Chapter 57

***

I felt somewhat uncomfortable in the room.

Perhaps it was just because it was all white.

I slowly made my way to the table, rubbing my sweaty, nervous palms on the hem of my skirt.

As we took our seats facing each other, the priest stood at the door, clasped his hands together, and politely said, 

“This is the first ritual of purification, the Sacred Way. It is a place to return as you were born, without any blemish, with the grace of God. I will leave you seated, so please empty all your cups.”

He bowed deeply and slowly closed the door.

I stared at the teacup in front of me.

There was no pattern or design on the teacup, as if it had just been made. The only thing that had color was the tea in it.

“……I hope it’s okay.”

When asked carefully, Devan’s eyes turned to the door.

He lowered himself and whispered.

“They may be watching.”

He meant to be discreet with my words.

The tea, more than half full in the teacup, was the same color that of the tea I drank for a week until I got tired of it. When I smelled it, it had the same aroma.

“I’d better drink it first.”

Devan stopped me and lifted my cup.

Wouldn’t I have to drink first so that he can solve it when something happens?

I’m sure a week of training had built up some tolerance to the poison, but it wasn’t at a level where I felt safe.

As I stared at him with such a gaze, he whispered in a voice that I could hear.

“If you can…”

He tapped his right eye instead of talking.

“A black being. Use that power….”

I nodded and he drank the tea down in one gulp.

His neck moved a couple times. He said, putting the empty cup back.

“It’s exactly the same.”

He meant that it was the same tea he had prepared for my poison training.

I breathed a sigh of relief and took a sip of tea with him.

The taste was familiar. It was then that I took a few more sips.

“…… wait a minute.”

“What?” 

Devan staggered, pointing at the table.

“…… Devan?”

His face wrinkled mercilessly.

And then, just like that, he collapsed.

“Devan!”

I quickly got up from my seat to catch him. 

My eyes were blurry. I was going to faint…..

At that moment, I thought of what Devon had said. 

When push comes to shove…..I had to use that power. But how? Had I ever used that power of my own volition?

The floor was near.

Everything felt slow. I squeezed my eyes shut.

I felt something explode deep inside me. I just passed out.

* * *

And when we came to our senses, we were lying in a dark corner of a different room.

I quickly rolled my eyes and looked around.

The condition was better than I had expected.

The room was clean and beautiful, and the floor was covered with soft textured cloth.

My head felt dizzy. I woke up, conscious but unable to move easily.

I heard Devan moaning next to me. I whispered.

“Devan, have you come to your senses?”

“…… yes.”

He seemed to have given a harsh swear word after his reply, but deliberately ignored it. 

“Is this different from what you expected?”

My mind became foggy at times.

It seemed that everything was the same. He stammered.

“What in the world happened?”

“You fell first. I drank some tea. …… At first I thought I was all right, but soon I stumbled. I also collapsed shortly afterwards,…… but I had a bit of a reprieve, perhaps thanks to the fact that I didn’t drink as much as you.”

“Did you use your power?

“……I  don’t know.”

”You don’t know?”

“I knew I had to use my powers for that little while… …Actually, that power, so Hilda’s power is not something that can be used whenever I want. I don’t know how to use it either.”

“So?”

“I think you may have used divine power.”

“Ah!”

He nodded as if he understood.

Devan tried to sit up with one arm on the floor, but his arm didn’t have any strength.

“…… d*mn it.”

Devan lay down again.

‘’It seems that the divine power has neutralized the poison. The last time I woke up, the sun was already up in the middle of the sky.”

I looked out the window along Devan’s eyes and saw a dark sky because the sun had not yet risen.

“But it doesn’t make sense. How did we fall in the first place? It was the same tea. The smell, the color, the taste, everything was the same. You said you were already resistant to the poison and I trained for a week. We also did an inspection just before we came. But, why?”

However, Devan did not answer what I said. Perhaps he didn’t know the answer either.

A moment later, an all too simple conclusion flashed through my mind.

“Wait a minute. Is it really because of the tea?”

“What?”

“You said all royalty are resistant to poison.”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that strange, then? So far, the only people who have come to the temple and taken the qualification test are members of the royal family. Most of the people who have had weddings are also members of the royal family. Devan, you also said that you developed resistance to poison at an early age. If you were tolerant, why do you think you collapsed when you took the qualifying exam?”

“…It was when I was a child, so I thought I just didn’t have enough tolerance and collapsed…”

“It wasn’t that you didn’t have enough tolerance. It wasn’t poison from the beginning. No, it wasn’t exactly that tea!”

“You mean it was something else that made us faint?”

“Yes. The tea was a trap. Or it may have been insurance. They set up the tea and something else to knock us out. So that people could not be prepared.”

“Something else………. What is it?”

Yes, the important thing was what on earth put us to sleep.

I slowly thought to myself, that “space in the sanctuary”.

It was a pure space with all white …… At that moment, the uncomfortable feeling I felt came to mind.

Why did I feel uncomfortable?

“It’s that room. Wasn’t it strange?”

“It’s all white, so it would be weird if it wasn’t weird.”

“But the temple was originally all white. We already walked down a white corridor, so why does it feel so strange just to enter a white room?”

“Are you trying to say that something was planted in that room?”

“If they put us to sleep by any other means than by tea, that room is the only place they could have done it. No one was around, and I didn’t sense any kind of magic.”

“…… that priest. Why did he leave?”

“What?” 

“If he was going to make us drink tea, he might as well keep an eye on us in the room. But he left.”

He left and closed the door…..

“…… window.”

“Window?”

“There was no window in that room. So even though it was early in the morning, it was dark!”

Devan wrinkled his brow a little.

“So it’s an act?”

“I don’t know what methods they used, but it’s very likely that they did. If the whole room was full of colorless, odorless smoke and we inhaled it……..”

“That’s also why that priest had covered his face with a white cloth.”

I slowly raised my arm and clenched and unclenched my fist. I could feel the blood gradually flowing.

“First we need to know where this room is. At the very least, it’s certainly not the room where we had tea earlier.”

The room was faintly visible in the dawn moonlight.

I closed my eyes and felt the divine power in my body. Perhaps it was because I had drunk a strange tea, but I felt a faint power, weaker than usual. However, it was not so weak that I could not use it.

“It was still dawn. There is still time. We need to find Cordelia.”

“You would look for the girl even in this situation?”

“If not today, what choice do we have?”

Devan let out an absurd laugh.

“Today? Is there a way?”

I moved my hand slowly and grabbed his arm.

Then I closed my eyes and concentrated. A faint, pure white light spread out. It seemed especially bright because it was in a dark room.

“If I had used my divine power just before I passed out, it would have meant that I did not completely sleep because of it.”

“You can fix this condition with your power?”

“Probably.”

“After that?”

“After that…”

It was that moment.

I heard a rustling in the distance. We instantly held our breath.

Perhaps because the temple was very quiet, we were able to hear the voices in the distance.

Huh? I stared at Devan, and he stared at me. 

We opened our eyes wide as we faced each other.

I was the only woman in the temple now. The person they were referring to was undoubtedly me.

Devan was right. This wedding was a chance for the temple to catch me. A chance to catch a fish that had gotten its own foot in the net.

They were going to take me. They even hired mercenaries, which they didn’t usually use.

What on earth were they going to do? No matter how much the High Priest exceeded the authority of the emperor, and no matter that Devan was an unwelcome member of the royal family.

It was not normal for a bride-to-be to disappear from the temple.

Of course, it was not a level that could not be completely contained in the temple, but would they go that far to take me? Maybe they were planning to kidnap me, quickly take away only my divine power, and return me, pretending that they didn’t know about it.

Either way, it was not good.