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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: A Suspicious Ritual
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As the sharp smacking sounds echoed repeatedly, I saw Axel, who had been watching quietly, clench his jaw.
His face was that of someone barely holding back a laugh.
‘Axel fell for this scoundrel's trap right along with me, after all.’
He couldn't say it, but wasn't this satisfying for him?
Duke Kroiche, finally coming to his senses, trembled with rage and glared at me fiercely.
I beamed brightly and threw my hands up in the air.
I didn't forget to intentionally lisp like an even younger child.
“Waah! Bad vibes all gone! Duke is all better now! It's a Saintess bwessing!”
If you could describe a forehead red from being slapped and a face flushing purple with anger as 'lively,' then it wasn't entirely wrong.
Duke Kroiche's face was now so full of life it was hard to believe he was the same man who had been standing there so listlessly.
Of course, the source of that life was fury.
“What is the meaning of—!”
Just as Duke Kroiche was about to raise his voice, I widened my eyes.
The strain made them water, and soon my eyes were brimming with tears.
“Is Duke mad at me?”
I deliberately trembled and clung to Axel's trousers, and gasps of sympathy erupted from all around.
A child's fragility was always a good target for pity.
As if realizing he'd been caught in my scheme, Duke Kroiche ground his teeth.
Getting angry over the actions of such a frail child would only make him look petty.
‘Besides, the Duke asked for the Saintess's blessing, and I just gave him what he wanted, right?’
I just didn't mention beforehand that it was a *physical* blessing.
Duke Kroiche's lips twitched as he straightened his posture.
“Angry? Not at all. It is a blessing from the Saintess. I am rather grateful.”
“Weally? Then one more bwessing...”
When I raised my hand, Duke Kroiche flinched and stepped back.
That smack on the forehead must have really hurt.
But this time, my target wasn't Duke Kroiche.
I moved swiftly, diving into the circle of assembled priests.
“Ah!”
The startled priests reached out too late, but they couldn't stop me as I darted under their arms like a nimble squirrel.
‘Made it!’
I grabbed the hand of the black-haired boy cowering on the floor.
The boy, who had remained huddled on the floor despite the commotion, looked up with a start.
The moment I met his green eyes, so much like Duke Kroiche's.
‘Wow.’
My jaw dropped in admiration.
‘He's so beautiful...’
It was an inappropriate reaction for the situation, but his face was so beautiful it was the only thing I could think.
His bone structure clearly marked him as a boy, yet for a moment, I wondered if he was a girl.
The boy's green eyes, locked with mine, darted frantically from side to side.
‘Tsk. Just like Duke Kroiche's son.’
Perhaps because of his excessively pale skin, which he shared with his father, he looked just like a little white rabbit.
“You mustn't!”
Duke Kroiche, who had been too stunned to react properly when he was the one being hit, now lunged forward.
“Come here!”
The Duke pushed through the priests and grabbed me with a rather rough hand.
Of course, even then, I refused to let go of the boy's hand.
“Eugene is a sick child.”
Eugene.
So that was the boy's name.
“He must continue to receive the blessing ceremony, so you must not interfere, Saintess.”
Duke Kroiche stared at me, emphasizing the word ‘Saintess.’
“As the Saintess, surely you understand how important a blessing ceremony is for a sick child?”
Understand? What was there to understand?
Of course I didn't.
‘I'm not a proper Saintess in the first place.’
Even if I were, I'm only four years old. What would I know?
I scoffed internally, shook off the Duke's hand, and looked at the boy, who was trembling like a fragile little animal.
He was sweating profusely, but the hand I held was unnaturally cold.
He looked like he could drop dead at any moment.
‘What kind of blessing ceremony is this?’
Isn't this a curse ritual meant to kill someone?
I recalled the face of the high priest, who had been bowing and scraping.
‘He certainly didn't feel like a proper clergyman.’
I always called Bael a quack priest, but even he had an undeniably sacred air about him, the kind no one could doubt.
But the high priest of this temple was nothing like that.
If anything, he seemed vile.
A blessing ceremony presided over by such a man, alongside Duke Kroiche.
No matter how I thought about it, it didn't seem like a ritual that would help anyone.
‘I have to stop this ritual!’
My intuition quickly came to a conclusion.
“No bwessing cewemony!”
But things were not about to go my way.
“That is not for the Saintess to decide. I, his father, will decide.”
Duke Kroiche forcibly pried my hand from the boy's and handed me over to Axel.
“I have been very patient because of the Saintess's youth. If you continue to interfere with the ritual for my sick son, I will not stand idly by, Sir Axel.”
Duke Kroiche looked at Axel with the same listless expression he'd had when they first met.
He had completely regained his composure.
“You said the young Saintess is an Elpinade. Then you should control your own family member properly. It is troublesome for you to meddle in another family's affairs.”
I glanced at Axel, and he gave a slight shake of his head, as if to say it would be difficult to press the matter.
It meant we should back down for now.
‘But...’
I looked at the boy, surrounded by priests.
His green eyes were empty, as if in resignation.
It was a listless gaze, but in a different way from Duke Kroiche's.
“Eugene. It seems the Saintess is concerned. Tell her yourself. Ask her to let you receive the blessing ceremony.”
Duke Kroiche patted the boy's shoulder lightly.
The boy flinched, then bowed his head low toward me.
“Please let me receive the blessing ceremony.”
It was a young voice, devoid of any will.
‘Do these priests hear a voice like that and feel nothing?’
Didn't they all pity me when I pretended to be frail with tears in my eyes?
But for some reason, no one reacted to the boy's pathetic plea.
Their attitudes were as if their emotions had been severed.
It was as if...
‘...they had been brainwashed.’
My eyes met Axel's.
He was surely thinking the same thing I was.
Eugene Kroiche and this blessing ceremony.
‘It's all very suspicious.’
* * *
Axel and I returned to the carriage empty-handed.
Just because we'd noticed something suspicious didn't mean we were in a position to drag the boy away by force.
As Duke Kroiche had said, Eugene was his son. If the Duke insisted on performing the blessing ceremony, it was difficult for an outsider to stop him.
Besides, Eugene himself had said he wanted to receive the blessing.
“But it's suuuper suspicious!”
As I shouted in frustration, Axel nodded in agreement.
“It was certainly strange.”
“That boy, we can't weave him wif Duke Kwoiche. My intuition says so.”
“Intuition?”
“Uh-huh. My intuition got weally good, see? I donated and got a weward.”
I lifted my chin proudly, and Axel narrowed his eyes.
He took a coin from his pocket, flipped it into the air, and caught it on the back of his hand.
He covered it with his other hand, hiding whether it was heads or tails.
“Heads? Or tails?”
It seemed Axel wanted to test my intuition.
I stared intently at Axel's hand, then answered as my intuition guided me.
“Heads.”
Axel lifted his hand, revealing the face of the coin. It really was heads.
