"Could it be that you're blind?"
Not just the envoy, but even Callum and the Saint Knight were stunned. Even though Gabriel's words sounded insulting, his voice and expressions were so sincere as if he was genuinely asking. They didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"You! You! You called me blind?" The Envoy stood up, stunned. Even though it wasn't clear, some could faintly see that his face was turning red in anger.
If he wasn't worried about being killed by the Head Priest later on, he would've already killed the man in one strike!
"It's not that I called you blind. I'm genuinely asking. Just because I'm standing, you say I'm perfectly fine. Could it be that you can't see blood trickling down my lips?" Gabriel asked.
It was only now that the Envoy and the others saw a thin line of blood that was trickling down from the corner of Gabriel's lips.
The Envoy was so stunned that he didn't even realize that the blood wasn't there before. Gabriel intentionally made him bleed slightly to give the impression that he was genuinely hurt.
"I'm indeed sick. It's a genetic sickness which opens up an internal injury every so often. Since I didn't want to show you this unsightly sight, I asked my men to help you instead."
Gabriel didn't care about the man so being respectful didn't matter to him. All he wanted was for the man to leave. If they wanted to fight him, he wanted the battle to happen outside Arecia.
The Envoy didn't know what to say. When he entered, he genuinely didn't focus on Gabriel's lips so he didn't know if there was blood before or not.
"This is the first time I'm hearing about such sickness," the Envoy wondered.
"There are many firsts in this world. It was also our first time being attacked by a Church, wasn't it?" Gabriel asked. A tinge of sarcasm could clearly be felt coming from his words.
"Hmph." The envoy rolled his eyes and didn't delve into the matter. "Whatever. Sit down. I'm here to talk to you. The rest of you can go out!"
He directly commanded the Saint Knight and Callum to leave. Unfortunately, no one listened to him, which made his brows rise.
"You two can leave," Gabriel stated, telling them to leave as well. It wasn't as if he needed their protection. If the envoy tried doing anything, the one who needed protection wasn't him but the Envoy!
The Saint Knight bowed respectfully before he left the room. Callum also left the room.
After the two left, the Envoy brought his High Tier Staff since he wanted to use a stronger spell.
Gabriel didn't care what spell was used and just calmly sat on the bed. The spell didn't sound like an attacking spell in any case.
As the Spell finished, a barrier appeared around the room.
'A sound sealing barrier? Interesting spell...' Gabriel observed his surroundings, slightly impressed. By now, he had already guessed why the Envoy was here.
And just as he expected, the Envoy started telling him the truth about how they received the information about a criminal hiding in Arecia and came personally to catch that person. Along the way, he tried to act mighty.
Even though the Church attacked the helpless Empire, he still made the Church seem like righteous people who were fighting against evil.
"By forcing him to come out, and catching that terrifying criminal, we saved your Empire! If we hadn't arrived and caught him, sooner or later, he would've destroyed your Empire! You should be thankful to us!"
The Envoy proudly stated.
Seeing the pride and arrogance on the man's face, even though he lied so openly, Gabriel's face twitched unwillingly.
He had really never seen such a shameless person in all his life? Not only did these people attack the Empire, they even wanted the Empire and the citizens to be grateful to them?!
He could only scratch the back of his head in face of such shamelessness. "You're right! The Church is righteous! We don't know what we would've done without you!"
The Envoy grinned. "Exactly. We are! It's your blessing that our Church was willing to help your Empire deal with these matters!"
The more shameless this guy was, the more Gabriel felt like stomping on his foot. However, he controlled his urge.
"Exactly! The righteous Church of Flames is so strong! The strongest in this world! I'm sure no one can even hurt a single hair on your head! I wish I had such strength." Gabriel lowered his head, sighting.
The Envoy's face turned dark for a moment as he remembered the Church being destroyed by a person. What couldn't harm a hair? What strongest? He wanted to cough out a mouthful of blood at this statement! Let alone harming a hair on his head, there were people who killed the entire force they left behind!
'Fortunately, this guy doesn't know!' he thought, trying to hide his real emotions.
"Cough, that's right. We are quite strong!" He nodded proudly. "Anyway, I just came here to tell you about this matter. I hope you can spread the news about how righteous we are and how we helped you!"
After finishing, the envoy stood up.
Gabriel watched the Envoy leave as the corners of his lips rose up. 'This guy...'
The door opened and the seal on the space was broken as the Envoy stepped out of the room, leaving. From the start to the end, he never dropped his arrogant expressions. Now that he had finished dealing with the matter, he swiftly left.
The Saint Knight personally escorted the man outside while Callum entered the room.
"What did he say?"
Gabriel shook his head. "A bunch of nothing."
He walked to the balcony. Now that he had dealt with the matter, he wanted to see just how much damage this city suffered.
As he stood on the balcony, he noticed the condition of the City which was half destroyed. A lot of structures from before were missing entirely.
"That's a lot of damage. How long will it take to make things like before?"
"Probably a month," Callum answered. "The rescue work is almost complete but the construction will take longer."
Gabriel nodded and lowered his head, focusing on the entrance of the Castle. He noticed a huge crowd outside the Castle doors.
"What are they doing?" he asked, frowning. For so many people to gather here, this didn't seem right.
"They are..." Callum hesitated. He didn't know what to say.
"Speak."
"They are here to ask you to abdicate the throne..." After a long silence, Callum finally spoke. "There are protests going on all over the Empire. The ones before the castle are but a small fragment of the people demanding that you abdicate…"
