Chapter 31
Breathlessly, I hurriedly got Hazel and the cult leader into the carriage and headed straight for the cult.
Even inside the carriage, the two were hugging and crying so much that Tete revealed her claws for the first time.
Worried that a bloody situation might occur if this continued, I quickly tried to hug Tete.
No, I tried to.
*Swish.*
My hand moved on its own towards Tete’s eyes and gently covered them, stopping there.
“Meow…?”
Tete, forgetting her anger at my action, looked at me.
She seemed puzzled that I hadn’t picked her up as usual.
“Tete, be a good girl?”
But I couldn’t help it.
Once the thought that Tete might be a Divine Beast crossed my mind, how could I act normally? What could I do about this automatic reaction?
I tried to act affectionate as usual, deliberately ignoring her gaze.
Tete stared at me intently for a while, then hid her claws and slowly closed her eyes.
Her ears were still flattened back, but we managed to arrive at the cult peacefully.
But Hazel and the cult leader…
“*Sob*, Hiccup, Hiccuup! Sniff, Hazeul, my Goddesss!”
“*Sob*, Leader-niiiiim!”
…were still crying.
Now, it had gone beyond the moving scene at the costume shop; they were pouring their hearts out about their tumultuous life stories, crying buckets. Their voices were so choked with tears I couldn’t understand a word, but it seemed like they had become soulmates, as their conversation showed no signs of stopping.
‘We probably can’t move on to the next step like this, right?’
With my two key personnel like this, what could I possibly do?
Furthermore, perhaps because we had been to the 3rd District, it was already late afternoon.
I decided to postpone the full-scale proselytizing until tomorrow. After comforting them and ushering them into the cult building, I headed for the Ducal residence.
Since I had returned late once before and hadn’t gotten into trouble, I entered the mansion without much thought, but…
“Cierra Fonde Eisens.”
Suddenly, a cold voice fell from above me.
The fact that he used my middle name meant he was seriously angry.
*Gasp.*
I flinched and trembled, looking up. I naturally thought it would be Father, but it wasn’t.
“Lucian?”
“Why are you so late?”
What’s with this guy, who used to be so punctual he seemed to have four hands and feet for timekeeping?
“Cierra Fonde Eisens. Aren’t you going to answer?”
“Ah, n-no. I’m the Saintess of the cult, right? I had a lot to do, so I was late…”
As if proving she’s her father’s daughter, her low, clipped tone was identical to his. And with her full name being brought up, an excuse popped out instead of a retort.
‘Did I do something that wrong?’
*Tch.* I didn’t even do anything bad, yet I found myself feeling wary for no reason.
“*Sigh*, Pouting your mouth somewhere.”
“*Gulp*.”
Now he’s even complaining about me muttering to myself.
Lucian’s suddenly changed attitude was very strange, but I couldn’t talk back.
“You said you’d change. Seeing you come home late at night without a hint of remorse, it doesn’t seem so. Do you even care that our parents are worried?”
“I-I’m sorry.”
When he’s poking me right in the chest with nothing but the truth, how can I possibly argue back? Even if I had ten mouths, I’d have nothing to say…
I just hung my head low with the mindset of a culprit, thinking, ‘Aigoo, I was completely wrong. Yes, yes.’
Then, he let out a *sigh* and spoke in a much softer voice.
“You haven’t had dinner, have you? Follow me.”
“Uh, uh, uung.”
I blankly stared at Lucian, who had turned his back sharply and walked away briskly, then hurriedly followed him.
Unlike the silence flowing between us, various questions tangled together inside my head.
‘Is that really Lucian? Could he be the one who’s been possessed? Why is he being nice to me?’
To an outside observer, he had no hint of a smile and his tone was cold, but at least I thought so.
‘Even when we passed each other in the hallway, he’d ignore me worse than a stranger.’
Did my apology get through to him? But the long-accumulated feelings between us weren’t something that could be resolved so easily.
‘Or is it a typical romance novel cliché?’
Why, isn’t it always like that?
‘When a villainess reforms, the family changing is a common rule.’
To put it simply, I was still forgetting that this was reality.
It was the moment I hastily picked up my knife upon seeing the splendid feast laid out in Lucian’s private dining room.
“So, was this also intentional? Don’t tell me you still haven’t gotten over him?”
“Wha…?”
What kind of nonsense is this to say to someone who was just about to cut their steak?
It seemed the food was just a smokescreen for this ridiculous statement.
“What did I plan?”
The most I planned was just removing the cult’s curtains.
I stared intently at Lucian, my eyes asking for an answer.
But he was still lost in his own world.
“I don’t know why you keep repeating actions that only backfire. You could understand just by watching a single episode of <Mary’s Contract Marriage>.”
What in the world is ‘Mary’s Contract Marriage’?
“Ordinarily, for things like this, you need to go for the regret trope to be effective…”
Hey, what are you doing?
I didn’t understand what he meant, but it was clear he was misunderstanding. And in a very, very bad way.
‘*Sigh*. Whatever.’
I don’t get it anymore. Whether Lucian misunderstands again or not.
‘My stomach’s about to stick to my back right now.’
I was so hungry because I’d lost energy dealing with the cult leader and Hazel this afternoon.
“If you’re going to talk nonsense, can I eat first?”
I swiftly cut the now lukewarm steak and speared a piece with my fork.
“What I’m saying is, it was too hasty to try to win back Crown Prince Raven’s heart.”
—And then I had to hear this.
“What…?”
*Clatter.*
I was so dumbfounded that all my strength left me.
The neatly cut piece of steak fell back onto the plate and rolled.
But Lucian seemed to think I was flinching because he’d hit a nerve.
*Haaa*, he let out a long sigh and dropped a bombshell, as if trying to console me.
“Rumors are already spreading. They say you even used an elf to put on an act in front of the Crown Prince.”
“Haha?”
“Did you really think he would change his mind about you that easily? Cierra Eisens, get a grip.”
“Haha, hahaha?”
Lucian, I’m dying to get a grip right now too.
‘What on earth is this all about?’
I tried hard to rack my brain, which had stopped at this unexpected statement.
So, to summarize:
‘Raven saw me comforting the cult leader and Hazel today.’
But, Raven thinks that was an act I planned?
‘And that it was to get his attention? Me?’
“What kind of nonsense is that?! A dog eating grass, Tete transforming into a human?!”
Raven Simona.
He is the Crown Prince of the Simona Empire, my former fiancé.
Yes. *Former* fiancé.
‘Meaning we’re strangers now.’
Besides, he was someone the ‘me’ before I regained my past memories liked, not the current me.
‘He’s Ijel’s, you know.’
Because one of the ‘men’ in <Ijel: The Saintess’s Men> was Raven.
Of course, even if that weren’t the case, I know now.
That I didn’t *truly* love him.
‘We were just close friends who stuck together since childhood.’
They say the affection built over time is powerful, and as we grew up, that feeling just had its name changed to ‘love’.
‘To be precise, it was an obsession. An obsession.’
As is often the case with friends, it was a feeling born from the psychology of wanting to be the most important person to the other party.
Also, having grown up hearing often that I would die soon, I wanted even more to become someone precious to others.
‘That way, they wouldn’t forget me for a long time.’
It was such a childish thought.
*Whew.* I let out a big sigh and shook my head vigorously.
The memory of the past made me reflexively deny it, which Lucian conveniently misinterpreted.
“*Ahem*, Isn’t it?”
“Not a single thing you said is correct.”
I didn’t go through the trouble of comforting the crying cult leader and Hazel just to hear this.
‘I’m not a fortune teller; how could I have known Raven would come to the 3rd District today?’
I’m just a passionate Saintess trying to brighten up a dim cult!
*Glare.* I stared pointedly at Lucian and spilled everything that happened today in a resentful tone.
“…So that’s how it happened, okay?”
“You truly comforted them with a pure heart?”
“You can’t even praise me for doing well, and you question my pure heaart? Is that any way to talk to your little sister?!”
Are you bringing out the old ‘Cierra’s’ personality again?
I breathed heavily, glaring at Lucian with wide eyes.
It was a signal that if he doubted me further, our relationship would go back to being worse than strangers.
“*Ahem*, It was an important matter, so I was just confirming one more time. Well… you’ve had a rough time.”
“Hmph.”
You should have said that from the start.
I leaned back against the chair with a thud.
Simultaneously, *Grrrumble*, my stomach cried out pitifully. I really lived today to the fullest.
I didn’t even eat dinner… and I got interrogated with a steak right in front of me.
‘Koreans run on food.’
This is unfair, so unfair!
The heavy breathing mixed with a sob in an instant.
