NOVEL WEB Chapter 14: Airport Greetings! Meeting Salvatore Doni!
Haru, holding Sora's delicate hand, walked into the airport lobby, chatting and laughing. Upon entering, they were met with the bowing members of the Copper Black Cross and immediately stopped in their tracks.
"Haru? What are they saying?" Sora frowned slightly, looking at the group of people in purple robes, bowing deeply as they spoke in Italian. She was frustrated by the language barrier.
Sensing Sora's confusion, Haru's eyes flickered with golden light. With a thought, he activated a spell as if it were second nature, a technique honed through countless trials – Thousand Languages. This spell, born from the egg's ability to decipher the essence of magic, granted him mastery over any language.
"It's okay now. I used a spell. We should be able to understand them."
Sora looked at him, puzzled. She had been about to ask him in Japanese, but the words that came out of her mouth were fluent Italian. "Understand what? Huh! I think I just spoke Italian!"
Like Columbus discovering a new world, Sora, now brimming with curiosity, began peppering Haru with questions in Italian.
"Haru, how did you do that?"
"Can you teach me?"
Haru patiently answered Sora's barrage of questions, a gentle smile gracing his lips. After a while, he turned his attention to the knight in purple before them.
"You're the local boss around here, right?" Haru asked with a smile, but his eyes, fixed on James, gleamed with a sharp intensity.
"Yes! We are the knights of the Copper Black Cross! I am James, the current Grand Master." James straightened up, responding promptly. He couldn't help but feel a surge of pride when he mentioned his title. As a successor to the Knights Templar, famed throughout the world in the Middle Ages, he had every right to be proud of his position as the Grand Master of such a powerful organization at the age of twenty.
"The Copper Black Cross?" Haru tilted his head, his voice laced with amusement.
Amakausu Touma, who had been trailing behind the siblings, quickly stepped forward and whispered in Haru's ear, "They are one of the seven great magical families of Italy, and the secret society to which Southern Europe's strongest knight – Saint Raffaello – belongs."
Hearing the name Saint Raffaello, Haru immediately recalled the legendary grimoire Erica and Liliana had obtained in the original story – *The Deeds of David*, guarded by Saint Raffaello and hidden in the subterranean temple of the Earth Mother Goddess beneath San Gimignano.
It was the only human technique depicted in the story capable of harming a god, the ultimate expression of magical knowledge. Those who had mastered its spells, known as Holy Annihilators, were among Europe's most powerful knights, each with a history of repelling divine beasts and even wounding gods.
This grimoire, a pinnacle of human wisdom and a crystallization of humanity's understanding of the world's rules, was the perfect nourishment for the egg within him.
"Where is this 'strongest knight,' Saint Raffaello?" Haru asked, fixing James with an intense gaze, his eyes glowing with magical power.
James bowed deeply. "In response to Your Majesty, Saint Raffaello is currently residing in San Gimignano. Shall we summon her to attend to you?"
"No need. Take me to San Gimignano now." Haru took Sora's hand and strode towards the airport exit.
San Gimignano, a historic city built in the 13th century, was known for its well-preserved medieval architecture and its status as a World Heritage Site.
It was located a short distance from Florence, easily accessible by car in less than an hour.
Two young women and a young man walked along the ancient streets towards the outskirts of the city. One of the women, a girl of about twelve with hair like a golden crown, possessed an air of elegance and sophistication that belied her young age.
The other girl, also around twelve, had beautiful silver hair styled in a long, straight bob. Her delicate features and slender frame, combined with her refined attire, made her look like a moon spirit descended upon the mortal realm. But despite her youthful appearance, her face was serious, her eyes reflecting the unwavering determination of a knight.
Erica Blandelli and Liliana Kranjčar, aspiring knights from the prestigious Italian magical families, the Copper Black Cross and the Bronze Black Cross, had come to this city seeking to inherit Saint Raffaello's twin swords.
The golden-haired young man walking ahead of them ran a hand through his messy hair. He was strikingly handsome, but his face was haggard, lacking any semblance of authority. Despite his lean build, his physique hinted at years of training.
"Hmm, this place looks familiar," he muttered, his voice filled with frustration. "I have a feeling I went through a lot of trouble around here before, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was." The young man, claiming amnesia, continued to grumble to himself.
Erica paid him no mind. Suddenly, Liliana's body stiffened. Her eyes lost focus, and she whispered, her voice filled with a distant echo.
"Ancient knightly techniques, ancient spells, treasures hidden within sacred grounds."
It was a vision. Liliana had received a divine revelation.
Those with a witch's aptitude often received such pronouncements when they approached places of mystical significance. Erica, long accustomed to Liliana's visions, immediately approached her friend, who was both a knight and a witch.
"It seems you've had a vision, Lili. Anything useful for us?"
"Ah, yes, Erica. This is a place where ancient knights frequented. They built a temple near the fortress – in the deepest darkness. I received a vision with that impression."
"Interesting. A temple built in darkness… If we take the words literally, that would mean underground, wouldn't it?"
Erica tapped the ground with her toe.
*It wouldn't hurt to investigate a little.* She exchanged a glance with Liliana, and they both cast a search spell.
"Indeed, there's a faint trace of magical energy emanating from directly beneath us."
"Hmm, it seems suspicious. But we can't ignore even the slightest possibility."
"This place must be concealed by a barrier. Perhaps this underground temple is a secret sanctuary."
"It's a place that Mr. Amnesia frequented before he lost his memories, a place related to Saint Raffaello. In other words, there's a high probability of finding Saint Raffaello here."
"Conversely, there's also the possibility that the guardian of this place *is* Saint Raffaello."
Though it was mere speculation, they continued to exchange ideas.
The only way to confirm the truth was to investigate. They nodded in agreement. This place was undoubtedly strange. They needed to find a suitable entry point to infiltrate the underground temple.
At that moment, the young man's flippant voice reached their ears.
"I must have done something here before I lost my memories… It definitely had something to do with someone related to a horse's tail. I want to call them, but I don't have their phone number or address… Should I consider using smoke signals or carrier pigeons – some classic method of communication?"
He rambled on, spouting nonsense. Erica and Liliana ignored him completely.
After witnessing his numerous displays of idiocy, they had concluded that it was more productive to discuss their plans for infiltrating the underground temple than to engage in pointless conversations with the self-proclaimed amnesiac.
But because of their dismissal, they missed a crucial moment.
As they were deep in conversation, a terrifying surge of magical energy erupted.
It was like a volcano erupting.
Neither Erica nor Liliana had ever experienced such an explosive burst of magic in an instant.
If they had to compare it to anything, it would be the force of a ritual spell performed by dozens of high-ranking mages working in unison.
However, such a spell, requiring the combined power of so many mages, would take an immense amount of time and effort to prepare. It would be impossible to activate in an instant.
*What in the world happened?*
Erica and Liliana turned around simultaneously.
They saw the young man, his sword raised towards the sky, having just swung it downwards.
And they saw the tower of the medieval fortress, split cleanly in two, collapsing to either side. And the stone structures built on the hill.
It was a massive building, covering an area of over 1,000 square meters!
Yet it had been cut in half.
As if cleaved in two by a gigantic sword descending from the heavens.
The stone blocks crashed to the ground with a deafening roar.
"Wh-what happened?"
Erica, normally a paragon of grace and composure, was stunned, her voice a breathless whisper.
"Could it be… that he did this?"
Liliana was equally dumbfounded.
These were expressions unbecoming of talented individuals from prestigious magical families, especially those well-versed in the mysteries of the world.
"Sorry, did I scare you? No, actually, I was just wondering if I could do this instead of using a smoke signal to call out whoever is associated with this fortress."
The flippant voice, of course, belonged to the amnesiac.
*Just who is this man?*
As the two girls stared at him, their gazes filled with fear for the first time, a horse galloped towards them from across the hills. It was a powerful steed, ridden by a beautiful woman with long black hair. Her face, with its strong features, hinted at Latin ancestry.
Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, resembling, as her name suggested, a horse's tail.
"I thought we were under attack by some magic society. To think it was Salvatore Doni all along. We had a brief association, you could even call it a master-disciple relationship, but what is the meaning of this? Depending on the circumstances, I might demand your head as compensation."
The black-haired rider made her bold declaration from atop her horse.
She was Saint Raffaello, a knight who had attained the glorious rank of Paladin - the highest echelon of European swordsmen, a Knight of the Holy Grail!
*BOOM!* The sound of the right half of the collapsed tower being lifted from the ground.
The four people engaged in conversation turned abruptly, their gazes fixed on the rising debris.
Beneath the rubble, a motorcade appeared, completely unscathed. At the head of the convoy, a handsome young man with silver hair stood, his right hand raised, effortlessly supporting the thirty-meter tall tower.
"Good grief, the Italians are quite passionate, aren't they?"
The silver-haired young man grinned, a hint of menace in his smile. His entire body radiated a golden aura, a terrifying wave of magical energy that dwarfed Salvatore Doni's, as if continents were colliding.