I Will Try to Save My Dad - Chapter 35
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 35
I turned around to identify who had spoken to me, and my jaw dropped involuntarily.
“Oh…”
“I didn’t mean to startle you.”
I thought I’d grown immune to the color white after seeing it so often, but that assumption shattered in an instant.
Pale skin, silver hair cascading to the shoulders, transparent silver eyes.
A quiet early morning came to mind—sunlight dancing across untouched, pristine snow that no one had yet disturbed.
The boy possessed a beauty that naturally evoked the word “sacred.” He appeared to be around the same age as Ciel, Hevanth’s eldest daughter.
The priestly vestments he wore were ones I had never seen before.
Was he an apprentice priest?
“Is there something you’re looking for? I could help.”
“…”
So this was truly the Grand Temple. Even an apprentice priest emanated such an aloof atmosphere.
He looked so sacred that speaking to him felt like a transgression. Though remaining silent was probably equally rude.
“My words make you uncomfortable.”
“No, not at all!”
I was just about to attempt the noble greeting that Madam Frea had emphasized so much, fumbling with my skirt hem, when it happened.
Uuuuuuuung—
The entire Grand Temple was engulfed in a tremendous tremor. The ground roared, the building roared, and my eardrums roared with it.
The earth beneath my feet swayed violently. The vibration was so intense that my entire mind seemed to shake.
‘An earthquake?!’
What was I supposed to do in a situation like this?
Evacuate to an open area without falling debris, and then—
“Be careful.”
As I stumbled through this unfamiliar emergency, the boy grabbed my arm.
“You might fall. This tremor is from the Holy Sword running wild.”
Even the hand gripping my arm was remarkably beautiful. I found myself staring at his long, slender fingers.
Despite his composed tone, his hand trembled slightly. His rigid expression was as though he were terrified.
Was he frightened? Of course he was. The ground continued to shake violently.
But the moment I realized the tremor was caused by Windis’s rampage, my fear evaporated completely.
“Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry…?”
The boy looked at me in astonishment. I smiled and spoke to him.
“My father will take care of it.”
[Little Quartz! You came out too?]
Akum! I quickly twisted my upper body around. Akum was perched on the water basin across from me, calling out to me.
[Look at that—water’s pouring everywhere! Let’s get closer and see!]
Akum pointed toward the upper reaches of the waterfall, then leaped down to the ground and bounded forward with eager hops.
Oh no! Where are you going now?
I dashed after Akum without hesitation, calling back reassurances to the boy as I ran.
***
Left alone, the boy stood motionless, watching the direction in which Berry Quartz Trabel had disappeared.
Her round head was so endearing that I had spoken to her without thinking. Her front was equally round and childlike.
Who could she be?
‘Worried about me,’ he mused.
The boy touched his lips. A smile had nearly escaped him.
Just then, someone approached with hurried steps and called out his name.
“Lord Yuraha!”
It was Holte High Priest—the same one who had participated in the Trabel Estate’s charity auction.
He approached with careful deference, as though speaking to a superior, and explained the reason for his visit.
“Windis has gone berserk. We should move to a safer location.”
Though the tremors had ceased, Windis’s rampages never ended with just one outburst.
Yuraha smiled gently at the priest’s concern.
“It’s fine.”
“Fine, you say?”
“I received a revelation just now. No one will be harmed today.”
“Ah.”
Holte High Priest let out an exclamation.
Yuraha was a human whose voice reached the ears of Aubaut. He received revelations through prayer.
Though revelations came rarely, they had never once been wrong. The Order protected Yuraha’s existence in secret.
The boy was the most likely candidate to become the next High Priest.
“By the way, Priest Holte, was there a young girl among today’s visitors? About this tall, with pink hair and green eyes?”
Yuraha held his hand at chest height in the empty air as he asked.
“Ah, you speak of Lord Reytan’s daughter. Did your revelation today contain anything related to that child?”
Holte High Priest’s eyes gleamed with interest.
The youngest granddaughter of Count Trabel.
Though Reytan was the lowest-ranking candidate for family head, that was an internal matter of the Trabel Family. Within the Empire, the name Trabel carried more power than any other noble house.
Berry Quartz Trabel forming a connection with the Aubaut Order would be a most welcome development.
“There was nothing.”
“I see…”
Holte High Priest’s expression fell at Yuraha’s answer—until he heard what came next.
“I asked because she was adorable.”
Yuraha. The boy who had shown interest in nothing save Aubaut itself had just displayed curiosity toward a human girl.
Perhaps the youngest granddaughter of Count Trabel and the Order would forge a deep bond.
As Holte High Priest imagined the futures of these two children as adults, he realized his foolishness and tried to dispel the fanciful thoughts.
***
Beneath the Main Holy Temple lay a chamber where the Holy Sword was kept.
The ceiling, walls, and floor surrounding the chamber were each a staggering five meters thick. The layered structure dispersed any impact from within, channeling it safely into the earth below.
It was a precaution against catastrophe—the Main Holy Temple collapsing should the Holy Sword ever rampage.
Ideally, storing the Holy Sword elsewhere would have been the wisest choice, but that would constitute sacrilege.
The Holy Sword was a sacred relic bestowed directly by the Divine Lord upon humanity, granting mortals the privilege to wield a fraction of His power.
Therefore, it had to be kept in the most hallowed sanctuary of the Church.
Never mind that this sacred existence had developed a lovesick obsession with its former master, greedily draining the priests’ precious divine essence in the process.
Minutes earlier, in the chamber where Windis was kept.
It was when Reytan Quartz Trabel, Theon, the High Priest, and several senior priests descended into the underground vault.
BOOM—!
Contrary to the High Priest’s claim that the Holy Sword would be docile today, a violent explosion thundered from beyond the five-meter-thick sealed door.
RUMMMBLE—!
Followed by a powerful tremor.
The Holy Sword was rampaging.
No—why already?!
Caught off guard by the premature rampage, the priests hastily opened the door. This chamber held nothing but the pedestal upon which the Holy Sword rested.
‘This is far too early!’
‘The scheduled rampage still has a full day remaining…!’
‘Now it rampages whenever it pleases?!’
A Holy Sword without a master releases its accumulated power through rampage. Windis was the Holy Sword of Wind.
A fierce vortex was forming. Divine essence was needed to suppress it. Otherwise, rampage would begin anew….
‘I’m done for.’
‘My divine essence is spent. I cannot give more.’
‘Divine Lord of Aubaut, I shall soon meet You.’
Though despair clouded their vision, this was no time to surrender.
The priests’ expressions grew grimmer as they contemplated what lay ahead.
Sensing its former master’s arrival, Windis’s temperament had grown twice as volatile today. The vortex seemed to have doubled in intensity.
If they missed the moment, the vortex would spiral beyond control. Yet Reytan Quartz Trabel was not yet Windis’s true master. He could not suppress a rampage already underway.
With each passing day, Windis’s rampage grew more violent. During the last one, they had barely contained it before the third tremor. The toll had left their divine essence utterly depleted, but judging by this rampage’s scale, they had to seize control from the outset, even if it meant squeezing out every last drop.
There was a genuine risk that the Grand Temple itself would be swept away by the vortex.
“This is too dangerous! Reytan and your apprentice—please fall back!”
“I shall handle this.”
The priests were about to channel their holy power, concerned for the life force within, when a voice rang out from behind them. In the blink of an eye, Reytan had already surged past them and thrown himself into the vortex.
“Young Master Reytan!!”
“No! Come back!”
The priests’ urgent cries were shredded by the cutting wind. The vortex that had swallowed Reytan swelled in size, filling the vast chamber completely. One priest reached out toward the tempest.
“Ugh!”
The priest beside him yanked his arm back urgently, but not before the wind grazed his flesh. Blood streaming from his palm stained the white priestly robes crimson in an instant.
“Do not approach! Any part of your body that touches it will be severed!”
As if refusing to allow anyone inside, the vortex wrapped itself in razor-sharp winds. Faced with power that could slice through bone with ease, the priests recoiled in horror.
It was bewildering. The sheer force was one thing, but this phenomenon was unprecedented.
The vortex remained stationary, neither expanding nor contracting further. Yet the winds that swept outward were fierce. They were more than enough to stoke the priests’ growing dread.
“This may be a precursor to a greater rampage. We must use our holy power to suppress it!”
“But Young Master Reytan is still inside!”
“Shouldn’t protecting the Grand Temple take priority? If this continues—!”
The priests’ voices grew louder by the moment.
“Do not panic!”
The High Priest’s voice cut through them. There was a hint of displeasure in his tone.
He found it particularly disappointing to see those called high priests losing their composure and floundering.
“Should we not trust Young Master Reytan? He who has been chosen once by the divine artifact has said he will resolve this. Let us observe. Should a second rampage occur, this old man will take responsibility.”
The High Priest assumed the burden. Though past sixty years of age, his holy power surpassed that of five high priests combined.
The priests lowered their hands and turned their gaze forward, while the High Priest glanced sideways at Theon beside him.
His eyes watching his master enter the vortex were unwavering.
Even a child could remain so composed—how could these adults, who had devoted their entire lives to the divine, behave so poorly?
‘Hmm.’
Yet apart from Theon’s composure, the High Priest felt something peculiar about the boy.
From their first meeting, the child’s handsome features had seemed familiar.
He had thought it was because beautiful children often shared similar appearances in their youth, but it seemed that was not the case.
It was not because Theon was Reytan’s disciple and thus reminded him of Reytan’s childhood. Rather, it was from very long ago—perhaps decades past—that….
“High Priest!”
The High Priest took a silent breath at the flustered voice calling to him once more.
Starting tomorrow, I shall mandate dawn prayers throughout the entire Order.—
The High Priest’s pupils dilated as he faced forward.
….
The vortex was trembling ominously.
Boom!
A massive explosion followed.
‘A second rampage!’
Veins bulged and writhed across the back of the High Priest’s hand. Just as he was about to unleash his holy power, the scattered winds began to be sucked inward toward a single point.
It had been only minutes since Reytan Quartz Trabel entered the vortex that Windis had created.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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