CH 51

t/n

just a disclaimer since i know there will be quite a few more readers due to the recent manhwa adaptation: i’m not in any way a native speaker. i’m just someone who has somewhat of a grasp on korean grammar structures so this is technically all just edited mtl aided with the little knowledge i have of korean, so this is in no way a perfect translation!

just something to put out there in case this does get an official adaptation from naver (highly likely with webtoons) and so you don’t start comparing my tl with the official one HGLSDKJDFJDFS

i substitute a few words here and there and paraphrase as well to fit the novel format better as well so pls bear with me QAQ

I shook my head and drank my tea at the sight of Ziken dragging it out without being able to lower his head to us. 

Upon the gradual reddening of the crown prince’s face, the emperor clicked his tongue as if he could read what he was thinking and said, “I’ve explained many times before that there’s a difference between maintaining your authority and inflating your own pride.”

It was obvious why he was criticising the crown prince so openly in front of us. It was a request to pressure us by saying, ‘I know my son did something wrong as well so look, I’ll scold him in front of you’. Well, I didn’t intend to receive an apology from the crown prince in this sort of situation anyway, so I didn’t bother to nitpick anything.

“And you, Saintess Olivia.” 

The shoulders of the crying Olivia who was still at the emperor’s feet flinched momentarily. 

“I cherished you quite a lot, Saintess…” 

The emperor’s gaze swung toward the High Priest of the Solar religion. Since the two of them never really got along in the beginning. 

“It’s quite troublesome that your naivety has ultimately caused you to be unable to distinguish which line you shouldn’t cross.” Those words were meant as a reproach to the Saintess, but his eyes were staring directly at the high priest. In other words, it meant, ‘Shouldn’t the Solar religion teach at least these basics to the Saintess?’

Obviously, the high priest wasn’t going to just take that sort of remark lying down. “Your Majesty, that woman is doing that sort of thing on purpose!” 

In any case, this was the high priest who had abandoned Olivia and suffered a severe defeat before coming here. But for the Solar religion to be cursed and humiliated because of her? Of course he couldn’t stand it. “All the rumours circulating the capital are true!”

“High Priest, what exactly are you saying?”

“That woman isn’t the saintess! She’s fake!” 

I was almost certain that his voice was so loud it not only filled the drawing room, but also the corridor outside. 

“W-What are you saying?! Your Majesty, he’s trying to frame me!”

“Stop trying to trick everyone! You used the crown prince as a shield to stop me from coming to the imperial palace and exposing the truth about you!”

“Only because you’ll make up lies like this…!”

The two of them began to fight. 

“Then what did you do to cure a disease that can’t be cured by the divine power of the Solar religion? It’s poison, and our divine power clearly can’t neutralise poison!”

“I-It was a delusion! Those people all deluded themselves into thinking they got better! You can seek them out again and find out for yourself. None of them are fully healed yet…!”

“Do you think I don’t know that you just tried to find them and poison them again?!”

“Silence, both of you!”

Wow. It’s a complete mess. The situation began to worsen on its own so much that I rather regretted that I didn’t have popcorn here with me. I lifted my teacup as I listened to all the audacious and horrendous past deeds of her being exposed. 

As I sipped the sweetly bitter black tea, the emperor said to me, “Princess, didn’t you say that you knew who the real culprit was earlier?”

“Pfft.” Suddenly being thrust into the situation, the black tea I had been drinking was caught in the crossfire. “Cough! Cough!”

“Ara!” Linden took out his handkerchief in surprise, but I already had Lecht’s in my hand.

As I covered my mouth and choked, Lecht patted me gently on the back.

“My apologies.”

“No, I apologise instead.” The emperor cast a glance at Olivia, who was the main culprit of this chaotic commotion, and her ‘lover’ and his son, and sighed quietly. “Go ahead and finish what you said earlier. About knowing who the real culprit is.”

Olivia opened her sharp eyes and glared at me. The high priest had a triumphant expression on his face that seemed to urge me to speak quickly, while Ziken still seemed to be pent up with annoyance. 

Although it was a little burdensome for me to receive this much attention… I calmly wiped the corners of my mouth with the handkerchief and opened my mouth. “I don’t know much regarding the forbidden magic and the demon.”

At my words, Olivia’s eyes widened while the high priest seemed a bit flustered. 

“What I was going to tell you was the truth behind who framed me.”

“Oh.” The emperor looked unsatisfied, perhaps because I was talking about something that was unrelated to this case. 

Nevertheless, I went on calmly. “You remember what I told you earlier about the characteristics of the person who spread malicious rumours about me, right?”

“Yes, I remember.” The emperor’s expression eased when I started talking about the demon that had been mentioned earlier. 

“He also makes an appearance in every instance where I’ve been framed.” At the emperor’s nod to continue, I asked the maid to call in the people who were being protected by the knights outside. 

“Wait, that child is…” The high priest of the Solar religion also recognised one of the people among them. But I placed my index finger on my lips as a gesture to remain silent.

Among those who entered the room timidly, the messenger boy bowed first. “Greeting the Empire’s Sun. My name is Ross, and I worked as a messenger boy for the Darchez Duchy until a few months ago.”

“He’s the one who was in charge of delivering the tea leaves I gifted to Saintess Olivia,” I added onto his self-introduction. 

At my nod, he began to speak in a trembling voice. “The rain was especially heavy that day, so I remember it quite clearly. Miss told me to wait in the room while she prepared the present. So I saw her choose the gift and package it herself…”

The fact that the maids hadn’t done it and she had to do it herself would be both refreshing, yet heartbreaking. Though I didn’t know if this would help very much.

“For the Saintess, miss…” The messenger glanced at Olivia and said, “Gifted peppermint tea to her.”

“What…?” Although it was obvious, Olivia’s eyes grew round at the words that she had heard for the first time. “T-That can’t be! What I received was chamomile tea!”

“I think it’s strange too. I clearly saw Miss packing peppermint tea and personally delivered it myself, yet why did it suddenly become chamomile tea when it came into the hands of the saintess…”

“Are you saying I’m lying?! No, you must have switched them! Yes, so you poisoned…!

“The person I delivered the tea to at the time had the same appearance as the person who spread the rumours!” The messenger hurriedly added as soon as the arrow of criticism seemed to be directed at him. 

At the silence of the people who were drenched in shock, I continued to speak, “The person standing next to him is a maid who once belonged to the Solar religion. After seeing the saintess vomit blood and fainting, she apparently quit her job due to the shock from the traumatic incident.”

“That’s…” The maid’s eyes flitted apprehensively toward Olivia and the high priest. 

However, at my slight smile when our eyes met, she clenched her fist and started to speak. “This isn’t the man who said he was a messenger from the Darchez Duchy and whom I received the tea leaves from.” She said, pointing to the messenger beside her. “It wasn’t this man, rather… he had the same appearance as the man in the rumours.”

At her words, it was silent this time. It was heavy.

“They were switched…” At the emperor’s murmur, I could see Olivia’s eyes darting here and there. 

I said what I had to say before she could say anything else. “There are more incidents like that. Shall we continue?” I said, pointing to the people who were standing further away. 

The emperor waved his hand. Since he was able to tell that even if he kept listening, the results would most likely be the same. “So that person is definitely the culprit.”

“Yes. As I’ve said earlier, we presume that he belongs to the demon clan.”

“Hmm.” A groan leaked out of the emperor as he glanced at Olivia and Ziken.

“Your Majesty, the demon is the one at fault, so Livi is innocent…”

“What a peculiar situation. I, the Princess, and the people present right now, were all just talking about how the demon was involved in so many of these situations, and that we had to find the contractor of the demon in this empire, yet…”

“…”

“I wonder why the crown prince and saintess suddenly appeared saying ‘The saintess isn’t the contractor’.” Since there had never been mention of a saintess throughout our entire conversation.

When Olivia’s shoulders flinched violently while Ziken was stunned speechless, I discovered that Tanma had opened the door gently and entered the room. He seemed to have finished the task I had asked him to complete. When our eyes met, he gave me a cold smile and nodded. I signalled with my eyes and made Lecht and Linden aware of his presence as well.

Receiving my signal, Linden opened his mouth immediately. “This is hurting my conscience.” The usual tender softness to his voice was gone, and was replaced by a clear and cold voice.

“Linden, just what are you talking about…!”

Ignoring Ziken’s outburst, Linden asked Olivia, “Olivia, why did you go to Zabotsa village, the village where the epidemic broke out a few months ago? And in secret from the temple as well?”

“…!”

“Turns out you arrived just one day before the epidemic broke out. And on top of that… you had company with you as well.”

Olivia’s face gradually began to pale. I started to slowly get up from my seat.

“I-I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“The man’s appearance was extremely… peculiar at that time, so I noted it down.” Linden said as he tapped the paper in front of him. 

In the meantime, I walked slowly around the table. Lecht followed after me quietly. 

“Skin as white as snow. Hair down to his neck that was mysteriously both black and white… Eyes like the winter sky…”

“I don’t know such a man!!!”

At Olivia’s shrill cry, I asked, “You really don’t know?”

Distracted by Linden’s words, Olivia, who didn’t know that I was now behind her, almost collapsed in shock. 

“Princess, just what are you doing right now…!” 

Ziken tried to grab me, but Lecht blocked his path. The emperor sat quietly on the sidelines watching.

“I asked if you really don’t know.” Looking down at Olivia, I bent slightly at the waist and asked Olivia once again.

“I-I don’t know! I don’t know that man!”

“Then what’s this?” I yanked at a necklace that was hanging from the neck of her, who was screaming.

“Ah…!” 

She tried to reach for me in a hurry, but… crack. The necklace had already been thrown to the floor and shattered under the heel of my shoe. 

“No!”

At Olivia’s devastated voice, a dark blue energy burst from her necklace. Then immediately with a puff, a wind burst in as the whole room was filled with the scent of gold osmanthus. 

“Gosh, seriously. What did your ‘fake’ saintess do like an amateur this time? Didn’t I say that our contract would be broken if this shattered?”

A man appeared in the black whirlwind. He had the same appearance as the ‘man from the rumours’ that had been mentioned over and over again today. And with the additional horns on his head, he was that very problematic demon we had been talking about.

“Oh? You aren’t by yourself today? You only ever call for me when you’re alone though.” Friday swept a glance through the crowd of people gathered and raised the corners of his mouth. “Damn, judging by the atmosphere, this is just like …”

He crinkled his eyes into crescent moons and laughed, as if he enjoyed this chilly atmosphere. He crossed his arms prettily and poked the tip of his finger into his cheek with a hehe and whispered perversely, “My Saintess, seems like they found out you were fake, huh?”

Bingo. This time, it was my turn to raise the corners of my mouth.

* * *

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

A few days ago, when Ara had disappeared and said she would come back after confirming something while she was contemplating on how to catch Olivia. She returned with a book in her hand.

“Butler. I’d like to ask you a question.”

“Yes, go ahead Miss.”

Although Lecht was also with him, asking him instead of Tanma would obviously be in violation of the demon realm’s regulations.

“You said it was against the regulations for Lecht to force anything onto Frody, right? That includes breaking the contract.”

“Yes.”

“Then what if I do it?”