Ch.80Chapter 80. To the Papal States

# “Heheh, you smell just like Lin.”

After finishing the bath that had wrung out her very soul, Lucy happily sniffed Lin’s scent.

Beside her, Tigria, wearing a sleeveless top, subtly sniffed her own shoulders and armpits before saying expressionlessly:

“Me too. I like it.”

“……”

Lucy, who was clinging to Lin’s right side, glared at Tigria, who was attached to his left.

The mage paid no attention and looked up at Lin with a smile.

“Your hair isn’t completely dry. Want me to dry it with magic?”

“No, it’s fine.”

It’ll probably dry soon just from the heat of anger Lucy is radiating from the right.

Lin stared straight ahead.

Balance, it was all about maintaining balance.

Though he didn’t understand why he had to be the one maintaining it, he knew he had to.

“We have arrived.”

Contrary to expectations, Airan Dekarun had decided to host dinner not at the imperial palace but at her villa on the island.

Her reason was that as a mere proxy, she couldn’t act like the owner of the palace, but Lin sensed other motives.

As the carriage stopped, the butler and servants came out to greet them and guided the three to the dining area.

“Welcome, Lee Lin. Baggage carrier of the Hero’s party.”

Airan welcomed Lin with open arms.

The baggage carrier, who had never been called by his full name before, found the title the duchess used quite awkward.

“Please, sit.”

Strangely, Airan directly welcomed only Lin by name and treated the hero and mage as if they didn’t exist.

Judging by the properly set plates and utensils on the table, she had indeed invited all three.

The table wasn’t particularly large for nobility.

Not large for nobility meant it could still easily seat five people on each side.

A maid pushed in a cart and arranged various dishes on the table.

Then she served a single bite-sized portion of each dish to Airan.

“Mmm! This tastes good. I don’t let my butler or husband have special dishes except when guests come.”

Airan, chewing loudly but somehow quietly in a manner unbefitting her position as Commander-in-Chief of the Demon Army Front, tasted each dish once before raising her glass.

“See? No poison. Help yourselves.”

Lucy felt comfortable enough with Airan to at least enjoy dinner.

Lucy and Tigria picked up their forks, but Lin just stared at the dishes.

“Lin?”

Lucy looked puzzled, but Lin began stroking his chin while glaring at the utensils.

He glanced at Tigria’s side of the table, watching her gracefully handle her fork and knife.

The mage didn’t miss this moment.

“Hold the fork in your left hand like a pencil, like this. The knife too.”

She moved behind the baggage carrier, took his hands, and slowly taught him how to use the fork and knife.

Only then did Lucy realize that Lin was struggling because he didn’t know how to use the utensils properly.

She had forgotten that many commoners could manage spoons well enough but tended to grip forks like daggers, stabbing food haphazardly before biting it off.

She felt frustrated, but Airan’s following sarcastic comment sent chills down her spine.

“Oh? Teaching him this time, are we?”

The mage froze while holding Lin’s hand.

It was the day the baggage carrier had joined the Hero’s party, when they were having dinner at Airan’s invitation.

Everyone had watched as the baggage carrier stabbed a steak with his fork, lifted it whole, and chewed it awkwardly before putting it down.

‘Ugly and uncultured.’

‘Well, for commoners like us, that’s normal.’

‘Hmm, even though there’s a knife?’

‘It’s also inefficient for maximizing food intake.’

Comments from everyone except the shield knight.

There was no need to specify who said what.

Afterward, the baggage carrier only used tongs to put a little salad on his plate and didn’t eat anything else.

“Thank you.”

Lin expressed his gratitude and tried to use tongs to move salad from a bowl to his plate.

He was about to cover the pieces of meat he had cut with Tigria’s help.

Understanding the clear meaning, the hero and mage quietly put down their utensils.

Tigria finally understood why Lucy had been so attentive to Lin’s moods.

Cold sweat dampened her back and palms.

“I’m sorry, but you must eat. We leave tomorrow evening. Sigh, I should apologize. I didn’t realize the wound was so deep.”

Though Airan was being sarcastic, the broken relationship clearly saddened her as well.

After all, she was the one who had personally selected and recruited the Hero’s party members.

“When I first met you, I thought you were quite a peculiar young man.”

This time, Airan moved herself to cut all the meat in front of Lin.

“You took on all sorts of trivial requests and completed them thoroughly, yet your eyes showed ambition to become someone important.”

She took Lin’s hand, helped him spear a piece of meat with his fork, and guided it to his mouth.

“The people of that city liked you. They said their quality of life improved because you willingly did the jobs others didn’t want to do, not just grand tasks like hunting monsters outside the city or solving murder cases inside.”

As Lin reluctantly chewed the meat, Airan returned to her seat, satisfied.

“That’s why I suddenly offered you the role of baggage carrier for the Hero’s party. I believed you would mediate conflicts within the party well and provide solid rear support. I also believed the others, with their firm dreams and sense of duty, would maintain their boundaries and progress well.”

Tigria looked down at her cooling meat with a dark expression.

“But I never expected that talented individuals, crushed under the weight of their self-inflated dreams and sense of duty, would act so foolishly.”

Lucy clenched her fork in her fist.

The tines bent, digging into her palm.

“The hero was arrogant and had a hopelessly poor judgment of men.”

The fork dug deeper, drawing blood.

Lucy whispered to herself that Lin must have felt many times more pain than this.

“The saint always seemed to be running from something. Her impatience prevented her from seeing what was around her. The archer’s timidity was a clear weakness, but she still hasn’t overcome it.”

Lin selected two large rye bread rolls and sliced them neatly with his knife.

“The mage only cared about herself until the end.”

Tigria could only listen silently.

This guilt she felt was both a possibility that she could be better than the second generation and a stigma that she was still no better.

“The shield knight, that bastard figured it all out and exploited it for his own greed.”

Lin gathered various meats and placed them between the sliced rye bread.

“You seem to know everything.”

“I know what there is to know.”

“Then do you also know what I want from this journey to the Holy Nation?”

“I can guess, but it’s just a guess.”

Lin combined various sauces with the meat for flavor, then added tomatoes and lettuce from the salad for texture and nutrition, pushing them into the open gaps of the rye bread.

Thus, two luxurious rye bread sandwiches were completed, and Lin placed them on Lucy’s and Tigria’s plates.

Returning to his seat, Lin quietly stared at Airan.

“Tell me what you want.”

Lin removed his mask.

Lucy and Tigria froze in shock at his revealed expression.

The man with the fierce expression demanded just two words:

“Revenge.”

Though expected, it was still surprising.

Seeing the once gentle baggage carrier’s eyes clouded with vengeance, Airan realized he was merely human after all.

“The Holy Nation is rotten. Only two people can use holy power—the saint and the pope. Even Agreus has only demonstrated holy power for a little over five years.”

Above all, the terrible famine that had persisted for over three years symbolized the corruption of the Holy Nation.

It meant that those who served the goddess weren’t even receiving her care and were being neglected.

“I don’t know why the Goddess is allowing this, but one thing is certain: if we leave things as they are, we’ll all be swept away by the Goddess’s wrath along with the Holy Nation.”

The duchess downed her new wine.

It tasted only bitter.

“Purification is needed. If we show efforts to improve ourselves, perhaps the Goddess will only destroy the Holy Nation rather than everything. The tragedy of the second-generation hero happened because we humans took no action.”

Substituting purification for revenge perfectly aligned with what Lin wanted.

Airan Dekarun. The main force behind the princess’s downfall in the DLC’s latter half and a figure who would usher in a new era.

The first step of that revolution began with purifying the Holy Nation.

Now she was inviting Lin to be the main actor in this purification.

“I’m not the only one with the noble mission of purification.”

“How many others?”

“Two.”

As he answered, Lin looked at the hero and mage.

Both were mechanically chewing their rye bread sandwiches.

Though they had no appetite, they were fully aware of why they needed to restore their strength.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already recruited everyone.”

Airan poured plenty of new wine and raised her glass.

This time, Lin followed suit.

More precisely, only Lin raised his glass high.

“To our—”

“To purification.”

“To revenge.”

This was an opportunity.

For Airan, an opportunity for revolution.

For Lin, an opportunity for revenge.

For Lucy and Tigria, an opportunity to look good in Lin’s eyes.

It was an opportunity open to everyone.

And naturally, this opportunity—

“Hey there!”

“Ravin!”

—applied to Ravin the Thief as well.

“Truth is, I’ve been waiting for a man like you for a long time.”

In front of the magic circle heading to the Holy Nation, Ravin ignored Arsil who greeted him cheerfully and grinned at Lin.

“I’ll be joining this journey too. Anyone who has a problem with that can leave.”

There was no reason for anyone to object.

Arsil felt an inexplicable unease as he watched Lin and Ravin exchange meaningful glances.