If anything had happened to her sister...
Just thinking about it made him shudder. The Forest of Ice Trees would’ve been turned upside down, with an unexpected monster hunt throwing the entire Empire into an uproar. She was capable of doing that.
“Why did you come here?”
“Wow, you’re only asking me that now?”
Ersi stared at Ceres in disbelief. She was only just asking why he’d come to the Principality of Persia, even though he’d followed her all the way to the Forest of Ice Trees. She must have been so focused on finding her sister that she’d forgotten everything else.
“I came to escort Miss Yuness. The Temple plans to officially appoint her as a Saintess.”
The recent epidemic had firmly established her as a Saintess in the public’s eyes. Countless people were already calling her one, so the Temple could no longer afford to sit back and do nothing.
“The Temple’s actually in a bit of a crisis these days.”
The Black Forest’s frequent appearances and the corpses left by monsters in the middle of the capital were enough to stir up public unrest. Rumors that God’s wrath had descended were spreading everywhere. Some were even saying that God had abandoned the current Pope.
“On top of that, holy water sales have taken a hit.”
Ersi chuckled as he looked at Ceres. Ever since House Ellesia began selling affordable, high-quality remedies for demonic energy, people had started to lose faith in holy water.
Expensive, yet barely effective... That was how people saw holy water these days.
In short, the Temple had lost much of the people’s trust and faith. A Saintess appearing at a time like this could be just what they needed.
“Hmm.”
“...What is it?”
“What?”
“What’s with that look?”
“What about it?”
“You look like you’re scoffing at me in your head!”
...What a sharp kid.
“My disciple.”
At Ceres’s quiet call, Ersi eyed her suspiciously. Why are you suddenly calling me like that?
“About the people who died in the epidemic.”
“Yes?”
“They had flower-shaped marks on the tops of their feet.”
“.......”
Ersi initially looked puzzled, but his eyes soon widened. He shot to his feet, his brows furrowing deeply. He remembered the false Saintess incident from three hundred years ago perfectly.
Back then, he had spent years working alongside his master to create a cure. There was no way he could’ve forgotten.
And the person who had caused that epidemic was...
“F*ck...”
“Hey, watch your language. Is a priest really allowed to curse like that?”
You haven’t forgotten that you’re a priest, have you?
“How am I supposed to stay calm right now?!”
I’m about to escort that very culprit to the Temple to become a Saintess!
“...Are you getting angry at me?”
“W-who? Me? Of course not. Haha.”
Ersi raked a hand through his hair, but when he saw Ceres’s brows draw together, he quickly put on an awkward smile.
“Well, we don’t have any other evidence yet.”
There were plenty of suspicions, but no proof. Ceres sighed as she watched him sit back down. There was nothing else they could do for now.
“Keep a close eye on her while she’s at the Temple.”
“Yeees...”
Hearing the exhaustion in Ersi’s voice, Ceres looked out the window.
“Looks like you’re not going back anytime soon.”
A snowstorm was raging outside, leaving everyone stranded. The priests couldn’t use teleportation scrolls because they wielded divine power.
If magic and divine power collided, a teleportation scroll could send someone somewhere completely unexpected, so the priests had no choice but to travel by carriage. With the weather this bad, no one could go anywhere.
“I suppose there’s no way around it?”
“You’d freeze to death if you went out in this.”
Ceres got up and walked over to the window. The fierce wind howled outside, loud enough to hear even through the tightly shut window.
“Hm?”
When Ceres glanced down, her eyes widened slightly. Several servants were hurriedly carrying something into the building.
A snowman?
They were carrying a huge snowman. Why were they bringing something like that inside? Before she could wonder about it any further—
“Miss Ceres!”
Del hurried into the room.
“You need to come outside.”
“What happened?”
“Well... just come and see.”
“.....?”
Seeing the urgency on Del’s face, Ceres followed him outside. There, in the middle of the living room, she saw a snowman slowly melting.
“...Cheion?”
As the snow covering his body melted away, a familiar face emerged. Ceres blinked several times. What was going on? Why was he here looking like this?
Shivering in front of the fireplace, Cheion slowly opened his eyes and looked at Ceres with a dazed expression.
“Ce... Ceres.”
Don’t pass out!
When his eyes fell shut again, Ceres hurried over to him.
***
“You walked all the way here?”
“What else could I do? I couldn’t get here with a teleportation scroll.”
Cheion blew on his hot tea before taking a sip, then whipped his head around to glare at Kainel.
“That’s so unfair!”
“What is?”
“How does it make any sense that only the Grand Duke can use a teleportation scroll to get to this residence?”
“Why doesn’t it make sense? Is it really so strange that I’m the only one who can use a teleportation scroll to get to my own home?”
“It makes no sense at all!”
After the Principality of Persia opened its borders, which had been firmly closed for so long, the use of teleportation scrolls became unrestricted. However, teleporting directly to the Grand Duke’s residence was still impossible. Only Kainel was permitted to use one that led directly to here.
So when Cheion came to the Principality of Persia, he had no choice but to walk the rest of the way. In the middle of a snowstorm, no less.
“Anyone who travels in weather like this is an idiot.”
“Wow. I guess it never occurred to you that I wouldn’t have ended up like this if you’d just shared one teleportation code!”
“Do I really have to listen to this?”
Cheion shuddered again. This time, it wasn’t from the cold, but from the anger boiling inside him.
“That’s enough, you two.”
Ceres put a stop to their bickering and asked what she’d been wondering about.
“What brings you here?”
“Huh?”
“Why did you come here?”
Did he come looking for research materials again? She wondered why someone who was usually buried in research at the Magic Tower had suddenly come all the way to the Principality of Persia.
“To see you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“...You came all this way just to see me?”
That’s really it?
He nodded.
“.......”
...He’d still be pretty even if he froze to death.
Wrapped up in a blanket with his face pale from the cold, he smiled at her so cheerfully that Ceres couldn’t help smiling back. She pulled the blanket tighter around him.
Bang!
Ceres turned at the sudden crash and saw the table pushed to one side. Kainel was sitting back with his legs stretched out, making it obvious who had kicked it.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“There are no empty rooms. Get out.”
“Wow... Just wow.”
Cheion couldn’t believe how heartless Kainel was.
“You’re telling me to leave in this freezing weather? How can you be so heartless?”
“I told you, there are no rooms. I can’t exactly have the Tower Master sleep in the stables.”
“How does that make any sense?”
This huge mansion didn’t have a single empty room?
“Then sleep in my room.”
“Huh?”
“It’s big enough.”
Unable to watch their childish bickering any longer, Ceres stepped in again. Cheion’s face immediately lit up at her suggestion.
“Really? I can sleep with you—Gack!”
“Come to think of it, there’s a room.”
Kainel had somehow already reached Cheion and grabbed him by the back of the neck.
“Ah! Let go! Gack! You said there wasn’t a room! I was going to stay with Ceres...!”
“Stop complaining and come with me. Unless you want to become a snowman again.”
Kainel dragged the struggling Cheion out of the room. Cheion reached a hand toward Ceres as if begging her to save him, but she only waved back.
“He won’t kill you.”
“Waaaaah!”
Judging by Cheion’s scream, that didn’t seem to reassure him at all.
***
“The Master of the Forest did that?”
“Yes.”
“Hah.”
Veilks let out a hollow laugh at Yuness’s words. This was completely unexpected.
“I was hoping to see her run wild.”
He wanted to see Ceres lose control and run wild.
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