Chapter 31
“High Priest, why are you lying?”
Shocked, Phileal asked back like this, but the High Priest closed his mouth and looked at him gently.
Perhaps because of that expression, Phileal seemed embarrassed. When I glanced at Leviathan, he was looking at a completely different place, rubbing his ear in annoyance.
“I didn’t know you would make the next bishop on your side, Saintess.”
“Your Majesty.”
“Did your little play at trivial love work? You amazingly have the bishop wrapped around your finger.”
“Your Majesty. Please don’t talk to Phileal that way. It’s me that Your Majesty hates.”
“…….”
Phileal was looking at the high priest. He seemed hurt, perhaps because of the high priest’s aloof face. His watery crimson eyes glittered like well-polished rubies.
Like someone who wants to cry right now.
“It’s true that you manipulated the second bishop. So what can I say?”
“Ha.”
Kylian laughed at my words. Then he held the sleeping Anais and glared at the high priest of death, and said.
“How can I find my wife’s memories?”
“…There is no other way than waiting while restoring it with divine power like now.”
“…….”
“It would be nice to have her read the diary that Your Majesty showed us before.”
His gaze turned back to me. Because that diary was with me.
That moment. Shwaaaa. It started raining outside. The sound of rain was so loud that it could be heard even inside the imperial palace, breaking the blanket of silence around us.
“You want the diary?”
“…Yes.”
He looked rather reluctant, as if he were asking someone he didn’t want to ask for. Looking at his face reminded me of the way I bullied him as a child.
“Instead, please grant my wish.”
I felt a warm feeling somewhere in my chest.
“What is it?”
“Get rained on with me.”
“…….”
He unknowingly avoided my gaze as he hugged the sleeping Anais tighter. Then, after quite a while, he spoke.
“Why should I?”
“You said you needed the diary.”
“I can take it by force.”
“I know you wouldn’t want to. So get rained on together.”
“…Fine.”
Killian replied with a sigh as he couldn’t help it.
As I stood in front of the door, Phileal opened it wide. I wondered if he followed the high priest of death like his family, so the high priest believed in him as much. Seeing how he let me take Phileal even after he said I manipulated him. Or he has other plans.
“Why you? I thought Leviathan would take me instead.”
“We don’t change our prey once we’ve decided.”
“Am I considered prey?”
“That’s how the analogy is.”
He came back smiling, but his eyes weren’t smiling. I was a little worried about him, probably because he took my side while Lewarren was asleep.
“You wouldn’t be too happy to see me looking for my body, right?”
“Why?”
“I will convince Kylian to give up on me. And when I fully return to my body, Lilith will reawaken.”
“…….”
“Since Lilith’s a saint, can use her power freely. You won’t be able to win, just as a second bishop.”
That’s how it was. Although Lilith was a saint of the Goddess of Life, she was able to use divine power as well as healing power. It means that she was able to drive out evil spirits. Even though her physical strength was as weak as a child and she could quickly lose consciousness, her cleansing power was the best in the capital.
Confronting the people of the Temple of Death, who had the opposite powers, was something I couldn’t do once Lilith woke up.
“You think I wouldn’t know that?”
“…….”
He was still smiling. Except for his eyes.
“No. I said it because I thought it would be different to know it only in my mind and to hear it in person.”
Then he wasn’t even smiling anymore. I felt awkward looking at him as he had a very sullen face.
“Do you have to? You can just go back to your body and live. Then His Majesty will live well, and so are you. Why do you have to be so perverse?”
“My body is not alive like that. They say that she can live only if she continues to receive strength from the God of Death.”
“Yes.”
“How would you live like that? Sustaining the body by offering a living sacrifice.”
“Humans go hunting.”
“…….”
“They eat weak animals to survive.”
Phileal’s eyes were shining like polished rubies again.
“What’s wrong with preying on an individual weaker than you? People with divine power continue to be born.”
“…….”
“Life is a cycle of suffering.”
“…….”
“For a weak individual, it might be a mercy to quickly release them from that pain.”
“You say that, but you sacrificed your father because you wanted to live.”
I didn’t want to go this far, but it came out without my knowledge. If I don’t stop him anymore, I think I’ll want to accept his logic and follow his words.
“People’s lives are precious.”
“…….”
“Did you ask why I wanted to save you?”
Unexpectedly, the corners of his eyes drooped.
“I was afraid of you dying. Because I almost died that way.”
“…….”
“So I saved you.”
Seeing Phileal again, his face looked like an innocent child on the verge of crying.
“Can I go now?”
“…….”
I didn’t want to say anything more, so I asked him, but he still stopped me, just staring at me and not moving.
So I decided to wait. It was clear that he was doing that because his thoughts were complicated.
“You.”
“…….”
“Why did you give up your life so much when you say life is precious?”
“…….”
“I was there when you were shot for His Majesty. At that time, I sneaked in because I thought I might be able to find a sacrifice because of the smell of blood in the imperial palace.”
A sigh came out as he spoke as if to make excuses. Apparently, he must have witnessed my death.
“There are things more fearful than death.”
“What is that?”
I was silent because he was asking like an innocent child who really didn’t know anything. Then I said,
“Well. Think about it.”
“It is difficult. Tell me.”
“You lack patience.”
“I don’t have anything like that. Tell me.”
“Think about it on your own. Get out of the way. I need to get my diary.”
“…….”
There will be no one who is not afraid of death. It would be a little better if we could see what lies beyond death. Hell and paradise. There are only these two hints. Because there is no correct information.
The fear of death is still the same for me. But what I feared more than death was seeing Kylian’s body. Foolishly selfish, I didn’t expect Kylian to feel miserable seeing my dead body. Maybe I am being punished for it now.
“Alright, I see. Did I do well?”
“Yes. Very well.”
Phileal was smiling again with an innocent face. Maybe that’s why I felt a little reassured.
I went to Kylian’s bedroom with the diary I received thanks to my victory in the match, but I couldn’t enter right away.
The soldiers who briefly confronted me in front of the door moved aside as soon as they saw Phileal, who had followed me. I guess they wouldn’t open it if I came alone.
“Please go in.”
“Yes.”
Phileal reacted with an amused expression and put a hand on my shoulder. As if he was checking my energy, I felt the divine power inside move a little.
“You are late.”
“I had to do some work.”
Kylian, who was holding the sleeping Anais’ body, saw me and Phileal, and carefully lowered her to the bed. The blue hair fell from her shoulders and curled over the slippery silk pillow.
“Why only one?”
He asked crookedly, looking at the diary in my arms.
“I’ll give you one for every wish you grant.”
There were three diaries in total. I had been writing since I was a kid, so the amount is quite a lot. Originally, I was not a person who kept a diary very well. However, after my possession, I used to write down the events of the day, even briefly.
I wrote it almost every day except for when I went on an expedition or when I was subjugating monsters. So that… That way I wouldn’t forget that I had made up my mind to give up my life to protect Kylian.
“I won’t ask for unreasonable wishes.”
“How can I trust you?”
Kylian, who seemed a little shaken by my words, seemed convinced that I was Lilith after hearing what the high priest of death said. The hostility, which had softened a little, was now fully exposed.
No matter how hard I tried to hide it, I couldn’t stop it, and my skin started to tingle because of the murderous intent he was exuding. Suddenly, Phileal grabbed my little finger and looked at me. Then, I smiled like a fox again and looked at Kilian.
“Don’t you know I can take it by force?”
“I know you won’t. If you were going to do that, you wouldn’t have asked me twice like that.”
“…….”
And when Kylian looked at me with a confused expression now, his murderous intent also dissipated. I was interested in him even though I had been living as a couple for ten years… Even if he avoided me, there were many things I wanted to know about him. It was the same when the situation is like now.
“Funny. If you say that, I can’t even think of being able to force you out of repulsion.”
“Your Majesty. You keep threatening me with such words.”
“…….”
“If you want to take it by force, do it. Your Majesty can easily subdue me. I have a weak body, and even the slightest grip on a sword could injure my hand so much.”
“…….”
I thought he was going to stare at me, but he was unexpectedly changing into a calm look.
“Then let’s go.”
“…….”
As soon as we finished talking, I handed over the diary to Phileal. Then, Kylian slowly walked this way.
The golden cape that went well with the jet-black uniform matched his eyes beautifully. His large pectoral muscles were moving nicely with every breath that he let out like he was displeased.
Then I came to my senses for a moment hearing Phileal’s voice.
“I want to go, too.”
“You protect Lady Anais here.”
“I want to go.”
“You are in charge here.”
“…Yes.”
Even Kylian said that, so Phileal had to remain here.
There was a reason why I wanted him to get rained on together. When he first came to the duke’s residence, he was afraid of thunder. Because it thundered the day his mother died. He also hated rain because it rained when it thundered. Then he gradually got over it, and later, whenever he felt bad, he enjoyed walking around in the rain.
“You weren’t lying when you said you were afraid of thunder when you were ten, right?”
I asked him before going out to the imperial palace garden. Then, as if he was surprised, he looked at me with wide open eyes and pursed his lips. Like he wanted to say something.
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