The Grand Temple has shared over a thousand years of history with the Academy.
Unable to withstand the ravages of time, the once white marble has settled into a gray hue, and although there are chips here and there, the interior remains majestic.
This historical architectural marvel exudes a solemn atmosphere in itself. The Great Temple of the Academy was no exception.
In front of the great house of the Heavenly Deity that compels visitors to silence and humility, I began to move forward, hearing the resounding hymns.
It seemed a worship service was taking place. I couldn’t help but feel awkward, wondering if the Lady Virgin Saint was participating.
I hoped I wasn’t making a futile trip, and soon, someone appeared to relieve my concerns.
With an androgynous appearance and jade-colored hair, it was Yulen.
Our eyes met as he stood guard in front of a prayer room. Yulen immediately smiled warmly and raised a hand in greeting.
“It’s been a while, I-an.”
“……Yulen.”
I let out a deep sigh as soon as I saw him.
Yulen was the Lady Virgin Saint’s bodyguard. His presence at the door meant that the Lady Virgin Saint was inside.
And the room Yulen was guarding was a “prayer room.” Naturally, it could only be concluded that the Lady Virgin Saint was praying.
It was impolite to disturb a believer in prayer. Especially for someone who wasn’t just an ordinary person, but a priest.
I scratched my head with an awkward expression. It seemed I would have to wait for a while.
Yulen seemed to have guessed the general circumstances from my changing complexion. He chuckled softly.
“Are you here to see your sister again?”
“Well, that’s one way to put it.”
It wasn’t exactly a secret, so I nodded willingly. As Yulen swallowed with an “Hmm,” he soon made way for me.
My questioning gaze fell on him. However, Yulen merely shrugged nonchalantly.
“She has been praying a lot these days… I wonder who she’s praying for?”
Of course, it wasn’t the kind of question I could answer.
I still didn’t fully understand Celin’s feelings, having grown up with her since childhood. There was no way I could peer into the heart of the Lady Virgin Saint, a master of deceit.
It seemed Yulen hadn’t expected an answer from me in the first place. He pointed again at the door handle and invited me inside.
After a moment of hesitation, I finally strode over and grasped the handle.
After all, it was Yulen’s guarantee.
Having been said to be almost like siblings, he was more likely to know her heart better than I did.
Even so, I couldn’t shake off a hint of unease. Carefully, trying not to make any noise, I stepped into the room.
It was a dark room with no lighting.
The space was generous enough for several people to pray. A small window let in light, creating the only source of illumination.
A beam of light formed a diagonal line. Underneath that golden baptism, I could see a woman kneeling with her hands clasped together.
Sunlight flowed down her silver hair. Though her closed eyelids concealed her eyes from view, there were surely jewel-like pink eyes hidden within.
There were no imperfections in her flawless white skin, and even the feminine curves could be felt beyond her priestly robes.
She was a being without any unappealing aspects. One could even believe she was a work of art crafted by the Heavenly Deity to prove their own existence.
She was a beautiful woman, always captivating. Her beauty was such that I, too, momentarily lost my breath when she was quiet.
Well, as long as she remained silent.
From her lips came murmurs of a prayer.
“Lord, please save this little lamb… My mind is troubled by the thoughts of a violent, ill-tempered, and cheeky man. Is this also a trial you have sent me? Well, I suppose he is a bit charming in a way. And seeing his affection for orphans indicates he is kind, loves the weak, and is rarely honest and straightforward… not a bad person, I suppose…”
Hearing her rambling speech, I frowned.
While the latter half might not apply, the first half was undoubtedly about me. Yet the Lady Virgin Saint still seemed oblivious to my presence.
After murmuring inaudibly for a while, she soon spoke with a determined gaze, as if she were the heroine of a tragic story.
“If this is your will, Lord, then I will obey. If this is fate, then what can I do, yes. I must follow the Lord’s will because I am the Lady Virgin Saint…”
“……What are you doing?”
To her now solitary internal dialogue, my indifferent question was thrown out.
The Lady Virgin Saint reacted instantly.
She jolted as if struck by lightning, trembling slightly as she turned around to look at me. Her pink eyes were clearly filled with surprise.
“Wha—what?! Who—who… I—I-an? W—what…!”
Her gaze then stealthily drifted toward my waist.
Knowing what she might be thinking, I let out a deep sigh and asserted.
“I didn’t break down the door with an axe. Yulen opened it for me.”
The Lady Virgin Saint’s eyes shifted between me and the door behind me. Only after that did she seem to relax, sighing with relief.
“Phew, that’s a relief. That could have caused a problem with the church regulations.”
“Just what do you think of me…?”
There was no reply to my dejected voice. The Lady Virgin Saint brushed her hair aside, straightened her posture, and cleared her throat.
She then cautiously observed my reaction before asking me.
“So, why did you come in? You wouldn’t be thinking of interrupting my prayer without any reason, would you?”
Hearing her haughty tone ignited a sense of mischief within me. I chuckled softly and asked.
“What if I said I had no reason?”
At my remark, the Lady Virgin Saint’s eyebrows narrowed slightly. She opened her mouth in disbelief.
“What nonsense is that…?”
However, as her tone started to waver at the end, silence fell; the Lady Virgin Saint stared blankly at me.
She hesitated, then averted her gaze from me.
“Wha—what… Were you going to say you missed me or something? How ridiculous…”
A faint blush rose to the Lady Virgin Saint’s pale cheeks. Her pink eyes flickered nervously as they assessed my demeanor. All I could do was smile wryly in response.
My reply came out straightforwardly.
“Of course not. I came today with a purpose.”
The glimmer of hope in the Lady Virgin Saint’s gaze quickly vanished. Before she could express her displeasure with a frown, I decided to get right to the point.
“You met me the other time, right?”
Now it was the Lady Virgin Saint’s turn to give me a puzzled look.
Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she made a strange sound. A glare of suspicion reflected on her face.
I immediately had to add a clarification.
“All I need from you is a general idea of what happened then. Actually, I’m the personality that came from the future back then…”
“Are you still pushing that narrative? That ‘me’ from the organization and the ‘me’ who is a student at the Academy are different beings?”
Narrative? I had just opened my heart and told her the truth.
My expression quickly turned sour, but the Lady Virgin Saint merely laughed at me.
To be honest, it was understandable. The idea of a personality from the future invading and then leaving while engaging in all sorts of mischief was absurd.
It was nonsense. She seemed to think it was an amusing joke.
“Well, at least your creativity has improved a bit? A personality from the future… Hmm, come to think of it, there was something different about you. You didn’t seem to feel as happy as you do now…”
“Happy?”
The Lady Virgin Saint, lost in thought, froze in her tracks upon hearing my question and jumped up in surprise.
“Wha—what are you saying! I, as the Lady Virgin Saint, obviously feel the greatest joy when I am in the embrace of the Heavenly Deity Arus! H-how can I be happy as if I were alone with a stranger… Ah, Lord! You are putting this little lamb through trials yet again…!”
The torrent of endless words dizzying me, I hastily decided to stop her.
“Um… I get it. I understand, so please calm down now.”
Only then did she come to her senses, straightening up and stopping her words. Then, with a cute little cough, she composed her expression.
Though a faint blush still lingered on her cheeks, I decided against pointing it out.
“…So, what happened at that time? Nothing special. You just came in unexpectedly, asked for something, and left.”
What did I ask for?
Finally catching a clue, curiosity sparked in my eyes. I promptly asked the Lady Virgin Saint.
“What did I ask for?”
“Yes, ‘Holy Water.’”
‘Holy Water’—meaning sacred water in essence.
Holy Water, imbued with divine power, is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, making it hard to distinguish from regular water. However, its effects varied significantly.
From what I’ve heard, drinking it grants longevity, and it was worth thousands of gold.
My doubts deepened further upon hearing this. Then, with a smug expression, the Lady Virgin Saint began to brag about the effects of the Holy Water.
“Do you even know how expensive that stuff is? Holy Water is fundamentally effective in healing wounds, but it also cleanses all sorts of curses and magical abnormalities. For instance, the Emperor of the Empire orders an enormous quantity of Holy Water every year from the Holy Kingdom, and it’s rumored that he bathes in it…”
As she slyly eyed me, it seemed she wanted to remind me that she had given me something significant. To put it bluntly, she was seeking credit.
However, at that moment, my interest lay elsewhere. I suddenly caught something in the Lady Virgin Saint’s explanation and asked.
“…It cleanses curses and magical abnormalities?”
The Lady Virgin Saint briefly seemed not to understand the intent of my question and stared at me blankly. It didn’t take long for her hesitation to end.
Seeming to have found my inquiry intriguing, she casually replied.
“Yes, in fact, high-ranking nobles consider that effect paramount. Its efficacy is assured. I believe it could cleanse the curses of the Dark Cult? But, you can’t drink it; it has to be sprayed on the body.”
At her words, my expression grew more dazed.
I suddenly recalled something and absentmindedly brushed my waist. Once I felt a heavy weight, I gripped tightly.
It was a water flask—a possession that had been with me for a long time.
Upon seeing the flask, the Lady Virgin Saint exclaimed, “Ah!”
“That’s the flask! You poured the water into that rugged container! What? You remember…?”
Her mumbling voice tickled my ears. However, by now, my interest had long shifted elsewhere.
The boy from the alley said that I splashed the water from the flask onto the Imperial Princess.
Of course, that was merely what I had heard. There could have been minor errors. Yet, when everything seemed to fit together perfectly, it inevitably lent weight to a new conjecture.
In the future, I had sprayed Holy Water. On the Imperial Princess.
But why?
If she was cursed, I could have warned the Imperial Princess of the danger in a subtler way. Someone of the Imperial Princess’s standing could very well handle even the cleverest of curses.
The abilities of the mages dispatched from the Imperial Court were that trustworthy.
To begin with, I could not comprehend the reason behind provoking the Imperial Princess, so I pressed my temples, trying to soothe my throbbing head.
No matter how I thought about it, it was a reckless move. Because of that, my range of action was severely limited.
I couldn’t gain the cooperation of the Empire’s nobility.
As I struggled in my thoughts, the Lady Virgin Saint looked at me with a somewhat surprised expression. Concern was evident in her pink eyes.
“Are you okay? Is it because of that Imperial Princess?”
It was a natural conclusion, but it seemed the Lady Virgin Saint had already heard about my collision with the Imperial Princess.
Though her intentions might differ, her statement was nevertheless true. So I nodded with a complicated mix of feelings.
“…Yeah, I guess.”
Despite my admission, the Lady Virgin Saint continued to stare at me blankly.
Her expression was one of confusion, so I turned my gaze back at her in question.
It took a while before her mouth finally opened again.
“So, what are you thinking?”
Another question that was hard to decipher.
As my eyes remained fixed on her, perhaps feeling frustrated, the Lady Virgin Saint patted her chest vigorously.
The prominence of her chest quivered, the movements visually amplifying its elasticity. It was a rare treat for the eyes after a long time.
Whether she was aware of it or not, the Lady Virgin Saint asked me again, her annoyance clear.
“About the Imperial Princess! What kind of confidence does she have to provoke you?”
What absurdity. I looked at the Lady Virgin Saint with that sentiment in mind.
I was nothing more than the second son of a rural count. Though I had connections with powerful figures like the Lady Virgin Saint, Senior Delphine, and Senior Elsi, collectively, they could not challenge the Imperial Court. It was me who had to bend and submit without exception.
Yet the Lady Virgin Saint genuinely seemed to be frustrated, leaving me no choice but to tilt my head in confusion.
What, is there some secret to my birth I’m unaware of?
Finally, the Lady Virgin Saint’s frustration peaked, and she shouted out.
“You have the ‘Bloodletter Signature’! So how does that Imperial Princess have the audacity to provoke you?!”
That statement struck like lightning through my dazed mind.
Right, I had the ‘Bloodletter Signature.’
