After the meal, she had a little time to digest. It was tea time at Huwon. Milk came out instead of tea because she was still young, but she was able to enjoy a leisurely tea time with her mother, Brian, and Elliot.
She had a chimney wanting to leave right away, but she took Brian’s advice that riding in a wagon right after a meal would cause motion sickness, and came out to digest her food before setting off.
“But Mirabel, are you really going to learn the sword?”
As she was taking a sip of milk, her mother looked at her anxiously and asked.
“Huh. Why?”
“This mother will not be able to stop you from learning swordsmanship at your will, but I still hope that you do not risk while learning swordsmanship.”
“Why?”
No matter how much she thought about it, her mother had no reason to be so concerned about her learning swordsmanship. As she tilted her head in wonder, her mother took out her handkerchief and carefully wiped her mouth.
“…no. Mom said it wrong. You just have to learn to be careful not to get hurt.”
Her mother, who had been staring at her with her sad face, shook her head. Then she turned to Brian.
“My brother is too. It’s inevitable that Belle learns swordsmanship because Belle wants it, but at least promise me you won’t take Belle to a dangerous place.”
“It’s because of Gail.”
“…”
Unlike she, who couldn’t see through her mother’s intentions, Brian seemed to understand her mother’s intentions at once.
Gail. Gail Houston.
A knight who lost his life defending the village of Delphi, and was also the name of her father. Her mother seemed to be overcome by her concern that she might die like her father.
“Don’t worry. Because that won’t happen.”
Brian said confidently.
She also smiled at her mother to reassure her. Only then did her mother let out a sigh of relief.
“It must be so.”
* * *
“Will Mom go with me?”
Her mother whispered to her as they walked towards the carriage. She shrank her head at the sound of tickling her ears and laughed softly, then she looked at her mother with a timid look.
“No. I will go alone. Mom will be busy hiring my tutor. You can go to the temple alone. And I’m not going alone. Are Kalina and Anita going too?”
She pointed to the people following her and said. Her mom raised her head to check on Kalina and Anita. As her mother’s gaze met, the two of them bowed their heads respectfully toward her mother.
“And her grandfather has already selected the knights to escort the wagon.”
Finally, she pointed to the knights riding around the wagon.”
Only ten escort knights were attached to the two-headed carriage heading to the temple, and more than twenty privates were attached. No matter what she thought about it, it was overprotective.
“Okay. Okay. Have a good trip then.”
Eventually, her mother waved her hand in front of her wagon, pretending not to win.
“Huh. I will be back.”
She too stood in front of the wagon and greeted her mother. Her mom stood there for a while after she got into the carriage with Kalina’s help.
“Shall we go, little lady?”
The coachman asked through the window connected to the driver’s seat.
“Let’s go.”
Answering the coachman, she immediately made her horse gurgle. When she looked up, the carriage started slowly. Perhaps because of the speed of the soldiers, the carriage ran down the road at a slow pace. Through the window, she caught the panoramic view of the capital slowly passing by. In the distance, people could be heard recognizing the emblem on the chariot and mentioning the name of Prince Crichton. In the meantime, there were stories about her daughter’s return or that she had a granddaughter. Apparently, rumors spread even more because the Grand Duchess of Crichton was opening the warehouse with the ball this time. In the midst of looking around with a new feeling, she saw a boy with silver hair in the distance. He looked familiar, so she pulled his head out of the wagon to check on the boy for a moment and looked closely.
“Jeffrey?”
“Dangerous, little lady!”
Then one of the knights riding next to the window shouted at her in fright. She lost his gaze for a moment, then checked again where the boy had been standing, but sadly there was no silver-haired boy there. Jeffrey Coleman… She wondered if the mugshot was released well? She remembered the boy’s confident face and silver hair despite his unfortunate past. Apparently, it was Jeffrey who was standing in front of the alley earlier. She was going to say hello when they met again, but unfortunately it didn’t seem like a relationship. Exhausted by deep regret, she climbed onto the back of a chair. Her body swayed as the wagon swayed.
“Little lady, who is Jeffrey?”
Anita showed curiosity as she was hanging out without strength.
“Yes. I have a friend who came up with me when I came to the capital. But I guess I was wrong.”
“You must be sad. I thought I met a friend, but I didn’t…”
“Huh? No, not to that extent. It’s like two potatoes.”
“Yes?”
Anita looked at her in bewilderment, but she didn’t bother to explain to Anita why it was as bad as two potatoes. When she got back, she thought it would be a good idea to ask Grand Duke Crichton to check on what happened to Geoffrey.
* * *
After driving for about 30 minutes by carriage from the Grand Duchess of Crichton, they arrived at the temple dedicated to the goddess Duana. As she took the knight’s hand and got off the carriage, Kalina straightened the hem of her skirt. She thanked Kalina by smiling and went inside the temple. She had been to the temple several times before. The temple always sold emergency medicine to treat wounds, so when she was a mercenary, she always came to visit once when she had money.
“Are you here, lady?”
As she approached the entrance, a priest she had seen before greeted her. He was apparently the priest who came to heal her mother.
“Hello, priest?”
“Welcome, I have been waiting for you to come. Come inside.”
When the priest greeted her politely, the trainee priests who followed him bowed their heads respectfully toward her. She also briefly bowed her head and received their greeting.
“Like I said before, you came to check if you have divine power, right?”
“That’s right. At that time, you said that I had an excellent ability to accept divine power.”
As she answered, recalling her memories, the priest nodded.
“Yes. As for the detailed ability, it would be better to go inside and check it out.”
“Yes.”
She followed the priest and reached the inside of the temple. In front of them was a large door with the goddess Duana embossed on it. She had never been inside, so she burst into admiration when she saw the sculpture of the goddess she had never seen before. It was as beautiful as if the goddess had manifested herself. Around her goddess, her skin-winged serpent was ornately embossed.
“I’m really sorry, but from here only the lady can enter.”
“Only me?”
She expected the priest to come with her, but the priest recommended that she went in alone.
“What’s inside?”
“You will know when you go in. I and the priests of this temple have all gone through it, so there is nothing to be afraid of.”
“But…”
When she told him to go inside alone, she started to have doubts. She even wondered if all of this was Daniel’s trap. However, because the priest was looking at him so sacredly, he did not have the strength to argue strongly with him.
“…all right.”
As the priest said, she started to approach the door alone. The door did not have a separate doorknob. Not knowing how to open it, she turned around and the priest raised his hand. It was like a gesture to push the door. She nodded his head to indicate that she understood his gesture and held out her hand toward the door. She wondered if the large and heavy door would open with her hand, but the door opened automatically as soon as her hand touched it. It looked like it was decorated with crystals. It was mysterious that the color changes depending on the angle of light while being transparent.
As she walked inside, looking around blankly, she heard a squeaking sound from behind her. She turned and saw that the large door through which she entered was slowly closing. Could she go on like this? Maybe the priest tricked her? In fact, he might not be a priest. Doubts began to come to her mind one by one. It was then.
She heard someone walking across from her. As she focused her attention, an old man as decrepit as the Prince of Crichton 14 years older was approaching her.
“Who are you?”
Hesitating, she backed away in the opposite direction of the old man’s approach. There was no weapon to protect her. She hurriedly thought about pulling out the pin she had put in her hair to keep him in check, but she didn’t think she would be able to compete with him with just a pin. No matter how old he was, he wouldn’t be able to defeat an adult man with the strength of a child.
“Don’t be on your guard, little lady.”
Contrary to his decrepit appearance, the old man spoke in a holy and sweet voice.
“I am Pleon, who is enshrining this Duana goddess.”
The old man, who introduced himself as Pleon, stopped before he could reach her and pointed to one side of him. She looked up to see what it was pointing to, and there lay a crystal that looked like a stump.
“Please sit down first. I have a story to tell.”
But she couldn’t listen to him. As she recalled, the name Pleon was because of the saint of Duana Temple.
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Translator Note:
Hi, there! This is RJR. Thank you very much for reading.
Next post will be released on June, 24.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter 😉
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