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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: A Gift and a Warning
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Jaehae was a precious person to Del.
Judging by how Jaehae had treated me, and Cheshire's reaction, there was no room for doubt.
What if Del had gone mad because Jaehae died first or was gravely injured?
And what if something like that happened to Kivrin?
The moment that terrible thought crossed my mind, my eyes met Kivrin’s.
I abruptly grabbed his hand.
“I’ll protect you, Kivrin!”
I declared it with conviction, but Kivrin wore an awkward expression.
“N-Now isn’t the time to be w-worrying about me…”
“…”
He had a point, but still!
In the end, though, Kivrin smiled.
“But th-thank you.”
Instead of pulling his hand away, Kivrin led me to the carriage.
And so, we left the Temple behind.
Tomorrow, we were scheduled to visit another one.
Right, I need to eat a big lunch and dinner to build up my stamina.
And after dinner, I’ll contact Mother!
I was busy making plans on my own when Kivrin, who had been gazing out the window, suddenly spoke.
“P-Please stop here for a moment.”
Hm?
The carriage stopped, and Kivrin got out.
I followed him and looked around.
Beyond the well-maintained road, perfect for carriages, was a large flower shop.
Kivrin adjusted his scarf, covering more than half of his face.
“It’ll just take a moment.”
Why was he suddenly going to a flower shop?
The gardener could get us anything if we just asked.
With a hint of curiosity, I waited for Kivrin to finish his business in the shop.
Soon, he returned holding a flowerpot and a small bag of seeds.
A smile graced his lips, suggesting he’d found what he was looking for.
“I w-wanted to show you quickly.”
“Show me?”
“Yes. Let’s hurry back.”
Kivrin urged me on.
It wasn't until we arrived at the ducal family's town house that I understood why Kivrin had visited the flower shop.
In front of me, Kivrin unceremoniously dumped some soil and seeds into the pot.
I thought he was being rather careless, but the moment he activated his supernatural ability, a sprout immediately shot up.
“Whoa.”
My gaze was fixed, mesmerized.
Kivrin was merely holding the pot.
He wasn't chanting any spells or visibly channeling any power, yet the plant grew rapidly, as if it had received the finest nutrients.
Then, before my very eyes, a brilliant yellow flower bloomed wide.
It made a mockery of the fact that it was early spring; the flower was more vibrant and full of life than any I had ever seen.
Not wanting to waste even a second blinking, I leaned in close to watch intently. Kivrin offered the pot to me.
“It received my power, so i-it won’t die right away.”
“Is this for me?”
“Because you said you w-wanted to see flowers…”
My heart twinged.
I hugged the flowerpot to my chest.
“I’ll treasure it! I’ll water it every day and give it sunlight!”
“…Yes. There are p-plenty of seeds.”
Kivrin was already convinced I would destroy the flower sooner or later.
But I really can take good care of it!
* * *
That night, my sister, wrapped in a cloak, came to the ducal residence.
Thanks to her, I was dragged from a perfectly good sleep to the drawing room.
My sister glanced between a wide-awake Menelik and a half-asleep me, then started to grumble.
“I feel like I’m being neglected these days. I got out so easily today with just one artifact, you know?”
I rubbed my sleepy eyes.
“Why are you here?”
“You don’t know a thing about the Temple, little sis. I came to give you a simple explanation of the Consecration Ceremony.”
“I can just hear about that from Mera.”
“I’m the Saintess, you know? I know more than that handmaiden.”
“…”
As I started to doze off, Saintess or not, my sister shook me awake.
“Wake up, little sis!”
Gah! I’m sleepy!
I fled to Menelik’s side.
Disappointed that she couldn't torment me further, my sister clicked her tongue.
“The Consecration Ceremony lasts for a full week. For the first three days, while everyone’s out having fun at the festival, the poor Saintess is stuck alone in the Great Temple, praying. That’s when I fill all the holy relics with divine power, see? Honestly, I could do it in a day if I wanted to, but they insist on sticking to the schedule. Well, this time I’ll have to just pretend, out of necessity.”
“…”
“Once that’s over, I can go outside and run my business—I mean, enjoy the festival. On the last day, the Imperial Family offers up the largest monster they’ve subjugated as a sacrifice. If the god is pleased, they say he sends rain as a reward.”
“Has it ever rained?”
I asked flatly.
My sister tilted her head.
“Nope.”
“Heh.”
Menelik, who had been stroking my hair, laughed cheerfully as if he’d known all along.
As I stared at him in disbelief, my sister crossed her arms.
“Unlike the ducal family, the Imperial Family’s subjugations are purely for show, little sis. Even then, they say it’s a pain in the ass, so they just draw lots to make the list. Do they even hunt fifty monsters a year? What kind of decent monster are you going to find in that lot? They’re lucky they don’t get struck by a rain of fire.”
At that moment, my mouth moved on its own.
“He can’t do that.”
“Huh?”
My sister looked puzzled.
I slapped a hand over my mouth in shock.
What did I just say?!
I was starting to wake up, so it couldn't have been sleep-talking.
But I felt no urge to correct what I’d just said.
I remembered how I had instinctively refuted Emil in the underground passage of the marquis’s castle.
*Ugh.* My past self could apparently grasp the structure of a magic circle in an instant and held a rather low opinion of the god.
But even if he couldn't summon a rain of fire, he was still the god of the Empire’s state religion. I just wished the ego of the world’s strongest being would learn to read the room before popping out.
I glanced around nervously and made an excuse.
“I-I’m still half-asleep. I’m fine now.”
Menelik continued to stroke my hair.
Thanks to that, my sister seemed to think it was nothing and continued speaking.
“Anyway, this is the favor I wanted to ask you. I’ll give you the blueprints tomorrow night. Once the Consecration Ceremony starts, sneak into the Great Temple. And hang out with me. We can take out the Duke’s arm, maybe?”
She said it in a tone that felt almost playful.
I thought of Cheshire’s note.
*—I didn't find any faction trying to kidnap the Saintess. It's completely clean. I think that guy, Net or whatever, is just trying to get rid of the Saintess this time around.*
If what Cheshire said was true, the situation was far more serious than if there had been another faction involved.
It meant the Pope had become my sister’s enemy.
I decided to address things one by one.
“Do you know anything about the faction that’s trying to kidnap you?”
“Not really. All I know is what the old man told me, that such a group exists.”
I wrinkled my nose.
“Have you ever sensed anything? Is there any proof?”
“Nope.”
*Hah.*
I was beginning to doubt whether this faction even existed.
“Does His Holiness know about the other countermeasures you’ve prepared?”
“Of course. The old man arranged them for me.”
“…”
I fell silent.
Even for a Saintess and a minor, my sister was relying far too much on the Pope.
It reached a point where I thought she would have been better off relying on the Mayol family, who were merely the worst for me.
“Why are you making that face? You can trust the old man. Sure, we bicker sometimes, but doesn’t everyone?”
My sister tried to reassure me.
But the novel’s plot had long since diverged from reality. I wasn't reassured at all.
“Sister, when we spoke on the communication stone, you said you were making loyal confidants. How did that go?”
“Of course. I made three of them.”
My sister looked very proud.
I gazed steadily into her eyes.
“Will those people keep your secrets, even from His Holiness the Pope?”
“Uh… why would they need to?”
“…”
My sister pondered for a moment, then asked, having apparently reached her own conclusion.
“Is this because the old man came all the way to the ducal territory because I hid what future I saw? We talked it out and resolved it.”
“Maybe you’re the only one who thinks it was resolved.”
A terrible sense of déjà vu washed over me, and I muttered.
In the novel, countless people had been hurt or saved by a single word from my sister.
The problem was that the people who held a grudge against her in the novel only appeared after she became an adult.
Back then, she had dealt with them relatively cleanly.
But now?
Just as I was only eleven, my sister was only in her mid-teens.
Worse, she was far away from her guardian.
And the Pope was not her guardian.
My sister’s eyes darted around.
“No. The old man said it was fine.”
Do you really think he meant it when he said it was fine?! Not after being so utterly humiliated!
I was dumbfounded by my sister, who understood people’s feelings even less than I did.
Menelik, too, sensed that things were taking a strange turn and raised an eyebrow.
My sister, on the other hand, just grinned.
“By the way, little sis, your guard is handsome.”
Honestly, this sister of mine
