Marquis Helson looked at the Dragon and the rose gold fiery thunderbolt for a long time.
It was silent but he could not easily say anything.
'What am I looking at right now?
A Dragon when they are said to have disappeared from the world?
Is this rose gold fire the power of god that the Church of the Fire of Purification talks about?
…Is this real?'
Marquis Helson was quite shocked but was able to soon return to his senses.
Darkness.
He realized that it was real after seeing the darkness that existed beside the Dragon and this rose gold fiery thunderbolt.
He subconsciously started to speak.
"As I expected-"
It was easy to speak once he got the first few words out.
"As I expected, you are a person of the church. Isn't that right?"
'Wait, is he even human?'
Marquis Helson did not ask that question that was on his mind. The Pope he had seen when he was young had only used a red aura and could not handle this rose gold colored fire that was visible at the central temple.
So, would someone who can handle that fire, someone who uses the power of a god, would he be human?
"How did a member of the church participate in this test? Is Heni Wishrop a fake identity? Is she a member of the church as well?"
Marquis Helson asked question after question once he managed to ask the first one.
It was at that moment.
Crack!
The Purifier clenched his hand.
The rose gold fiery thunderbolt that had been in his palm disappeared without a trace.
"Mm."
Marquis Helson subconsciously closed his mouth.
There were a few seconds of silence.
The Purifier started to speak again. It was a calm and indifferent voice.
"There's not enough time to answer your questions, sir."
Marquis Helson felt a mysterious sense of pressure despite this individual speaking to him respectfully. An intangible aura was flowing out of this purifier.
Cale was using what he deemed to be a proper amount of the Dominating Aura as he spoke.
"May you find the answers yourself."
Cale had no plans on answering all of Marquis Helson's questions.
'He'll find the answers on his own if he is curious.
I'm just going to say what I need to say before I go.'
That was Cale's current thought.
"Ah. However, I will answer one thing."
But there seemed to be at least one thing he needed to answer.
Marquis Helson flinched and made eye contact with Cale after hearing that he would answer a question.
"Heni Wishrop is not a person of the church. She is one of ours."
Marquis Helson could not move as those cold eyes seemed to be piercing through him.
"It looks like your side had plans on using Heni Wishrop for something but getting rid of that idea is-, probably best if you wish to survive."
Cale meant what he said.
And sincerity tended to work on people. The Dominating Aura amplified quite a bit before it settled back down.
"…We had no plans on using her."
Marquis Helson barely managed to respond to the Purifier's words.
The Purifier nodded his head without saying anything. It was as if his response wasn't important at all.
"Marquis-nim, you should have seen something beyond the wall just now. I'm sure that people in the castle have detected something and are stealthily preparing to defend against it."
Helson thought to himself after hearing those words.
'Are they truly responsible for that red pillar of light? What happened beyond the wall?'
Cale could feel confusion, curiosity, and impatience from Marquis Helson.
– Human, this Marquis looks quite nervous right now.
People were bound to be nervous when they were in darkness and could not see the path in front of them.
Cale opened his mouth to speak.
"We have rescued Imperial Princess Olivia."
"...!"
"She had been in a serious state of dead mana poisoning and we are currently healing her but she needs to be treated by experts quickly."
"…Imperial Princess Olivia is in a state of dead mana poisoning?"
'Someone so skilled is suffering from dead mana poisoning?
How high must the density of dead mana be on the black ground?'
"Yes sir. The poisoning is quite severe and she is also seriously injured."
"…She was attacked?"
Marquis Helson's face stiffened.
Quite a lot of people he had sent to scout and gather information outside the wall had disappeared in the past half year.
Disappearing in the polluted land basically meant death.
Marquis Helson realized something from the Purifier's words.
"The Second Imperial Princess's team must have all died."
"Yes sir."
"By what?"
Cale smiled after looking at Marquis Helson's eyes that were focused as if he had finally snapped back to his senses.
This Marquis… This guy was at least a proper Margrave.
Cale happily responded to the Marquis' question.
"A monster."
Cale walked over to the window and opened the curtains.
Chhhhh-
"We met Imperial Princess Olivia while investigating beyond the wall earlier tonight. We then encountered a portion of the monster that had chased her."
"A portion?"
Cale nodded his head.
"According to Imperial Princess Olivia… There is a black lake in the polluted land and a large tree at the center of that lake."
"Ah, hold on."
Marquis Helson stopped Cale. Cale looked at him and Marquis Helson started speaking with a stiff look on his face.
"Is her Royal Highness the only one who has seen the monster right now?"
"The Imperial Princess would indeed be the only one who has seen the whole monster."
"I see. One moment."
Marquis Helson approached the bedroom door and opened it a bit. He only opened it enough so that the inside of the bedroom could not be seen.
"Eaen."
"Yes, Marquis-nim."
"Send a poison expert healer to the nineteenth candidate's room. A black mage as well."
"Excuse me?"
"Immediately."
"…Yes sir!"
"Make sure the healer and black mage is one of our people. Make sure of it. Do you understand?"
One of our people. Make sure of it. Immediately. Chief Eaen nodded her head after seeing the Margrave's gaze and hearing him use such heavy words.
"Yes sir."
"Furthermore, we are raising the defense state of Precinct 9 to maximum level. Make sure that all of the troops are ready and waiting for orders."
"Yes sir!"
Marquis Helson then closed the bedroom door before looking at Cale again.
The corners of Cale's lips curled up.
'He's quite good at his job.'
Marquis Helson opened his mouth.
"Please explain now."
He would determine how the troops of Precinct 9 would move based on the Purifier's explanation.
"That tree has a conscience and controls vines."
Cale explained the parts that Imperial Princess Olivia, who was currently being treated by Mary and Eruhaben, had explained before they came here.
"That tree monster used a portion of its roots and vines to chase after the injured Imperial Princess."
"…Why?"
"To look for more food."
'Mm.'
Marquis Helson held back a groan.
"That monster let Imperial Princess Olivia go on purpose."
"Yes sir.
According to Imperial Princess Olivia, that monster was something that she couldn't even touch, something that we could only take on if the patriarch of the House of Huayans, two black magic battalions, and two Knights Brigades showed up."
"Ha."
Marquis Helson scoffed in disbelief.
"That level of force to not defeat the monster but just take it on?"
The Huayans patriarch was the strongest black mage. That person with two Imperial Palace black magic battalions and two Knights Brigades… Such a high level of force was still not enough to determine a victory against that monster?
'The edge precincts are not capable of handling such a level of force.'
There were quite a lot of troops in Precinct 9. However, the strongest elites were at the Imperial Palace.
The Emperor was the type who wanted the strongest troops for himself.
'No, maybe it is not the Emperor but the Huayans patriarch.
Mm.'
Marquis Helson suddenly realized something.
'Such a strong monster, even if it was just a portion of it that had chased after the Imperial Princess…'
The purifier had returned back into the wall without getting injured at all.
'And Imperial Princess Olivia said that the monster was aiming for the people inside the wall.'
It should be an urgent situation right now.
The Purifier in front of him seemed smart enough to know better than anybody else about the urgency of the current situation.
However, the Purifier seemed relaxed.
"…Oh Purifier…"
Marquis Helson was told not to ask questions but he could not help but to do so.
"Are we in an urgent situation right now?"
Smile.
The corners of the Purifier's lips curled up again.
"Not immediately."
The Purifier had stopped speaking respectfully to Marquis Helson. Nobody felt that it was awkward.
It was because of what he said next.
"It ran away from me."
The monster would not aim for the wall immediately.
The cheapskate's voice echoed in Cale's mind at that moment.
– Kahahaha! That's right! That bastard ran away from us!
The cheapskate's voice was fluctuating like a flame.
It felt as if it was burning.
– That bastard is strong. If a portion of it is that huge, the main body must be immense. It might be the size of a small forest.
However, his voice was still sunken down at its core.
– Then we just need to burn it up with an even bigger fire. We just need to cover the sky with thunderbolts and shoot them down.
The cheapskate was being quite serious.
– You won't get injured even if you do that here.
The smile on Cale's face became even thicker.
– Human! Why are you smiling? It makes me want to smile too!
Raon looked at Cale and smiled as well. Raon was slowly getting better at smiling like Cale for some reason.
'…My goodness.'
Marquis Helson's back became covered in dry sweat after seeing the black Dragon smile and hearing the Purifier's confident words.
'It ran away from me.'
'That monster that Imperial Princess Olivia described ran away from this person?
It didn't run away because it saw a Dragon but because of him?'
The Marquis became certain at that moment.
'This person is the one who created that pillar of fire.'
He had wondered if multiple people had worked together to create that pillar of fire, but it seemed likely that this person had done it on his own as the Dragon was not saying anything.
"As Marquis-nim. There's something I am curious about as well. Can I ask?"
Marquis Helson made eye contact with Cale instead of responding.
"It is a monster that is so strong that even Second Imperial Princess Olivia almost died."
The Xiaolen Planet was slowly getting more polluted.
The Hunters were closely related to this issue.
The cause of it was definitely going to be at the House of Huayans since they were the Black Bloods.
"All candidates attempting the test would have died."
Mary had told Cale that the First Imperial Prince had not been investigating but acting more like a bystander.
He noticed Marquis Helson's face slowly started to frown as he continued to speak.
"In my opinion… There is no way that the central forces didn't know about the monster in the polluted land."
'At least the Black Bloods would know about it.' The House of Huayans knew about the monster but still sent the candidates here.
A majority of the candidates could have died during this first test. Furthermore, it was likely that the wall of Precinct 9 would be destroyed by the monster and scorched as Imperial Princess Olivia feared.
'If that happens…'
This land would become polluted and the people in Precinct 9 would die.
"Have the central forces cast you aside, Marquis Helson?"
Cale could see Marquis Helson clench his eyes shut at his question.
Marquis Helson took a few breaths before responding.
"The Margraves are trying to change the central forces."
"I see. The central forces must have figured that out."
Marquis Helson asked in a shaky voice.
"Is the House of Huayans, are the central forces really connected to the monster and all of these issues?"
"I believe that at least the House of Huayans is involved."
"Ha."
Marquis Helson let out a chuckle-like scoff.
"…The central forces must have decided to discard the west."
Cale noticed that Marquis Helson's eyes were still fluctuating even as he was talking about how he and his people had been discarded. The Marquis was angry. He seemed relieved as well.
"Let me ask one more question."
The Marquis' shoulders were not as tense as he asked Cale this next question.
"What is your, what is the church's goal?"
"I don't know what the church's goal is."
'He doesn't know?'
The Marquis saw the Purifier start to speak again just as a look of confusion appeared on his face.
"As for me, I plan on hunting."
Hunting.
The Marquis asked in a shaky voice after hearing that word.
"Are you going to hunt that monster?"
Cale chuckled at the Marquis who asked to confirm even though he understood Cale properly.
"I'll hunt that thing too."
The Marquis clenched his fists shut. They were extremely tense.
"What do you need me to do?"
Cale stopped smiling after hearing that question.
Cale's gaze headed out the window again.
"We should hunt that monster first."
"…Will you hunt the other monsters too?"
Cale slightly nodded his head.
"Of course. I seem to be the monsters' natural enemy."
His voice was extremely light but the Marquis felt the inside of his mouth going dry because of the aura of a ruler coming from this person as well as the Dragon smiling at him.
Marquis Helson realized that he was standing at the turning point of history.
—
Translator's Comments
Indeed the turning point of history.