world could she proudly say she was the daughter of an inquisitor and a witch? She hadn’t asked to be born this way.

But just because she was born that way, she knew how to handle powers. And then the world immediately treated her differently. The problem child and petty thief from the back alleys of Magdeburg was suddenly treated as an apostle of light leading truth and justice overnight.

Though disgusted, Maria diligently followed the process. It was much better than a life of throwing human garbage into the trash.

But she couldn’t do it. She thought it was because of her mother dwelling inside her. The most burdensome thing for a child is when parents interfere in every aspect of their life.

And to have her mother occupying a corner of her soul? It was the most dreadful thing in the world.

The thought that her mother could see, hear, and feel everything she saw, met, or thought, while never knowing how her mother might react, made Maria feel like her mind was being torn apart.

It was around that time that she bound her entire body with leather straps. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what kind of spell her mother had used. It was a spell of recovery, regeneration, and restoration.

The incomprehensible phrase was: “A seed falls and becomes a tree, and the tree bears seeds again. So the seed and the tree are one, only appearing different according to the flow of time.”

What Maria had done was close to “freezing” time. Seeds don’t germinate when it’s too hot or too cold.

That’s why Maria had bound the mother inside her. When she thought of “mother,” she was filled with disgust, irritation, resentment, and anger. Each time, she tightened the leather bindings more, extended them, and wrote spells on them.

But after they fell off one by one, and after hearing that Kain had spoken with her “mother” while she was unconscious, the first emotion Maria felt was jealousy.

Jealousy toward Kain. Even she was taken aback by it.

‘I haven’t even been able to talk to my own mother.’

Of course, she quickly erased the thought in shock. It wasn’t Kain’s fault. But somehow she felt indebted to him in her heart.

That was also why she followed Kain’s outrageous plan in the City of Lombardt without complaint and came all the way here. Because she felt sorry for Kain. And because she wanted to ask about her mother.

Strangely, thinking this way made her body feel lighter. She seemed to have gained some weight too. Not that she had become fat, but her once skeletal body had become just slightly thinner than average.

That made the withering Lily all the more pitiful. In truth, she didn’t find Valhalla or the White Blood Knightly State so bad.

She had bristled when Kain asked if she was suited to this place, and she had always considered herself a city person, but somehow this place felt comfortable.

‘Like a seed drifting through the air finally finding its place to take root.’

It was a passage written in a forbidden book. The priests of the Life Tree Order also emphasized the compatibility between land and people. Just as seeds search for land where they can bloom, so should people.

Maria paused briefly to catch her breath. She needed to be less focused. She couldn’t forget what she needed to do by becoming too sensitive and sharp. If you focus too much on one point, you miss both the tree and the forest.

Fortunately, she reached the “corridor.” The corridor where Lily’s room was located. Rooms for unmarried high-ranking knights lined both sides of the corridor, and Lily’s was at the very end.

The corridor bustled with apprentice knights and servants. Each was attending to the knight they served. They helped them put on armor, tightened leather straps, and fixed them so they wouldn’t be uncomfortable.

Since the Emperor’s delegation was scheduled to leave in the afternoon, there was no dawn or morning training, so the high-ranking knights were being deployed a bit later for their duties.

Maria strode confidently to the room at the very end. Lily’s room was also full of apprentice knights and servants. As she was about to enter from the doorway, she involuntarily drew in her breath.

Imperial knight armor is plain. Even crude. Yet everyone wants to become an Imperial knight because of the white rose engraved on the armor.

That single white rose explains everything about the wearer. It represents the pride of being a guardian who is excellent and capable enough to join the Imperial Knights, and who has sworn to dedicate their life to the Emperor and the Empire.

In contrast, the armor of electors and nobles is splendid. It’s meant to show off their wealth or aesthetic sense. Unlike the Imperial Knights who don’t need to display themselves, they needed the support of other nobles or the people. They say clothes make the man, and what could draw attention better than splendid armor?

But the White Blood armor stands apart from all of that.

The color itself was dark. It looked as if soot had been deliberately smeared on the steel. As if it had been pulled from a battlefield swept by wildfire.

Perhaps because of this, every decoration seemed ominous. Lions with their jaws torn off glared from both shoulders. The lion’s lower jaw was attached to the neck guard part of the armor, which from a distance might look like a monster with only its jaw remaining after its head had been torn off.

A two-headed eagle writhed on the breastplate. This was due to the raised blood vessels extending from the body of the eagle with its wings spread wide. The blood vessels were spread evenly like a spider web, sometimes looking like raised blood vessels and sometimes like dried thorny vines.

The left eagle head was alive and howling, while the right eagle head seemed already dead and rotting, with only a skull and flesh attached.

Yet both heads were angry and seemed desperate to fly at you at any moment. Every time the wearer of the armor turned their body, the feathers of the spread wings gleamed, making it seem as if the bird on the armor would leap out and tear at you.

Other armors were similar. A snake leaping from the mouth of a screaming human. A wolf’s head with its mouth wide open on the belly of a bear that was growling with its front paws raised. The head of a ram charging with its horns raised seemed ordinary at first glance, but upon closer inspection, a human skull was engraved in the middle of its forehead.

Bizarre. Grotesque. Maria could only think of fragments of such words. The White Blood armor wasn’t about proving oneself. It was just shouting:

I am your adversary. I will make you kneel. I am your enemy.

I will destroy you.