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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: A Grave Misunderstanding
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After finishing the deployment of the 2nd Division, the Saintess’s personal guard, Victoria headed straight for the underground prison.
How panicked she had been when she heard that Ordel had been attacked last night.
To make matters worse, she had been the last person with Ordel before the attack, and she was plagued by a heavy sense of guilt.
If only she hadn't left, if only she had disobeyed Ordel’s order that there was no need to stand guard until dawn since there were no suspicious elements in the temple.
If she had, Ordel wouldn't have had to face such danger alone.
‘It was my mistake.’
The assassin was said to have been cloaked in divine power, so her presence likely wouldn't have been much help.
And in the end, Ordel had captured him alive.
Still, guilt wasn’t something that disappeared so easily.
That was why her heart sank the moment she heard someone scream from somewhere in the prison.
It was a man’s voice, but she wasn’t in the right state of mind to discern such things.
When she arrived at the cell, she saw it.
Ordel, drenched in crimson blood, slowly collapsing.
“Saintess!”
It was a horrific sight, with red liquid pouring from her mouth, eyes, and nose.
Her condition was so ghastly that Victoria feared Ordel might be dead.
Victoria bit her lip and rushed into the cell.
Seeing the broken lock, she could only sigh.
Seth and Airic would never have opened it, which meant Ordel must have broken in herself.
Why? Why would she go this far?
Victoria gritted her teeth and carefully lifted the unconscious Ordel into her arms.
Then, she glared menacingly at the assassin chained to the wall.
If that bastard had done this, she would kill him on the spot.
“…Hey.”
But she couldn't.
The assassin, who had seemed like a mindless imbecile with a vacant stare and no reaction, was looking directly at her and speaking.
Through his messy, blood-and-dust-caked violet hair, his pink eyes shone with a chillingly clear light.
“…That person.”
His gaze shifted from Victoria to Ordel in her arms.
The moment her hands holding Ordel tightened instinctively.
“Is… she okay…?”
He asked.
Victoria thought she had misheard.
His trembling lips, his eyes carefully examining Ordel’s condition, his contorted face.
He looked as if he were worried about Ordel. Surely not…
“She’s not dead, is she?”
“Shut up!”
Victoria reacted fiercely to his ominous words.
Ordel was a tough woman. There was no way something like this could kill her.
“…Right. Then hurry and get her treated.”
His docile reaction, despite being a captive, was unsettling, but she had no more time to spare for him.
Without another word, Victoria left the prison with Ordel.
As she locked the door firmly with a new padlock and turned to leave, Victoria glanced at the man one last time.
He was just staring blankly at the ornate jewelry box resting on his abdomen.
* * *
“…Did the Saintess really heal him?”
Left alone after Airic’s departure, Victoria stared intently at the sleeping Ordel.
After explaining everything that had happened in the prison to Airic, she had learned a few things from him.
According to Ordel’s judgment, the assassin seemed to be controlled by the Great Sea God’s divine power.
Therefore, she wanted to free him if possible.
‘If the reason he can speak and his eyes have regained their focus is because the Saintess succeeded…’
Then it would also explain why Ordel had coughed up so much blood.
Breaking a god’s divine power was a difficult task, even for a Saintess.
The problem was why she would take such a risk for an assassin who was trying to kill her.
In the past, she had been a nuisance, treating everyone with equal malice. Now that she had repented, she seemed to have become too self-sacrificing, which was a different kind of problem.
She could never say the past was better, not even if her mouth were torn open, but she couldn't say the present was good either.
Couldn't she just mix the two halves? Did she have to be so extreme?
“Oh, Sun God. Please protect your daughter.”
Victoria offered a prayer to the god who was surely watching over them even now.
May the daughter you love and cherish, the one you personally chose as your Saintess, be safe and happy.
May she no longer suffer.
*Click.*
Just then, the bedroom door opened quietly.
She turned to see Monica enter with a somber expression. It seemed she had heard about the situation as soon as she returned to the temple.
“…Lady Victoria.”
“Shh. The Saintess is still sleeping.”
Monica staggered over and stood beside her.
She had been crying outside; her eyes and nose were red.
“Did you see your parents off well?”
“Yes. They left directly from the village without coming to the temple. It was for the best.”
Monica bit her lip once before continuing, her voice still thick with moisture.
“To think that something like this… this would happen while I was away…”
“If we’re assigning blame, then I was under the same roof and didn’t even know.”
Although the assassin had been cloaked in the Great Sea God’s divine power, making him undetectable even to Seth, leaving the Saintess alone was a clear mistake.
“And the reason she hasn’t woken up isn’t because of the assassin. The Saintess captured him just fine.”
“What? Then why…”
Rumors of the attack had spread like wildfire, but the fact that the man wielded divine power and that Ordel had collapsed after pouring out her own divine power were kept secret.
The only ones who knew were Seth, Airic, and Victoria.
And since Monica, as her handmaiden, also needed to know, Victoria told her the truth.
“What in the world is he to her…”
Monica, having learned the whole story, seethed with quiet rage.
Seeing her face flush red, Victoria knew that if Ordel hadn't been sleeping, Monica would have thrown a fit.
“I only heard this from the High Priest, so I don’t know the reason. I know the Saintess isn’t one to do things without reason, but…”
Without any clue, it was hard to accept.
Victoria let out a sigh.
‘Wait, could it be…?’
Suddenly, something occurred to her.
The assassin she had last seen in the prison had been quite handsome.
Even with his hair matted with blood and one side of his face dirty with blood and dust, his good looks hadn't faded.
In fact, once the focus returned to his eyes, his beauty truly shone.
And because Ordel had stripped him to prevent his escape, his well-toned body was on full display.
It was obvious even to her expert eyes that he had undergone considerable training.
‘Come to think of it, the Saintess was also the one who stepped in to solve Duke Ciel’s problem.’
The common denominator between the two men was their exceptional beauty.
Could it be… that Ordel had a weakness for handsome faces…?
Even during her most wicked phase, she had never once dragged a man into her bedroom, so it was something Victoria had never even considered.
“Lady Victoria? Is something wrong?”
Her expression must have been quite serious, as Monica asked cautiously. Victoria quickly shook her head.
“No, it’s nothing. I was just worried about the Saintess…”
It was just her own speculation, nothing certain, so for the sake of Ordel’s honor, Victoria decided to keep this suspicion to herself.
It was a misunderstanding that would have made the sleeping Ordel lose her mind had she known.
* * *
“…”
Ugh, my head.
The first thing I felt upon regaining consciousness was a splitting headache.
It hurt so much that it jolted me awake.
But unlike my mind, my body felt heavy and refused to move.
My body felt stiffer than if I were experiencing sleep paralysis, and I was bewildered.
“Saintess?”
Perhaps she sensed my effort to at least open my eyes.
Monica’s voice, arriving like a savior, brought me great relief.
“Just a moment.”
Soon, a damp cloth wiped my eyelids and lips.
Thanks to her gentle touch, I was able to open my eyes quickly.
The Saintess’s bedroom, now as familiar to me as my room in my past life, came into view.
But for some reason, I felt a little disappointed that it wasn't my old room today.
A deep sigh escaped me before I knew it.
“What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”
“…No. It’s just, I had a dream.”
Yes, I had a dream. A dream of a life that had ended years ago, even in that reality.
Joo Hyun-jin, my precious friend. I wonder if she’s doing well.
She cried so much when I died, which was so unlike her.
“What did you dream about?”
“A dream about my friend.”
“You had friends, Saintess?”
But Monica’s personal attack shattered any lingering sentiment in an instant.
