CH 30

It was in the afternoon.

“Your Highness. Can you hear me?”

Kyle, who was sitting at the desk in the office, reviewing the documents, frowned at Sein’s voice.

“I heard that the Empress is pregnant, so shouldn’t Your Highness do your duty as an heir?”

Sein, who has been his friend since childhood, is the son of the Prime Minister, Marquis Nordleton, and these days, he has been nagging Kyle in his ears.

“If you get a son…”

“I’m going to have a younger brother.”

“Your Highness!”

Kyle stood up from his seat after signing the paperwork with a sour look on his face.

“You’ve refused the courtship of the Duke of Hemingsen, and also the courtship of the Saintess, Your Highness… Maybe according to popular rumors…?”

Kyle frowned as if he was offended by Sein, who made an X mark on his chest with his arms.

“It’s not that buggeries don’t have eyes.”

Sein shouted as he chased after Kyle, who went out.

“Where are you going, Your Highness!”

Kyle left the stuffy office and headed to the drill hall.

A gigantic hall-shaped drill hall made just for the Sword Master. TheEmpress had been arguing that it was a waste of money, but he wasn’t interested in useless warfare.

Eventually, he drew his sword from the center of the drill hall, and a chilly wind blew around the sword.

The dark energy of the sword was overflowing and wrapped around the sword in the form of a red light.

He swung it once, and several scarecrows over there fell off as if they were being cut off by something.

“…”

Kyle put the sword into the scabbard and hardened his face again.

A recent event flashed through his mind. To him, who had only walked the perfect path, the embarrassing letter was quite shocking.

He knew how men and women copulate, but he couldn’t believe such detailed descriptions, ridiculous postures, and even letters asking how to torment herself.

Upon reading the letter, he felt angry and immediately crumpled the letter. For a few days, he was unable to sleep with a strange feeling he had never felt before.

And at his birthday banquet.

He thought that he should accuse the fake saintess who would come to give a congratulatory speech.

Should he just cut off her head?

But the moment he saw her, whom he had met again after a few months, Kyle hardened his eyebrows.

She was different from the woman he had ever seen.

Her eyes were lofty, her figure was dignified, and the way she spoke was quite plausible.

He also thought she was pretending to be okay, but he was surprised at her quickness of naming Ciel when the statue exploded.

Was she hiding her agility and pretending to be an idiot until now?

However, when he brought out the letter, she reacted as stupidly as ever.

With her eyes wide open… Maybe enough to look a little cute.

He instinctively furrowed his eyebrows when he thought of ‘cute’.

‘What am I thinking about that Ariel?’

When he moved his eyebrows again, a knight came with a letter to Kyle.

It was a letter from the temple.

***

“Se…at? If it’s a seat, is it a job position?” I asked him with a puzzled expression.

I didn’t just hear it wrong, did I?

He looked at me with cold eyes and opened his mouth.

“If you leave the temple anyway, there is nowhere to go.”

And to that, I replied with an absurd expression.

“Are you being considerate in case I’m a wanderer now?”

He stared at me without a word.

After a while, I opened my mouth.

“I’m preparing myself for how to live after leaving the temple. Your Highness doesn’t have to be so considerate…”

“Isn’t the life you’ve always wanted a stable life?”

And at his sudden words, I stared blankly at him.

“I know your background from Reihausd. Even if you go back to your hometown, it seems that things won’t go bright.”

Either in my last life or in this life, I’m an unwelcome child out of wedlock.

“As you said, you play the role of a fake saintess for my political stability, so if you come to the Imperial Palace, I’ll treat you so that you won’t regret it.”

A low voice rang in my ears.

I couldn’t understand him.

At this point in time when the Empress had a baby, it was possible to guess that he was feeling a sense of crisis.

It may be that he is trying to fill the imperial palace with his people as much as possible for his political stability.

But why me?

As he said, if the Empress was watching me, I could be his weakness.

“You told me directly that the Empress was paying attention to me.”

He twisted the corners of his lips coolly at my words.

The sudden change in his eyes made me feel the tension rising.

“I was trying to persuade you without fear.”

“Yes?”

His voice echoed in my slightly tensed ears.

“The fact that the Empress pays attention to you means that when you leave the temple, there’s a chance that you will disappear without even a mouse or a bird realizing it.”

As soon as I heard his words, goosebumps came to the back of my neck.

This was something I hadn’t thought of.

“She will try to find out my weakness through you.”

There was truth to his words.

“Because no one can openly touch my person. It could also be called a choice for each other.”

The phrase ‘choice for each other’ felt cool.

If I refuse, will Kyle continue to keep the promise of survival I received last time?

After a while, I kept his composure and opened my mouth.

“Give me time to think.” I said with a calm expression.

Going to the Imperial Palace was the first option I wanted to avoid, as well as the risk of getting entangled with Kyle.

I wanted to retire from being a saintess and live a quiet life, but I have to be vigilant about getting caught in the Empress’ claws…

It was a tragedy.

“It’s because of time.”

“Yes. It’s important that I don’t become your weakness, but it’s also an important issue for me.”

I thought it would be over when a new saintess appeared and I left the temple, but it seems that wasn’t the case.

“It would be good to make a good decision. I don’t want you to be found dead after leaving the temple.”

I was skeptical that someone, who was none other than Prince Kyle, offered a job after my retirement, but of course it wasn’t a matter of consideration.

Kyle stared at me with his red eyes and opened his mouth.

“And your safety is also…”

Then he turned his head, stiffening his eyebrows.

“It’s nothing.”

After he left, I returned to my room with a confused mind and lay down on the bed. Kyle’s words echoed in my mind like hallucinations.

“Ugh.”

[I will come again tomorrow.] 

What kind of answer should I give?

At that moment, the chat window began to flash in my view.

[The God of Art, Mond, belittles his intrusion into the house that has no dignity.]

[The God of Knowledge, Hessed, agrees with Mond.]

[The God of Destruction, Ciel, suddenly bites Mond’s leg.]

[There is a gang fight.]

The Gods were also having a big party in the chat window today.

I thought for a moment.

Kyle’s words were just assumptions.

Besides, I was strong. I couldn’t explain it to Kyle, but there were Gods who struck lightning when I deactivated the oracle…

With Ciel’s blessing, I was invincible for at least three hours.

‘It would be better to refuse him.’

If I left the temple, I might be in danger of the Empress, but to be honest, I wasn’t so afraid.

What I was really afraid of was the risk of taking a bad route like the original Ariel if I went to the Imperial Palace and got more involved with Kyle.

Leaving the temple, but not entering the Imperial Palace.

I thought of useful looking relics I saw in <Shop>. Among them, there were things as useful as the Paladins of the temple protecting me.

But the problem is that I’m saying no to Kyle, who thinks of me as his ‘weak point’…

My head throbbed as I recalled his bright eyes.