Chapter 103

It was understandable — Duke Cherity's image was famously the gentle sort.

But right now his brow was drawn deep into a frown as he stared at Iberin.

Even Iberin was a little thrown.

The first time she'd met him there had been a cool feeling about him, but he'd still treated her with a fair amount of polish.

"Listen, Duke."

For Iberin to flinch — a woman who didn't get pushed off-balance by another person's pressure easily — said something.

"A — ah…"

And then, out of nowhere, the duke was on his knees in front of her, crying.

"Ehk?"

"Wha— why is he —?"

Nais let out a strange yelp and Iberin was so flustered she could only stammer.

"Are you hurt somewhere…?"

Has he lost it?

"You — what are you?"

That was the exact question she wanted to ask.

"What are you, exactly."

"Just what…"

"Listen."

"What I mean is, why do you carry the same energy as the Saintess?"

"The Saintess? You met the Saintess?"

"…"

"How was she? Is she all right?"

The duke, who'd been crying with a mournful look on his face, lifted his head and met her eyes. He looked lost.

His expression as he gazed up from his knees had something saintly about it.

"You two know each other?"

"Ah."

"You know the Saintess?"

"If I said I did, would that change anything?"

"…Quite a lot would change."

"And if I said I didn't?"

"That'd be all right too."

"What's wrong with you?"

"With what?"

He was answering with a strange kind of obedience.

He wasn't even pressing her for answers.

It was a complete reversal from how he'd thrown Nais aside a minute earlier.

"Never mind. I don't know what a duke who should be in the west is doing here, but let's pretend today never happened."

As Iberin had guessed, Rozelia really was inside the temple.

It didn't sit well to lay everything out for a duke who might be on the temple's side.

"Aren't you curious. What kind of state the Saintess is in."

Iberin, who'd already turned to leave, stopped.

"…State?"

"Wretched. Enough to make you curse the temple out loud."

"…Hh."

"I'll tell you. Everything."

Duke Cherity gazed at Iberin like a man under a spell, and answered.

Nais decided Cherity wasn't in his right mind and shook his head furiously, grabbing Iberin's arm. But Iberin's lips parted slowly.

"…All right."

The moment the words landed, the corner of Duke Cherity's mouth curled up.

---

Nais suggested they go to his office. But Duke Cherity shook his head.

"Do you know? You've got the temple on your tail."

"What?"

"Did you think coming in under the name Grace would keep you hidden?"

"…Ah."

"There are plenty of people who play eyes and ears for the temple."

"They've known the whole time?"

"I'm not sure about the whole time, but they know exactly what you're up to."

So today's trip to the orphanage had reached the temple's ear too.

True enough — there were parts of the rumors that had been spreading too brazenly.

Suspicious priests would have done plenty of digging behind the scenes.

She'd taken the temple too lightly.

"Come with me."

"Wait — Duke, aren't you a man of the temple?"

She'd thought he was clearly on the temple's side, but watching him now, it was hard to say.

He'd just handed over information he hadn't needed to share.

"No. If we're being precise, it was a symbiotic relationship."

"Symbiotic?"

"…I'll answer that part once we've changed locations."

"One moment — then please do one thing for me."

"What is it?"

"There's a place I'd like protected. An orphanage in the capital."

"Understood."

The duke agreed without asking further.

He seemed to be in a hurry to get them somewhere private to talk.

Even Iberin found it odd.

She was the one with all the questions — why did the duke look more impatient than her?

"Let — let's go!"

Nais, sharply aware that he was the only one here to look after Iberin, took the lead, on edge.

"Does he have to come along?"

Duke Cherity asked it with a clearly displeased face.

"Then who else is supposed to come — should I just go with you alone?"

"What's wrong with me?"

"You're asking that and expecting an answer?"

Iberin's face was full of doubt. This was a man who'd tried to kill her once.

Only then did Duke Cherity close his mouth.

---

The place they arrived at was the ducal residence.

The servants, who hadn't received word that the duke had come up to the capital, looked baffled at the sight of Cherity. But they recovered into professional motion quickly.

What had startled them, though, wasn't the duke's arrival.

His Grace brought a woman home.

His Grace…!

Even the head butler, the man closest to Cherity, was startled — the rest needed no comment.

Nais, standing right next to Iberin, didn't even register, apparently.

"This way, please."

The duke's punctilious manner only added to it.

Cherity sent everyone out and kept only Iberin and Nais.

When the room had quieted, Iberin spoke first.

"So — Rozelia. The Saintess. How is she?"

"Forced down on her knees, with her thighs and calves bound. Both hands neatly folded and tied in front of her. Almost like a praying posture. A gag in her mouth — she can't even speak."

Iberin's lips trembled.

Even Nais, who didn't know Rozelia, frowned just hearing it.

If they'd kidnapped her because she was the Saintess, didn't they owe her decent treatment?

That kind of handling was exactly why the child had run.

"When I asked why she was being kept like that, the priest said it was because she resisted too fiercely."

Of course Rozelia wasn't going to sit quietly.

"She cried, looking at me. Like she was screaming for help."

Iberin couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

"When I asked when they'd release her, he said when she stopped resisting. When I asked if they were feeding her, he said yes."

"S-so — they're going to leave her like that until Rozelia stops fighting?"

"That seemed to be the gist."

"Why were you there?"

"I got the temple's letter in the west and rushed to see the Saintess. I never imagined I'd find her in that condition."

But why was he laying all this out so willingly? Only then did the strangeness of it land on Iberin, and she looked at the duke.

The duke, like a bashful boy, blushed and dropped his head.

The sight made Iberin recoil slightly.

"Why are your cheeks red? Have you lost it?"

"Lost it, you say — it's a reflex, what am I supposed to do about it…"

"What I'm asking is why your reflex is to blush."

"…I have a question for you, too."

"What."

"Why do I sense divine energy on you?"

"On me?"

Only then did Iberin think she understood why Duke Cherity had been so docile.

It was because Rozelia's holy power still lingered on her.

"Rozelia shared her holy power with me, that's probably it. You know I'm sick."

"No, it's stronger and more brilliant than even what came from the Saintess herself."

But Cherity flatly disagreed.

"It's different?"

"Different."

Cherity's expression melted back into the same rapt look.

This is bordering on creepy.

Iberin flinched and edged back.

"Different how?"

"A more refined feel. The high priest called the Saintess a half-formed thing. She did feel that way — but you're complete."

"Complete?"

"Yes. You carry the real energy of the god."

Me?

The claim was so unexpected she startled, but he didn't seem to be lying.

"The high priest didn't say anything like that."

If the high priest had felt the same thing Duke Cherity was feeling, he'd have taken her instead of Rozelia.

So why hadn't he noticed?

"Because that man's a priest in name only."

"You're not a priest either."

"You don't know about House Cherity?"

Now that he mentioned it, the founding ancestor of the family was said to be a holy spirit.

"None of the current priests have any holy power. Their ability to tell real from fake is poor too."

"What?"

That hadn't been in the original.

Then again, in the original the bad one had been Lecashe and only Lecashe.

There'd been no mention of the emperor using Lecashe via hypnosis the way he had here, either.

Just how many hidden truths were there?

A small chill crawled over Iberin.

"But the priests felt Rozelia's holy power. How could they have missed the energy on me?"

There were too many contradictions in the duke's claim.

"Th-that —"

That part the duke himself couldn't explain.

But he kept insisting, again and again, that it was different.

Iberin was lost.

Nais, sitting beside her, was completely shut out of the conversation, but he looked just as tangled up.

If what Duke Cherity said was true, then Iberin was an unprecedented hybrid.

She'd carried a Lecashe child, taken demonic energy into her body — and now divine power on top of it?

No such thing had ever existed.

Then Iberin remembered, suddenly, that she had spoken the god's name.

Was that where something had gone wrong?

"Looks like something's coming to mind."

Cherity didn't miss the change in her expression.

Iberin said nothing.

Even so, Duke Cherity naturally lowered himself and went to his knees in front of her.

"What now?"

She'd thought he was an enormously proud duke — why were his knees this quick to hit the floor?

"You seem like someone who can help me reach the one I've been searching for."

"…Ah. The god."

"Yes. The god. I feel like I could meet him near you."

"Listen to yourself. Do you really think I'd let you near me? You tried to kill me."

When Iberin snorted it out, Cherity's face fell visibly and he started to cry.

It wasn't only his knees that were quick.

"I was wrong."

The duke offered no excuses, no qualifications, and apologized for his crime.

That part she rather liked.

"I was wrong…"

"…No."

"Please forgive me."

As if he were apologizing in earnest, the tears that had been falling one or two at a time started coming faster.

Just as Iberin and Nais were both staring, equally thrown by the falling tears —

A knock came, and the Cherity head butler entered.

"Your Gr—"

"…Ah?"

A duke on his knees, crying, and Iberin sitting in front of him.

It was the perfect scene to misread.

Iberin and the butler had a head-on view of each other for a beat, but the butler offered a clipped apology and closed the door.

"Wow."