#81. The Ice of Morashincia
Arkanso pointed at me.
To be exact, he pointed at the second divine relic I was gripping tightly.
“You’ve… found a divine relic?”
Nikolai looked at me with a mix of suspicion and curiosity.
In my palm lay a diamond lock, small as a baby’s fist, glittering faintly.
“A diamond. It has a clasp but no keyhole…” Nikolai narrowed his eyes.
Though some dirt still clung to it, the brilliance and iridescence unique to diamond couldn’t be hidden.
Rubbing the surface with my sleeve, I replied,
“At first, I thought it was a rusted lock. It was buried inside hardened mud.”
“Where did you find it?”
“It was just hanging on the basement door.”
Who would have guessed that Morashincia’s divine relic would be dangling from a basement door like a cheap brass lock?
At an unnoticed entrance no one ever cared about.
“If not for the Saintess, no one would have ever found it. Not only has she obtained the relic, but she’s even received an oracle!”
Arkanso straightened his back proudly as he spoke.
“An oracle?”
“The Goddess Herself has bestowed one upon the Saintess. The holy sight of it will stay with me forever…”
As if cherishing a sacred memory, Arkanso folded both hands over his heart.
Every time Nikolai heard the word Saintess, his expression twisted slightly.
“Tell me directly, Elizabette.”
“When I reached the basement door with the second relic, it began to rain.”
“It rained… underground?”
“If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it either.”
“And then?”
“Just like when I found the first relic at Marquis Nettleton’s estate, a white light spoke to me.”
“…”
I forced myself to calmly summarize the conversation I’d had with that white light.
“It’s far greater than the first relic. This second relic, called The Ice of Morashincia, can halt the progression of disease. We have to find the third relic soon.”
Nikolai’s face darkened.
I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what the light had said about eradicating the curse — or that if I failed to find all the relics, my soul would vanish.
If the “curse” the white light spoke of means the same as the deathblossom, then… Nikolai and I share the same destiny.
Yet strangely, I couldn’t say it aloud.
I was afraid he would see me only as a tool to fulfill that mission.
I just wanted to be a woman to him — but Nikolai was an emperor before he was a man.
Even though he stood within arm’s reach, he felt unbearably distant.
A sharp ache spread through my chest.
“Thank you for your divine words. They’ll be invaluable when I write the report on the Saintess’s return.”
Arkanso bowed deeply toward me.
“You’re going to write a report?”
“It’s the Saintess’s return after two hundred years. It must be recorded in history. We must also hold a grand coronation ceremony.”
“I’d prefer to decline.”
“When word spreads that someone as beautiful and graceful as you was chosen by the Goddess, the entire continent will sing praises! Just imagining it fills me with joy.”
His tone was sing-song, bright.
Nikolai, who had been leaning against the wall with arms crossed, spoke coldly:
“Keep it to imagination. I will not permit a Saintess coronation.”
The joy faded instantly from Arkanso’s face. His expression hardened into a mask of hostility.
“That is not a matter His Majesty may interfere with.”
“…What?”
“The foolish nobles slandered the Saintess as a wicked woman, did they not? And Your Majesty imprisoned her.”
“Elizabette is my subject and the Crown Prince’s tutor.”
“So there is no personal attachment, then.”
“What are you implying?”
Nikolai’s gaze locked on the white band covering Arkanso’s eyes.
Arkanso sighed deeply, as though speaking to a child who just didn’t get it.
“Sigh… The Saintess escaped the palace. She was persecuted by a corrupt priest while seeking the relic.”
“Thanks to that, I realized how rotten your entire order has become.”
“It was only a few, Your Majesty.”
“That pitiful excuse is all you have?”
“If I had known sooner, I would’ve ensured her safety myself. How regrettable.”
Arkanso clutched at his chest dramatically.
Nikolai’s lips curled in an icy sneer.
“Even if you were reborn, you could never serve Elizabette. She will return to the palace with me.”
Arkanso’s mouth twisted upward as if he’d just heard an amusing joke.
“The Saintess must come with me to the Grand Temple.”
“So you would defy imperial command?”
“Would Your Majesty then make an enemy of the entire Morashincia Order?”
“Silence! You dare threaten the Emperor? I will not forgive this!”
Nikolai’s jaw tightened, and a stormy energy swirled in his turquoise eyes.
Even I could feel the chill of it — but Arkanso stood utterly calm.
“I am prepared to pay any price for the Saintess.”
“Then die, if that’s what you wish.”
Nikolai’s hand had already moved to his sword.
Arkanso gripped his staff.
Tension thickened the small chapel like a storm about to explode.
“Both of you, stop!”
I forced myself between them, shouting a warning.
Neither man budged.
I pushed at their chests with both hands.
“If you’re going to fight, do it somewhere else! Not in front of me! Cardinal, you first!”
Arkanso hesitated, then bowed his head quickly.
“I apologize for showing such an unseemly sight, Saintess.”
“If you wish to stay on good terms with me, start by showing His Majesty proper respect.”
“But…”
“If you keep clashing with him, I won’t see you again.”
“Please, Saintess, take back those words!”
Arkanso pleaded.
“Then obey my command.”
“I will remember, and remember again.”
He clasped his hands and answered obediently.
Nikolai’s voice cut through the silence.
“Do you intend to go to the Grand Temple with that man?”
The low tone was rough and strained.
He tried to sound composed, but his face was pale — the face of a man afraid of losing the only woman he loved.
Was that just my imagination? Or… hope?
“There’s something I have to do first.”
“What is it?”
“I’m going to take revenge on the ones who framed me.”
“Elizabette…”
“I’ve endured enough. It’s time I strike back.”
Arkanso nodded eagerly, eyes shining.
“As expected of the Saintess! Please, punish the wicked in the name of the Goddess!”
“I don’t intend to borrow the Goddess’s name. I don’t care about divine justice.”
“Saintess?”
“I’ll avenge myself in the name of Elizabette Amster — personally, and harshly enough to rival divine retribution.”
Nikolai led me to the clergy’s cemetery.
“They all lived past ninety? Is it because of their ascetic lifestyle?”
I couldn’t help admiring as I read the tombstones.
Nikolai’s brow arched sharply.
“And you can still say that after nearly being robbed blind by their tithes?”
“How old is the current High Priest?”
“I asked one of Arkanso’s priests. They said he’s well past eighty.”
“Eighty? He didn’t even look sixty!”
I widened my eyes, recalling the High Priest’s smooth skin and thick hair.
Just as I swallowed a pang of envy, Nikolai glanced at the bag slung over my shoulder.
“Perhaps the reason the High Priests lived so long was The Ice of Morashincia.”
I pulled out the diamond lock and held it to the light. Its brilliance scattered like magic.
“Because it halts the progression of disease?”
“There’s no other explanation.”
“The Eye of Morashincia only activated when I used it myself.”
“That’s because it was an eye.”
Nikolai’s tone turned meaningful.
“You borrowed the Goddess’s eye — it can’t be shared. But the Ice is different. It releases cold simply by existing, lowering the temperature around it.”
“An ice that stops time…”
I ran my fingers over the transparent diamond lock.
There was definitely something incredible sealed within it — something beyond my understanding.
Nikolai cupped my hand in his large one.
A mystical, divine energy seemed to radiate and envelop us both.
“If it’s true, this relic is far greater than the Eye of Morashincia.”
“The third relic might hold power even greater than this.”
“Do you think the previous Marquis Nettleton realized the thirteenth temple’s uniqueness?”
“You said Douglas’s grandfather visited here often, didn’t you?”
“He was studying a mysterious illness.”
I watched Nikolai’s face carefully. As expected, he fell silent in thought.
Then he finally spoke.
“She left the palace only once — said it was a pilgrimage. Perhaps she came here.”
“…She?”
My breath caught. There was only one woman he could mean.
I hadn’t expected her name to fall from his lips.
I bit my trembling lip and forced a casual tone.
“Are you talking about Laila?”
“How do you know Laila?”
Nikolai’s eyes widened in surprise.
I dropped my gaze to my toes, fumbling for words.
“I just… heard about her by chance.”
“Because of Finch?”
He didn’t press further — perhaps he didn’t think it important.
But the look on his face, lost in memory, was full of unshaken longing.
“She was confined in the Canary Room for years — practically a corpse in a tomb.”
He brushed his fingers over a gravestone, his expression soft with sorrow, like touching a dead lover’s cheek.
Pain throbbed in my chest as I watched him.
“The chief healer and Douglas’s grandfather cared for her for a long time. They never discovered what her illness was, nor how to cure it.”
“Your Majesty, may I ask something?”
“What is it?”
“Will you answer honestly?”
I swallowed back the tension rising in my throat.
Countless questions swirled in my mind.
There’s so much I want to ask… but I have to know about Laila first. It’s driving me mad with curiosity.
What kind of woman was she?
How deeply did he love her?
Does he still miss her now?
No matter his answer, nothing would change — it would only confirm that I could never win.
But I still wanted to ask.
As I nervously fidgeted with my cold fingertips, Nikolai tilted his head slightly.
“You are remarkably shameless.”
I blinked, startled.
What was that supposed to mean?
