* * *

Payton furrowed his brows slightly, as if the situation still didn’t feel real, and looked at Julian.

“Ah.”

In the heavy silence, Julian let out a dry chuckle on purpose. Of course, his cold green eyes weren’t smiling in the slightest.

“Come to think of it, there’s really no point in giving advice to someone who’s about to drop dead.”

Yuta’s mouth fell open.

‘What is this?’

Just from Julian’s merciless expression and his chilling demeanor, a theory formed in Yuta’s mind.

‘No way…’

Julian glanced at the bound Yuta.

In that moment, Yuta thought, ‘If that guy hasn’t regained his memories, he’d be throwing a fit right now, yelling about how this situation makes no sense and swearing to avenge me, right?’

But instead, Julian scanned him from head to toe and spat out coldly,

“Seeing as you can still flap your jaws, your lungs must be working just fine.”

Then, without changing expression, he shifted his icy gaze to Payton.

‘He found it. He definitely found it.’

Seeing this, Yuta was convinced.

‘He’s definitely regained his memories.’

He blinked, bewildered.

‘But then… why did he come here now? And alone, at that?’

Below, the holy knights the priests had healed were starting to get up one by one like zombies.

“This is ridiculous.”

Payton ground his teeth and drew his sword.

“Do you seriously think I’d lose to a bumpkin like you? You arrogant bastard…”

At the same time, the fifteen holy knights behind Payton rushed straight at Julian.

Julian’s face didn’t change as he began taking them on without hesitation.

Most of them were knocked out in a single blow, but the priests immediately followed, pouring divine power onto the battlefield.

Still tied up, Yuta anxiously looked at Julian’s back.

He didn’t doubt Julian’s strength. But those knights who were still recovering, and the others still inside the Holy Land—what if they overwhelmed him by sheer numbers…?

“You know, Julian Noart.”

While Julian was dealing with the holy knights, Payton charged at him with his sword.

“You’re the one person I know I can beat.”

Payton’s sword aimed straight at Julian’s right chest, which was briefly exposed while fending off the holy knights.

‘What the—? Why is there no armor there?’

Yuta’s heart dropped as he watched.

“You cowardly bastard!”

Yuta shouted before he realized it.

“So it really was a numbers game!”

And then it happened.

“Woohoooooooo!”

Suddenly, a shadow fell over them from above. At the same time, a rough and excited female voice rang out.

“This is amazing! Whoa, seriously! Is this what a Grand Mage is capable of?!”

“Could you please just shut your mouth? You’re ruining my focus.”

“I think you’re the one who needs to shut up. You’re not the only one focusing here.”

Shockingly, the voices from the sky were all familiar.

It was Linna, Ethan, and Theo—riding in a strange flying cart.

‘W-what the hell is this?’

Yuta blinked in rare confusion.

With ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) a loud crash, the flying cart fell directly on top of Payton.

“Aaargh!”

Payton let out a scream and passed out immediately after getting struck in the head.

Julian had already taken care of the remaining holy knights and priests.

Expressionless, he kicked Payton’s sword far away.

Ethan leapt off the wrecked cart and muttered,

“Didn’t expect to end up coming with this crazy woman and all the way to Arhad…”

“Hey! Aren’t you supposed to escort me properly? What is this behavior toward the new queen of high society?”

“You clearly don’t understand the word ‘new.’ How can someone who looks like that claim to be the queen of society?”

“I took down the Empress Dowager, so I am the queen now! These things are decided by power, not personality!”

Annoyed, Linna stomped her high heel into Payton’s head once and jumped down.

Theo also silently stepped out of the ruined cart and immediately began inspecting the wreckage in a daze.

“The durability’s weaker than expected. It consumes too much mana, and the requirements are too strict…”

Theo mumbled nonstop.

“Yeah… mass-producing this for flight is going to be difficult…”

Yuta blinked in disbelief. He couldn’t wrap his head around the situation.

“Rosie leaked some fake info using her relatives. Apparently that’s why the Grand Mage ended up in the Aden Principality too.”

As Linna worked to untie Yuta’s restraints, she quickly explained the situation. Among the three, she was the only one with any social awareness.

That was tragic in itself, but still better than if it had just been the Noart brothers—no one would have explained anything to Yuta in that case.

“They said that due to old injuries, Julian’s right chest is often exposed. And there’s a life-extension magic tool installed there, but because he can’t wear armor over it, even a small hit could kill him.”

Now that she mentioned it, Yuta recalled Payton saying something to Aietar about “news from the Aden Principality.”

Yuta muttered blankly.

“Then… he deliberately left his right chest open? And didn’t wear armor there…”

“As if Julian Noart would ever show a real opening to someone like Payton. Oh, and it wasn’t a life-extension magic tool. It was something else.”

Linna grinned.

“It was a location-tracking artifact. It’s designed to make a specific object land exactly above whoever delivers the blow.”

Yuta blinked again, still stunned.

“If he’d rushed in earlier, Julian might’ve been able to save just you and escape with difficulty… but instead, he waited a bit and chose to bring all of us here at once.”

“Huh?”

“It was more convenient for bringing Sir Ethan and Sir Theo. Though I doubt he expected me to tag along.”

In other words, Julian chose the more efficient method, even if it meant letting Yuta suffer for a few more days.

To set the target for that “specific artifact”—the weird flying cart.

“Sir Julian says he wants to eliminate the High Priest while he’s here in Arhad.”

Linna said brightly.

“That’s why we all came crashing in like this.”

One Julian would’ve been enough to rescue Yuta, but since they were here anyway, he’d made up his mind to finish off the High Priest too.

Whether it was confidence in his strength, or pressure to resolve everything before Rosie showed up…

Yuta, still dumbfounded, asked,

“…You’re saying he’s going to take down the High Priest? Without even knowing the full situation in Arhad?”

“Well, he said we’d figure it out once we got here.”

Linna answered cheerfully.

“Anyway, he waited for us to arrive, and Theo had to finish modifying the cart right before takeoff… so it took a bit of time to get you.”

Her golden eyes sparkled with excitement.

“It was only for a short while, but flying through the sky was amazing. It felt like that moment when you drink way too much good liquor and pass out…”

“Please wake up from your dream.”

Ethan, who had been pressing his hand against the floor of the tower the entire time, spoke up.

“Unless you’re a Grand Mage like me, flying like that is nearly impossible. And without Theo, you can’t even make this kind of artifact.”

“…And what exactly are you doing right now?”

“Can’t you see? I’m infusing mana.”

Ethan answered curtly.

“I’m preventing the use of divine power in this tower. Right now, the priests’ divine power is more troublesome than the holy knights.”

Only then did Yuta realize Ethan’s plan.

Mana nullifies divine power.

Ethan was pouring his mana into the tower so divine power couldn’t be used—at least within this space.

“It’d be great to infuse the entire Holy Land, but… with the mana I have left, this is the limit.”

A few priests had climbed up to try healing Payton.

But they couldn’t even revive a single holy knight lying at the entrance before crashing into a pile of earth summoned by Cashie.

“But… what do we do about this?”

Linna blinked nervously.

She’d managed to untie the ropes around his legs, but the chains on his arms were another story.

“We don’t have the key. Where should we even find it? And those knights down below are probably starting to recover…”

“Well…”

Yuta narrowed his eyes and muttered.

“I think I can handle that…”

“…What?”

“If you burn it, the chains will melt…”

It was at that moment, as Linna turned around in surprise—

“Woof woof woof! Woof woof!”

From the distance, Fire was bulldozing through the crowd of holy knights, breathing flames as he made his way up the tower.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep