Episode 02: I seem to have been possessed in a novel.
In the Kingdom of Bulerion, there were portals connected to the Royal Palace in each territory, so it was easy to reach. It took only a few seconds. Perhaps because of Muriel’s lack of affinity with magic, the knight that escorted her warned her of possible motion sickness, but she arrived without any difficulty.
The royal palace was adorned entirely in gold. To Muriel, it seemed excessively dazzling, with gold shimmering everywhere. King Sharan was known for his beautiful honey-blonde hair that the royals inherited, and his self-love seemed to reflect in the interior designing of the palace.
No matter where she looked, Muriel’s gaze caught the gold of Sharan’s hair and the golden sun that symbolized him.
“Ew!”
As soon as she thought of Sharan, her stomach lurched, and as soon as she saw a portrait of him hanging in the hallway, an unbearable nausea enveloped her.
“Are you okay?”
The knight accompanying her turned to look at her. He noticed Muriel’s gaze fixed on Sharan’s portrait but being the loyal servant he was, he would never be able to imagine she was feeling nauseous and groaning at seeing Sharan’s face.
“It must be motion sickness. It can happen when using the portal for the first time. Shall we take a small break before continuing?”
“No, it’s not that…”
What was this?
Muriel glanced up again at Sharan’s portrait.
“Aeugh-”
“Y-Young lady?”
This time, Muriel stuck out her tongue and made a gagging sound, causing the neatly-dressed knight to subconsciously distance himself from her. Muriel’s eyes, which had been fine until now, turned red from how forcefully she had retched.
He wanted to show chivalry and help Muriel, but when Muriel’s sour face turned towards him, he unconsciously clenched his buttocks and stopped talking.
“Let’s move on.”
When Sharan’s golden eyes met hers, goosebumps rose all over her body as if she’d seen some nasty bug. But Sharan wasn’t ugly at all…?
Rather, he was a beautiful man.
His hair was a honey-colored shade more beautiful than the gold that covered the entire royal palace, and his eyes were golden like a beast’s. His chocolate-like dark skin added a sense of dignity and mysteriousness to his pretty face.
Objectively speaking, Sharan was a beauty with a delicate and splendid harmony that could rival fairies and spirits. Although he looked like he was a little sensitive and feisty, his appearance couldn’t be called repulsive even as a joke.
But why did the sight of his face alone bring an unbearable feeling of nausea?
Muriel, who had been stumbling and squirming like a pig being dragged to a slaughterhouse, began to quicken her steps to pass the various portraits of Sharan that filled one side of the wall. Even the Knight couldn’t keep up with her fast pace.
As Sharan’s portraits continued endlessly, Muriel’s footsteps became increasingly unsteady. Her chest heaved up and down as she became short of breath, and her feet clumsily kicked the ends of her dress, making her look like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Damn, it’s never-ending.”
At that moment, the graceful and elegant Rovelia, whose even steps were noble, approached Muriel. She was a blonde beauty with emerald, glass like eyes, with a shy, lowered gaze.
Rovelia’s eyelashes fluttered for a moment, as if taken aback by Muriel’s riled up appearance, but she soon revealed her lovely dimples and greeted Muriel affectionately.
“Hello, lady Muriel.”
“Blergh-”
Muriel covered her mouth in a hurry.
The lovely lady took a step closer upon seeing Muriel’s pale face, but Muriel frantically shook her head and distanced herself from Rovelia.
Rovelia had only greeted her kindly, but Muriel felt worse than when she saw Sharan’s portraits. It was as if her insides twisted, so to speak. She felt nauseous and unsettled. A wave of physiological disgust, similar to seeing a repulsive creature like a snake or a monster, washed over her.
Could this be… the automatic reflex of a villainess?
“Are you okay, lady Muriel? Are you nervous? Goodness, poor you.”
Muriel could swear that she didn’t harbor any negative feelings towards Rovelia. But, her body reacted first. She couldn’t control it, as if an allergic reaction had been triggered.
Muriel wanted to believe that the sudden deterioration of her condition was due to the fact that she’d suddenly moved her body after lying down in bed for three days. But she had ridden on a portal without feeling any motion sickness, only to suddenly feel unwell upon seeing Rovelia’s radiant smile?
In Muriel’s own thoughts, she believed her heart was rotten. She couldn’t think of herself as anything but mean. Still, she felt wronged.
Perhaps it was because of the lack of the memories of three months’ worth of events, but the current Muriel had no ill feelings towards Rovelia.
Even after thoroughly combing through all her memories, she found that the original Muriel, the one before the transmigration, never hated Rovelia. Unlike what people misunderstood, she didn’t feel jealous of her. In the first place, Muriel lived her life without much care for Rovelia.
Although she didn’t know what happened during the three missing months, Muriel didn’t want to act mean towards the kind lady who approached her affectionately.
“Hello, Rovelia. You look… very beautiful.”
Muriel tried her best to smile, but her smile was eerie, like someone desperately forcing a smile as they fell off a cliff. Her pale face was twisted, and her trembling lips struggled to lift the corners, giving the impression of a lake ghost full of resentment. If the gatekeeper of hell, who’d never smiled in their life, tried to put on a smile for the first time to lure a child, they would probably resemble Muriel’s smile.
The knights who had only been with Rovelia all this time had no immunity to Muriel’s nightmarish smile. They were startled to the point that their shoulders twitched, and unwittingly, they placed their hands on the hilts of the swords at their waists.
In their eyes, Muriel looked closer to a black wizard, infamously known as followers of Ur, than a Saint. Maybe it was because of the black frilled purple dress she was wearing, or maybe it was her sharp eyes and dark circles, as if she had been plagued by nightmares for days. In any case, it seemed more like she was heading to an underground prison than a banquet hall.
On the other hand, the knights’ expressions softened as soon as they looked at Rovelia. It felt like fate that her hair, tied up with a soft pink ribbon, was the shade of golden Sharan liked.
They may not know much about the latest trends or aesthetics, but they could tell that Rovelia light blue dress with fluttering white frills was much more beautiful and lovely than the dark and gloomy dress Muriel was wearing.
The saint they envisioned was a pure and delicate flower like Rovelia, not the fierce and menacing poisonous thorn that Muriel looked like.
Rovelia, the Dachinis’ treasured lady, with her graceful demeanor, truly looked like the first saint that appeared after 12 years, or perhaps even a queen that would protect Sharan by his side.
“Thank you. Muriel too… Muriel is really…”
But even Rovelia, who was good at hiding her emotions, found it difficult to easily say “beautiful” when she saw Muriel’s appearance. She wanted to say only good things on a good day, but she was worried that any compliment to Muriel at this moment would only come across as sarcasm.
“M-Muriel looks very good, too.”
Thanks to that, even Rovelia, who always tried to speak properly, stammered.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
The banquet hall was full of people.
In particular, the three guardian families – Dachini, Eklum, and Pendragon – were attending the event with all their heirs.
Dachini had many skilled swordsmen in their family, as the gift of God they’d received as an heirloom was a sword, and all of Rovelia’s brothers were swordsmen. The handsome red-haired men with towering builds watched with awe as their only sister entered the hall.
Although the saint had not yet been decided, the atmosphere among the nobles gathered was already heated.
They had no doubt that Rovelia was the saint. In their eyes, Muriel, who entered the banquet hall in an unsightly manner, holding her dress as if carrying a burden with a bent posture and revealing her ankles, was nothing short of an eyesore.
On the opposite side of the nobles, the court wizards and priests gathered. Compared to the nobles, they appeared much calmer. They alternated their gaze between Robelia and Muriel with searching eyes, but there was no evident biased expectation towards Rovelia in them.
As a saint had not appeared in 12 years, the priests had lost much of their influence in the palace, and their position had become greatly reduced. They only hoped for the emergence of a strong saint who would restore the strong position of the temple and priests – it didn’t matter if it was Rovelia or Storm.
“Have you heard the rumors? They say both Rovelia and Muriel were famous for not even having more Pacio than a farmer since their days at the academy.”
One of the priests whispered.
“No matter which one of them becomes the Saint, the revival of the temple is impossible.”
“Yes, I’ve heard that too. I can’t believe the stars of the Oracle that we found after twelve long years are in that shape… What will become of us?”
“Don’t say such things, priest. If the young lady of Dachini becomes the Saint, do you think the Dachini family will stay idle? A great deal of support would pour into the temple. I hope young lady Dachini is the saint.”
“Oh, you’re saying that because you’re ignorant. What good is a noble family if the saint doesn’t possess the ability? In that sense, the saint this time is already a wrong fit. Both of them are too old.”
“Both of them are in their late twenties, aren’t they? I’ve never seen a saint since I became a priest. I’ve heard that most exceptional saints usually die young, but how young were they exactly…”
A young priest asked, and an older priest stroked his beard as he spoke.
“The last saint who left this sacred oracle died at the age of thirteen. Saints who live long usually have mediocre abilities. So this time, it’s probably the same. Those two have already broken the record for the oldest saint in the temple.”
It was funny for the wrinkled old priest to talk about young people in their 20s as if they were really old, but no one dared to contradict him.
However, Nicholas Neville thought differently. He was the one who’d discovered this oracle left by the last saint, Julia, after it’d been lost for 12 years. This ambitious high priest was convinced that this saint would possess an unprecedented strong power.
Perhaps even stronger than Sharan.
Nicholas struggled to suppress the secret excitement that was slowly rising within him and put on a submissive smile as he looked towards Sharan sitting on the golden throne.
He felt a thrilling shudder flowing through his spine when he thought of when, sooner or later, he’d have the power of the saint by his side, and he would no longer have to bend his back to that arrogant king.
Now he just had to wait a little longer. Just a little longer.
This novel’s comedic element is one of it’s best parts imo. Muriel hurling at the sight of Sharan and Rovelia never fails to make me laugh, no matter how many times I read this.
I agree with you in comedic aspect🤣