Please Don't Hate Me
I'm angry!
Of course there's a reason.
"When I arrived, it was already too late. It had spread through the entire Imperial Capital, not just the imperial family. I couldn't kill all those people, could I?"
I did consider it for a moment.
But of course I couldn't.
"She scattered the Dream to corrupt the citizens of the Empire? For a purpose as petty as that?"
"Strange, right? I'm curious about that myself. The Succubus Queen must have a bigger plan. I intend to dig into that plan and interfere with it at the same time, but…"
I sat in front of her and looked into her face.
"I'm not sure if I can use you. Even as I tell you this, I can still feel the Dream on your face. Are you still afraid of the Goddess? Would you do anything for her?"
"No!"
Helena swallowed hard.
"No, Juin. I'm still afraid of the Goddess, and when I close my eyes the prayer still rises on its own, but at the center of my heart is you. You've grown denser and denser. That's why I came all the way here."
"Weren't you here for the Adult Ceremony? You said you were the one assigned to me."
"I was. I clearly was. But not anymore. From the depths of my heart I kept screaming to meet you. I wanted to stand before you no matter what excuse or pretext I needed. That's why I came."
"It's too late. There's no turning back."
"Hic—"
Helena covered her mouth and held back her sobs.
Her shoulders trembled faintly as well.
"There's a powder here that neutralizes the Dream. If you inhale this, every breath you take from now on will cause neutralization. There's not much of it, so I can't scatter it all at once. You'll have to meet people one by one."
"…The Saintesses and the priests?"
"The neutralized Saintesses' breaths will also carry this powder and spread it. One becomes two, two becomes four. You have to spread your breath to every Saintess and priest in the Empire. Don't forget that you have to get close for the breath to transfer. From a distance the particles scatter."
I placed my hand on Helena's knee.
"It's a difficult task. Can you do it?"
She choked back tears, then opened her mouth.
"What happens when I finish that work and come back?"
"What do you mean, what happens?"
"Will you see me again? Will you give me a chance as well?"
"What kind of chance?"
"A chance to become your woman."
"……"
How was I supposed to answer that.
From the start, Helena had never been within the scope of my interest.
"From now on, my faith is you. I'll abandon every god that exists in the world and follow you."
"Don't. A human can't place that kind of faith in another human."
"It's fine if you don't give it. I'll take it myself. I'll do the work you ordered. Even if I gave my body's first time to another man, my heart has always belonged to you alone. So you…"
A tear formed again at the corner of Helena's eye.
"Please don't hate me."
With her acting like this, I started to feel a little sorry.
Her presence had been so small to me that there was no real need to hate her.
If there's no interest, there's no disappointment and no guilt either.
So I could say this.
"I won't."
Go and come back without getting hurt.
Saintess Helena.
"Um…. About that girl."
"Satin?"
"She was so pretty. The way she follows you is lovely too."
"She's a good kid."
So good it's suspicious for her bloodline.
"I heard she was originally a bedroom slave. Do you still sleep with her?"
She was doing fine and then she derails again.
"Why do you need to know that?"
"She went from slave to servant and then suddenly you put her to work at a restaurant. I just couldn't understand it with ordinary thinking."
"Look, Helena."
"If I do the work you assigned well and come back, and if you stop hating me, I want to work at that restaurant too. I can't cook, but I can wash dishes. I'll clean and run errands too."
"You're the Grand Saintess. Once you abolish the Adult Ceremony and return to your original position, you're supposed to take charge of the God's altar."
"We can restore the High Priest's status and leave it to him. And I have already……"
Helena lowered her head.
"Lost the qualifications of a Saintess. That day, in the tent in front of the Demon King's Castle."
"You were following the God's calling. Your qualifications are intact."
"No. I've become someone who can no longer follow God. The master of my heart is no longer God."
"Even after everything is over, people's hatred will be directed at you. They'll think all of this happened because of you. If a Grand Saintess like that washes dishes at a restaurant, will anyone be able to get food into their mouths? Everyone will come after you with knives."
I mixed in a joke, but she took it seriously.
"Of course they will. Then I'll accept it. People's hatred and violence, all of it."
"That's not the point—it'll interfere with business. This is a restaurant I'm building with a certain will of my own. I don't want it ruined because of you."
"What… kind of will?"
Opening a restaurant was Satin's idea, but I added a purpose to it.
Even a grand plan sometimes starts from a trivial hint.
I planned to build the restaurant close to the Magic Tower.
Currently, management of the Magic Tower is handled by the Magic Tower Division of the Magic Academy.
By the agreement with William, the Magic Tower Division follows my orders.
But there are too many eyes watching, so I can't freely handle the Magic Tower.
What if I secretly connected the restaurant to the Magic Tower?
No one would ever guess.
Who would think of operating a Magic Tower through a restaurant.
All the Magic Towers in the Empire are connected to each other, so I only need to plug a pipe into one of them.
The Magic Tower of Marcus Territory.
Thanks to the little one, I came up with a good idea.
Thank you, Satin.
"Does running a restaurant really require such a great will?"
Helena was waiting for my answer.
"To people it'll just be an ordinary restaurant. To me it's a space where miracles happen. You're asking too many questions and it's getting annoying. Shall we get started?"
"I'll help people through the Saintess Order too. Relief work and charity. Even if I have to sell the temple's sacred treasures, I'll raise the relief funds. If I show my sincerity and repentance like that, the day will come when people forgive me, right?"
Well.
Would the heart of a maiden whose fiancé was stolen by a Saintess open up just because of that.
Would forgiveness come after priests collectively humiliated the woman you love.
"Do as you like with that stuff, and go abolish the Adult Ceremony."
"Understood. I'll definitely get it done and come back."
Helena stood up.
Color returned to her cheeks, a flush of blood.
"So make sure you save a spot for me at the restaurant."
"I already told you I can't promise that."
"We'll talk about it again later. I'll work hard so I can change your mind!"
Helena gulped down a handful of the powder all at once without water.
Even as she coughed and choked, she covered her mouth with her hand and didn't spill a single bit.
Helena neutralized the Saintesses imprisoned in the jail.
Neutralization took time, but their loyalty to Helena must have helped—they recovered their condition quickly.
The Saintesses could barely breathe properly before the newly learned truth.
Helena and the Saintesses drove their carriage toward the neighboring territories. If they had to tour all nine kingdoms of the Empire, they might only return when they were old and gray.
Infection spreads like the wind, while healing is slow.
Satin looked out the window.
"Juin-nim. Did the Saintesses leave safely?"
"Yeah."
"How was that powder?"
The powder Helena took was made by Satin.
Only Satin could make it.
The sole daughter of the Succubus Queen.
With the Demon King's blood mixed in.
I need to neutralize the Saintesses, but I'm worried.
Why?
I made a neutralizer, but it's too dangerous.
An alchemically made pill sat on my palm.
It was a pill made by concentrating Magi, diluting it in Mana, then exposing it to Ether. I dried the pill on paper with a magic circle drawn on it, and the toxic energy was no joke.
Wow, the smell is incredibly foul!
The efficacy was even more foul.
Anyone with weak constitution who ate it would clearly die within an hour.
I couldn't feed them something like this.
Can I try making it once?
You?
Looking at this pill, I think I know the method. If I make it a little differently, it should be much easier, right?
Differently how……
Right.
To Satin, it was visible.
The particles of the Dream made by the Succubus Queen.
Satin refined the powder in a single day.
She didn't even need Mana or Ether. She handled Magi in a way I couldn't understand and changed its properties. The reason was clear.
Satin was far more—
"It wasn't hard! But I'm sorry I couldn't make much. My energy just wouldn't come out anymore."
Her Succubus talent is definitely outstanding.
"And I'm not in a good mood. I don't want to help that Saintess."
"Why?"
"I just really don't like her. I hate her so, so much. The fact that she's prettier than me bothers me too."
"There are people who think you're prettier, you know?"
"I was really angry, you know? That Saintess sat on Ahjussi's lap and just, wow, I was so speechless, even though Ahjussi said he didn't like it she kept—"
"Satin?"
"But I made the medicine because of Juin-nim. I did well, right?"
"You did really well. Thank you."
"Then can I ask just one thing? That Saintess clearly likes Juin-nim. When the Saintess comes back later, are you going to marry her? That thought suddenly hit me yesterday and I was so upset."
Is this jealousy?
"What kind of marriage happens like that. It's not like that."
"Really? You won't get married until I have my Adult Ceremony, right?"
"What does your Adult Ceremony have to do with it."
"It might have something to do with it…. Juin-nim is so mean."
In Satin's eyes, so clear they were transparent, a small cloud was drifting by.
Surely that isn't a rain cloud, right?