I Wish You Well In Your Next Love, My Love - Chapter 62
“Y-Yes… That’s right.”
Gerard lifted the head he had lowered.
The veins stood out on his thick neck, and his eyes were turned toward the ceiling as if weighing something.
A hot blaze surged inside him.
Just coming all the way to the doctrinal chamber of Hartheon Temple and causing this kind of disturbance was already madness enough, yet Gerard was feeling an even more irrational impulse.
Gerard’s deliberation was brief.
He overturned the lit silver candlestick and held it close to Reverend Edmond’s cheek.
Reverend Edmond, already terrified by Gerard’s murderous air, screamed as if he were being torn apart even at the weak candle flame.
“Lord Castion! Aagh! L-Lord Castion!”
“I’ll give you a choice.”
Gerard’s gaze turned to Chief Priest Mordec, who stood at the head seat.
“First, all financial and administrative support currently being provided by House Castion will be cut off, and all exchange with Melvers Temple will also be severed.”
His voice was so dry that there was hardly any rise or fall in it, but the content was anything but.
Most of the temple’s lavish operations depended on sponsorship from the Castion Grand Duchy, and thanks to its ties with Melvers Temple, it had been able to preserve its prestige despite countless suspicions of corruption. And yet he was saying all of that would be cut off. It was effectively no different from being sentenced to life imprisonment.
“Second, he gets hit by me exactly ten times.”
It was plain, and chilling.
Even from one casual slap across the face, Edmond’s cheek was already swelling.
In desperation, he craned his neck back and stared at Chief Priest Mordec.
Cold sweat had beaded across Chief Priest Mordec’s wrinkled forehead.
“W-We choose the second.”
“Good.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Gerard threw aside the silver candlestick and slapped Edmond across the cheek with his palm.
Thud! Smack—
The sight of him swinging his hand relentlessly with a blank expression was enough to make one’s skin crawl.
At some point, Edmond, who had been writhing beneath him, stopped moving.
Even though he was having his face beaten to pieces without even knowing why, no one could stop Gerard. They could only hold their breath and stand by, hoping that violence wouldn’t turn toward them.
THWACK!
Even after striking exactly ten times, he raised his arm high once more.
But he stopped at lightly nudging the cheek that had become a mass of blood.
Leaving the unconscious Edmond behind, Gerard straightened his disordered sleeve.
After reducing a man to that state, he still looked immaculate, without a single drop of sweat, no, not even a single strand of hair out of place.
“From now on, there is to be no rank discrimination in trainee practice.”
This seemed to be Gerard’s true main point.
“R-Rank discrimination?”
“Are you truly not aware?”
When Gerard’s eyes fixed directly on Chief Priest Mordec, he hurriedly corrected himself.
“We will investigate thoroughly and take measures so that nothing like this happens again.”
“I trust you’ll handle it well. You are a capable man.”
As Gerard turned away, the knights who had been standing there in a daze came to their senses only then and bowed their heads.
He left the doctrinal chamber without acknowledging anyone’s greeting.
The doctrinal chamber had become a complete wreck, as if a storm had swept through it.
But no one could clearly explain where Gerard’s anger had come from.
The only speculation was that he had taken it as an insult that the trainee Awakened of Melvers Temple had gone all the way to Hartheon’s west annex only to return empty-handed.
On the other hand, there was also talk that it might be connected to the incident of gossiping behind Arvina’s back.
The dominant opinion was that the purification practice was only a pretext, and that what had truly provoked him was the tears of the woman he loved.
