Princess Shu

“High Priest Mercille! That story…”

“I know about that.”

A solemn voice interrupted Philemon’s bewildered voice. Shaun’s eyes were looking down at Mercille.

“So if you’re trying to send me away from here because of this ‘temple princess’ talk, you don’t need to worry. Just talk about it comfortably.”

“…Indeed. It seems that His Grace gave you a heads up.”

Hearing that Shaun already knew, Mercille took a step back. It was Valia who was bewildered. She never thought Shaun would know about the ‘temple princess.’ During the journey from the Lisa Kingdom to the Gel Empire, and even when he later escorted her in the temple, not once had he spoken about the temple princess.

‘So he knew about it…’

Did Schuden tell him? Do the other knights know? What did he say? 

Curiosity arose, but it was not a good situation to ask.

“In any case, it’s a pity that His Grace is not here. I have come today to give the promised sacred relic to him. Did he tell you anything, Marchioness?”

“No, I didn’t hear anything else.”

“Just as I suspected.”

Mercille smiled, raising the corners of his mouth. It was for this reason that he brought up the story of the sacred relic. Mercille said subtly.

“But then again, he did agree to marrying the Marchioness in order to have this sacred relic.”

“High Priest Mercille, you’re crossing the line.”

Philemon finally frowned. High Priests were basically equal in standing, so it was an implicit rule not to interfere with each other’s words and actions. But Mercille’s words were getting more and more excessive. Philemon could not just stay still, looking at the Marchioness being mocked.

“I hope you haven’t forgotten that we’re in the position to apologize.”

“…I forgot my duty for a moment.”

Mercille disagreed with Philemon’s restraining actions, but Philemon was a High Priest who was older than him. Ignoring his words in front of other people was ultimately tarnishing the reputation of the High Priests.

“I apologize if my words and actions offended you, Marchioness.”

Valia did not answer right away. But her eyes were quiet. She did not even show any change in expression despite hearing the mocking words. She answered calmly.

“I accept your apology, High Priest.”

‘Huh?’

A feeling of surprise passed by Mercille’s face. When someone with the status of High Priest apologized, the recipient of the aforementioned apology would become rather ashamed of themselves. Responses such as ‘it is fine’ or ‘you don’t have to apologize’ were common. However, Valia did not hide her displeasure, and she did that by receiving his apology.

Philemon was also sighing inside. He knew Mercille did not favor Valia, but he was crossing the line. In fact, he could roughly guess the reason. Mercille was a man with great pride in his position as a High Priest. Therefore, he was displeased that a ‘temple princess’ who was nothing but a sacrifice to God, dared to sit on the same level as High Priest.

Perhaps, the image of Valia that Mercille vaguely thought about was someone in an unstable position, barely holding the attention of the Marquess with the seduction blessing, someone who only had the temple as the only place she could turn to. Not someone in an honorable position who was naturally escorted by the commander of the Knights of Garth like this.

In his head, Mercille had already drawn a line dividing their statuses, he was unlike Philemon, who was amicable to Valia, or High Priest Bainana, who showed a positive reaction to the ‘temple princess.’

“I heard His Grace is in the Imperial Palace. Now that things have turned out like this, I will have to go directly to the Imperial Palace and give it to him personally. As I said, it is a very precious sacred relic so I have no desire to entrust it to others.”

Mercille said that as soon as he emptied his teacup. Even saying ‘others’ was not polite to the Marchioness. Valia knew the subtle rudeness in Mercille’s words but she simply nodded her head lightly.

“Sir Shaun.”

“Yes, Marchioness.”

“Bring the High Priest to His Grace, and then come back.”

“I will risk my life to obey your order.”

Shaun was quick in attitude when it came to accepting Valia’s order. 

Earlier, he disobeyed my order asking him to leave and was so adamant about never going out.

Displeasure permeated Mercille’s eyes due to the ridiculous change in Shaun’s attitude but Shaun politely pretended not to see it.

“Let’s go, High Priest Mercille.”

Eventually, Mercille was guided out of the annex feeling strange displeasure. In an instant, Valia and Philemon were left in the annex. The room was quiet, its silence flowed like sunlight. Philemon opened his mouth first.

“What an elegant hall. Actually, High Priest Bainana also wanted to meet you once, but he was not in good health. It’s too bad, it would have been nice for him to have attended this tea time together.”

“Oh my. He needs to get well soon.”

“Hmm… This tea is very good too. I always drink clear herbal tea in the temple but this tea brewed with dried fruits has a rich flavor.”

“I’m glad it suits your palate. I have to reward the maid who brought the tea.”

“Oh, come to think of it, the yard I saw on the way here is also very elegant…”

Whenever Philemon gave a compliment, Valia just responded lightly and plainly. After bringing out all the compliments that the guests who attended the tea time could say, Philemon eventually sighed when nothing more came to mind to compliment.

“My apologies, Marchioness. Let me apologize for the words of High Priest Mercille.”

Philemon came to apologize, but instead, something else that needed to be apologized for happened. The case with the wedding officiant was at least an administrative error, but Mercille’s rudeness was too much.

“It’s not something that you should apologize for, High Priest.”

“But as a fellow colleague who worships God, I have to be responsible for his flaws. It was not rudeness that can be forgiven with just words, so let me know if you want anything. I will do my best to prepare as much as I can.”

“But, you didn’t act rude to me, High Priest.”

“If so, think of it as an extension of my original apology. That way, I will feel comfortable.”

Valia contemplated. It was only natural that she was offended by Mercille’s words earlier. Even though he was a High Priest, there was no way she could like someone with a rude attitude. She had no intention of demanding material things from Philemon because of Mercille. If so…

“High Priest Philemon.”

“Yes, Marchioness.”

“I would like to hear about the oracle, I don’t need any other compensation. The answer to this question will take the place of all your apologies.”

“…Hmm, so you want to know about the oracle.”

It was evident that Philemon was perplexed by the unexpected request. However, Valia had always wanted to ask about the oracle, she still did not know why she had returned to the past.

Valia only blinked and waited for an answer. 

‘There is no way God would have moved time for me.’

Valia did not even think of such grand thoughts. A ‘temple princess’ was said to be a sacrifice to God, and because she became one, Valia always had a vague idea that she might be a little bit entangled somewhere in the corner of the oracle. She did not want to miss the chance to get a clue. As Philemon took a long time to ponder, Valia whispered in a serious voice.

“High Priest, I have already decided to become a sacrifice to God anyway, so even if you tell me the secret that my body is destined to be torn to pieces, I won’t be able to escape.”

“…There are no such terrifying secrets, Marchioness.”

Philemon forced a smile and became serious again. He took a sip of tea. After seemingly contemplating for a long time, Philemon finally made up his mind and put down his teacup.

“…First of all, you should already know about the external reason for selecting the temple princess.”

“Yes. I heard it was to appease the odd phenomena.”

There was one external reason for the selection of the temple princess—the odd phenomena. Auroras spread across the southern sky and a three-legged crow was born. It was said that the Imperial family made sacrifices to appease the phenomena. Valia also knew this far. 

“The odd phenomena are true. But the internal reason is the oracle.”

“What kind of oracle is it?”

Philemon hesitated for a moment. Valia waited without urging him. She had guessed that he felt some pressure to explain the oracle in detail to others. At least, the fact that she was the temple princess must be relieving much of the guilt.

“…God will send his vicegerent to this land. He wants to call the medium to the Gel Empire so that the vicegerent can step foot on this land and use power.”

A word that could not be overlooked came from Philemon’s words—God’s vicegerent.

“We don’t know whether the vicegerent is a person, a sacred relic, or whether it means something else. However, following God’s words, we searched for the medium—the temple princess…”

Philemon stared at Valia with a slightly heavier voice.

“Valia Dean was the one who answered.”

Valia blinked her eyes blankly. Philemon did not know what the vicegerent was but she knew what it was.

A person who was chosen by God. Yeri, who was venerated as the saintess.

‘…Oh my gosh.’

Goosebumps welled up on Valia’s body. The temple princess, who was said to have been chosen simply to appease the odd phenomena, was actually a kind of sacrifice for Yeri. If Philemon had not been in front of her, she might have hugged herself tightly.      

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

A small commotion was taking place outside the annex.

There were two reasons. The first was Mercille’s sudden departure. Even though the tea time was not ever, the High Priest came out with a stiff face. Then, he went straight to his carriage. He did not even look at Paul, who was waiting outside. Even that alone was flustering enough. But Shaun, who should be in charge of escorting the Madam, followed the High Priest.

“Sir Shaun, why all of a sudden…”

“Send someone to the training grounds to get Robin. There’s no one currently escorting the Marchioness.”

There was no further explanation. Shaun strode after Mercille, as they walked away, Paul looked at them with a bewildered look. A general butler could not easily leave the lady of the house, so a servant followed them instead of Paul.

“…So, they left together in the same carriage?”

“Yes, it was the temple’s carriage that the High Priest came with.”

“Where is the carriage going?”

“I didn’t know. Neither the High Priest nor the Knight Commander said anything…”

“Hmm…”

Hearing the servant’s report, Paul was worried. It was rare for guests to leave first when tea time was not yet over. Moreover, said guest was a High Priest. Paul was very concerned that the Madam might be hurt by this.

‘What in the world happened?’

With his formidable eye, Paul noticed that Shaun’s mood was unusually harsh. Although Shaun was stern and a man of few words, he had never glared his eyes so much, at least not within the radius of the manor.

‘Besides, I’m pretty sure earlier…’

It was but only for a moment, but Paul saw it clearly. Shaun gritted his teeth towards the back of Mercille’s head.