Chapter 88
Chapter 88
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: The Stirring Viper
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"Mmm... Mm..."
Rosalyn, who had passed out in the meeting room, opened her eyes.
The comfort pressing against the back of her neck. An unfamiliar ceiling.
The soft touch of the warm blanket enveloping her body.
The bitter scent wafting into her nostrils.
Ah, this must be the infirmary.
Her mind was still foggy, having only just awakened.
The nun felt an urge to cling to that pleasant haze.
But the faint weight on her left side snapped her back to reality.
Turning her head that way, she saw the Saintess, Grace, asleep with her head resting on the bed.
"Wha... Sis!? Gasp!"
Rosalyn cried out instinctively, without a thought for who might be around.
At that word, Grace's eyes flew open.
"That's right! Big sis here~!"
The Saintess sat up with near-spinal-reflex speed to reply.
Rosalyn realized her slip and clamped her mouth shut, but it was too late—the Saintess was already awake.
"Rosalyn, Rosa. Our little sister. Are you okay? You are okay, right?"
Rosalyn nodded silently.
Before answering the Saintess, Rosalyn glanced around the room.
Fortunately, no Holy Knights or other priests were in sight.
Had there been, they would have exploded in rage at the audacity of a witch like her daring to address the Saintess so casually.
Of course, Rosalyn usually avoided calling Grace "sis" even without priests around.
"I brought you some porridge that big sis made herself... See? It's called kasha where I'm from..."
Grace rubbed her cheek against Rosalyn's limp palm as she spoke.
Rosalyn gave a wry smile and eyed the food Grace had placed by the bed.
"Porridge?"
"Porridge. Porridge."
Aha. Porridge it is.
She didn't need to ask what ingredients or how it was made.
As Grace had said, there was something similar called kasha in the Holy Kingdom too.
From Grace's demeanor, nothing seemed urgent, so Rosalyn scooped up a spoonful.
Her eyes widened at the unfamiliar savory taste on her tongue.
"Huh? Sis?"
"What's wrong?"
"No oil? It's so clean-tasting!"
"Right! I used rice instead of mixed grains!"
"Rice?"
Rosalyn gasped in shock.
She knew what rice was.
It was just that she'd eaten it so rarely that the porridge suddenly felt precious.
And chewing along with the rice was...
"Ah."
How long had it been since she'd last had meat?
Grace watched Rosalyn devour the porridge in silence, her heart heavy.
Her little sister reacting like this to mere porridge.
Just selling the stole she wore now would spare her sister such hardship.
No matter how luxurious the fabrics she draped herself in, no matter how high her status rose,
watching her sister like this made Grace feel utterly pathetic for not being able to buy her even that.
The Saintess brushed away the shadow that crossed her face for a moment and focused on Rosalyn again.
When Rosalyn had emptied half the bowl, Grace spoke up.
"No questions?"
"Come to think of it, how long was I out?"
"Five days."
"I see..."
Even hearing it had been five days didn't change Rosalyn's demeanor much.
It wasn't her first time, after all.
Though this collapse had a new cause she'd never experienced before.
"So I was just lying here for five days, then..."
"Nope?"
"?"
"Our Rosalyn got here yesterday."
"What? Then for the four days before that...?"
"You were in the carriage?"
"?"
Rosalyn finally sensed something off, but she couldn't pinpoint what.
Grinning brightly, Grace spread her arms wide.
"This is Paidus, the capital of the Providence Kingdom. The healing facilities in Craidel Territory were lacking, so we rushed you to the capital."
"Eh?"
Porridge dripped from Rosa's spoon.
She'd closed her eyes and suddenly woken up in the capital.
A bit disorienting, but not a serious issue, so she quickly regained her composure.
"Made it in four days. That's fast. From Craidel Territory to the capital in just four days."
"All thanks to Duke."
Duke.
At the name, Rosalyn instinctively shrank her shoulders.
Unlike the tentacles.
Thinking of it...
'Huh?'
Nothing came.
As if her brain was rejecting the memory.
She knew all the keywords and traits, but the image wouldn't form.
Rosalyn tried a few times to recall it, then gave up.
"Duke did?"
"Yep."
Hearing that Duke had helped darkened Rosalyn's expression briefly.
But seeing Grace smile at the mention of him,
'Yeah. Sis's judgment can't be wrong.'
He's a knight, after all.
Even janitors cleaning sewers get dirt on their clothes.
He might accumulate some bad karma saving people.
If sis called him a sun, he must have his reasons for that karma.
And teaching her that spell to save her suggests a good heart.
Thus, Rosalyn rationally convinced herself.
Though rationally only—she had no intention of ever meeting Duke again.
Finishing her thoughts, Rosalyn refocused on the conversation.
"Did Duke carry me here...?"
"No. He taught me a spell to make the horses run faster. The idea of blessing the horses like that was new to me."
"First I've heard of it too."
"Said they raced horses like that back in the Empire days."
Rosalyn recalled Grace's abilities.
Befitting the Saintess title, they specialized in enhancement, support, and blessings.
A carriage pulled by horses blessed by the Saintess could cover that distance in three days easily.
"Wait, what about the escorts?"
"Those guys are still crawling their way from the city. Got fed up with their dawdling and left them behind."
Now it made sense why Grace seemed extra cheerful.
Grace's mood was inversely proportional to her distance from the Holy Knights.
The farther away, the happier she was.
"Uh... um. Congrats...?"
Grace beamed and hugged Rosalyn tightly.
The musty smell of Rosalyn's dusty self contrasted with Grace's fresh, sun-dried blanket scent, softening Rosalyn's expression.
Rubbing her cheek against her sister's, Grace said,
"I was worried~."
Her tone dripped with cutesy affection.
To an outsider, she looked like a hopeless siscon doting on her little sister.
But Rosalyn never saw Grace as foolish.
"Worried... about me~..."
Back when Rosalyn had rampaged, building the Tower of Calamity in the Holy Kingdom, Grace had approached her with these words.
- "Rosalyn, calm down. Sis is fine. No one will ever hurt us again. So you don't need to do this..."
Since that day, Rosalyn had never seen Grace shed a tear.
Her sister, always smiling brightly to keep Rosalyn from worrying and crying herself.
The angrier or sadder she got,
the more exaggerated her cutesy act and smiles became—a mask.
Did she even realize
"Sniff. My nose is stuffy right after waking up~."
how terrible she was at acting?
Rosalyn gave a wry smile and patted Grace's back.
The sisters spent the next few hours comforting each other.
'Medetashi, medetashi.'
Outside the infirmary where the sisters were, Duke—who had been listening intently—clapped silently to himself.
'Was worried when Rosalyn suddenly collapsed.'
He'd been shocked seeing her dry-heave alone in the meeting room and collapse.
Was the original story starting already?
In the original, Rosalyn—staying in the capital—collapsed from dry-heaving, setting the tragedy in motion.
Rosalyn had all the Holy Kingdom's bad karma sealed inside her.
If her life grew threatened, a structure called the Tower of the Moon would rise there, like an immune response.
Despite the name, it extended downward into the earth, more dungeon than tower.
Once the Tower of the Moon appeared, calamities would rain down centered on that spot.
In the original, the Holy Kingdom exploited this, attempting to assassinate Rosalyn in Providence's capital to raise the tower.
To save her in that state, Grace would raise the Tower of the Sun above to suppress the heavenly punishment while extracting Rosalyn from the tower.
So when Rosalyn collapsed, Duke assumed it was the Holy Kingdom's filthy plot kicking off.
But no signs of the Tower of the Moon after her collapse made him realize something was different.
- What the...?
He'd planned to rip the tower from the ground if needed and snag Rosalyn for free.
Surprisingly, Rosalyn stayed quiet.
Instead, Grace went weird.
- "No. No no no!"
Rosalyn lay still, but Grace was radiating light, trying to raise the Tower of the Sun.
One might think the Tower of the Sun was fine, but without the Moon Tower, it euthanized people.
And since it wasn't even a curse, there was no stopping it—deadlier by far.
- "Calm down. I'll call an alchemist first."
Luckily, the city had an alchemist doubling as doctor and chemist.
The great alchemist Valde, whom Duke summoned, checked Rosalyn's pulse like a traditional physician and declared,
- "No need to worry. Just malnutrition and overwork."
Diagnosed in a flash—fitting, since Duke had suffered the same just two weeks prior.
- "A few days' solid sleep and porridge will fix her right up."
The Saintess fumed at "just malnutrition?!", but calmed upon learning the old woman before her—the one who'd shrugged off torture and starvation with a week's sleep and three cups of water.
Then Valde gave Grace an inspired prescription:
- "Take your sister straight to the capital."
- "Pardon?"
- "No sister who dotes like you would starve her. Must be those religious zealots."
The best cure: remove the cause.
Convinced by the expert, Grace quelled her Tower of the Sun aura.
After that, things proceeded as now.
Leaving the Holy Knights in the city, Grace and Rosalyn returned to the capital alone.
Duke had told Peter to make the Holy Knights and Honor Guard return as late as possible with the guard.
- "Help the sisters have some alone time."
- "Duke, your vision's narrowed. The Honor Guard is His Majesty's shield. The longer we stay away from the capital, the more danger he—"
- "Might involve His Majesty's concubine."
- "...That precognition of yours?"
- "Something like it."
- "Ahem. Er-hem! Ow, my back! My eyes! Guess I need a year of recovery here in this city!"
- "...Make it a month. And your eyes never worked anyway."
Thus, thanks to Peter, the Holy Knights and Honor Guard crawled toward the capital at tortoise pace.
'Holy Knights are sidelined for now.'
Duke pondered his next moves.
By original knowledge, the Saintess now had orders to become Rex's concubine.
<...The time of the year... shall dominate the world... the legion shall awaken.>
<Follow the blood... the path connected by blood...>
<The history hidden from the world - / %^$%^>
The Holy Kingdom, receiving a rare oracle, pooled their oracle-specialist cryptographers and concluded Rex would become emperor.
In their rising soul dreams, they sent the Saintess to Rex.
But their plan was doomed.
They underestimated the sun-like hatred burning in one girl's heart.
Never considered the destructive desires of a despair-soaked soul.
The Saintess was thoroughly betraying her mission.
While she stayed here as ambassador, distancing her sister from hellish Holy Kingdom was best.
For her, excuses to linger here profited.
But Duke knew her ending and her lack of time.
The Holy Kingdom weren't total fools, not blind.
Her plan and theirs both failed, leading to mutual ruin.
With the cruelly beautiful Tower of the Sun.
Duke intended to prevent that.
At least until he gained pretext to crush the Holy Kingdom.
'Need to coordinate with the Saintess for now.'
Duke had realized from acting with Jane last time.
Two people deepened the narrative more than solo.
To fool the Holy Kingdom, he—as second-in-command—and the Saintess aligning worked best.
'Avoids headaches from crossed wires.'
Prevented individual schemes tangling behind backs.
With that in mind, Duke waited outside the infirmary exit, arms crossed, for the Saintess.
Hours later.
The Saintess emerged, makeup slightly smudged.
"Duke, Your Excellency?"
"Your sister woke up, I see."
"Yes. Thank you. But what brings Your Excellency here?"
"Escorts are late, so I'm standing in to escort you to the embassy."
"Ah... Thank you."
The Saintess boarded the carriage under Duke's guidance.
As they rode, an awkward silence fell briefly.
Duke broke it.
"Saintess. I've heard you hear the confessions of sinners and grant forgiveness."
"That's right."
"Then, may I speak of a sinner I know? Tell me how to forgive him."
The veiled Saintess flinched.
'As expected.'
Duke knew the Saintess was sharp.
Hero-level top-tier intellect.
Even speaking circuitously in the carriage, considering bugs, she caught on from "sinner" alone.
Duke spoke to her like a spy contact.
"There's a sinner seeking the side of one who bears heaven's blood."
= I know you got orders to seduce this kingdom's king and future emperor, Rex.
Sinner obviously the Saintess, highest one Rex.
The Saintess countered, grasping the metaphor instantly.
"...Is the sinner close to someone lofty?"
"The sinner is lofty too. Extremely."
The Saintess stiffened.
Anyone could see her panic.
Duke asked her.
"Saintess. Can they be forgiven? Must I forgive this sinner?"
"Y-...Yes. You must. Heaven will forgive too."
"Even knowing it defies heaven's will?"
"..."
The Saintess's brow twitched as she paused, then,
"Yes."
Duke's smile deepened.
She got it.
"We'll arrive at your lodgings soon."
He glanced outside briefly, then at her.
"We'll end here today. May I visit tomorrow?"
"Anytime. I'm always open to sinners."
Conversation over.
Before she alighted, Duke recalled something and stopped her.
"Ah, any preferred drinks or hobbies?"
"Y-Yes?"
"Black tea fine? Go? Know how?"
"A... a little."
"Looking forward."
Duke left her as if his escort duty to the embassy was done.
Grace stared after Duke's retreating figure.
Once he rounded the corner, she headed straight to her embassy room.
Unpacked immediately, pulling out a book to check.
- <Sister. I have sinned. I harbored feelings for one I shouldn't.>
- <Heaven forgives you.>
- <No. What I seek forgiveness for is...>
- <Shh. Didn't I say you're forgiven?>
"Wha... Huh?"
The Saintess's face flushed red.
That night, the light in the Saintess's room burned late.