How the Regressor Loves the Reincarnated

43. Your worries aren’t the only worries.

1.

Contrary to our worries, the three poisoned people woke up without any major problems. It really couldn’t have been a million bucks.

“To think that the notorious Assassination Brigade is nothing more than a sub-organization of heretics who call themselves the Zodiac.”

After Adele and I explained, my father-in-law, a faithful believer in Lord Lux, showed a mixed reaction. Apparently, Adele’s family itself follows the doctrine of the Church of Lumineria, which serves the Lord Lux, of which 80% of the church members of the empire belong, so Shien-nim also seemed to disapprove of the Zodiac, even if he didn’t say anything about it.

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My mother-in-law…

“My daughter… You’ve been through a lot all this time alone, haven’t you? Somehow, compared to before going up to the system, he seemed a little thinner…”

“Ah, ahaha! What on earth would that mean to my mother?”

Looking at Adele as she was being pulled into her mother-in-law’s arms with an awkward smile, she honestly didn’t seem interested in Zodiac. Rather, she seems to be more sincere in making fun of Adele.

“Huh? But is it true? Certainly before going up to the system…”

“Mom, please stop there!”

Seeing Adele shout out in a hurry with that much flustered expression on her face, it seems that she is serious, not just teasing.

“Rather than that, it bothers me more that a guild run by a writer called the Apostle of the Zodiac was in and out of our territory. The slave business… I don’t remember getting any reports of anyone missing.”

“…The top of the scale operated by Libra is their product,”

Adele, frowning, sighed once and ended her words with a displeased look on her face.

“That’s why, rather than supplying and receiving slaves within the empire, we adopt a method of importing slaves from other countries and supplying them only to a few nobles and wealthy classes. The main purpose of Libra and the Scale Merchant’s frequent access to the Isvant estate was to access the sacred ground there, but they must have also been selling slaves.”

“Ha…!”

I drool at Adele’s words, and her father laughs. It was obvious to her what she was trying to say.

“So far, I’ve been living with rats. It has become meaningless.”

Among the vassal families, there was a place that bought the slaves that Libra sold. Even so, if the top of the Libra was directly coming and going, there was a high probability that it wasn’t just one.

There was also a precedent for Julius, who was in charge of the knight leader of the territory right away, so the shock his father received must not have been so small.

“As for the evidence my father needs to get rid of them, Libra keeps them all in the form of ledgers. As a sort of insurance in case her own traders turn against her.”

“…Yes, proof. In my heart, I want to go back to the territory and arrest them right away, but if we move without securing even solid evidence, other innocent families and the imperial family won’t look at us kindly.”

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My mouth itches all over. As there is a saying that the law is far away and the fist is near, if you catch those people and touch them, won’t they all blow up?

But, as my father just said, the vassal families might rise up if they did it for real. In the absence of solid evidence, it is not strange to misunderstand that we are trying to devour them by framing them.

“If we can recover the evidence, we can arrest those who commit lawlessness within the territory and purify those who fill the moneybags of the Zodiac within the empire. If there’s one minor problem… We don’t know where Libra is right now?”

The key is whether we can reliably capture Libra after we find it.

Especially considering the power of Libra, it is difficult to blindly trust and act on Adele’s overwhelming force as before. Adele herself said she could deal with it alone, but from the looks of it, I’m very worried.

“There is a high probability that Libra headed for the Religious Nation. Of the five holy places the Zodiac is looking for, the only ones whose location has not been identified so far are the first one in Isvant and the second one in the church, so Libra, which has already served its purpose in the first one, is probably the second one there. They must be moving to find out.”

“If it is a religion, it is a place where there are already a few people who have been involved in the zodiac even among high-ranking officials. Especially the Apostle Burgo…”

When Adele told me the true identity of Apostle Burgo, the shock was so great that I will never forget it.

Unlike the other apostles whose location cannot be specified with certainty, there are a total of three apostles that Adele knows exactly where they are.

It is said that it is dark under the lamp, and Scorpio, who runs an assassination brigade within the system, is one of them.

Leo and Burgo were the other two.

Although these are apostles who serve Knox, they are the ones who cannot vacate their positions due to their different status, so Adele knows their position with certainty.

The reason why Burgo could not vacate his seat in the church was simple.

“Kuhmm… Son-in-law, what the hell is the identity of Apostle Burgo?”

“Apostle Virgo is a saint of the Lumineria Church.”

It was Adele who answered my father-in-law’s questions on my behalf.

“…Daughter, you shouldn’t play pranks like that. Could Saint Aster, whom the Lord loved more than anyone else, be the apostle of such a god? It was one of the funniest jokes I have ever heard in my life.”

Adele said, lightly ignoring her father-in-law’s efforts to deny reality.

“However, it is said that there is a high probability of that, but we cannot be sure of the location of Libra. So she’s trying to find the one with the debt that needs to be paid off first, rather than Libra.”

I’m going to the Islands to catch Scorpio.

“…Can I be alone?”

As soon as I heard Adele’s words, such a question jumped out of my mouth without my knowledge. I hope there is no such solution…

The moment I saw Adele nodding her head, I closed my eyes.

It seemed like I could hear what the father-in-law and her mother-in-law were saying, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. There was only one thought running through my head right now.

“Luke…?”

How can I get my lady to come to her senses without any countermeasures?

“Excuse me, excuse me.”

“Luke?! Why me…!”

Rising from her seat, bowing her head to her elders and begging her pardon, she took Adele by her hand and led her out of her room.

In the process, Sien-hyung’s eyes met and he nodded. Could it be that he meant to please help my little brother come to his senses?

No.

2.

“I will definitely go to Jedo with me. If I go to Kyoguk after that, I will go there too.”

That was the first thing Luke said after dragging me out of the villa. Breathing in the slightly chilly air of the early morning hours, I thought about why Luke was suddenly acting like this, but I couldn’t figure out anything.

Rather, I raised my voice, wondering if Luke, who dared to follow me to that dangerous place, was sane.

“Luke, are you crazy? How long ago did you almost die because of Aquarius, are you going there with me?”

Then Luke, who heard them, was embarrassed and opened and closed his mouth several times. After hearing my words, he realized what an absurd request he had made…

“…Adele, do you think your worries are the only worries?”

…Huh?

How long has it been since Luke started talking to me? Unlike me, who started to let go of words at some point, I never expected that Luke, who always spoke highly, would let go of words so suddenly.

No, thinking about it again, there was a time when Luke subtly let go of his words. Luke, he probably never dreamed of how much damage he sometimes does to my heart by letting go of his words.

But what puzzled me even more was the content of what Luke said.

Looking at me, who must have had such a bewildered expression that he could tell without looking at me, Luke started beating me with words nonstop.

“Do you think I don’t worry about you? I’m asking this out of curiosity, but is the Master somehow immortal? It’s not You didn’t know about anyone else, but you told me with your own mouth that Libra is the most dangerous of the apostles. But with Libra’s whereabouts still unclear, you’re going to find Scorpio by yourself? If Libra is with Scorpio, what are they going to do then?”

I couldn’t figure out what to say when I saw Luke saying only the right words. And Luke didn’t seem to want me to answer yet.

“When I was in our territory, I secretly went to Libra by myself, Adele, and you said it was because you thought you could defeat him alone, so let’s say so. Then what the hell is this?”

After saying the words he had stored in his heart like that, Luke took a deep breath and calmed himself down to some extent before reaching out his arm to me.

“It came into my heart arbitrarily and took up a big spot, so please don’t be so helpless… It’s the same that I don’t want to imagine Adele going anywhere and getting hurt or worse, so please. I would like to ask you something like this.”

As if trying to crush me, he hugged me with force and whispered words that warmed my heart with his usual tone of voice.

“At least until I figure out what to do with Libra, go with me. After that, she won’t say anything even if Adele does whatever she wants.”

Those were not words that Luke just said out of his mind. On the other hand, just like Luke said, I was a little bit apologetic because I thought I was really selfish.

I buried my maddening face even deeper into Luke’s arms to hide it, and gave him a reply that would probably sound like a mumble.

“…Okay. And I’m sorry.”

Perhaps he was relieved after hearing my answer, he could feel the strength in Luke’s arms slowly waning.

But I didn’t expect at all what Luke said to me after that.

“All you need to know… And I said I wouldn’t say anything if Adele did what she wanted, and I didn’t say a word that I wasn’t going to follow her.”

“What, what?!”

I almost hit Luke’s chin as I raised my head in embarrassment, but fortunately, Luke held his head up, so I was able to avoid an accident.

“I will become strong enough that Adele will not have to worry about me.”

The expression on Luke’s face as he said that with his eyes closed seemed really calm.

“Absolutely.”

Like a snake shedding its skin, Luke has been steadily growing outside of my sight.