Lilian of Turin

Right then.

“…you’re looking at me too much.”

A raspy, scratchy voice.

Before she knew it, her gaze was returned by narrowly opened eyes.

“You’ve come to your senses.”

“Yes, thanks to you.”

The answering voice was strangely soft.

Damian calmly sat up, as if he were in his own bedroom. Lilian thought.

‘His eyes are purple.’

It was a purple color that shone in various ways, as if glass of blue, red, and purple were layered on top of each other.

Truly like the peak of fire. It was a look that matched the man’s beauty to the point of being staggering.

“If you keep looking at me like that, even a person like me is a little embarrassed.”

Oops.

Lilian, distraught, realized her mistake and apologized honestly.

“I apologize. Your eyes are so beautiful that it took away my gaze without even realizing it.”

Damian’s eyes which were round in surprise for a moment, slowly sulked. His original eyes are thin and long, so it looked like…

‘…a fox?’

It’s pretty, but there’s something magical about it… She thought it’s like a snow fox living in the north pole became a human.

“Are you serious?”

Damian asked Lilian, who was once again lost in her thoughts as she came up with an appropriate analogy.

“…yes?”

“Didn’t you say that my eyes are beautiful?”

“Ah, yes. Of course I mean it.”

She doesn’t lie about things like that. Despite Lily’s clear affirmation, somehow, Damian wasn’t satisfied.

“Hm, no selfishness at all, just pure admiration. I see.”

“Yes?”

Again, the rain started pounding hard on the ground, and Lilian missed Damian’s words.

It was then.

Rattle.

“!”

The carriage stopped again. Not only that, this time…

Bang bang!

Someone started banging on the carriage door.

She could hear Dunkel yelling, ‘what’s the meaning of this?’

“By the solemn orders of His Majesty, I, Wilhar, the checkpoint commander, may search anyone’s carriage.”

The cold voice that answered him was heard right in front of the carriage door.

Dunkel shouted without losing.

“Even if you’re the Emperor’s knight, do you think you have the right to intimidate Turin’s daughter without telling me what your purpose is! Amazing!”

“I’m afraid to say it since it’s scary. Are you going to insist that the carriage of the Elector of Turin be extraterritorial territory?”

Even Lilian panicked at the situation.

“You must be nervous.”

“!”

Unlike Lilian, who unknowingly stopped her breath, Damian was relaxed.

“You don’t have to worry.”

“….?”

“Because I’m the strongest person here.”

No… Lily was bewildered by the way he spoke, as if he was whispering a secret.

She was aware of Damian’s strength. But the problem was that he wasn’t in perfect condition right now.

‘He couldn’t recover from the shock of the ancient weapon, so he lost his eye in the process of escaping, and I’m sure he suffered from the aftereffects for a long time after that…’

He didn’t lose his eye, but it’s a little odd that he’s so active.

Meanwhile, the fight outside was reaching its peak. It was Dunkel who exploded first.

“Serving an immoral Emperor who’s not even as good as a dog!”

“What!”

Finally, the checkpoint commander also burst into anger.

“Watch your mouth, dog of Turin! I can search the inside of your lady’s skirt if it’s for the sake of His Majesty the Emperor…kugh!”

The insult wasn’t completed.

Damian suddenly opened the carriage door, and the warden, who had been vulgarly insulting Lilian, fell backwards while screaming. His nose and mouth were mangled in a mess.

“Just hearing it and I’m embarrassed.”

“Swoosh!”

Damian calmly got off the carriage. While gently trampling on the small intestine of the one collapsed on the ground.

The warden shuddered with a pale face. But Damian did not come down to the ground until he had taken three steps, from the first step on his stomach to the mangled head, as if the body of the affected man was flat.

He was graceful and violent.

“G-grand…T-th-this, w-what.”

“My brother bred the wrong hound. This dog had the bad habit of barking in the face of important people, so shouldn’t I step in?”

“Grand Duke Rupenwein…! How the hell…!”

“This isn’t the time to be curious.”

“Kuhh…!”

Damien trampled on the inspector’s neck without mercy. And he ordered.

“Give me my sword.”

Who are you ordering? A terrified Dunkel looked around…

“Ugh!”

Before he knew it, a group of assailants in black raincoats surrounded the carriage in perfect order.

One of them carefully prostated themself before the Grand Duke and raised a sword.

An old knot ornament dangled neatly, not fitting for the sword that was shining white even to the hilt, as if it were made of pure silver.

The Grand Duke drew his sword. They very next moment, the sharp blade pierced the inspector’s neck.

“…!”

The inspector died without even a scream.

When he withdrew the blade, blood gushed out, but even that was washed away by the force of the pouring rain.

The Grand Duke returned the sword to the person assumed to be his subordinate.

“You were nervous.”

“That’s right.”

Damian turned to look at Lilian while his men collected the body and bound the remnants of the Emperor’s knights.

“!”

Soon after, he took a step towards Lilian. It was the moment when Dunkel tried to warn her to back off at the threatening feeling.

Unexpectedly, the Grand Duke bowed. And he picked something up from the floor.

‘Ah.’

It was the pipe that Lily had unknowingly dropped in her panic.

“You must have been very surprised.”

That said, she was really surprised.

But apart from being surprised, she never thought to blame Damian. The situation they went through a moment ago was a situation where they would die if they didn’t kill.

“It’s okay.”

Now was not the right moment to reveal agitation.

‘It’s time to prioritize what needs to be done rather than emotions.’

Fortunately, Lilian was able to save Damian in time, as if the seven years of preparation had not been in vain.

‘Strangely, His Highness’ condition seems much better than I expected, but… This isn’t something to think about right now.’

Rather, it could be called lucky.

‘The intended purpose has been achieved. Besides, he even killed the Emperor’s vassals which she didn’t plan for…’

They had to get out of here as quickly as possible.

“Your Highness, there’s something I’d like to suggest.”

“Tell me.”

Damian’s expression turned strange at Lilian’s suggestion that it’d be better to leave Cantacun as quickly as possible and head for Turin Castle.

“So you’re saying you’d like to take me into your carriage now?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

That wasn’t the point of her proposal, but Lilian nodded her head obediently.

“Is something wrong…?”

“No, nothing.”

Damian, who was staring at Lilian with a curious look, laughed and shook his head.

“Your offer makes sense. I’ll rely on your good will.”

***

After a while.

Damian climbed into Lilian’s carriage. He received a coat and shoes from his subordinate and was now wearing minimal clothes.

Lilian looked around slightly.

‘Seeing that he was willing to ride with me, I don’t think he doubts me.’

But she couldn’t be careless. Lilian couldn’t be sure how convinced this man was when she explained that she had come here to recuperate and found him by chance.

Looking at Lilian like that, Damian thought.

‘She’s nervous.’

It was an emergency, so it wasn’t surprising. Rather, he wanted to praise her for being rational.

Unlike Lily’s misgivings about him, Damian was not very suspicious of her. Rather…

“In my rush, I almost forgot my greeting. Thank you very much for your kindness.”

“I haven’t done anything great. You’re being too polite.”

“It wasn’t a big deal, was it?”

Damian laughed in a tone that said he was having fun. If it hadn’t for this young lady, he would have been in a lot of trouble.

Maybe one thing went very wrong or…

‘Very dead.’

Damian was also the only congenital hypermagic patient in the world.

Mana was basically a force that respond to human will. For example, let’s say a person with magical power thinks, “I want to sleep.”

The faithful mana would respond to the owner’s will and act on the endoctrine system to help with insomnia.

Theoretically, if you have very strong magic power, you could change your constitution itself to a body that’s fine even if you don’t sleep at all.

So, of course, people with magic learned swordsmanship. This was because mana could dramatically help strengthen the body through training, making it easy to achieve nonhuman achievements.

The more you use mana like that, the purer the power become and the more it increase.

As the amount of mana increases, the body changes also accelerate.

In Damian’s case, the problem was that his mana increased exponentially before his body could adapt.