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nEvan D. Sherden. Collide (5)

n“The captured man isn’t telling the truth or revealing anything. He is repeatedly saying that he was only trying to steal money by threatening lightly with a knife. Bishop Setyron has really worked thoroughly. It is almost impossible to dig up his past as well as the connection between him and the temple. His tactic was good.”

n“Is that so? And what about the rest?”

n“All the Paladins claim that it was a single crime committed with resentment due to the decrease in the donations to the temple. The attacker also consistently states that he didn’t know that it was Master Evan with the staff that day.”

n“So that’s it…”

nThe Marquis of Sherden nodded hard at the butler’s report. Suddenly, the arm of the chair he was holding broke out. The next moment, the appearance of the wood’s scattering left the butler with little to less doubt that Evan might have inherited his grip skills from his father, after all.

n“Somehow, they don’t care about my family! We are belittled!” The voice of Marquis rumbled. It broke through the critical point of perseverance, mixed with yelling and groaning.

n“This was carried out in Bishop Setyron’s authority. Clearly, he has gone insane. But Master, if you make a formal protest against the temple to take him down from Bishop’s post of Bishop, the temple will have to take action against him to prevent something like this happening again in the future.” The butler continued. “I don’t know what would’ve happened if he had been successful, but we know that Bishop’s operation ended in tremendous failure. Moreover, the victim was the Marquis’s son himself!”

nThey knew roughly what the temple had been thinking all along, but the people of Brotherhood Pharmacy were preparing for their movements in advance.

nThanks to this, they had a large amount of evidence with them. Now it wasn’t a situation where the Bishop could just step back, pretending to know nothing about this.

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nIf the Marquis proceeded with the whole situation calmly, the Earth Church would have to give the Marquis a large concession soon. This amount would greatly help the development of the Brotherhood Pharmacy as well as the Marquis himself. To put it plainly, the Marquis had a lot of leverage over the temple.

n“No, no butler. We won’t let them get away with this so easily.” The Marquis shook his head at the words of the butler.

nOf course, the Marquis was a person who was well versed in the noble bargaining method of gaining more from the other side by taking a step back from his side occasionally. But this time above all else, his own son was almost injured due to which the profit and loss had driven out of his mind.

n“My dear son was almost hurt!… I mean, he was about to get hurt! That also, in my city!” The Marquis roared. “If the temple hadn’t been looking down us, then no amount of Bishops would have dared to perform such an act. At this point, I think it is time to show the true power of Sherden to everyone! So that it wouldn’t be forgotten again! All those involved in this matter will taste my wrath intensely and painfully! They will regret this!”

nAfter hearing these words, the butler smiled bitterly as he realized that the Marquis was furious. The Marquis was usually sensible and thought about anything, twice or even three times, in contrast to other Marquis. But now he seemed to be acting like a chimpanzee, throwing his arms and kicking everywhere.

n‘Whenever it’s something related to the family, your Excellency always loses his cool and temper like this… Of course, that’s not a bad thing.’

nWhenever the Marquis was so angry, the butler would leave his presence. But this time he didn’t go away.

n“Master, can I say just one thing?”

n“Yes, speak. But I hope those words aren’t directed to calm me down. No words can break my determination.”

nThe butler coughed and then said,” It is being said that Evan has acquired a weapon to attack the Earth Church.”

n“Does he now?”

nThe temper of the Marquis sank instantly. He knew that while Dain was dealing with the first assailant, the captured person had been repelled by Evan.

nThe Commander of the knights had updated the Marquis about Evan. He had told him that Evan was working so hard that he had already achieved remarkable achievements. The Marquis was especially joyful about this.

n“Yes. Luckily, Evan succeeded in attracting one of the capable from the temple.”

n“No, wait, how did he do that…?”

n“Evan said that if you only gave him three days, he can organize the temple’s data. How would Evan even do it? Some people say that even the Bishop does not get his reports that quickly than Evan.”

nWhen the Marquis heard that, he thought about it. The reason that there had been no critical damage in this situation to anyone was that Evan had prepared the knights in advance. This meant that Evan had a “spy” inside the temple. If that was the case…

n“I have to meet Evan.”

n“Yes, Master.”

nAt that very moment, Evan was lying in bed with the doors open.

nHe pushed away Maybell from himself, who was trying to bandage him and give him medicine, although he wasn’t injured. Evan told her that he could eat it alone or wanted to eat something better than that.

nIt was a situation that Evan couldn’t escape easily.

n“I wasn’t there. If I was present at that moment, Master, I would’ve had personally punished the man who dared to flaw your precious body… !”

n“Well, I’m not hurt, Maybell! I haven’t hurt anywhere, so get rid of the bandages!”

n“Master, please let me do it.”

n“Belois, please take her away so I can eat everything alone…”

n“Master, eat it right now.”

nMaybell thought that Belois would listen to him and take her away, but she didn’t.

nAs soon as Maybell had heard that Evan had been attacked, she was shocked beyond belief and wanted to cry. After that, she was running around everywhere, always by Evan’s side. She even wanted to follow him up to the bathroom.

n“Now, Master! Put your arms out!”

n“Haha… … Now, Master. You should listen to her and just do it.”

n“Shine, please save me…”

n“I’m sorry, but these are your own problems.”

nTo make matters worse, even Shine wasn’t listening to him!

n“I don’t think all of this happened because I was walking around unprotected, knowing that I was in danger. I won’t ever be in danger until Dain is protecting me.”

n“Hey…!”

n“I know we are weak, but we want to get stronger for you security, Master. We could go to the dungeon to level up, but we aren’t allowed to go there for now.”

n“Because you are still going through your individual training process…And I’m fine too!”

n“It could have been fatal if you would have been even a little slow. No matter how much a person is prepared, unexpected things can happen. Like this one.”

nThere was no room for refutation. Evan had anticipated the shadowy thief, but the one who had struck him at the last moment was someone he never had unexpected.

nIf Evan was being completely honest with himself, even the preparations for the enemy and the Shadow Rogue Pento always had one flaw or another.

n“But didn’t you know?”. Evan’s voice shuddered while replying to Shine.

n“The attackers, they were really weak…”

n“According to the butler’s words, the one who tried to stab you was also as strong as the shadow thief. It was really dangerous. Moreover, what if there had been someone stronger than him? It was a misjudgment of the Master to go in the field with the rest of the staff in the first place. Can you deny this, Master?”

n“No, that…”

nNo one knew that the Bishop was going to try to attack Evan, the second Master, without hesitation!

nEvan had also been reflecting on it. This world was full of unexpected variables, and because Evan had to survive in it, he had to find a way to live with diligence.

nHowever, in the meantime, Evan thought about how he wouldn’t always be able to calculate everything. Looking back now, it was heartbreaking for him.

n“No, wait!…I’m sorry. I’m sorry, but my body is really okay…!”

n“No, you don’t realize Master, how scared we all were to hear that you were attacked!”

n“I think it would be better to refrain from going out, for the time being, Master.”

nThe two maids laid back, Evan, who was trying to get out of bed, constantly solidifying his fierce defense.

nThey weren’t even letting Evan change his clothes or wash up by himself. Evan thought that they were being a little bit more forceful than they needed to be.

n“I seem to be interfering.” Evan was scared of Maybell, whose breath was a little harsh.

n“Sh…Shine.”

n“I already know. The only thing you have to do outside the mansion is alchemy training, right Master? I’ll pass it on to Bernard. In the future, he will visit you at the mansion and teach you.”

n“Hey!”

n“I hope you will take care of him and not let him out of bed, at least for today. Then I’ll leave you alone for a while Master…Hello, Master Marquis.”

nAs he left the room to go to Bernard, Shine found the Marquis and the butler walking straight towards him. In the corridor, he greeted them politely by taking his usual stance in no time.

nBecause Shine greeted them loudly in advance, Maybell and Belois were also able to move away from the Evan for a while beforehand and settled their postures. The Marquis couldn’t imagine what had been going on inside a while ago.

n“Is Evan inside?”

n“Yes, Master Evan is resting, Your Majesty. Master Evan, the Marquis, has come to visit you.”

n“Come in, father.”

n“Excuse me.”

nThe Marquis comforted Evan, sitting halfway across his bed. He was looking up at Evan with anxious eyes.

n“I have already confirmed that there is no wound, but I still couldn’t help but worry every time I thought about you and the attack. Are you hurt?”

n“No, father. I’m completely fine. I didn’t even hurt my fingertips.”

n“Let me see you again.”

nThe Marquis had already checked Evan’s condition before, but he looked all over his body again. Of course, Evan was fine. After completing his inspection once again, the Marquis gently patted Evan’s back, then rubbed his cheeks and kissed his forehead.

n“I’m really glad you didn’t get hurt. … … By the way, I heard that you were in contact with a person from the temple.”

n“Yes, father. That’s right. Thanks to the informant, I was able to prepare for this attack. In a few more days, we will also collect some evidence that can get the Bishop to be completely dismissed. The Bishop ordered this because he was taking a large amount of the donation money that had to be sent to the headquarters.”

n“He was taking the money being sent to the headquarters of the Earth Church?”

n“Yeah.”

nEvan told a part of a conversation he had with Serpina the other day.

n“In other words, what would the Earth Church think if there was evidence that the Bishop had incited the Paladins to attack the Brotherhood Pharmacy? And there was even more proof that he had taken away huge amounts of the tuition money?”

n“They would definitely execute the Bishop.”

n“Yes. We can be successful in this if we promise to cover this case with the Bishop’s fault and not harm the Church’s image. Instead, we only get rid of the Bishop.”

n“Well, do you mean to say that you can start negotiations with them?”

n“Yes. The temple was initially stunned by the potions we made. We will be able to draw out their help as well as repair our relationship with them. Unless they really want to withdraw from Sherden, they have no choice but to comply with me.”

nThis way, the Bishop, who was being handed over to the headquarters, would not be able to survive. However, if the Marquis had attacked the Bishop instead of reporting him, then the headquarters of Earth Church would have been forced to fight against the Marquis.

nSo, this way, they had used the Church to take care of the Bishop. As the Church was also losing a lot of money due to the Bishop’s corruption, so they already had enough reasons to get rid of him.

nThe Bishop was a nuisance too big to be ignored.

nAfter making the Bishop a public enemy and disposing of him, the only thing that would be left would be the negligence on behalf of the temple. And in return for helping them deal with this, the temple would have to make various “concessions” to the Marquis.

nIt was really a perfect plan in that it was neat and could solve everything the Marquis wanted.

n“And son… won’t the person who brought you this information would be in danger of being caught?”

n“The abilities of my informant are outstanding, even though her status is low. Most of all, we met by chance, but she is someone you can trust.”

n“Well, if you say so.”

nBelieving in Evan’s sight for recognizing talent was becoming normal for the Marquis. He nodded in satisfaction. He then looked in Evan’s eyes and asked carefully.

n“Can you make her yours?”

n“I don’t know her that well, but I think she can be a good friend.”

n“Yes. That’s enough.”

nThe Marquis was satisfied with Evan’s answer and patted him on the shoulder again. Then he stood up and said.

n“I will wait until the report arrives. And Evan, you’ll be resting until tomorrow.”

n“No, I’m not hurt, Father! Didn’t you just check!?”

n“Maybell and Belois? You’ve worked hard. In the future, keep looking after Evan.”

n“Yes, Marquis! “

n“Yes, sir, Marquis. I will serve him without question.”.”

n“Father!?”

nBelois politely bowed her head. She was competing with Maybell to stand out before the Marquis. The Marquis laughed and left.

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n“No, father, wait!”

n“Now, Master. Stay quiet.”

n“There is still a lot left. You have to be quiet until you finish eating your medicine.”

nEvan, who had been abandoned even by his trusted father, was shaking all over as the two maids approached him with vicious smiles on their lips.

nThe smiling Belois was scarier than the smiling Maybell who was in full bloom.

n“Let me go! No, I’m fine! Don’t push me down, let me go!”

n“Then, I will come back later. Please rest safely.”

n“Shine, hey, Shine!”

nMeanwhile, Shine left the spot with a sagely expression.

n‘That guy… I won’t give him the Shadow Cloak!’

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