CH 94

“Oh, Your Highness. When did you arrive?”

Instead of answering my question, Enoch took the bow from my hand and touched my hand with his other.

I still had unripe calluses on the index and middle fingers from pulling the bowstring. A wrinkle formed between his brows.

“Aren’t you training too hard?”

“I still have a long way to go. I still haven’t learned how to shoot anything that moves.”

You never know how things will change during a war. It was relatively easy to hit a stationary target while standing upright now, but it was still difficult to hit a target with my opponent and me moving.

While staring at my hand, he suddenly took a glove from his pocket and put it on one of my hands. “Isn’t that Your Highness’s?”

“I have time, so let me help you a little.”

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It was a relief he didn’t stop my training. It would be rather annoying if he fussed over me and acted overprotective.

He silently put the glove on the other hand as well and looked around him. Then, he dropped a fruit from a high branch with just his gaze. So that must be magic, a really coveted skill.

Enoch picked up the fruit and showed it to me, the fruit slightly larger than an apple.

“It’ll move, so shoot it.”

“Yes? How?”

Enoch suddenly threw the fruit before the target, the fruit now floating in front of it.

“That’s no different from just hitting a target…”

The fruit, which seemed frozen, soon began to move erratically to and fro. Enoch kept his eyes on the fruit for a moment before coming to me.

Woah, now that thing seemed to be moving automatically.

“Can you use magic just like this? It’s just training.”

“Of course not. You’ll be my consort[1], so you’re getting special treatment.”

My breath hitched when I heard him say those words so casually. Really, this guy comes in right out of the blue.

Actually, there was also a moving target for training here. However, it moved in a fixed direction and speed, so it was easy to get used to it, and at the end of the day, it was far from real combat.

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So, I thought that training like that would definitely help. However, when I saw it, I couldn’t help but stare.

But along with the warmth wrapped around my back, someone else held the bow instead of me. Enoch stood behind me and took my place.

“Take it easy on your shoulders and leave it to me. Keep your eyes on the target.”

As he said, I focused on the moving fruit, but my mind was focused elsewhere– the soft breathing by my ears, the firm, warm chest against my back, or the large hand holding the bowstring over my own.

In the meantime, Enoch pulled the bowstring with my hand, and in an instant, the arrow flew into the air. The space was obviously empty, but a fruit appeared in the direction the arrow flew.

“Isn’t that the fruit you controlled? How did you predict the direction?”

A chuckle echoed close to my bewildered voice.

I twisted my body out of his arms and said, “Please, do it again.”

“Of course.”

We tried it again with a different fruit. Without Enoch’s help, I shot an arrow at the fruit, but it flew through the air and landed on the ground. The fruit did somersaults in the air, but the good thing was that they came back without having to pick up the arrows one by one.*

I turned and looked at Enoch.

“Please teach me magic next time.”

No matter how I looked at it, magic was too deceptive. 

Enoch blinked, smiled again, and answered, “I’ve been looking at you the whole time, but… magical talent…”

“You really don’t know until you try.”

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“All right. When I’m done, I’ll teach you.” Enoch raised both palms in defeat. 

Honestly, I was slightly annoyed by his reaction, but his smile was so pretty that I loosened my clenched fists without realizing it.

I kept shooting arrows, but I couldn’t hit a single shot until the priest came to pick me up, saying that I had to go back to the prayer room. Enoch patted me on the shoulder as I entered sullenly.

“Then, do your best.”

“Are you leaving?”

“I’ll be back tomorrow before the ceremony begins.”

I looked back in regret, but he left after saying goodbye. It seemed he really took some time to come to the temple.

The thought distracted me all day, so I couldn’t concentrate on prayer today. I was still unaccustomed to my life now.

The next day, I woke up early, took a bath, and changed clothes. I wore a white silk dress and a long, thin white cloak wrapped around my shoulders. I didn’t wear make up, just brushed my hair neatly.

This place was off-limits, so even my maids, Jenny and Lia, couldn’t enter. Fortunately, I didn’t have to dress up too much. While I waited, someone knocked and came in.

It was Christina. Because she was inside the temple, she had a youthful appearance.

As she walked over to me, my face slightly pale, she grinned and pinned a brooch on my chest. 

“You might fall while doing it.”

“Is it that hard?”

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“Well, each person is different, but… it’s mental.” Christina tapped her forehead and grabbed my hand to raise herself.

“The priestess ordination ceremony is supposed to be supervised by the same priestess. Let’s go.”

I followed her down the hall and asked her questions.

“How long will it take?”

“Well, each person is so different. It might take several days at most, but it could be over in half a day.”

The ordination ceremony must have been different from what I had imagined. Didn’t it move in a certain time and order?

I thought the priests would attend, but only the High Priest, Enoch, and Priest Antonio were in the temple. 

And between them lay something familiar yet foreign. It was a coffin.

My eyes widened as I approached them.

“This… What is that?”

“You can lie down comfortably here.”

I looked incredulously at the High Priest’s smile. 

“I don’t think it will be very comfortable. I’m not a vampire.”

At a glance, Enoch didn’t look too happy either.

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“I also did this. If you fall asleep here, it will be over when you wake up, so don’t worry too much.”

“Okay…” 

I took Enoch’s hand and carefully went into the coffin. Fortunately, they didn’t plan on closing the lid. Then, he sat beside me, his hand still holding mine.

“I’ll stay by your side until you wake up.”

“…We don’t know how long it will take.” Even as I said that, I tightly held his hand. 

The High Priest brought holy water, and Priestess Christina held her beads in her hands and recited her prayers.

When I widely opened my eyes, she smiled and closed them with her hands.

“It won’t be dangerous.”

“That’s…”

I heard Enoch’s voice, and I listened to the voice of the priestess answering something, but it was getting quieter and harder to understand.

Soon, I fell asleep, and my consciousness fell into the darkness.

A while later, I woke up to the sound of dripping water, but I was trapped in darkness when I opened my eyes. I couldn’t tell which end was the floor and which was the wall, and my mind was hazy. 

I fumbled on the floor for a moment before getting up and slowly approaching where I heard the sound. I thought it was close, but it took quite a while to reach the destination, a pond.

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The surface of the water rippled in the darkness. Feeling like I could see something inside, I sat on the floor and looked into the water.

I couldn’t see it well at first, but as I looked more closely, the outline became clearer and clearer.

And I witnessed an amazing scene–it was the world I had lived in before. Then, amid the silence, I heard a sound that seemed to be shouting from a distance.

‘Hyerin, Hyerin, wake up…!’

Hyerin, my foreign name, now sounded vague. It was strange and awkward to see my family members entering my room and holding onto my body, not knowing what to do.

After coming here, I was deliberately reluctant to think deeply about my previous world.

Not only would it make it difficult to adapt to this world if I thought about it, but it would also make me feel lonely and scared on days when those memories haunted me.

And the scene quickly changed.

It showed the marriage of my friend and ex-boyfriend. The two of them were happy for a while, but the fights became more and more frequent, and every time they fought, they mentioned my name. 

For some reason, I laughed out loud.

I half-mindedly watched the fast-moving scenes, but when one scene appeared, I flinched.

“That…”

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It was me lying in a hospital with all sorts of devices. Then, along with the cries of the family members, a white cloth came up and covered the face.

In that scene, I unconsciously reached for the pond.

“…Ah.”

But before I knew it, the stagnant water had frozen solid. And I, Erin Spilet, could see my reflection on the frozen surface. 

It was a strange feeling.

Obviously, I was a person named Hyerin, but it felt strange that I felt more like Erin and that Hyerin was someone else.

I put my hand on the ice and carefully studied my reflection. At that moment, the ice melted rapidly. My center of gravity shifted, and I fell into the pond.

“Ahh, save…!”

While struggling to breathe, a hand forcefully pulled mine.