CH 45

Duke Perdia, who said he would come back later, kept his promise. 

Knock, knock.

“Elodie.”

The duke’s voice was heard along with a neat knocking sound.

Ugh. I looked back at Greed with bewilderment.

‘Wouldn’t it be strange if a black fox suddenly appeared?’

It could be dangerous to add a suspicious element to the person whose sudden appearance in the temple was already being questioned.

I slipped off the bed; Greed tilted its head and looked up at me.

It was just a cute black fox on the outside, but I didn’t know what this guy would do.

I held out the sealing stone and commanded Greed.

“Go in.”

[Don’t want to….!]

Greed resisted with a wrinkled nose.

Pad!

The figure disappeared in an instant, and red energy filled the seal stone, which seemed empty before, like a roaring flame.

“You’re like a damn fox. You don’t listen to me.”

I took a step to open the door quickly.

[I’m watching and listening.]

“Hiiek!”

I was surprised by the voice in my ear as if it was right next to me, so I looked around, but there was nothing.

Soon a mocking voice was heard.

[So funny.]

Only then did I get a rough idea of the situation.

“Are you able to talk even when you are in the sealing stone?”

[That’s right. It’s possible because I have a contract with you. You and I are one.]

I wanted to pry into details, drooping its greedy cheeks, which made unpleasant sounds casually, but I couldn’t.

Knock, knock, knock.

The knock, which was strangely more powerful than before, took my nerves away.

Dealing with Greed was put off for now, and I quickly opened the door.

It wasn’t Duke Perdia who was welcoming me.

“Sister, why are you opening the door so late? I almost broke in.”

“I fell asleep……. why…..are you all here?”

I saw three people standing behind Carlot.

I thought only Duke Perdia would come, but the duchess, Jansi and Carlot were there.

The duke alone was difficult enough, but the difficulty suddenly increased as I had to deal with three more people at once.

Jansi looked at my face and said, “Lili suddenly appeared, so don’t we have the right to hear an explanation?”

‘Is that so….?’

“Are you going to keep us outside?”

At the duchess’s words, I quickly stepped back.

“C-come in.”

The room given by the temple was a single room, so when four people came in at once, it felt somewhat cramped.

When everyone sat on the sofa on one side of the room, it felt like playing house. In the midst of each other’s close distance, everyone’s eyes were on me.

Oh my. That’s burdensome.

“Tea……” I began,

“No need.”

Duke Perdia flatly refused.

“Yes……”

Being confident at making tea, I was sullen at the cold refusal.

When Martha wasn’t around, there were no maids that attended to me, so I did most of the things myself and learned how to make delicious tea.

Again, the burdensome gazes of four people poured over me.

The duchess was the first to open her mouth. She was looking closely at me and asked with a frown.

“Did you get those clothes from the temple?”

“Yes.”

Her mouth pursed into a thin line. ”How lousy.”

What do you mean? I was shaken by the unexpected remark.

“I’m sorry.”

“Elodie, it’s not something you should be sorry about. All the clothes in the temple will be the same. I’ll lend you my clothes.”

“No, it’s all right–”

But Themis held up a hand, effectively cutting me off. 

“Don’t refuse. How would other people see Perdia if you’re sloppily dressed?”

It made sense, so I quickly nodded my head. At that, the expression of the duchess relaxed a little.

She didn’t seem to like the way I looked.

After being put on the spot by the duchess about my shoddy clothes, the question I had been dreading came. 

Duke Perdia commanded in a low voice, “Explain what happened, Elodie Perdia.”

Duh-duuuun. 

I could practically hear my death bell ringing, signaling my doom. 

‘It’s here…….!’

Calling you by your full name was a threat by parents where they showed they didn’t intend to gloss over whatever you had done. 

I didn’t have much time to come up with an excuse because I also was not expecting to fall from the sky into the temple.

However, if I told the truth, I could be banned from going out again after parting with Raeyan, so suitable adaptation to the story was needed.

“Well, that’s …….”

As soon as I opened my mouth, the gazes of my family members became more blatant.

I tried my best not to shrink as much as possible while making a crude excuse.

“I went out with Ian, but I suddenly was moved somewhere.”

I was not lying.

Because after going out (and touching the sealing stone, I was moved to the place where Greed existed, and after making a deal there), I suddenly fell into the temple.

I didn’t say much, but the things I did say were true.

But my family gave me rather meaningful expressions in response to my words.

While waiting nervously for an answer, Carlot crossed his arms and asked.

“Sister, do you want me to believe that now?”

“I’m telling the truth, Carl….don’t you believe me?”

When I asked him back, Carlot was visibly startled and suddenly changed his attitude.

“I-I must have been crazy for a moment. If that’s the truth, then that’s the truth. I trust you.”

I was bewildered by Carlot’s immediate shift in answer; he seemed to believe me no matter what I said. 

[What’s wrong with him?]

“……!”

When I opened my eyes wide unknowingly at the voice of Greed that echoed in my head without warning, my family members who were watching me also made a puzzled expression.

Narrowing his brow, Duke Perdia asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

I quickly corrected my expression and smiled.

Then I said something to Greed in my mind, although I wasn’t sure it would be able to hear me anyway.

‘Why are you suddenly talking to me?’

Surprisingly, Greed answered my mind.

[No wonder. I’ve been quiet until now. Why do I keep talking to you? Even if I am being considerate, it’s a mess.]

‘What. Can you read my mind?’

[I can’t. Instead I can read it if you think about what you want to convey to me.]

So Greed can’t read my mind clearly, but if I put my will into it, it means it could hear me.

It was fortunate that my secret was never revealed.

‘From now on, I should practice not to be surprised when Greed suddenly talks to me.’

Just one more annoying thing that happened today.

Anyway, my family didn’t fully believe me yet, so I had to pretend I didn’t know more.

“You don’t know how surprised I was to come to the temple all of a sudden. Ian, who was with me, must have been surprised, but I’m going to visit him right after the meeting.”

When I deliberately dragged Ian in to increase my credibility in this argument, everyone seemed to fall for it.

But it was still too early to be reassured.

“After the divine barrier is functioning, entry and exit to the temple should be impossible. That means that what happened is a really big deal.”

The duchess looked at me and asked me an implicit question, but I couldn’t answer it because I, the person involved, didn’t know how it came to be. 

‘On the contrary, I also want to know more.’

Jansi replied to that with a smile.

“As the priests said, our Lili may really be the child of the oracle. Ah, did they say savior?”

How can he laugh so gently while saying such terrible things?

“Ahaha. What kind of nonsense.”

You shouldn’t say such a thing even as a joke. When I laughed awkwardly, the ignorant Greed intervened again.

[The savior who deals with a sin, that’s fun.]

‘You, be quiet.’

After warning Greed, I looked back at my family. Their reactions were different.

Duke Perdia had a serious look on his face all along, and the duchess just looked at me carefully.

Jansi was smiling as usual, and Carlot……was looking at me with his overly sparkling eyes and seemed to have no idea.

‘It’s fortunate that one of them is stupid.’ 

Taking a little comfort from Carlot’s reaction, I opened my mouth again.

“What will happen to me now?”

I was really worried about whether I had to act as a savior who didn’t even have a chance, as the priests said.

Even Perdia, the owner of the underworld, cannot be completely free from the pressure of the temple.

In fact, I was prepared from the moment the priests made a fuss. The fact that as soon as the meeting ends, all kinds of chatter will come and go around me.

It will become a nuisance.

‘I wonder if I have to wear a disguise.’

Until now, even if I went around openly saying I was earning independence funds, I didn’t get much attention, but from now on, more people may recognize me.

Because there would be more social repercussions as the savior of the Ishtar temple than as that of an illegitimate daughter of Perdia.

However, contrary to my concern/worries, Duke Perdia answered firmly.

“Nothing will change.”

“Huh?”

“Because you are Perdia.”

I couldn’t say anything to that.

I felt strange.

I felt like I really belonged to Perdia.

***

“It’s a little big, but it fits just fine. No one will look down on you with this.”

When I came out wearing the clothes the duchess lent me, she looked satisfied.

“Thank you for lending them to me.”

“Don’t thank me for this. It’s nothing.”

“Thank you anyway.”

“Stubborn.”

The duchess said something critical, but she didn’t seem to hate it that much.

‘I should say thank you for lending me your clothes, to me, who is not even your real daughter.’

It’s not a natural favor.

“Do you want to try something else?”

“No, I like this one.”

It was at the time when I was embarrassed by the duchess’s excessive urging.

Knock, knock.

I opened the door quickly at the welcomed knock.

The visitor was an unexpected person.

A priest of the Ishtar temple. He smiled kindly and informed me of the high priest’s words.

“The prayer meeting will resume in an hour, so please come to the fountain of Ishtar.”

“Me too?”

P: “Of course. There was a word from the high priest that the savior must attend.”

“Well, I hope you don’t call me by that title.”

At my euphemistic request, the priest just smiled and disappeared.

***

Rrrrrrumble. 

‘This is giving me indigestion and I haven’t even eaten.’

I resisted the urge to put my hands on my gurgling stomach. 

As soon as I came to the fountain, the gazes looking at me were blatant. Even the priests, who were supposed to be quiet, could not hide their surprise when they saw me.

‘Ugh, I’m already tired.’

There were familiar faces everywhere. Like the first prince Adenmir, who was standing crooked, or the people of the four major families.

‘I’ve never seen him before.’

There was an unfamiliar face, probably from the Severes family.

I found out that Duke Severes was my biological father, but nothing changed unless I could prove it. It was just another one of the four major families.

‘Even in the original work, the Severes family was only mentioned by name, and no one from the family actually appeared.’

As expected, my biological father seemed unable to wake up until the end.

There were still some preparations for the prayer meeting to begin.

When the people of the four families, who knew each other’s faces, were chatting with each other, Dorothea Angellus approached me.

Her skin rash must have kept her from going out for a while, but for some reason, she had a clean face with no aftereffects.

[Illusion magic. The medium is that earring.]

Greed told me an interesting fact without even asking.

‘I never thought you could cover your skin rash with magic tools.’

Naturally, I remembered the purple eyed wizard I had met last time.

The work of the wizard could be said to be truly outstanding. Because it was a high-level magic to cast illusion magic on magic tools.

Eventually, Dorothea, who had come closer, smiled lightly, and opened her mouth.

“I haven’t seen you in a while. Miss Elodie.”

“Yes, Miss Dorothea.”

What was her intention to come and greet me even though she visited Perdia the other day and was treated badly?

The purpose was quickly revealed.

“I didn’t know, but the Duke of Perdia must cherish Miss Elodie very much. He used his hands so that you could enter through the fountain like this.”

She was saying that the Duke of Perdia must’ve used his influence to somehow get me to fall into the temple. 

I could feel people’s eyes turning towards us at her words.

Looking at Dorothea, who smiled as if to test me, I also laughed along.

‘Look at this?’

Do you want to try me?