Chapter 164
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 164
Agera quickly fell back asleep. Whether she would remember Rico upon waking remained to be seen. Having witnessed a miracle, Rico wept for a long while before she finally calmed down.
“Because Lady Agera recognized me… Because she acknowledged me as her daughter…”
Rico tried to compose herself, as if she hadn’t just been crying, but she was still too out of breath to speak properly.
She went on to explain how she had seized control from the Rat.
Ironically, the Rat was an entity easily swayed by a single word from Agera. The moment Agera recognized Rico as her daughter, the Rat had yielded control, even empowering her. It seemed to have stepped back for the time being, realizing Rico stood a far better chance of being accepted by Agera than it ever did.
I felt a small measure of relief that I didn't have to kill Rico right this second. Of course, this couldn't last. I knew all too well that this was merely a temporary reprieve; eventually, I would have to deal with her.
“First, let’s leave the room before Lady Agera wakes up,” Rico urged. “We can’t let control slip away. ‘That thing’ loves Lady Agera, but it doesn’t care about anyone else. I realized that when it forced me to set fire to your estate, My Lady.”
The reason Rico held control was because Agera had called her daughter, not Amaranth or the Rat. If Agera woke up, lost her memory again, and started looking only for Amaranth, the control Rico had barely won would be lost.
Holding our breath, Rico and I slipped out of the room and went to find the Duke.
“Why did you bring her back alive instead of killing her?”
The Duke’s frown deepened when he saw me return with Rico completely unharmed. I had, after all, left to hunt the Rat.
“Your Grace.”
“…Ricoradca?”
The Duke flinched in surprise as Rico addressed him in her usual manner.
“You recognize me.”
Rico smiled and bowed to the Duke.
“I’ve come to say my final goodbyes.”
The Duke shot me a look, demanding an explanation for what was going on.
Since he needed to know, I recounted the events of the last few moments.
It was a miraculous story: seeing Mavka crying for her mother had given Rico just enough strength to fight for her body, and Agera’s recognition had been the final push that allowed her to completely wrest away control.
The Duke fell silent, lost in thought for a long time before finally looking at Rico. He stared at her quietly, his gaze like one you would give to someone who didn't have long to live, and hesitated before speaking softly.
“Ricoradca. You… are no different from Agera’s daughter.”
“And to think you were once so worried I might become your adopted daughter.”
“That was…”
The Duke was at a loss for words. He was a textbook case of a main character in a family regret story, having accumulated so much bad karma. Rico burst into bright laughter at the sight of the Duke faltering.
“I know. Even if you cast aside Lady Amaranth, you wouldn’t have wanted to replace her with another daughter.”
Rico brushed it off coolly, saying she understood why the Duke had rejected her. She called Agera her mother, but she never called the Duke her father. No such bond existed between them.
Strictly speaking, it was entirely the Duke’s fault that Rico had never been recognized as Agera’s daughter, yet she didn’t seem to hold any grudge against him.
“If you feel any guilt toward me, Your Grace… could you treat Mavka like your granddaughter in my stead? If you treat Mavka well, I will have nothing more to wish for.”
Her greatest worry was clearly Mavka being left alone after her death, and she made sure to entrust the child to the Duke. He did not dispute her words.
Suddenly, I had a cousin. And if I looked at it that way… was I about to kill my aunt? This was completely messed up.
“Are you planning to die like this?” the Duke asked Rico, his voice dripping with regret. Knowing she was going to die, he seemed tormented by how he had rejected and mistreated her for so long.
Rico nodded, then turned to me as if suddenly remembering something.
“Ah, that reminds me. I have a proposal for you, Lady Rohanson.”
“For me?”
Rico nodded.
“Because I’ve taken over, I can temporarily wield the Rat’s abilities. I can impersonate you, Lady Rohanson.”
Her suggestion was plausible. The Duke could escape the Bishop’s scrutiny, and my own risk would be reduced. It would only require sacrificing Rico. The only problem was, I hated the idea.
Since she was going to die anyway, Rico seemed to want to be of some help. And since casualties had occurred when the Count’s estate burned down, she also seemed to want to atone for the sins her body had committed.
“So, would you hand me over to Bishop Marik? That way, you’ll be safe, and it will buy you a brief window of time. In that window, you can rescue Jelly and the knight.”
“The knight?”
“Ah… I think his name was Azazel. The one who was deceived and used by your maid and the Rat.”
I asked Rico if she had seen what the Rat had done at the estate, and she nodded.
“My consciousness was awake the entire time.”
Thanks to that, I could reconstruct the incident from the perpetrator’s perspective. According to Rico, Azazel, fortunately, hadn’t betrayed me.
Was that a relief? The only one who had betrayed me was Hena. The Rat had gone to the Rohanson estate swearing revenge and had run into Hena by chance. The two of them then collaborated on the attack.
It was Hena who had suggested the clever trick of using Azazel to blind Pudding, and it was Hena who had tried to kill Jelly by feeding him poison.
Hena’s involvement was far broader than I’d thought. I was glad Canna wasn’t here to hear this.
Besides what happened at my estate, Rico explained everything else the Rat had done while using my appearance. In that short span of time, it had caused a hell of a lot of trouble. I could see why Rico was telling me to hand her over to Bishop Marik.
“But Rico, if you touch holy water, your true form will be revealed.”
“Even so, wouldn’t it buy us at least a little time?”
She had a point. We could stab Bishop Marik in the back. Used well, Rico could be the wild card that turned this entire situation to our advantage.
As I was pondering, the Duke suddenly pulled out a letter.
“What is this?”
“This should help you make a decision,” the Duke said, adding, “It’s a letter from Sir Gabriel.”
“Really?” I asked, a surge of excitement and relief washing over me. I knew the Duke had no reason to trick me with a letter—we weren't close enough for such games—so I didn't doubt him.
“…I’ve never seen you look so happy.”
Well, of course. I never expected to get in touch with Gabriel. No matter how many knights he commanded, he belonged to the temple, which was no different from being under Bishop Marik’s thumb. I had assumed Gabriel would be detained, unable to send or receive any messages.
I hurried to open the letter. Then I paused. Something about the letter the Duke handed me felt different from usual. As I examined it, trying to pinpoint what was strange, it suddenly dawned on me.
The letters Gabriel always sent were stamped with the temple’s seal. This one bore the seal of the imperial palace.
What is this? Had Gabriel’s birth secret been revealed without me knowing?
* * *
Jeremia decided to become a spy and stay by Bishop Marik’s side. As Pudding had said, since she had already taken over Azazel’s body, it would be easy to monitor the Bishop’s movements.
The temple was extremely uncomfortable. She’d once read in an ancient tome that in the distant past, when the Sun Goddess’s power was at its peak, demons would burn to ash just by touching sunlight. It felt exactly like that now, as if she’d been thrown into the very heart of the light.
The temple was agonizing, and Bishop Marik was terrifying. On top of that, Jeremia felt like she was going to lose her mind trying to act like Azazel.
Perhaps because she couldn’t trust Azazel after his escape, Bishop Marik kept him close, monitoring his every move. The constant scrutiny was wearing Jeremia down even faster. She had also planned to look for Hena, but it was difficult to find where or how the Bishop had hidden her.
She had only been here a few days, but with no end in sight, Jeremia felt like she would shrivel up and die.
When Bishop Marik noticed Jeremia looked remarkably haggard, she brought in a human. From the Bishop’s perspective, they were heretics—not strictly human at all.
“Since you didn’t eat yesterday.”
Of course she wouldn’t eat… Demons were said to eat humans, but Jeremia wasn’t a demon. Her body was, but she wasn’t.
‘Is she testing me? Does she suspect something?’
Though terrified on the inside, Jeremia maintained a sly demeanor. Mimicking Azazel had become such a habit that she worried Pudding and Jelly might slap her if they met again, thinking the real Azazel had somehow returned.
“Since when was I reduced to eating what you catch for me?” Jeremia sneered.
Bishop Marik simply said she understood and told her to eat well so she wouldn’t have to worry her. Jeremia couldn’t understand why the great Bishop would personally catch and offer humans to a demon. Bishop Marik was a strange person.
Just what kind of relationship did Bishop Marik, the favorite of God, and Azazel, the demon, even have? Pudding and Jelly hadn’t explained it. Left with no choice but to guess on her own, Jeremia could only clutch her head in frustration.