The Amber Knight Swears His Love on the Saintess’s Left Hand - Chapter 29

After leaving the Royal Library, Quill parted ways with Sascha, who was heading back to the barracks. Between Sascha’s awkward bashfulness and the exhaustion accumulating in Quill’s bones, they disbanded much earlier than usual.

The sun was still high. In the brightness of a world so far removed from the dim Forbidden Archives, Quill’s heart remained clouded. Five days had passed, and he still hadn’t found a viable plan to set Lynette free.

He should have gone straight back to the Langbart estate, but his feet led him toward the Cathedral once again today. Even knowing she likely wouldn’t be there, he couldn’t help himself.

He stood in the plaza before the gates and looked up at the Cathedral.

Here, many had overheard Lynette’s monologue.

What had been thrust upon her; how she had lived those two years of pilgrimage; what had been hidden in the shadows of the nation’s peace.

The Cathedral revealed nothing. Having been told of secrets kept since before the founding of Eiklant, the people were left in a state of bewildered uncertainty.

Among the voices that once praised the Saint’s power, something else was now mixed in.

Compassion and condemnation.

The gatekeeper noticed Quill and averted his eyes.

In a sudden shift from the previous whirlpool of malice, Quill was now being treated like a fragile sore. Lynette’s cry in the rain had orchestrated this.

Quill had become the “pitiful man toyed with by the Saint,” and Lynette had become the “Saint who cursed her fate and trampled on others.”

Always, she moved forward boldly and entirely on her own. From the very first day they met as fiancé and fiancée, it had been this way.

“Lord Langbart!”

Quill turned at the sudden call to find a complicated, handsome man standing there.

“Lord Claussen?”

Marius Claussen, appearing for the first time since the suspension, approached with a face far less hostile than before. One would expect him to be snapping at Quill’s heels if the incident had cost him his position as the pilgrimage’s guard captain.

“…I heard you were often seen here.”

“Does that mean you were looking for me?”

At Quill’s question, Marius flailed his arms and legs in a flustered “Ah, no, well, it’s just…” routine. After a moment of this, he stomped his feet with a loud thud-thud and finally stopped his strange movements.

“Lord Langbart. I felt it was my duty to inform you.”

He used an uncharacteristic title and spoke with exaggerated gravity. Quill tilted his head and closed the distance between them.

Seeing this, Marius leaned in even closer to speak in a low voice meant only for Quill’s ears.

“The pilgrimage… she has not departed.”

Quill’s eyebrows shot up. Seeing his reaction, Marius hurriedly checked their surroundings.

“I hear that the Saint… that Lady Lynette is here, keeping the Holy Sword suppressed. Since the magical beasts have also quieted down, there is talk that the pilgrimage might be called off entirely.”

Quill looked back up at the Cathedral.

It had already been five days. Was it possible that through all that time, Lynette had been facing the Holy Sword while still possessing her emotions?

Inside that pristine white Cathedral that seemed to repel all filth. Alone. She was fighting.

“Let her go.”

“What?”

Marius frowned at Quill’s murmur. Involuntarily, Quill grabbed the man’s shoulders. Shaking the bewildered Marius, Quill raised his voice.

“I’m begging you! Take Lady Ceryes out on the pilgrimage. You’re the one who can do it!”

“H-hey! Calm down, Langbart!”

The pilgrimage was a curse.

That smile, those tears—the Betzyraft sorcery would strip them all away from her. It would return her to the doll-like girl she was the day he welcomed her into the Langbart manor.

But at the same time, the pilgrimage protected her.

From an unreasonable fate. From the irresistible violation. It was a cruel salvation meant to prevent her entire being from being consumed.

“She shouldn’t have to endure such a thing.”

Quill felt as though he might actually cling to Marius, of all people, in his desperation.

“It is Lady Lynette herself who is stopping the pilgrimage! She heard the voice of the Holy Sword and advised that she should remain in the capital. I… well… I thought perhaps that was just an excuse, and that she wanted to stay by your side.”

“What…?”

“I’ve reflected since then! I understand now that you truly cherish Lady Lynette! That’s why I… I came to tell you!”

Marius mumbled the end of his sentence. Quill stopped thinking for the count of three. What followed was a sigh deeper and louder than any he had ever heard himself make.

“Having had my Pledge Lock publicly severed, I can neither fetch her nor even hope for an audience. As Lord Claussen, you must surely understand that.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s true and yet, strangely, I don’t get the feeling that the engagement has actually been broken. Why is that?”

“I wouldn’t know even if you asked me.”

“If I don’t ask Langbart, who else am I supposed to ask?”

Marius tapped Quill on the chest, looking exasperated.

“You’re the one who understands Lady Lynette best, aren’t you?”

With his chest still tingling from the tap, Quill stared at Marius.

“Understand…?”

He hadn’t understood anything. Not the burden carried by the Saint, Lynette Ceryes. The only person Quill knew was the Lynette Ceryes he had welcomed as his fiancée.

The girl who climbed into his bed at night, who crashed the training grounds, who protected him, and who took it upon herself to sever the Pledge Lock.

—That’s right.

The only Lynette Quill knew was the shrewd woman who utilized her title as Saint to the absolute maximum.

That shrewd woman had chosen to remain in the Cathedral. There was no way her reason was something as sentimental as “wanting to stay by his side.”

“…What? What are you hiding?”

“H-hey. Langbart. Are you alright?”

With his mind regaining its clarity, Quill began to recall important details one after another like pulling on a vine. The records sleeping in the Forbidden Archives weren’t everything. There had to be other things Quill could do.

“Lord Claussen!”

“O-oh!? What is it, Langbart!”

“Lord Claussen, you are a wonderful man. You have the power to clear the fog from my mind. Because I have faith in you, there is something I must ask of you.”

As Quill gave his shoulders a reassuring pat, Marius looked away with a flushed face.

“W-well, I do owe you a debt of gratitude. I suppose I can listen!”

“As the son of a Marquis, you surely have connections in the jewelry trade, don’t you? There is something I need you to find.”

“…Why jewelry, and why now?”

Marius knit his brows in suspicion, yet not a single wrinkle marred his forehead. I’m glad I left that beautiful face unharmed, Quill thought, thanking his past self. Because of that, he could make this outrageous request.