Chapter 54
A strange light welled up in those murky yellow eyes.
Before Aquila could even react properly, Gilesha’s head, which had snapped up so suddenly, slowly drooped back down.
As if he had reacted without thinking, only to realize his mistake a moment too late.
However, Gilesha was not the only one frozen by the sudden turn of events.
‘……Is he out of his mind?’
Aquila’s cheek twitched faintly.
That fleeting glimmer of futile hope that had flashed in his eyes.
From that light alone, Aquila realized that Gilesha still believed what he had said the last time.
That Aquila was a soul of the Night planted by Al Siden, a watcher who would guide Gilesha toward salvation.
Had he found nothing strange while being imprisoned?
Or had his mind snapped because the place he was locked in was the Temple of the Sun?
In Aquila’s opinion, it was obviously the latter.
‘Did the constant bell-ringing knock his sense clean out of him? He is looking at me like that, seriously?’
The thought flashed through his mind and vanished just as quickly, but Gilesha’s reaction had clearly been more than simple relief.
And he had done it after seeing Aquila’s face.
Worse still, right in front of someone who could easily be ranked among the five most troublesome people in this world.
“See? You really are close. I feel so left out that it is downright depressing…….”
As if responding to Aquila’s thoughts, Ianpel tilted his head.
The Saint tugged at the sleeves of his robe and dabbed at the corners of his eyes, as though tears were truly about to well up.
Just as Aquila had expected, he had not missed the light that had appeared in Gilesha’s eyes.
At that nauseating display, Aquila bit down on his tongue, feeling as though he might faint on the spot.
‘……No. Wait. Is he doing this on purpose? Just to mess with me right now?’
Having been blindsided like this more than once, that was the first suspicion that came to Aquila’s mind.
“I recall you saying you did not have any friends. Did you make one in the meantime?”
The Saint’s pale lavender eyes turned toward Aquila.
There was mischief in the deliberately probing words, but his eyes were not smiling.
Something had clearly happened in Celteng, and he was undoubtedly suspecting that some sort of relationship had formed between the two.
‘As if.’
Aquila could not hide his incredulous expression.
All he had done was impersonate Al Siden to extract a bit of information.
The only reason he had done that in the first place was to ask about the corrupted soul wandering around Belmaburn, and in the end, had Gilesha not said he did not know either?
The person he needed to continue dealing with was Ianpel, yet he had earned the Saint’s suspicion and Gilesha’s trust at the same time.
No matter how one looked at it, it was a loss.
Putting aside his personal likes or dislikes regarding Ianpel, it was undeniable that this Saint played a crucial role.
Suppressing his breath, Aquila swept his hair back.
“……If you are that eager to get close, I can tell you exactly what I told him. Why do you not try it yourself?”
“Oh? So you did say something after all? Is it a secret technique for befriending criminals?”
“I have no idea. If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have refused from the start.”
“So you stumbled into it by accident? That only makes me more curious…….”
Ianpel smiled faintly.
Based on experience from previous cycles, when Ianpel latched onto something like this, it was better to be honest than to feign ignorance or lie.
Partial truths, at least.
So Aquila looked down at Gilesha and replied calmly.
“I told him that if he waited for the right time, I would kill him the way he wanted.”
“Oh. That is quite far from a friendly remark.”
“I also said I would personally take his life.”
“You, a member of House Reschenhardt, personally?”
“There is no reason I cannot. I nearly died several times because of this bastard.”
Those several times, of course, included Aquila’s previous cycles as well.
It was spoken in complete sincerity, but it seemed insufficient for Ianpel.
“Honestly, it is a rather trite thing to say. If that were all, I think I could befriend him just as easily.”
“Yes, well. Anyone could say it, but I doubt it would work if you did.”
“Why? Do I seem far too kind?”
At the ridiculous reply, Aquila’s eyes grew cold.
Having already experienced how cruel Ianpel could be, Aquila did not want to agree with that statement even as a lie.
So he lifted his chin and gestured toward Gilesha.
“Because he has value to be exploited. Whether it is rummaging through his head, as he put it, or anything else.”
“Ah…… so when I say I will kill him, it is a lie, but when you say it, it becomes the truth?”
“Just looking at it, don't you think you would treat him far more harshly?”
“Then unlike me, you would be a reaper who grants a gentle death?”
Despite the absurd analogy, Aquila did not laugh.
A brief silence followed.
Smiling with curved eyes, Ianpel walked over to Gilesha and nudged his crouched shoulder with the tip of his foot, turning his body over.
Between his disheveled hair, his pale, gaunt cheeks were fully revealed.
The smooth, ingratiating impression he had given at the estate was nowhere to be seen. His cracked lips and sunken eyes bore clear signs of exhaustion.
Being confined in the Grand Temple’s prison alone had altered his appearance drastically.
“Do you think this criminal deserves an easy death? He dragged you into the Curse of Deadly Poison and tried to turn people into monsters just to kill them.”
Forced to face a sight he wanted to avoid, Gilesha grimaced, but Ianpel paid him no mind.
He pressed his foot lightly against the prisoner’s shoulder.
It was a careless motion, like stepping on trash rolling along the roadside.
“Ghk…….”
Gilesha twitched briefly, but lacking even the strength to resist, he soon went limp again.
And despite that reaction, the Saint did not release him.
“Why does my opinion even matter? This one is practically desperate to die.”
“To you, does he look that eager for death? How can you be so sure you understand his heart?”
“Oh. It seems you do not quite understand, Saint…….”
Aquila, who had been gazing down at Gilesha indifferently, lifted his head.
Everywhere his eyes landed, the space was blindingly white.
This highest level of the prison was reserved for those who had reached a certain state of nullity.
A criminal confined here had all abilities sealed away and could do nothing but cling to life day after day.
That was because the Grand Temple’s prison had so-called ‘attendants,’ who took care of everything to ensure the prisoners did not die.
Providing nutrients, cleaning their bodies, and anything else deemed necessary.
Under their meticulous care, a prisoner bound hand and foot had no choice but to sink into endless helplessness.
And all the while, the only thing within sight was a space of pure white.
The only sound was the bell tolling on the hour, every hour…….
“If it were me, I would beg to be killed rather than be locked up here.”
Aquila said it clearly.
It was not an empty statement.
He remembered having had similar thoughts in one of the past cycles.
And if even Aquila felt that way, then Gilesha, a mad devotee of the Night God who particularly loathed the Temple of the Sun among all temples, would never wish to live confined here.
On top of that, he was a member of the Guild of Darkness who could easily take his own life if a mission failed.
There was no way such a man would want to continue living here…….
That was Aquila’s assertion, and in truth, it was not far off.
“So that is why he was so glad to see you?”
“If that were not the case, why would he be glad to see me? He was a man who wanted to kill me so badly.”
Ianpel’s probing eyes, writhing like a serpent’s, swept over Aquila’s face.
Having decided he already knew Aquila’s inner thoughts, he had abandoned pretense and moved on to openly sizing him up.
But that expression did not last long.
After all, he had seen prisoners in the Grand Temple’s prison scream and beg to be killed before, and there was no evidence to press Aquila further.
All that remained was suspicion.
A word Ianpel disliked.
He twisted the corner of his mouth into a sly smile.
“Hm…… it is a convincing argument, in its own way. I could still pick at it if I wanted, but unfortunately, this is a time when I should conserve such opportunities.”
In other words, if he had been able to use the Invasion skill, he would have pried open Aquila’s mind on the spot.
Aquila could only snort at that.
It was something he heard every single time a new cycle began and he met Ianpel again.
“You cannot make a single friend because you are so tiresome.”
“Haha. I would like to return those words to you.”
Chuckling briefly, Ianpel lifted his foot from Gilesha’s shoulder.
Then he gestured as if to beckon Aquila over and moved away from the center where Gilesha lay, toward a corner.
It was likely his way of preventing Gilesha from intruding on their conversation.
Aquila cast a sideways glance at Gilesha, who was staring blankly at him, then walked over to where the Saint stood.
“So?”
“So…… honestly. I had no intention of revealing it at all, but having to say it out loud myself is rather irritating.”
“Save your complaints for somewhere else.”
After all, it had not been Aquila who revealed that Ianpel possessed a skill that could read minds, but Gilesha.
The Saint let out a short sigh and shrugged.
“It is true that there was nothing I could take away…… in the sense you mean. That surprised me, and it was annoying, but I did manage to salvage a few things. Only words, though.”
“Something related to the Guild of Darkness?”
“I cannot be certain, but yes. Most likely. I steered it in that direction.”
Ianpel’s pale lavender eyes flicked briefly toward Gilesha, then returned.
“There were many vague fragments, so there was only one word I could clearly make out. But the moment I heard it, only one thing came to mind.”
“What was it?”
Ianpel smiled silently.
“Labyrinth.”
It was just a single, short word.
Yet the instant he heard it, Aquila curled one corner of his mouth in satisfaction.
On the Delvion Continent, when one spoke of ‘Labyrinth,’ there was only one thing it could mean, just as the Saint had said.
“……The Labyrinth City, Labyrinth.”
A land where numerous dungeons intertwined like a maze, visible when traveling southeast from the capital, Denimarad.
A place where adventurers and mercenaries gathered, where mages were commonplace, and where scholars and eccentrics congregated in overwhelming numbers.
Some called it the flower of resilience, a symbol of vitality.
But where there is light, there is also shadow.
There, one could obtain not only dungeon byproducts, but items tied to the underworld, forbidden artifacts, and even living beings.
It was said that everything on the surface world could be found there.
However, Aquila was more familiar with the back alleys than with the city’s center.
A place even seasoned adventurers hesitated to tread, often called this by many.
The ‘breeding ground of secrets,’ through which all crime on the surface world passed.
‘And a place swarming with corrupted devotees. So the word Labyrinth finally came out of his mouth.’