My Husband Was Clearly a Paladin
Chapter 15
“……!”
At the mention of Michael’s name, Irene hurriedly sat up from her reclined position. She grabbed her outer coat from the wall, threw it on, and immediately opened the door.
Since it was already late at night, lamps were placed sparsely along the hallway.
In the midst of the dim light, Irene’s eyes widened as she confirmed that the person standing outside was indeed Michael.
“Sir Michael? What brings you here…?”
“I have something urgent to discuss, so I took the liberty of visiting despite the late hour. Do you have a moment?”
The moment she confirmed it was truly Michael, the drowsiness that had been weighing on her just moments ago vanished completely.
He had never visited her like this before.
In fact, at this time of night, hadn’t he always stayed at the Temple within the Fortress?
Irene craned her neck to scan the hallway.
Fortunately, there was no sign of anyone else coming or going.
If anyone sees this, they’ll start spreading strange rumors.
In her past life, even if Irene just happened to cross paths with Michael, she would hear whispering behind her back.
They claimed she was clearly waiting in ambush along his path, or that since he wouldn’t visit her, she had gone looking for him herself.
Among those comments, the ones that stung the most were the claims that she was using low-grade seduction to hold onto him by any means necessary.
“Her abilities as a purifier are the absolute worst, but her face and body are decent enough, aren’t they? So she must feel she has to use those to keep a hold on Sir Michael.”
“I heard it too. They say she calls for Sir Michael every night looking like nothing more than a prostitute.”
Thinking back now, she would have snapped at them to stop talking nonsense, but back then, she had simply lowered her head at those words.
If they see this, they’ll definitely start talking nonsense again.
She wanted to avoid that at all costs.
Just then, a shadow flickered at the end of the hallway. Someone was coming this way.
“Come inside!”
Flustered, Irene hurriedly pulled Michael into the room and shut the door.
Pressing her ear to the door, she heard someone pass by, and then the footsteps faded into the distance.
It seemed to be another pair using a nearby room.
“Phew….”
Irene turned around with a sigh of relief. Her eyes met Michael’s, who was watching her with a look that asked what she was doing.
“Ah, that… I was just worried someone might see….”
At Irene’s words, his expression became one of confusion.
“Is it a problem to be with one’s pair? If there is a curfew here, please let me know.”
As if that were the case. Besides, this wasn’t the Temple; there was no way there would be a curfew.
“It’s not that. But if someone sees Sir Michael visiting at this hour, rumors might circulate that could tarnish your honor.”
In the past, the vulgar remarks hadn’t been directed only at Irene.
Other knights who were jealous of Michael also spat out insulting words behind his back.
“Even if he is a Holy Knight, there must be a limit to purification. Yet, seeing him walk around so perfectly fine…. Well, who knows if he’s enjoying himself in secret every night.”
“I heard her purification power is incredibly low. Then they must have to stay in contact for a very long time.”
“He probably does everything there is to do, yet he acts all noble and lofty outside just because he’s a Holy Knight.”
All sorts of filthy words had been poured upon him, even though he wouldn’t even hold Irene’s hand.
If such rumors circulated even when he drew a line and kept his distance, what if someone saw Michael visiting at this hour?
Just thinking about it made her head ache.
The rumors would spread throughout the entire Fortress in half a day, let alone a full day.
“If my honor is tarnished by something like that, then it was only worth that much to begin with. You do not need to concern yourself with it.”
Irene couldn’t help but give a bitter smile at his resolute answer.
Seeing that his upright nature remained the same now as it was in the past, she felt a little relieved.
“More importantly, what brings you here?”
Even as she asked, her mind wasn’t at ease.
Come to think of it, this was her lodging, but it was also his. Wasn’t it a room intended for a pair to use together from the start?
Since it was provided by another kingdom through his good deeds, it was more accurately his lodging.
Irene felt somewhat shameless asking why the rightful owner had come, so she quietly averted her gaze.
“That is….”
At Irene’s question, he hesitated, which was unlike him.
What on earth could it be?
Worry immediately took hold of her.
He was the type of man who, once the sun set, would shut himself away in the Temple’s Prayer Room to avoid contact with the opposite sex.
Thanks to that, even when low-grade gossip circulated, most people could laugh it off, thinking there was no way the great Sir Michael would do such a thing.
For such a man to enter the room where she stayed at this hour….
Is there a major problem?
Because this was something that hadn’t happened in the past, Irene examined him again.
Then, she soon noticed something different from usual.
He wasn’t wearing the formal uniform of a Holy Knight, but ordinary clothes like the ones other knights wore.
Normally, he always made sure to wear the clean and tidy formal vestments of the Temple.
He even wore his vestments under his armor when entering a Dungeon.
That was why, seeing him in vestments soaked in blood, one would instantly realize why his alias was the ‘Sword of God.’
Even when he stayed in the Prayer Room and fell asleep there, he was a man who slept in his priest’s robes.
But the man standing before Irene now was dressed like the other knights in the Fortress.
Perhaps it was because he was in ordinary clothes.
Usually, he felt difficult to approach and uncomfortable, but now he looked like just a normal knight.
“Is there something wrong with my clothes?”
“Pardon?”
Startled by the sudden remark, Irene looked at him.
“You were staring intently at my clothes. The formal vestments I requested from the Temple have not arrived yet, so I had no choice but to borrow clothes provided by the Fortress.”
“Ah, I see.”
It was no big deal, but she felt embarrassed as if she had unnecessarily made him self-conscious.
Silence flowed through the room for a moment.
Then, he finally spoke first.
“I said I had something urgent to discuss… but in truth, I came because there is something I wish to ask of you.”
“Of me? A favor?”
A favor. What could there possibly be that she could do in this Fortress?
“Yes. Because it is something only you can do.”
The more she listened to him, the more puzzled she became.
As Irene’s expression grew increasingly bewildered, Michael took a short breath and spoke with effort.
“I would like to ask for purification.”
In an instant, Irene’s breath hitched.
She struggled to comprehend what she had just heard.
Ask for purification?
It was something she had never heard once in her past life.
He had constantly rejected her, as if he would die on the spot if his body even touched Irene’s.
Yet now, he had come on his own to ask for purification.
Irene recalled the last purification she had performed.
He had been severely wounded, and the demonic energy accumulated in his body had reached its limit.
That was why she had stripped off her own clothes and embraced him. Having lost all reason, Michael had moved according to instinct.
The instinct to survive had turned him into a beast.
But the pain was brief.
Once he could breathe to some extent and the boiling demonic energy subsided, the purification had continued, mingled with pleasure from then on.
The last purification Irene remembered was like that. A mess of pain and pleasure.
“Uh….”
She unconsciously took a step back from Michael.
That act, done to save him but ultimately resulting in the fulfillment of desire, had ruined everything.
So, she could never perform that kind of purification again.
“Um, well. I….”
But in both her past life and this life, she was his purifier.
When she hesitated, Michael took a step closer.
As Irene backed away once more, he approached again.
After repeating this a few more times, her back hit the hard wall.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Irene turned her head while standing with her back against the wall.
She saw the bed she had been lying on just moments ago.
A bed prepared for a pair, large enough for two people to roll around on.
Michael’s shadow, having drawn near, covered Irene.
The moment she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for what was to come, Michael spoke.
“Could you… hold my hand?”
