Trying to Save my Favorite Character from His Tragic Fate - Chapter 120: King's secret meeting

*** Warning: Nudity ***

In the deep hours of the night, where the only sound that walks around the hallways of the Rowan mansion is the clicks and clacks from the grandfather clock’s pendulum and minute hand. Out of all the windows from the grand mansion, only one is dimly lit.

Inside the dimly lit room, Kyrie opens his eyes to the feeling of warm water brush on his skin. His back remains warm from the heat radiating from another body. He looks down, finding himself naked on a bathtub, and as he turns his head, he feels the cold droplets of water that fall from the strands of hair run through his skin.

Finding himself leaning against Ian, he slides down to put his head on Ian’s chest. Ian grabs onto Kyrie, thinking that he is sinking. They remain quiet, blushing at what has happened. Both of them have lost control, and now, they can say that they have explored every inch of each other’s skin.

“How are you feeling?” Ian asks since Kyrie has fallen asleep after a few minutes they have finished.

“I am fine…”

Kyrie feels some soreness and throbbing from their recent activity, but it is nothing too bad. In fact, he is surprised that he has enjoyed it so much that he feels a bit embarrassed to admit it.

Kyrie lifts his head and looks around, shocked, “Did you put up some kind of barrier?”

“I did,” Ian answers while clinging to Kyrie.

The lighting of the room is being reflected on the smooth layer over the walls, doors, and windows. Kyrie lets out some breathy laughs as he covers his face with his hands. His pearl skin turns to a pink from blushing.

[Was I really that loud?]

“What is it?” The arms around him tighten, feeling a pair of lips on his shoulder.

Kyrie shakes his head as he splashes some water on his face. He watches the ceiling of the room reflected on the surface of the waters, interrupted by the ripples from the drops of water that fall from his face.

“Did you notice that there were people around the mansion?” Kyrie asks Ian while knowing that Ian probably has already discovered them due to the barrier.

“Yes, they have been knocking on the window for a while now.”

Kyrie jerks away, sitting up straight, causing the water from the bathtub to spill.

“They did what?” He grabs onto the bathtub and pushes himself up.

Kyrie narrows his eyes in worry, “How long have they been knocking?”

“Just a few minutes,” Ian stands up and looks at Kyrie scrambling to put clothes on.

He calmly walks towards Kyrie, stopping him from frantically trying to put his clothes, “You are going to get a cold if you don’t dry yourself well…”

Ian takes Kyrie’s wrist and turns him around, placing a towel on his head. Kyrie, who is fumbling to button his shirt, stops and looks at Ian, focusing on drying his hair. Ian takes his eyes off the hair and watches Kyrie’s broad eyes captivated by him. He pulls the towel down, covering Kyrie’s eyes with the intention to save his heart from too much stimulation, but only watching those lips makes him want to kiss them.

*knock knock*

Another knock comes from the balcony. Kyrie pulls the towel down from his head and walks toward it. He buttons up his shirt while trying to calm down his heart. The barrier around the room retracts when Kyrie touches it, so he opens the balcony door with ease.

The man with a hoodie bows at Kyrie, “Sorry to interrupt your sleep, headmaster. I have something important to report-”

“Headmaster, are you alright? You seem to have a fever!”

Kyrie pinches his eyebrows and covers his mouth with his hand, “It was just a bit hot inside… Go on, Federline,” Kyrie steps outside to the balcony to get some fresh air and leans on the rail.

Ernest Federline takes his eyes away, trying to ignore what he has seen, “The King went to meet with the Vicar, but unfortunately, we lost them.”

“The king? Why?”

The Vicar’s normal reaction to the warehouse case is to avoid moving suspiciously and keep the secret about the temple falling from grace under a wrap, avoiding anything that could trigger an investigation.

Since so many citizens have died, the king has plenty of excuses to go through the temple and see if the temple is related to the warehouse case. Right now, the only thing stopping the king would be the public backlash if the temple is truly innocent. The citizens are not willing to see their temple getting raided and anger the goddess. So, to see the Vicar and king meet is the last thing that Kyrie would anticipate.

Kyrie quickly remembers what the marquis has mentioned while running away from the puppets, “Those warehouses and the gathering place belong to the second prince.”

“Then that changes everything,” Federline realizes, “The second prince is the only son from the late queen. Since the king has never announced another queen, he must be pretty loyal to the late queen.”

Kyrie rubs his thumb on his palm, concluding, “Then, that is saying that the king wants the second prince to inherit the crown. If news about the case involving the second prince spreads, then it would be a big hit on the second prince’s faction.”

Ian walks out to the balcony and takes a glance at Federline, standing next to Kyrie. Federline looks over to Kyrie and relaxes his guard since the headmaster is not worried about this man’s sudden appearance.

He puts a coat on Kyrie’s shoulder and gazes over to the man who looked for Kyrie so late at night. Federline shivers from the gaze and unconsciously steps away from Kyrie.

“Ah! This is Ernest Federline. He is one of the people I recruited,” Kyrie introduces Federline to Ian as he adjusts his coat.

“Headmaster…” Federline gets surprised that Kyrie reveals his identity to this stranger that popped out of nowhere.

In these two years, Federline has never seen Kyrie be so open to talk about the guild that he has created or people he has recruited to anyone. He has always been operating from the shadows and never revealed his identity despite having plenty of achievements. Even when facing some challenges, Kyrie would not use his guild to avoid detection.

“Relax, Federline. I have been declared stateless.”

Federline’s eyes shine from the news since they have been waiting for this moment to come. Kyrie has hidden about the guild since he is the son of a marquis who owns their own knight order. If the news about the paladin holding a private army goes out, the nobles and the king would not just sit around and let that power imbalance happen. The Rowans could even be accused of conspiring a rebellion, and treason is punishable by death.

However, it would be different if Kyrie is stateless. Even if Kyrie raised an entire army bigger than a kingdom, Kyrie’s army would represent Vita. This is also why the title of ‘stateless’ is only given to the saints previously. Since one saint descends at a time and does not operate under any human, they are not restricted to any boundary or law, only those given from the goddess.

“Good job, Federline. Update me if you find more information.”

“Yes, headmaster,” Federline looks at Ian one more time before jumping off the balcony and disappears.

Kyrie takes a deep breath in, clearing his mind with a bit of clean air in his system.

“Cynthia is involved,” Kyrie grabs Ian’s hands and plays with his fingers, “Or else my men would not lose the target. What is she gaining from all these?”

“Souls,” Kyrie and Ian voice it at the same time.

Kyrie nods as he thinks over the power that Cynthia possesses, “I think she must be using souls to nurture a relic. It could be her ability to control evil spirits and create demon puppets.”

Ian shakes his head slowly, “No… It might be her ability to control the metals. She used it at the beginning against Imogen more generously, but she seems to have stopped using it after that. Or, she uses it more sparingly. It might be that she needed to power the relic back.”

Kyrie nods at the possibility and takes the gem stored in his palm. It is the grotesque relic that turns human flesh into gold bars. Imogen has given it to him, again using him as a dimension pouch. This relic landing on Kyrie’s hand might mean a massive pay cut to the fallen saintess. Although having the ability to turn human flesh into gold, Kyrie would never use it – too ridiculous and irresponsible, taking power over other people’s lives like they don’t matter.

The relic in Kyrie’s hand is different from the relic that comes from the gate. The relics found outside the gate have no exposure to any other essence than the reserves that they have been created with – unless someone artificially uses anything that contains essence to feed those relics like what Cynthia did.

The high-grade relics from the gates amount to only eight. These relics are Erebus’s target. The amount of essence these relics possess will help him descend into this world. These are the treasures that will eventually become the main reason the demon race would raise and fight against other races.