Chapter 44………………

“….”

“Just tell me the main point—why did you want to see me?”

“…What are you?”

Was it because he didn’t know my name, or because he was flustered?
He stumbled slightly over his words before biting down hard on his lower lip and asking,

“You’re wearing Lady Bernice’s face, aren’t you?”

It didn’t sound like he was curious about the divine power I possessed.

When my biological mother’s name came out of his mouth again, this time I frowned.

“Then what relationship do you have with my mother that you know her name?”

The moment he heard the word mother, I had the strange thought that his blue eyes looked like waves.

And perhaps that impression wasn’t wrong, because a large tear suddenly dropped from his eye.

“Then that means you’re…”

“……”

“No, you….”

His voice trembled faintly, and his face had already collapsed in emotion.
I hesitated.

I should have stepped back, but faced with a face so full of grief, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“…You’re the daughter of Daniel and Lady Bernice.”

“You knew my father too?”

He rubbed his face roughly, as if he didn’t know what to do.

He looked as if he was happy about my existence, yet at the same time worried.

It wasn’t a clear, refreshing emotion.
My existence seemed to please him, but he also looked anxious about the future. Just as he hurriedly stepped toward me—

“Ah…!”

Someone suddenly grabbed my hand from behind, and what I saw in front of me was a broad back.

“Allen…?”

The owner of that back was Allen.

I thought he had gone back to the shop—why was he here?

Since he knew I had come to meet a priest, I thought he wouldn’t even come near this place.

“Don’t touch her carelessly. Don’t come any closer.”

Though he looked threatening, Allen’s hand holding mine was trembling, as if he was still afraid.

“Move. I have no business with you.”

“You think I don’t know what you temple bastards are like?”

“……”

“Don’t come closer.”

It seemed his goal was to keep distance so we could escape at any moment.
Allen looked like he wanted me to leave this place as quickly as possible.

“Just confirm what you came to confirm and leave.”

At his words, I nodded slightly and stepped forward.

Tamitarte, who had been looking at me with an emotional face, now had his gaze fixed on Allen instead.

His blue eyes looked almost absent-minded, yet there was a cautious look in them.

While Tamitarte’s gaze was on Allen, Allen seemed to act as if Tamitarte didn’t exist at all.

“…Perhaps you.”

Even though Tamitarte’s “you” was clearly directed at him, not me, Allen was only checking whether I was safe.

Do they know each other too now?
The thought appeared—but was immediately denied.

If they knew each other, Allen wouldn’t be acting like this.

“Are you from the temple orphanage?”

The moment Tamitarte’s tone changed—no longer the respectful speech he used with me or Rosian.

A temple orphanage?
So he really was from the temple. My hypothesis turned into certainty.

Usually, children raised in temple orphanages grow up and a few of them become priests, or temple staff.

Then why did Allen leave?

Being affiliated with the temple meant a stable life—status, position, and even a certain level of living expenses.

At the cautious question, Allen’s face hardened stiffly.

From where I stood, I could see that he was suppressing both fear and rising anger.

He looked frozen like a stone, but also as if he might lunge forward at any moment.
So I grabbed Allen’s hand and pulled him toward me.

Unlike earlier, he didn’t move easily. I swallowed a small sigh and stepped in front of him.

“Don’t change the subject. I asked what relationship you have with my parents.”

“……”

“How did you know my parents?”

My father once said they were people who had no choice but to live their entire lives being chased.

But he never explained the reason, and he had never once spoken about the temple’s “god.”

At my question, Tamitarte’s face turned pale again, followed by a self-deprecating smile.

The gaze that had been on Allen now pierced into me like an arrow.

I just wished he would talk about my parents.

“If you truly are Daniel and Lady Bernice’s child, run away from the Empire.”

“……”

“If the temple ever learns that you and your father are alive, they won’t leave you alone. I’ll find a way to help you.”

“What does my father have to do with the temple? Please explain so I can understand.”

He had been rambling, but now he pressed his lips tightly together as if he had swallowed honey, before slowly opening them.

“That’s because Daniel—your father—like that one and me…”

His lowered voice sounded weak and strained, like rusted metal scraping.

“…was also from the temple orphanage.”

Behind me, I heard Allen sharply suck in a breath.

I didn’t know what kind of place the temple orphanage was to make Allen freeze like this, but Tamitarte continued as if answering my unspoken question.

“The temple orphanage isn’t simply a place that takes care of orphans.”

Not…?

Each passing second felt like millions of years.

The wind made no sound.
No one breathed.

Only silence lingered over the village, until the distant cry of a bird echoed faintly.

“…It was a place where human experiments were conducted.”

“What do you mean…?”

When I slowly turned my head, I saw Allen’s face—frozen stiff, as if terrified.

Even though I had lived in the capital for years, I had never heard even a rumor like that.

I was bewildered.

“Didn’t Lord Daniel tell you anything?”

“My father…”

My throat felt completely dry.

It was a very old memory, but I remembered him occasionally suffering from nightmares.

“My father never talked about his past.”

When I asked him as a child, he only said one thing.

That my mother had rescued him from a tower he had been trapped in—like a knight.

When I was young, I even wondered if my father might secretly be a prince from a distant land.

But the longer we lived isolated in the mountains, the further that thought drifted away.

My father never told me why he didn’t go down to the capital.

Nor why we lived deep in the mountains where no people came.

“That’s understandable. Life in the temple must have been no different from hell.”

Priest Tamitarte nodded with a thin smile.

“If he suffered that much at the temple, I wouldn’t want to talk about it either.”

“……”

“Your father was simply used by the temple.”

“Is it true the temple conducts human experiments?”

“Even if you don’t ask Lord Daniel, the person standing next to you would answer the same.”

I tightly held Allen’s trembling hand.

Thinking back to when I first met him, I had guessed he had experienced some terrible incident.

But I never imagined it had anything to do with temple experiments.

More than anything, I had never imagined the temple used the excuse of supporting orphanages to conduct human experiments on children.

“How has Lord Daniel been since Lady Bernice passed away?”

“……”

“If it’s not too late, I’d like to see him sometime. By the way, does Lord Daniel know that you’re healing people with divine power?”

Tamitarte was acting like an uncle meeting a niece after a long time.

Meanwhile, I didn’t even know what had happened at the temple or how close he had been with my parents.

Yet he behaved as if he had known me since I was very young.

My parents had no siblings, but if they had, perhaps Tamitarte might have been like that.

“My father passed away a few years ago.”

“Ah…”

A short sigh escaped his mouth.

“Then how are you living? Are you perhaps staying in the Daus Empire?”

“Yes.”

“If you also possess divine and healing power… it would be better for you to live somewhere other than the Daus Empire.”

Tamitarte firmly grabbed my shoulders.

“I’ll arrange a place for you abroad. I have enough influence to do that.”

“Lady Irina.”

The one who reacted to Tamitarte’s suggestion was Allen.

His face, pale enough to be dripping with cold sweat, suddenly lit with determination as he nodded vigorously.

“Please do as he says. The Daus Empire, where the temple holds power, is dangerous.”

His voice trembled slightly as he continued,

“If the temple finds out that Lady Irina has divine power, we don’t know what they might do.”

“Yes, he’s right. Your parents…”

Tamitarte looked as though he might cry—or wanted to cry.

He looked like someone mourning parents he could never see again, yet also someone grieving the suffering they endured at the temple.

“…After all the trouble they went through to escape the temple….”