Byner’s face flushed bright red. He looked clearly agitated, and his muscles kept twitching as if he wanted to swing a blow at Zich at this instant. The little amount of patience that still remained in him barely managed to stop him from acting out in violence, but it also couldn’t restrain his mouth and tongue. Thus, he was about to speak more harshly than before when—
Grip!
He felt a strong pressure on his forearms. Although his arms were honed through rigorous exercise, he felt a considerable amount of pain. Byner looked down at his arm while scowling. With a hardened expression, Glen was clutching his arm tightly. Anyone could tell that Glen was restraining him, and with his eyes, Glen suggested Byner to look around him.
Byner looked at his surroundings, and his fury cooled immediately. People were looking at him with disapproving gazes. By raising suspicions against Zich, Byner was questioning the Karuwimans’ capability, especially if his accusation was related to the Bellids since the Karuwimans were the ones who gave Zich his title as Honorary Knight.
“…I apologize. It seems I misspoke due to my anger.”
Byner bowed toward his audience. His actions were too groveling for a knight to take, but he had no other choice than to act out of consideration for his mistake.
“Why don’t we overlook this matter seeing how apologetic he is? He simply blurted out his words before thinking. You know how youths can get fired up like this. I’m sure there was a time when we used to be the same way.” Luce defended Byner.
“Even in our youths when we couldn’t contain our temper, we never made such claims.” Yet, the high priests seemed to still feel a sense of discomfort, and all the reddish tint in Byner’s face disappeared, leaving him with no color.
“He hasn’t experienced much yet and is still lacking. Why don’t we show the greatness of Karuna’s mercy by looking over an immature youth’s mistake?” Luce then began to blatantly describe Byner as ‘lacking’ and ‘immature.’ These descriptions were all offensive to Byner, but he couldn’t refute them. Finally, with Luce’s defense and Byner’s apology, people began to accept the apology. However, it still didn’t erase the disgruntled look many had when looking at Byner.
“There’s just one thing that’s certain though,” Weig said in the tense atmosphere. His tone and expression also looked disgruntled after Byner’s claim as he continued, “There’s no way that Sir Zich could be a collaborator with the Bellids. If Zich was really their spy, he must’ve provided us with information in order to gain our trust. However, the damages they suffered from doing so are way too large. Besides the other cases, the Bellids’ entire northern base was completely annihilated. What kind of organization would destroy one of their vital bases just to plant a spy?”
People nodded.
“The Bellids are trash, but unfortunately, they are not stupid too. If they were that stupid, we wouldn’t have so much trouble with them. In short, it’s complete bullshit that Sir Zich is a Bellid collaborator,” Weig said and glared at Byner.
Byner flinched at the word, ‘bullshit,’ but he couldn’t dare to make eye-contact with Weig and turned his gaze away.
“Okay, okay! Let’s calm down, Knight Weig. There’s no one here, including me who would suspect that knight Zich is working with the Bellids. Byner just made a mistake. He was too agitated.”
“If that’s the case, he should quickly fix that personality of his. It’s the sort of personality that inconveniences others.”
“I’m sure Knight Byner thinks too,” Luce said and made Byner leave the meeting room. Glen also agreed to this. Although he had brought Byner as a witness to attack Steelwall, he had garnered only a bunch of negative feelings. He regretted that he didn’t step in sooner—he had been too shell-shocked about the method of hindering the city sacrifice ritual.
“Let me just say one thing.” The Pope hadn’t said a word until now, and he said in the unsettling atmosphere, “I have absolute faith that someone we appointed as a Karuwiman Honorary Knight wouldn’t be enchanted by ill beliefs.”
It was short, but the Pope’s words heavily pressed down on them.
“Let’s continue the meeting,” the Pope said and listened to the discussion with his mouth closed again. Ideas and opinions were exchanged for a while after that. Both sides argued for their side of the discussion, but as time passed, Glen’s suggestion was pushed back. People’s belief that the Karuwimans shouldn’t be involved in a fight between noble families was the most influential factor. Not to mention, there was also the issue with Byner, whom Glen had brought as a witness. Besides the personal feelings they felt toward Byner, many thought they couldn’t trust his testimony or the evidence he brought.
The meeting ended like that, and the Pope gave the final conclusion of the discussion: “Like we have always done, we will stand on neutral grounds in the battle between the Steelwall family and Pinne family.”
It was a complete victory for Zich’s side.
* * *
After the meeting ended, the high priests dispersed to do their own business. Those who were busy immediately headed to their temples as soon as the meeting was over, but others used this opportunity to talk with others. After all, it was very rare for high priests to gather in one spot like this. Among these groups, there was one group that looked especially tense.
Luce looked to the young knight sitting in front of him. As if he knew he was in the wrong, the knight hung his head low.
“To tell you the truth, I am very disappointed in today’s matter, Knight Byner.”
“I-I apologize!” Byner bowed his head even lower, but Luce’s chilly gaze didn’t warm up in the slightest.
Then, he soon sighed and closed his eyes. “…Sigh! I want to immediately cast you out, but nothing will change even if I get angry at an event that’s already happened. Raise your head.”
“T-thank you!” Only then was Byner able to raise his head up again.
“However, the mistake you make is quite significant. If the high priests didn’t think that the evidence you brought and your testimony was trustworthy, then…” Contrary to what Luce said, he didn’t have high hopes that the Karuwimans would participate in this war because of Zich’s existence. Thus, they had lowered their goal to excommunicating Count Steelwall so that there would be even fewer forces willing to help out the Count. However, everything had gone to waste.
Luce looked at Byner and clicked his tongue inside his mind. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have made this punk testify. It might have been better to keep using him as a spy in the Steelwall Estate.’
However, since Byner stabbed Steelwall in the back in front of Zich, he could no longer stay with Steelwall. Then, there was only one way to use him now. “Face the Steelwalls with your life on the line in the upcoming war—that’s the only way you can cover for your mistake.”
“Sir, I’ll keep that in my heart.”
“Then, please take your leave, since you and I will both be busy for a while.”
Byner politely bowed and left after he was dismissed. Byner looked up at the sky. The bright, blue sky completely contrasted with his melancholy heart. “Damn it!”
The brightness of the sky seemed to be mocking him, so he unintentionally swore. Fortunately, his voice wasn’t very loud, so people around him couldn’t hear him.
‘This is so embarrassing!’ Byner walked with extreme frustration. People felt his violent temper and withdrew, but Byner didn’t feel like paying attention to his surroundings. He recalled Zich’s expression during the meeting. ‘That bastard!’
Everything was ruined after his duel with Zich. Before the duel, there had been talks about him becoming the next head of the Steel Sword Order of Knights as a talented recruit. However, his position completely changed after the duel. People didn’t insult or treat him cruelly; nothing had really changed from the outside. However, Byner could feel that people no longer looked at him with full of expectations, and there were some gazes of condescension mixed in. The problem was that he had lost to Zich even though Zich had just started learning how to use mana.
Even though rumors about Zich’s amazing talent had spread, it was also true that he had awakened his mana only recently. Moreover, everyone objectively thought that Byner’s skills were above Zich’s. Byner began training like crazy to erase these bad rumors so that he could regain his dignity. However, the outcome was a total failure. The psychological chains that Zich put on him had grabbed him by the ankles. He couldn’t surpass his limits and the comrades he thought were far behind him began catching up to him quickly. When the situation turned out like this, Byner’s hatred towards Zich grew stronger day by day. Soon, this hatred also reached Count Steelwall.
However, Zich had come back recently. Even though a hateful person had returned, Byner didn’t think much would change even with his return. He even internally mocked Zich for coming back to the estate during such a chaotic time and wondered what he could possibly do. However, the situation turned out completely different from his thoughts.
Greig Steelwall, who was in the same—no, much worse situation than him, was slowly beginning to recover under Zich’s treatment. Moreover, Zich intervened during Steelwall’s crisis and helped out the Steelwall Estate. Everyone around him started complimenting Zich. Swear words naturally came out of Byner’s mouth; why was the person who dropped him to hell being praised to the heavens? Byner had to suppress himself from swearing as the people who gossiped about Zich, saying he wasn’t going to be a trustworthy successor, completely changed their position and started praising him. Byner’s hatred towards Zich increased.
When the Flauds reached out to him during this time, Byner considered them as his savior. He could finally get revenge against Zich and the Steelwalls who looked down on him. No—he wasn’t acting on revenge. He was acting as a righteous judge against those who supported the Bellids.
‘The next time I meet him, it will be on the battlefield.’ There wouldn’t be a failure like this the next time. Byner sharpened the sword in his heart and mounted his horse.
* * *
Luce looked at the door that Byner left though and let out a small sigh. ‘This guy and that guy—they’re all useless.’
In the end, their plan failed this time. ‘It was quite an important plan.’
Surprisingly, causing Steelwall’s fall was not important to him. Steelwall’s collapse was Glen Zenard’s personal pleasure in the first place. To Luce, his small goal was to earn merit through this war, and his big goal was to get the Karuwimans to intervene in a fight between nobles. No matter what the reason was, once the Karuwimans joined a fight between nobles, they would be more likely to utilize their military powers in the future. Then, the Karuwimans’ power would naturally decrease.
‘That was what was supposed to happen…!’ However, they had failed. This war should have been the first time the Karuwimans should have used their military forces to intervene in political matters. However, because of one person, the Karuwimans couldn’t intervene in the upcoming war and weren't even able to excommunicate Count Steelwall.
‘Zich!’