Chapter 71

Lehan seriously pondered who to send to get the most information out of Pasis. To prevent Berman Pasis from getting suspicious, the safest bet was to send one of those who had come with the Saintess. However, persuading them was nearly impossible. The easiest way to get someone on your side is to offer them a large sum of money.

‘To put it badly, it’s called bribery.’

But a priest who was an aide to the Saintess and could travel to other countries wouldn’t be swayed by money, as their faith was their top priority. So, it would be impossible to bribe them. This left two options: bringing in another priest or sending someone disguised as one. But bringing in another priest wouldn’t be easy either. A Saintess who hadn’t been seen in hundreds of years had appeared, making even those who weren’t religious interested and believe. Priests would be even more so. In this situation, it would be difficult to find a priest who would do what Lehan wanted.

“…This to Raksid.”

“Yes.”

Lehan wrote down his demands in a short letter and sent it to the Grand Duke Raksid’s residence. Since he couldn’t send a priest, he had to create someone who looked like one. But someone from within the Imperial Palace might have been seen by Berman Pasis before. So, he asked the intelligence department to find someone Pasis had no acquaintance with. While they prepared the person and perfected the disguise, which would take time, Lehan decided to meet the Saintess to get information.

***

“Edelis, are you okay?”

“I might be nervous.”

Lehan held her hand, but Edelis was still tense. Berman Pasis was already a confirmed death sentence. But in the end, he was nothing more than a pawn. So, they had to catch the client hiding behind Berman Pasis. In other words, the person who actually ordered her capture.

“But the Saintess, the Saintess…”

Lehan seemed confused. Edelis also couldn’t have imagined that the Saintess would have commissioned her kidnapping unless the client had asked for the book.

‘He probably thought it was some high-ranking official who wanted to put their daughter in the empty Empress position after I was killed.’

Otherwise, she would have thought it was someone from the noble faction aiming for the Emperor’s throne. Edelis agreed with a wry smile.

“I wouldn’t have believed it either, if I were you.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. But she’s called the ‘Saintess,’ isn’t she?”

“That’s right, the benevolent and devoted Saintess.”

Thinking about it, the face of the Saintess she had seen in a book before, who was laughing at her as she was dragged away from the palace, came to her mind.

‘I thought I saw it wrong, but I guess I didn’t.’

Even with that thought, Edelis was still in a daze. And there was one thing that was as hard to understand as the Saintess trying to kill her.

“…But Lehan.”

“Yes.”

“How can you trust me so much? You know, I claimed that the Empress was kidnapped just because of a book. And the person behind it was the Saintess.”

“Edelis, can I be honest?”

“Yes.”

She was curious about how he could be so trusting. Edelis hadn’t trusted Lehan for a long time. She had firmly believed that he would kill her at any moment, that he would eventually plunge a sword into her heart. Even though she gradually warmed up to him because of his consistent attitude, she wasn’t certain. It was only after she confirmed that what the Saintess said was different from what she had read in the book that she could fully trust him.

‘But how can Lehan be so certain and trust me like this?’

“Honestly… who or why they kidnapped you isn’t that important to me.”

“Why?!”

“The first reason is that you have no reason to lie because you’re the one in danger if the culprit remains.”

“Y-yes, that’s true.”

“And the second is, you just have to say a name, and I will punish whoever you want.”

“What if I name a random person and ask you to punish them for some ridiculous reason?!”

“Then there must be a reason for it.”

Edelis’s mouth fell open, and she couldn’t close it, too flustered to even care about how she looked.

“Well, let’s say this time is an exception since we have to find a reason because of who the opponent is.”

“What if the opponent isn’t the Saintess of the Holy Empire?”

“Even if it’s a high-ranking priest, well…”

Lehan didn’t explain in detail, but what he was going to say next was predictable. High-ranking priests were so rare that she had only seen one once when she was a count’s daughter, so she never expected Lehan to think so little of them.

“W-what if I say I don’t like the Grand Duke Raksid’s butler?”

“I don’t like him either, so that works out well.”

Lehan smiled eerily, and it sounded like he was going to take care of it this time, making Edelis wave her hands in a panic. She didn’t want him dead; she was just unhappy that he had taken Lehan from the count’s residence, where he had been doing well. In the end, she had met Lehan again and was living a happier life than before.

‘It’s not just me; Lehan used to care a lot about status.’

Edelis remembered when she had asked him if they should get married, and he had put himself down, calling himself a commoner who used to be a gladiator. To be honest, Edelis also preferred to live openly rather than being chased by the emperor as a commoner.

“I was just kidding! You can’t kill him!”

“I didn’t say I would kill him.”

“Liar!”

Lehan’s eyes said it all. If Edelis had been serious, he would have killed him.

“Anyway, all you have to do is say the name. Whoever crossed you. The reason can be attached later, can’t it?”

Lehan whispered in a low voice slowly next to Edelis’s ear. The voice, filled with his true feelings, made goosebumps appear all over her body. She thought that maybe she had died because of a single word from the Saintess even in the book. And now, the sword wasn’t pointed at her, but rather she was the one holding the sword. The satisfaction of the two different situations made Edelis’s heart pound. With that feeling, she kissed Lehan on the cheek.

“Thank you for saying that, Lehan.”

Lehan was dumbfounded for a moment by her sudden kiss, but then he regained his composure and looked at her with an intensified gaze.

“If a few words can get this kind of reaction, I wonder what would happen if I actually pulled out my sword.”

“…I don’t know either, since it hasn’t happened.”

“Shall we test it, Edel?”

Lehan smiled lazily and trailed his fingers down Edelis’s arm. Everywhere his fingers touched, all of Edelis’s nerves focused on that spot.

“If not, how about giving me my reward before I pull out my sword…”

Here? Now?! They were outside, weren’t they? They were meeting the Saintess, so she could arrive at any moment, couldn’t she? Edelis was so surprised she couldn’t say a word and just blinked. Even in that moment, Lehan couldn’t take his eyes off Edelis’s lips and was getting closer and closer.

“…Ahem.”

“Sa, Saintess!”

A clearing of the throat was heard, and Edelis quickly turned her head to see the Saintess.

‘I knew it! The Saintess was due to arrive!’

Edelis’s face was flushed red, and she quickly pushed Lehan away. But Lehan looked displeased and didn’t seem to want to be pushed away.

“Saintess. If it’s not too much to ask, could you come back in a little while?”

“Pardon?”

“Le, Lehan!”

No, why is he doing this?! What is he planning to do after sending the Saintess away?!

“5 minutes, no, 10 minutes, 30 minutes?”

“Why is the time getting longer?!”

“…”

The Saintess’s smiling face cracked, and her expression became awkward.

“O, no, Saintess. Please, have a seat.”

The Saintess quickly sat down at Edelis’s words, and Edelis mouthed to Lehan to hurry up and go. Lehan clicked his tongue once and straightened up. Edelis was fanning her bright red face with her hands when Lehan whispered in her ear.

“Aren’t you not nervous anymore?”

“…Did you do that on purpose?”

Lehan just smiled without saying anything. Whether he did it on purpose, or just did what he wanted, or both. But it was true that she was no longer nervous, so she took a deep breath and faced the Saintess.

‘If she didn’t try to kill me but kidnapped me instead, the Saintess must want to get some information from me.’

In that sense, the Saintess and she were not so different. Edelis was also curious about why she was kidnapped, if she could see the book, and how much she knew about the book. She thought the Saintess probably knew more about the book that showed the future than she had initially mentioned.

“I’m sorry for inviting you and then this happened.”

“Oh, no.”

She didn’t look okay at all, but the Saintess claimed she was.

“More importantly, I heard you had a tough time last night.”

“Oh, yes… I was truly surprised.”

She started the conversation herself. Edelis, who had been worrying about how to bring it up, felt relieved.

“How dare they do that to Her Majesty the Empress.”

“I agree.”

After that, the Saintess continued to express her worries, and Edelis responded with words of thanks for her concern. From the way the Saintess was acting, she seemed like a pitiful Saintess who had been betrayed by a believer she had trusted. A stranger might even mistake her for a victim just like Edelis, except that she wasn’t kidnapped. The conversation kept going in circles, so Edelis, unable to bear it, decided to take the first step. She felt like the conversation would never end at this rate.

“I really, really couldn’t have imagined that Sir Pasis, whom I trusted, would do such a thing.”

“Sir? Edelis. Isn’t calling a non-knight ‘Sir’ an insult to knights?”

“Yes, that’s right. I couldn’t have imagined that Berman Pasis would kidnap me.”

“He didn’t seem like the type…”

“On the battlefield, there are more people who kill with an innocent face than Berman Pasis.”

“That’s true…”

When the topic shifted to ‘Berman Pasis,’ the Saintess showed noticeable discomfort. But this was just the beginning for Edelis. If they had just been in a Saintess-believer relationship, she wouldn’t have brought up his name in front of the Saintess.

“I should have trusted my guard, but I was betrayed by my guard… who should I trust now?”

Edelis sighed with exaggerated sadness.

“Come to think of it, what you said was right, Saintess.”

“Pardon? What…”

“You said that Berman Pasis was a key person related to my life, remember?”

“I, did I?”

“Yes, you did.”

“He almost killed me, so there can’t be a bigger connection than that.”

“If I hadn’t heard that, I wouldn’t have had Berman Pasis as my guard.”

The veins on Lehan’s arm bulged as he clenched his fist, showing how angry he was. The Saintess was clearly uncomfortable with the topic, but for Edelis, it was just the beginning.

“But Saintess, was that the end of the oracle you received back then?”