My Husband Was Clearly a Paladin
Chapter 5
‘What in the world was I expecting…?’
In an instant, Irene’s face flushed crimson.
She felt ashamed of herself for thinking, even for a moment, that he had proposed a pair because there was something special about her.
“What’s going on?”
“They say that man is Sir Michael, the Holy Knight.”
“What? You mean he actually came here?”
The whispering of the people standing nearby snapped Irene back to her senses.
She didn’t know why the timing of his arrival and his condition had changed, but she could not repeat the mistakes of her past.
“I am not worthy of such a thing.”
As she spoke, Irene tried to pull her hand away.
However, contrary to her expectation that he would let go, Michael tightened his grip on her hand even further.
“……\!”
Irene was flustered once again by his actions.
‘He wasn’t like this.’
Michael not only avoided touching women, but he had never once held her with such force even when performing basic escorts. He was a man who would sensitively notice if she tried to pull her hand away even slightly and release it immediately.
But the Michael standing before her now did not do that.
“Are you not a purifier?”
His eyes were filled with the conviction that she couldn’t possibly be anyone else. At the same time, there was a trace of resentment in his gaze, as if asking why on earth she wasn’t treating his injuries, leaving Irene at a loss for what to do.
In any case, her purifying power was meager.
‘Besides, if I treat him in front of everyone like this, it’s no different from announcing that we’ve formed a contract.’
While a purifier could treat many people, they could exercise a stronger ability when their target was only one person. Therefore, treating someone in front of others was tantamount to an announcement that a contract had been finalized and that they had taken the person as their pair.
‘The current Michael probably doesn’t know that yet.’
It hadn’t been long since the Continental Law was announced by the Kingdom Alliance, so there was no way he would know. Moreover, if he had known, he never would have asked her to purify him in front of everyone like this.
While Irene was agonizing over how to explain, someone approached the two of them.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir Michael.”
It was a beautiful voice that made one’s head turn instinctively just by hearing it. It was also a voice she remembered vividly.
“Princess Cecilia……”
Irene murmured like a groan and turned her head. Standing there was a beautiful woman with long black hair falling to her waist, wearing a gentle smile.
Cecilia Mocenigo Visconti.
She was the first princess of the Visconti royal family and the person possessed of the strongest power among all purifiers. And……
Irene felt cold sweat soaking her clenched hands despite herself. Princess Cecilia hated Irene. She often called Irene to gatherings of purifiers and spoke to her with feigned pity.
“If only you had a bit more ability, Sir Michael wouldn’t have to suffer so much.”
Because the words flowing out with her sighs were not wrong, they would often pierce Irene’s heart even more sharply.
‘And she was the last person I saw.’
In the past, on the day Irene died, she was the last person Irene had spoken to.
“Where are you wandering about so busily?”
“I wanted to give my final greetings to Michael-nim, but I don’t know where he is……”
“Ah, you were looking for Sir Michael.”
The princess nodded and reached out to point toward a remaining lowest-grade dungeon.
“Do you see that dungeon left over there? Sir Michael went inside to clear it. If you want to apologize, now will be your last chance. Go on in. The monsters should all be cleared out by now.”
After informing her of Michael’s whereabouts, she had turned and entered the fortress as if she had nothing more to say.
Afterward, Irene had entered that dungeon just as she was told, and……
‘I died.’
Contrary to her claim that the dungeon would be completely cleared, it was crawling with monsters. It was as if no one had ever entered. Not long after Irene entered, monsters that caught the scent of a human flocked to her, and because of that, she was forced to flee deeper into the dungeon without being able to get back out.
Irene tightened her trembling arms. Recalling the moment her breath stopped brought the lingering terror vividly back to life.
Irene observed Princess Cecilia. In the past, she had died because the princess gave her wrong information. However, she couldn’t know if that had been intentional or a mistake. To call it intentional, there was nothing that would cause Princess Cecilia to harbor that much resentment toward Irene. Yet, to see it as a mistake, there were many suspicious parts.
‘But now…… it doesn’t matter.’
Irene forced herself to calm down. She wouldn’t enter a dungeon the princess told her about like in the past. No, she wouldn’t even have a reason to ask. In this life, she wouldn’t be involved with Michael at all, so there was no particular reason to draw Princess Cecilia’s contempt.
‘It’s actually for the best.’
In her previous life, Princess Cecilia had already left by the time Michael appeared.
‘That’s why many people regretted the fact that the princess hadn’t stayed.’
If she and Michael had formed a contract, a pair strong enough to become a legend would have been born. Furthermore, because Cecilia was a princess, she wasn't as constrained by money as other purifiers. So even if Michael offered most of the rewards to the Temple, she wouldn't have cared in the least.
‘So this time, those two can just form a pair with each other.’
Then, even if Michael were severely injured, he would be healed just by holding hands, so he wouldn’t be excommunicated. Princess Cecilia, who had a strong desire for honor, would become a legend by his side.
That was the right path.
Irene tried to turn around to leave this place quickly. Now that the princess had arrived, it was something for the two of them to handle. It was then.
“……\!”
A brilliant golden light spread from Irene’s hand, which was still held by Michael. At that light, shock colored the faces of not only Irene and Cecilia but everyone in the vicinity.
“This is……\!”
Irene’s breath hitched. It was something she knew well because she had seen it countless times in the past. But it was something she could never see from her own hands.
‘It’s the light of purification\!’
The light that appears when a purifier with strong power heals or purifies a target. In the past, only a few high-ranking purifiers, including Princess Cecilia and those close to her, used to emit such light. But why was it appearing now?
“It’s the light of purification\!”
“Didn’t they say that person was the lowest rank? Then how……\!”
Amidst the bewildered people, Irene was more flustered than anyone.
‘How did this happen?’
Everyone was shocked by the light of purification, but Irene was even more stunned by a different fact.
‘I didn’t use my power\!’
Naturally, the power of purification is a force that manifests through the purifier’s will. No matter how much a knight desires it, the power can only be drawn out if the purifier allows it. Yet, she had no idea how this was happening.
While everyone was in shock, Michael’s appearance changed rapidly. The wounds that had appeared all over his face and body vanished, and the dark red monster blood covering his entire body gradually lost its color and became transparent. Before long, in the place where the blood-soaked knight had stood, there was only the Holy Knight people knew.
The moment she finally faced the Michael she remembered.
“Huh?”
With an intense dizziness, Irene collapsed just like that. It was a familiar sensation—the vertigo that comes when one uses their purification ability to its limit.
The moment she thought she would fall unsightly onto the ground, a thick arm immediately wrapped around her waist. Even in her hazy consciousness, Irene realized that it was Michael’s arm.
In the past, when she treated Michael through physical intimacy, there were times she tried to get away several times because she couldn't handle his frantic intensity. Each time, his thick arm would catch her waist and trap her like this.
As Irene felt embarrassed by the events of her past life that only she remembered, Michael, who was holding her, spoke in a trembling voice.
“……Thank you for becoming my pair. In the next…… I will surely……”
And he seemed to whisper something more.
Irene’s consciousness cut off there.
