Chapter 47

A strange weight pinned her down. When she looked over, Rozelia was clinging to her like a little ornament.

She turned her head to the right and found, exactly as expected, Ether.

A small laugh.

So that's why her body felt so heavy.

The absurdity of it pulled the laugh out of her.

The physician was nodding off in a chair in front of her.

Was this déjà vu?

She turned her head, and right on cue the door opened and Lyssel came in.

Their eyes met head-on.

He'd been bringing some food in — there was soup and a simple salad on the tray he was carrying.

"You're awake? How do you feel?"

"My lady, are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm okay."

Lyssel quietly lifted the sleeping children off her one by one and set a bowl of soup down in front of Iberin.

The kids blinked their eyes open in a daze.

"Mommy!"

"You're awake? Are you okay? The fever?"

"Awake, okay, fever's fine."

Ether wriggled out of Lyssel's grasp and made for Iberin.

A tiny hand pressed itself to her forehead out of nowhere.

"No fever — for real."

Only after he'd confirmed it did he break into a small relieved smile.

"You were really worried, huh. I'm sorry."

Ether shook his head.

"It's okay."

"Are you sure? The first time I was sick, you cried up an absolute storm — you're really okay this time?"

"Ether didn't cry this time. 'Cause big sis Rozel cried so much."

"…Hm?"

Iberin turned to look at Rozelia in surprise.

Her eyes really were puffy as goldfish bowls.

Rozelia ducked her head, embarrassed, and tried to hide them.

"Rozel, were you really worried?"

"I… ahem, I've never seen anyone sick before…"

Her voice was hoarse too.

Looking worried, Iberin pulled Rozelia into a hug and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry, my eyes are open now."

"…Still. You got sick so suddenly."

"I'm sorry."

"No, I was just startled, that's why I cried… I wasn't trying to make you apologize."

She must've been thoroughly shaken.

You could see the wind had gone right out of her.

That was when Lyssel slid the food tray closer.

"When you're sick is when you have to eat well."

"Ah, right."

"Can you sit up? Or should I bring the tray onto the bed?"

"I'm fine. Lying around without moving gets old."

At that, the kids scrambled down from the bed and rushed to prop her up.

"I can walk, you know."

"…But you could still fall."

"All right, all right."

She was already getting fussed over hand and foot, and after collapsing one more time it looked like the fussing was about to be turned up to eleven.

---

"I'm gonna try holy power training again."

"Hm? You mean you want to go to the capital temple?"

Rozelia had said she couldn't use her holy power.

That that was why the temple had thrown her away.

And now, out of nowhere, training?

When Iberin shot the question back at her in surprise, Rozelia scrunched up her face.

"Why on earth would I go there? Of course I mean here. I picked up some things while I was at it, you know!"

"You're going to learn on your own?"

"On my own?"

"As in, self-study."

"Yes. That's the one. And the mister said he'd take a look at it for me sometimes."

"His Highness?"

When Iberin looked back at him, baffled, it was Lyssel who answered.

"Because I handle demonic energy too. They're different in nature but similar in principle. Mine's the more savage of the two, of course."

The temple had burned Rozelia so badly that even hearing the word believer made her recoil — so there was no way she'd be looking forward to holy power.

But here she was, of her own initiative, asking to train. Iberin felt her heart squeeze.

"Rozel."

Iberin pulled Rozelia into a tight hug.

Rozelia blinked, looking lost for a second, then broke into a grin.

"Thank you."

"What for? Just hang in there a little, Lady Iberin. I'll fill you up to bursting with holy power!"

"Don't push yourself too hard. I love Rozel either way — none of that matters."

"Of course! Because I'm pretty and lovable!"

Rozelia planted her hands on her hips and tipped her chin up triumphantly.

---

Rozelia didn't just have a lot of holy power — she had it pouring out of her, more than overflowing.

It was so abundant they said she'd go her whole life without so much as a minor illness, free of any serious disease.

"With this much, she should be on the level of a saintess… so why…"

Lyssel muttered.

Beside him, Rozelia gave a small flinch.

Iberin, watching, didn't miss that split-second tell.

"Is there something else you're hiding?"

"…."

Rozelia couldn't bring herself to speak.

"It's okay. No one's going to say anything."

When Iberin's voice softened into reassurance, Rozelia hung her head as if surrendering and mumbled,

"Why are you so quick to catch on?"

"I'm a little like that."

"…The truth is, the temple didn't actually throw me out."

"What?"

"I ran away…"

Rozelia kept letting out long sighs, at a loss.

"They might be looking for me."

Iberin's mouth fell open.

That made sense — there was no way the temple would have casually thrown out someone on the level of the original story's saintess.

Which meant, no matter how much Rozelia insisted otherwise, when the temple eventually came knocking they wouldn't be able to argue it hadn't been a kidnapping.

Rozelia saw Iberin's pupils tremble and started to look scared.

"Are you going to send me away…? You said I could stay with you…"

Iberin looked at her quietly for a moment and answered,

"I'm not sending you away."

"Really?"

In an instant, Rozelia's expression brightened as if she'd never been sulking at all.

She really couldn't hide her feelings.

"Really. But — did something happen at the temple? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'm just worried."

"…The temple is a pack of scammers and lowlifes."

It was a savage review.

"They saw me as a thing to use. And when I couldn't bring out my holy power, they said, another defective one this time. I don't know what that meant, but it didn't sound good. I wasn't there that long, actually, but it was like the whole place was wrapped in some weird mania… anyway, none of them seemed all there. I felt like if I stayed I was going to go crazy too…"

The longer she talked, the more the steady tone broke down and the more she trembled.

Iberin gathered her in and rubbed her back.

What on earth had happened to put this much fear in her?

"I couldn't even move around freely. The second I woke up I had to train at handling holy power. Sleep was an hour, maybe two. If I couldn't do it, they hit me. The High Priest, that is."

"What?!"

Iberin shouted before she could stop herself.

Beside her, Lyssel let out a small, weighted sigh.

He seemed to know something.

"When she was first brought here, her whole body was covered in injuries. She wouldn't tell me anything about them, though I asked."

"Hah… The temple. Those lunatics."

Iberin ground her teeth.

A child who deserved nothing but tender care — and they'd hit her?

"Even after all that, my holy power wouldn't budge a hair. When it got really bad, they wouldn't even feed me properly. It was harder than the orphanage, so I ran. And then this mister kidnapped me on the way."

"Hah."

"When I got here everyone was so good to me… so…"

She'd had even more reason not to want to go back.

Iberin understood completely.

What broke her heart was that Rozelia was telling it all without crying, evenly, the way you'd recite something that had happened to someone else.

Why was every main character in this novel miserable?

"Lady Iberin, I…"

"It's okay. We'll protect you. So you can stay here as long as you want."

Only then did Rozelia start crying as she let herself be pulled into Iberin's arms.

"Hk."

Iberin let out a deep breath and closed her eyes.

She'd thought at least the male and female leads were happy. They weren't.

Don't tell me Yel is broken somewhere too?

It had been a small miracle that a child as upright as Yel could come out from under that emperor.

A nameless unease set in.

---

With that, Lyssel's already packed schedule got even tighter.

"Are you really all right?"

Iberin watched him with concern.

"It takes more than that to wear me out."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. As a rule, demonic energy harms others, but it gives its host its own kind of support."

"Ah, so it's like how people with a lot of holy power don't tire easily?"

"Exactly."

It was the only time Iberin and Lyssel had alone together.

Right now, that meant imperial-language lessons.

The fever had stolen a few days from her recently, so she was throwing herself into it twice as hard.

As a student she'd hated studying, but the moment it became I need this to live, she did it.

"Oh — I can read long sentences now."

"That's impressive."

Lyssel handled the finances, and the truth was Iberin didn't have much practical reason to read on her own, but she'd given herself a goal.

To properly study imperial history.

She wanted to know what kind of situation the empire was actually in.

Lyssel or anyone else could explain things to her, but reading and learning for yourself was simply different.

So Iberin was getting through a thick imperial history book one page a day.

Day by day, her skill kept climbing.

"I think I can probably manage a children's storybook now."

"A storybook?"

"Why?"

"It'd be nice to read to Ether at bedtime. Could you recommend one?"

"At bedtime?"

"Yes — want to read with us?"

"Would that be all right?"

"Why wouldn't it?"

The problem was Lyssel didn't know any storybooks.

The staff had bought storybooks meant for Iberin and the kids to study with, but Lyssel had never read any.

In the end she didn't get a recommendation. She set out three of the books the staff had brought.

The staff had said they were all fine for the children — which was the problem.

Princess Pepe's Day

Serve the God

The Holy Sword Licanto

Just from the titles, Serve the God had no pull at all. She quietly slid it off to the side.

"How about this one?"

Iberin had been skimming through them and picked one out.

The Holy Sword Licanto.

"Good choice."

"There's a holy sword?"

"There is."

"And its name is Licanto?"

"That's right."

"Oh."

Interest sparked in Iberin's eyes.

"Right now, though, only half of it is left. It broke during the Holy-Demonic War."

"…Did it?"

"Yes. The divine energy is still in it, so the temple keeps it under separate care. Only the Pope or those of the High Priest's rank can even see it."

"So ordinary people couldn't even get a glimpse."

"Right."

Maybe because it was the Holy Empire, there was an unusual abundance of fairy tales about the god.

Iberin glanced over the contents of The Holy Sword Licanto.

It was a children's story tracing the sword's life before it had been broken in half.

True to a kids' book, it was full of adventure and gentle moral lessons.

"What does this say?"

"Your sins are forgiven."

"The sword's talking?"

"Yes."

"And this?"

{"It says: In the name of love and justice, I will not forgive you."}(#va4mp933q47a)