CH 242.2

Sang-je wanted to win her trust. When there were eyes around them, he pretended to treat Jin and everyone else with equal fairness. But once he was alone with her, he overindulged all her demeanor with great tolerance.

And before long, Jin had begun to cleverly overstep the line as soon as she became aware of his intention. Unlike their first encounter, where Jin was all tensed up in Sang-je’s presence, she soon grew to talk and behave more comfortably around him to the point she made herself free before him without reserve. However, she instinctively knew that the bond between her and Sang-je should be kept as a secret.

Jin must have regarded Sang-je as a reliable supporter. If not, she wouldn’t have been able to run wild around the Holy City without being daunted by the fact that she was an Anika without Ramita.

It was only when Jin had come to ask for his help to retrieve her lost Ramita that an old mystery of his was finally solved. The very fact that she had fooled everyone with her lie was both absurd and interesting to him.

If only one of the two Anikas possessed the most powerful Ramita, Sang-je preferred it to be Jin over Flora. Jin was fairly an easy type of person to beguile as she was very much devoted to her desires.

Humans have a rather odd disposition where they would tend to resist the more you try to coerce them into submission. Hence, in order to leave no seed of trouble, it was best to induce them into believing that they were acting at their own will.

Sang-je went on as he clicked his tongue.

-I would have to ask the priest to see to it if there should be any disturbance.

“As you will, Your Holiness. Thank you!”

Sang-je couldn’t help but to let out a chuckle as Jin whispered, ‘Now be a good boy and stay still.’ to her roundly wrapped hands.

‘I guess I was wrong to think that she had changed.’

On the contrary, her recklessness must have solidified more over the course of her stay in the kingdom. There must be a huge difference between the special treatment she receives as an Anika and the authority she gets to wield as the queen of the kingdom where the hierarchy system exists.

-Let’s continue where we left off then. What was that the Desert king had said to you?

Eugene went on as she lowered her hands under the table while holding onto Kid.

“I will start over as I may have skipped some details before. When I opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded by the desert. But I was promptly taken back to the castle as I stumbled upon the warriors who had been searching out for me. However, I couldn’t recall the reason I had gone into the desert in the first place. Then, the Desert king suspected that I was somehow responsible for the lost national treasure as he was suspicious of the fact that I was found in the desert.”

Sang-je remained silent with a contemplative look on his face. Meanwhile, Eugene took a peep below as she was distracted by the Kid’s tail against her palm.

‘Why did Kid come along with me? Could this be his doing? No, he wouldn’t do such a frivolous thing. I wonder if he knows that Kid is gone?’

-The reason you had gone out to the desert is presumably because you needed a venue.

Eugene, whose mind had been distracted by Kid, promptly lifted up her head.

“A venue?”

-A place where you wouldn’t be disturbed by no one. The national treasure which the Desert king was speaking of must be the medium which you’ve been searching for.

Unwittingly, Eugene swallowed drily as she was given such an important clue all of sudden. Sang-je had practically admitted that he knew all along about the presence of the seed, let alone the fact that Jin was looking for it.

‘But I don’t think Sang-je knows the exact reason as to why Jin had gone out to the desert.’

Looks like Jin had dropped her correspondence with Holy City for the last three years of her stay in the kingdom as she didn’t even stay in touch with her family.

‘If she had been conspiring with Sang-je all along, why hadn’t she informed him? Was she being cautious? Or was there any other reason which refrained her from telling him?’

Eugene then recalled the high priest whom she had seen in the memory from earlier.

‘I wonder if there’s anything to do with Jin having contact with him,’

The high priest was in fact the religious leader of the sect and her interaction with him was indeed an act against the will of Sang-je. Moreover, Jin was even granted the title of Saintes within the order which truly was an act of treachery against Sang-je.

‘A medium. I never realized that I would be hearing that word out of Sang-je’s mouth.’

There was a time when Eugene had asked about it to a renowned raconteur where he only tilted his head saying that he knew nothing about it. But on the contrary, Sang-je had just nonchalantly mentioned about the element which was essential to initiate the spell.

Once, Marianne had referred to the sorcerers as ‘Swindlers’. And that indicated how sorcery was regarded as a mere trifle in the public eye. In other words, sorcery was never a universally known knowledge nor it was a knowledge worthy for someone as noble as God’s vicegerent to know of.

‘I wonder if Sang-je is related to the ancient tribe which Aldrit had mentioned, those who once knew how to practice sorcery.’

-Well be that as it may but do you really not remember anything, Anika Jin?