Chapter 121

But Esadien tilted his head as if something was strange.

“Didn’t you already see it?”

“Huh?!”

“I heard you took care of me with love and care when I was in a coma.”

“I only wiped the top half!”

I’m going crazy, seriously!

Unlike me, whose face was so red that it felt like steam was coming out of my ears, Esadien looked disappointed without a change in his expression.

“Ah…”

What do you mean, ‘Ah’?

Who said Esadien would blush like red paprika!?

I clicked my tongue at my past self from a few days ago. It was truly a huge miscalculation, a monumental blunder.

‘I feel like he’s getting more and more sly every time I see him.’

And I feel like I’m getting more and more caught up in his pace.

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, but Esadien just reached out his hand again.

“Please stay by my side.”

“Stay by your side? Just hurry up and get wiped down and go to sleep.”

“Then I will get out of the water.”

“…”

“Just like this.”

At this very moment, why couldn’t I turn away and say, ‘Go ahead!’?

As I fell into a light self-loathing, Esadien stretched his body out, lifted me up, and set me down by the water’s edge, then submerged himself completely and came back up again.

He looked so happy, as if he were a mermaid, that I unconsciously muttered.

“You must like swimming.”

Now that I think about it, Esadien was the one who saved me when I fell into the Emperor’s secret garden.

“Do you dislike it?”

“…Well, there are people who can’t float in the water.”

“Hmm. I thought it was because your dress was heavy last time.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“I was thinking about what happened at the secret garden, too.”

Esadien also smiled a similar smile and held my hand tightly.

“Do you know? That was the first day I was held in the arms of the opposite sex.”

“That’s very satisfying news.”

Chuckling, I stroked Esadien’s hair, which had been the biggest obstacle to figuring out his identity.

“Black hair suits you well. How did you do it?”

“I asked a magician. I decided that dyeing it would be a problem if the color came out when I entered Chitrum.”

“…I see.”

I didn’t ask how he knew I was planning to raid Chitrum. I knew Theodore must have told him.

In any case, he was a person who transparently sided with Esadien over me. Well, the time they had known each other was overwhelmingly different, so I guess it couldn’t be helped.

“Isn’t Theo a terrible liar?”

It was a wonder how he managed to hide meeting Lapheche in the original story.

Esadien immediately agreed.

“He always was, but this time it was truly terrible.”

“I saw you glaring.”

“Did I get caught doing that, too?”

“I understand. And what kind of alias is ‘Endy’? He made it up on the spot, didn’t he?”

“Yes. I also had only just arrived that day myself.”

He hadn’t been awake for long, but he was on a forced march.

I was surprised and asked.

“How are your wounds? Do they hurt?”

They didn’t seem to be fully healed yet.

The wounds, which were clearly left by Austin, looked no different from when I had wiped him down.

It was a relief that they hadn’t gotten worse, but I was upset that they hadn’t healed.

But Esadien, with a perfectly calm face, simply said.

“I’m fine.”

“Hmph.”

You’re fine, my foot. I let out a long humming sound, then raised my finger and poked the wound.

The reaction was immediate.

“Ugh.”

I had a conscience, so I didn’t poke him hard, but Esadien’s eyebrow twitched for a moment and a short groan escaped through his gritted teeth.

The next moment, a look of ‘oops’ flashed across his face, but I had already heard it.

“See? It hurts like this.”

I let out a deep sigh. It was upsetting, but as Esadien said, I couldn’t leave him alone.

“Stay still.”

I told him firmly, then slid my finger over Esadien’s wound and concentrated my mind.

Since it was the second time, the energy remaining in his body was much easier to grasp and began to burn.

Even though it was dark and I couldn’t see well, Esadien’s eyes accurately followed the trajectory of the smoke, and he let out a much lighter breath than before.

“You look like a goddess of healing right now.”

“What kind of goddess is squatting like this? Just in case, make sure to apply the potion after you’ve wiped yourself down.”

Hmph, my hand, which I was about to pull away haughtily, was suddenly grabbed by Esadien.

“Minuelle.”

“What, what?”

Esadien’s body heat was transferred to me through my completely soaked gloves.

Was it because of his body heat, or his unblinking gaze? My body felt tied down, unable to move.

“Just a little more…”

Esadien gnashed his teeth, bit the tip of my glove, and pulled it off in one go.

His voice was filled with a heat I had never heard before, so I forgot to get angry and looked into his eyes as if I were entranced.

“Just touch me a little more.”

* * *

Lapheche decided that she would lie as much as needed to get out of this situation.

“The Crown Prince might have lied to me, so why can’t I? I’ll definitely get out of here and…”

Lapheche’s words, as she clenched her fist and made a resolution, trailed off.

‘Get out and do what?’

Lapheche, who had left the ruined Baron Tempest house, had no family, no place to go, and no one to rely on.

A sense of emptiness as if the ground beneath her feet was crumbling made her head spin.

After staring blankly out the window for a long time, she calmed down a bit and comforted herself.

“Still, I can’t stay like this.”

Her first target was naturally Temari, her maid and bodyguard.

[Good morning, Temari. You didn’t feel well yesterday, did you?]

As soon as she faced her, Lapheche spoke to Temari in fluent ‘Chitrum’ language. Temari’s cold eyes widened.

[You, how?]

[It seems the meditation the Apostle instructed was effective.]

[Indeed, the power of fire purifies all people equally.]

Temari spoke with a somewhat reverent attitude, but Lapheche was uninterested.

She only focused on the fact that Temari didn’t find the word ‘Apostle’ strange.

She didn’t want to get close to this person either. However, to get more information, she couldn’t stay trapped in this grass-smelling room.

[I was really surprised. He is so great. So I also want to learn the doctrine, when can I start learning?]

[I’ll go find out right away.]

But the answer Temari brought back was negative.

[He says meditation is needed until the purification is completely finished.]

Lapheche was greatly disappointed.

‘What on earth are they trying to do by keeping me locked up?’

She wasn’t a prisoner or anything, and she had eagerly followed them because they said they would let her study under a famous magician.

If Austin’s or that old man called the Apostle’s intention was to make people nervous and break down their self-esteem, she wanted to applaud them for being so successful.

“Hah.”

Temari took Lapheche’s discouraged look a little differently.

[You really wanted to entrust yourself to the cult.]

A fanatic is cunning but also naive. Temari, who felt sorry for treating her so harshly before, offered to teach Lapheche some of the scripture content herself.

‘Ugh.’

She really hated it, but since Temari was the only connection to the outside world in this situation, she had no choice but to accept.

The only good thing about getting closer to her was that she got a little time to take a walk before returning to her room in the evening.

* * *

But as time passed, the old man, whose identity as either an apostle or a magician was unknown, didn’t show his face, and Lapheche just withered away day by day.

[Hey, Lapheche. Are you okay?]

[Yes…]

Lapheche nodded with a dazed look, but she was in a state where she couldn’t even stand properly on her legs, like a newborn deer.

[Wait a moment. I’ll go get someone.]

Temari, who had decided she couldn’t solve the problem alone, went to call others. In that time, Lapheche, who had been keeping her head down, raised it, and her eyes, unlike before, gleamed.

“Now’s my chance…”

Her worsening condition was not a lie. She could feel her body weakening by the minute, as if someone was taking away her lifespan.

Furthermore, her ‘qi’ also seemed to have weakened with her body. When she was confined to the meditation room, she would sometimes get a spooky feeling as if her back was being touched by a blade of grass.

The sense of crisis that she would die if she stayed like this, more than the problem of what to do next, motivated Lapheche to move.

‘I’ve been eyeing the low walls during my walks.’

For today.

The place where the Fire Cult was located was a stone building, and it was very old, with signs of collapse here and there, but no one had repaired it.

[In the past, this was the temple of the Sand God. The Apostle is said to have settled here with the meaning of ‘be wary of decay, but do not shy away from it’.]

Lapheche breathed a labored sigh and recalled Temari’s words. It was a sound she didn’t understand, but for someone trying to escape, she was grateful for it.

She struggled to move her ankles, which felt like they would break any moment, and desperately headed outside. She gritted her teeth and climbed over the collapsed walls.

“Haa, haa…”

Strangely, the farther she got from the center of the temple where the meditation room was located, the more her body seemed to regain its strength.

Outside, she could hear people coming and going. The sound of murmuring, the plodding footsteps of horses and camels, and the sound of a merchant hitting a metal bowl to attract attention.

Lapheche forgot to wipe away the thick beads of sweat and followed the sound.

However.

When the last wall came into sight, her steps slowly came to a halt. She looked as if she was crushed by despair.

“You said you wouldn’t repair it, you bad cultists…”

There was only one wall left until the outside, but that wall was much higher and thicker than any she had seen so far.

It looked like it had been built recently.

“Hmph, hmph.”

Tears welled up on their own. The strength completely drained from her legs, and Lapheche plopped down on the spot.

“I want to go home…”

She wanted to go back to Korea. She cried loudly and clasped her hands together.

“Please. Buddha, Jesus, Allah, someone please send me home. I’ll be good. I won’t buy a new car every time a new one comes out, and instead of renting a club to party, I’ll donate all that money, please, please!”

How wonderful would it be if a prayer of that magnitude could cross the gap between worlds and take her back to her hometown?

However, Lapheche’s voice did not reach any of the gods she knew.