Using a God Card in front of everyone was bound to cause problems, and it naturally drew curious questions from everyone present.
Miles had actually foreseen this even before the duel began.
Regardless, there was no helping it. To defeat the Gimmick Puppet Disaster Leo, among the cards Miles could currently use, The Winged Dragon of Ra was the best choice.
And more importantly… God Cards make people lose their reason. No one can resist the allure of summoning a god!
"Lord Miles, why are you able to use Lady Aisha's God Card of the Royal Knights? Could it be that there are two Winged Dragons of Ra?"
"Your Highness Homar, just treat it as if there are two~"
Regarding this matter, it was genuinely hard for Miles to explain it to Homar.
After all, on the Spirit Continent, the default rule everyone accepted was that each card was bound to its duelist.
Someone like Miles, who could directly take Aisha's God Card and use it himself, was truly an abnormal case.
"Two… two Winged Dragons of Ra."
Homar always felt like he was being fooled, yet he didn't know how to refute it.
How could there possibly be two copies of the Winged Dragon of Ra, the foremost of the legendary Three Egyptian Gods!
"That was a genuine god."
Even after the duel had ended, Sylvia still hadn't emerged from the lingering afterglow of that scorching atmosphere.
As a devout member of the clergy, what could possibly excite Sylvia more than witnessing a true god with her own eyes?
There was.
That god had been summoned by a little boy.
"But why is it that a soul entwined with a demon can summon a god?"
In just a single day, Sylvia had already lost count of how many times she had doubted herself, doubted her God's Eye that was meant to see through all sins.
Including this time. After the duel ended, Sylvia once again activated her God's Eye to peer into Miles' soul.
Because only outside of a duel would Sylvia's vision not be obstructed by those strange women.
This time, the result was no different. The boy's soul, still entwined in filthy darkness, once again showed not even the most basic trace of "sin."
So… her eyes weren't broken, right?
Considering that Miles was the last soul she had observed in the confessional, Sylvia couldn't rule out that possibility.
Of course, verifying whether this was true, whether her eyes were actually broken, was very simple.
She just needed to look at anyone else present.
The only concern Sylvia had about doing so was a moral one.
This wasn't inside the confessional. Using the power bestowed by a god to peep into another person's sins without their consent was undoubtedly a violation of moral principles.
(Miles: "What about me? You saw everything when we weren't in the confessional too, didn't you?")
After agonizing over it again and again, Sylvia made a decision that, while it violated her moral standards, didn't absolutely violate them.
She would use her own family's maid as a test subject.
The maid, Tali, had been successfully saved thanks to Miles' timely intervention, avoiding punishment from the Gate family. She was now carefully clearing away the used tableware from the dining table.
As for the sins hidden within Tali's soul, Sylvia could almost guess them already.
Nothing more than guilt over her own mistake: spilling red wine on Ryan's clothes, causing the Diane family to be placed in an awkward position.
This kind of guilt was among the sins Sylvia saw most often, a very human kind of transgression.
The God's Eye opened once more as Sylvia turned her gaze toward her own maid.
Sigh… to make such a low-level mistake, I'm really sorry to Young Miss.
Just as expected, it was exactly what Sylvia had thought.
It must be because I rewarded myself this morning, so I couldn't concentrate.
Hm? Rewarded herself? What did that mean? At this point, Sylvia felt that something about the tone was starting to feel off.
It can't be helped. Young Miss' sexy figure during her morning bath was just far too alluring. If only I hadn't hidden away and gotten myself off.
This sin of Tali's was downright different from what Sylvia had imagined!
Although Sylvia heard quite a few confessions like this every day in the confessional,
once she realized that her own personal maid at home viewed her in this way, Sylvia still felt a chill run down her spine.
…Maybe she should just send her back to the Gate family to be properly "disciplined."
Anyhow, seeing even such deeply buried sins so clearly, Sylvia confirmed that her eyes didn't seem to have any problems after all.
So in the end, was the problem really still with Miles?
"How impressive. Is this what they call 'heroes emerging in their youth since ancient times'?"
At this moment, Miles was already surrounded by Duchess Karina and Duke Bach.
In an empire that revered absolute power, as long as you possessed sufficiently strong dueling strength, even top-tier families would show you respect.
Although Miles had defeated Ryan Gate, it was ultimately done under the pretext of a friendly sparring match proposed by Alice.
If they were to seriously tear their relationship with the Gate family apart over something like this, these slick old aristocrats wouldn't have been able to survive so long in the upper echelons of power.
In the end, the only one who got hurt was Ryan Gate, who had wine splashed on him and was beaten up badly.
"To be able to use a God Card at such a young age, your future is truly boundless," Duchess Karina said with a smile.
"No, no, no. Being able to master Chaos Xyz at such a young age… that is the real proof of talent," Duke Bach countered.
The two great families, who were normally like oil and water, even approached their recognition of Miles from two wholly different angles.
However, there was one point on which the Diane family and the Gate family were in agreement.
"Is a duelist with such potential really just the Third Princess' bodyguard?"
A duelist capable of wielding a legendary God Card, serving as a royal princess's bodyguard in Livorden.
Wasn't that far too wasteful?
The Livorden royal family was by no means foolish, and naturally, the empire's dukes were not fools either.
"Your Graces, please don't make things difficult for our little bodyguard here."
Knowing that Miles disliked dealing with aristocrats, Alice deliberately stepped in to smooth things over.
"Miles is the Third Princess's most favored guard. Don't go thinking about poaching him, okay?"
It sounded like a joke, but with that single sentence, Alice perfectly conveyed the underlying meaning: Miles' relationship with Nova was far from ordinary; he was certainly not a mere bodyguard, but they shouldn't expect to dig out any further information either.
"Hehe, of course not."
Both dukes were very adept at reading the room.
"Alice Carlos… she's really amazing."
Sylvia praised her sincerely from the bottom of her heart.
She wasn't talking about Alice's strength, but rather the fact that despite being not much older than herself, Alice could so skillfully navigate a top-tier national social gathering like this.
Including earlier, when she had helped Tali and herself out of an awkward situation, as well as just now when she stepped in for Miles, her sense of timing and phrasing had been absolutely perfect.
No wonder she could become the acting head of the Carlos family at such a young age, and even attend this banquet alongside royalty.
By comparison, she herself, as the eldest daughter of the Diane family, still had absolutely no awareness of inheriting the family.
With a different kind of admiration in her heart, Sylvia couldn't help but take a few extra glances at Alice.
"Ah, I forgot to turn off the God's Eye."
Earlier, Sylvia had been so shocked by the filthy thoughts of the maid Tali that she had forgotten about this entirely.
As Sylvia gazed at Alice Carlos, with the God's Eye still active, she unconsciously saw through the sins hidden deep within Alice Carlos' soul.
But a young countess like her probably didn't carry any particularly grave sins.
As such, Sylvia didn't pay it much mind.
Even if she happened to see something, so long as she never spoke of it, then in keeping with the discipline of the clergy, there would be no problem.
That was, until the faith-infused gaze of Sylvia's eyes saw a truth hidden in the darkness… one she should never have peeped into.
Crack!
Accompanied by a crisp sound of shattering glass, the red wine glass Sylvia was holding slipped straight from her hand and smashed onto the floor.
"Miss, be careful."
To keep the scattered shards of glass at her feet from injuring Sylvia, the maid Tali rushed over at once to clean up the mess.
She picked up the broken glass and wiped the red wine from the floor.
However, while dealing with the aftermath, Tali's wandering gaze suddenly noticed something.
"Miss?"
Originally, Tali had only intended to take advantage of crouching down to admire Sylvia's slender, fair legs up close.
"Miss, are you shaking?"
The reason Sylvia had let the wine glass slip from her hand was simply because she had seen a truth that left her stunned… a truth that seemed as though it should never exist in this world.
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