“…I heard from Nainiae.”
While Riley was sipping the brown-sugar beer, a soft but stern voice could be heard from afar. It was coming from a girl having a standoff against Astroa. It was from the priestess under the veil, Priesia.
“Narcotics and experimentation… By chance, Grand Mage Astroa, were you involved?”
“N-Narcotics?”
By the word ‘narcotics’ that was included in Priesia’s question, the captain of Solia Castle royal guards that had barged into the situation was now glaring at Astroa with a menacing look in his eyes.
“Haha. How could that be?”
Astroa was cringing and staring at Nainiae as if he was trying to express to her that she frustrated him by interfering with his teleportation spell. However, as he turned toward the priestess, he fixed his facial expression and smiled widely.
“That’s absolutely not true. The master of the Magic Tower being involved with narcotics? Ridiculous.”
Pretending to be innocent, Astroa answered and said he did no such things.
His good-natured looking smile and long, gray beard occasionally blowing in the wind were totally making him look like a man that would never do such things no matter who looked at him.
However…
“…”
Those were not enough to trick Priesia.
Appearance wise, she was just a pretty girl. However, she was a priestess, the person closest to the heavens and blessed by the goddess Irenetsa.
“In that case, I would like to ask.”
Behind the veil, Priesia’s eyes gradually changed their color from dark brown to golden.
“To the goddess Irenetsa, can you swear that you are telling the truth?”
It was the power of the priestess.
Her golden eyes, the eyes that could pierce through others and determine the truth and deception, were glaring at Astroa.
“That is…”
Astroa was smiling like a good-natured man, but his face was slowly hardening.
It was because he was well aware that deception was not allowed in front of those eyes and that question.
‘Hm?’
On the other side of the street, standing among Solia Castle’s royal guards, Riley was looking back and forth between Astroa and Priesia. Intrigued, his eyes were beaming.
‘That’s interesting as well. Is it like a polygraph?’
This was the girl who acted like a little lass going through puberty and poured out foul words towards him at the temple.
However, in this moment, she was displaying valor.
The existence called priestess was something that Riley had ill feelings towards since his past life. However, by herself alone, Priesia was pressuring the grand mage who represented Solia. Watching her standing up like that made Riley think that she had a pretty strong backbone.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
“…”
“I will ask you again.The narcotics and experimentation that Nainiae spoke of… Is it true that you were the one that orchestrated them?”
With a fierce expression on her face, Priesia inquired again.
This time, the question was no longer asking if he was ‘involved.’
Instead, now, the question was tossed at him with an assumption that he was.
“Ugh.”
Astroa dropped his head down and breathed out heavily after having been holding it for a while.
Because of the power that Priesia had as a priestess, he could not lie. That was not all.
He was also surrounded by Solia Castle’s royal guards and Solia Temple’s holy knights.
As if that was not enough, although she was just a disposed product of the Magic Tower, Nainiae, who was at Six Circles, was interfering with his escape.
It was the worst situation.
Thinking about the fact that all this was because of that ‘bastard under the mask’ made him furious.
“Ugh. Ugh. Ugh…”
Astroa all of sudden dropped his shoulders and started to make suppressed laughing sounds.
He was cornered.
No matter how much he racked his brain, it was a situation where he couldn’t think of a way out.
Hence, obviously,
“…Yes.”
Astroa answered.
“Yes. I am the one that did all of them.”
“…”