A Cure for Indigestion
It was an exceptionally warm, sunlit afternoon. Feeling the pleasant heat soaking into the crown of my head, I worked my spoon without pause. When stress ran high, nothing hit the spot quite like sugar.
The fertile southern provinces truly lived up to their reputation. When it came to food, the spread here was leagues ahead of even the Imperial Palace.
I shoveled down five macarons stuffed with ganache and candied orange peel, downed two cups of fragrant rose tea, and polished off a heaping bowl of yogurt topped with ruby pomegranate jelly. Naturally, I couldn't pass up the shaved milk-ice dessert piled high with fresh apple mangoes either.
The table groaned under a banquet of sheer indulgence. In fact, it wasn't just the spread—the very estate where I was staying was opulent to an absurd degree.
Which made sense, all things considered. After all, I was currently residing at the Castrein family's southern villa.
No matter how deeply rooted House Castrein was in the North, their stake in the Offering Festival was monumental. Even if the Northern Barrier was their foremost priority, simply standing by and watching the Southern Barrier was hardly an option they could stomach.
After all, Lisianthus had accompanied the delegation to the festival last year when Brian came down south. That explained why House Castrein maintained such an imposing estate here at the southern edge of the empire. Up to this point, I followed the logic just fine.
It was everything that came afterward that defied reason.
Just yesterday, swallowing down the tempest churning inside me, I had confronted Raymon.
"Excuse me, but I had already arranged to stay at Young Count Cortez's manor."
"That is unacceptable."
"And why not?"
"It is not as if House Castrein lacks a villa here, and you are my fiancée. Unless you intend to lodge at the temple, staying here is only proper."
He had a point. Technically, he wasn't wrong.
Even so, my plan had been to team up with Phlux, slip through the black market, cook up a proper scheme, and cast a few tempting lures!
What happened to all that talk about wishing I obtain everything I desire?! When Raymon just stared down at me with those steady, unblinking eyes while I stood there flabbergasted, the words got stuck right in my throat.
Was it just my imagination? His expressionless face was fixed quietly on me, and for some bizarre reason, his gaze almost seemed to be pleading with me to stay.
The retort on the tip of my tongue vanished, and I ended up stammering something else entirely.
"…Then you won't care what I do outside, or who I invite here?"
Rather than answering, Raymon's eyes narrowed ever so faintly.
"Come now, weren't you the one who told me to take advantage of the great Young Duke of Castrein to get whatever I want?"
"…That is correct."
"Then we have an understanding."
I had to bite my tongue to keep from sounding too sarcastic.
When Raymon first showed up, why had I felt shock, embarrassment, and humiliation rather than relief? Thinking it over, the reason was simple.
I didn't want to show him my pathetic side. It was only natural. Even though I had long discarded the original Titania's desperate longing to be loved by him...
Yet in my desperate struggle to survive, all I ever ended up showing him was my most unsightly, unglamorous side. Clawing and thrashing with empty hands.
I threw up walls and clung stubbornly to my pride, but the harsh truth was that without their help, keeping myself in one piece would have been nearly impossible. Maybe it would have been smarter to prostrate myself on the floor, stammering gratitude for their boundless grace, docilely accepting whatever crumbs were handed down without a single complaint.
Yet that man kept trying to tear down my walls.
Without the slightest clue what that meant to me.
A man who, in a thousand lifetimes, could never harbor true, desperate longing for someone named Titania.
If I hadn't saved Bibi, if I hadn't proven myself useful to House Castrein... A bitter taste filled my mouth.
Still, I had become the Castrein family's benefactor. It was a cross I had to bear.
And while I had been quietly swallowing my angst, Raymon had gone right on rattling off promises with a straight face.
"Whatever you require, I shall procure it for you. If there is anything you desire, simply ask. Be it manpower, resources, or anything else..."
"Haha. And what if I pull out the very foundation of House Castrein?"
"If it is truly Your Imperial Highness's wish, one or two pillars..."
"Stop right there. Even hearing it gives me a headache. Let's leave jokes as jokes."
"I was not joking."
"Ah, right..."
"However, if by 'pulling out the foundation' you mean the literal pillars of our estate, that would pose a slight problem. There is little practical use in uprooting structural columns from a sound mansion. Wouldn't requesting a symbolic family heirloom be considerably more practical?"
Raymon had spouted that utter nonsense with a completely deadpan expression. Thanks to that, the bittersweet brooding that had been swallowing my thoughts vanished in an instant.
"Excuse me, handing over family heirlooms to me would be a huge problem!"
"Handing over one or two Castrein heirlooms hardly puts us in a bind."
"No, I'm the one who'd be in a bind! Me! Let's drop this conversation right now!"
Ugh... Reliving the memory brought a dull ache to the back of my neck. Honestly, it made me worry: Is this family really okay just handing out everything like this simply because someone's their benefactor?
Pushing the stray thoughts aside, I scraped the bottom of the yogurt bowl clean.
Weight gain? Who cared? With my nerves frayed to a crisp every single day lately, I couldn't gain weight even if I tried. Barbara watched with an appalled expression as I attacked the desserts like a soldier charging into battle.
"…Your Imperial Highness?"
"What?"
"Consuming that much sugar all at once cannot possibly be good for your health."
—(;° °) That’s right, Contrac-tooor…! Your stomach has its limits! It’s not some giant, infinitely expanding pouch, you know!
The Emoticon Sword, which had been sulking and giving me the silent treatment for allegedly trying to leave it behind again, was now cautiously gauging my reaction.
Tsk. I thrust the empty bowl to the side.
Ah, honestly, when you're stressed, what you really need isn't sweets—it's spicy food. A sudden, tear-jerking craving for tteokbokki hit me out of nowhere. Damn it, what was the use of being an exalted imperial princess? My soul was crying out for K-food.
I was the kind of person who used to eat kimchi fried rice with kimchi stew and radish kimchi on the side...!
Spicy chewy noodles... kimchi... cup ramen... tteokbokki... *Sob*, waaaah. But none of it existed here, so what could I do?
I held out the empty bowl.
"Give me more of this..."
Beside me, Debbie swiftly dished out a fresh serving of yogurt and offered it over. Gulping down the new portion too quickly, it went down the wrong pipe, leaving me choking and hacking. The second I coughed, Debbie bolted out the door.
Consumed by my coughing fit, I didn't even have the leeway to see where she had run off to. Well, at most she's running to fetch some medicine...
"Cough, hack, urk! Ke-hack, couuugh... blech!"
—Aaaack, our contractor is dyingggg (´；Д；｀)—!!!
"Heavens, Your Highness!"
"Are you alright?!"
Barbara frantically patted my back. Thanks to the heavy binge, my stomach was already queasy, so the violent coughing triggered dry heaves. Just as I was hacking away in sheer misery—
SLAM!
The door flew open.
Debbie strode in triumphantly, carrying someone slung over her shoulder like a sack of grain. Barbara's eyes went wide as saucers. She stammered:
"H-High Priest Ilian?!"
"*Cough*, ack, urk—High Priest?!"
It was a familiar face. The very man House Castrein had summoned back then to stand against the Empress at the Imperial Palace...
R-Right. Bibi had mentioned something about dispatching the High Priest here, but... in this exact place? At this very hour? Over this? The High Priest was making his entrance over a coughing fit?!
While Barbara and I stared in utter shock, Debbie set down the High Priest—whom she had been toting around like cargo—and announced with absolute pride:
"High Priest! Her Highness is unwell!"
I shrieked in horror.
"Are you out of your mind?! Choking on food after stress-eating doesn't warrant divine healing! If worst comes to worst, throwing up once would fix it!"
"Vomiting is detrimental to your stomach and esophagus, Your Highness!"
"Ho-ho-ho, it has been quite a while, Princess Titania."
High Priest Ilian chuckled genially and gently stroked my back and shoulders. A crisp, refreshing energy with a faint trace of peppermint washed over me. The churning nausea that threatened to empty my stomach settled in an instant.
Even the lingering muscle soreness and stiff aches tucked away in my joints melted away without a trace.
Whoa! So this is the power of a High Priest!
Last time, I had received his treatment while drifting in and out of consciousness, so this was my first time experiencing it with a clear head. The effect was ridiculously potent, but... was this really okay? Unable to mask my dubious expression, I asked:
"I-Is it really all right for me to receive treatment for... something like this? Shouldn't a High Priest's divine power be reserved for people in dire condition...?"
High Priest Ilian still gave off the warm, neighborly impression of an affable uncle. His round, smiling eyes and naturally upturned lips were just as friendly as ever, though the faint dark circles under his eyes seemed unusually prominent.
Beaming broadly, the High Priest touched his thumb and index finger together to form a little circle—the universal sign for money. With a playful wink, his pearly white teeth flashed through the opening.
"Haha, think nothing of it. I received plenty of this, you see."
"Ah... right... I see..."
"Once a cleric reaches the rank of High Priest, they can name their price, meaning even high-ranking nobility rarely call upon us. Thanks to that, I had been fretting over how on earth we would cover the support budget for our commoner priests this quarter, but coming out on this house call for Your Highness sorted it right out! Wahahaha! The bonus was quite handsome last time as well, so please, feel free to use my services often in the future!"
High Priest Ilian's smile shone with an almost blinding radiance.