CHAPTER 29………………………………………………….
“Damn it.” Tamitarte pressed his forehead as if it hurt. Even if she insisted, he should have gone after her.
Even if it was just a ghost he’d been obsessed with, he needed to confirm whether the woman was truly a ghost—or just someone who looked remarkably like her.
But…
“No matter how similar she looks, it’s hard to resemble her that closely.”
“Do you really believe Vernis is alive?”
“…….”
“Everyone saw her die. Even if, by some miracle, she survived, there’s no one in the temple with enough sacred power to bring her back.”
Within the temple, the only one with significant sacred power was Tamitarte himself—and even he didn’t have that level of ability.
The only person who had enough power was Daniel, who had escaped the temple with Vernis Devin.
Tamitarte briefly recalled Daniel, who had never shown his face even when Vernis, the one who had fled with him, had been captured.
Even after so many years, Tamitarte still couldn’t fully accept Vernis’s death—and he knew better than anyone why.
“Even if Vernis is dead…”
“…….”
“Daniel still hasn’t been found.”
“Tamitarte… no, Tata.”
Bliss gestured for him to be quiet, fearing someone in the temple might overhear.
Though it was technically against temple law for a knight to act this way toward a sacred-powered priest, Bliss had no choice.
Since Vernis Devin had been executed, it was bad enough—but Daniel hadn’t been found yet, which made the temple even more sensitive.
Tamitarte tried to calm himself, pressing his lips together.
He paced the office restlessly before taking a deep breath.
“Just… if, just if…”
Even though no one else was around, his voice dropped.
He feared the temple rats might hear him, and that they might report to the High Archbishop.
“Could it be… that he’s still alive?”
“That’s impossible. He was beheaded—he’s dead.”
“But he had abilities, didn’t he?”
Tamitarte’s desperate words made Bliss shake his head.
“But sacred power won’t reattach a head. Unless he knew alchemy or magic separately, there’s no way.”
Bliss recalled the temple’s restricted records on bodily transplants.
The one who fled the temple had sacred power, but no other abilities.
If Daniel had alchemy or magic apart from his sacred power, he wouldn’t have been trapped in the temple before fleeing with Vernis.
Tamitarte’s shoulders slumped instantly.
Yes, he knew better than anyone that it wasn’t a ghost—just a woman who resembled her.
Vernis Devin was already dead. He had seen it himself.
If the woman he saw last night wasn’t Vernis, and if she wasn’t able to preserve the designation, there were only two possibilities:
One, she was simply a lookalike.
Two, she was Vernis Devin’s child.
“We have to find him.”
“The person you saw yesterday?”
“You never know.”
Bliss let out a dry sigh at Tamitarte’s urgent expression.
“The bird… might still be alive.”
Bird.
It was a code word between Tamitarte and Bliss.
It referred to only one person: Daniel, who had fled the temple with Vernis Devin twenty-five years ago.
“Tata.”
After Vernis and Daniel escaped the temple, the temple had spent over twenty years trying to catch him. What was the result?
Though they couldn’t find Daniel, they had found and executed Vernis Devin instead.
“If they haven’t found him in over twenty years, he’s probably dead.”
The tone of respect toward Tamitarte vanished.
He spoke as a longtime friend and brother-in-arms of the temple.
What could Daniel, who had grown up like a bird in a cage in the temple, really accomplish?
With no rumors of capable allies, he must have lived quietly without revealing his sacred power.
And that meant leaving everything after escaping with Vernis to her care.
“They didn’t find a dead body, though. That means he’s alive.”
“…….”
“If he had abilities that anyone in the temple would know about, they would have found traces by now. Since they haven’t, he must be dead.”
The temple’s persistence was extraordinary.
If Daniel were dead, they would have tried desperately to recover his corpse. Of course, what the temple really wanted was to capture him alive and bring him back.
“Yes, that’s possible, but…”
It would have been better if both were dead, but the thought of the impossible possibility kept nagging at him.
“What if, just in case, he’s alive?”
“…….”
“And what if, just in case, there’s—”
Tamitarte squeezed his eyes shut at the thought he hated most.
“A child?”
Faith and obedience might define life in the temple, but that was a naive comfort for the uninformed.
For those who had endured everything the temple could throw at them, Vernis was almost like a deity. And the same went for Daniel.
The only one who had opened the cage door was Vernis herself.
“If, by any chance, there is a child between them…”
Tamitarte resented Daniel for endangering Vernis and hated Vernis for putting herself at risk, but the child would be innocent.
“We must find them faster than the temple—or Rojian.”
He silently hoped they hadn’t done something as dangerous as having a child. Thinking of a child being dragged into the temple for exploitation already made his throat tighten.
“So…”
“I’ll look into it.”
Bliss nodded, understanding what Tamitarte meant. Tamitarte exhaled lightly, giving a faint, relieved smile.
“Since it’s Tamitarte, how about calling you Tata?”
Vernis’s voice from memory had been cheerful.
If the child belonged to Daniel, the temple would surely try to take it by any means.
“Please.”
And that was something Vernis would never have wanted.
Tamitarte sank onto a nearby chair with a light sigh.
Since seeing the woman who looked exactly like Vernis Devin, he had made excuses about feeling unwell and stayed near the temple instead of going to the royal palace—but he couldn’t even get another glimpse of her hair from yesterday.
He wished the woman had something to do with Vernis—and also hoped she had nothing to do with her.
If the temple discovered the existence of Vernis and Daniel, it would bring even more headaches.
As he closed his eyes, Vernis Devin’s smiling face from his memories remained.
Even on the day she died in the temple’s hands, she had smiled to the very end.
In the tedious, excruciating life within the temple, she had been the only one he could rely on.
While recalling those memories, a knock sounded, and Tamitarte opened his eyes again.
“Come in.”
The permission was laced with gloom.
The ornately gilded door opened softly, and a priest entered, cautiously watching Tamitarte’s expression.
“What is it?”
There was not an ounce of kindness in his voice.
“Princess Rize has come to the temple.”
“What?”
Tamitarte, sitting, furrowed his brow.
“Princess Rize? For what reason?”
“Apparently, she wanted an ointment for a torn area…”
Glancing subtly at him, the priest seemed to suggest that Tamitarte should see her.
“Shouldn’t you go see her?”
“She’s not looking for me. Why bother?”
“But for the sake of the Rize household, wouldn’t it be better if you checked?”
Tamitarte shrugged; he couldn’t understand why he needed to meet her. It wasn’t like she came seeking him.
The priest pouted but stepped quietly into Tamitarte’s room.
“It’s odd. If a princess comes to the temple, I’d assume it’s for treatment.”
That made sense; her convalescence at the villa was due to a carriage accident.
“I saw in the papers it was a serious accident. Strange, isn’t it?”
Tamitarte glanced subtly at the priest sitting beside him.
“It was a rainy-season carriage accident, and a few months of recovery… it must have been serious…”
“…….”
“Why didn’t she request help from the priests?”
It was a natural question for anyone associated with the temple.
Tamitarte responded in a cold voice to the priest, who kept chattering instead of returning to his post.
“You’re staying here instead of returning to your station, huh?”
The priest jumped to his feet apologetically.
“S-sorry! I’ll return to my post immediately!”
Finally, the priest left the office, and Tamitarte rubbed the back of his neck.
“Sigh…”
Indeed, it was odd. A princess from a noble household that hadn’t visited the temple in ages—the very one involved in the accident—showed up here?
“Ointment for a torn area, huh…”
He rose, still looking perplexed.
