I am a noble under the protection of the Duke of Diart, and Raviel is a head priest belonging to the Central Temple.

Unless one had lost their mind, it was a combination that couldn’t be easily touched.

“Is that any of my business? Anyway, where you’re going to be sold, money and status are of no use.”

The man curled his lips crookedly and giggled.

His appearance seemed to enjoy imagining her misfortune, which was very disgusting, but she asked as calmly as possible.

“Where are you going to sell me?”

“To the demon’s followers.”

“……!”

“Such a beautiful Miss will become a heretic’s sacrifice. Hehe.”

The man shivered with an unpleasant laugh.

It wasn’t a lie—goosebumps really rose on the back of her neck.

“Well then, see you again later.”

Bang!

The man who deliberately struck the prison bars where she was with his palm soon disappeared.

Thud.

As soon as the sound of the door closing was heard, the head priest opened his mouth.

“Will you still not leave even after this?”

“Of course I have to leave. Together with you, Head Priest.”

“I’m not as urgent to escape immediately as you are, Miss?”

……Look at this guy, speaking rather meanly.

The head priest, who had been staring intently at her unable to hide her disappointed expression, suddenly asked an unexpected question.

“Did you really come up from the count’s territory suddenly to find a husband?”

“Yes, to get a blond handsome husband like you, Head Priest. But why are you asking that now?”

It was absurd and puzzling that he would ask an unrelated question at such an urgent moment, but she answered anyway.

Then he, who had seemed lost in thought for a moment, spoke bluntly.

“Is that why you’re interested in so many men?”

“……What?”

“At parties and balls, there are always blond men around you.”

Is this bastard picking a fight with me now?

Of course, she knew there was plenty of room for it to look that way, but she felt somewhat wronged.

“Then Head Priest, are you dating Lady Celsior?”

Half with the intention of counterattacking, half to satisfy the curiosity she had harbored, when she asked, he unexpectedly became serious.

His face looked annoyed beyond displeasure.

“Don’t say strange things. There are no private feelings of any kind between the lady and me.”

“Ah, yes……”

“I have a first love. I met her when I was young, though I don’t remember well.”

How can it be first love if you don’t remember?

Such a question arose for a moment, but it wasn’t immediately important, so she let it pass.

“Then to safely meet that first love again, come out with me now? Isn’t that boy the apprentice priest you were looking for?”

She pointed to the child lying like dead in the diagonal prison.

Then the head priest, who flinched, couldn’t deny it and nodded his head.

She extended her hand to him.

“Give me the key. Let’s go out together.”

“……You really have unstoppable stubbornness. Fine, let’s go. I was planning to find Theo and leave anyway.”

Click.

When she inserted the head priest’s key into the door handle and turned it, the firmly closed barred door opened.

They came out and first rescued the apprentice priest boy.

“Theo, wake up.”

“……Ugh.”

No matter how much the head priest tried to wake him, the boy only moaned softly and couldn’t open his eyes.

Eventually, he carried the boy on his back. She helped by supporting the limp boy together.

“Let’s hurry and go now.”

“Wait, we have to free the people too……”

Instead of him whose hands weren’t free, she tried to go around opening the prison doors.

But before she could even take a step, the head priest blocked her way.

“Let’s just go by ourselves.”

“What do you mean? So many people have been wrongfully captured and might be sold as slaves—”

“Is it our business?”

The head priest’s face revealed in the dim light was frighteningly expressionless.

She had always thought he was creepy for constantly smiling, but was this face actually his real appearance?

“Most of them would just be burdens even if we freed them anyway. I can’t take responsibility for all the people here. Holy power is the power to heal someone, not the power to attack. I don’t have the strength to protect many civilians from those with force.”

The flat, expressionless voice carried no emotion, as if it didn’t belong to a human at all.

“It’s not like those people can fight either, and freeing them would only be a loss for us. Don’t you really understand?”

“……I thought the Head Priestwas someone who loved and cherished people.”

Raviel was the figure who had risen to the position of youngest head priest in history and was predicted to become a head priest in the distant future.

She couldn’t help but be flustered when he, famous as a more benevolent and merciful head priest than anyone, came out like this.

“I do love them. I just don’t love them so stupidly that I’m dominated by emotions and can’t make rational judgments.”

He smiled with his red lips curved. His eyes remained cold.

***

“Is what you’re saying now true?!”

Bartholomew’s voice resonated thunderously through the ducal residence.

It was because of the news Carl had urgently brought to the mansion just moments ago. That Shailyn had disappeared from the street.

“Someone deliberately separated me and Master to kidnap her. I think we need to find Master quickly.”

“Ha! Who dared to do that to Shailyn……”

Dain supported the staggering Bartholomew in shock and said.

“Grandfather, don’t worry. I will definitely find Shailyn.”

“Ugh…… Hurry, Dain. You must find that child quickly before something happens to her.”

“I understand.”

Dain nodded with a rarely hardened face and gestured to Carl.

Carl left the cat with Paul and returned with Dain to the street where Shailyn was last seen.

The two went around looking for witnesses, describing her appearance and clothing.

But when no one who had seen her easily came forward and they were sighing—

“Wahahahaha!”

Carl’s eyes widened as he unconsciously turned his head at the cheerful children’s laughter.

“There’s the pickpocket child over there!”

“What?”

When Dain looked with a surprised face, Carl was already running to catch that child.

“I bought all this with my own money. If you want to eat too—!”

“Got you.”

The neck of the boy who was boasting while offering a bag of snacks to the children was firmly grabbed.

The boy who turned his head to see Carl’s face turned pale with a shriek of surprise.

“Ah, that mister from earlier……!”

“You deliberately stole the bag to lure me away.”

“No, no! I never did that!”

“Don’t lie. I hate lying more than anything in the world.”

When his black eyes flashed, the frightened boy shrank his shoulders.

Dain, who had followed late, restrained Carl and gently smiled while placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“If you tell the truth, we won’t turn you over to the guards either.”

“……”

“The person you tried to steal the bag from is a noble. She’s even missing now and there’s a big fuss. If you did wrong, you might receive a big punishment.”

“……!”

The boy’s eyes shook rapidly. Even so, he still seemed to hesitate to be honest.

Dain, who had been staring at the bag of snacks in the child’s hand, smiled gently and took something out from his chest.

“Can’t you tell us even with this?”

What Dain pressed into the boy’s hand was a handful of gold.

Seeing him boast about snacks in front of his friends, he had instinctively noticed that money was important to this child.

While the boy was mesmerized by the gold sparkling in his palm, a young voice suddenly came from behind.

“My brother and I did it.”

The girl who had been hiding behind the boy poked her head out.

It was that child who had led Shailyn to the green door house.

“They said they’d give us money if we brought the pretty lady alone to the green door house…… so we did it.”

“It seems your brother lured Carl away and you took Shailyn.”

The child who nodded spoke an apology in a timid, barely audible voice.

“I’m sorry, we were so hungry……”

“Ha, calling that an excuse now—”

Carl, who had been momentarily angry, suppressed his anger seeing the completely dejected siblings.

Yelling at such young children would only be venting.

The two extracted information about those who had commissioned them from the children.

A man with a scar on his face and a large man with missing front teeth.

Based on this investigation, they were able to find out their identity by evening.

“They’re very vicious guys who secretly hold illegal slave auctions. There are even rumors that they’re in league with heretics.”

A knight from the knight order under the Duke of Diart stood before Dain and reported.

“So, did you find out where their base is?”

“Yes, it’s a building disguised as an inn on the outskirts of 9th Street. They plan to hold a dawn auction in the basement.”

Dain nodded and said.

“Arm the entire knight order immediately. As soon as we get permission from Grandfather and Father, we’ll deploy……”

Then, Carl, who had been listening beside him, suddenly stood up from his seat.