377 Chapter 377 The Reason

Interestingly, even though all the elements in nature had their particular characteristics when it came to shaping them through mana, An Elementalist needed a strong image and a solid concept to strengthen his control over mana and give the element a predominant characteristic of it.

In the same way, Desmond applied the concept of the softness, malleability, and weight of water. Other elemental adeps could associate various images to the elements under their control, giving their attacks greater power or greater precision.

The same applied to Cecilia, who was currently using density on light mana under her control; she thus saturates the room with light mana so thick it makes it hard to even breathe.

Hence came the strong sense of oppression that had filled the room. However, this could also be attributed to the enormous mana fluctuations emanating from Cecilia at that instant, something any mana user would be susceptible to.

However, there wasn’t a single person in the room who was as sensitive to mana as Desmond. It didn’t matter that Desmond wasn’t very familiar with light mana. He was still able to discern much more than other people.

He found that sense of familiarity within the tightness emanating from Cecilia, something vaguely similar to something Desmond had experienced in the past, which immediately made his suspicions about Cecilia increase.

But those thoughts were to be resolved at another time; Desmond had no time to spare to deliberate on such matters, Not when everyone in the room was looking at Cecilia with growing hostility.

That was the problem when someone like Cecilia was trying to act tough. It didn’t matter how powerful Cecilia’s oppression was or how intense the mana fluctuations emanated; her enemies were not intimidated.

Like a panther who wouldn’t be intimidated by why a rabbit tried to defend itself, the bishops and holy knights in the room were only provoked by Cecilia’s sudden outburst.

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That was without even taking into account more complex thoughts. To many, Cecilia’s current display of power only made many people in the room see her as a threat that should be dealt with as immediately as possible.

Desmond didn’t have much time to act with several holy knights beginning to draw their swords; he needed to work quickly to make it out of this room alive.

Reducing his mana fluctuations and his breathing to a minimum, Desmond kept the mana vibrations within his body contained while using . He covered the few meters between him and Cecilia at a speed that allowed no one to react.

Without any combat experience and not having expected to be attacked from behind, Cecilia didn’t even stand a chance; soon, she felt someone place his hand on her lower back before pouring a tremendous amount of mana into her body.

Falling victim to this invading mana, Cecilia soon instantly felt her entire body weaken. Her nervous system was wholly paralyzed; Cecilia’s helpless body threatened to collapse directly onto the table. However, Desmond quickly took it upon himself to carefully support her before beginning his act.

Using every fiber of his being to contain his nervousness, he was highly stoic as he answered the still unanswered questions of the people in the room, who had their full attention on him.

Due to the flow of events, all the attention had been on Cecilia, so no one really noticed Desmond’s sneaky move until he was already behind Cecilia, holding her as if helping her. This gave the illusion that Cecilia had suddenly weakened on her own and that Desmond had merely been attentive enough to help her, something necessary for the charade Desmond would play next.

“I am afraid that the holy priestess has become too upset and has lost control of her mana; I beg the bishops and cardinals not to take this seriously. she is, after all, an important tool for the church.” Desmond exclaimed, addressing everyone in the room, giving them both an excuse for Cecilia and a subtle threat reminding everyone how important Cecilia was to the church no matter how much they wanted to get rid of her.

Such niceties didn’t go unnoticed by the old foxes in the room, who had to admit that they weren’t ready to get rid of Cecilia at the moment, at least not right now.

Taking the initiative, one of the most influential bishops in the room rose from his seat and leaned toward Cecilia in a show of false cordiality and exclaimed. “It has been our mistake not to consider in-depth the conflict between the Holy Knight Erigard and Her Holiness Cecilia’s personal knight; I’m afraid such a thing will require lengthy deliberation. For the time being, we will wrap up this meeting. I hope that her holiness will have a proper rest today.”

From one second to another, the matter with Erigard turned from an unwarranted ambush to a normal conflict between two knights; one had to be shocked at the shamelessness of the bishop who turned black into white without so much as blinking an eye.

Some holy knights were reluctant, but after receiving the order from their respective cardinals and bishops, all the knights retreated, fully sheathing their swords once more.

Desmond, for his part, assisted the still weakened Cecilia, leading the girl out of the room. Cecilia’s frail posture and pale face helped reinforce the idea in the minds of those present that the display of power previously shown by Cecilia was not something to be truly worried about, though many still intended to speed up plans to get rid of the woman in question.

Closing the door behind him, Desmond heaved a heavy sigh of relief as all the tension built up within his mind and body released. Cecilia, for her part, began to feel that she had recovered her motor skills as Desmond withdrew the constant invasion of mana towards her body.

“Why?” Unable to believe Desmond’s betrayal, Cecilia made an enormous effort to squeeze from her lips the question that had been on her mind all this time.

Looking at the resentment on Cecilia’s pale face, Desmond couldn’t help but let out another sigh, though this time, it wasn’t relief but helplessness that Desmond felt.

“What else could I do? Didn’t you see the expression of everyone inside that room? They weren’t surprised or intimidated at all; on the contrary, they couldn’t wait to get rid of you. You dared act like that while surrounded by a dozen holy knights; I don’t have enough lives to survive that fight.”

Cecilia wasn’t stupid, she understood as soon as Desmond explained it, but that still didn’t satisfy her; after all, Desmond had attacked her from behind.

As if reading Cecilia’s mind, Desmond rolled his eyes in exasperation, shrugged, and finished his explanation. “Don’t look at me with those eyes. I didn’t have many options either, nor the time to develop a better solution; We are already lucky that it worked.”

Cecilia was silent; either she couldn’t answer or didn’t want to answer; that was something Desmond didn’t know. But the girl kept leaning on her body to walk for another couple of minutes until she could do it on her own.

Arriving at Cecilia’s tower, they were quickly greeted by Nana, who was extremely worried; it was clear that the girl had heard some rumors about what would happen in the meeting.

Cecilia smiled fondly, passing her hand warmly over Nana’s cheek, trying to comfort her only friend. Desmond escorted both girls to Cecilia’s room before proceeding to retreat to his room, but at the last moment, Cecilia turned around before closing the door behind her.

“Do you really think they would have killed me?” Cecilia asked.

It was evident that despite how dire her current circumstances were, Cecilia still found it challenging to accept Desmond’s words; one couldn’t blame him. She had been an orphan girl raised by the church since she was little and grew up loving this institution; she found it hard to believe that the very people who raised her would be capable of murdering her for such selfish reasons.

One can imagine how sad her expression turned when all she got in response was a pitying look from Desmond.

“I see... Thanks for everything, Desmond.” Having expressed her gratitude, Cecilia’s countenance remained gloomy as she turned to enter the room.

Meanwhile, Desmond was still watching her, just watching how that girl’s back became more fragile and resisted his burden of conscience; Desmond pulled out the hunter’s book and used the Analysis feature on Cecilia.

Desmond didn’t even review the information obtained; he just stood there watching the door close. The persistent image of Cecilia’s face consumed by sadness, softly cursing Katya for giving him a mission like this.

Returning to his room, what greeted Desmond was a trail of fruit and honey debris that covered almost all the furniture in the room, causing Desmond’s facial muscles to spasm as he tried to contain his anger.

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Looking at the lazy faery asleep on one of the velvet cushions on the bed, Desmond had to make a superhuman effort not to give Kyuru a piece of his mind.

Trying to ignore the resemblance he bore to a particular English nanny with supernatural powers, Desmond clicked his heels together, and a water wave quickly washed the room clean.

With all of today’s events and his right arm barely finished healing, Desmond was tired and stressed in a way he hadn’t been in a long time. It was to be expected; Desmond hadn’t had a decent rest in weeks, from the events during the premonition shown by Katya to the formation of ; Desmond didn’t even get a chance to take time for himself after the bitter winter battle.

Massaging his temples, trying to ease his headache, Desmond resisted the exhaustion as best and pulled out the hunter’s book to review Cecilia’s previously scanned information.

Looking at the contents with a wry expression on his face, Desmond could only comment, “So that’s the reason.”