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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: A Priest's Secret
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Eric had said that if we fled, the Duke would immediately pin Lord Violode’s murder on us and hunt us down.
‘There’s no escape, anyway.’
I grit my teeth.
Just then, the priest from before walked over to us.
“Now, let us proceed to the prayer room. To explain in more detail…”
Mother and Philip headed to the prayer room without delay. I rose from my seat a step behind them.
Feeling like a cow being led to the slaughter, I walked after the two of them. Then I stopped, my eyes fixed on a large photograph hanging by the prayer room door.
It was a picture of the priests of the Capital Diocese gathered together.
Just a few years ago, priests had preached that taking a photograph would suck one’s soul into the film, leading to a widespread aversion to pictures. A group photo after only a few years—how ridiculous. I peered at the photograph, amused.
‘Huh… Wait a minute.’
A photograph…?
It was then that one face among the many, all clad in similar priestly vestments, stood out.
I’ve seen this photo, this face, in a newspaper before, haven’t I?
But what was the article about?
*Priest Andrea of the Capital Diocese, his own son at a boarding school…*
I remembered Philip in my dream, picking up a newspaper right after Mother and the Duke of Orleans’ wedding and saying:
‘It’s the end of days, I tell you. A priest having a son! And that son commits assault! And hides in a boarding school?! And the Diocese covers it up? They’ll all be damned!’
My jaw dropped. I pointed to Andrea’s face in the photograph and asked a monk who happened to be passing by.
“E-Excuse me! Is this man Priest Andrea?”
As I asked with wide eyes, the monk smiled gently and replied.
“He is. A most devout man…”
I didn’t wait for any further explanation and looked toward the prayer room. I could see the backs of Philip and Mother, pretending to be focused on the priest’s words.
Instead of entering the prayer room, I backed away and went out the temple’s main entrance. Across the way, I saw the coachman of a hired carriage, slacking off. Without so much as asking his permission, I hopped into the carriage.
“The boarding school under the Capital Diocese! Let’s go there!”
I shouted, and the coachman, his face scrunched up in a frown, replied.
“Eh? It’s my lunch break…”
“I’ll pay you double the fare!”
I waved a wad of cash at the coachman with a gesture that said, ‘Take my money!’ He was quick to answer.
“Of course, just say the word!”
That morning, I had converted a portion of the 100,000 gold into cash, just in case. Truly, just in case.
In the end, this money was going to be used for wedding preparations after all!
✵ ✵ ✵
“Absolutely not.”
Eric grit his teeth at the firm voice of Priest Andrea from the Capital Diocese, who sat across from him.
They were in a temple of the capital, a short distance from the one where Helena and the Duke were to be married. On the table before the priest lay the princess’s marriage license that Eric had handed him.
The priest was annoyingly resolute. He even offered a faint smile. Eric forced a smile onto his stiff face and spoke.
“Can you not see the date written at the bottom? I and my…”
Eric hesitated for a moment, then made a small sign of the cross with his hand under the table, hidden from the priest’s view, before continuing.
“My beloved fiancée received the princess’s permission before my father and Madam Helena did.”
The priest heard the tremor in Eric’s voice as he squeezed out the word ‘beloved’ and put on a look of pity.
“Oh, dear… To be caught in such a dangerous love… It is a most heartbreaking and sorrowful tale.”
Though the reply was utterly soulless, Eric waited for the priest’s answer with a sliver of hope. But the priest simply smiled gently and pushed the marriage license back toward Eric.
“However, what cannot be done, cannot be done.”
Eric’s expression twisted. If it couldn’t be done, so be it, but why was the man smiling!
Eric unconsciously reached for the sword at his hip before snatching his hand away in alarm. Resorting to violence when cornered—it was a habit he must have picked up from that madwoman, Imeline.
Eric grit his teeth, trying to suppress the violent urge rising within him.
After a moment, having calmed himself, he asked the priest suggestively.
“I heard the Diocese’s finances were not in the best shape last year. In honor of the Capital Diocese’s work in aiding the poor, I was thinking of increasing the amount of my donation this time…”
He felt a pang of guilt stab at his heart as he glanced at the sacred painting on the ceiling of the prayer room where they sat.
‘O, Lord… this is but a small sacrifice to punish evil…’
Eric muttered inwardly.
However, despite Eric offering a donation at the expense of his conscience, the situation only seemed to worsen. The priest began to bellow.
“Hmph! How dare you speak of such things in this holy place! Do you take me for a man who would sanction the sacred vow of matrimony for money? I am a priest who has dedicated twenty years of his life to the Diocese!”
The priest, looking as though he had been deeply insulted, quickly stood, made the sign of the cross, and began reciting a prayer.
To Eric, the priest’s muttered prayer sounded like a chant to ward off a demon. He even felt his whole body ache, as if he were a demon splashed with holy water.
At this point, he had no choice but to admit he was terrible at negotiations. He was so frustrated he felt like kicking the door down and storming out.
What would Imeline do in a situation like this…?
‘That strange woman would surely have a solution…’
Just then, the prayer room door opened and Lily entered.
“I have an urgent message…”
“Speak.”
Her face grim, she leaned in and whispered to Eric.
“Lady Imeline, who was with Lady Helena and Sir Philip preparing for tomorrow’s wedding, disappeared four hours ago. She is not at the pre-arranged location, so it seems…”
Eric frowned.
The priest, who had been praying, glanced furtively at the two of them. Lily shot the priest a look of disapproval.
Lily leaned in again and whispered to Eric.
“Perhaps it would be better to threaten him…”
“He is a priest.”
“But…”
Eric, forcing a calm expression, gestured for Lily to step back. Lily retreated.
Imeline had disappeared? Eric recalled the check he had given Lily last night. A staggering 100,000 gold. And she had been gone for four hours…
Eric considered for a moment. Should he leave this place right now and arrest Helena?
“…”
Eric’s deliberation was not long. He decided to wait a little longer.
He calmly tried to persuade the priest again.
“I apologize for my earlier rudeness, Father. While I will not deny that I had hoped money might somehow grant me permission for this forbidden union with the one I love…”
Eric dropped to his knees before the priest. Lily turned her head, as if unable to watch. The priest, startled, didn’t know what to do.
“I truly love her, Father. I beseech you…”
As Eric continued his lie, he couldn’t help but bow his head low. His voice began to tremble, and the priest’s eyes wavered slightly, likely thinking Eric was weeping.
But Eric was not weeping. He simply could not bring himself to lift his head, so disgusted was he by his own duplicity.
‘Marriage… is sacred…’
As Eric thought this and raised his head, the priest spoke in a regretful tone.
“My son. You are in such distress…”
“Yes… so if you could somehow…”
Eric looked up, his face filled with expectation.
Finally…
“…I cannot. The Lord has made clear the sanctity of marriage! And God is the only father I serve! My only family!”
‘Why is this man so unyielding!’
Eric cursed Imeline and Princess Ella, who had told him that priests loved money. As if on cue, Lily approached Eric again.
“Perhaps it would be best to just arrest Helena and Philip…”
Just then, someone burst through the open prayer room door.
“F-Father!”
It was a frightened-looking teenage boy. The priest’s face went white.
The boy had clearly looked at the priest and said it. Father.
But father? Weren’t priests forbidden to marry…?
The confusion was fleeting.
Eric’s gaze was stolen by the woman who appeared next, a triumphant smile on her face.
“Phew, what a pain it was, searching for some punk hiding in a boarding school! Why are bad guys always so quick on their feet!”
Imeline Wedgwood.
There was no time to wonder why the woman who had supposedly run away was here.
Because Imeline was looking at Eric and scolding him as if he were pathetic.
“I knew it.”
“…You.”
“Why are you listening to this nobody’s nonsense? I told you to just throw money at him!”
✵ ✵ ✵
“F-Father!”
I quietly watched as Andrea’s son ran to his father and hugged him, his face sorrowful. The boy, who had been conspicuously insolent at the boarding school, burst into tears the moment he saw his father.
Andrea, his face pale, shouted.
“You fool! I told you never to come here!”
“But that woman grabbed me and threatened me! She said if I didn’t come with her, she’d hand me over to the police! I was so scared, she even had something like a knife…”
I looked down contemptuously as the boy’s voice trembled.
*Priest Andrea of the Capital Diocese hides his son in a boarding school. And that son is revealed to be the perpetrator of the recent jewelry store assault and robbery! The son’s name and face are…*
Knowing from my dream that this brat was the culprit in that assault and robbery made me feel even more disdainful.
Not even an adult, yet he robs a jewelry store, threatens the owner, and beats him with his feet.
Bad guys are always so good at hiding. I went through hell searching that entire boarding school! Completely oblivious to other people’s trouble, aren’t you?!
“She’s a terrifying woman!”
The boy shouted, pointing at me.
“That’s why you should live a good life, you son of a dog!”
I said through clenched teeth, and Priest Andrea glared at me.
“Hey! How dare you use such harsh words toward someone else’s son! Are you calling me a dog—?”
As Priest Andrea abruptly stood up, Eric’s face contorted.
“Son…?”
Eric muttered, and Priest Andrea, looking flustered, wiped sweat from his brow as he glanced at Eric.
“N-No… that’s not it…”
“What do you mean, that’s not it?”
I scoffed.
Lily muttered with a bewildered expression.
“She didn’t run away…”
“Run away…?”
I gave Lily a puzzled look for a moment, then met the gazes of Eric and Lily.
Well, well. Look at these two.
“Wow… you thought I ran away?”
Eric looked troubled and scratched his temple.
To be treated like a fugitive after four hours of hard work! I glared at Eric, dumbfounded.
“Wow, you suspected me?”
“No, that’s not it…”
“We’re on the same side…”
“No…”
I was so flabbergasted that I scrunched up my face and yelled.
“Are you serious right now?!”
