Chapter 327: One More Business

“Ah. I’m sorry if I angered you unnecessarily, I didn’t mean to.”

My gaze dropped for a moment and everywhere was silent, but I could still feel the lethal air that Lady Hue exuded.

“This person I just mentioned, I’m very well aware she could be your sister and your reaction tells me something is not right between the two of you. I just want to know about her whereabouts, because if anything happened to her, it’d be my fault, I dragged her all the way here after all.”

Lady Hue was still looking at me with evident anger in her eyes. She then breathed a moment later and touched the top of her breasts.

“You’re right Lord Cade, it does offset me, especially when someone like you is mentioning her name. My father is known to be a man of a thousand pleasures, he has several concubines and seven core wives, we grew up with an endless feud between each other and are naturally averse towards each other. So I have to say, I felt very threatened by your inquisition of my step sister.”

The Vanatian House, for some reason this sounds in line would what the leader of such a house would do.

And that also meant that Cressida’s mother was most likely the Duke’s last wife, if I was merging together what Colonel Atlas had said with what lady Hue just said.

“I’m sorry.”

Lady Hue shook her head with a bitter smile. “It’s alright. But I’ll have to turn you down this time, there’s nothing I can do to help you, I can’t go sniffing around the last wife’s business, asides from incurring my father’s wrath, a wayward son should be the least I add to my cup of tea right now.”

“Ah, I see… quite understandable then.”

“But if it helps, her personal estate in the past two days, no one has been sighted leaving or entering, I’m sure if Cressida made it or any sort, there would have been some noise, loud enough for me to pay them a little attention.”

“I see… I see… thank you very much lady Hue, you are very generous to me, I will not forget it.”

Lady Hue smiled in returned, the smile, didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“’It’s fine Lord Cade, once the auction is over, I will take you through the process and we shall safeguard your money.”

I nodded at her and after that the atmosphere got somewhat silent.

Maybe too silent in fact.

However, I didn’t need to deal with it much, soon the Auction slowly drifted to its end and guest began to prepare departures. In that same time, I decided to leave the back room, there was a message that I needed to send and if I didn’t send that message, I’ll be failing myself and the mercenary guild that was massacred greatly.

I stood up from the chair and adjusted my coat.

Lady Hue noticed the shift immediately. Her bitter smile dropped a fraction.

“Lord Cade?”

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Lady Hue. Truly. We’ll continue our discussion about the account after.”

She tilted her head, studying me with those sharp, calculative eyes of hers. I could tell that she wanted to ask something, but she didn’t. Instead, she simply nodded.

“After, then.”

I turned and headed for the door of the back room. My steps were unhurried, measured, but there was something settled in my chest now. Something that had been restless since the moment I heard the name of the Eternal Light Church echo through that auction hall.

Lady Hue had given me what I needed. The delegation from the Eternal Light Church, residing in the west wing of the pagoda’s guest quarters, third corridor, private suite. They had come to bid on relics, she said. The Church always did, every auction. It was routine for them.

Routine.

’I wonder if it’ll still feel routine after tonight.’

Although it was a bit sad the Pope of the church himself if they’re called that, had stopped coming ten years ago. But I’ll make do with what I could find.

I stepped out of the back room and into the wider space of the pagoda’s upper floor. The auction had truly wound down by now. Servants moved through the corridors collecting empty wine cups and discarded auction pamphlets. Guests drifted in small clusters, some still negotiating, others simply enjoying the lingering prestige of being here.

It was quieter than it had been hours ago. The host’s theatrical voice no longer bounced off the walls. The energy had shifted from feverish bidding to the lazy contentment of people who had spent enormous sums and felt good about it.

I walked through them like a ghost.

My mind was clear. Startlingly clear. I had already made the decision and everything left was just execution.

In that moment, I found myself thinking about the mercenary guild.

I thought about the people inside. Victoria, with her blue hair and the way she jumped to her feet whenever someone walked in. The main hall buzzing with noise, ale sloshing, food being devoured. The sound of loose conversation from people who had found a place to belong.

All of them, gone. Because the Church decided they should be.

I thought about Tristan’s face when he said the words. “But I failed.” The way he bit his inner lip. The way the weight of it pressed his gaze to the floor.

I thought about Lira. My Lira. Dragged to the palace by soldiers who answered to a queen who answered to a church that burned people alive for the crime of existing differently.

My jaw tightened, but my expression didn’t change. On the outside, I was just another guest making his way through the halls.

I passed a cluster of well-dressed merchants laughing about something. One of them had a cup of wine tilted at an angle that suggested he’d had several. They didn’t notice me. Nobody in this corridor noticed me. I was the mercenary-turned-bidder who had made Lady Hue swear under her breath, but in this wing, without her presence beside me, I was just another face.

That wouldn’t last much longer.

The west wing opened up through an arched corridor lined with lanterns. The lanterns here burned a cooler shade of white than the warm gold of the main hall. The floor changed from polished wood to pale stone, and the air carried a faintly sweet scent that I associated with temples.

’Of course they’d make their quarters smell like a church. Can’t go five minutes without reminding everyone they’re holy.’

Two guards stood at the mouth of the corridor. They wore white cloth over light armor, and the sigil on their chests was unmistakable even from a distance.

The Radiant Sun.

The mark of the Eternal Light Church.

I slowed my pace but didn’t stop. My eyes took in everything. The two guards, relaxed, standing with the bored posture of men who hadn’t expected trouble. The corridor beyond them stretched deeper into the wing, and I could see more doors, each one identical, each one closed.

One of the guards noticed me approaching and straightened slightly.

“This wing is reserved for the Church’s delegation. State your business.”

I stopped a few paces from them and looked at the guard who had spoken. Young. Probably mid-twenties. The kind of soldier who had been told the Radiant Sun on his chest made him untouchable.

I almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

“I need to speak with whoever leads your delegation.”

The guard exchanged a glance with his partner, then turned back to me with the practiced dismissiveness of someone used to turning people away.

“The Cardinal is not receiving visitors. You may submit a formal request through—”

“Cardinal.”

The word left my mouth with a weight that made the guard pause. Not because I shouted it. I didn’t. I said it quietly, tasting it, letting it settle.

’A Cardinal. They sent a Cardinal to a black market auction in a criminal city.’

My lips curved.

’How generous of them.’

“I’ll say it again.” My voice was calm but I took a step forward and the guard’s hand moved to the hilt of his sword on reflex. “I need to see the Cardinal. And I will be seeing the Cardinal. Now, the manner in which that happens is entirely your decision.”

The second guard stepped forward, his hand already on his weapon.

“You will leave this corridor immediately, or we will—”

I activated Emperor’s Presence.

It wasn’t the full force of it. Not even close. Just enough to make the air between us thicken, just enough to press against their chests like a hand slowly closing into a fist. Just enough so that both of them felt, in the most primal part of their being, that they were standing in front of something they should not have provoked.

The first guard’s face drained of color.

The second guard’s sword was halfway out of its scabbard, but his arm had stopped moving. His body knew what his mind hadn’t caught up to yet.

I held it for three seconds. Then I pulled it back and smiled pleasantly.

“The Cardinal. If you don’t mind.”

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