It was the archbishop who came to the Empire. The description that the external affairs were handled by the archbishop and the internal affairs were mainly resolved by the saint seemed to be true to some extent.
The archbishop was an old gentleman who looked kind and upright.
But now, that did not matter.
Thump, thump.
‘I can’t believe he’s here.’
My heart began to beat faster.
Behind the archbishop were several priests and paladins. I was not sure if all of them were here, but it seemed like a few were. Still, I recognized him at a glance.
…Seraphina’s first love.
A young man born with a miserable fate to have his head cut off at the hands of a tyrant for the sin of gaining her love.
Eden.
An upright young man with dark blue hair neatly cut stood in the third row with his head slightly bowed.
‘Right… Of course, Eden would come.’
It was because he is a paladin.
Perhaps, I was staring too intently, and when Eden raised his head slightly, our eyes met. His black eyes stared intently at me. I quickly turned my gaze to the archbishop. At the same time, Eden also lowered his eyes when I avoided his gaze.
Then, I heard a sweet yet eerie voice next to me.
“Welcome to the realm of Actilla, believers of Tunia.”
I flinched.
Since I was distracted by Eden for a moment, I was overwhelmed by the presence of my husband sitting to my right. His reclining upper body slowly tilted forward.
“Those who ask for help, you must’ve brought me the sincerity to offer.”
‘…He looks like a real villain.’
The circumstances of the Temple of Tunia are all well-known facts, and it should be understandable… Well, Raniero was the villain, though.
The benevolent archbishop opened his mouth with a stiff smile on his face.
“Of course, great son of the God Actilla. It’s small, but…”
“No.”
Raniero interrupted him and smiled lightly.
It was a rude attitude.
“You don’t have to extort material things you have for that, don’t you?”
Oh, but what he was saying is correct.
I slowly turned my eyes to look at Raniero’s side face. Opening his eyes a little wide, his long eyelashes fluttered. He was like an angel in disguise. He seemed innocent even though he was making an awkward joke.
“I’ll have mercy on you, and I won’t accept any offerings you bring.”
Something feels a little ominous…
Even though I was not the type of person to say this—
“Instead, everyone kneel down, look up to me and beg for your life.”
—I thought it would be like this.
“Beg and plead for the mercy of the blood and flesh of the God of War to show you the mercy of slaughter.”
Raniero Actilus said in a gentle voice.
The audience became quiet as if water had been poured on them. Only Raniero, who was on my right, was smiling.
I glanced down at them with a complicated mind.
The people of the Temple of Tunia, who have treated Actilus as barbarians or ruffians… A treacherous attitude that came to ask for help when the aid was needed must have condemned their heart as much as they would not want to. Now, this humiliation they had to endure was, in a way, coming to them.
Nevertheless, no one would fall to their knees easily.
…Even the archbishop, who has been collecting offerings to show ‘sincereness’ even in their circumstances. They just stumbled and looked at each other’s faces, wandering in confusion.
Meanwhile, Raniero was pleasantly appreciating the disgrace that bound their limbs.
‘But, in the end, they’ll have to kneel.’
Even if they went back like this, there was no way that the power of the Tunia Temple alone could handle the wave.
‘And, would they have wanted to come to Actilus?’
Actilus would have been the last resort… The last straw caught by the God of mercy, rejected by all who sought for help. If they turn their back because of humiliation, they would really have no choice now.
Somehow, it was a bit pitiful.
‘Grandfather archbishop, make a decision.’
What difference would it make to shiver in shame? In this case, just close your eyes and kneel once…
As an opportunist who was more timid than anyone else, I sent a sad telepathy to the grandfather archbishop.
That was then.
Among the paladins in the line, someone’s head was lowered. Raniero’s gaze and mine naturally turned towards it. At the same time, embarrassed Paladins took a step back from him. So, I could see that it was Eden who knelt before anyone else.
‘…Huh?’
I was surprised and covered my mouth without realizing it.
‘Eden?’
Not only did Eden get down on his knees, he even lowered his head slowly. The archbishop’s eyes began to moisten when he saw that. He then also eventually fell to his knees. As the two fell to their knees, everyone’s heads began to drop like waves.
“Hahahaha!”
Raniero, who had been wounded by the hypocrisy of the Temple of Tunia, laughed happily. However, I was not happy. I just kept staring at the dark blue hair.
…Eden was the first to kneel on his knees?
‘Isn’t this character collapsing?’
ﾟ· : * ✧ * :· ﾟ
Even after returning to the Empress’s Palace, the shock of Eden kneeling first did not disappear from my mind.
Although the Temple of Tunia was an underdeveloped area, as the beasts continued to appear, the training of troops to counter the beasts has been steady. It means that it was a chaotic place where Paladins gathered.
Eden ascended to the heights of the Tunia Paladins with his innate martial arts skills and an upright mind. Although he was still young at the age of eighteen, he was a sure-footed person who was recognized by everyone.
‘The original description was like that.’
Eden was not a significant figure. Nonetheless, unlike a character like me who dies right from the start, his death was painstakingly portrayed at the climax.
In order to maximize the effect of his death, the description of whom he was continued throughout the play, from the point of view of Seraphina, who compared Raniero to Eden and missed him in everything.
The biggest reason she could not be broken was Eden.
He was Seraphina’s affectionate first love and the flower on the cliff that she dared not touch. Despite the sexual attraction and temptation, Seraphina was unable to kiss him even once because of Eden’s position as a paladin, rather than her status as a saint because paladins also have abstinence as a doctrine.
He was the man she so desperately wanted to protect.
…And, he was brutally murdered at the end of a fight with Raniero.
Raniero hated Eden so much that I could not even think of the cruelty of the description. Trying to break Seraphina’s will, Raniero covered his severed neck with a cloche and brought them to her with her dinner. Then, Seraphina, who felt something was strange, opened the cloche…
‘…And, it was a catastrophic ending.’
I rubbed my stiff cheeks with both hands.
Eden, described in the original work, was a paladin with a strong rebellious temperament and a knowledgeable character. He never conformed to what he considered not right and was also somewhat hot-tempered.
As described in the original, he was not the first person to kneel down…
‘Even if everyone else is on their knees, you have to hold your head firmly until the very end… That’s Eden.’
It was a bit strange.
‘Actually, most of the descriptions of Eden in the original story are from Seraphina—such as Eden was like this or Eden was that way…’
Even if there was a little gap with the real thing, there was no reason for me to find it strange?
‘…No, but isn’t the gap too big? How the hell was Seraphina interpreting Eden?’
As I sighed, I heard the maids whispering behind me. I held my breath and overheard their words, it seemed that they were talking about the paladins.
…After all, they were young ladies in their prime, so they were just curious about the paladins from other countries.
The envoys from the Temple of Tunia decided to stay in the Palace of Actilus for a few days. Even though it took quite a long time to walk from the private palace to the Empress Palace, most of the courtiers knew secret passages.
‘Haha, everyone went in and out of the dog hole without a hitch.’
[ T/N: Not sure I need to clarify this, but just in case, the author used the word dog hole (개구멍으로) here instead of secret passage even though the meaning is the same~! ]
While I was eavesdropping on their stories, I pondered to myself. It was because I wondered what my handmaidens were seeing.
“They were practicing long spears.”
“Really? How was it?”
“Actually, I was surprised that they were more agile than I thought. I thought that there was no other place that could match the Empire with martial arts.”
“What, they were an equal match?”
“Young Lady Gongfyr is right. I was just surprised that their level was higher than I expected.”
It must be difficult to train without a break even though they have accumulated travel fatigue.
I stood up from my seat. As a person of Actilus, I had a duty to do as an empress to receive guests from another country. The archbishop and the Emperor’s ministry would have dinner together, so let’s go take care of that first.
“Cisen, let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Cisen followed me.
While I walked down the corridor of the Empress’s Palace and came out to a spacious hall, suddenly, arms came to both sides of my waist.
I was startled.
The next moment, I could smell the familiar scent of Raniero.
“Your Majesty, what brings you…”
“What do I need to do to come?”
“As you know, it’s not like that.”
Raniero pulled me closer in his arms. With the back of my head resting on his shoulder, I mumbled.
“I thought you were busy.”
“Like you?”
“More than me. You’ll have to talk to the archbishop as well.”
Do not tell me… He did not quit just because it was annoying, did he…?
“We decided to talk gradually.”
‘Of course.’
Since Raniero could not see his face, I was able to express my thoughts as much as I wanted to. I know that he actually stopped because he was lazy. After all, the people of the Temple of Tunia will stay here for ten days. There was no need to rush things.
'By the way, it seems that Raniero has gotten into the habit of coming to the Empress’s Palace when he is bored… but, this is a problem.
The first operation, ‘living quietly as if a dead mouse,’ seems to have crossed the water* for a long time.
[ T/N: It means ‘For a situation to be completely over so that one can do nothing about it.’ ]
Raniero pressed my body close to him as I rested my cheek on him.
“Where are you going?”
“…I thought the servants would be waiting for instructions regarding the dinner gathering.”
“For example, who’s going to attend dinner? You can’t have everyone there at the table.”
“Yes. So, I thought I’d try to figure it out…”
In fact, the reason I was going to do it myself without asking Raniero was because the people to call at this time were all arbitrarily determined. An archbishop, a commander of the paladins, and two older priests, right…?
When I just spoke politely and quietly while being held in his arms, his hands on my stomach bent as if they were hooks.
Then, I could hear laughter in my ears.
“Haha, there’s no need for you to work hard. I’ve already decided.”
My ears were tingling. Raniero pressed his fangs against the tender flesh to make a mark before he whispered, pressing his lips close to my ear.
The hair all over my body stood up all at once.
Raniero grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. He was smiling brightly.
“So, you have nothing to do now.”
I gazed at Raniero silently. Even though it was for a brief moment, he hates waiting, so I should answer quickly.
“Then, I’ll be in the Empress’s Palace.”
Whatever I was going to say, it was already decided anyways.
I responded meekly.