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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: The Saintess's Blessing
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I usually try to be extra careful with my pronunciation around Axel, if no one else, but my intuition urged me on, and in my haste, a lisp slipped out.

Thanks to that, my urgency must have gotten through, because Axel strode over and swiftly scooped me up.

“Ower dere! Go!”

“Treating me like a horse, are you?”

Axel sighed but started walking in the direction I was pointing.

My intuition was pointing toward the prayer room at the end of the hall.

* * *

Axel walked incredibly fast.

A distance that would take me ten frantic steps, Axel could cover in a single long stride.

Thanks to him, I arrived at the prayer room in no time.

“Y-You really can’t, Saintess!”

A priest was stamping his feet anxiously, but I didn’t hesitate to throw the door open.

*To be precise, Axel was the one who opened it.*

But right now, Axel and I were one, so it was all the same.

As we burst in, the murmuring prayers of the priests gathered in a circle at the center abruptly stopped.

*What’s that?*

In the middle of the priests, I could see a small figure, curled up and trembling violently.

“Hah?”

A disbelieving scoff escaped from Axel, who was still holding me.

“Duke Kroiche?”

*Huh? That little lump is the Duke?*

I looked at Axel in surprise, but his gaze wasn’t on the huddled figure. It was fixed on a man standing beside them.

The moment I saw the man, a chill ran down my spine.

*This feeling is so bad…*

My intuition was telling me.

*That guy is a bad guy!*

Axel set me down on the floor, then calmly approached the bad guy, Duke Kroiche, and greeted him politely.

The House of Kroiche was a prestigious family, rivaling the House of Elpinade.

Though their history was shorter than the Elpinades’, they were the only family in the empire that could stand on equal footing.

They were particularly famous for producing many exceptional swordsmen.

It was often said that if Elpinade was the empire’s head, Kroiche was its sword.

In the current generation, however, Duke Elpinade was renowned as a Sword Master, while Duke Kroiche had made his name as a scholar.

It was a strange mismatch.

*Besides, Duke Kroiche is…*

He was clearly one of the former emperor’s men.

The former emperor had wanted Prince Kirke’s Mad Dragon expedition to fail.

I suspected that Duke Kroiche and the rest of the emperor’s faction had orchestrated all sorts of sabotage to stop the expedition.

There was no concrete proof, but the circumstantial evidence was damning.

Whenever we followed a path recommended by the emperor’s faction, we’d invariably run into suspicious traps, dungeons, or con artists.

We’d had several near-death experiences because of it.

*Bad guy…!*

Seeing as my intuition was screaming it so loudly, perhaps my suspicions from my past life weren’t just suspicions after all.

“Your Excellency, what brings you here…?”

As Axel started to question Duke Kroiche, he noticed the huddled figure on the floor, and his brow twitched as if he’d grasped the situation.

“So you were the one who booked the entire temple for your sick son’s blessing ritual.”

“That is correct.”

Duke Kroiche gave a slight nod.

With his black hair and green eyes, Duke Kroiche resembled a dry, flour doll.

His excessively pale skin even made him look sickly.

If Duke Elpinade was scary because of his coldness, Duke Kroiche was scary because of his arid listlessness.

No, “eerie” was a better word than “scary.”

*Why are all the dukes in this country like this…?*

With my friend Kirke as the emperor, I was starting to worry about the future of the empire.

“Did the Duke have a sick son?”

While I was scrutinizing Duke Kroiche’s appearance, Axel glanced at the boy among the priests.

It seemed the boy was so unknown that even Axel, who knew high society inside and out, was perplexed.

As if sensing the question on Axel’s face, Duke Kroiche spoke in his listless manner.

“I recently and quietly registered a child born outside of marriage.”

He phrased it delicately, but it simply meant the boy was illegitimate.

*He looks to be about five or six.*

To not have been registered in the family until that age meant his maternal lineage was abysmal.

*It also means there were circumstances pressing enough to overlook his weak bloodline.*

I carefully studied the trembling young boy.

He was a boy with black hair, just like Duke Kroiche.

*He looks like he’s in terrible pain…*

His black hair and clothes were soaked with sweat.

As if displeased by Axel and me observing his son, Duke Kroiche casually shifted his position to block our view.

“I’m the one who’s curious. I thought you were a man who kept his distance from the temple, Axel?”

Duke Kroiche asked, his expression showing no curiosity at all.

His gaze then fell on me standing next to Axel, suggesting he already knew the answer.

*He’s just trying to change the subject.*

Having already sensed that Duke Kroiche was a bad guy, I clutched Axel’s trousers and watched him warily.

The sight of a pint-sized child glaring at him so fiercely must have been absurd, as the Duke’s listless expression broke, and he let out a short laugh.

“Ah, I see. Silver hair and light purple eyes. You must be the Saintess officially recognized by the central church, are you not?”

“She is also a Lady of House Elpinade.”

When Axel quickly added this, Duke Kroiche narrowed his eyes in surprise.

“Oh? So you acknowledge her as such?”

“There is nothing to acknowledge or not. Her name is already on the Elpinade family register.”

“I suppose so, but.”

Duke Kroiche lowered himself to meet my gaze.

“For such a cute Saintess, why has high society been so quiet? Since fate has brought us together like this, would you grant me your blessing as well?”

At Duke Kroiche’s request, Axel’s expression hardened slightly.

It was a well-known fact across the continent that the Saintess could not wield holy power.

One who cannot wield holy power cannot grant blessings.

There was no way Duke Kroiche didn’t know that.

Yet he deliberately brought it up, intending to make us uncomfortable and chase us away.

*Hmph. When your intentions are that obvious, it just makes me want to do the opposite.*

Congratulations, Your Excellency.

You’ve provoked my contrary nature!

“Yeth! I’ll gib you a blessing!”

I stood before Duke Kroiche with a sweet smile.

All eyes turned to me, wondering how a Saintess with no holy power intended to give a blessing.

I beckoned to Duke Kroiche, as if asking him to come closer.

At the request of an innocent-looking child, Duke Kroiche lowered himself without any particular caution until he was within my reach.

I didn’t miss my chance and swung my hand right at Duke Kroiche’s forehead.

It was a blow packed with all the resentment from my past life.

*Smack!*

“Saintess’s blessing!”

The resounding noise made everyone, including the priests and even Axel, stare at the Duke in shock.

Of course, the most surprised of all was Duke Kroiche, who had been defenselessly struck by the Saintess.

The spirit completely drained from his already listless face.

On his forehead, the mark of a child’s sharp sting was etched, red and clear like a maple leaf.

“What… is this…”

Just as the bewildered Duke Kroiche reached up to touch his struck forehead.

“Eww! Diwty!”

I did it again.

*Smack!*

“Bad energy! Go ‘way!”

A second time.

*Smack!*

“Duke, get blessing!”

A third, a fourth, a fifth time!

*Smack! Smack! Smack!*

I kept smacking his forehead.