Chapter 48. The Count’s Knights (2)
As she stepped out of the office into the lord’s manor corridor, Ilea chuckled.
“They seed pretty flustered, those knights just now.”
Yohan nodded.
“Of course they were. It was probably the first ti in their lives they’d been treated like that.”
Just earlier, Yohan had ignored the knights from House Staviana.
He hadn’t even spared them a glance.
It was a blatant show of disregard.
A bastard child of a minor noble family had trampled on the highest authority in the kingdom.
Naturally, the knights were bewildered.
Ilea said,
“They must’ve taken a serious blow to their pride. I bet they’ll co running after us.”
Yohan smirked and looked back.
“You were right.”
The two knights ca bursting out of the office. One of them still hadn’t removed his visor.
“Wait!”
He marched toward Yohan as if stomping on the ground, stopping in front of him.
Yohan spoke with a blank expression.
“I believe I said I was busy?”
“I’ll say it again. We were sent by Count Staviana.”
The eagle crest on the knight’s chest glead.
“Then I take it that every action you take reflects the Count’s will?”
Through the narrow slit of the visor, their eyes t.
The mont their gazes locked, the knight’s imposing air began to fade.
“W-Well…”
The Eye of the Great Saint in Yohan's head was stirring strange emotions in the knight.
“You barged into a noble’s office with your weapon at your side, and you haven’t even disard while speaking. Are you saying this discourtesy—no, this thuggery—is all on the Count’s orders?”
His tone was calm but relentless. The knight couldn’t say a word in return.
Yohan added with a flat expression,
“If the Count isn’t looking to start a war… then I’m afraid your conduct is hard to explain.”
Even if House Staviana was the most powerful noble house in the kingdom, the Miyatro family was still a prestigious lineage.
Both sides were expected to observe at least basic decorum.
This knight had crossed that line. His actions were likely done under the Count’s silent approval.
‘Just like in the original story.’
They gauged others by flexing authority—Count Staviana’s modus operandi.
It might seem childish, but it was undeniably effective.
In fact, in the original story, under the Count’s pressure, Grian eventually ceded his succession rights to his younger brother Krill.
Knowing how things played out, Yohan had no interest in playing along with cheap tricks.
And when he made his displeasure clear, the knight dropped his aggressive posture.
Yohan was a man on whom Staviana’s authority didn’t work.
Naturally, the Count had counterasures for people like that.
“Allow to apologize on Campbell’s behalf.”
The other knight stepped forward and bowed to Yohan. He had removed his visor and disard.
“And you are?”
“My na is Myra Beriel. I serve House Staviana.”
He looked to be in his mid-thirties, a knight with a tall, upright deanor.
“I’m Yohan Miyatro.”
“I’ve heard many stories about you, Sir Yohan. And it seems they were true—you’re quite formidable. I heard you responded to the Order’s call and traveled all the way to the southwestern quarantine zone? Truly a model noble. To think we’ve shown such disrespect to soone like you… I apologize again.”
The "southwestern quarantine zone" referred to the location where Kaiaze had manifested. It hadn’t even been days since the seal was lifted, yet the information had already reached the Count.
As expected, the Count’s eyes and ears spanned the entire kingdom, and Yohan was under their watch.
‘…I’ll need to be careful from now on.’
That creeping sense of pressure crawled over him.
The knight had likely ntioned the quarantine zone just to apply that pressure.
Yohan said,
“No need for an apology. Just state your business.”
“If you could spare a little ti. It might be a long conversation.”
“Unfortunately, I’m busy at the mont.”
Yohan had no intention of accommodating their rudeness.
They weren’t invited guests; they hadn’t even sent word ahead. They were simply uninvited intruders.
And as the master of this house, Yohan had every right to turn them away.
“…Is that so? Then we’ll wait until your business is concluded.”
Clicking his tongue, Yohan looked over at Gaf.
Gaf stood leaning against the office door, face unreadable.
“Gaf, guide the guests to the reception room. I’ll visit them when I’m finished.”
Gaf nodded.
“As you command.”
Frankly, Yohan wanted to throw them out. But he couldn’t.
Even if Staviana crossed the line, Miyatro had to stay within it.
Such was the logic of power.
Honor and justice were ultimately just empty decorations.
‘I still need to hear what they ca for.’
Why send two knights?
Right now, it was hard to guess the Count’s intention.
Knight Myra spoke.
“Take your ti. We’ll wait patiently.”
“I’ll see you later, then.”
Yohan turned and headed for the underground library.
***
Around the round table in the center of the underground library, Yohan, Ilea, and Raguel sat facing each other.
Yohan spoke.
“First ti we’ve co down here together.”
“It is. You must be a bit disappointed.”
“Why?”
“You could’ve had it all to yourself—every treasure and relic sealed away in the Forbidden Archive.”
“I always intended to share it with you.”
As long as Ilea existed, Yohan could never monopolize the Forbidden Archive.
A witch’s obsession with the unknown was akin to a living creature’s survival instinct.
As long as she lived, that obsession would never fade.
All Yohan had wanted was to delay the mont of sharing for as long as possible.
That wish was now aningless.
Since Ilea had found the Archive on her own, Yohan had neither grounds to stop her nor reason to resent it.
“If that’s true, I’m touched. You must really want at your side until the end. You even said so once, didn’t you?”
She smiled teasingly.
“I did?”
“I’ll be hurt if you don’t rember. You said it right here, you know.”
Yohan did rember, actually—but for so reason, he didn’t want to admit it.
“Well, since you’re useful, I suppose I might’ve said sothing like that.”
“Useful? That’s harsh. I’m not an object, you know.”
Her eyes drooped theatrically, pretending to be hurt.
Raguel, who had been quietly listening, spoke up gently.
“You two have gotten quite close, haven’t you? I rember when you first t, it was all talk of killing and not killing. Ha ha…”
He hadn’t forgotten their first encounter.
Thinly veiled threats, barbed sarcasm, and calculating smiles.
Only tension had existed between the demon and the witch back then.
Now, that sharp tension had almost completely vanished.
Ilea smiled and said,
“Good thing we didn’t fall out that day. You won’t find anyone more stimulating than Yohan—not in the whole world. I can’t believe I almost closed off that well of infinite potential with my own hands.”
Almost everything about Yohan was shrouded in the unknown.
To a witch, that was a magnetic force bordering on obsession.
Yohan gave a dry laugh.
“You chided for treating you like an object, yet you’re treating the sa way.”
“Can’t be helped. I’m a witch, rember? My heart’s pounding right now. I might get to peel back another layer of mystery today.”
They planned to descend to the Forbidden Archive soon and attempt to interact with the crack above Yohan’s head.
What could be lying within that dark void?
Ilea’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“Another layer of mystery, huh…”
Yohan murmured.
He too was deeply curious about his own identity. Perhaps, upon touching the crack, he could grab hold of at least a single thread of truth. That faint hope lingered.
As his mood grew heavier, Ilea gently asked,
“…Did what I said bother you? You don’t need to be. I’m genuinely fond of you, Yohan. As you are.”
Yohan frowned slightly.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“You just seed… a bit upset.”
“Based on what?”
He had rely been thinking.
“Then never mind.”
Yohan found it hard to play along with her gas.
The air turned a little awkward.
Raguel awkwardly laughed.
“W-Well, in any case, we’re heading down into the Forbidden Archive, right?”
Yohan nodded.
“Right. I’ll leave it to you, Raguel.”
As usual, Raguel lightly bit his index finger.
He sared the blood across his palm, then pressed his entire hand to the center of the round table.
Biotric verification. A proof of his Miyatro bloodline.
The table ignited with white light.
Yohan and Ilea quickly stepped onto it.
And the ground began to tremble.
The table dropped straight down—descending deeper underground.
***
A massive hall unfolded before them.
Rows of Holy Relics lined up in perfect order, emitting ceaseless waves of divine power.
Had he been in demonic form, this would have been agonizing.
But now, it ant nothing—Yohan was human.
On the other hand, Ilea didn’t look good. Her eyes trembled, and her lips turned an icy blue.
She was suffering from the overwhelming divine energy.
A rare mont of weakness.
“Here. Borrow this.”
Yohan handed her Kazan’s Corrupted Ring.
She weakly stretched out a hand.
“Put it on .”
Yohan stared at her, dumbfounded.
“Do it yourself.”
“I don’t have the strength.”
“How’d you manage last ti, then…?”
She had once co down here alone and retrieved the original of the Cursed Scripture, Volu 1.
“Hurry… It’s too much…”
Clicking his tongue, Yohan hesitated for a mont, then sighed and slid the ring onto her index finger.
Only then did her color return.
She looked satisfied as she fiddled with the ring.
“Now hurry and get the item.”
To interact with the crack, Yohan had to perceive it first.
But with his current magical skill, even catching a fragnt of a higher dinsion was beyond him.
He needed a tool to briefly break that wall.
Ilea had found a solution here in the Archive.
“Alright. Just wait a mont.”
The item was classified not as a Holy Relic, but as a treasure.
So treasures were inherently dangerous and were treated very differently from relics.
The Archive had a separate Treasure Vault for such things.
Yohan couldn’t enter the higher vaults.
He could lose his ego—or his life—to so unknown treasure.
But that didn’t apply to Ilea.
At her current level, she could access up to Grade-4 vaults. Anything higher might still be too much, even for her.
Fortunately, the item they needed was in the Grade-5 vault.
At the far end of the hall, one of the white doors among the lined vaults briefly opened and shut.
Soon, Ilea returned, holding a small pair of gold-rimd external goggles.
Even Yohan, who had read the original story, found the item unfamiliar.
Ilea approached and said,
“It’s the Telescope of Greedy Desire. It shows objects or phenona beyond the wearer’s current capacity to perceive.”
“You actually managed to find sothing like this?”
“I saw it during my last visit. The Archive has everything, really.”
“So I just put it on?”
“Before that—please listen carefully. Normally, if a sentient being faces sothing vastly beyond its comprehension, it can’t maintain its ego. Once you perceive the crack through this, your mind might collapse.”
Yohan was already aware of such chanics.
“I was fine even in front of Apostle Beris and Kaiaze. I doubt this crack will do anything worse.”
“That’s why I’m suggesting this thod. But you should still rember—back then, you were in your demonic form.”
“My soul is the sa.”
“Yes. A being’s value is usually asured by the caliber of its soul.”
“Then there’s nothing more to say.”
“…Still, just in case, you should use a ntal protection spell.”
But magic couldn’t be used inside the Archive.
Unspecified Holy Relics that reacted to mana or miasma might attack them.
Yohan nodded.
The three of them returned to the underground study.
***
Once everything was ready, Yohan put on the goggles.
The density of the world he saw changed completely.
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