Late afternoon sunlight stretched across the ebony desk.
The office in the grand duke's castle was as busy as ever. Aide Bardim droned on with his report, Administrator Kirill neatly stacked approval documents, and Butler Alfredo remained glued to the wall like a shadow.
"We plan to organize four units starting from the east to inspect the barrier for the Month of Mist."
"Why."
"Pardon?"
Bardim paused his report and looked at Caelus.
Caelus stood with his arms crossed, wearing a grim expression. It was his habit whenever something displeased him.
"Ah, the decision to form four units was made so we could run it alongside the subjugation of a thousand demonic beasts on the northern line…"
"Strange."
Caelus cut Bardim off cold. A drop of cold sweat trickled down the back of Bardim's neck.
"Your Grace, if you believe running them simultaneously is inefficient, we can proceed sequentially…"
"What is the reason?"
Cut off once again, Bardim's eyes flickered nervously, completely at a loss. Caelus pressed his forehead, muttering softly under his breath as if struggling to understand something.
Just then, Administrator Kirill, whose dark circles reached all the way down to his chin, tapped a stack of documents and chimed in.
"Your Grace, it is not like Bardim acting clueless about budget constraints is anything new. The real problem is the Magic Tower. Please look at this month's expense sheet. Enough money to feed the northern locals for a lifetime vanished in a single month. Above all…"
"Usually, the party who wants something comes looking first, don't they?"
Kirill blinked at the out-of-nowhere question.
"Usually, yes."
"…Then why hasn't she come?"
Caelus furrowed his brow, seemingly lost in deep thought.
A heavy silence fell over the office. Bardim held his breath under the suffocating atmosphere, but Kirill was different.
Kirill pretended to read the room while quietly stacking urgent documents right in the center of Caelus's field of vision, one by one.
"What about the saintess?"
"Pardon? The saintess?"
Kirill asked, startled.
Butler Alfredo stepped forward.
"She stayed at the Magic Tower again today and returned to the Order just moments ago. Commander Ian accompanied her as usual."
Caelus rested his chin on his clasped hands. His red eyes chilled into a cold glare.
"Why on earth is that saintess breaking her promise and constantly dropping in and out of the grand duke's castle!"
At the mention of the saintess, Bardim lost his temper and shouted.
Righteous and rigid, he utterly loathed acts that broke trust.
He was someone who would charge into the middle of a snowy mountain without hesitation on the grand duke's orders and fight monsters on the front lines.
A saintess who acted however she pleased was an absolute thorn in his side.
Besides, it seemed the culprit disturbing the grand duke's mood right now was none other than the saintess.
"Your Grace."
Bardim took a step closer to Caelus.
"Give the order, and I will personally bring you her head."
"Well, about that," Kirill chimed in, unbothered. "Isn't everyone turning a blind eye to the saintess's actions to some extent after Your Grace's overload incident?"
"Still, should she not honor her own word? Right now, the saintess is ignoring the grand duke's order…"
"Honoring her word won't prevent a mana overload."
Bardim glared unhappily at Kirill for cutting him off. Kirill didn't care in the slightest, tapping his fingers against the documents on the desk.
"That is not what matters right now. What good are abundant resources if they are unmanaged? Not a single area is executing its budget properly. The Magic Tower in particular is entirely out of control."
Kirill poured out complaints without taking a breath. In a grand duchy with zero financial awareness, Kirill was the busiest man alive, constantly holding his aching head over administrative disasters.
"Right now, both people and money are pouring into the Magic Tower. There is no way the saintess doesn't know this."
Kirill let out a scoff.
"That is why she stays glued to that place instead of coming here, even while Your Grace waits."
"…I am waiting?"
Caelus's aura flared up ferociously.
"Is it not the proper order for the side that wants something to reach out first?"
Realizing he had made a slip of the tongue, Kirill quickly shut his mouth.
"Is my common sense flawed?"
Alfredo stepped in on behalf of the flustered Kirill.
"Your Grace, please pay it no mind. The saintess not visiting first must surely be out of consideration for you."
Alfredo carefully continued, reading Caelus's displeased expression.
"It is a very wise and thoughtful action intended not to bother you."
"Exactly. It is a relief she is not hovering around pointlessly."
Even Bardim quickly nodded along in agreement.
Caelus's brow furrowed even more intensely. A cold breath escaped his lips.
Despite being the one to propose a service contract first, the saintess hadn't shown her face for a full month.
He thought she would come running to beg for the contract, but instead, she was secretly sneaking in and out of the Magic Tower.
This was not consideration; it was disrespect.
Even the highest-grade parchment she had promised to prepare had been personally readied by Caelus.
The unpleasant feeling boiling inside Caelus left his mouth dry.
Why on earth is she not seeking me out first?
Caelus slowly raised his gaze toward the Magic Tower outside the window. His red eyes gleamed sharply.
"Kirill."
"Yes? Yes, Your Grace!"
"Cut the Magic Tower's budget."
His low voice echoed coldly through the office.
* * *
Late at night, only the moonlight seeping through the window and the candle on the desk illuminated the office.
Erno, with green hair that did not suit the solemn atmosphere in the slightest, perched his hip on the edge of Caelus's ebony desk and raised his voice in complaint.
"Now hold on, Your Grace. It creates quite a problem if you tell us to slash our Magic Tower budget like that."
Though phrased politely, his speech and behavior held not a shred of genuine respect.
Caelus responded dryly without taking his eyes off the documents.
"The cost of reagents the Magic Tower spends in a single week rivals the estimated monthly reserve grain budget."
"Come on, you know better than that. Please consider it a noble investment in the pursuit of truth. Extending Your Grace's life is just a bonus."
Erno drawled playfully.
Caelus turned the pages of the document one by one, not bothering to give him so much as a glance.
"Kirill is out for blood. Deliver results."
"Sigh. Results. This is why uneducated fools…"
Erno pushed up his crooked glasses, veins bulging on his neck.
"Do you think results just magically pop up out of thin air? Meaningful data only comes after repeating dozens or hundreds of experiments, yet you complain about achievements without knowing the basic fundamentals!"
Kirill was someone who already thought the Magic Tower's budget was excessive on normal days. Yet the budget Erno burned through this past month was more than triple his usual amount. It had been predictable ever since Erno rolled on the floor begging to analyze the saintess. From Kirill's perspective, the Magic Tower was bound to be a thorn in his side.
"So. Are there results?"
Erno hopped off the desk corner.
"Results? It goes far beyond that! Thanks to an excellent test subject, I entered a whole new world over the past month!"
"Test subject?"
Caelus's hand turning the page froze.
"Our saintess is wonderful."
"Our?"
For the first time, Caelus's red eyes turned toward Erno.
"She is so cooperative during experiments! In my entire research career, I have never seen such a flawless test subject!"
Caelus leaned back into his chair, narrowing his red eyes as he glared askance at Erno.
"What exactly is the saintess doing at the Magic Tower?"
"Well, she does plenty. What takes up the most time is probably data collection?"
"Data collection?"
An unknown sense of annoyance swelled inside Caelus.
"You know, things like what she ate yesterday, her sleep duration, her daily step count, or her body temperature."
"Why gather such things?"
"Because I need to see how minor dietary habits or changes in condition cause subtle fluctuations in divine power patterns. It is still in the hypothesis stage, but dissecting… I mean, researching divine power so directly for the first time in my life makes me so excited!"
Caelus knitted his brow, attempting to interrupt Erno. However, once Erno started, there was no stopping him.
"Still, it is strange. Her divine power feels so… trivial, if you will."
Erno pressed his nails hard into his fingers. Hard enough for his knuckles to turn pale.
"Anyway, future mana controllers will be on an entirely different level compared to now. Once the structural analysis of divine power is finished…"
Erno's ash-gray eyes flashed.
"Something like the Order might become completely obsolete."
At that moment, Erno's voice cut off abruptly.
The cheerful smirk from moments ago vanished as if it had been a lie. His flashing gaze turned cold as ice.
Erno slowly turned his head.
"In any case, that saintess named Ariel is truly…"
He tapped his head as if picking the right word.
"Hmm… How should I put it? Mysterious? Fascinating? Intriguing? Yes, an intriguing person."
The Magic Tower had attempted to research divine power users before, but they always ran into brick walls due to opposition from the Order and resistance from the subjects.
Yet Ariel was different.
"Every bit of this trivial data becomes brand-new material for academia."
According to Erno, this research went beyond treating mana poisoning; it could become the key to unlocking the secrets of demonic energy.
"So…"
Caelus spoke slowly.
"…Is she coming tomorrow as well?"
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