Chapter 52
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Not long after, Freya faintly opened her eyes.
“Princess…?”
Her voice was weak, but she was definitely alive.
Odelia firmly grasped the Head Maid's hand as she said,
“It’s okay. I’m here.”
Freya’s eyes trembled slightly.
Unable to speak, she looked up at Odelia, who was gazing down at her.
The first emotion that filled her mind as consciousness returned was relief.
The hand she held was cold, but it contained an inexplicable warmth.
“Wh-What happened? I was definitely…”
“That’s…”
Odelia avoided her gaze for a moment, trailing off.
She wanted to gloss over it as much as possible.
“Think of it as similar to a priest using divine power to heal. It’s a somewhat unfamiliar ability, so you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it.”
She looked back into Freya’s eyes and quietly said,
“Anyway, you won’t have to be in pain anymore.”
However, Freya’s reaction was unusual.
“…!”
Her hazy eyes suddenly gained strength, and she abruptly sat up.
It was an incredible force, unbelievable for someone who had just been on the verge of death.
Freya even brought a cozy blanket from somewhere and draped it over Odelia’s shoulders.
“Princess, you look terrible!”
Huh?
‘Am I seriously being worried about by a patient who just woke up?’
Odelia blinked, confused.
It was a situation that made her feel foolish for being relieved that she hadn’t vomited blood or lost consciousness, considering it a good outcome.
“Your pulse is weak, your lips are blue, and you’re sweating so much…”
Freya seemed to have decided that she needed to call a doctor, and she hurriedly got up to go somewhere.
Odelia reflexively grabbed the hem of her skirt.
“Don’t… call a doctor.”
Her tone was calm, but there was a strange urgency in her fingertips.
If she looked so bad that Freya was making such a fuss, if Ludville found out…
Something not so good was likely to happen.
“How can you say that?!”
Freya shouted, her face contorted.
Her eyes were filled with a mixture of fear and guilt.
She seemed to believe that Odelia had become like this while healing her.
“If it’s the Head Maid, you can keep it a secret, right?”
At Odelia’s unexpected words, Freya’s face stiffened.
Her lips trembled as if convulsing, and she looked up at the ceiling before lowering her gaze to Odelia’s face.
Then, Freya shook her head very slightly.
“Absolutely not.”
It was a firm refusal.
As if she couldn’t possibly comply, no matter how much she owed her life.
“If you became like this while healing someone like me…”
“That’s not it.”
Odelia quickly added before Freya could say anything self-reproaching.
“This is just a fundamental problem. It’s been like this from the start.”
“Yes? From the start… Are you saying you have an incurable disease?”
Odelia didn’t say anything.
A moment of silence passed.
Freya sat there blankly for a while, like someone who had been hit in the head with a hammer.
With a face mixed with shock, doubt, and confusion, Freya asked softly after a long time.
“…You’ve been hiding it.”
“Yes.”
“But why are you telling me?”
Odelia lowered her gaze for a moment, lost in thought, before slowly answering.
“Because the Head Maid is like me.”
“….”
A life of not speaking of pain, not showing it, swallowing it alone.
Both Odelia and Freya had been doing that as a matter of course.
“If it’s you, you’ll be able to help me quite skillfully.”
It meant that if Odelia’s condition deteriorated rapidly, she needed someone who could hide her condition from the closest proximity.
“….”
Freya’s eyes trembled at those words.
She immediately understood the meaning of what Odelia was saying.
‘I need at least one helper.’
Right now, it was okay because her illness wasn’t outwardly visible.
But as time passed, she would slowly start to show signs of being terminally ill.
Hiding her condition alone for five years was nearly impossible.
But Leona, well…
‘Even if I asked her for such a favor, I don’t know if she would grant it, and frankly, I think it would be exposed quickly.’
Wasn’t Freya the one who had been hiding her chronic illness from everyone until now?
She thought she was the right person.
Her eyes, which were lowered silently, became slightly moist.
But she didn’t cry in the end.
“…I understand. I will never, ever tell anyone.”
Freya slowly placed her hand over Odelia’s hand.
There was a slight tremor, but her determination was heavy.
“I will protect you so that you never show others a disheveled appearance, Princess.”
The Head Maid added.
She knew exactly what Odelia was hoping for when she revealed her secret.
At those words, Odelia smiled slightly.
A deep expression of relief spread across her face, which was still marked with exhaustion.
They didn’t say anything, holding each other’s hands in silence for a while.
It was a comfort that would remain deeper and longer than any treatment.
From that day on, Freya pledged her loyalty to Odelia.
* * *
Imperial Calendar 1476, the Great Council Hall.
Beneath the high, rounded ceiling, the hall where high-ranking nobles and clergy were lined up was silent.
One by one, gazes turned towards the front of the platform.
Breaking through the silence, Gawain Cardel slowly walked to the front of the platform.
He wore a black ribbon on his ceremonial collar and held a scroll in his left hand, filled with the names of the victims of the epidemic.
His expression was covered with a delicately adjusted sadness.
He looked like someone who had come to make a sincere confession.
“First, I would like to take this opportunity… to express my deepest condolences to all those who sacrificed themselves in Bellader.”
Gawain slowly unfurled the scroll.
The paper with the names listed in rows quietly unraveled down from the platform.
The hall naturally flowed into an atmosphere of mourning for the deceased.
He stopped in the center of the platform, bowed his head, and opened his mouth.
“He was someone who had caused a scandal in the Great Temple in the past and was demoted, and I hoped to lead him back to the path of righteousness. But the result… was disastrous.”
He raised his head and slowly looked around at the audience.
His gaze was humble and seemed infinitely regretful.
“At the time, I was conducting research on diagnosing diseases and inducing recovery in ways other than ancient magic. So, I instructed him to observe those exposed to Demonic Energy or curses in Bellader. The Northern region is an area where Monsters frequently appear, and Bellader is a port city where people from various places come and go, so I thought it was suitable for observation.”
He bowed his head and remained silent for a while.
It was a silence disguised as grief.
“But he… misunderstood my intentions.”
“How did he misunderstand?”
Someone in the audience asked.
Gawain lowered his gaze as if closing his eyes for a moment, then looked at the entire conference hall and opened his mouth.
Beneath his shadowed eyes, a guilt that he had forcibly swallowed down lingered.
As if he painfully acknowledged that his judgment had been careless.
“With his misguided faith, he seems to have tried to spread disease in a port city where many people gather, and reproduce the process of miracles occurring within it. He believed that miracles only happen when there is suffering, and he tried to make Bellader a testing ground for realizing God’s revelation.”
He continued, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“In the end, he completely misunderstood my intentions.”
His eyes, as he continued his explanation, were filled with grief and sorrow.
