Chapter 78
78
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The next morning, Dakota once again had to unintentionally upset her mistress.
"Your Highness said you saved a sick puppy yesterday? It's never on my workdays when such things happen; this Dakota is truly aggrieved!"
Rosa bit her trembling lip and spoke sincerely.
"Dakota will also have a chance... to see it someday. Me using... Divinity, I mean."
"Of course, Your Highness."
Dakota replied and approached her affectionately.
"I was just playfully complaining. I heard you used your abilities in front of many nobles, but I, who serves you most closely, have never seen it, so I was disappointed."
Your mistress's Divinity isn't just some Healing Power!
Rosa wanted to shout, but barely managed to hold it in.
"There are no classes today, so call Joy for me."
Dakota unintentionally provoked Rosa's anger once more.
"The Temple Page from the Temple of Shamash must be busy again today? I didn't know Holy Power training required so much preparation."
Fortunately, that was it.
Dakota backed off at that point and went to send a carriage for Joy.
'Mom also knows what Joy knows.'
She had already lied as Joy had instructed.
She couldn't handle this matter alone, so Joy had become important to Rosa now.
'I can't treat him like a subordinate, hitting him whenever I feel bad...'
If Joy refused to help and withdrew, Rosa would have no ability to resolve this matter on her own.
'Not yet, anyway.'
Rosa tried her best to calm her agitated feelings before Joy arrived.
"Bring me some chocolate. And lots of cookies and pudding, too."
Dakota, who had returned, asked, surprised,
"You just ate a little while ago? Something special today?"
Then, tactlessly, she added,
"Ah! It must be tiring to use Divinity? I'll bring lots, a whole lot!"
Rosa pretended not to hear the maid's words and sat still, when a thought suddenly occurred to her.
Rosa went to the vanity and opened the stacked jewelry boxes one by one.
'Where did I put it?'
She had received so many new gifts on her last birthday that she couldn't find what she was looking for.
Rosa finally found the item she was looking for in the fifth jewelry box.
'Here it is...'
It was a silver grass-leaf-shaped brooch that Joy had given her as a birthday gift.
'He might have been secretly disappointed since I haven't worn it yet.'
Rosa liked clothes and accessories with a lot of color, but now it was more important to make a good impression on Joy.
She opened the wardrobe and carefully looked at the clothes to change into.
'A dress that goes well with silver accessories...'
Before long, Dakota returned with several kitchen maids in tow.
"Your Highness! I brought all kinds of chocolates, cookies, and puddings!"
Rosa, as if she hadn't seen the desserts being placed on the table, pointed to the open wardrobe.
"Have me change into that blue dress."
"Yes?"
Dakota was momentarily flustered, but quickly wiped her hands, which had been about to offer a cookie, and took out the dress.
Then, she gestured for the kitchen maids to leave.
"Didn't you like the dress today?"
"I just, my mood changed."
Rosa retorted coldly, but Dakota secretly smiled behind Rosa's back.
'She's rumored to be so poised in front of other nobles...'
When the Princess was alone with her, she was always nothing more or less than a childish royal.
'That's how much she relies on me...'
Dakota busily moved to help Rosa change into the dress as she wished and to decorate it with the grass-leaf brooch.
Even so, she didn't forget to put a piece of chocolate in Rosa's mouth.
"The chef made this new today. It's very soft, isn't it?"
Rosa didn't even bother to reply properly, but that attitude didn't tire Dakota out.
Dakota was happy to have been given the honorable duty of serving the chosen Princess.
* * *
"I asked you to trust me one more time, didn't I?"
Rosa had been waiting in the prayer room before Joy arrived, and as soon as he opened the door and entered, she asked.
'The last time I saw him, I was furious and didn't even pretend to believe Joy's words...'
But Joy answered gently, as if he had forgotten everything that had happened that day.
"Yes, Your Highness. You look very beautiful today."
It was the reaction she had expected, but Rosa didn't even have time to be pleased with the compliment on her appearance.
She firmly grasped Joy's hand, which was slightly larger than hers.
"I want to trust you. You have to help me."
Joy lifted Rosa's clasped hand and gently kissed the back of it.
"I am Your Highness's servant. And only I can help Your Highness."
Rosa nodded with a desperate expression.
She had falsely claimed to have heard a Divination, so if the truth were revealed, it would be a grave sin of blasphemy.
'If it hadn't been for Joy's words, I wouldn't have even imagined it in the first place...'
So Joy had to be with her at the end of this story.
Rosa actively changed her attitude and told Joy about the happenings in the royal palace over the past few days.
"The Temple of Shamash sent a Temple Page to help the Princess with her Holy Power training. My twin sister received help from him and healed animals..."
Joy listened to the story seriously and then said,
"So, the Second Princess is practicing using Divinity to heal sick animals."
"Yeah, that's right."
"That means she can already handle that much power..."
Rosa's stomach twisted as even Joy seemed to admire Lilin's abilities, but she held back, as he seemed to be thinking about something.
Finally, Joy spoke again.
"After the Second Princess has her Holy Power Revelation Ceremony, it will be revealed that the Princesses are actually twins. As I told you before."
Rosa nodded uncertainly.
"It's not far off. I won't gain Divinity by the time of the ceremony, will I?"
She asked with a little bit of hope, but Joy only nodded.
Then, as if he had made up his mind, he parted his lips again.
"But I won't just let Your Highness be pushed to the back like that."
"What, do you have a good idea?"
Rosa asked desperately and then urged Joy, who was about to fall into thought again.
"Joy, help me. You're the only one. Once Lilin is declared the Princess with Divinity, Mom and Dad will all be on her side. Huh?"
As she said that, shaking Joy's hand that she was holding, he smiled brightly.
"Then Your Highness, please promise me just one thing."
"What is it?"
"Just as I am on Your Highness's side, Your Highness will also be on my side. Until the end of this world."
Until the end of this world.
It seemed like too distant and vague a future to Rosa.
'I can't even know what will happen tomorrow.'
That's why it was easy to promise.
"I'm on your side, too, of course. It's obvious."
But Joy asked with an unusual persistence.
"Can you swear?"
Judging by the fact that he was setting all sorts of conditions, he must have a solution.
Rosa quickly nodded to hear the answer.
"Yes, I swear."
Then Joy said in a rather chilling voice.
"Before Terra, the god of earth, we swear to share one destiny with each other."
One destiny?
'The Princess of a country, with a commoner child who was just a Temple Page?'
Rosa felt uneasy about the oath, but she had already falsely borrowed the name of God.
"Before Terra, the god of earth... we swear to share one destiny with each other."
As Rosa repeated the words, Joy smiled happily.
"Your Highness will also be with us at the Holy Power Revelation Ceremony."
Even when she looked up at him with surprised eyes, Joy only repeated himself.
"This time, no one will be able to look down on Your Highness."
He added as a final note.
"Because I will definitely make it so."
* * *
Since her father had left for Nigel in mid-month, it was her mother's responsibility to procure the animals.
The first animal her mother had obtained was, absurdly, a hen.
'Ugh.'
We were gathered in the royal garden with the hen in the middle.
The hen hadn't laid eggs for nearly a month because she was sick somewhere.
'...It's bigger than I thought?'
Perhaps because it wasn't an animal used to being handled by people, it wasn't very docile for something that was supposed to be sick.
I turned to look at Yan, flustered, but he just smiled.
I couldn't even hold the flapping hen, so the poultry farm manager held her down.
"Now, hold her like that for a moment."