[Cleaning Vortex].

  A bluish spell circle immediately appeared in front of Marcus’ wand. He tried his best to visualize and invoke the lines and runes on his spell circle, soon creating something that resembled the perfect variation on Stella’s grimoire.

  Then, he fired the spell straight at his clothes. The water and air swirled through them, rapidly removing dust and grime, alongside hardened saliva and blood from the hydras they killed.

  When it was done, Stella quickly followed up with a spell of her own, using [Dry] to send a gust of powerful wind at Marcus’s clothes. She invoked her spell near instantaneously, compared to Marcus’s clumsier and slower approach.

  Marcus finished the affair by using [Levitation], making sure that his clothes won’t fall to the ground. Then, he caught them one by one to inspect them.

  “They’re still somewhat dirty,” Marcus grunted. “But, this seems better compared to doing it by hand.”

  “Sir Marcus, the reason why they’re dirty is probably because you haven’t used any form of soap or detergent with the spell.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Yes. A variation of this spell can make use of water combined with detergent. That’ll work much, much better.”

  “Tch, I really need to find one of those things.”

  Unfortunately, earlier, both Almarche and Pinkerton hardly offered anything. It was apparently something that was in chronic low supply. He basically just hoped that Stella would know where to find them in Sordale at this point.

  Soon, Marcus folded his clothes neatly before placing them in his bags of holding. The damned things were truly beyond useful at this point. He never imagined he’d have to carry this much luggage, so it was truly great luck that he elected to pick them up back in hell.

  Later, the two returned to the town, grabbing their horses and making final preparations to leave. By midday, they rode out before using [Blink Step] and [Levitation] to quickly traverse the countryside.

  Quite frankly, Marcus didn’t want to waste further time staying in the Ridian Empire, so they practically zoomed through its landmass while ignoring most of the nonsense happening around them.

  He half expected that they’d run into cultist scum on the way, but none of that happened. Instead, within two days, they reached the center of the Imperium—Arnhem.

  “Damn,” Marcus looked at the city with slight awe using his telescope. “Now that’s a city!”

  Like Pinkerton, the Imperial Capital of Arnhem was a Lourian-outline-style fortress. Its walls were angular, with massive bastions, ravelins, and other features that were standard with this age’s fort designs. But it was grander compared to Pinkerton.

  Pinkerton might as well be a town compared to Arnhem! The star fortress alone was so massive that it seemed to have nineteen bastions between its angled curtain walls. While impressive, it seemed that only around two-thirds of the city was behind its walls, with multiple districts situated outside it.

  It also sat on the massive river Hein, which ran through the city’s east and west sides, cutting it in half. So technically, the fort itself wasn’t a singular structure but rather two separate fortresses.

  “I’ve visited Arnhem before,” Stella mumbled, somewhat shy. “It was for a royal function back in my younger days.”

  “Interesting.”

  “The House of Hogfurst has been the holder of the Emperor title for nearly eight decades now. Recently, Prince-Elector Henrik van Hogfurst was chosen to replace his dead father. He kinda…wanted my hand for marriage.”

  “And how old is he?”

  “Forty-two? W-well, back then, when he was just a prince-elector, he was thirty.”

  “Yeah, no way,” Marcus scoffed. “Your mother and father must have had a few loose screws. At that age, he probably has a bunch of women with him already.”

  “It’s partially why I tried hard to become useful to the church instead…” Stella sheepishly said. “I’d like to stay away from that kind of nobleman and royalty.”

  Marcus placed his telescope into his coat. Then, he shrugged and pulled the reins of his horse.

  “Alright, we won’t be making a pit stop in that place then,” Marcus said, grabbing his map and unfurling it. “It’s best to avoid the rest of the Grand Duchy of Hogfurst for now.”

  “Really? But I thought you wanted to stop by to check if there will be detergents over there.”

  “Considering how embarrassed and afraid you are of stepping in that city, I’d rather not. Besides, I don’t want to run into a stupid incident if we somehow, someway, run into that guy.”

  “Ah…yes, you do have a point. Thanks so much, Sir Marcus!”

  “Right, let’s go. This town north of us seems like a good place to rest in.”

  And with that, the two rode out of sight before once again using [Blink Step] and [Levitation] to speed up their travel. As a result, they cleanly reached their next stop without delay.

  “Damn it! Why is there no explanation yet? It was a Malkuth-class envoy, wasn’t it? Why was it stopped so suddenly?!”

  Emperor Henrik van Hogfurst nearly threw a chalice filled with wine at one of his advisors. The room inside the Emperor’s office was icy and cold, with his closest officials all muttering their disbelief about the news.

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  Cardinal Ellert Hessels, the highest-ranking clergyman of the Empire and a close advisor of the Emperor from the church, raised his hand. Henrik grumbled before acknowledging the old man’s request to speak.

  “If I may, Your Majesty, the reports from the inquisitors of the Order of Saint Monica are clear. No one entered the observation perimeter.”

  “Clearly someone did,” Henrik scoffed.

  “As such, whoever did this must be powerful enough not just to evade an entire contingent of the Holy Church’s elite unit but also…capable of defeating a Malkuth-class envoy.”

  “Old man, I am tired of these excuses. I needed that thing to grow enough to declare an Imperial Emergency!”

  “And it’s gone now, but that also means something has replaced it. You might have your ‘emergency’ soon, Your Majesty.”

  “Nonsense.”

  Henrik continued to grumble and scoff, angry that his plans were suddenly thwarted by an unknown force out of nowhere. His mind was already swirling with rage about this nonsense.

  He thought that maybe he should sack the officers of the Imperial Army unit he deployed near Hamden. He could overlook the Holy Church failing to see this problem, as they themselves were only delayed under the orders of the Cardinal, and they were focused on preparing to kill the envoy, but the men he sent were under his direct orders.

  Observe and prevent intervention—that was the instruction, and they failed it. They failed so badly that he wouldn’t be able to further consolidate control in the Empire as a result.

  The damned bastards ruined it. Especially the bastard who walked over my schemes like they’re nothing!

  Who the hell is he? Or she?!

  If there was someone powerful enough to fight a Malkuth-class envoy, Henrik should know about it. After all, he had eyes scouring the entire continent. High-level, powerful individuals always made a name for themselves, no matter how hard they tried to hide their abilities.

  After all, to reach the top, one must achieve incredible things that would catch any observant eye.

  But who? Who would be capable of killing a Malkuth-class envoy? Such power only belonged to…

  Belonged to?

  “...”

  “We’re going to try to scour the countryside,” Cardinal Ellert said. “That way, we’ll find out—”

  “That elf,” Henrik interrupted.

  “What?”

  “That fine Sordalian princess who refused my hand,” Henrik fumed. “She’s the [Saint], no? Where is she? Did she do this? She’s the only one who has magic capable of doing this on her own.”

  “Ah, the [Saint]? Well, as far as I know, she’s not yet done with her training.”

  “Cease with your nonsense, Cardinal! Where is she? Did the pope pull a fast one on me? Did he send that princess to Hamden?!”

  “Your Majesty, please calm yourself down! Saintess Stella Rosette is currently deployed on a training mission in Valeon. That is all. There is no possibility that she’s involved in this.”

  Henrik considered the cardinal’s words, eyeing him observantly to see whether he was lying or not. There didn’t seem to be any signs of deception.

  But even Cardinal Ellert has his blind spot. His influence in the Holy Church isn’t absolute after all.

  This makes things too difficult.

  “Then what the hell are you saying? That some damned bastard crawled out of nowhere and killed a Malkuth-class envoy?”

  “Perhaps? And to be quite frank, if that is the case, Your Majesty, it might be in our favor. After all, they might be a loose threat to the Empire. That’s why I said you might have an ‘emergency’ soon.”

  “Bah, I’m tired of this. That is not an answer.”

  “I can only offer you the best I have at the moment. This is all we have available.”

  “Work on making more information available then. Tsk.”

  The Emperor soon adjourned the meeting in fury. He truly hated uncertainties.

  By the fifth day of their journey, Marcus and Stella were finally nearing the border between Ridia and Sordale. Unfortunately, even with [Blink Step] and [Levitation], as it turned out, the continent was massive, and they had to rest a lot in between during nights.

  Marcus thought that with his skill maxed out, he could travel through Valeon to Sordale within just a couple days in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, they took more than a week.

  They stopped in a city called Verveld. The city itself was peaceful and silent, just like much of northern Ridia. Unlike the central and southern parts of the Empire, which seemed rife with unrest and monster attacks, the north was relatively peaceful and quiet.

  It was aided by the apparently better lords in the region, as most of them acquired the lands recently by merit after a major war with Sordale ages ago. Right now, specifically, they were in the Margraviate of Rikstadt.

  Marcus wasn’t planning to conduct any combat operations. Outside of using [Mass Surveillance] to track cultist activity, which was nonexistent so far in Rikstadt, he figured that the local lord was a militant defender of his people.

  So, Stella and Marcus managed to easily settle into Verveld for a brief stop.

  Upon arrival, naturally, the first thing the two did was to search for a restaurant. It was somewhat of a ‘tradition’ by now. Almost always, when they visited a new place, Stella would cheerfully pull Marcus into many places just to show things off to him.

  “I visited this place back then,” Stella said as the two walked through the city’s main road. “I’m pretty sure that the restaurant near downtown should be open. It’s the best.”

  “Oh, yeah, the best, huh?” Marcus fought the urge to roll his eyes. “I swear, this has to be the 15th ‘the best’ already.”

  “Hmph, you just have to listen to me, Sir Marcus. Tell me, when have you been disappointed in the places we visit?”

  Marcus took a few moments to answer that, unable to deny her. Damn her, she was right after all. She did know good places better than Marcus.

  Quite frankly, without her, his travel between Valeon and Sordale would have been less colorful. Dull even.

  “Never,” Marcus answered.

  “Exactly. Now, I’m hyped. I need to try out their Hamburg steaks once again!”

  “Hamburg steak? What the hell is that?”

  “You’ll find out.”

  Marcus sped up walking so that he’d be side-by-side with her. That was when he noticed something. Beneath her cloak, there was a faint reddish glow on the center of her chest.

  Her pendant.

  “Hey,” Marcus called out, taking her attention. “Look down.”

  “What?”

  Bewildered, Stella looked down to check her necklace. When she pulled it out, she found the cracked pendant glowing slightly. She gasped and covered her mouth.

  “L-lady Siris?”