My Villainous Husband

76

“Eden…”

“Shh. Where is Seraphina?”

“She hasn’t returned for three days. Eden, what’s going on?”

“She hasn’t returned at all? D*mn it, where is she?”

A shadow fell over Eden’s usually composed face. He ran his hand down his face before gently pushing me aside.

“Alright. I’ll look somewhere else.”

I grabbed the cuff of his sleeve.

“N-no. Don’t, don’t go. How is the situation right now? No one comes here.”

“It’s the prayer room of the Saint. In principle, no one should enter. The Saint would come out to converse when necessary.”

So, that was the doctrine. That was why no one came here.

No, but still, even so…

While I made an effort not to vent my disappointment to him needlessly, Eden glanced around anxiously.

“I won’t keep you for long, so just tell me. The Emperor… is he still here?”

“Yes.”

A sense of tension surged at his terseness response. Eden furrowed his brow and whispered to me quickly.

“The plot has changed.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“Seraphina didn’t see him. How was it written in the original? Did she greet him the moment he entered the temple for the first time?”

I nodded.

“Seraphina is avoiding the meeting with the Emperor.”

Ah, was that why he was still here?

“S-Shouldn’t we kill him before he leaves?”

“Yes, and we need to go to the old sanctuary before Seraphina kills him.”

I was taken aback.

“What does that mean?”

“They have an army of only ten thousand soldiers. I hadn’t even thought that far. The temple couldn’t accommodate them all in the temple, so we sent them down to nearby villages. They’re being billeted in groups in the commoners’ houses.”

‘It can’t be.’

“When the Archbishop said it was practically unrealistic for the temple to take care of them, the Emperor threw a sack of gold coins on the ground. Not even a blank promissory note.”

I let out a short sigh.

For the people in this town, having gold was meaningless. They made their living mostly by bartering, but gold?

It would be difficult to turn something like that into something practically helpful for their lives, and it would just make them targets for thieves, which was definitely not a good thing for the people. On the other hand, young people might dream of taking it and going down to the Empire for a new life, but then what happens to the community they’ve left behind?

It was like tossing a stone into a calm pond, causing ripples in the muddy water.

Raniero would surely know that, too.

“Anyway, if Seraphina kills the Emperor now, a thousand soldiers left without a commander will sweep through here, right? We need to get out of here before that happens.”

“And what about the people here? Will they die?”

“Don’t think about that. Actilus’s blood and Tunia’s sword… just think of those two things.”