Chapter 112

Around the time everyone had settled down, Rotte brought the food in.

It was a simple soup, but the moment Iberin lifted her spoon, ten pairs of eyes locked onto her.

"Go ahead, try a spoonful."

"O-okay."

She took a spoonful, and the warm, soft taste spread through her mouth.

Only then did her body feel like it was starting to loosen.

"How is it?"

"It's good."

"Thank goodness. You can finish the whole bowl, can't you?"

"Yes, of course."

The attention was a lot, but she was used to it, and she finished the bowl.

Every time she got sick it turned into this kind of fuss — what would she do if it kept up?

"More importantly, what happened with the party?"

"It fell apart, basically."

"H-huh?"

"Lady Iberin collapsed out of nowhere, so His Highness rushed out without thinking. Who would've thought he'd jump down from the terrace? There were a lot of people still coming in through the outside, so it was even more of a scene."

"He jumped down from the terrace?"

"He must have been in too much of a hurry."

"…Right."

"Anyway, after he left like that, Duke Cherity left too, and with the main figures gone, the party kind of fizzled."

Rotte said it as she set down a large sack with a thud.

"What's this?"

"Letters expressing worry for you. They seem to be from almost every noble."

"Wow…."

She'd felt Lecashe's standing had risen that day, but to this extent?

Iberin's mouth fell open.

"Not just letters. There's a mountain of get-well gifts too."

"What?"

"I haven't opened them, but there are so many it'll be a job just to check them."

So everyone had been hoping she'd wake up.

Whatever their reasons were.

"Hmm."

Now that she thought about it, Lyssel had said they couldn't pinpoint the cause of her collapse.

"It's strange, though."

"What is?"

"Right before I collapsed, I heard this weird voice."

"A voice?"

"Mm. It kept calling for me. Telling me to come."

"A voice…"

"I wonder if it was what made me collapse. You said the cause was unknown."

"You don't know where it was coming from?"

"…No. It wasn't a voice I'd ever heard before."

Iberin answered in a small voice.

The moment one thing got better, another came along.

According to Lyssel, the culprit didn't seem to be the emperor or House Sherburn.

Lyssel thought about it for a while, then said quietly,

"I think your problems keep coming because you're connected to the god, somehow."

Iberin went mute.

Honestly, she didn't have the nerve to claim no connection at all.

The truth was, ever since she'd spoken the god's name, strange things had started happening.

But that part only she knew.

Even so, that Lyssel had reasoned his way back to it was impressive.

"But what would My Lady have to do with the god? Besides, the demonic energy in her body hasn't even completely gone away yet."

Rotte sounded cautious.

"Then how do we explain Duke Cherity? He said he felt the god's energy on her."

But unlike Rotte, Nais seemed to be on Lyssel's side.

He wasn't ruling out the demonic energy angle entirely, of course.

Iberin hesitated for a moment.

She'd thought about telling them before, but she hadn't been able to come up with a way to explain how she'd known the god's name, so she'd given up.

But she couldn't hide it forever.

Things kept happening, and everyone was already thinking it had to do with the god.

"Um… the truth is…"

"What is it? Do you have some idea what's going on?"

"…Hah, the thing is, I…"

Iberin squeezed her eyes shut.

She was visibly hesitating, looking lost, so it was clear there was something.

Sensing this wasn't going to be simple, everyone patted her gently and told her it was all right.

"Whatever it is, it's fine. Do you know something?"

"Yes, Lady Iberin. It's okay, just tell us."

In the end, Iberin made up her mind and shouted,

"Hh, I called out the god's name!"

A short silence fell.

"…What?"

"The god's name?"

It took them a while before the delayed reactions came.

"How did you know the god's name…?"

She'd known that would be the first question.

It was the name the world had lost since the Holy-Demonic War — no one had managed to find it.

"That, well, the thing is, I…"

"Is it hard to say?"

"…Yes."

"Then you don't have to say. It's fine."

"You're not curious?"

"I am. But I don't want to drag it out of you when you don't want to say."

"Lyssel…"

"I learned all of this from you, didn't I?"

"From me…?"

"Yes. If it were you, what would you have said?"

Thrown off by his question, she thought it over carefully.

If it had been her, what would she have said?

Probably the same thing Lyssel was saying now.

She would've insisted it was fine and tried to soothe him first.

"I'd have done the same thing as you, I think."

"Right? See, I learned a good thing."

Lyssel broke into a grin.

The easy way he said it made Iberin think — he really had changed a lot.

"Anyway, to put what you've said together: you learned the god's name and called it. And strange things started happening after that."

"Right."

The sleepwalking. The strange voice.

And Cherity was offering unconditional obedience because, he claimed, he could feel pure holy power in her.

"You said the voice was calling for you."

"Yes."

"Could it be the god?"

"The god? Calling me — where?"

"What did the voice say, exactly?"

Thinking about the connections, it did seem likely the voice was the god calling her.

"To come this way, to come to me…."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

She had no idea where she was being called to.

It didn't sound like it was calling her to the temple.

According to Duke Cherity, there weren't any real priests at the temple, anyway.

"Ah!"

Just then Rozelia jumped up like she'd realized something.

"What is it?"

"My half-awakening. Could that be connected to you calling out the god's name too?"

"…Huh?"

Iberin had thought about that as well.

"Oh my."

"So basically — I became the Saintess thanks to you, Lady Iberin?"

"Come on. Even without me, Rozel would've become the Saintess eventually."

That was the future the original had laid out, after all.

But Rozelia, with no way of knowing that, shook her head firmly.

"I don't think so. If I hadn't run away that day and met His Highness, wouldn't I have ended up like those bones in the basement?"

No, you'd have become a duke's daughter and lived happily ever after with the crown prince.

"Though with Rozel's personality, I feel like she'd have run for it and survived somehow…"

Rotte muttered it, and Rozelia breezed right past her.

"Lady Iberin, you saved my life!"

"But if you hadn't awakened in the first place, you wouldn't have been kidnapped back to the temple either…?"

"Mr. Lawyer."

"Hm?"

"Shut up."

"…"

Nais's mouth snapped shut like a clam in an instant.

"Lady Iberin is my lifesaver. So I'm going to spend my whole life with my lifesaver. Repaying her, my whole life."

"So that was the goal. But isn't that a bit off, though. Why would repaying a debt come with mandatory clauses…?"

"I said shut up."

Rozelia quietly balled up a fist and shook it.

Nais wore an expression that said what kind of Saintess personality is this, but Rozelia couldn't care less and stayed glued to Iberin's side.

"Even without all that, I had no intention of sending you anywhere."

"Hehe. I'm just feeling thankful all over again."

No matter what she said, Rozelia was just going to keep saying she was grateful, so Iberin gave up trying to explain.

Telling her this is your future would just get a giggle.

"So anyway, my mommy's an amazing person?"

Ether asked from beside her.

Rozelia answered without missing a beat, yes she is.

"Wow, so amazing!"

"I'm not sure how the conversation got here, but it's not bad. Having Ether and Rozelia hyping me up."

"Hehe."

Both arms full of children, she laughed — and then thought about it again.

The god was calling her.

She didn't know where, but until she went to find it herself, these strange occurrences would keep happening.

"By the way, Iberin."

"Yes?"

"What's the god's name?"

"Ah, Demedeto. Come to think of it, when I first spoke that name, there was a tremor in the forest."

"…In the forest? Wait, then?"

Lyssel had felt a tremor and gone out to the forest late at night once.

The memory came back to him and he looked at her, startled.

"I'm sorry. For pretending I didn't know anything."

"No, no. You don't have to apologize. So that's exactly when it started."

"Right. I'd completely forgotten about it, and only recently started thinking something was off."

"A tremor in the forest. That means there's something in that forest…."

"Hmm. But you said you didn't find anything."

"I didn't. We'll have to check again, though. We didn't search every part. I need to head back."

"I'm sorry."

He'd decided to step down from his position, and now there was a reason he had to go back to the territory after all.

"Stop apologizing."

But things to apologize for kept piling up, and the apologies just came out on their own.

In the end, they settled on returning to the territory.

---

The bigger concern was that, having ruined the welcoming ceremony and the party, the emperor was probably furious.

Contrary to her worries, no particular word came from the emperor.

He just sent a polite letter of standard please take care of your health phrasing, along with a jewelry box.

Of course, Iberin burned the letter and sold off the jewelry box as is.

Anything the emperor had given her left a bad taste — she didn't want to keep it for even a moment.

"What brings you?"

When she'd been sick, they hadn't shown so much as a nose — but the Sherburn family came calling, apparently having heard she'd recovered to some degree.

There was a man with them she'd never seen before.

She wasn't particularly curious, so she didn't bother asking.

"Your parents come to see you in person, and you don't even know to be grateful?"

"Your child is sick — parents coming to visit isn't exactly some grand thing."

"What? You really have changed a lot."

"Plenty of time has passed. A person can't always stay the same."

"Hh. Fine. More importantly, are you well?"

"Yes. I'm fine."

"No. I was so worried I went and tracked down an excellent doctor for you. Here, this is Doctor Caliman."

"We have a fine physician at Lecashe. Thank you, but I'm fine."

"At least let him take a look. Out of respect for your father's efforts."

The viscountess was always shrill, which actually made her easier to deal with — but the viscount was measured.

When he was lowering himself like this to ask, Iberin couldn't flatly refuse either.

There was no way they weren't in this together, but he was still the only one in the couple who hadn't treated her with open cruelty up to now.

"I am Doctor Caliman. It's an honor to be permitted to examine the Grand Duchess."

He bowed his head in greeting, then held her gaze with an almost relentless intensity.