Like a Dry Branch in the Wind

Outside Killian’s room, there was a disturbance looking for the missing Ostia. He quickly grasped the situation and murmured to himself. 

“Damn it.”

Rietta ran with a pale face and flopped down in front of the closet. She was about to collapse, but when she realized that she needed to help him, she moved her body. She touched the blood-covered body, her hand shaking like leaves because of her instinctive fear. 

Rietta shivered with the chilly touch.

“Oh no… Oh no! She’s dead!”

Killian said.

“Of course she was. She must be the Chief Priest Ostia… the Queen’s cousin. She’s planning to frame me for killing the chief priest.”

The chief priest of the grand temple, who was also the blood relative of the Queen died in front of the Emperor’s deputy.

Shit. I was wrong. She had no intention at all to hurt me using the chief priest in the first place.

Rietta desperately lowered her voice with an incredulous look on her face. 

“But we didn’t do it!”

“Yeah, it’s a trap.”

He lost his alibi after insisting that he would not keep the monks of the grand temple by his side. 

How much did the Queen laugh inside when I kindly said I wanted to make Rietta lead the ceremony?

The Imperial family did not tolerate the killing of relatives. The justification was with the other side. Just by saving Killian, who killed his half brothers 13 years ago, the Emperor was still held back by the Queen and the nobles.

The Imperial family could no longer defend him. Aside from the Queen, who was obsessed with chewing Killian up, there were far more enemies in the imperial family. They had always been pointing their blades towards Killian, who did not get along well with anyone.

If the Queen and the nobles accused him of killing the Queen’s blood relatives again, they would gain strength to claim that he would threaten the Crown Prince, the only remaining child of the Queen.

Rietta urgently raised her trembling body.

“Hurry up. Before people get suspicious, you have to call people to investigate the truth…!”

Killian grabbed Rietta’s wrist and stopped her.

“Are you going to naively claim innocence?”

It was planned from the beginning. I’m sure they’ve already prepared all the evidence they would ever need. It won’t be easy to get out of this situation.

Killian moved quickly. He rolled the body around into a bed sheet to prevent blood from flowing and took it out of the closet. However, there was no other place to hide the body.  

“What are you planning to do?”

“Bring a towel and clean the closet. Open all the windows and spray the room with fragrant oil.”

It was already too much for her to even hold on to her senses, but still, her body moved quickly. Rietta opened all the windows with trembling hands to ventilate the room. She ran to the bathroom and opened a jar containing fragrant oil. After putting all the fragrant oil in an empty bottle, she came out with a towel on her side. The body in Killian’s hand had already disappeared somewhere.

She sprayed fragrant oil all over the room. The closet where the body was located was wiped with a dry towel first and then wiped again with a wet towel. After that, she wiped the closet again by pouring fragrant oil into it.

Killian lit all his cigars. The smell of fragrant oil and tobacco had spread, but the thick bloody stench remaining in the room was not hidden. Before they knew it, the chaotic atmosphere began to spread to their dwellings.

“What is this fuss in His Grace’s dwelling?”

Through the open window, Giselle’s sharp voice was coming up from downstairs.

“Chief Priest Ostia who will hold tomorrow’s ceremony is missing. A search is underway in all buildings so please give your cooperation.”

“Argh! What are you doing? How can paladins enter the women’s bedrooms?”

The voice of the flustered women rang from below and was informing Rietta and Killian of the situation.

“I won’t do anything other than search the room. Please cooperate.”

“Maybe she’s just going somewhere. How can you behave so disrespectfully?”

Elise’s protest was answered by the cold voice of a man.

“The priests who were praying in the prayer room foresaw a big problem with the chief priest. The traces left in the place where she disappeared were unusual. For this, we have to find her. I ask for your understanding.”

The sound of the paladin’s heavy armor was getting closer to their room. Rietta came to her senses. She turned her head and looked at Killian.

“Where is the body?”

“I took care of it well.”

Rietta believed what he said at once and asked no more questions. The remaining problem was the smell of blood that could not be covered by the smell of tobacco or fragrant oil. Killian clenched his teeth with a cold face.

“It’s okay. They won’t find the body anyway.”

In an instant, the sound of the approaching footsteps stopped in front of the door.

“The stench of blood can’t be considered as evidence by itself. We can just say we don’t know about it.”

The sound of knocking on the bedroom could be heard. And they heard a voice calling him outside.

“Your Grace!”

At that time, Rietta moved. She hurriedly ran to the room where she left her luggage and took out a dagger. Killian raised his eyes when he saw her pulling out the dagger.

“What are you…”

Suddenly, she rolled up her skirt, sat on her knees, and stabbed the dagger on her thigh. He did not even have the time to stop her. In an instant, red blood burst and flowed between the sides of her thigh and leg. The white skirt she sat on turned red.

Rietta tore off the sleeves of her clothes with the dagger. Then, she stopped the bleeding by binding her leg with her shaky hands. But her hands were shaking and she lacked energy. Killian approached her with a stiff look. He bound her leg tightly and yelled at her with a low voice.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The sound of knocking on their bedroom door rang again.

“Archduke of Axias! Are you there? Please open the door!”

Their eyes met. Killian realized what Rietta did. Rietta pushed the dagger in the holder and threw it into the pile of clothes. She hurriedly organized her skirt and stood up. She headed to the bathroom with a limp leg.

There was a bloodstain on the back of her white skirt. Rietta quickly washed her blood-stained hands and wiped the water off her hands at the foot of the dress. Then, she turned toward him with a calm look.

“I’m fine, milord. Please open the door.”

It was a voice that could even be heard outside.

“…Your Grace!”

The voice from outside called him again and pressed him. Killian stood firm and looked at Rietta silently. The sound of knocking on the door urged them again.

“Your Grace! I don’t want to open the door forcibly. Please open the door!”

Killian did not move with his eyes fixed on Rietta with a stern look. When he showed no signs of moving, Rietta approached the door herself. Just before touching the door, the firmly sunken sky blue eyes headed for Killian. She calmly looked into his eyes and unlocked the door.

The door opened with a clicking sound. A considerable number of priests and armor-clad paladins gathered in front of the door menacingly. The paladin at the front most position looked down at Rietta once and then found Archduke of Axias standing behind her and opened his mouth.

“Your Grace.”

Killian slowly turned his head and stared at the man who called him with terrifying eyes. Seeing his eyes filled with bloodlust, the paladin flinched.

“My, my apologies for disturbing your rest. Please excuse us at this dawn. I’m Niston, a high-level paladin in Grand Temple Havitus. Chief Priest Ostia is missing so we’re urgently searching for her. Please give…”

But as if he soon realized something, his expression quickly became intimidating.

“…Isn’t this the stench of blood? Your Grace!”

Killian’s cold red eyes turned to him.

“So?”

“What do you mean? How can your room reek of blood? We will have to search your room. Please let us go inside!”

“Ha…”

Killian smiled gruesomely and put his hand on the handle of his sword.

“I really can’t get used to the temple’s minions…”

Killian tilted his head and pulled out his sword.

“How much should I endure…”

“Milord!”

Rietta threw herself, hung on to his hand, and shook her head furiously. 

“I’m fine! Don’t make unnecessary misunderstandings and let them search the room!”

Blood permeated the back of Rietta’s skirt when she turned around. As soon as the paladins realized what it meant, their bodies hardened. The knights in the back were also surprised. They lowered their voices to share a few words with each other.

Bang!

Killian kicked the door. Flustered by his force, several paladins stepped back. Killian growled.

“How dare you whisper disgracefully in front of me?”

“I, I’m fine, milord!”

“I am not fine.”

Killian affectionately raised Rietta, who was hanging on to his hand, then pushed her to stand behind him. Held by Killian’s hand, Rietta hid behind him. Then she turned her gaze pitifully out of the door.

“I’m sure even the knights know… every month women sometimes feel uncomfortable.”

Rietta mumbled and avoided the eyes of the knights.

“Usually, I have time to prepare because it’s a regular occurrence. But due to the unexpected forced marching for the past few days… I wanted to dress up before opening the door, but it seemed urgent…”

“Rietta, no need to explain yourself.”

Killian cut off Rietta’s words.

“But…”

She could not bear to finish her words and dropped her flushed face down. A drop of blood fell under Rietta’s feet.

The paladin behind was embarrassed and quietly pulled the clothes of the paladin in the front. It meant that they had to step back immediately. A priest next to the knight clenched his teeth.

“Sir Niston! You still have to search the room. How can you just move on from a room that reeks of blood?”

Killian gently removed Rietta’s hand and walked forward to block the door. He just leaned against the door frame but the knights had already stopped breathing under the pressure. It seemed that a beast seemed to have blocked the door. The priest stepped back, though he did not show any sign of backing off. He stared at Killian and opened his mouth.

“…Does it make sense that a woman’s time of the month could fill the room with the stench of blood? As expected, you have to…”

Killian snorted at him as if he was dumbfounded. The other people gulped the air. No one even saw the moment his sword moved. Before they knew it, the tip of his sword already touched the priest’s Adam’s apple.

“Why don’t you just ask her to show the inside of her skirt?”

“No, no way. Just, just the room, urgh!”

Killian walked out of the door pushing the sword as if he was going to just slash it. The priest, whose neck was pressed against the sword, stepped back to avoid being stabbed. Blood came out of his neck.

“You should be grateful for her weakness. If only my woman was not watching, I would have already slashed all of you.”

The pale priest protested in a trembling voice.

“Are, are you going to use force against priests and, and paladins?”

Killian flashed a twisted smile.

“Priest.”

It was a strange tone. It felt as if he was brooding over.

“What’s your name?”

The priest paused for a moment, not knowing what to do. Killian cleared the air by asking in a friendly tone.

“Name.”

As time passed without the priest answering, some of the paladins felt strange and looked at him. The priest who could no longer drag further finally answered him.

“I… I’m Serus.”

Killian swung his sword at his body. The surprised paladins were unable to respond. They strengthened their grip on their swords.

Slash!

Instead of cutting the flesh and bursting blood, the sound of metal hitting rang. At the end of the sharp sword, the cape of the priest’s uniform was cut in half and fell down slowly. The chain mail hidden under the cape was revealed. The paladins opened their eyes wide.

“Get a hold of yourself, Serus.”

Killian smiled affectionately.

“Wearing a priest’s uniform doesn’t make you a real priest, does it?”

Serus’ face turned pale. Having turned pale in an instinctive sense of crisis, he flinched his hand on his waist. However, the place where the sword was located was empty for his disguise.

He was hiding the sound by wrapping it in clothing, but Killian could detect the subtle movements of someone wearing hidden chain mail. He even had the unique posture of someone who trained with a sword.

At that time, after wandering around his waist, Serus’ hand touched something.

Drop.

Roll.

A gold identification tag with a purple tassel fell to the floor. While Serus was unable to move, Killian lifted the end of the identification tag with the tip of his sword and read it.

“Serus Weichen. A regular knight belonging to the Knights of Gryps in the Queen’s Palace.”

The friendly appearance of the identification tag made him dumbfounded. When Killian looked up to look at Serus… He looked pathetic enough to blow away any doubt whether this was a double strap. Killian muttered coldly.

“It seems that Her Imperial Majesty has a fetish of putting priest’s uniforms on things that are not even priests.”

Then, he snorted and scanned through the paladins.

“By the way… Since when did the Order of Paladins of the grand temple become the dogs of Her Imperial Majesty?”