CH 5

The next day, Elsez decided to have breakfast before going to the temple.

It was a sumptuous meal, including venison with various spices, salad with Parmesan cheese, and egg tart.

Elsez saw Leti’s eyes lit up as he looked at the egg tart.

And as soon as Lenny left, I looked at Leti, who was picking up the egg tart, with curious eyes.

“Can you not eat the food?”

“Are you eating only for a living? I’m eating  to feel good.”

Leti shoved the egg tart into his mouth and murmured.

“They don’t tell me that humans are like this, and I only saw them eating. To be honest, human food is delicious.”

Elsez agreed to Leti’s words and started eating.

‘By the way, I have a lot of debt at home,  I’ve just recently paid off, so isn’t this kind of financially burdensome?’

The food was delicious, but I had that kind of anxiety in my heart.

‘I have to go to the temple and check my financial situation.’

Whether in this world or my world, the most important thing in life is money.

Elsez, who had a full meal, changed into comfortable pants and a tunic, and then took Leti and put it inside the pocket.

After getting ready, I went down to the first floor, and for some reason the lobby was noisy.

When I looked down on the first floor, the butler and the middle-aged women I had never met were arguing.

“Butler, what’s going on?”

“Ah, that…”

Before the butler could explain the situation, the woman who found Elsez showed disapproval and hurriedly approached and took Elsez’s hand.

Elsez was trembling when a stranger grabbed her hand at first, but she stayed silent to figure out the situation.

“Elsez, dear. Sooner or later, Rianna is getting married.”

“Rianna…?”

“So, no matter what, when she gets married, don’t you have to bring some dowry to your in-laws? Please bring us some dowry.”

Elsez, who did not know who the woman in front of her was or who Rianna was, still looked at the woman with a shaky expression.

At that time, the butler who approached hastily blocked the hand between Elsez and the woman.

“Ma’am, you can’t give it to us this time. The financial situation is already poor….”

And he also disapproved of the woman.

“Didn’t the baroness accept it last month in the name of your daughter’s marriage?”

“The wedding went well, so the dowry is needed! This is a family story.”

Elsez, who was watching the struggling butler and baroness with a sour expression, opened her mouth.

“Butler, who is this?”

“What do you mean ‘who is this’?”

The unexpected words that came out of Elsez’s mouth surprised the baroness.

She thought I was making fun of her, but looking at Elsez’s expression, she realized that I really don’t know her.

The baroness suppressed her embarrassment and stroked Elsez’s cheek with an exaggeratedly sad expression.

“Oh my God, did you forget the face of your one and only aunt because of the shock of my brother’s death?”

Aha.

At that moment, Elsez realized who the woman in front of her was and what the situation was.

At the same time, the faces of the relatives, similar to the woman in front of me, came to mind.

The faces of the uncle who was stricken with a business disease and came in debt, and the aunt who cried in tears to the grandmother to send her daughter to study under such circumstances.

I’m sick and tired of humans who think of their family’s money as their own money under the pretext of blood.

Elsez removed the baroness’s hand and responded coldly.

“Ah, you are my aunt. I thought you were a beggar asking about money.”

“What do you mean, beggar? How could you say such a bad thing to your aunt?!”

The baroness flagged with a face slightly wounded by Elsez’s blatant insult.

Elsez looked at her with a sullen face, either way.

There is no way that the woman who is looking for my money is a proper relative, asking money from her nephew who lost his father a month ago.

“Congratulations on Rianna’s wedding. I will send you the congratulatory money on the wedding day.”

“You mean that you will send it to Rianna as a gift instead of dowry ? A quick-witted kid, I don’t know why she’s spinning around like this today. Would you like to see your aunt’s pride fall to the floor?”

The baroness finally began to shed tears.

However, as well as Leni and the butler watching, Elsez’s reaction was also cold.

“Did you leave money to me?”

“Th-that…!”

“I don’t have any money to give to my aunt in the future, so please go back. Rianna’s marriage is taken care of at your discretion. I’m too busy taking care of myself.”

Elsez responded coldly and tried to pass the baroness.

But the enraged baroness seized Elsez’s arm.

“You’re going to be the Duchess of Rittenhaus, isn’t it worth paying for your cousin’s wedding? How can people be so mean!”

At her words, Elsez paused.

‘You’re going to be the Duchess of Rittenhaus? Me?’

It was the title I heard when I was possessed by Ruel.

One of the five dukes of the Artes Empire.

In the past, Ruel was not a noble, and she was in a rush to nurture heroes, so she did not know much about the noble society.

She only knew one thing, that the heads of the five dukes at that time were all old-age grandfathers.

‘Viscount, no matter how busy you were in business, you wouldn’t have sold your one and only daughter to the old man who was a workaholic, right?’

At first glance, the Viscount didn’t seem like a very good father. So he couldn’t rule out that possibility.

As Elsez recalled her memories of the Duke of Rittenhaus, Leni said quietly.

“I, hey. I don’t know what the baroness is going to say to the social world, so why don’t you give her a small amount and send her back?”

Then the butler, who was listening, intervened, as if he was giving away my money.

“Leni, you’re talking about something you don’t know. Do you know how difficult our situation is these days?”

“Both are done.”

Elsez revisited the discussion between the two.

I didn’t mean to be on the butler’s side, but I didn’t want to pay the baroness either.

Elsez took off the baroness’s hand.

“Whether I become the Duchess or the Crown Prince, that is not a reason for my aunt to just take money from me.”

“Hey, are you going to cut us off? This helps each other by blood—”

“Then I’m busy, so I’ll get going. Butler,  see you off.”

“Elsez!”

Elsez left the house ignoring the baroness calling.

There was nothing more concerning than the baroness who was making a fuss behind the scenes.

‘It’s the Duke of Rittenhaus…’

That’s right, the duke called his fiancée.

‘Did the duke change in three years?’

I’ll have to go to the temple first and find out.

Elsez thought so and headed to the temple.

*****

The temple was located in the center of the island.

At the entrance to the temple, a simple inspection of belongings was conducted.

Elsez was nervous inside that the power of the demon might be discovered, but fortunately, the paladin beckoned to the inside of the temple.

“You can go in. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“You’re welcome.”

Elsez, who passed the checkpoint safely, smiled leisurely at the paladin and entered the temple.

The inside of the temple, as always, was full of people who came to pray.

Leti, who had been quiet, took the opportunity to sneak out of her pocket and whispered.

“Five candies, don’t forget.”

The price she promised to remain quiet when passing through the checkpoint was five candies.

Elsez, who had learned to coax a rabbit doll that was difficult to deal with in one day, nodded dryly.

“Instead, don’t make a fuss in the presence of people and stay calm.”

“Hey, what are you thinking? Unlike humans, I keep my promises.”

Leti groaned and went back into Elsez’s inner pocket.

‘There are many buildings that I have never seen before. There are many extended buildings.’

Elsez moved while looking at the buildings that had changed from three years ago.

As I followed the people, I arrived at the front of the chapel. But Elsez did not enter the chapel and turned in the opposite direction.

‘If Astaire is the presiding priest of today’s worship, I may run into it, so I should avoid it.’

And past the chapel, I headed to the library located further inside the temple.

But three years ago, there was a different building in the place where the library was.

“It must have been something like this. Did they move the building?”

After wandering for a while, Elsez stopped and looked around. At that moment, a paladin was seen entering a large building nearby.

Elsez followed after him to ask for directions.

“Sir, wait a minute—”

However, as if the Paladin had an urgent task, he went inside the building without hearing Elsez’s call.

At that moment, I could see the scenery inside through the crack in the open door.

The sunlight penetrating the white wall created a sacred atmosphere.

Against the sacred background, a foreign red color stood out.

‘Blood…?’

A bloody corpse lay on the pure white floor, and in front of it was a long sword dripping with blood.

And when I looked up from the tip of the sword along the blade, a blond man stood there.

Looking at the corpse in front of him with blue eyes as cold as ice…

Astaire.