Chapter 13 Part 5
“Yes.”
“Why…?”
Unlike my serious demeanor, Hyle nodded calmly with steady eyes.
His simple affirmative response was strangely peculiar.
“I won’t cough up blood anymore. I won’t collapse, and we won’t have to be cautious about meeting like before. As the head of the house, no one can question our meetings.”
…Is he saying that I’m the reason he accepted the position? That’s certainly what it sounds like.
To think that he acted according to the Cardinal’s wishes, going against the principles and beliefs he had upheld until now, all because of me…
I’ve unintentionally accumulated quite a debt.
“So the Duke of Feros… I mean, the former head Iizel Feros, agreed to this too? Purely based on his own judgment, without any coercion or intervention?”
“Yes.”
It seemed like the entire House Feros had gone mad.
Otherwise, how could they make such a momentous decision based on nothing more than an oracle?
Especially the famously cautious Iizel…
The goddess’s influence on House Feros appeared to be even stronger than I had thought.
“Rosiel, it’s not ‘just one oracle.’ Renesia’s words are like law to House Feros. Not just for us, but for all priests and clergy in this land—a single word from her dictates their entire lives.”
“As I’ve said before, the Feros doctrine is truly boring and rigid.”
“Hmm, many people say that.”
Hyle’s gentle smile shimmered softly.
The candle flame, which had been flickering dimly, was now burning with steady heat.
Entrie, who had been on my hand, was now perched demurely on Hyle’s broad shoulder, nodding off to sleep.
Though only a momentary calm, it was a peaceful moment that felt almost dreamlike.
It was dizzying.
“Hyle.”
“Yes?”
His ready response to my call was quite pleasing to hear.
That simple act of answering my call, though insignificant in itself, was melting my anxious heart in this moment.
But there was something I needed to tell him.
“Everything is going according to the Cardinal’s plan. I’ll say it again—I have no intention of becoming the Holy Maiden. I just want to live normally.”
House Feros and the Grand Temple would now earnestly try to make me the Holy Maiden.
The goddess had declared it, and hadn’t she pointed to Hyle for that purpose?
Hyle was also a Feros, and as such, he respected their doctrine.
Now that he had been designated by the goddess, this couldn’t be dismissed as easily as before.
If Hyle also wished for me to become the Holy Maiden… then…
“Rosiel, do as you wish.”
His low voice, easily crushing my apprehension, poured over me.
My head, which had unconsciously dropped, lifted again.
My heartbeat seemed to thunder loudly near my previously lifeless neck.
“Use the Cardinal, and use me. For your life.”
My lips trembled slightly, attempting to form a response.
Sometimes… Hyle’s tenderness caused me pain.
“Use me.”
Somehow my wrist was in his hand, raised close to his lips.
Then soft skin touched the back of my hand.
The lazy contact that showed no sign of ending made a corner of my heart tickle.
The smooth, warm sensation felt through our touching skin instantly numbed my confused mind.
The fact that I was using him, yet he accepted it so easily.
That he even asked to be used.
It was too difficult to comprehend.
“I accepted the position as head for this very reason. So don’t worry about whether I was forced to take it.”
Finally, his lips moved away from the back of my hand.
Having never received such a suggestive show of respect before, I couldn’t figure out how to respond—my lips simply wouldn’t part.
“…It feels like I’ve just received a confession.”
“I’d be pleased if you accepted it.”
Though Hyle’s composed, skillful actions revealed none of his emotions explicitly, strangely, I felt I had received his feelings completely.
“Oh, that reminds me, Xenoph gave me this.”
Perhaps because Hyle had cleared my mind, I suddenly remembered something I’d forgotten and fumbled to pull out the pouch of sacred stones from inside my garment.
“…Xenoph gave that to you?”
But somehow, Hyle’s expression darkened as he looked at the sacred stones.
…Hmm, that expression seems ominous.
<To be continued in Volume 3>
