I couldn't believe my eyes. Was something like that possible based on common sense?
The wall became mushy. It was not a mistake. The woman's hand was halfway into the moving wall, as if it were submerged in water.
'Have I finally gone crazy?'
That was not it either. The eyes of the believers who saw the new addition were as big as if they would pop out.
I stopped believing my eyes and instead focused on other concerns.
'How is something like that possible? It's probably not magic... alchemy? Is something like that possible with alchemy?'
It's frustrating because I don't know anything about alchemy.
In the meantime, the woman kept moving without stopping, as if she didn't want to give herself time to sort out her complicated thoughts.
"Now follow me."
The woman disappeared into the wall. Believers who seemed to have already experienced it before followed without hesitation, while believers who seemed to be newcomers hesitated before pushing themselves into the wall.
When everyone finally entered, the wall returned to its original hard appearance as if it had always been that way.
Even the priest, who was the only one left who did not enter, left the room as if he had other things to do, and as soon as silence returned, I immediately ran out from behind the curtain and stood in front of the wall where the woman had touched.
'What? What did she do?'
She clearly touched it and muttered something under her breath.
I couldn't tell from that alone, so I felt around the wall. After groping it a few times, I felt a subtle texture under my fingers.
It was so well polished that it's hard to tell with the naked eye, so you can barely tell its existence if you touch it with your hand—
'A magic circle?'
The puzzlement lasted only for a moment.
This made it clear. This was alchemy. What could be other than alchemy that produced effects similar to magic by paying an equal price?
A kind of method that humans had discovered to counter the magic of the demons was unfolding before my eyes.
'Who on earth is behind this level of alchemy?'
A hollow laugh came out.
I was getting more and more anxious about this. Can't I stop here? I expected that it wasn't a normal pseudo-religion, but this was alchemy.
Even if an ordinary person lived his or her entire life, the number of encounters with an alchemist would not exceed 10 times. It was difficult to hire a witch doctor and the cost was enormous, so did it make sense for alchemy to appear here?
I wanted to run to the imperial palace right now and grab the Emperor and shout that I can't do this, but...
'That bastard Cruel...'
Not only will the Emperor not allow me to give up easily, but Cruel was the problem more than anything else.
Even if dirt got in my eyes, I wouldn't be able to see the power of wishing being handed over to that guy. I'd rather just make a fuss here.
If they lost the rearguard, the Salvation Church would rise up again somewhere else, but since if stronghold was destroyed, there would be no harsh criticism from the Emperor.
'If I want to destroy it... I'll break this first.'
Apparently, the medium of this spell appeared to be the magic circle in front of me. If this was broken, the spell would be destroyed.
...Should I break it?
As I was staring at the magic circle in thought, a hand suddenly came out from behind the curtain right next to me and grabbed my arm.
That alone was enough to scare and surprise me, but th hand didn't stop and pulled me in with a strong force.
It all happened in an instant.
After all, it was my arm that had been hit by an arrow, so my mouth opened in pain.
"Huh–"
"Shh."
Of course, I couldn't shout because of the hand covering my mouth.
As I looked up in confusion, I made eye contact with calm green eyes looking down at me.
At the same time, I couldn't overcome the growing feeling of disgust and tried to shake it off roughly, but the door to the room opened.
I had no choice but to stop moving as a man in priestly clothing opened the door a little roughly and came in.
This was not the priest from a moment ago. The priest, whose face I had never seen before, almost ran towards my direction with an urgent expression on his face, and pressed down on the magic circle that I had been staring at a moment ago and twisted it to the side.
"Quickly...!!"
...Why does het look so panicked? No, but why is it so noisy outside?
The sounds of such cries were somewhat ominous. Now that I thought about it, where was Sir Lien and what was she doing?
After a few seconds, a slight noise seemed to be heard from the magic circle, but then a clearer voice came out.
"What happened?"
"An intruder has come in!"
"...I see. How many are there?"
"There is only one!"
"...One person?"
"Yes, she's currently searching the inside of the building looking for someone called 'Master'!"
Kwaaaang!! At perfect timing, a loud noise rang out.
The woman, who attracted attention by kicking the already open door again, found a priest standing there in confusion and spoke harshly in a voice that was trying to feign calm.
In her hand was a sword that seemed to have been taken from a guard here.
"Where is my lord?"
"..."
"..."
Out of absurdity and embarrassment, no one could continue speaking and even the voice beyond the magic circle was silent, and I looked at the intruder's face and slowly lowered my eyes.
I felt a persistent gaze from above, but I tried to ignore it.
I don't know why that person is here, I don't know. I don't even know who that person is. Anyway, I don't know. It has nothing to do with me.
'...Shit.'
Why are you coming in so brazenly!
***
Kwang!
"What the hell!"
As there was a noisy intrusion, security quickly flocked. Without having time to shake off the glass shards stuck to her body, Lien took advantage of the fact that they were still dazed and quickly struck the nearby man in the back of the neck, knocking him out and snatching his sword.
It felt a little awkward because it wasn't her own sword, but it was no big problem. Now she needed to know the Count's whereabouts...
Lien adjusted her sword and looked around. As if they sensed that her skills were extraordinary, everyone who caught her gaze stepped back in shock.
"...Where is my lord?"
Since she was only hired and did not swear an oath of loyalty, he should have been called the Count instead of her lord... But in this situation, the Count's existence should not be made widely known.
'I'm sorry, Count. I will definitely take this responsibility.'
With a brief apology in her mind, she took a step forward. It was quite nice to see them taking a step back, but she couldn't afford to worry about that right now.
What if something happened to the Count while she was wasting time like this?
"No one knows?"
"..."
"I see. Then..."
"Who is your lord?"
If no one knew, she was going to let them go and look for someone else, but an unexpected, urgent cry came back. Lien stopped and looked back at the person who said those words.
How should she explain it? Count Deon Hardt? A hero?
Either way, she shouldn't say it because it would reveal his identity.
After falling into deep thought for a moment, she finally said, "...It is my lord."
She had no choice but to give such a foolish answer.
For a moment, she passed by the dazed people who seemed like they couldn't believe their ears and headed for the door.
These guys were lucky. If it weren't for the need for people to spread the word about this commotion, they would have been sprawled out on the floor in a mess by now.
'I've thought about it in my own way, but...'
As expected, she didn't fit in with those who worked via schemes. So she didn't know how to find and rescue the Count efficiently.
So, she was here today to play the so-called 'gangpan[1]'. If a knight went on a rampage looking for someone called 'lord', one or two people were sure to get stabbed. They will definitely try to make moves, either by reporting to someone or solving the problem themselves, and all you have to do is chase after them.
"Where is my master!"
"Ah, who is the master?"
"You don't seem to know."
"Ack!!"
Lien began to attack the inside of Salvation Church without hesitation, swinging her sword.
She didn't kill them. There was no need to escalate the situation by murdering them even though it was not an order.
For some reason, there were no ordinary people in sight, so she felt free to make a fuss even more. Finally, a suspicious priest caught her eye.
Seeing this mess, he got scared and runs somewhere.
'It's him!'
If she followed that guy, she would be able to find out the Count's whereabouts.
Pretending not to notice his actions, she continued to walk around the length and breadth of the building and naturally followed him.
It went without saying that in the process, countless people fell in a path behind her at her sword.
The guy who was running around opened a door at the end of a hallway and went in.
Before following him in, she suddenly thought of an assumption.
'Maybe this is a trap. If that's the case...'
–Go in stronger to suppress the momentum.
It seemed that she had somehow been influenced by the Murderous Knights, but she had no choice. Wasn't it impossible not to go in anyway? She didn't know how many people would be in there. Then there was only one way.
Lien chuckled as she remembered the knights under her command.
'After all, I am the leader of the rabid dogs.'
She'll turn into a crazy dog and run wild.
Kwaaaang!!
She kicked the already opened door and burst inside, showing off her shining personality.
The first thing was to find a person who appeared to be the priest she was chasing and aim her sword at him, and the second was to figure out how many people were around.
For a moment, Lien was taken aback by the fact that no one was there except the priest in front of her. She pretended to be calm, hid her emotions, and asked lowly.
"Where is my lord?"
***
"Where is my lord?"
"..."
Saerin sighed quietly at the voice coming from beyond the magic circle.
She even said to strengthen security, but she never thought they would be so incompetent. She recognized Cruel Hardt from the moment she didn't even notice him come in. It was surprising because they both served the same master. She was so surprised when they ran into each other inside the building.
Before she could barely control her surprise, what came to mind was the news that Deon Hardt had also received the same mission.
She also thought that if Cruel's intrusion was not noticed, Deon Hardt's intrusion would definitely not be noticed.
As she thought about it, the red-eyed poor man suddenly came to mind, but when she came out and looked for him again, he had already disappeared, so she didn't think about it any more.
Then it turned out that there was a knight who came looking for her 'lord'.
She knew it the moment she heard her voice. She was the suspicious knight she kicked out at the door.
A 'knight' came in looking for her 'lord'. And coincidentally, a red-eyed poor man visited at a similar time.
Although Saerin was from a commoner background, she was quite intelligent. With such solid clues, understanding the situation was instantaneous.
'It's Deon Hardt. I'm sure the guards said they saw him leaving, but did the two cross paths? No, maybe he's still in here.'
Of course, even though she had figured out the situation, she had no intention of taking any action. There was no way to take action, because the intended purpose of the 'Salvation Church' had already been achieved a long time ago and all that remained was to organize things. She just hoped that the person organizing this place was Cruel Hardt and not Deon Hardt.
She'll just keep watching like this and when she saw signs that Deon Hardt was trying to get to the core first, she can step in and sort it out herself.
There was no need to leave until then. Since the Duke had said so, Saerin had no intention of doing anything other than acting as usual.
'I've done enough.'
Security was also warned to be strengthened, and important documents were hidden in the deepest places.
The top priority in this situation was not to let that knight know about the existence of the magic circle embedded in the wall.
It will definitely break as soon as she noticed it.
It's not because the spell would be broken. It's because something that should never be discovered may be discovered.
A secret that could threaten everything about the Duke, even his life...
'So it must never be discovered.'
Saerin, being careful that even the sound of her breathing might be heard, mercilessly cut off the connection with the outside world and turned around. She opened the door to the room and went out, then sat down and spoke with a benevolent smile to those looking in her direction as if nothing had happened.
"Excuse me for a moment. Shall we continue?"
[1] I looked it up and this refers to a Korean-style food grater. I have no idea why it was used here, but I've left it in because I don't know if it was a mistranslation or in the original Korean text.