Chapter 28: Ch 28: Spreading the News
"Hmm, they managed to make it quite a bit farther than I expected. But it’s weird. I can sense Leon, but it seems as if he has stopped moving."
Kael felt a little worried about the situation.
He would not have been this concerned if he had sensed the signal coming from a town or even a house. But the current signal was coming from the middle of the forest.
It made him hurry, and he finally decided to use magic to shorten the distance he needed to travel.
He immediately arrived at the road where the carriage was supposed to be, but there was no sign of it anywhere. It did not help that the road had a wall on one side and a cliff on the other.
"Hmm, I don’t see the carriage anywhere. Do you think something happened to it?"
Iris asked as she looked around along with Seraphina.
Kael’s eyes drifted toward the cliff, and he suddenly had a feeling he knew where the carriage was.
’Darn it! Don’t tell me the carriage fell down the cliff? How did that even happen?’
Something must have gone wrong for such a thing to occur, and Kael cast a stronger spell to make sure he was not mistaken.
The thread that connected him to Leon led down the cliff, and he let out a curse as he followed it.
Iris and Seraphina followed him, and Kael used his magic to make their descent easier as well.
All three of them landed lightly on their feet, but they had no time to marvel at the magic he used. Instead, they needed to use this time to find traces of Leon.
Kael immediately followed the magical thread, and the first thing he saw was the destroyed carriage.
It was buried under rubble, and he immediately pulled it out from beneath the debris. Then, he started searching the carriage for Leon.
But all Kael could see were two adult bodies.
’Darn it! Where is he? I need to find him-’
He tugged at the string in his hand and finally noticed where it connected. It was leading him a little farther away from the carriage.
Kael finally noticed Leon’s body, which looked unharmed, and all the tension bled out of his frame.
’Thank god he’s still alive! I would not know what to do if Leon died!’
Leon was the hero and the chosen savior of this world. The goddess’s powers resided within him, and he was said to bring greatness. Kael was counting on him to handle things once chaos started, so he did not want to lose Leon.
But those were all excuses he told himself to mask his real feelings. Kael did not want to admit that he had come to care for Leon. So he relied on excuses for now.
"Is he alright? Do I need to bury him if he’s dead? I assume we will need to hide the evidence-"
"He’s not dead yet, Iris. So there is no need to do anything drastic. Rather, I want you to cover Seraphina’s eyes for me. I don’t want her to see the state Leon is in."
Kael told Iris, and she complied.
"There is no need to do that. I can handle-"
"I wouldn’t want you to look at your childhood friend’s unconscious body. This memory must already be traumatizing for you. I don’t want to make it worse."
Kael told her, and Seraphina finally calmed down. But she looked unhappy with his decision.
[Seraphina’s affection +5]
...or maybe she was not and was just pretending to be angry because Kael told her no.
Whatever the reason was, Kael did not have time to deal with this. He was sure that news of what happened would have reached the Cardinal by now.
There was no way the temple would sit still when Kael had disposed of two of its people.
Moreover, he had played the recording with Sir Juniper right in the middle of a public space. The rumors must already be circulating by now.
’It won’t surprise me if I get the Cardinal’s summons as soon as I head home. But since this situation is not my fault, I don’t need to fear anything.’
Rather, it was an opportunity for Kael to press forward and get what he wanted from the Cardinal.
The temple would not be able to refuse his requests without raising more than a few suspicions.
’I should make a list of resources I will need for Seraphina once she awakens. I have a feeling her awakening is not far away.’
Seraphina was supposed to awaken as the Saintess two years from now when Leon’s life would be threatened. That was what happened in the past.
So why did Kael have this strange feeling that something huge was about to happen? Was it...just his nerves? Or had things already changed?
__________
"C-Cardinal, I have news for you."
Cardinal Flux was drinking his tea when he heard the sound of loud footsteps heading his way. He noticed the panicked soldier long before he appeared in the room.
The soldier panted as he tried to catch his breath, but his presence shocked the people there.
"What is going on?"
"The guard looks panicked! Do you think there is an attack?"
"Should we even be hearing about this?"
People gossiped, and Cardinal Flux realized that it would be best to have this conversation with the guard in private.
So he turned toward the temple’s disciples and guests before addressing them all.
"I wanted to have more meaningful discussions with you all. However, there seems to be an emergency that I need to take care of. Please continue praying, and remember—the goddess is always watching over you."
Cardinal Flux kept his voice warm, and people began to relax at the ease with which he took control of the situation.
Since he was such a charismatic person, people were willing to believe in him and continued praying.
The guard looked impatient and shuffled on his feet, but he did not say anything until the Cardinal gestured for him to follow.
They entered an abandoned room, and the Cardinal wasted no time putting up a barrier around it to prevent anyone else from hearing their conversation.
Once he was sure it was safe, he turned toward the guard and signaled for him to start speaking.
The guard took a deep breath before he started to spill everything he knew.
"S-Sir, this is about Sir Juniper. W-We received news that he kidnapped the hero. There were even witnesses who saw him and a priest planning it. Rumors are spreading wildly, and we cannot control them. What should we do now?"
Cardinal Flux’s expression froze at those words, and his smile faded. Even the atmosphere in the room dropped once the news sank in.
