Ch#63
2023.11.02.
Blair suddenly felt a surge of longing well up, which she tried to suppress as she began reading the fairy tale book. At first, Asiel came to mind and it was difficult, but gradually her heart settled.
Perhaps her body had mistaken the small warmth in her arms for Asiel.
Even so, she liked that sense of stability and peace, so Blair did her best to perform the storytelling.
Fortunately, the child showed interest in the story Blair was telling and focused intently.
The peace was broken the moment the prince appeared in the fairy tale.
"I want to read a book too."
A boy who appeared to be five or six years old approached with a fairy tale book. Behind him came a girl of similar age, running up.
"Hey! That's my book! Give it back!"
"No! It's mine!"
"You left yours over there!"
The girl grabbed the boy's fairy tale book and pulled. The boy resisted just as stubbornly.
"Hey, kids?"
When Blair, seeing the two children bickering, stopped the storytelling in confusion, the child in her arms furrowed her tiny brows and shouted in a lisping voice.
"Noisy!"
But the older sister and brother showed no sign of stopping their book tug-of-war.
Finally, unable to stand it, Blair set the child in her arms down on the chair and stood up, approaching the two children.
"Kids, if you pull like that, the book will hurt. I'll read it for you, so together—"
The moment she grabbed the book the children were pulling, the girl let go, and Blair's hand was cut by the sharp edge of the paper.
"Ah."
"Gasp."
Seeing blood coming from Blair's finger, the two children stopped fighting. Their faces turned pale white at the same time.
"Madam?"
Melli, who happened to be coming this way, witnessed the scene and hurried over.
"Oh no, your hand...! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. It's nothing, so don't make a fuss. The children will get scared."
Blair quickly wrapped her bleeding finger to calm the startled children, but one of them burst into tears upon seeing it.
"She's hurt!"
"Hurt? Who?"
Miela approached upon hearing the commotion. Blair's plan not to make a big deal out of it seemed already ruined.
The boy pointed at Blair with a trembling voice.
"Th-the princess got hurt."
"I'm fine. It's just a little paper cut."
Blair tried to reassure them that it was okay, but the children wouldn't calm down easily. It seemed due to their guilt.
Then, as if remembering something, the girl approached Miela.
"Miela sister, can't you heal her?"
"R-right! Help her, sis."
"Alright. Then I'll heal the Duchess, so you two promise not to fight anymore."
The children nodded vigorously.
Miela made the children pinky promise and sent them away. Then she approached Blair.
"Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, only to go through something unnecessary."
The feeling that those words didn't welcome her presence must be just due to personal emotions toward that woman.
Blair tried to hide her feelings and replied.
"It's okay. I'm just glad the children aren't hurt."
"If you think of it that way, then I'm relieved. Well then, Madam, may I see the wound?"
Miela held out her hand to Blair.
Blair placed her hand, which had belatedly started to sting, on top of Miela's.
At that moment, memories from her previous life suddenly overlapped.
In her previous life, on this day too, though for a different reason, she had received treatment from Miela. At the Temple's main building, for a heel scraped raw by new shoes.
Following that, the image of Miela's hand caressing Herdin's abdomen to heal his broken rib came to mind. Recalling that memory made her fingertips tremble.
At that instant, Blair unwittingly pulled her hand away from Miela.
"...No."
Miela looked at Blair with puzzled eyes.
"Madam?"
"On second thought, I don't think it needs treatment. It's a waste of your precious energy as a priestess."
Blair quickly clasped her own hands together as if Miela might grab them, hiding a baseless premonition that she shouldn't receive treatment from her.
"I'm fine, but if you don't want it, there's nothing to be done."
It was just as the conversation with Miela was wrapping up.
"Princess!"
Several children came running over breathless.
Blair and Miela looked at the children with curious eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"The prince! The prince is here!"
"...The prince?"
"Someone who looks like a prince! You said he's the princess's husband."
Looking in the direction the children pointed with their small hands, she saw Herdin approaching.
Blair's eyes widened in surprise.
'The meeting time was set for 2 o'clock.'
Today, he had a morning council meeting, so he was supposed to stop by the Imperial Palace and then come straight to the Temple.
She had planned to head to the Temple's main building accordingly.
Because he came early, he ran into Miela. Her heart began to race at the unexpected situation.
"Blair."
Herdin, who approached with large strides, let his gaze linger on Blair for a moment before turning to Miela beside her. Recognizing her, his eyes narrowed.
The woman who, according to Blair, was someone he would come to love in the future.
He still thought it was absurd, but imagining Blair laughing and chatting with such a woman until just now soured his mood.
Unaware of his feelings, Miela greeted him with a bright smile.
"Hello, Duke. Nice to see you again like this."
"Indeed, we meet again. What brings you here? I thought a priestess's duties were quite demanding."
Herdin responded casually to Miela while deliberately watching Blair's reaction.
"Oh, it was my day off for once, so I came to see the children and ran into the Duchess. She seemed to need help, so I was lending a hand."
"Taking care of my share, how grateful."
"Oh, no. I'm doing it because I enjoy it."
But Blair was just quietly watching the two converse, with her usual unreadable expression.
As if she were the uninvited guest in this conversation, not Miela.
Herdin, who had kept his gaze fixed on Blair even while talking to Miela, finally took Blair's hand first.
"Then we'll be going, as we have business."
Blair was dragged away by his hand without even a chance to greet Miela.
"Ah......"
A hint of regret and pity crossed Miela's face as she watched the two walk away.
"...As expected, he doesn't smile around the Duchess."
Poor man.
You must be happy.
'I have to save him.'
From that hellish political marriage.
* * *
The two left the orphanage and headed to the Temple annex.
Most nobles of the Ardel Empire are laid to rest in their own territories.
However, since nobles spend much time residing in their townhouses in the capital, it was not easy to visit family graves on anniversaries.
The Temple had built an annex to house souls for such people, calling it the Ancestral Hall.
For the Temple, it was a pretext to receive donations, and for the nobles, it was convenient to have the deceased nearby to visit.
Paladins guarded the front of the building thoroughly.
There were no bodies here, but as a place housing the departed, it maintained a solemn atmosphere with strict security.
"Please enter."
After confirming the identities of the two, the paladin guided them inside the annex.
After climbing several flights of stairs in the annex, they reached the room housing the Delmark Duke family's ancestors. The family crest was depicted on the door.
Once the guiding paladin withdrew, the two entered the room. There hung portraits of the previous Duke and Duchess of Delmark.
Blair paused upon facing their portraits as she was about to enter.
'Is it okay for me to be here?'
In her previous life, she had naturally stayed by his side, but this time, that thought came first.
I'm going to leave this house soon anyway.
Am I interrupting his time to talk with his parents?
Blair gazed at Herdin's back as he entered ahead, then cautiously opened her mouth.
"Herdin."
He turned at her call.
"I'll step out for a bit."
"Why?"
"...In case you feel uncomfortable."
Herdin looked at Blair steadily.
His fake wife tended to distance herself from him at crucial moments like this. He didn't like it.
"What unsightly thing would a husband hide from his wife?"
Herdin strode over, took Blair's hand, and pulled her to his side. Blair obediently followed his touch and stood beside him.
Standing side by side before the portraits, holding hands, she felt like a real couple deceiving the previous Duke and Duchess. But his hand gripping hers showed no intention of letting go.
Blair gazed up quietly at Herdin standing beside her.
His expression upon visiting the place housing his parents' souls was utterly emotionless. He looked like someone visiting a stranger's grave, not his parents'.
But Blair knew.
The boy who pretended not to care while hearing stories of his parents' accident from others' mouths, then slipped out of banquets to suffer alone.
How much pain he must have endured to become this man.
Once, she had even loved that loneliness. She thought she could fill that void.
But now she knew it was arrogant hope.
"Let's head back."
After keeping vigil for a while, the two left the Ancestral Hall with a final prayer for the departed.
At that moment, someone was approaching from down the corridor. Recognizing him, Blair's eyes widened.
