~Chapter 12~
Kirien kept avoiding eye contact.
The way he looked made him seem like someone desperately trying not to reveal his true feelings.
“Did you come all this way just to say that?”
“Yes.”
“You used an expensive travel scroll and even made a donation just to say that?”
“Yes.”
Selen once again tried to gauge Kirien’s sincerity.
It seemed right. He had clearly come because he was worried about me.
So why did he keep denying it?
“Are you really not worried about me at all?”
Kirien shook his head firmly.
Selen felt sad.
Was the excitement she had felt while walking along the night sea just a delusion on her part?
So she closed her mouth.
She should have said that she wanted to help Arpiel, that she knew what the problem was, that she needed to make a potion with real holy water.
But she simply couldn’t bring herself to speak.
She was afraid she might look like a pitiful girl clinging to someone just because she had once held his hand.
That kind of treatment would bruise her pride too much.
Selen left the purification room without saying a word.
“Here she comes! Our youngest is here!”
The Holy Temple was in chaos two days after her arrival.
The first saint, Elenor, had already told everyone that she had used her powerful spiritual energy to pretend to be a real person.
Selen felt guilty for asking Elenor for such a favor, but Elenor didn’t think that way.
“It was fun. Call me anytime if you need me again,” she had said.
The sixth saint, Bella, and the seventh saint, Hanna, praised Elenor.
“Of course. Someone with such strong will is different.”
“Bella, it’s not will—it’s Han. Han, who lived her whole life as a virgin and died that way.”
“What? You little—! You’ll really get scolded!”
When the three older spirits began an impromptu game of tag, the second saint, Miriel, approached and asked:
“Youngest, did people really believe that the elder was a real person?”
“Yes. Everyone thought it was her.”
“Really? Next time, I want to try it.”
“Well… Miriel, your hair color and length are slightly different from mine… wouldn’t it be difficult?”
“What? No! I want to try it too!”
As Miriel began to whine, the fifth saint, Nora, spoke up.
“But youngest, did you really sneak into the Athenaeum?”
“Yes. I wanted to check if there really was a problem with the holy water.”
Normally, Selen would shrink in front of Nora.
Nora always started with a scolding no matter what Selen said.
But in the past few days, Selen’s demeanor had strangely become more confident.
Elenor was the first to notice the change.
“So there really was a problem with the holy water.”
Selen recounted everything in detail—the half-filled holy water in the chalice, the silver cup filled with ordinary water instead, and even meeting the goddess.
The fourth saint, Felia, shed tears upon hearing why the goddess had intervened.
“What? The goddess used all her strength to save me?”
Sobbing uncontrollably, Felia’s cries echoed through the Holy Temple.
The fifth saint, Nora, couldn’t hide her shock.
“What? So the potion we have now is just plain water?”
The seventh saint, Hanna, corrected her.
“Nora, it’s not completely plain water—just water mixed with divine energy.”
“That’s basically the same thing!”
The calm eighth saint, Daphne, tried to clarify the situation.
“So the person who supposedly had the Lacazca disease… has only been drinking plain water until now? That’s why there’s been no improvement.”
“Yes. It seems so.”
“Didn’t you buy countless potions?”
Hanna chuckled at Daphne’s words.
“Wow. If he knew that… that handsome guy would be so mad.”
Selen worried about that too.
He had bought countless potions, each more expensive than most jewels.
Besides, the Kyros Ducal family was wealthy, so their concept of “countless” was probably different from Selen’s.
How much money had Kirien poured into the temple?
And if it had all been for nothing?
It was only natural that he’d be angry.
Then the third saint, Gianna, gently asked:
“Did you tell Duke Kyros?”
Selen shook her head weakly.
Gianna was surprised and asked again:
“You’re not going to tell him?”
“When I think of my younger sibling, I feel like I should tell him as soon as possible…”
She recalled Kirien’s face, who had been avoiding her gaze.
Her chest ached painfully.
“I’m not sure if I should step in. It feels like he keeps drawing a line with me.”
Her older sisters only observed her, saying nothing.
Matters of the heart—no matter how much advice is given—are ultimately something people have to resolve on their own.
Selen’s days were always the same.
Early morning wake-up, meditation, three prayers, three meals.
Then confession for nobles from morning until sunset.
If there were a set term, like ten years, she might have counted the days.
But Selen didn’t know when she would leave the temple.
Saints couldn’t even decide their own retirement, so she just lived each day diligently and quietly.
She thought it was a peaceful life, but in retrospect, it was a routine she had fallen into.
She had never once hoped for a better tomorrow.
But now, sitting on her bed waiting for the communication device, she looked forward to tomorrow.
Tomorrow was the one official outing day for the month.
When the communication device finally glimmered, Selen quickly pressed the button.
“Father!”
Selen’s father, Count Bryson Leclair, contacted her every day at nine in the evening.
He had started this to comfort his daughter who entered the temple at a young age, and it had now become routine.
“My daughter, how was your day?”
“Same as always. How was yours, Father?”
“I enjoyed thinking about what I would do when I saw my daughter.”
“I’m really looking forward to tomorrow too!”
Her father’s smile overflowed with love.
Selen loved it so much that she couldn’t stop giggling.
“My third aide told me… that, umm… shu… shu…”
“Shu cream?”
“Yes! There’s a shop that makes it really well. Do you want to go together?”
Selen chuckled.
Her father must have been asking around again.
Looking for a good dessert shop near the palace.
“Sure!”
“Alright. Then we need to make a reservation.”
Selen laughed even harder than before.
Even though the dessert shop didn’t require reservations, her father always booked ahead to go with her.
She remembered seeing a small, shabby pastry shop with a “Reserved” sign before, and how much it had made her laugh.
It probably meant her father was looking forward to tomorrow just as much as she was.
“Finally, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes. Sleep well, Father, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
In just a few hours, she would see him—but the long night made the same day feel far away.
That night, in her dream, Selen revisited a forgotten day from her past.
During a sudden fever, her older brothers had gone to the sea while she couldn’t go that summer.
The weather was unusually hot and irritable.
Having a fever in the middle of summer was truly unpleasant.
Her body felt heavy, her head pounded, and her mouth burned dry.
And yet, the meals served were only hot soups and stews.
Selen pestered her mother for lemon sherbet.
“Mother, please, just one bite!”
“No, if you eat something cold suddenly, you’ll get a stomachache. You haven’t eaten much as it is.”
“No! My throat is burning hot.”
“It’s the fever. Be patient a little longer, okay?”
Her strict mother would never indulge her whims.
Selen gave up and ate only the hot soup and medicine her mother gave her.
The bitter medicinal taste only made her head ache more.
Late at night, as she dozed off, her second brother, Nico, who was four years older, woke her.
“Hey! Ugly! Get up.”
Nico called Selen “ugly”—because when she was born, she had been wrinkly and unattractive.
“Nico, when did you come? How was the sea?”
“Not great. Sticky, hot.”
“Nico, if you go in here, Mother will scold you.”
“Who cares about the patient. Eat this.”
Nico brought lemon sherbet and a shell necklace.
Seeing the half-melted lemon sherbet, Selen smiled weakly.
“Hey! Ugly! Eat quickly! You’ll get caught!”
When Nico’s face at the door overlapped in her dream with Kirien’s, Selen awoke.
On the one day a month Selen was allowed to officially go out, two men were waiting for her in the palace square from early morning.
“Kyaaa! Father! Lory!”
“Selen!”
It was Selen’s father, Count Bryson Leclair, and her older brother, Lory Leclair.
They ran up quickly and hugged her.
Being hugged simultaneously by two big men was so overwhelming that she could hardly breathe.
“Lory! Nico didn’t come?”
Perhaps because she had dreamt of her second brother, she especially missed Nico today.
It would have been nice if Nico had come too.
“Why do you look for him before me? Answer me, Selen. Is it me or Nico?”
Selen laughed at her older brother’s jealousy.
Lory seemed even more handsome than before.
He had her father’s striking golden hair and blue eyes, with a prominent nose that looked exceptionally handsome.
“Lory, have you grown taller?”
“At 25, I don’t grow taller. My body just got bigger.”
Lory laughed at her surprised, round eyes.
Selen touched her older brother’s shoulders and chest with a serious expression.
“Lory, you must be really popular.”
Not just because they were family—there was no way someone with that chest wouldn’t be popular.
Lory was handsome and had a good personality—truly a top choice for a groom.
“Lory, you’re so handsome… why aren’t you engaged yet?”
Lory scratched his head, embarrassed by his sister’s compliment.
“Maybe you just think I’m handsome.”
Lory answered humbly, but Selen knew the truth.
She had heard rumors that her two older brothers were the most popular men in society these days.
