Chapter – 24
That day, the young priest guarding the donation box was passing the time by observing the people inside the chapel.
The baron’s daughter is here again, trying to sneak around on a date without her father noticing. Doesn’t she know the rumors are already spreading among the believers? Ah, that man—I heard last time he’s a merchant. And that woman has never donated even once….
Just then, a woman entered the chapel.
Her face was indistinct beneath her veil, but she was clearly someone he had never seen before. If he had ever encountered her in the past, he was certain he would have remembered. That alone convinced the young priest that she was a new worshipper.
Was there anyone for whom a pristine white veil suited so perfectly, contrasting with neatly pinned black hair?
After exchanging a few words with the maid who had accompanied her, she walked alone toward the altar and stopped. The priest found himself momentarily spellbound, thinking she resembled an angel from a religious painting as she clasped her hands in prayer. He only snapped back to attention when she approached the donation box.
“May the Sun’s blessing be upon you.”
“Thank you, Father.”
At the beautiful smile visible through her thin veil, the priest hurriedly lowered his gaze. And then—when her small, pale hand drew a piece of paper from her bosom and slowly placed it into the donation box—he could not hide his shock.
“G–!”
It was a check. A check!
Not gold coins, not jewelry—a check!
For a young priest who had yet to become a full cleric, it was surely an amount he had never touched or even heard of in his entire life.
The priest stationed by the donation box had two duties. One was to guard it. The other was to immediately report it if someone appeared who could become a pillar of support for the temple. In other words, if an enormous donation was made, he was to run straight to a high-ranking cleric without delay.
While the mysterious woman turned away and sat in the pews to pray, the priest hurried out of the chapel to find a senior cleric.
“Father!”
“I told you not to raise your voice in the sacred temple—”
“Someone put a check in the donation box! A check! I’ve never seen her before!”
The cleric froze.
Donations had been dwindling by the day, and support from the imperial palace was woefully insufficient. And now—a check?
The cleric turned on his heel and headed deeper into the temple.
“Come quickly. We have work to do.”
“Yes! Yes!”
Following behind him toward the high priest’s office, the young priest clutched his pounding heart.
*
“Worshipper.”
Instead of replying, I lifted my head. I had been expecting them to come for me. After exchanging a few words with the young priest, I stood up. When I quietly beckoned to Amy, she hurried over.
“Yes, Lady Marie.”
“The priest says he has prepared a private prayer room for me. Let’s go.”
Amy followed quietly and whispered in a lowered voice—though it was clearly meant for the priest to hear.
“Lady Marie, I’m sorry. Someone asked about you earlier, and I got carried away and ended up talking about you.”
“It’s all right. This is the Temple of Light, after all. That too must be the Sun’s will.”
The exchange flowed as smoothly as lines from a rehearsed script. Now the young priest would run to the cleric to explain my devoutness, and the cleric would dismiss any suspicion about a maid who had spoken too freely of her mistress.
“This way.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Father.”
There was no need to express such gratitude for a small private prayer room. This was precisely the place the temple used to entertain big-spending patrons.
“May the Sun’s blessing be upon you…”
“To think the cleric himself would come here…”
I began making light conversation with him, wearing the expression of a worshipper honored to meet a cleric in private for the first time.
He said that the high priest was deeply grateful for my generous donation and that it would be put to good use for the Sun during the founding festival. Then he added that he was worried they might not be able to prepare a fitting place for the Sun due to a lack of prayers.
In other words, they lacked funds.
Since he had tested the waters first, it was now my turn.
“I’ve been so busy with work lately that I haven’t been as diligent in my prayers as I should be. I wanted to express my devotion more fully, but so much capital has been tied up in my businesses… Do you think the Sun would understand, Father?”
“I see… However, Worshipper. Is not the Sun one who returns what is given twofold, threefold? Rather than focusing on the business before your eyes—”
“Actually, it’s not just profit-driven ventures. I’ve also taken a great interest in charitable work. I’ve been supporting a certain foundation for some time now.”
“Oh… That’s… a very good deed, Worshipper.”
“As the Sun has watched over me, I believe it’s only right that I give back. Thanks to that, I think we’ll be able to build a small chapel. I’m so happy that we’ll be able to spread the Sun’s will to even more people.”
“…A chapel?”
The cleric echoed in surprise. Now was the moment to share my pride, modestly, as if it were nothing special.
“I’m not sure if you’ve heard, Father, but a library is planned for the eastern slums. As a condition of my support for the foundation, I asked them to build a chapel to house the Sun as well. The foundation’s director is also a believer of the Sun, so he readily agreed. Once a chapel is built there, many more people will be able to worship the Sun.”
“…”
The cleric’s mind was surely racing, weighing what benefit a chapel in the slums might bring to the temple. That was when I cast the real bait—something guaranteed to draw his full attention.
“And this is something I mention only because it’s you, Father…”
“Please, speak freely.”
“…The foundation’s director said he might receive a donation of one of the Sun’s relics.”
The cleric’s expression collapsed. A relic, out of nowhere—of course he couldn’t believe it. He probably thought I had fallen for a fraud.
“Worshipper, what do you mean by a relic?”
“He said that one of the patrons from the same kingdom intends to publicly donate a relic of the Sun at the library’s groundbreaking ceremony. Even he said he won’t know whether it’s genuine until that day.”
“There are relics whose whereabouts are unknown, but how could such a thing—”
“He’s from the former Kingdom of Ravita, which once worshipped the Sun. As you know, there are legends that Ravita possessed relics…”
At the mention of Lennon’s origins, the cleric’s expression subtly changed.
There had been people who tried to swindle others with fake relics. But the temple never ignored such claims—they always verified them personally. That was how important securing relics was.
Now the cleric’s interest would shift—from me, to the ‘relic,’ and soon to Lennon, the foundation’s director.
That would leave the temple with no choice but to meet Lennon. And once that happened, opposing the library’s construction would become far more difficult.
A chapel built in a facility that could attract even those indifferent to the temple, and the necessity of seeing the relic to judge its authenticity—if the relic were genuine, the temple would claim ownership. But only after it was publicly revealed could they do so with confidence.
Of course, I had no intention of handing it over.
The bait had been cast. My direct involvement ended here. From now on, as always, I would work from behind the scenes.
As long as the plan didn’t go awry…
*
The moment we left the temple, I boarded the carriage and ordered it to head not to the estate, but to a restaurant on Kael Street. I had already sent word to Lennon to have him arrive on time.
“Miss, won’t a restaurant be too conspicuous?” Amy asked.
“Right now, the foundation office and the slums are even more dangerous. And if the temple finds me suspicious and tails me, wouldn’t it seem more natural for me to head to Kael Street?”
The temple would likely check the check through the bank rather than assign someone to follow me.
“And the third floor of the restaurant will be empty today.”
Only then did Amy’s tense expression relax. Ever since I’d warned everyone to stay alert due to the possibility of another fire in the slums, she seemed to have grown more cautious.
“Amy, you don’t need to worry so—”
Knock, knock.
I stopped mid-sentence at the sudden knock from the front. It was the coachman’s signal. Since we were heading through a busy shopping district, I hadn’t thought much of the carriage stopping—but what was going on?
“Miss, I’ll check.”
Amy stepped out of the carriage. When I slightly parted the curtain covering the window, I saw nothing unusual—just people and carriages passing by.
After a moment, the carriage door opened again. Amy stepped back inside, her face flushed, completely unlike before.
“Miss.”
“What is it? Is there a problem with the carriage?”
“Miss… it’s Duke Kairs.”
“What?”
“He says he wishes to see you. It looks urgent.”
I repeated her words in my head.
“So… Duke Kairs is standing in front of the carriage?”
“Yes. He’s wearing a rather shabby cloak, but I’m certain it’s him—the same man who escorted you at the ball.”
“…”
“What should we do?”
…That’s what I’d like to know, Amy.
“…Tell the coachman to stop in a quiet alley. He can’t block the road like this.”
Even if he’d been careful, I didn’t want to meet Vihan in a conspicuous place. He often managed to shake off the people the princess assigned to watch him—but that kind of convenient plot logic didn’t necessarily apply to me.
The carriage stopped in a nearby alley. Not long after Amy stepped down, a brief knock sounded at the door.
“Please, come in.”
Why would he come all this way to find me? Had something happened?
The door opened, and Vihan lowered the hood of his cloak. Seeing him hesitate at the entrance, unable to step inside, I tilted my head.
“…Your Grace?”
“Are you calling me that again?”
“Ah…”
It wasn’t intentional—it was just that I’d written it that way in my letters, and it had stuck…
“It’s fine. You may call me that. You may do whatever you wish—just please take it back.”
“Pardon…?”
“I beg you, even if it’s improper, Rosemary. Please don’t return it to me. It was something I could finally give to you.”
His expression wavered, as if something inside him had collapsed. He looked anxious.
Why? All I did was return the necklace. Anyone seeing this would think—
…
…that I’d returned it because I was rejecting a confession.
