Chapter 234: St. Crute Monastery (2) (1/2)
Terms used in this episode:
Giving tree – it refers to a children’s picture book called ‘The Giving Tree,’ which is about a tree who generously gives something to a boy throughout the boy’s entire life.
St. Crute Monastery boasted a long history and tradition, so their armory was full of high-quality divine items and artifacts.
“I suddenly remember the old days.”
“Me too.”
Cordelia nodded her head at the words of Jude, who was equipped with divine items and artifacts from head to toe, as she was likewise the same too.
The old days.
They weren’t talking about their past life when they played Legend of Heroes 2. At that time, it was impossible to fully equip one’s body with items just like now, due to restrictions on item equipment slots.
A few months ago.
In the wild lands, they encountered the wild fairies and the Wild Fairy Queen, who was a generous giving tree – no, a generous giving fairy.
“I wonder if they’re living well now.”
“They should be fine. There’s nothing dangerous in Endymion now, right?”
“Hey, didn’t you go overboard?”
Even if Jude had a love filter, her actions were too much back then.
Jude pulled Cordelia’s cheek at that opportunity, and Cordelia, who had done something wrong, accepted the punishment while sobbing instead of rebelling.
“Huhuhu… I did a good job though.”
“Yes, yes, I know, I know.”
Because of what she did, they were able to destroy the Hell Gate and annihilate the demons too.
If Cordelia had chosen a different means instead of the destruction of Endymion, the demons would have caused more damage even if they had closed the Hell Gate.
‘Or perhaps they would have been dead or injured.’
Perhaps Lena or Kaplan would have been in danger.
‘That reminds me, is Kaplan is doing well?’
Kaplan had remained in the sacred place protected by the wild god, Blue Whiskers, to continue doing his research.
Fortunately, he returned to the empire as soon as Lena woke up because Lena had said that the wild lands would be dangerous for him, so he did not seem to be harmed in the chain of explosions that occurred in the dragon veins, but they did not know on what had happened to him afterwards.
‘Well, he must be doing fine.’
Because he’s a strong person despite having such bad luck.
“Stop it.”
Will we be able to meet him again if we go to the empire?
We’ll have to go to the empire once our work in the south is over.
“Ouch, it hurts. Stop it.”
We’ll have to meet the playable characters on the empire’s side too.
Especially Maximilian and Leon.
“I said STOP!”
“Oops.”
Jude let go of his hand, having forgotten that he was pinching her cheeks, and Cordelia covered her red cheeks with both hands as she panted.
“Let me pull your cheek too, okay?!”
Sadly, Cordelia wasn’t given an opportunity to get her revenge. Because the door opened, and members of the Guardians of the Holy Cross appeared before them.
“Lord Jude, Lady Cordelia. We apologize for being late.”
“No, we didn’t wait that long. Please don’t worry about it.”
Jude quickly replied to Carmen, and Cordelia lightly struck her chest in her frustration, but she didn’t do anything else.
[You… I’ll make you pay later.]
Later. When there’s only the two of us.
But instead of answering her, Jude shrugged his shoulders and talked to Carmen again.
“Is Mrs. Carmen and Mr. Manuel going with us?”
“Yes, we will be joining you on this journey.”
Carmen and Manuel smiled in their delight, and the seven members who followed behind them also had happy expressions.
“It’s a great honor to accompany you two.”
“We are very honored. I didn’t expect the Guardians to support us this actively.”
“The situation calls for it, so this is natural.”
As Carmen clenched her fist and said, Manuel and the rest of the Guardians fervently nodded in agreement.
A huge and powerful black dragon would soon resurrect in the south.
They had to stop him and protect the southern region, but Manuel and the Guardians were actually in high spirits.
Because this was like a story that only appeared in myths or legends.
‘Are they like Lucas too?’
In any case, it isn’t something bad.
Since Branch Leader Heine and the people in front of me are taking the situation seriously, so I can rest assured that it will all work out well.
‘They’re also fine with us taking the items.’
He was honestly feeling a bit sorry that they were taking that much, but Heine spoke to them as if she was sorry that they could only take this much, so Jude was feeling really strange then.
‘There were no amazing items there though.’
Still, they were able to acquire a huge amount of high-quality divine items.
Even if Jude and Cordelia couldn’t use it right now, the items they had would be enough to equip Scarlet, who would be joining them in the south, or Kajsa, who would accompany them in their fight in the future.
“The branch leader said that she would relay the situation to the headquarters of the Guardians. And as soon as we arrive at the south, we’ll contact Master Kamael as soon as possible.”
That was why Carmen and Manuel chose to accompany them.
As Jude had expected, the Guardians had a means to contact Kamael, but because of their long distance from each other, it seemed like it was impossible to just use it unless it was an order to return.
‘It’s not like we’ll be missing each other on the way since he’s already in the south, so they’ve decided on not to call him back.’
Moreover, in order to command Kamael to return, they needed the permission of the Guardian’s commander-in-chief unless it was an emergency situation, so the best thing that Heine could do was to dispatch members of the Guardians to the south directly, as they had a means to contact Kamael at close range.
“We’ll do our best to assist you in the fight against the evil dragon in the future.”
Manuel spoke with sparkling eyes, and Jude nodded at him and spoke without delaying it any longer.
“Then let’s begin right away.”
They had already finished their preparations for the trip.
“Yes, I understand. Please come this way. We have prepared the horses.”
Unfortunately (?) for Cordelia, one horse was prepared for each person at St. Crute Monastery, so she had to ride on the horse alone.
‘T-this is somehow awkward.’
Come to think of it, I’ve always been with Jude whenever we moved.
Whether I’m on his back, his arms, or riding in a horse or a carriage.
‘Then…’
The Guardians will accompany us until we reach the territory of the 7 southern families.
In short, we’ll all be traveling together.
‘W-will we have our alone time together?’
Dahlia and Maja always let us have our own time when we traveled together.
‘Yes, yes. It’s possible. It will be possible.’
Just like how we’re making progress in our plan to stop an evil dragon, our relationship is also making progress.
‘P-progress…’
Since we’ve already done it in the forehead, cheeks, chin, neck, collarbone, and so on, we’ll eventually have to clear the final boss – the lips.
‘J-just like how unnie and brother-in-law did it…’
Let’s stop there.
Just imagining it made her face heat up and her heart pound, but for some strange reason, the corners of Cordelia’s mouth were raised.
Naturally, the voice of her heart was telling her, ‘Hey, hey, what about the skinship ban? Didn’t you ban it?’, but there was no rule saying that she should listen to it in the first place.
Cordelia wiggled her fingers and began imagining again, and thanks to Adelia’s audiovisual education and Dahlia’s humanities education, she had managed to accumulate a considerable amount of data, making it possible for her to imagine it in great detail.
‘I-I can’t do that yet. No, not yet.’
It was the moment when Cordelia shook her head and giggled as she covered her cheeks with both hands.
“Cordelia?”
“Kyaa?!”
Cordelia almost fell of her horse but immediately regained her balance like a beast. She hesitated a bit before looking at the direction the voice came from, and she saw Jude approaching her from her right side.
“What?”
“I mean, your face is red. Do you have a fever?”
Both were riding horses, so there was quite a distance with each other even if they were close.
So Cordelia looked straight ahead instead of making eye contact.
“N-no. It’s just because the weather is hot. Yes, it’s hot.”
Cordelia pulled her collar and fanned with her hand, but Jude narrowed his eyes instead of letting it slide.
“Hey, we got the Great Protection of the Four Seasons, right?”
Spring, summer, fall, and winter.
The Great Protection of the Four Seasons protected from the four seasons.
Because of that, Jude and Cordelia were not affected by the heat or cold, just like those heat and cold immunity status commonly found in martial arts fiction.
And Jude added a final blow to her.
“And it’s winter now, right?”
They were in the south. If they were in the north, it would have been snowing now.
“Is that so? But why is it so hot? Even Cordelia doesn’t know why it’s hot.”
Cordelia quickly spoke and took a quick glance at him before moving ahead, and Jude continued to narrow his eyes in suspicion, but it was only for a short time.
He straightened his back and turned his gaze away.