TLS 06

Chapter 6

While Noah prepared the cookies and coffee, Gabriel calmly straightened his clothes.

“The cookies are from the academy where I work as a teacher. They’re not anything fancy, but they’re quite good.”

Before bringing up the difficult subject, Noah tried her best to create a comfortable atmosphere.

“Thank you.”

She served hot coffee and cookies, but the spread looked terribly humble.

When would a Cardinal ever have eaten something like this?

‘Of course, it’s not really about the food….’

Noah kept thinking about how she could bring up the subject without disappointing Gabriel and somehow get him to let her return to Soal.

As she desperately racked her brain, an awkward silence settled over the room.

Gabriel only fiddled with his cup, his eyes fixed on the cookies.

“Um, Your Eminence, everyone makes plans for their future, you know.”

“…Yes.”

“When I was seventeen, I lost my entire family to a Demon Dragon. Ever since then, my dream has been to have a new family.”

Gabriel suddenly stopped moving and looked directly at Noah.

“More precisely, my dream is to make a family, love them, and support them.”

Somehow… she felt like she had been circling around the subject too much.

But Noah did not stop. Gathering her courage, she looked straight at Gabriel.

Gabriel was also staring at her, his hands clasped together.

‘You can do it, Noah! You have to tell that handsome Cardinal that you’re scared of Demon Dragons and want to drop out!’

Noah encouraged herself again and again before continuing.

“So I thought about it a lot. I figured it would be better to tell you before things really got underway.”

“Noah.”

At that moment, Gabriel called her name in a low voice. His voice seemed to tremble slightly.

Noah’s instincts told her something.

He had realized what she was about to say.

She had to speak before he continued!

“Your Eminence, I…!”

“Noah, I….”

Gabriel spoke almost at the exact same time as Noah.

He spoke first.

“I have staked my life on this subjugation.”

“……!”

“In fact, the Church isn’t going to Urbas to put the Dragon back to sleep. We’re going to kill it.”

Noah’s mouth fell open in shock at Gabriel’s words.

“More precisely, my ultimate goal is to kill the Dragon myself. We cannot leave the Demon Dragon alive just to obtain its magic stone, only for innocent people to be hurt. But there are people who certainly won’t want that.”

Why did his stories keep getting scarier and scarier…?

“I believe I can kill it with my own strength, but there is always a chance I could be injured during the battle. And, as I said, I could even be assassinated by people who oppose my intention to kill the Dragon.”

“…What?”

Gabriel lowered his gaze for a moment before looking back at her.

“Noah, you are an exceptionally beautiful and wonderful person. So please think carefully before making this decision. If you still feel the same way after the Urbas subjugation… then. Then it would be better to talk about it afterward.”

Noah had been about to tell him that she did not want to go to Urbas, and he was telling her to talk about it after they returned.

It was obvious what he was really saying.

Don’t even think about saying you’re dropping out of the subjugation force.

Noah had never had a choice from the beginning.

Gabriel had said he was prepared to risk his own life in this subjugation.

He must have meant it.

It was a perfect way to stop Noah from thinking about backing out.

How could she tell someone who was risking his life to fight a Demon Dragon, “I don’t want to do it!”?

“Um… I suppose I was being thoughtless.”

Noah answered gloomily.

“Noah.”

Gabriel hesitated before gently taking Noah’s hand.

“Noah, please don’t misunderstand.”

There was something almost pleading in Gabriel’s eyes, and Noah thought he was taking pity on her.

“You are far too precious to me. I simply don’t want you to make a hasty decision and regret it later.”

‘Would I really regret not going? I’m this scared.’

Knowing that Gabriel would be at the front fighting the Dragon made her feel somewhat safer, but Noah was still afraid.

Of course, defeating a Dragon sounded impressive, and if she returned safely, people would probably praise her as a hero.

‘Is he worried that I’ll regret giving up on something like that? I really wouldn’t. I don’t have that kind of ambition….’

Gabriel’s hand was warm.

Maybe that was why Noah’s heart slowly began to relax.

‘Forget it! It’s just a Demon Dragon subjugation! I’m not going alone. There’ll be plenty of people with me! Don’t be scared. Let’s go! Be brave, Noah Kaplan!’

Noah tried to brainwash herself with positive thoughts.

“Noah, thank you so much for finding the courage to bring up such a difficult subject with me. I’m also very grateful for how you feel.”

“N-No, not at all.”

Noah quickly shook her head.

Gabriel was a self-sacrificing and admirable Cardinal.

If such an incredible person was willing to risk his life and go, shouldn’t someone as insignificant as her at least find the courage to go with him?

Noah gathered her courage and met Gabriel’s eyes.

“I’ll do my best.”

Whenever she looked at Gabriel’s face, words like that somehow came out on their own.

Gabriel smiled warmly and gently patted the back of her hand.

“I should be going now. I’ll see you again tomorrow, healthy and full of energy.”

“Yes. Please be careful on your way.”

Just as Gabriel was about to leave, he turned back and looked at Noah.

“Noah, thank you. Truly.”

“Oh, yes.”

Gabriel gave her a very polite bow before leaving the room.

Noah couldn’t understand what he was so grateful for.

Was it because she had promised to do her best for the Dragon subjugation?

‘He really is serious about this subjugation.’

Come to think of it, his face had even flushed while they were talking about the subjugation.

‘Did he think it was terrible of me to show so much talent and then say I didn’t want to go?’

Somehow, Noah felt like she had greatly disappointed the handsome Cardinal.

Even though she hadn’t managed to properly tell him what she wanted, she still felt strangely sorry for him.

Gabriel had been flustered from the moment Noah invited him in for tea.

She was such an innocent priestess that she apparently did not know that this was what people commonly called “the basic conversation for seducing someone of the opposite sex.”

With that thought in mind, he stepped into her room.

Then he became confused when he saw Noah send the Holy Knights outside.

And when Noah nervously brought up the subject of her future and family, something he had suspected finally became certain.

Whenever noble ladies confessed their love to Gabriel, they often went on about how wonderful it would be to build a family together.

He did not have to look far for an example.

Anat Duvinchik had said almost exactly the same thing.

As a priest—or rather, as the Pope’s godson—Gabriel had always wanted to be an exemplary person.

Raised between a godfather who was the Pope and a godmother who was busy with the study of divine power, Gabriel knew very little about family.

The two were not actually married, so he had practically never experienced what a proper family was like.

How could someone like him talk about creating a family?

Gabriel decided that living and dying as a priest suited him best.

Even so, many young ladies had confessed their love to him.

｢I love you. Marry me. We can build a wonderful family together.｣

Gabriel found it difficult to understand their feelings.

How could love blossom simply from someone’s appearance when they had barely met a few times?

He himself felt absolutely nothing.

What would change if he accepted someone’s love and married them?

They said love would make a person happy.

Was that really true?

No matter how passionately someone confessed their love to him, Gabriel never became happy.

Even when he imagined his future, he simply could not picture a wife or children in his life.

Perhaps it was because he had no intention of creating a new family.

But then Noah Kaplan had said it.

Her dream was to create a family, love them, and support them.

Those words moved Gabriel more than any confession he had ever heard.

Perhaps the people who had confessed their love to him and asked him to marry them had wanted the same thing as Noah—to support and encourage each other without conditions.

If they had said it that way from the beginning, perhaps he would have thought about it more seriously.

Noah had such a clear goal when it came to family, and Gabriel’s heart began to race.

No.

Let’s be honest.

Gabriel had liked Noah from the moment he saw her file.

The information he had gathered beforehand described Noah Kaplan as a priestess with a wide variety of abilities.

She had even achieved excellent results at the Divine Power Training Center, making her an essential person for the subjugation.

So Gabriel had quietly looked forward to meeting Noah for quite some time.

There had only been one problem.

Her file had contained no picture.

The appearance of each priest was recorded only in writing.

Hair color, eye color, weight, height—that sort of information.

Even those details were only references, since a person’s appearance could change over the years.

According to her file, Noah Kaplan, who had pink hair, was the strongest candidate among the Controllers for the Church to put forward against Princess Kyria.

If a priestess was going to represent the Church and be used for image-making, it was better for her appearance to stand out.

And the first impression of the Noah Kaplan Gabriel had been waiting so long to meet was…

Beyond his expectations.

Controllers working in small local branches tended to have modest abilities, so humility became second nature to them. They knew their place.

That was why Gabriel found all the Controllers who nervously shifted their eyes around from the moment they entered the Imperial Palace, where the Papal See was located, rather endearing.

But the most adorable of them all was Noah Kaplan from Soal.

She was wearing the ordinary clothes of an education priestess and flipping through the scriptures.

She kept glancing toward the Imperial Palace gates, probably because she wasn’t sure whether she was actually qualified to enter.

‘Ah. So that’s you.’

Gabriel knew immediately.

That girl was the Noah Kaplan he had been waiting for.