Chapter 39
“Me? I was just walking. Can’t you see? I’m on a stroll.”
“……”
“……”
“Where are all your royal guards?”
“Them? Over there.”
Eivin, following the Emperor’s pointing finger, craned her neck to look and saw royal guards draped in black cloaks standing stiffly about five meters away.
“Ah, yes. Will you be heading to the auditorium once the Saintess’s sermon is over? It’s time for snacks.”
“Indeed.”
“Alright. Then, enjoy your stroll.”
“Hmm.”
Eivin bowed her head again and picked up her laundry basket.
And then.
*Whoosh!*
“……!”
She burst into a full sprint, her hair flying wildly.
“Huh? Look at that!”
Eivin’s sudden acceleration didn’t just startle Emperor Rociniol.
“Y-Your Majesty!”
The Emperor started running after her, and consequently, the royal guards also had to rush to follow.
*Clank, clank, clank.*
The noisy sound of plate armor clashing accompanied the pursuit of Eivin…
“Huff… huff… Ah, why… are you chasing me?!”
“I’m not chasing you! Huff… huff… I’m… on a… huff… stroll!”
That lunatic, seriously…
Who goes on a ‘stroll’ like they’re in a chase?!
‘What kind of nutcase is that?!’
With the heart of a runaway slave being chased by a bounty hunter, Eivin ran and ran until her breath hitched in her throat.
—
* * *
“We must never forget that we are all loved by the goddess Pluula.”
Inside the Werner Orphanage auditorium, the Saintess’s testimonial sermon was in full swing.
“To answer His love, we, His creations, must offer blind trust and obedience before Him.”
The Saintess stood upon the ornate podium set up in the center of the auditorium, looking down upon them.
The gazes of the poor and orphans were all directed at her up high.
“All good things in this world come from His love and holy light.”
What followed was a testimonial about the rosy future orphaned children, gathered under Pluula’s light, could inherit.
Though they were all gathered here, uneducated and abandoned by the poor, they could grow up to have respectable professions like teachers, judges, doctors, priests, and holy knights. They could marry respectable male and female devotees and build warm families. In the light of the goddess Pluula, there is no sickness, no poverty, no sorrow. So, cling desperately to the goddess Pluula, and never lose faith.
“I, Pabella, a fragment of the goddess Pluula, will help you.”
Flanking the Saintess, holy knights in pure white armor stood in an impeccable line.
All maintained calm and stoic expressions as they vigilantly guarded the surroundings.
Among them, Theodore was observing the entire auditorium at a glance from the very back.
He was thoroughly checking the safety status of the surrounding area, just in case, scanning the inside and outside of the auditorium for any potential threats.
Fortunately, so far, no notable anomalies had been found.
Except for one.
His encounter with Eivin Kinzelo.
—
—What’s this, was I interrupting while you two were having fun?
—Why aren’t either of you saying anything?
And then the empire’s troublemaker emperor…
—I’m sorry, I tripped because I was in a hurry to move the laundry.
Her expression, seeming flustered before the scowling troublemaker emperor.
‘Does she plan to play even the emperor like a puppet in her hand?’
If she’s bewitching him and, not content with that, intends to wrap even the emperor, notorious as a lecher, in her skirts…
Theodore’s eyes were mechanically scanning the auditorium interior, but his mind was entirely filled with thoughts of the necromancer.
—
—I… I really don’t know anything. My father and brothers always said outside the castle was dangerous… so I was always inside the castle…
Back then, she had trembled, huddled like a small, frail animal trapped within our cage.
That expression, that look in her eyes when she was dragged out from the iron bars and looked up at him.
“……”
As he suddenly recalled Eivin’s face in the prison, eyes reddened and sniffling, he felt a hot, hardening lump form somewhere below his stomach.
It was an almost primal, animalistic sensation he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
Feeling both bewildered and disgusted by this physical reaction, Theodore couldn’t stop thinking.
‘The day you fall into my hands again. With what kind of eyes will you look up at me then, and what words will you spill? Will you cling to me and cry like you did then?’
Cling…
The next moment, the image that appeared before his eyes was Eivin clinging to his chest.
Her flawless, pale skin brushed against his spotless white breastplate, slowly sliding down.
Everything before his eyes turned a sea of purple.
Spreading across his chest was Eivin’s purple hair.
Tears welling in her blue, hydrangea-like eyes.
She was pleading.
No, almost sobbing as she begged.
—
Save me, Theodore.
From the evil.
Save me.
Please…
—
“Whoa!”
*Thump!*
A young male student, just entering the auditorium, bumped into Theodore’s shin guard and staggered, jolting Theodore’s consciousness, which had been wandering in a hazy illusion, back to reality.
“Are you alright?”
Theodore reflexively grabbed the boy’s arm and asked, catching his breath.
“S-sorry!”
Utterly intimidated by the inexplicable pressure emanating from the holy knight, the boy quickly recited an apology and swiftly disappeared into the crowd within the auditorium to find his seat.
“…Damn it.”
Theodore narrowed his brow and muttered softly.
To have such vulgar fantasies.
And during guard duty, no less.
‘Dangerous.’
Throughout his 26 years, he had never flinched even before enemies renowned for their infamy.
But strangely, before that woman who barely reached his chest…
He felt not just his body, but his spirit becoming endlessly weak.
That primordial weakness was something he had never felt even before Pabella, the Saintess, a fragment of the goddess Pluula.
It was as if he had regressed to a raw, beast-like state before becoming human…
‘Vulgarity.’
Just then, the sound of Saintess Pabella’s sermon pierced his consciousness.
“Simply believe, and just follow God’s light. To cleanse the worldly grime staining you and the blood tainted by your ancestors’ sins flowing in your veins, and to obtain eternal happiness and peace…”
Those gathered in the auditorium listened to the Saintess’s speech as if enchanted.
Even the very young children forgot to chatter with their friends beside them, completely absorbed.
They were captivated by the Saintess’s overwhelmingly intense impression.
And why wouldn’t they be?
Upon the high podium decorated with brilliant flowers, the Saintess looking down upon the poor with benevolent eyes was the very incarnation of the goddess Pluula.
The podium and the mysterious sculptures around it were the result of diligent preparations by the relevant parties, who had been busily coming and going from the orphanage even before the ‘Special Relief Period’ began.
From the mysteriously colored Garian Rose to the noble white lilies, the plump blue Muscari and Carnations, and the lovely Tulips.
All were precious flowers of a grade seen only at imperial banquets, glittering like small jewels below the white marble podium, providing a rare spectacle for children used to seeing only wildflowers in the fields.
It wasn’t just the flowers that captured the children’s gaze.
The clothes the Saintess wore were also as beautiful and splendid as the flowers.
*Swish.*
Every time she slightly turned her head, the delicate semi-transparent veil attached to her white headdress moved, creating a mysterious aura. Her figure, wearing a precious white sable fur coat over her dress, cinched with an embossed belt…
Rather than holy, she looked… untouchably distant and precious?
A nobility so high it felt discordant, almost alien, to the auditorium’s atmosphere, its old walls cracked with corrosion, dust and debris falling here and there.
“Our order exists for those in the lowest places.”
At the Saintess’s closing words, applause erupted from here and there.
The children, sitting on the cold bare floor, clapped their fern-like hands enthusiastically.
Those leaning against the cracked stone walls here and there also joined the applause.
“Saintess, a moment…”
As Elder Mateo approached the Saintess and whispered, she gave a slight nod.
“The discourse will resume shortly. Snacks prepared by the diocese will now be distributed, so please wait in the auditorium, our prospective devotees.”
*Gentle smile.*
Wearing a sacred smile was one of the easiest things the Saintess could do.
Leaving the noisily murmuring crowd behind, Pabella moved behind the curtain located at the back of the podium, escorted by the holy knights.
Within the small resting area prepared behind the curtain, the carpeted floor was soft, and comfortable chairs and sofas were arranged.
As candles illuminating the room softly added a cozy atmosphere along with incense…
“I have matters to discuss alone with the Elder. The rest of you, step outside for a moment.”
The Saintess dismissed the holy knights outside.
*Bow.*
As the escorts, having paid their respects to her, withdrew outside, Elder Mateo spoke gravely.
“We made him confess to the crime, just as per the prepared script.”
“Is that so?”
The Saintess’s tone, unlike during the speech, was dry and cold.
“Here are the confession details, Saintess.”
The Saintess unfolded the paper Mateo handed over.
Inside, the Emperor’s verdict was also written.
