Chapter 69…………………………………………………
For some reason, Cassius’s words made me feel warmer.
It felt as if I had accepted alpha pheromones that I hadn’t even been given.
‘Honestly, if I go by how I felt, I didn’t hate it!’
We had returned to the Holy Kingdom. My relationship with him would now change back to that of superior and subordinate.
I had to put away all my excitement. Thinking that it would be troublesome to get any closer to Cassius than this, I covered the back of my neck with both hands and shot him a sharp glare.
“What are you doing? Don’t joke around.”
“Did you dislike it, Sonia? My pheromones?”
I liked them, but I couldn’t tell him the truth.
“It’s a secret.”
“I want to know.”
“Reading minds is forbidden.”
He raised both hands and stepped back from me. Judging by his attitude, he really was just teasing.
Tap, tap. Someone knocked on the carriage window.
Cassius pulled back the drawn curtain and opened the window. A holy knight stood there, saluting.
“What is it?”
“Yes, Sir. Her Highness the Princess’s carriage has just arrived. She says she wishes to see Priest Sonia.”
“Bring her.”
A moment later, the holy knight brought Sertina, seated in a wheelchair.
Cassius and I stepped down from the carriage. Sertina spoke first.
“Thanks to the healing priest, I was able to arrive safely in the Holy Kingdom. I wished to express my gratitude.”
Cassius stared down at Sertina intently. Placing a hand over her chest, she slightly bowed her head as if making an earnest request.
“I will not harm my lifesaver. Please grant your permission.”
I swallowed hard. Somehow, the air felt heavy.
The source of that heaviness was Cassius. He seemed extremely displeased with the princess.
‘Is His Holiness angry?’
Since I was stuck in the middle, I cautiously stepped in.
“I was supposed to attend Her Highness, but I couldn’t because of the accident. Please allow me to serve Her Highness now, Your Holiness.”
“If Sonia says so… Your Highness.”
“Yes.”
“Please send her back quickly. And make sure you are not late this time.”
Sertina flinched at his words. Thinking that I’d heard something like that before, I quietly wheeled Sertina away to a secluded place.
The place we arrived at was a vast garden inside the Grand Temple. I knelt on one knee to meet Sertina’s eye level.
“What did you wish to see me for, Your Highness?”
“There is something I must say about the carriage accident. It was not a coincidence.”
“What?”
It had looked like the horses had suddenly gone berserk.
“My older brother Shane probably interfered. He made it look like an accident.”
That unpleasant man’s name came up again.
I had to smile in front of Sertina, but I couldn’t stop my expression from stiffening.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Wasn’t this something she should tell the holy knights escorting her, or the imperial knights back in the Empire?
“It seems this time he tried to kill you along with me. He even went so far as to hunt you, so I’m certain.”
It was true that Shane had tried to kill me under the pretense of a hunt. But the trial had concluded that it was the doing of Marquis Tigrow, and that was the end of it.
“How does Your Highness… know that?”
“Because I saw you heading toward the forest where my eldest brother’s hunting grounds are.”
Schwartz’s words came back to me.
“Sertina sent an urgent message. She said you went toward the forest with a priest.”
It seemed she had contacted Schwartz to save me when I was in danger. Thanks to that, Schwartz had been able to find me in time.
“Come to think of it, the Grand Duke said the same. That Your Highness sent an urgent message.”
“That’s right.”
“Thanks to you, I survived. Thank you.”
“Ah! No, I didn’t say that to be thanked! Someone was about to die, so of course I tried to save them!”
Flustered, Sertina suddenly raised her voice.
“And that’s not what I wanted to say! Since my younger brother is showing interest in you… it seems my older brother is targeting you too, so I wanted to warn you to be careful!”
“You’re even worrying about me!”
A little moved, I politely clasped my hands together. Sertina’s face turned bright red at the sight.
“I-I definitely warned you! I told you to be careful!”
She shouted and tried to roll her wheelchair away herself.
I firmly grabbed the wheelchair and pushed it for her.
“Yes, I’ll take Your Highness’s words deeply to heart.”
“Stay sharp! My older brother is someone who won’t hesitate to do horrible things!”
So that was why she was telling me to be careful—because she was worried.
“Yes.”
I slowly pushed the wheelchair along.
Because I had read the original story, I knew what kind of person Shane was.
He was someone who wouldn’t hesitate to dirty his hands if it meant becoming emperor.
In the original story, there were many episodes where he kept Schwartz, another obsessive male lead, in check—but it seemed Sertina had suffered alongside him as well.
‘Her Highness’s goal was the throne too.’
I would rather have her become emperor than Shane.
Still fuming, Sertina eventually quieted down as if she’d given up.
After remaining silent for a while, she spoke again.
“…Thank you. I survived the carriage because of you.”
Her voice was small, but my quietly attentive ears heard it clearly. I’d thought Sertina hated me—so hearing her say thank you surprised me.
I smiled.
“Yes.”
A few days had passed since the delegation that left the Holy Kingdom returned.
Lately, a certain rumor had been spreading among the priests.
“I heard we might soon get news that the Holy Consort has been decided.”
It was the story that Cassius might choose his consort soon. A priest who had been cleaning replied,
“Do you know who it is? There are so many candidates, it’s hard to guess.”
“Wouldn’t it be one of the Holy Kingdom’s nobles? Like Lady Ilia or Lady Tenya, who visit the temple often.”
“If we’re talking about candidates, we should include imperial nobles too.”
Cassius, ruler of the Holy Kingdom, possessed immense power and wealth. His looks were said to be worthy of stepping out of a masterpiece painting, with rumors spreading even to the far end of the continent. And as a priest of the Magnus Holy Kingdom, his body and mind were considered pure.
Naturally, countless women set their sights on him.
Not only nobles of the Holy Kingdom, but even imperial nobles coveted him.
According to historical records, the Holy Consort didn’t necessarily have to be a noble.
There had been commoners, and even former priests who had returned to secular life. That only increased the number of self-proclaimed candidates.
Yet Cassius hadn’t chosen anyone.
A priest who had been quietly listening butting in smugly.
“Didn’t you hear? They say the future Holy Consort is Priest Sonia.”
“Really? Now that you mention it, I heard Priest Sonia has been helping His Holiness with his personal affairs lately. The two seem much closer.”
“You’re all wrong. A holy knight from the delegation said His Holiness is nursing a one-sided love.”
The conversation didn’t end there, and the curious priests went to question the holy knights who had been part of the delegation.
“Well… they did dance together at the ball…”
“No, I saw the two of them come out onto the terrace. And think about the carriage accident—doesn’t it seem like he favors Priest Sonia?”
“That’s true. He openly took care of only Priest Sonia.”
From the looks of it, they weren’t exactly trying to hide their relationship.
Given the circumstances, it seemed highly likely that Sonia would become the Holy Consort. The priests who quickly caught onto the rumor were filled with one thought:
‘Let’s be good to Priest Sonia!’
Cassius was difficult to approach, but Sonia was different.
Many priests wanted to curry favor with her now, hoping to score points once she became Holy Consort.
Meanwhile, this rumor spread to the Empire through merchants visiting the Holy Kingdom.
Naturally, it reached Schwartz’s ears as well.
Recently released from confinement, he was drinking wine alone in his disheveled state at his estate. As he slowly tilted his glass, listening to the report from the Black Wraith, cracks formed in Schwartz’s expression.
“Cassius, the Holy Emperor, is taking Sonia as his consort?”
Clang!
The glass in Schwartz’s hand shattered.
The Black Wraith, having finished his report, trembled, thinking the shattered glass looked like his own future.
Consumed by anger, Schwartz sank into thought without even treating the hand bleeding from embedded glass shards.
‘That beast dares touch Sonia!’
Schwartz clearly remembered the merciless mark left on the back of Sonia’s neck.
If teeth marks had been so vividly imprinted on her delicate skin, it meant she’d been bitten hard, without consideration.
If it was already like that, once she was formally invested as Holy Consort, even deeper wounds would be left on her body.
The thought of that bastard putting his mouth on Sonia’s neck and soaking her in his pheromones twisted his insides.
He felt he had to rescue Sonia from that bastard’s hands.
‘I need to go to the Holy Kingdom immediately.’
The killing intent boiling within Schwartz turned the atmosphere of the Rundemir estate icy in an instant. Not only the Black Wraith, but even the maid standing by to tidy the room trembled.
Seeing the frightened maid made him think of Sonia.
After seeing a terrible vision in the sanctuary, Sonia had screamed upon seeing him. He didn’t want to see her face drained of all color like that again.
