~Chapter 15~
“You said you almost got caught last time when you went to the hall, right? Maybe it’s because of that.”
Norah, the 5th Saint, spoke as if scolding her.
It seems so.
Selen nodded weakly.
Just as Norah was about to continue her lecture, Elenor cut her off.
“Good. You did well.”
Selen and her sisters looked at Elenor in surprise.
But Elenor remained calm.
“What are you staring at? It’s better to do something than cry, isn’t it?”
Elenor gently patted Selen’s head.
Selen felt that the touch was similar to the goddess’s blessing.
The 8th Saint, Daphne, asked,
“So what are you going to do now? You can’t make the potion without holy water.”
“I’m thinking of sneaking in somehow… Do you have any good ideas, sisters?”
At that moment, the 2nd Saint, Miriel, quickly raised her hand.
“Me! Me! I have a good idea! All the holy knights are men, right?”
“Well… there are female knights too, but from what I saw, they were mostly men.”
“Then isn’t there anything better than a honey trap?”
Miriel struck a seductive pose.
“I’ll flirt with the men, and during that time, the youngest should quickly go inside and take the holy water.”
The 7th Saint, Hanna, immediately objected.
“Miriel sister, what if they don’t fall for it?”
“What? I’ve never failed to make a man fall for me.”
Hearing that, the usually quiet 9th Saint, Sophia, timidly raised her hand.
“Um… Miriel sister…”
“What is it?”
“Sister… you were a virgin until you died… How did you seduce men…?”
Miriel’s mouth fell open.
She was so speechless that she couldn’t even make an excuse.
While the sisters were silently watching Miriel, Elenor suddenly spoke.
“Maybe you won’t need the potion.”
Elenor looked straight into Selen’s eyes.
Then she said in a majestic tone,
“You’ve changed, little one.”
Selen returned to her room.
Then she shouted into the communication device.
“Broccoli pudding! Broccoli pudding!”
Daniel answered, looking half-asleep and disheveled.
“Yo. Sardine cake.”
This is the code they use.
When they were seven years old, before Christmas, they had a big fight.
On Christmas day, without discussing it, they gave each other the food the other hated the most.
Selen gave Daniel broccoli and black pepper pudding, and Daniel made a whipped cream cake with sardines.
After that, it became their private communication code.
The code meant that they were going to talk about secret matters and that there was no one around.
“Hey. Sardine. You’re not sleeping! They say beauties sleep a lot. You don’t need sleep anymore, huh!”
“If that’s the logic, then you shouldn’t be awake either.”
I know you were once called the Magic Tower Prince.
“But being awake after sleeping is different from not sleeping at all!”
“Sorry. I didn’t know you were asleep. Why are you going to bed so early today?”
“I used too much mana in my experiments.”
Haaaam. Daniel yawned.
He is no longer affiliated with the Magic Tower, but he continues his personal research.
“By the way, how did you come to my father and our shop?”
“Oh, it was my day out. I was sightseeing in the shopping district with my father and brother, and somehow it turned out that way.”
“Your father is still the same. I almost died from fear.”
“You’re too honestly stupid, that’s why.”
“What? Stupid? Then you’re a genius for bringing my father along? You should have stopped him before he entered!”
The two kept arguing for a while.
The more time passes, the more secrets and memories old friends share.
“If you keep doing that, I’ll tell everyone you were the one who wrote the Blue Bird Letter.”
“Go ahead. And you’ve already been caught by someone.”
With a loud clatter, Daniel fell from his chair.
“What? How? Who caught you?”
“Duke Kailos… Do you know the Blood Wolf?”
Daniel’s expression froze instantly.
“Let’s end the call here. I’ll definitely attend your funeral.”
“Hey! Broccoli! No! I still have a favor to ask!”
“Why! What is it this time! Am I the only one you can ask favors from?”
“Yes! No one else!”
Grrrr. The two glared at each other for a long time.
Then Selen spoke first.
“Hey. The magic tower also made the spiritual power measurement machine, right?”
“Right.”
“Could you get one of those?”
Blink. Blink blink.
Selen stood blankly in front of the city gate, blinking aimlessly.
Buying a teleportation scroll from Daniel and sneaking out through the passage Kirien told her was good, but—
How confident was the Duke of Kailos in his military power that there wasn’t even a gate guard?
Moreover, the distance between the gate and the main manor was so far that there was no way to signal that Selen had arrived.
“It doesn’t seem like my voice can be heard.”
The wind was so strong.
The sound of the wolf-embroidered flag flapping was louder than Selen’s knocking.
Should I climb over the wall?
It was at least three meters high. Could she do it?
Just as she decided to try and placed one foot on the iron bar joint—
A figure was seen approaching rapidly from afar.
Perfect upper and lower body proportions, and even in the darkness… that broad chest visible in the moonlight…
“Kirien?”
Selen said the name that came to her mind.
But the other person didn’t answer.
He opened the gate and burst out, shouting in anger like a lightning strike.
“Why on earth did you come here!”
Blink blink.
Caught off guard, Selen blinked her eyes twice.
She didn’t expect a welcome, but she didn’t expect him to be this furious either.
“What if strange rumors spread! If that happens, I won’t leave you alone!”
Selen remained calm even after hearing the threat.
Maybe because she had heard similar words many times, she felt nothing.
Seeing Selen’s expressionless face, Kirien shouted in anger.
“I mean it. Even if I have to bear the curse of the Goddess Athenis, I don’t care.”
“Duke, it would be better if you just honestly said that you would do anything to protect your younger brother.”
Kirien didn’t answer.
He just hid in the darkness and stared at Selen.
Then the clouds parted, and the bright moon appeared.
Under the moonlight, Selen carefully examined Kirien’s face.
“You’ve lost weight.”
Taking care of the sick is hard, isn’t it? Kirien bit his lip.
“How is Arpiel’s condition?”
But the moment his younger brother’s name was mentioned, Kirien drew a line again.
“That is none of your concern.”
“The reason you’re so sensitive is because of Arpiel, right?”
At that moment, Kirien’s eyes changed.
They became the sharp, fierce eyes of a beast.
“What did you come here to say?”
“You not only told me to keep the illness secret, but also the existence of Arpiel.”
“Are you threatening to reveal Arpiel’s existence now?”
“And you even tried to make me take a memory-erasing medicine.”
Kirien immediately fell silent.
Selen was slightly surprised that he didn’t deny it.
Not making clumsy excuses and instead keeping silent was very Kirien-like.
Selen sighed faintly.
She felt happy that her deduction was correct, but also somewhat hollow because even the facts she wished were wrong turned out to be true.
“Six months ago, strange symptoms started appearing in priests. One day, they suddenly lost their memories, and their spiritual power decreased.”
When discussing with Becky at first, Selen thought this phenomenon was similar to dementia.
The victims were only elderly people in their 70s or 80s, and there was no other physical damage besides memory and spiritual power.
But it turned out there was another common point.
They were high-ranking priests who specialized in healing.
“It was you, Duke, right?”
Selen took out the glass bottle she received from Daniel.
It was a beautiful glass bottle containing a translucent white liquid.
“You gave them memory-erasing medicine after Arpiel’s treatment was finished.”
Some lost one week of memory, others lost one year—because of this medicine.
The effectiveness of this medicine varies.
“I checked, and there is not a single priest with these symptoms in other temples.”
“……”
“That means Duke Kailos has only targeted the Great Temple so far.”
Unknowingly, Kirien had returned to his familiar expression.
That quiet face like the night—silent and composed.
“Why did you do it?”
Selen’s voice trembled slightly at the end.
Her voice was filled with desperation.
She wanted to hear it from Kirien’s own mouth.
That he didn’t harm people without reason, that it was only a choice made to protect his younger brother.
“Was it revenge because you couldn’t heal them?”
However, he did not answer.
“How did you make their spiritual power decrease?”
“……”
“Did you also plan to erase my memories and spiritual power once the treatment was finished?”
When Selen began to cry, Kirien finally spoke.
“The spiritual power wasn’t something I did.”
Selen bit her lip tightly.
That meant: “I did erase their memories.”
“And their spiritual power probably wasn’t reduced. They might not have had it originally.”
Selen was shocked.
In contrast, Kirien continued calmly.
“The way priests of the Athenis State Church obtain spiritual power is only one—through sincere prayer and service.”
Selen recalled the activities of the memory-lost priests.
She had never seen them serve, and as for prayer… not really…
“They were nothing more than corrupt priests who only thought about how to sell potions at higher prices.”
“……”
“Your Highness the Saintess is probably stronger in spiritual power than them.”
Selen had never doubted their skills.
Perhaps it was the power of their title.
Since they were “high priests,” she naturally assumed their spiritual power was stronger.
There was one more very important question left.
“Why didn’t you erase my memories?”
