Chapter 13 Part 3
When the raspberry container opened, Entrie hesitated briefly before plunging his head in. The happy peeping sounds from inside the container suggested he was more than pleased.
Listening to Entrie’s sounds of contentment, I drifted off to sleep.
“My lady! My lady!”
“Hmm… what is it…?”
“I moved you to the bed when you were sleeping on the floor at dawn, so why are you sleeping on the floor again?”
Opening my eyes groggily at Lynn’s scolding, I found her glaring at me with irreverent eyes. Looking around, I realized I was sleeping on the floor with my head resting on the edge of the bed, just like last night.
I must have sat on the floor to watch Entrie eat, then fallen asleep right there.
“Ah, Entrie was just being so cute.”
“…My lady, please don’t use Entrie as an excuse. You’ll catch a cold sleeping like that. Anyway, letters have arrived that you should check. One’s from the Grand Temple… it has sacred power infused in it.”
Lynn detailed at length how difficult it had been to receive the letter discreetly. I certainly knew that receiving letters from the Grand Temple at home was risky.
But there was no other way.
If the Cardinal’s messenger bird came to the Laté mansion, it would undoubtedly flee in fear of the demonic power, so I needed a private way to receive messages.
And I absolutely refused to hand Raphla or Entrie over to Xenoph.
“What’s this?”
“Oh, that’s a letter from House Feros. Both arrived this morning, so I brought them right away.”
…I should probably read Hyle’s first?
Untying the familiar green ribbon, Hyle’s characteristically neat handwriting came into view.
[I need to give you sacred power, so let’s meet this evening. And bring Entrie with you. Lately I’ve been using Raphla as a messenger bird again instead of Entrie… Entrie hasn’t gotten too fat to fly, has he?]
Among the many paragraphs, what stood out most was Hyle suspecting me of… enlarging Entrie. I’d given him a few treats, but surely Entrie could still fly.
Really, what kind of bird can’t fly just because it gained a little weight…?
Peep!
“…Lynn.”
Meeting Entrie’s eyes as he rolled around on the floor, I felt an inexplicable sense of crisis and called for Lynn.
“Yes, my lady?”
“Why is Entrie… on the floor? He’s a bird.”
“Hmm, probably because he’s too heavy? He’s so chubby and adorable!”
…Somehow I get the feeling I shouldn’t meet Hyle today.
The letter from the temple looked rather thick. It seemed to contain quite a few items.
Opening it, I found a small pouch of beads, a document envelope, and a letter inside.
I asked for the oracle’s interpretation, so what were this pouch and documents for?
“…Let’s look at this first.”
I tore open the document envelope and unfolded the mysterious paper inside. And then… something completely unexpected caught my eye.
“What is this?”
It was none other than a confirmation document stating that my request to break my engagement with Abel had been approved.
…Suddenly? After rejecting it every time until now?
“Why…?”
No matter how closely I examined it, it wasn’t a prank. This was a genuine engagement dissolution document.
After all my efforts to break the engagement, it happened this easily overnight…!
I hurriedly pulled out the letter, sensing that the explanation for this sudden approval must be written there.
[Only one with the purest sacred power shall complete the vessel.]
It contained the interpretation of last night’s new oracle.
“The purest sacred power… that’s not Abel.”
Abel merely possessed a large amount of sacred power, but if asked whether his power was close to the goddess, the answer was ‘no.’
If that was the condition, then in the entire Pendium Empire, only one person qualified—from House Feros…
“…Hyle, Hyle Feros!”
Ah, so that’s why the engagement dissolution was approved!
Suddenly, I recalled how Xenoph had stood frozen in shock last night. The image of his rigid body and hollow brown eyes was deeply etched in my memory.
He must have been shocked to discover that Abel wasn’t the one meant to purify me, as he’d believed all this time.
Well, after backing Abel all this time, believing he would make me the Holy Maiden, only to have it all vanish in an instant…
He deserved to be shocked. Serves him right.
“…Should I tell Hyle?”
Now that I knew the truth, I briefly wondered whether I should inform Hyle.
But Hyle was already pushing himself too hard. If he learned that giving me sacred power was the goddess’s will, he would try to fulfill it regardless of the cost.
Of course he would—he was a Feros, after all.
Well, Xenoph wouldn’t keep quiet about this anyway, so Hyle would find out soon enough…
Xenoph had been using Abel to make me the Holy Maiden all this time. Now, following the oracle, he would surely try to use Hyle instead.
Based on his behavior so far, he’d probably want Hyle to transfer sacred power to me more frequently.
But Hyle’s body wouldn’t be able to withstand that. This is quite troubling…
“What’s in this pouch?”
Opening the pouch placed beside me, I found something like a small stone along with a note. The note instructed me to consume it regularly; it appeared to be a sacred stone.
Unlike magic stones, these contained concentrated sacred power… Wasn’t this what Tia, who became the Holy Maiden in the original story, used to eat?
I recalled the original story’s description of how Tia would eat the sacred stones Xenoph gave her whenever she struggled, and they would restore her strength.
Given that he’d sent this to me… it seemed Xenoph was seriously trying to groom me into becoming the Holy Maiden according to his wishes.
“…He’s targeting the wrong person.”
After quietly gathering my thoughts, I realized the person I needed to distance myself from wasn’t Abel. The one I should be wary of was instead the High Cardinal, Xenoph.
Abel was the Crown Prince of the Empire. It made no sense that our engagement, which had been stalled for so long, would suddenly be approved just because the oracle hadn’t designated Abel.
How could a mere Cardinal override what the Crown Prince had blocked with his power, when even the Pope couldn’t? This meant Xenoph wielded considerable influence.
While Xenoph hadn’t truly bared his fangs yet… there was no guarantee he wouldn’t in the future. I had an ominous feeling that he wouldn’t be an easy opponent.
“Raphla.”
At my quiet call, fluttering black wings promptly appeared. As always, Raphla landed on my wrist, her sparkling yellow eyes quickly turning ruby red.
“Send one of your feathers to Abel and keep watching him.”
After nodding slightly, Raphla received a few strokes on her head from me before departing.
“I wonder if it’s possible to slim Entrie down before I meet Hyle later?”
I noticed Entrie’s tiny backside as he buried his head in his food bowl. Watching him made me sigh in frustration.
Peep?
Perhaps sensing my gaze, Entrie lifted his head and tilted it, meeting my eyes.
“It’s impossible. I give up.”
Looking at that face, it seemed hopeless. Taking away his food bowl when he enjoyed it so much would be too cruel.
“…Raphla is enough as a messenger bird.”
Entrie could just be… a pet bird. Having one innocent pet bird in this bleak mansion couldn’t hurt, right?
