Chapter 7

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Chapter 7

“Anais!”

“Huh?”

Startled, I saw Lewarren looking at me grimly. I think I caught a whiff of Kylian’s scent.

The reason I kept hearing auditory hallucinations was probably because of the side effects of possessing this body. That’s why Lewarren’s expression was so bad.

Confused, I calmed down and asked him.

“C-Can we go in now?”

“…….”

“Individuals with uncertain identities cannot enter.”

Two guards intercepted us at the gates. I wondered if they didn’t know Lewarren’s face, so I looked at them and then looked at Lewarren, and he also seemed to be somewhat perplexed.

“I am Lewarren, High Priest of the Roseraine Temple.”

“High Priest Lewarren has brown hair.”

“I dyed my hair.”

“What priest dyes it in such a striking color? Even such an ominous blue too!”

“Pffftt…!”

Lewarren looked at me with a subtle angry yet ashamed look.

Of course, I was the reason for that. Still, the only thing I’m responsible for was placing the condition—it was Lewarren who followed through. And it seemed embarrassing that I also got pointed out while speaking about blue hair. His expression wasn’t that good.

So I had to refrain from laughing as much as possible.

Besides, my guts was the size of a pea to speak defiantly against him. We would have been on equal grounds if I had fought him with my original body. We never seriously fought, but my skills at arguing weren’t that bad either.

However, it was clear that I would not have any bones left to pick if I attacked using Lilith’s weak body.

“Only priests with a certain identity are allowed to enter the Imperial Palace.”

“…….”

“Stand back.”

I looked at Lewarren, and he turned around with a frown.

So I had to walk to where he was going silently. I wished we wouldn’t keep going like this, but I couldn’t say it out loud.

Wouldn’t it be fine if I just proceed to the next frontier or maybe to paradise, and the rest could be handled by Lewarren and Lilith?

I don’t think it’s a good idea to take me to a place where I’d just stoke the flames of Kylian’s wrath.

In fact, even if I had thought of it that way, I felt sad because I knew I shouldn’t be. If he had done things to this extent, it seemed like he really needed me.

“Where are we going?”

“If we can’t get in like this, we’ll have to find another way.”

I tilted my head to the side while listening to Lewarren’s words. He was smiling the mean smile I had seen when I first met him while he was a thief. I didn’t know if it’s just because he had a different appearance compared to the usual while he still had brown hair, but because of his light blue hair, he had a different atmosphere about him. Even after rubbing my eyes, I couldn’t find his usual dignified appearance.

As expected, hair color is important.

“Ho…”

“What?”

“Nothing…”

For a moment, when I remembered that my hair color was also blue, I felt like my vision started blurring.

We arrived at a tavern. It was getting dark, and I couldn’t figure out why we had come into this shabby tavern.

I stared blankly, then he turned around and said,

“I’m here to change clothes.”

“What?”

“You just have to be still.”

“…Fine.”

Seriously. It’s not like you can just change clothes and suddenly be given entrance. Of course, he had a smile on his face. Like an innocent person who wouldn’t make up such tricks.

I went as he led and sat down. It was quite dark inside the tavern. When I stepped over the floor, it seemed like it was made from black marble. The interior was quite high quality, especially the chandelier that seemed more expensive than the one in the office I used as the Young Duke.

“What are you going to drink?”

“Faust Double Dry.”

“How many would you like?”

“Two. Put sugar in it.”

“Go down another floor.”

The employee guided him, and handed something to Lewarren. He received it casually and led me downstairs. The floor that went down was also made of black marble, and each time I walked, the clear and expensive sound of marble echoed through the passage.

“What are you looking for?”

There was a bar-like thing inside, and behind it stood a man.

“Faust Double Dry. Two. Added sugar.”

“Do you want to pay in advance?”

“I do.”

Lewarren grabbed one of his pockets from his waist and threw it at the man. The rugged man took it and gently opened it, saw what was inside, swallowed a gulp and laughed.

“If you call, they will come within half an hour. Do you have any other place to wait?”

“I want to see the special room upstairs.”

“You came as a referral.”

“Yes.”

I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about, but with Lewarren looking like he knew everything, I followed him. We went down the stairs a few times, so this time I was stunned at the thought that we were going up.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

Lewarren reached out and grabbed my sleeve. We had to go ahead and follow whoever was leading.

“Come here.”

“Right.”

When I found out, there was an elevator on the first floor in a place covered by a black curtain. A man who looked like an employee wound the chain with his hands and pulled it up, but there was no end to the climb.

We seemed to have gone up to about five floors, but seeing that no more footsteps could be heard from above, it seemed like it was the last floor.

“Please wait here.”

“Alright.”

He said special room, but it was just a room. But looking at the carpet, it seemed expensive. The ceramics I saw nearby had a different shape than when I lived, but they had a more sophisticated feel.

“Lewarren.”

“What?”

“You said five years have passed since I died?”

“Yes.”

“What has changed the most in those five years?”

It was confusing because everything had changed except for me, but I needed to keep up with the changing times. I don’t know how many weeks I’ll be in Lilith’s body.

“What do you think I’m going to answer?”

“Anything. Don’t lie to me.”

He sighed with a subtle face.

“Kylian has changed the most.”

“I see.”

I was taken aback because I thought I would hear some kind of answer. I wanted to ask more about the other situation, but I said something else to divert it to a different topic.

“But why are we here?”

“Aren’t you supposed to go to the Imperial Palace?”

“Are you going to hire a middleman?”

“It’s a more reliable method than a middleman. If you enter through a middleman, you cannot even see the emperor.”

“…Instead, you’d rather use maids or handmaids… It must be difficult because my identity is ambiguous.”

“Yes.”

A handmaid working in the imperial palace is of course a noble, and a maid is only available to those who have a clear origin. The position of a maid in the imperial palace was popular. As soon as they became the chief maid, they could have been given the title of semi-noble, and if they were lucky enough to sleep with the emperor, they could even be a concubine.

“Lewarren.”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t Kylian get along well with Lilith? Why wouldn’t he talk to his destined person?”

“… You’d better check it yourself. Because I don’t want to be caught between you.”

“…….”

“I just want to overcome this situation and clear up misunderstandings. Then you will either return to the underworld to receive your next life or go to paradise.”

This time and before, I always felt like I was a hindrance. Like a pea stuck where it shouldn’t be.

“Okay. Let’s do our best since we’ve made up our minds.”

“…Yes.”

After about thirty minutes, all the surrounding lights went out. It felt familiar, but the light from a nearby chandelier shone very faintly. It was not the light from the chandelier, but a reflection of the light coming in from the window.

“What have you come to order?”

It sounded like a snake crawling. A cold and creepy voice.

Huh?

The red eyes that I had seen in my dreams, I saw two people in front of me.

“Nothing.”

Lewarren gestured and they moved closer. I thought it was stupid.

“What a very careful client… Kugh!”

“What…! Uwaack!”

The Goddess that Lewarren serves is the goddess Roseraine. She was the goddess of destruction. Lewarren could destroy anything he touched with his palm. With humans, if used weakly, he could temporarily render them unconscious, but if he would use more force, either the body or the mind of that person would be completely destroyed.

It was to destroy things and life equally.

“Take off your clothes.”

“Are we going to wear that?”

“Yes.”

The surroundings brightened up again, and when I looked properly, they were the priests of death.

Fortunately, the robes we were wearing had hoods, so if we bowed our heads, we could cover our eyes.

“Let’s hurry.”

“Yes.”

Seeing him quickly put on his robe, I also undressed the man, who fainted because of Lewarren, and put on his clothes. It was inconvenient to wear clothes over clothes, but it was alright because they were men’s clothes.

When we returned to the main gate of the imperial palace, the guards opened the way without asking. My hair was rolled up and hidden, but still, I was very nervous because I was afraid it would come out.

I prided myself on memorizing the imperial palace’s structure. Because I memorized the inner map in the old days as the Young Duke. However, upon entering, the positions of the garden and the trees had all changed, and the flowers inside were artificial for some reason.

Trying to shake off this ominous feeling, I followed after Lewarren. Still, there seemed to be one thing that didn’t change.

We went to the emperor’s bedroom.

A hole-like entrance that I often went through, and it led to a passage that was typically meant for the women hidden by the Emperor. It was, of course, a place I knew because Kylian had told me about it before. Maybe Lilith knew about it, too.

“Follow me.”

“Yes.”

The problem was past the entrance. I would get lost every time I go into this maze-like passage after passing the hole, but this time I was neither confused nor afraid, perhaps because I was following Lewarren.

After moving along the passage for a while, by the time I came out, a room was there.

On one table inside the room, I saw the sloppy handkerchief that I had embroidered for Kylian in the past.

“Who said you can come in without permission?”

When I turned around at the man’s voice, there were two eyes that seemed to be staring straight at me.

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