Shadowless Night

Rosaline went to the plaza immediately after separating from Diech. Shops and stalls selling food also lined the square. So, unfortunately, Diech’s worries came true as Rosaline became blinded by the street food.

Her reunion with Ricardis and his companions seemed far away; however, thanks to Ricardis, who had a keen grasp of her nature, Rosaline was immediately captured. 

Ricardis had placed the senior knights at restaurants with long lines. He knew that Rosaline considered the stores with the long lines to be the ones with the tastiest food. 

In any case, Pardict caught Rosaline in front of a meat restaurant. She was then surrounded and scolded by everyone. 

“Rose!” Pardict put his hands on his hips and groaned. “D- Do you know how worried we were? This punk!”

Rosaline kept her mouth shut because she knew she was wrong.

“Master was so anxious and kept his eyes wide open, looking around everywhere as if searching for a lost dog!”

Pardict kicked Lewon for the inappropriate expression. Ricardis leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He didn’t frown, and his face was calm. Rosaline couldn’t help but glance at him.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

While Rosaline observed him, Ricardis abruptly spoke, startling her. Soon, a shadow of doubt appeared in her eyes as she reflected on what he asked.

‘Is this the time to get scolded…?’

Her voice was quieter than expected.

“…No, I am not.”

Ricardis opened his eyes and approached Rosaline. Even when the knights, taller than Ricardis, growled terrifyingly, Rosaline could not understand their feelings. At this moment, however, she felt flooded by Ricardis’ emotions, as if they screamed, ‘I’m mad! I’m pissed off!’

“…What is that suspicious look? In any case, I’m glad you have no injuries.”

‘Ah, today His Highness is very kind!’ Rosaline removed the mask of a dying puppy she wore and smiled broadly.

“Then, Rose, did you have any direct battles with people during our separation, or did you cause any notable incidents worth being mentioned to the city guards?”

‘I left just before a fight started, and I didn’t fight directly… Maybe… Ah, I’m not supposed to say it!’

“There were no such things!”

Ricardis sighed deeply in response to her spirited answer and slowly tilted his head back.

‘Looks like they didn’t happen…’

Ricardis came to the plaza right after he and Rosaline were separated. The whole time, he had nightmares with his eyes open. Scenes of Rosaline making a fuss, getting involved in an incident, or beating the city guards had endlessly repeated in his mind. One thing all the imaginary Rosaline incidents shared was that she always ended up locked in a prison cell. He had to expect the worst so he could react calmly; as such, Rosaline had become a traitor three times in his head and escaped from prison about five times.

Seeing Rosaline smiling in front of him, his anxiety subsided. Ricardis widened his eyes. He immediately hardened his expression and began to scold Rosaline. ‘How could the escort knight leave the object of the escort? Because of food? I’m not even as good as food?’ He roasted her.

However, upon hearing that majestic skewers, which consisted only of meat, without green onions or anything green sandwiched between them, were the culprit… 

“Oh, no wonder…” Ricardis responded.

Like a cat drunk on catnip, like a butterfly attracted to a flower: at that point, Rosaline acted more on instinct rather than being blind to her duty.

As the sullen Rosaline drank fruit juice to regain vigor, the noisy street quickly became quiet.

A man in a white robe stepped onto the podium in the plaza’s center. His clothes and necklace indicated he was one of the continent’s seven high priests.

He looked different from other priests, who had their hair neatly tied or organized. His pale pink curly hair, which looked blonde because of the lights, fell loosely. His messy clothing, which looked baggy or perhaps even inside out, made it hard to tell whether he was wearing a robe or white curtains.

The high priest scratched his head and tapped his finger against his temple. Thanks to that, his hat became even more crooked. Every move he made was as slow as an old man’s, but his face was so youthful that one wondered if he was only 20 years old.

To become a high priest, the amount of holy power was crucial, but how long you practiced under the trust of God was also not a negligible requirement.

So that young high priest either entered the temple when he was very young or had the formidable guts to ignore the years of training. Except for Rosaline, everyone in their party recognized his identity.

“It seems High Priest Laheansi is in charge of the sermon.”

Laurel of the Snowfield, the 4th Prince of the Holy Empire of Illavenia, the Prince who abandoned his title: Laheansi.

High priests always participated in national events related to White Night. Laheansi seemed to be in charge of this year’s ‘Shadowless Night’. Although he is a high-ranking official who was formerly a prince, it must have been difficult to avoid the pressure of the old high-ranking officials.

It was a priest’s job to read the scriptures and bless the people. However, unlike events with the nobles, the commoners had nothing to give. Commoners didn’t know much of the Holy Scripture, and they couldn’t understand its esoteric contents. Also, no gold or silver treasures would sneak into the priest’s pockets due to illicit dealings, so no way would priests be willing to come to a place like this.

Perhaps because the commoners had always seen priests who perpetually frowned— or did not even try to hide their expressions that said they found this duty troublesome— they did not take issue with Laheansi’s relaxed attitude. They accepted it as a sign that the noble High Priest Laheansi had come to the street.

Ricardis wanted to explain to everyone that Laheansi was actually a lazy man. However, there was no way to do that, and it frustrated him.

‘Shouldn’t he at least act with more vigor in public places?’

Laheansi raised one of his hands. The already quiet crowd held their breath even more.

“Let’s see… The full moon is over the edge of the city of Illavenia, and the Shadowless Night has come, people.”

Ricardis frowned.

“…Why does he sound like me?”

Contrary to Ricardis’ dry response, the people in the square were amazed. 

“Ooooooh…!” 

Everyone knelt with a small shout. Humiliated, Ricardis and his knights also had to kneel if they didn’t want anyone to notice them.

“In the beginning, only chaos, the darkness of Crean Tidanion filled the world, and not a single blade of grass could grow… Then, who?”

Laheansi gave a rough reading of the scripture, put his hand behind his ear, and leaned in to listen to what the people had to say. The square became noisy because it looked like he was asking for an answer. There’s a Shadowless Night every year, but this was the first time they had a sermon like this.

Seeing them hesitate, Laheansi repeated himself, “Say it! Who?!” 

The crowd looked at each other and said, “Idelavhim…”

“I can’t hear you! Louder! Who is it?!”

“Idelavhim!”

“That’s right. Idelavhim. The girl who answered first. You are special. I will give you this scripture as a reward. It has a gold leaf attached to it, so if you sell it, it will make quite a bit of money.”

Behind Laheansi, the layman holding the holy water closed his eyes tightly. If one looked closely, you would see his temples twitching, but it doesn’t seem like it’s because his head hurts. Bewildered, the girl sitting near the podium widened her eyes as she had the book handed to her. They really passed the script to her. Ricardis looked at the scene with cold eyes. ‘Crazy guy.’

“When Idelavhim lifted away the darkness of Crean Tidanion with the power of light, the world was finally seen. The world has seen the light of Idelavhim. To whom should this glory be attributed?”

“Idelavhim!”

“That is correct. Teach one person, and ten people will know. Everyone is so clever. My heart is satisfied.”

The sight of everyone shouting the name of Idelavhim was spectacular. Laheansi continued while scratching his shaggy hair.

“But Crean Tidanion is also a powerful god originally from this world. Idelavhim and Crean Tidanion spent three days and three nights… Oh, don’t worry about these three days and three nights. They are just expressions. Anyway, Idelavhim and Crean Tidanion fought, but the war of these gods ended without a clear winner or loser… Thus, in this way, they created day and night. And so, the world we live in has the day under the control of Idelavhim and the night covered with Crean Tidanion’s veil of chaos.

The verses the priests memorized and read were difficult for others to understand because they consisted of tricky words that only the priests could comprehend. Even those who had a little bit of knowledge scrambled their brains trying to interpret the contents of the scripture.

“Then, what is the Shadowless Night that comes every year? They say it is when our Idelavhim first won over the night, Crean Tidanion’s power. When Idelavhim’s power reaches its peak, the veil of night disappears, and the light of blessing covers the whole world. He revives all life, flowers bloom, and plants bear fruit. The scripture says that this blessed night will open up the world of gods that we lowly humans cannot understand and cannot reach. The disappearance of the shadow is said to be the proof. Ummm… I honestly haven’t seen it myself, so I don’t know.”

The layman made another grimace in the back. ‘It was going so well, but you just had to say unnecessary things…’

“Anyway, the blessing of Idelavhim came down to the lake in the form of an eagle, and it gave the first emperor of Illavenia the power to invoke the night of blessing. Oho… From this point on, there’s nothing I’m interested in at all… Let’s move on. Oh well, that’s all you need to know. Long live our Majesty the Emperor.”