“Is… Is it okay to do that?”
Louise asked Chase with concern in her voice. Chase was looking into the training hall with a solemn face, and there was deep worry in his eyes.
“I said I wanted to do it, but there was nothing I could do about it. They don’t even let you leave the mansion, so isn’t it too harsh to not let them do something like that?”
“…Anyway, it’s already been two hours. I’ve been just running for two hours.”
Chase sighed softly at Louise’s words. Leaving behind Loella, who could no longer hold her wooden sword, Louise left the training ground without any regrets. Louise naturally thought that she would follow her out of the gym. When she looked back after walking for a while, she saw that Louise was alone. When she looked inside her gym again, she saw Roella running through her gym with legs as shaky as paper.
‘Are you saying you’re going to run because you can’t hold a wooden sword?’
She liked the grit, but it was the first day. She thought she would spin a few laps and then do that. However, an hour passed, and even after two hours, Roella did not come out of the training center. When she checked her training ground again, she saw that Roella was running around her training ground relentlessly, looking even more exhausted than before.
‘I must be hungry…’
She felt like she would collapse if left like that. It was the moment when Louise was about to enter her training room to stop Roella.
“Duke! We’re in big trouble!”
Chase and Louise’s heads turned at the same time. The matter seemed urgent just because Angel, who had been so calm, came running without any hesitation.
“What’s going on?”
“The Archbishop and priests of the Central Temple are outside now!”
“What?”
“Luga says she has lost her shine and is asking you to check on her princess!”
Chase had deliberately not contacted Shinjeon for fear of something like this happening. Soon Chase shouted with an angry look on his face.
“How dare you storm into Duke Clement’s house without a message? And you’re going to check on my daughter?”
“That is… I have brought you a letter with the emperor’s seal!”
“…!”
Chase’s face turned pale at Angel’s words.
‘It’s a letter with the emperor’s seal. Then, does this mean that the emperor and the temple colluded?’
With regard to the oracle of Luganet, the emperor maintained a neutral stance externally. The fact that the emperor sent a letter threatening Clement to the temple also meant that he would be wary of the oracle given to Luganet in the future.
“There is no other great sun; this is the day when the false sun of the empire rises. The lost light will be found, and the child’s cry will echo throughout the world.”
Chase’s face darkened as he remembered the oracle that had been spread the day before the emperor’s coronation ceremony 17 years ago. Chase, who was holding her head with a sad look on his face for a moment, then spoke to Louise.
“First you take Roella to her room. Go ahead and make sure she never wakes up.”
“Yes? Father, what is that…”
“I will explain later. She has to knock Loella out for a moment, so she can put the child down in her room, quickly!”
After shouting an order, Chase walked towards the front door with Angel. Although she didn’t know what was happening, Louise sensed that something bad was going to happen to Loella. Louise ran into her gym without hesitation. However, Louise, who entered her, soon had no choice but to stop her steps.
“Roella…?”
Roella, who had been running around her gym just a moment ago, suddenly disappeared. Louise was the only one in the wasteland-like gymnasium.
“Roella!!”
* * *
When she opened her eyes, what she saw was the ceiling of my room. She tried to look out her window, wondering if she had dreamed of training to death with Louise, but her whole body throbbed. She barely moved her aching body and pulled her hand out from under the blanket. Her palms were all covered in blisters.
‘It’s not a dream…’
If it’s not a dream, why was she in the room? She thought she was running in the training ground a little while ago.
“Ah.”
At that time, a soft male voice was heard from under the bed. I frowned and tried to see the man who made the noise.
‘There’s a strange man in my room…?’
She couldn’t open her eyes properly, so she could see the stranger’s features blurry. She could barely make out the man’s silhouette. The man was dressed in spotless white clothes and had long white hair. Perhaps because of the blurry vision, his long hair, which reached down to his waist, seemed to be fluttering with white light.
“What you shouldn’t wake up to.”
“…?”
“This is my first time doing something like this, so I guess I’m a little immature.”
“Who…”
By the time she said that, she felt heavy sleepiness. She tried to force her eyes, which kept closing, but they closed on their own as if there was some force majeure. With her eyes closed, she listened to his last voice, full of warmth.
“I hope you live. This will is also the will of God.”
* * *
“What are you doing now?”
Chase opened the door to the mansion and shouted at the archbishop wearing a white robe. He brought with him a letter from the emperor. The Gonhana Clemend family was a ducal family with power in the empire just behind the emperor. No matter how great the temple was, it could not look down on the Clement family, who were credited with founding it. Archbishop Berger took off his robes and bowed his half-naked, shiny head.
“How have you been, Duke Clemente?”
“Explain the situation. I will never forgive you for disrespecting the Clement family unless it is for a good reason.”
Berger frowned slightly at Chase’s words, which skipped saying hello and immediately started with a threat. Soon, he flashed a sinister smile and thrust the emperor’s letter he was holding in front of Chase.
“This is a letter from His Majesty. As it is a matter related to the safety of the empire, His Majesty also tried to prevent an unpleasant incident by scrambling for an hour.”
‘It’s an unpleasant thing…’
She guessed it, but the temple and the emperor seemed to think that Luganet and Roella were closely related. Chase glared at Archbishop Berger with a harsher expression. Berger continued without blinking his eye.
“Once I confirm Lady Clement’s condition, I will leave immediately. Although we came to the Clement family first, we are checking all of the children related to the oracle. Now that Luganet, the treasure of the empire, has lost its luster, I hope that you will consider with great generosity the earnest hearts of the priests who came here in such a hurry.”
It was a lie to say that all children related to the trust were being checked. They came convinced that Roella had woken up. The proof was that Archbishop Berger himself came forward.
‘You could get caught just by knocking them out for a moment.’
If she could somehow avoid this situation, Roella could escape from Luganet’s oracle, even if only for a moment. But Chase knew. Since they even brought a letter with the emperor’s seal, there was no way Chase could bite them. Chase just hoped that Louise had done her job safely, and he spoke to the Archbishop in a disapproving voice.
“Once we’re done checking, you’ll have to leave right away.”
“Would it be possible?”
Berger lowered his head, and an evil smile spread across his lips. All the way to Roella’s room, she didn’t expect Clement’s stiff face to relax at all. The same was true for Angel, who followed Chase. Evan, who joined the commotion late, also had the same dark expression.
‘What’s happening all of a sudden?’
She couldn’t understand why the emperor’s letter was suddenly brought from the temple to check on Roella’s condition, and why Chase was so anxious. She had guessed that something was strange since Roella had woken up and hid it from the public, but the fact that the emperor and the temple were involved was something she had never expected. Just as Evan was contemplating, Louise, drenched in sweat, appeared in front of them.
“Louise?”
Chase, who saw Louise’s shaking eyes, immediately realized that something was wrong. Now, just a few steps further, he was in front of Roella’s door. Something must have happened to her, Louise, who was supposed to be guarding her in her room, was running around in front of her like that. Chase asked lowly, his voice filled with tension.
“What’s going on?”
Berger’s eyes flickered as he sensed that the atmosphere was unusual. As he approached a little closer to eavesdrop on the conversation between Chase and Louise, Evan noticed this and blocked his path.
‘Tsk.’
As Berger was covered by Evan’s back, Louise spoke in a quieter whisper.
“Roella… It’s in the room. I think I fell asleep and that was…”
“Okay. Then it’s done.”
As Chase let out her sigh of relief, Louise pursed her lips as if she had something left to say. Although Chase’s orders were followed, this was not Louise’s doing. Roella suddenly disappeared from her training ground, and when they came to her mansion to look for her, Roella was already lying on her bed. What was even more strange was that Roella was sleeping as if she were dead and no matter how much she was shaken, she would not wake up. Just like she did when Roella lay there as if dead. Louise thought she should tell Chase about this as soon as possible, but she couldn’t because of the priests behind her.
‘You must be trying to hide Loella waking up. But she said Roella might be in danger…!’
Louise clenched her empty fists, suppressing the urge to call a doctor right away. Evan, who saw this, frowned as if he was uncomfortable. Chase carefully opened Roella’s door. As soon as her door was opened, her maids who had been cleaning Roella’s body withdrew. The maids awkwardly backed away, unable to hide their anxiety over the sudden situation. The priests who followed the archbishop guarded the front door of Roella’s door, and with Chase at the head, Evan, Louise, and Archbishop Bergerman entered Roella’s bedroom. Berger’s eyes narrowed as he saw Roella with her eyes closed, looking serene.
“Aren’t you just sleeping?”
“We sometimes make the same mistake. “Isn’t it worth checking?”
He answered leisurely, mixed with sarcasm, but in reality, Chase’s heart was racing. As it was, Roella woke up. If the truth was known, Roella would be branded as ‘Luganet’s child.’
The moment she became the child who stole the Empire’s treasure, the Light of Luganet, it was only a matter of time before Roella became a target of the Emperor and the Temple. Chase wanted to avoid something like that at all costs. Berger frowned and glared openly at Roella. The unpleasant gaze from the men of Clement Street all turned fierce.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
It was then. Just as Berger was about to place his hand on Roella’s head, who was covering the blanket up to her neck, Evan grabbed his wrist.
“Is it not enough to be in the bedroom of an unmarried princess?”
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
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