He wasn’t listening at the door, but he could still hear voices from within.
The content seemed to be harmless small talk. He couldn’t hear the words all that clearly, but the voices were unexpectedly cheerful, which made him suspicious. At the end, he even heard laughing, which left him speechless. Most of the laughing came from Heartia, but he distinctly heard the faint laughter of his conversation partner as well.
He wasn’t waiting in the hallway all that long, but by the time the door opened, he’d re-crossed his legs several times.
Eventually, with no fanfare, the door opened and the red-haired man stepped out.
“Hey, thanks for waiting, Colgon.”
He eyed his underclassman for a bit, then signaled for him to leave. Heartia said goodbye into the room and closed the door before following him down the hall.
When they’d left the vicinity of the room, he asked, “How’d you break the ice in less than five minutes?”
“Huh? What do you mean? Isn’t that normal?” Heartia said lightly. His words were easy, genuine. He frowned and crossed his arms before adding with some befuddlement, “I guess because...she’s hot? Ow! Why are you kicking me?!”
“I explained it to you, didn’t I? It’s not human. It’s an artificial being, created here in the sanctuary for a certain purpose. It can predict the future, fool the Network, and control the people and creatures around it. It’s dangerous—”
Heartia interrupted his explanation. “What’s wrong with a little control? She’s hot, after all.”
“You’re an idiot, you know that?”
“Huh? Why?” He seemed utterly serious about this as well, looking genuinely hurt.
Colgon changed the subject. “Whatever. If you can take care of Lottecia, it’ll help me too. We’re in a difficult situation, but things are generally going pretty well.”
“Like what?”
“On the outside, Krylancelo and the Thirteen Apostles are drawing Doppel X’s fighting power, and on the inside, Leticia has the priestesses’ attention focused on her. The sanctuary is ripe for the taking,” he murmured, speeding up.
He suddenly stopped and looked back at the door in the distance—to Lottecia’s room. “I’ll get a weapon ready. You don’t plan on helping me, right?”
“That’s right. I’m sorry, but I’m neutral here,” Heartia said, returning to the practical tone of a proper sorcerer. At the same time, he looked at Colgon and frowned as if realizing something. “What do you mean by ‘weapon,’ anyway? Aren’t you already armed?”
When it was pointed out to him, Colgon remembered the weapons he had on him under his cloak. The sorcerous Sword of Korkt. He also had a rather large knife, some wires, and files on the ends of his gloved fingertips that proved useful in a close quarters fight. Damian had destroyed his gun, so he no longer had that.
“These hardly count,” Colgon said frankly.
“I see...” Heartia didn’t sound convinced.
“I need a more serious weapon,” Colgon supplied. “It’s a slim chance, but if the Thirteen Apostles show up in the sanctuary, I might need to fight them off. Depending on what happens, Pluto could be a tough opponent. I need to prepare if I want to make sure I can win.”
“Against Krylancelo too?”
Colgon shrugged. He had no reason to answer.
Heartia must have come up with his own interpretation of Colgon’s reaction. He asked something different instead. “Lottecia’s your wife, right? Why don’t you talk to her?”
“The marriage isn’t official. My identity is falsified.”
“Isn’t that marriage fraud?”
“Her identity was also made up by her foster father.”
“...I see.”
As they walked through the halls, the connections between locations in front of them changed rapidly. The halls of the sanctuary were controlled by the priestesses, so if you got on their bad side, they could make your life hell.
Normally, you couldn’t even have a conversation like this quietly, but Colgon was fairly certain that the priestesses had their hands full dealing with the Thirteen Apostles and Leticia, so they didn’t have the energy to spare to listen in. And even if they were listening, it wasn’t like they could throw him in a dungeon. The priestesses were just another exhausted part of the sanctuary right now. No, they might be the most exhausted part of the sanctuary right now.
Heartia suddenly piped up like he’d just thought of something. “But you married her because you loved her, right? I mean, you’d never do anything you didn’t want to do.”
Again, Colgon didn’t feel like answering. He just kept walking, not even shrugging in response this time.