Ch.296Episode 12 – The Strongest Mage in History

Despite the city’s noise filling the surroundings, Lucia’s whisper came through clearly.

The distant honking, laughter from the courtyard, and the chirping of birds perched by the window.

Neither Lucia nor I exchanged many words.

Yet, sitting in that cramped confessional with a wooden lattice between us, continuing our peculiar silence, human thought naturally arrives at a certain possibility.

Even without a moving story that stirs people’s hearts or some special circumstance others might never experience.

That there’s nothing wrong with falling in love.

That she had fallen in love at some point.

Episode 12 – The Greatest Magician in History

A large ball of fire descended to the earth.

The sun, burning brightly with a yellow glow.

The sun, painting the gloomy gray sky crimson, seemed several times larger when setting behind the western mountains than when hanging high in the sky.

The clear crimson light dyed the whole world in a fresh, modest hue.

Behind the sun slowly hiding itself beyond the horizon, the tinted clouds began to shine brilliantly.

The colors of the thinly spread clouds were so diverse that they were almost impossible to describe in words.

The last gift from the setting sun. The evening glow that tickles the skin pours through the marble columns.

Lucia, who had been gazing at the golden sphere sinking between the mountains, slowly turned her head.

The soft crimson afterglow shattered against her vivid blonde hair. The sight resembled waves crashing against coastal cliffs, creating white foam.

The broken sunset scattered in all directions like a faint ring, and her brilliant golden hair, enhanced by the added colors, blazed even more vividly.

The blue-eyed clergy with eyes as clear as the sea of Jerusalem.

Lucia greeted me warmly with a benevolent smile.

“I’ve been waiting.”

She smiled gently. Her eyes curved in beautiful arcs. Her thin lips drew smooth curves.

Lips as slender as thin lotus leaves. Lucia’s lips, glowing with a light pink hue, seemed more like azaleas than cherries.

Her blue eyes, light pink lips, and high nose were distinctive elements that added beauty to her slender, small face.

“How long have you been waiting?”

At my casual question, the corners of Lucia’s lips curled up slightly.

“Not too long. I just arrived myself.”

That wasn’t true.

She had come to the confessional before sunset, meaning Lucia had been sitting here waiting for quite some time.

Her lie as a clergy wasn’t to avoid embarrassment or to save face, but to alleviate any discomfort the other person might feel if told the truth.

“…”

I looked at Lucia with a complicated expression as she calmly told her lie.

It wasn’t that I was disappointed in her attitude of lying. After all, I make my living by lying, so who am I to judge?

Rather, what troubled me was…

The sight of her looking at me with sparkling, loving eyes was so puzzling.

Unable to hide my bewilderment, I spoke in a low voice.

“I believe you called me to the confessional for a reason. Is it perhaps about what you couldn’t tell me this morning?”

“…”

Lucia’s smile stiffened slightly.

She had expected this, but it seemed she hadn’t anticipated I would bring it up so quickly.

“Yes.”

Lucia nodded with a clear smile.

“I’m going to give you the answer to the question you asked me this morning.”

She placed her clasped hands neatly on her knees. With her chin slightly pulled in and her gaze lowered.

Looking like someone who had come to receive confession from a priest, Lucia quietly closed her eyes.

And moved her tightly closed lips.

“I love you.”

*

I love you.

The words from Lucia’s mouth were simple.

There were no elaborate phrases or embarrassing affectations. Just those three words, “I love you.” That was all.

It seemed so plain for a confession that for a moment I wondered if it was a joke.

But.

Because those blue eyes beyond the latticed confessional window were filled with a poignant emotion I had never seen before.

That simple confession touched me more deeply than a hundred words appealing to emotion with lengthy additions.

There was no need to ask who she was talking to.

After all, I was the one who had shared her bed until just a few days ago.

In other words, Lucia was now confessing to me.

“…Lucia.”

“Yes.”

“Are you… being sincere…?”

“Yes.”

Her brilliant blonde hair swayed gently up and down.

“I am speaking sincerely and seriously.”

I pressed my dry lips together.

Lucia, who had confessed so calmly, showed not a hint of hesitation.

Though she shyly averted her gaze from belated embarrassment, her voice and attitude remained consistently upright and dignified.

A man receiving a confession from a saint.

There must be very few people in the history of Abas, no, in the history of the world, who have received love confessions from saints.

I was at a loss in the face of Lucia’s sudden confession.

“…Since when?”

“Well…”

Lucia, with her hands folded demurely, fell into reminiscence. She blinked her pretty eyelashes as she reflected on the past.

“I can’t tell you exactly from which point… But I’ve liked you for a long time.”

“…So you don’t know specifically since when.”

“That’s right.”

She said she had liked me for a long time. What was probably just affection must have changed to love relatively recently.

There’s no particular trigger that comes to mind.

But is love ever as straightforward as a mathematical formula?

Love cannot be followed by any leap of logic.

It can burn like fire and cool in an instant, or come naturally without reason like an apple falling to the ground, only to lose its purpose and move by inertia at some point. That’s what love is.

So it’s not strange that Lucia suddenly fell in love.

I’m not a demon of lust, just an ordinary human—how could I bewitch her mind?

But there was something troubling me, which is why, despite Lucia’s brave confession, I had to delay my answer.

“…”

“What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong…?”

“No, Lucia, that’s not it. It’s not your fault. It’s just…”

“Please tell me.”

“…”

I lowered my gaze as I moved my lips.

“I appreciate your courage in confessing. But I don’t think it will work. I’m sorry, but I can’t accept your confession.”

“…”

At my clear rejection, Lucia’s breath stopped.

She opened her eyes wide and her breathing halted. It seemed as if she had even forgotten to blink.

Lucia silently stared at me through the confessional window.

She didn’t get angry, show disappointment, or make a sad face.

She just silently maintained her silence as if deeply contemplating something, and finally opened her mouth to ask one careful question.

“…May I ask… the reason…?”

“…”

Reason?

There are many reasons.

Company regulations prohibiting relationships with foreigners, public perception, the subtle discord it might create within our group.

Many reasons come to mind, but there was one weighing heavily on my heart.

“I’m afraid you’ll suffer because of me.”

The hardest thing about love is that it’s a union of two people.

There’s no such thing as a relationship where one person unilaterally pours out affection and the other just receives it.

Love is about giving back as much as you receive, and sometimes pouring out several times more affection.

It might seem irrational, but it can’t be helped.

You can’t apply rationality to love.

“You’re already busy, and I’m afraid you’ll suffer unnecessarily because of me.”

Even love between ordinary people isn’t easy, let alone someone like me.

It doesn’t matter how much affection I might have for Lucia, Veronica, or anyone else. There are plenty of intelligence officers who struggle between love and work.

I was one of them, so I know well.

“Is… that so…”

“Yes.”

“…”

Lucia fell silent. As if it was a reason she had never considered.

“…I didn’t realize that was your intention. I’ve been childish again.”

“Well, you don’t have to put it that way…”

“But I still love you.”

Lucia said.

“I know. There will be difficult times. There might be days so painful they’re hard to endure. That pain might make our hearts crumble and resent each other. Just as I did when I lost someone precious.”

Her light pink lips drew a smooth curve. A bright smile bloomed on her face.

“Nevertheless, I believe.”

She said.

“That I will never regret falling in love with you at this moment.”

Then she stood up. The face visible through the lattice of the confessional window disappeared.

The sound of the door opening and shoes stepping on wood followed, and her body also disappeared. Lucia had left the confessional.

Before I could even think to find out what was happening.

With a creak, the door of the confessional opened with the scream of old hinges.

“Lucia?”

The person who opened the door was Lucia.

Having left the seat where the clergy sits, she opened the door to where I was, gently holding her cassock so it wouldn’t drag on the floor, and slowly moved forward.

Eventually, as the door closed, she and I remained in one place.

A small confessional barely big enough for one person. The brilliant evening glow poured through the confessional window I hadn’t managed to close.

Having entered the cramped room, she stood facing me and pulled my hand. A hand that lifted without resistance.

Lucia, holding my hand with her soft white hand, smiled gently with her blue eyes sparkling.

“So I will always tell you confidently.”

She confessed.

“I truly love you.”

A simple confession that matched her calm voice.

There were no well-crafted phrases or desperate tears.

But Lucia’s smile, her eyes bluer than the sea of Jerusalem, illuminated by the brilliant sunset in the cathedral’s confessional.

It was so poignant.

*

Nothing much happened after that.

I grabbed the shoulders of Lucia as she slowly brought her lips to mine like a bird touching its beak.

Startled for a moment by the unexpected touch, she soon smiled softly and pressed her lips to mine again.

It was a static expression of affection, but satisfying enough.

I sat Lucia on my lap and pulled her thighs closer as I sat in the confessional chair.

The cramped confessional and our closely pressed bodies. It reminded me of the narrow penitence room where we first slept together. Add to that the common point of being in a location with sparse foot traffic. A coincidence, but the situation was remarkably similar.

Lucia seemed to notice this too, as she turned her gaze away shyly and pushed me away slightly. I buried my face in her nape and kissed her soft skin.

“Ah, there…”

“What?”

“Won’t it leave a mark if you do that…?”

“That’s the point.”

“…Pardon?”

-♪

Just then, a phone ring filled the confessional.

Both Lucia, who was sitting on my lap and gently pressing the back of my head, and I, who was kissing her neck, were startled.

-♪

At the loud ringtone, Lucia was startled like a cat doused with water. She scrambled off my lap and began to straighten her disheveled clothes and hair.

The moment I heard the ringtone, I was reminded of the executive director who once called to tell me to rush out because of an emergency. I had to rush from my girlfriend’s place in Seoul all the way to Gyeonggi Province.

I don’t understand why they always cause trouble after work hours.

“What now…”

I turned my pockets inside out and irritably checked the caller ID.

Then, relaxing my furrowed brow slightly, I sighed deeply and answered the phone.

It was Francesca calling.

“Oh, Administrator. What brings you to call at this hour?”

A woman’s voice came from the other end of the phone.

But something was off.

No matter how I listened, it didn’t sound like Francesca’s voice.

-‘Ah, ah! Got it!’

“…Camilla?”

-‘Yes! It’s me!’

I was so surprised that I stood up and adjusted my grip on the phone.

“What’s going on? Why are you answering the Administrator’s phone?”

-‘Francesca is over there… No, that’s not important right now…!’

Camilla’s urgent cry came through the phone.

-‘People here are coughing up blood en masse!’