Episode 119

I turned to Ismail with wide eyes.

‘Come to think of it… he’s not pretending to be mute anymore, is he?’

Since we met earlier, he had been responding to me with his voice, but I hadn’t noticed.

And yet, he had been just as wary of Magnus as I was.

Why was he speaking as if he was defending him?

‘Could it be… mind control magic?!’

These were people who used dark magic—I couldn’t rule out the possibility that they had done something to him.

As I watched him with a worried expression, he continued speaking.

“The one who often hit and locked up Belze and me… was actually High Priest Dunkeski.”

At those words, the Pope’s face darkened instantly.

And so did mine.

The fact that Ismail was placing all the blame on Dunkeski, who had already fallen from power, only made me more suspicious that he had been brainwashed.

Just as my doubts deepened—

“But.”

“……”

“When I tried to explain why I pretended to be mute, the Headmaster got mad at me for lying.”

“……”

“Even when I told him that I had been bullied by the other kids all this time… he didn’t seem to care.”

With clear, unblinking eyes, Ismail stared straight at Magnus.

“Ismail, that’s…!”

Magnus flinched, his shoulders trembling as he tried to come up with an excuse.

But his lips only moved soundlessly—he had nothing to say.

Because everything Ismail had just said was true.

“I-It’s a misunderstanding, Headmaster! It’s true that I asked Belze to write a letter to the Duke of Kallios for help, but I never told her to bring him here!”

Back when his control ability had been discovered, Ismail had prepared this excuse in advance, clinging to it desperately as he pleaded.

Since those under his control wouldn’t remember the moment they were influenced, he could get away with such a claim.

Just as expected, Magnus didn’t take that part too seriously.

But then—

“I see. Putting that aside… why did you pretend to be mute and hide your ability?”

“T-That’s… I was scared that High Priest Dunkeski would hit me again.”

“High Priest Dunkeski was dismissed quite some time ago, Ismail.”

“B-But before I could tell the truth… Tommy and the other kids started teasing me for being mute, and I never got a chance to speak up….”

“Your explanation doesn’t add up. If they started teasing you, wouldn’t that have been more reason for you to speak up and prove you weren’t mute?”

 

Ismail fell silent at Magnus’s words.

The High Priest, watching the hesitant boy with an expressionless face, eventually dragged him back to the temple.

Fortunately, unlike Dunkeski’s methods, he wasn’t beaten or locked away in a dark room like the Chamber of Repentance.

But that didn’t mean he was set free either.

Ismail had been confined to Magnus’s quarters the entire time and had only just returned to the orphanage.

“…What if revealing that I can talk doesn’t change anything?”

After recounting his experiences with Magnus, Ismail finally voiced the thoughts he hadn’t been able to say before.

“What if the bullying doesn’t stop?”

“……”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

His voice was quiet, almost emotionless, but it struck me like a thunderclap.

It was the first time I had heard him speak like this.

I had assumed he continued pretending to be mute even after Dunkeski’s downfall because he was wary of those trying to exploit his ability.

…Now that I think about it, he did keep pretending even after Dunkeski was gone, didn’t he?

I had never given it much thought.

Until I asked him to control Magnus, Ismail had been little more than an afterthought to me.

I had helped him escape the orphanage out of a vague sense of camaraderie—nothing more.

After all, in the original story, he was just another male lead candidate who would eventually fall for the heroine and despise me.

But I had been so fixated on the novel’s plot that I overlooked something important—

Ismail was still just a child.

Even though he could speak, he feared the bullying wouldn’t stop.

And strangely, I understood that fear all too well.

When I first lost my Healing Eye, what I dreaded most was being seen as useless.

It was almost laughable.

By then, my abilities and reputation had already hit rock bottom.

Even so, I had clung to that fear—

Even though hardly anyone truly understood what my Healing Eye could do.

For someone like Ismail, who was far more intelligent and had a more obviously useful ability, the fear must have been unbearable.

Even if he started speaking again, he knew the way the other children and priests saw him would never be the same.

Because even if he stopped pretending to be mute—he couldn’t stop pretending that he had lost his ability.

To protect it from being taken away.

“…So High Priest Magnus didn’t harm you, but at the same time, he did nothing to stop the bullying you suffered.”

After a brief silence, the Pope finally spoke.

“Did I hear you correctly, Ismail?”

“Your Holiness!”

Magnus’s face twisted in panic as he hastily interrupted.

“E-Even so, what Ismail did was still wrong! He shouldn’t have used his ability on me—he should have spoken to me and asked for help instead…!”

“High Priest Magnus.”

“……”

“It seems I overestimated you. You begged for this position so earnestly that I expected you to take your duties seriously.”

The Pope’s voice was calm, yet carried a chilling weight.

Magnus quickly forced a smile, trying to salvage the situation.

“Your Holiness, I have only been in this role for two weeks! That’s hardly enough time to fully grasp the orphanage’s situation—”

“If you truly intended to understand the situation, you should have listened to the children who were being neglected first.”

At the Pope’s sharp rebuke, Magnus finally shut his mouth.

Somehow, the discussion had shifted from Ismail’s hidden ability to Magnus’s incompetence.

That hadn’t been my original goal—I had intended to expose him as a heretic.

But either way, with the Pope’s involvement, things were progressing much more smoothly than I had expected.

“What exactly have you done today? While a child from the temple orphanage was forced to seek outside help, what were you doing?”

“Y-Your Holiness, that is….”

“You downplayed the situation to me, saying it was nothing serious, and now all you can say is that you lacked time?”

The Pope had already been on edge since the noble guests had witnessed the previous orphanage priests’ misdeeds during the volunteer day.

And now, seeing that even the newly appointed priest had failed to meet expectations, he couldn’t hide his disappointment.

“Since, as you say, it’s only been two weeks, you probably haven’t even had time to form attachments with the children. I’ll find a new replacement, so you may step down now.”

“Your Holiness!”

Magnus’s head snapped up at the Pope’s unwavering decision, which left no room for negotiation.

“I-I was foolish! Please, just give me one more chance…!”

“I don’t wish to see you for a while. Go to the Saint Arkia Monastery and spend time reflecting in prayer. And while you’re there, study again why the temple operates an orphanage in the first place.”

Even as Magnus hastily bowed and pleaded for mercy, the Pope remained unmoved.

As he had said, it was fortunate that Magnus had only been in his position for a short time.

At least this way, there hadn’t been too many more victims like Ismail and me.

To be honest, I wanted to expose Magnus right then and there—

To reveal that he had colluded with Logan.

To declare him a dangerous heretic who deserved immediate punishment.

But…

Ismail had told me that he justified controlling Magnus as a way to ask for my help.

I recalled his explanation and bit my lip.

Unlike Logan, who had been caught using dark magic and reciting ancient heretical texts, there was no solid proof against Magnus yet.

If I acted recklessly and made it obvious that Ismail knew something, we could end up in even greater danger.

…Either way, he’s been sent far from the temple. I can deal with him later.

Morbid thoughts of assassination and accidental death floated through my mind.

“…Understood.”

Magnus, who had been glancing back and forth between the Pope, Ismail, and me with a deeply resentful expression, finally lowered his head.

“I will prepare to leave immediately.”

With that, he rose and trudged out of the headmistress’s office.

Saint Arkia Monastery was located far in the southern regions, far from the capital.

Unless he was summoned by the Pope or accomplished some extraordinary feat, he was unlikely to return.

It was, for all intents and purposes, an exile.

For failing to listen to a neglected child, it was a rather severe punishment.

But it seemed the Pope wanted to set an example—not just for the orphanage, but for me as well.

Honestly, I didn’t mind.

As I watched Magnus’s retreating figure disappear beyond the door, I felt an odd sense of satisfaction.

First Dunkeski, and now Magnus—I’m the one identifying these villains and casting them out.

If I hadn’t asked Ismail to control him, none of this would have happened.

I’m changing the original story, bit by bit.

And finally, I admitted it.

That because of me, the events of the novel were shifting in countless ways.

Diana was still the protagonist, so I might not be able to alter the main plotline.

But if I kept making these small changes, then maybe…

Maybe I could remove Edwin from the list of male lead candidates altogether.

At the very bottom of my heart, a small, secret hope began to bloom.

Just then—

“…It must have been quite a surprise to suddenly have a sponsor.”

The Pope’s voice echoed through the now-empty headmistress’s office.

At his words, Ismail cast a wary glance in my direction, looking rather unsettled.

“…She’s my sponsor?”

“Yep! I’m your sponsor!”

I declared proudly, watching his dark amber eyes flicker.

For some reason, he looked troubled.

This entire plan had been something he knew nothing about.

And honestly, I had only thought of it in passing before—only deciding to act on it just yesterday.

Maybe he’s just shocked?

As I rationalized his reaction, I suddenly remembered something.

Feeling the weight still hanging at my waist, I gasped.

“Ah!”

With a short exclamation, I quickly untied the heavy pouch strapped tightly to my belt and handed it to the Pope.

“Here, the remaining 48 gold!”

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