CH 24

“Miss Annette, do you have any letters for me today?”

When prompted, Annette moved like a rabbit, scurrying to work.

“Ugh, there is a lot, Lady Irene! I’ll get them right away.”

These days, I was getting in the habit of checking the mail every three hours.

Another stack of letters was piled on the silver tray that Annette had brought. Most of them were invitations from various families and social gatherings.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a position to socialize or have fun right now.

There’s three days left before the verification ceremony. Only three days remain until my life may come to an end.

‘There is nothing that stands out this time too… huh?’

Something had caught my eye as I rummaged through the invitation letters. I found a pure white card embellished with gold, this style of invitation indicates that the sender had to have been from Cordelia.

‘I received a thank you card for coming a few days ago; is this a new invitation?’

I thought it was strange, so I opened the contents of the letter.

After all of that, it appeared to be an ordinary greeting card.

Why did she send a similar letter again when she had already sent one a few days previously? Nothing indicated that she would send another invitation.

I read the contents all the way through to the end and soon noticed the P.S.

「p.s. Because I am very shy, you must read my card when no one is there.」

Huh?

I sensed that something was strange… Cordelia doesn’t speak in such a cute way.

“Lady Irene, please continue reading. I’ll bring you some tea right away.”

After announcing so, Annette quickly exited the room. I was now the only one left in the living room since Dame Joan had already left for the living room earlier.

The card I was holding began to transform at that very moment.

“Huh, huh?”

The ink on the card danced in real time. The card swiftly displayed a completely different set of information.

I took in a breath of surprise.

「Today, 9pm, At the rose garden. The youngest angel’s harp has a dull sound. Fifty stocks will be traded soon. – R」

‘Rizello’

My face went slack when I remembered the name.

‘Fifty stocks’ was obviously referring to the 500,000 Mars that I promised in payment.

‘What did the youngest angel mean?’

Please tell me in advance if you intend to use a secret code……!

Anyways, 9 pm. It’ll happen at 9 pm.

I nervously looked at the clock. There was still plenty of time until 9 pm.

—

I had been drowning in impatience all day.

Dame Joan hinted at wondering what was going on when her fingers tapped the table. When I said that I had a lot on my mind today, she provided me with some sound advice.

“If you want to throw away unnecessary thoughts, moving your body will help.”

“Is… Is that so? Haha, I don’t know anything about exercise.”

“Would you like to learn?”

I couldn’t refuse Dame Joan’s kind offer, so I nodded. As a result, I, Annette, and Dame Joan had ended up standing side by side in the living room, wielding wooden swords.

When I tried to do exercises that I had never done before after arriving in this world, my entire body creaked.

“Oh my. I ache all over… Oh my.”

“Yes? Lady Irene, what did you say?”

“It’s nothing.”

I shook my head at Annette and collapsed on the sofa.

“Thank you for your hard work. Your muscles must have been torn, so you can rest tomorrow and start training again the day after tomorrow.”

Dame Joan said something scary.

T-torn?

What…? Muscles? Don’t you think those shouldn’t tear?

I staggered to the bathroom in panic.

I didn’t previously understand why Dame Joan was known as ‘Crazy Dog Joan’, after all, this was the first time I experienced fear of her.

The sun soon set after such a commotion.

At 8:30 pm, I began to lay the ground bait to catch a fish.

[TL/N: It’s an idiom about manipulations, when Irene needs to manipulate someone to take an advantage from them, but they need to do some steps or procedures or stages. This idiom describes person A doing preparatory steps before person B does something for person A.]

“Phew… It’s frustrating.”

“Uh. Are you frustrated, Lady Irene?”

“May I help you to stretch out, Lady Irene?”

“Huh? No, it’s not about that.”

When I heard Dame Joan’s offer to stretch after Annette indicated that she clearly was worried about me, I sighed and shook my head.

“It’s best to go outside and get some fresh air when you’re feeling stuffy like this.”

“Going outside and getting some fresh air? Hm, it’s very late right now…”

“…But I want to see nature… I think I’ll feel better when I see pretty flowers and grass.”

When Annette and Dame Joan heard my brazen self-talk, they exchanged glances.

Then Annette clapped her hands.

“If that’s the case, you’re free to do as you please inside the church! Within the church, there are a lot of well-scaped gardens.”

“Really?”

Nice, Miss Annette!

Miss Annette knew me well, as expected.

“Especially the rose garden right now, the spring roses are in full bloom.”

The rose garden. Perfect. I twinkled my eyes.

“I definitely want to see it. I really like roses.”

“Oh my gosh, I should have shown you before if that’s the case. Would you like to go now?”

“Yes!”

The late-night outing to the rose garden was finalized.

The rose garden lit up with subtle light in the middle of the night was surprisingly beautiful.

“…Wow.”

Annette was pleased when she overheard me exclaim unconsciously at the scenery.

“Isn’t it beautiful? The flowers are pretty, but the statue in the middle is also really beautiful.”

In the direction Annette was pointing, a large statue stood. It appeared to be figures of baby angels flying around a larger figure that I assumed to be God Elune.

I looked at the angels with a hawk-like glare.

‘Is the youngest angel over there?’

“It’s really elegant.”

I started to place ground bait again.

[TL/N: refers to previous TL/N about stages or steps.]

“It’s a perfect place to organize your thoughts. Can I walk quietly by myself?”

Dame Joan fell silent for a moment, as if she was considering something. I gave her a nervous look.

Dame Joan was a faithful escort knight. That incident when Rashid appeared in the library, I later found that it was none other than Dame Joan who brought Ian.

Fortunately, Dame Joan nodded, and perhaps she allowed it because I was still within the safety of the church.

“Please feel free to look around.”

I took a leisurely stroll alone through the garden. When I approached the front of the statues, I pretended to appreciate them by looking up at them.

The baby angels aren’t all the same. When I looked closer, the angels flying around God Elune’s statue were of various ages.

‘That’s a teen angel. That’s an infant angel. And that’s…’

My eyes gleamed when I discovered the angel at the bottom of the statue. Anyone could tell that it was a newborn angel.

The youngest angel indeed had a harp in his hand. I was bringing it only half-way down to the floor, but it was still quite heavy to lift.

‘The youngest angel’s harp has a dull sound.’

It was written that way on the letter. Why would a harp have a dull sound?

That would most likely be due to a foreign object being in contact with the string.

I gently reached out to the statue. Glancing at Dame Joan and Annette’s positions, I noticed they wouldn’t be able to see my hands when I fumbled with the harp of the youngest angel.

‘There it is.’

My fingers brushed against a crumpled paper bag. I smiled contentedly.

I couldn’t open the paper bag right away because I needed to keep an eye on the position of those around me, but I was sure – Rizello had sent the right items I needed.

In the original work, Rizello had created a magic circle that cut off divine power. I knew it well because Rizello had to help the heroine with it in one of the chapters.

There must be medicinal herbs infused with mana inside this crumpled paper bag.

It should be able to temporarily block the divine power that touches the area of a magic circle created with the essence obtained by grinding the herbs.

‘Great. I have to bring it back and make sure it’s really the right item.’

My heart was racing as I crammed the paper bag into my arms.

It was at the time,

“Are you taking a walk at night?”

‘Gasp.’

I almost jumped.

I turned around, hoping it wasn’t who I thought it was. But my ears couldn’t have been wrong.

Ian Esteban. The man stood, with a beauty that shone brighter than usual, in the moonlight.

‘What’s with this crazy timing, damn it!’

“I- cough- Sir Ian. What brings you here?”

“I was just passing by and saw Dame Joan. What are you doing here?”

Ian’s gaze was drawn to the statue that stood behind me. My body temperature seemed to drop.

“Is there anything interesting? In here.”

“Haha. I was just taking a look around because it’s beautiful, not because it’s interesting.”

“Was the angel’s foot that beautiful?”

Damn it.

Ian seemed to have witnessed me peer down at the bottom of the baby angel’s harp.

What should I do?

My heart was pounding so hard that I thought it was going to explode.

It was then when a clamor was heard outside the garden.

“No, Baron Freeman was finally caught having an affair.”

“Ugh, I knew it. I told you right? I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, and that what I saw was just a coincidence.”

A group of ladies flocked to the entrance to the garden. They were talking in a friendly way.

The voices of the ladies chatting were cut off, as soon as they spotted us.

“Oh my, oh my.”

“That’s Sir Ian and his fiancée, the Saintess…!”

“Oh my. I guess they were on a date.”

“A late-night date in the rose garden under the moonlit night, oh my, oh my.”

“That… It’s not like that.”

I broke out in a cold sweat as I listened to the ladies’ whispers.

I thought about it last time but the nobles in this neighborhood sure do whisper loudly.

Ian furrowed his eyebrows. There was no way Ian couldn’t hear the comments I was hearing.

“You’re such a romantic lover.”

“What a beautiful-looking couple.”

This is driving me crazy.

With trembling eyes, I looked up at Ian aimlessly. We’ve been unintentionally framed as a couple on a late-night date.

I could acknowledge the ladies’ presence but I found one problem.

‘Hey there, Ian. You’re looking at me like a criminal.’

Ian’s eyes that were looking down at me were terribly cold. It was probably because he had just witnessed suspicious behavior.

What kind of man would look at his fiancée like that!

The ladies will notice Ian’s eyes if this continues.

“Sir Ian, my cheek.”

I whispered quickly to him. Then Ian grimaced slightly.

“Cheek?”

“Put your hand on my left cheek.”

“Hurry up. Quickly.”

Ian gently placed his hand on my cheek after a brief consideration. His warm body temperature wrapped around my cheek.

“Oh my. Oh my”.

The shouts of the ladies were heard.