Tag: I Became a Villainess in an Anticlimactic Novel

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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I was once the biggest tomboy in the orphanage. There was no other child who could make up such creative pranks like me, nor was there ever a child like me who received the most scoldings from the teachers.

“Teach, here’s a present~!”

“Ahhh! What is this?!”

I would bring a frog as a gift and hide it in the teacher’s desk drawer.

“Ara, did I or did I not just finish erasing all the graffiti you drew last time?”

“I drew a new drawing! This time, it’s a puppy that even the teacher would like!”

I had scribbled as if marking areas everywhere, regardless of whether it was on wallpaper or an outer wall. With the other children, I would make the teacher suffer by hiding all of the teacher’s writing aids in the playground or deliberately get myself extra dirty during playtime.

“Ara Lee! Just where on earth did that child go again?!”

Whenever I heard my name ring out loudly in the orphanage, I would feel happy for no reason. Even if it wasn’t love, I found it satisfying as long as I had a stake in the teachers’ heads.

Then one day, the director of the orphanage called me in. I walked in grumbling, wondering if they were going to tell me I had caused a mess or scold me again, but the director of the orphanage unexpectedly didn’t look angry. Instead, they gave me the coke that I liked and had me sit down on the sofa.

“Although I’m not sure you think of me, I sincerely support your future.”

The director, who had only approached me intimidatingly, spoke in a friendly voice that didn’t suit them. 

“Now that you’re a full-fledged teenager, I have something that I have to tell you.”

It was about a month before my middle school entrance ceremony.

“You should’ve felt it in primary school, but you are very different to the other kids in your school.”

“Because I don’t have a mom and dad?”

“…That’s right.”

I vaguely remembered that the director had smiled painfully at the fact that he had thoughtlessly spit out.

“But compared to other kids who only have one mom and one dad, I have five teachers who are like my mom and five uncles who are like my dad.”

The cleaning lady, the bus driver who drives me to school, as well as the faculty staff uncle on the second floor who gives me candy everyday.

“Yes, we’ve always cherished that positive spirit of yours.”

The director patted my head affectionately.

“But Ara, this world is not as optimistic or as tolerant as you are.”

“?”

“Since you are different from other children, the world will view you differently, even if you do the exact same thing.”

“Um… it’s hard for me to understand what you mean.”

The director spoke in a more serious voice.

“It means that you will have to start taking responsibility for your actions and words.”

I left the director’s office without understanding what it meant in the end. It was only after entering middle school for a few months that I finally came to understand the meaning of what they said.

“Ah, I was hit in the back by my mom again because I was playing games yesterday. Aren’t my mom’s slaps getting more painful day by day?”

As always, my classmates were chatting about what was happening at home. It was a conversation that was rather trivial since everyone had experienced something like that. So I also shared my daily life that was rather trivial.

“Me too. I was watching the video you sent me yesterday but got hit on the back by the teacher for using my phone while eating.”

But the moment I said that, the surroundings immediately became quiet. The two in front of me looked at me in shock and seemed taken aback. They tried to gauge my mood, exchanged glances with each other before asking me cautiously.

“This might be crossing the line, but… do the helpers at the orphanage normally hit a child like that?”

“Do they do it often?”

I was speechless. It was something I often saw. Children who were scolded by their teachers for just playing on their phones. At worst, they’d be confiscated. So I had talked about it casually, but the conversation had gone in a completely unexpected direction.

“If that happens a lot… isn’t that child abuse then…?”

“Do they hit you really harshly? Then… shouldn’t we report this?”

“What sort of nonsense are you talking about? It’s exactly the same as when you got smacked on the back by your mom for using the computer.”

“Isn’t… isn’t that a little different from this…?”

Even the friends who asked were cautious. Their voices were full of doubts, as if they weren’t sure.

“My mom is my mom. The orphanage helper is… um…”

I pursed my lips tightly at the sight of my friend’s eyes darting here and there without finding the right word. I wasn’t sure what sort of existence a mother was since I had only seen it in books and videos. But if what was in those books and videos was a mother, then to us, our mother was the helpers at the orphanages. However, other people didn’t seem to see it like that.

“Ah, in any case, if it gets worse, be sure to tell us, okay? Since that’s a really serious problem.”

“That’s right. We’ll protect you.”

My two friends said firmly, but that only confused me. As I looked back on that days conversation several times on my way home from school, I began to understand what the director had said to me. Even if i did the same thing, the world would view it differently. So that’s what it meant. In my point of view, what those children had experienced and what I had experienced hadn’t been very different, but my ‘complaint’ had suddenly inflated into a serious social problem. And then I realized.

‘I probably shouldn’t complain about things like that anymore.’

That would make those who heard it feel awkward, and may even harm those around me. Upon realizing that, I changed my behavior. I became cautious in order for them to be unable to find any faults in me, and didn’t speak recklessly on ‘trivial complaints’ that would clearly show the difference between us. 

I didn’t think it would be that difficult. Wasn’t it just having no one to rant to about my injustice and being unable to relieve my anger and shutting up and retreating when I came across an unfair situation? In other words, it simply meant that I wouldn’t be able to let anyone know about those minor ‘complaints’ that anyone could make, such as, ‘How nice, we didn’t get any money for new year’s’. 

I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal. But I didn’t realize until later.

How big of a difference it would make over whether I was able to spit out a small word of complaint or not. Everytime I swallowed a complaint, it felt as if a small stone was weighing down on my chest, and over time, as the stones piled up and up, they eventually crushed me. My small, insignificant worries that I had turned a blind eye to began to fester. 

Accurately trying to explain what the problem was only yielded an ambiguous answer, so it was difficult for me to shake off this twisted emotion that had come from someplace. Even though I was clearly aware of how it was affecting me, I swallowed every single grudge I had and internalized it, as if it had become a habit. I destroyed myself internally and caused my fatigue to quickly pile up, as if I was waiting for someone to give me permission to complain to them.

But someone said something like that to me for the first time. If it’s too hard, it’s okay for you to complain. It was a phrase that alleviated the heavy burden that the world had put on me.

“Heuk…”

Something which had been tangled deep in my heard suddenly threatened to surface as I grabbed the collar of the person hugging me and started to sniff. I didn’t want to cry, but my tears kept flowing out.

I knew that everyone was having a hard time. Since there’d always be talk of chronic fatigue and suicide on the TV and the internet. So I knew that there were people who endured worse conditions than me, and that there were a lot of people who bore a greater responsibility than me.

The same was true of this epidemic. They almost lost their lives, and some could lose their friends, colleagues, or even their only family. Knowing how frightening and difficult it must have been, I had no choice but to follow the doctors for three days until I collapsed out of exhaustion. Since my fatigue couldn’t possibly be compared to their pain. 

So even though I knew my pain was extremely insignificant… even if that was the case, I still hoped that someone would understand. I wanted to complain.

“Huhuheung…”

I eventually burst into tears.

I didn’t tell you that I wanted to complain, but you knew. What was this, it felt warm and grateful. 

Although I was extremely shy and embarrassed, I felt relieved to be able to think, ‘It’s okay for me to do that too’.

“Uhuhuuuu…”

I buried my face in the man’s shoulder and shook off my grievances for a while

*** 

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

Isn’t everyone aware of it? When you cry, it feels as if the whole world resents me, so you cry harder, but after you finish crying, the belated embarrassment that comes rushing in so big.

“…”

In what right mind would a grown woman cry like that in the arms of an unfamiliar man? Oh, right. I must’ve cried because I was out of my mind.

…But now what should I do?

With my face still buried in his firm shoulders, I urgently tried to wrack my brain for ideas. Now, no matter how much I squeezed my eyes, the tears didn’t seem to want to come out anymore. I was so embarrassed to the point that I couldn’t bear to lift my head up that I wished that I had just collapsed from exhaustion after crying instead. 

Then his voice resonated in my ears.

“You must be hungry after lying in bed for such a long time.” 

Gurgle~~. 

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of thunder roaring sounded from my stomach.

“…”

“…”

A moment of silence passed.

Ah shit… so embarrassing…! Where’s the doghole? Even if it’s a mouse hole, I just want to stuff Lecht in it and run away…

“I heard that their rye bread is their specialty here.”

“…”

“Would you like to go down and eat? Or would you like me to bring it to your bed?”

To what he had added, my stomach answered instead of my voice.

Glug~

Another short moment of silence passed as I felt a puff of breath from his laughter brush past my ears. Embarrassed, I didn’t even have time to ascertain to what that sound was.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Kyaaa!”

As soon as he finished speaking, my body suddenly felt light. I looked down at him, startled by the sudden elevated view I had.

“Wh-What are you doing!”

“Because you didn’t seem to want to move.”

“That…!”

It’s because I’m too embarrassed to raise my face!

“I thought you didn’t have any strength in your legs since you hadn’t eaten anything, so I thought to just move you directly by myself.”

“My legs are fine…!”

So I had said that in a way of inadvertently wanting to be let down, but he replied with an irrelevant answer.

“If you’re uncomfortable, should I hold you differently?”

“That’s not what’s important right now.”

“If you hate it, then I’ll put you down.”

The words of him, who was looking up at me, made me speechless.

“It’s not that I hate it, but…”

Although I was surprised, I didn’t hate it. Although it was embarrassing, it was never something I hated. It was the first time someone had lifted me up like this after the teachers at the orphanage had done it when I was very young. Oddly enough, my heart felt slightly ticklish, perhaps because it had also brought back a lot of my childhood memories.

“I’m heavy…”

But unlike when I was small, I was now an adult. Both my height and heart had grown so much that it had now become heavy.

At my muttering, Lecht let out a hmm before saying.

“If this is heavy, then what the hell is light?”

Those words that contained sincere questions sounded sweeter than nonsense such as, ‘No, you’re light’, or, ‘It’s fine’, so my face flushed bright red.

“Then something like a feather… that’s light…”

Embarrassed by his needlessly serious question of him asking me to tell him, I hid my face with both hands and muttered softly in reply.

“A feather you say.”

He repeated my gibberish and little by little began walking.

“Feathers are hard.”

“…?”

“It’s hard to hold onto something so light it might fly away.”

“…!”

My face, which had barely calmed down, turned red again. Was he saying that feathers were hard or that it’d be hard for me to be like a feather? I didn’t know exactly what he was trying to say, but my brain automatically interpreted his words in a sweet way. I felt my heart flutter at those meaningless words of his.

As I shut my mouth in order to reorganize my thoughts by myself in my fantasy, he quietly added. 

“Even if that’s the case, since you like feathers, then we’ll go with that.”

He said while staring at my blushing face.

“Your job is to do whatever your heart desires. It’s up to me to follow you.”

Thump thump thump.

My heartbeat was the first to respond. Then my breathing hitched and halted, the nerves in my whole body tingling and coming to a standstill. My face was already red so I didn’t know if it could turn any redder, but what was certain was that my cheeks were as hot as the stones in the desert. Lecht was clearly saying this because I was the saintess.

As a saintess, just going your own way will be enough. We will simply follow after you on our own.”

What he had said obviously hadn’t been any different from what Lydia said. But why did it sound so different? Was it because of his handsome face? Is it because I’m a straight woman, and Lydia is a woman and Lecht is a man? Or… 

“Saintess!!!”

My thoughts, which had been floating around in confusion, were cut off by a sudden disturbance.

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wow this chapter is one of my favs! i like how they delved into meliara’s past life and how that shaped her as a person as well as how the author highlighted the importance of not bottling your own feelings up and how detrimental it is in the long run of ur mental health.

ngl i did loki nearly tear up when ara cried PLUS I ALSO LOVE LOVE LOVE THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN THE ML AND FL LIKE URGHDSLFKJSFJ sobbing screaming throwing up shitting tears, god i hope my next breath is my last but i also love them sm HGDSLJFSDFJ

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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“Please remain courteous to His Majesty the Demon King.”

Despite having Tanma already directly point it out, the man only let out a light laugh.

“Today, it seems the number of bastards following you has decreased from two to one, huh?”

He whispered those harsh words gently. It was a voice so gentle it could enchant anyone who happened to be soft-hearted in an instant. A biting tone, the exact opposite of that, came out of Lecht’s mouth.

“It’s not like you’re unaware of the fact that it’s strictly forbidden to meddle with humans without permission.”

His voice was so sharp that if it had been a knife, it would’ve been leave that man in two.

“What would happen if you had humans come into contact with drugs that even demons can’t tolerate? Fortunately it was diluted, otherwise it would’ve led to nothing but death.”

The starting point of this epidemic was a contaminated well. Lecht confirmed that the well contained a substance that was notoriously dangerous, even to demons. 

So it hadn’t occurred naturally, but had been done intentionally by someone. Since it was a drug that couldn’t be obtained in the human world, Lecht immediately knew that one of the demons had interfered.

The man shrugged at Lecht’s words.

“Ah~ Why is my little brother acting so stiff, yet again?”

The man giggled as if it were amusing.

“You know that a contractor’s request is an exception to that, right?”

Whispering in a voice that seemed as if it were determined to seduce its opponent, he slowly approached Lecht, one step at a time. The five-headed snake also moved in a slither in unison with its summoner. Tanma flinched and attempted to take out a weapon from his spatial storage, but was stopped by a hand gesture from Lecht.

The appearance of the man who was standing in front of Lecht was finally revealed slightly by the rays of moonlight shining from the front of the alleyway. He had hair which was black at its roots and gradually turned white near the ends, along with a lone half-broken horn that protruded from the two-toned hair. And on that skin that was so white, it made one wonder if they were really still alive, was a scar that started from his forehead and crossed over one of his eyes to reach his cheekbone.

“Since my little brother is the great Demon King, shouldn’t I, as the older brother, follow such important rules that we are forbidden from breaking?”

He had only narrowly toed the line, nothing had been broken.

“To think that you would raise such a basic question… Has our honorable Demon King gotten confused about the rules since he’s been away from the demon realm for too long?”

Raising the corners of his lips, he tilted his upper body toward Lecht. If it had been toward a human, just coyly crinkling his eyes would’ve already made them lose their mind.

“So that’s why I told you. I’ll look after that position for you until you come back.”

“You’re going too far, Sir Frody.”

Although Frody’s gaze slowly turned toward Tanma due to his intervention, he was quickly ignored and his attention was once again returned to Lecht.

“It’s just that that seat shouldn’t cool down so much, so I’ll just go and heat it up a bit. What do you think?”

As if it wanted to come over, the fluttering aura of temptation enveloped their surroundings. It was Frody’s unique ability, ‘enchantment’, which was so powerful that even Tanma, who had lived several thousand years longer than them, flinched and had to avert his gaze.

It was when that invisible tail seemed to move gently. Frody’s face stiffened.

“Urk.”

His face gradually distorted, as if he were suffocating.

Slitherrr—!

Noticing the situation, Frody’s summon rushed toward Lecht, revealing its teeth from all five heads.

Bang!

However, it was pressed down to the floor by Lecht’s scabbard. It couldn’t even budge. Both the snake, and Frody too.

“You seem to have forgotten since I’ve been away from that seat for so long.”

Black energy overwhelmed their surroundings and oppressed them heavily. That ticklish energy soon disappeared without a trace.

“Just how exactly I had come to sit on that seat.”

“Heukkk…!”

That white face had now turned red and blue. 

Those calm yet terrifying eyes of Lecht’s wandered in the direction of Frody’s horns on his head. Half a horn which had a rough cross-section that remained there, as if someone had broken it off violently. Lecht gazed it at slowly before looking back at Frody’s face.

“I don’t like to joke around.”

“…”

The meaning behind that simple and clear warning was obvious. There was a long bout of silence.

“Keu—hurk…!”

In the end, after Frody’s hand clutched at Lecht’s collar urgently, only then did Lecht’s energy, which had dominated their surroundings, ease up.

“Cough! Cough!”

Frody hurriedly took a step back before coughing his lungs out. Lecht also removed the sword that had been holding down the snake.

Slither—!

His minion hurriedly shrunk from its enlarged state and slithered up Frody’s legs, clasping tighter to his waist. It was survival instinct. 

Although he was doing nothing but clutching at his exhausted neck, Frody waited for a long time before his breathing went back to normal. 

Frody, who was barely able to breathe again and had his waist bent, raised only his head up to stare at Lecht. Although the light in his eyes was full of life, Lecht only added with a calm expression, as if he were already used to such hateful emotions.

“Don’t make me regret my first act of being ‘merciful’.”

Lecht left the alleyway, leaving only heavy words behind him. Even after he left, however, the traces of the Demon King still remained in the alleyway.

“Bastard. You’ve been doing well by yourself.”

Frody grinded his molars together, forcibly ventilating the remnants of Lecht’s energy with his own.

‘Damn it. If only I had discovered her first at that time.’

What happened a hundred years ago was still lamentable.

The necklace on the neck of Frody, whose breathing had returned to normal, suddenly hummed. His contractor seemed to be looking for him. Frody held the necklace in his hand and stared coldly in the direction Lecht had disappeared into.

“Let’s see how long you can turn your nose up and look down on me for.”

He had not yet accepted the outcome of the fight a hundred years ago.

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pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

The ‘relief’ for the village took longer than expected. Just that night was enough to cure the epidemic. It was all thanks to the efforts of the three priests who had sworn to me to believe in them. 

However, the reason the village’s ‘relief’ took a long time was because of what happened after that. The wounds which were left by the skin disease as well as the heartburn that was caused by the vomiting of blood all ended up being the sole responsibility of the village doctors. 

There was no helping the fact that it took a long time, since there were only two doctors in the village. In any case, since I wasn’t doing anything by myself, I conscientiously went to go help the doctor. 

The treatment continued for three days, and after running around with the doctor both day and night, I finally got to rest on the fourth day. And slept for twenty four hours. I slept so heavily I didn’t even think I dreamed of anything.

“Whine…”

Perhaps Kelber had stayed by my side the entire time I slept, since he came up to me as soon as I got up and gently wagged his tail.

“Mm, I’m awake.”

A hoarse voice flowed out of my mouth.

“Gosh…”

“Hing. Whine.”

“I’m not sick. I’m just hungry.”

I stroked Kelber’s cute head and crawled out of bed. Even after wasting a full day, I still felt tired.

‘I really hate being sick…’

I let out a moan because of my stiff shoulders and legs.

‘I’m not going to do anything anymore.’

I helped the doctors since I couldn’t leave and say, ‘Then, I’ll leave the rest to you!’, since I had watched the situation break out. But the situation had now calmed down.

‘I just hope those fanatic priests didn’t talk about me…’

The more harrowing a situation was, the stronger the obsession with religion became. Especially if all of them had been ‘saved’ by the priests of Lunarism. Gratitude and affection in moderation was appreciated, but obsessive love was burdensome.

‘Haa, this won’t do. Working my body to the bone and all that for the safety and peace of other people didn’t suit me at all.’

Clicking my tongue, I got out of bed and hauled my heavy body outside. My shoulders jumped as soon as I opened the door. I was proud that I didn’t let out a scream in surprise.

“Everyone… what are you doing here?”

There was a swarm of people right in front of my door. Lecht, who was leaning against the wall opposite to the door. Butler Tanma who was right by his side, standing tall and upright. Even Linden, who was squatting down next to him.

“Woof!”

Kelber, who had come out of the room with me, pushed me towards Lecht’s direction. However, before my body which had been pushed could reach Lecht, someone blocked my way.

“Meliara!”

Linden jumped up from where he was and grabbed my shoulders.

“Are you okay? You’re not sick, are you?”

“U-Um… I’m fine except for the fact that I feel sort of off for sleeping for so long.”

“Really? You’re sure you don’t have a fever?”

He even placed the back of his hand against my forehead, as if he didn’t believe my words.

“Except for the fact that I’m hungry, I’m really fine.”

“Does someone who normally feels fine sleep for this long?”

“That’s…”

I didn’t know that news of me sleeping would spread this much…

“I was already tired all the time because of motion sickness, but I guess this must have happened because the incident developing without a chance for me to catch my breath.”

Come to think of it, it was a very dynamic ten days. After I had my engagement broken off and got disowned by my family, I left the house and met Lecht and Linden and happened to stop at a village where an epidemic broke out due to my motion sickness. As if that wasn’t enough, there was even the sudden point of priests appearing. After that, I ran around the village with a doctor to treat the people with the disease. It was as if the incident had raged on without rest for not even an hour, or a day of rest.

‘It’s amazing that I didn’t pass out even earlier from being overworked.’

If I alone had done it without the priests coming to heal the plague, I might’ve even suffered from a nosebleed. My shoulders trembled at the terrible image.

‘Oh right, Linden.’

My trembling was felt by Linden, who was still holding my shoulder.

“Look, there’s clearly something wrong with you.”

Linden looked at my complexion with a tearful expression on his face. To be honest, his pale complexion was more of a concern than mine was.

“It’s you, not the people who will be taken care of.”

He muttered in a sorry voice.

“It would’ve been nice if I had known how to do healing magic…”

I quickly shook my head in the face of the look of depression that seemed as if it would fall into a hole in the ground.

“Forget it, what healing magic?! I’m tough!”

I raised both my arms to show off my non-existent biceps. 

Healing magic was one of the types of magic that Linden had deliberately not learned. He had thought that if he knew that he had a talent for magic earlier, he would’ve been able to learn healing magic and save his poisoned mother. That incident completely twisted his mind.

Instead of hurriedly learning to be proficient in healing magic to prevent such things from happening in the future, he turned a blind eye to healing magic in order to erase the anger he had felt at not knowing such an easy thing in the past. 

In any case, she hadn’t been able to survive. That was how that child had consoled himself. Those were words that dug at his own weaknesses and wounds, so I hurriedly comforted him.

“If it was needed, the doctors and priests would have already taken care of it, right?”

I couldn’t trigger his trauma just because I was having a hard time.

“That’s…” 

“It’s just fatigue. Don’t you also get tired from working too much? It’s just like that.”

I explained again and again that I was never sick. Nevertheless, Linden still had an unsatisfied expression on his face. The expression on his face was so convincing that I started to get confused over whether this was to trap me further into his scheme or whether he was actually serious or not. Just like that evening when he had begged me to show him a little more of my divine power.

‘He’s simply too good at acting…’

When I had read it just as words on a page, I had found it strange and thought, ‘People fall for this? All the while being aware that he’s simply using his beauty?’, but now I understood. It was just his beauty, but his eyes, facial expressions, gestures, everything about him completely and perfectly captivated me and dragged me into his scheme.

“I’m fine. Really, I’m serious.”

I, who was about to encroach into his domain, sneakily pushed him away from me to talk. However, his hand didn’t seem to have any thoughts of leaving my shoulder. I raised a hand to separate us, but a hand suddenly grabbed my wrist.

That warm hand simultaneously removed Linden’s arm from me and pulled me toward them. Although the force behind it wasn’t very strong, my body still naturally tilted in the direction the man was pulling, like flowing water.

Plop—

And fell into a scent I liked. The embrace that held me warmly was large and cozy, making it more comfortable than any blanket I had ever used. A deep voice that was sweet enough to melt away all my fatigue whispered.

“Don’t overdo it.”

It was not an unusual phrase, but at the same time, those words that were full of warm feelings flowed softly into my ears.

“If it’s hard, complain.”

Thump thump thump thump thump. 

My heart rate quickly broke through the roof in an instant and soared like crazy high into the sky.

If it’s too hard, it’s okay for you to complain.

In fact, it was actually a phrase that I had always wanted to hear since I was very young, yet no one had said that to me.

“Even if it’s you, it’s okay nonetheless.”

In that moment, the tears that I couldn’t bear to hold back suddenly came pouring out.

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wow ok so we have a lot to unpack here, new character plus lecht being an absolute king what’s new 😩💅🏻

so we have lecht’s older brother, frody (i’m so sorry i literally wanted to tl it a better way but it was this or prody HGLSDIJDFSFJ) who’s passive aggressive and wears a snake for accessories. mans is defo a snacc bc everyone in this webnovel is fine but i’m rlly looking forward to them delving into his backstory and WHAT HAPPENED 100 YEARS AGO I NEED TO KINOW ???? all we know so far is that he’s a contracted demon under a human contractor and his horn got broken off by lecht.

ANYWAYS MOVING ON WE HAVE LECHT BEING A WORDS OF AFFIRMATION KING ??? MANS HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN ACTS OF SERVICE KING BUT HE’S KILLING IT RN ???? literally told our fl exactly what she needed to hear and i love that for both of them.

how do yawl feel abt meliara’s attitude tho ?? tbh from my pov she’s very much a realist. her past and present life have shaped her to be capable and realistic when coming to decisions but i love that she has her own morals when taking on the responsibility of saintess in an epidemic where she’s obligated to stay due to her role as opposed to what she wants to do which is flee in order to preserve her own life. rlly loving how our fl and how she’s shaping out to be so far !!!

wow it’s been a hot minute since i’ve had such a long tl note but thx 4 reading and see u next time !!!

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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“The purification of the people over here is finished.”

“You’ve worked hard.”

“How about you go back and rest for a while, Saintess? I heard that you had originally stopped because of motion sickness on the way, but couldn’t even sleep a wink because of the outbreak.”

“I’m fine.”

I quickly rejected their offer.

To be honest, even if I went back to my room now, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.

My mind only got more complicated after I gradually accepted the fact that I could be a saintess.

While my mind was complicated to death, the priests continued to follow me like trained soldiers. Wait, no, them being trained soldiers was frankly too docile of a remark. Rather, they were more like ducklings who were chasing after their mother duck.

“How could you have such a pretty face and a beautiful heart? To think that you can’t sleep due to your anxiety over the common people dying. Heuk heuk.”

“To think that I was the first priest who had the grace to see the Saintess first! Just where should I go to boast about this honor?”

“Were you the one who saw her first? It was clearly me who saw her first.”

“I was the one who greeted her first though?”

“Aha, no, well my hand was the first hand to be held by her.”

“No! If you think about it like that, then the first to hold her hand is clearly the high priest.”

“Fufu, I don’t care what number I am. I won’t ever wash this hand.”

…They were clearly just a group of hardcore fans. With me as their target. Although this sort of interest was rather troublesome.

“Ahem. Is there anything else I can do to help…”

“There isn’t!”

I asked to try and go back to what we were talking about before, but an answer came back quickly before I could even finish my question.

“It’s enough for you just to sit here and look pretty.”

Just sitting is fine, but what the hell do you mean by sitting and looking pretty?

When he saw the reluctant expression on my face, he quickly inserted how he interpreted my expression as.

“B-But of course, it this was handled by the Saintess herself, it would be sorted out immediately…”

He was the one who had looked at me with particularly sparkling eyes.

“But even if that will be the case, we still want to show that we’re capable people as well. So just leave it to us!”

“No just when on earth did this guy get so proactive…! Saintess! I’m definitely better than this guy! Just watch and see!”

The youngest looking one of them shouted in a loud voice, before running past me, the rest of the priests following after him.

“O-Okay… good luck…”

Left all alone after they rushed out, I sat on the simple chair they prepared for me, thinking it would be awkward for me to continue to remain standing. Kelber placed his three heads on top of my legs and began to doze off.

‘It’s embarrassing for me to be the only one doing this when everyone else is busy working hard.’

I looked around to see if there was anything I could do, my butt constantly lifting off the chair.

‘Should I help the doctors?’ 

The divine power from the priests could only cure the disease, but not the wounds that were caused by it, so the doctors were extremely busy.

At first, I had wondered whether or not it was because I didn’t have enough divine power to heal them. But when I asked Lydia, I found that that wasn’t the case.

“You could think that way since you’re so familiar with the divine power of Solarism. However, it’s not that we don’t, rather, it’s that we can’t.”

“You can’t do it?”

“The divine power of Lunarism cannot heal wounds. Lunarism’s divine power has the ability to ‘purify’, but not the ability to ‘restore’.

“What exactly does that mean?”

“For example… the divine power of Solarism is more suitable for healing bruises and fractures, while the divine power of Lunarism specializes in purification and the alleviation of mental illnesses.”

The more I listened to her talk, the more I once again realized how little I actually knew about Lunarism. The moment I thought that, the road ahead felt even more daunting.

‘Do I really have to be a saintess?’

I was meant to flee the country, but I suddenly became a saintess. 

If I kept going at this rate, in the event of a war, it was clear that I would become embroiled in ‘protecting the citizens of the Empire’. I’d really hate for that to happen though…

What sort of saintess is a self-centered person like me?’

I had never had any ties to religion in my lifetime. That was simply because I thought that if I ever had some sort of ‘corner of faith’, I would just continue to lean on it in vain. But to think that religion could be forced into my arms like this.

Although I hoped that the verification process would would make them come to the conclusion that I wasn’t one, but judging by the reactions of Lydia and the priests, it all seemed to be in vain. 

Should I just refuse and run away before they begin the process? But wouldn’t they be disappointed if the saintess who had appeared for the first time in a hundred years suddenly ran away…?

“As a saintess, just going your own way will be enough. We will simply follow after you on our own.”

Although that’s what they had said, I’m sure that it’d be extremely troublesome for them if I fled to another country and left the Empire behind.

‘But I really don’t want to die.’

That’s right, I really didn’t want to die. I really didn’t. To be more accurate, I didn’t want to be in pain. It was even harder to know whether I’d be able to die painlessly with a single stroke of a sword.

My whole body shuddered just imagining the difficult and arduous life I’d have to live if I was caught up in a war.

Choosing to remain in the Empire whilst knowing that the Demon King would clearly invade was really just stabbing a death flag in my future.

Lunarism must exist in other countries besides the Empire, so couldn’t I go to a safe place like that and become a saintess there?

But to be fair… the Empire was like the Vatican City of Lunarism, so the fact that someone like the saintess, who was revered like that of the Pope, was going to abandon a place like this and hide in another was… 

Sigh… Life really isn’t going my way… 

Just as I was lamenting over my meaningless situation, Linden suddenly approached me.

“Just what sort of situation is this?”

“Oh, Linden.”

“Are you really the saintess of the Moon God?”

“At least that’s what they’re all saying…?”

Though I’m seriously considering just turning a blind eye to it and running away.

“How…?”

“Although they still have a lot of things to confirm, apparently I’ve already met all the requirements that can be checked right now.”

Well, it feels like I’m talking about a product when I call it a ‘requirement’.

“But didn’t the High Priest two years ago already…”

Linden seemed to have the same question as me. Just how did I become the saintess when they had said I didn’t have the ability to?

I was able to answer it easily since it had also been a questions that I had asked.

“That was the High Priest of the Sun God. Apparently the divine power of Solarism and Lunarism are too different.”

I stretched out my palm. As soon as I thought of the image of taking a deep breath in and pushing out the air from my lungs out through my fingertips, a silver wind began to gush out from my palms. It was a wind that had the color of moonlight.

“How do I use my power?”

“You can use it just by thinking of it.”

When Lydia had explained it like that, I had wondered what sort of far-fetched nonsense she was spouting, but it really was like that. 

It was a unique power.

Unlike magic, which required both talent and effort, this power could be used just by thinking of an imagine my head without even having to learn how to use it separately. 

When it more leaked out of my fingertips, it flowed out toward Linden, ruffling his clothes lightly. Linden looked at the divine power that wrapped around him and disappeared with a confused expression.

“Oh, will this sort of energy make you feel uncomfortable since you’re a believer of Solarism?”

I felt bad for only belatedly remembering that he was a believer of another religion. Wasn’t this pretty much the same as sprinkling the holy water of Catholicism on a Buddhist friend?

“My bad. I’ll be more cautious next time.”

“No.”

He came a little closer and knelt down on one knee in front of me. Then whispered in an urgent voice.

“Please show me one more time.”

Since it wasn’t too difficult of a request, I channeled my strength back into the palm of my hand once again. Another ball of tranquil moonlight appeared once again.

Linden looked at it with a blank expression on his face, like a child who had seen a candle for the first time in their life.

I had made the ball a little larger. What used to only be the size of quail eggs now became the size of an egg.

“Can I touch it…?”

He asked me cautiously, as if he were asking to touch a newborn child instead. Why are you being so cautious about this? I burst into laughter since it was so cute.

“Of course.”

Linden cautiously reached out to touch the light once he obtained my permission. The light climbed up Linden’s fingers, as if it were happy that it touched something new, creeping up his hands and arms and finally burst into a smoky haze.

When Linden moved his hand again, the light scattered and disappeared with a ‘poof’, as if it were shy. I still didn’t know how this power behaved, so I looked at it strangely.

“Just one more time…”

As I followed the scattered energy with my eyes, I heard a voice, as if it were deeply immersed in something. When I looked down, I saw him grabbing my knee tightly, whispering to me with an expression that seemed as if he were about to collapse.

“Sorry. Can you show me… just one more time?”

He pleaded with me imploringly, as if he were a person who had experienced warmth for the first time on a snow capped mountain.

“Is that not allowed…?”

My heart ached for no reason at the sight of him, who looked like he would burst into tears at any moment if he didn’t see it. 

I didn’t know why exactly he was doing this. But I could still make a vague guess.

Just how barren and poor must his life have been for him to feel so desperate toward this small amount of tenderness? I felt sorry for him once again, and felt greatly shaken at the fact that he reminded me of myself in my previous life, who had lived a rather tenacious life. It felt as if a consensus of my own had started to form for no reason.

“You don’t have to be sorry.”

Manifesting power. Even though I didn’t know when I knew, now that I knew about my power, this was easier than opening a brand new water bottle for me. If only this could bring comfort to his lonely heart, even just for a little bit.

“I’ll show you as much as you want.”

Such a trivial thing was a piece of cake.

I placed his hand on top of my palm. It looked rather strange, since his hand was much bigger than mine, but it didn’t matter.

“I can show you until my divine power runs out.”

My divine power, which had a silver light to it, started to form once again. This time, it gathered over his palm which was in my hand.

“Did you think I couldn’t even do this for you?”

Linden’s eyes, which were looking at me, shook violently at my words. He lowered his gaze, his face becoming strange, one that was neither one of laughter or tears.

Seeing my power dancing softly on his hand, he finally relaxed, the tenseness eventually leaving his body. The balls of light blooming on his hand became one, then split into two, then for, and eventually became dozens, circling around his body. The light, which seemed to disappear in a fluster, seemed to get used to him over time, and stuck to him instead, continuously falling off, as if to act cute.

I recalled what Lydia had said.

“The divine power of Lunarism is rather unique. Although it’s an inanimate power, it has its own will, and as it assimilates with wielder, will be influenced by their thoughts and emotions as well.’

Just like children who tried to imitate their parents. 

So as I continued to use this power and accept it as mine, my emotions gradually began to seep into those lights, which were crystalloids of my power. So slowly, my perception of Linden had changed from, ‘who is this? who is this?’, to, ‘a person who is okay for us to be close to!’.

‘Even though divine power isn’t something that has life in it…’

It was fascinating just to see that they were moved by their own will and agitated by emotions.

I was watching happily when Linden suddenly moved that hand that was grasped in mine. At his movement, my lights buzzed, as if shouting, ‘he moved, he moved!’, and gathered around his arms and wrists.

Naturally, a lot of the children returned to me. Linden placed my hand, which was curled into a fist, back in his own. As if he were handling a precious chick, he gently placed it on top of my hand. With his head bowed, he whispered softly.

“…Th…”

Although it was a voice that was soft enough to be obscured by the noise in the background, I could still hear it clearly.

“…Thanks.”

That’s why I was able to smile broadly.

 “Mm.”

We spent a long time after that with the soft breeze that was created by my divine power.

***

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

At the same time Meliara was practicing how to channel her power, Lecht was quietly walking to the outskirts of the village with Kelber by his side.

Since that bastard was showing his presence so obviously, he couldn’t just let it go. 

Lecht, who had arrived at the end of the empty road, headed into a dark alleyway where even the moon didn’t dare to cast its light. Tanma followed closely behind him. 

At the dead-end of the alleyway, the sound of a snake slithering on the ground was heard. 

Lecht stopped at a reasonable distance away from the vaguely visible black figure.

With the sound of another slither, five pairs of red eyes shone from the ground. It was a five-headed cobra demon.

The black figure that had the snake wrapped around its legs and waist turned towards Lecht. The glare of those icy blue eyes pierced through the darkness.

“Long time no see, little brother.”

It was a soft voice that starkly contrasted those eyes which were full of vigor.

---

first post of 2022 !! sorry for the delay you guys, i went on a little staycation in the first week and worked everyday after that QAQ hopefully i’ll be able to update more but i can’t say with uni becoming full time soon,,, *pain*

anyways, we love a little trauma healing sesh with the fl !! despite him being a master manipulator, i still love linden, but maybe that’s bc i have issues HGLSDKFJFSD

also new character ??? if he’s lecht’s brother you know he’ll be MIGHTY FINE !11!1 but that’s to be expected since quite literally everyone in this novel is hot hFGLSDKFJFSJD

well, until next time hehehehe

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

You guys aren’t cultists, so what’s going on?

The epidemic is overwhelming already, but has the situation now even caused madness as well? But I heard that there was no cure for lunacy though!

“Everyone, please shut up. Isn’t she unable to speak because of you guys?”

Then, someone who finally spoke words that I could agree with appeared. 

Unlike them, who had rushed out of the portal senselessly, the owner of the voice walked gracefully out of the portal.

She came up to me and took off the hood of the black robe she was wearing.

The face that was exposed, along with her curly purple hair, had exquisite patterns that covered more than half of her face. 

Just when I was thinking that the elaborate and intricate patterns that seemed to be tattooed on her seemed to suit her copper-coloured skin, she knelt down on one knee in front of me.

“My apologies for startling you. These guys have a good heart, but are unfortunately not proficient at expressing themselves.”

“No, it’s alright.”

Even though I had been slightly concerned over whether they were crazy or not.

“But, who are you…”

“I see that I’m quite late to introduce myself.”

She continued in her dignified tone.

“I am Lydia, the high priest of the Lunarists, who serves the Moon God.”

She pressed a hand to the left of her chest and bowed her head toward me.”

“Ah…! It’s nice to meet you!”

I quickly bowed my head in return.

“I’m very grateful that you came. Huh? We had not even sent out a letter yet, so how did you know?”

“So the one who sent out that distress signal was you, as expected.”

“The distress signal… Are you perhaps talking about the whistle? If you’re talking about that, then I did indeed call for you…”

However, it was when I was about to tell them that the owner of the whistle was in fact Lecht, not me.

“Oh…! As expected!”

“Heup, so this day has finally come…!”

All of a sudden, the three hooded men and women started to kick up a fuss again.

“Silence everyone.”

Lydia scolded them instead of me, who had been left startled by them.

As they all shut up once again, Lydia reached out to me.

“Could I check your hand, just for a moment?”

“Of course…”

I readily stretched out my hand toward her. My hand was once again covered by hers. Moments later, an indescribable warmth permeated my hand from where she had touched.

“This feeling is…”

It felt similar to the sensation I had felt when I healed the child. Except this time, the wind didn’t escape from my body, but entered it instead. It felt as if a rainbow had entered my heart, and spread to each and every remote corner of my body. My whole body had become lethargic and relaxed, as if I was taking a bath.

After a few minutes of silence, Lydia finally put down my hand with a satisfied smile. She looked at me as she continued to wipe off the drops of perspiration on her forehead with the back of her hand.

“Of course, we’ll need confirm a lot more things, and it’ll be a long process before we make a decision, but this, I think I can tell you with certainty, even now.”

“What is it?”

“A depth that is immeasurable and beyond what I can fathom, even with my divine power. The purity of your power that was transmitted through the power of God’s whistle.”

“Pardon?”

I tilted my head slightly, not understanding what she was trying to say as she simply spoke with an even gentler smile on her face.

“Lunar’s servant, Lydia, greets the next saintess in advance.”

“Pardon?”

…Did I hear it wrong?

“You are Lunarism’s next saintess.”

“…What?”

What sort of pounding on the paper window while sleeping¹ nonsense is this?

There was a moment of silence.

“I’m only asking because I think I heard wrong. But did you just say, ‘the next saintess’?”

“Yes.”

So I didn’t hear it wrong.

“So… is that saintess the saintess that I think you’re talking about?”

“What sort of saintess do you think ‘that saintess’ is?”

“So… the one who is divine and holy, loved by all believers of that religion, with a halo that illuminates them from behind, leads the priests onto the right path with an open heart, and is overflowing with divine power, which if used, will demonstrate mysterious abilities. Is it that one?”

Lydia laughed at my unpleasant explanation and said.

“I don’t think you’ll need to worry particularly about being divine and holy, since your existence itself already makes that a fact. The same goes for the halo.”

No, that part isn’t what’s the point here… 

Even though I was the one who said it, it was still a bit embarrassing. A halo? Really?

“Although leading a priest is correct, it isn’t a requirement. As a saintess, just going your own way will be enough. We will simply follow after you on our own.”

…But what if I was thinking of defecting?

“The amount of divine power you possess is enough to cover the whole of this world, so you’re right about that part.”

So what if I can cover the whole world with that?

“Now, if we’re talking about mysterious abilities, then… the power you show will be more than that of our priests combined, so you’re also right about that.”

“Ha…?”

The only sounds that came out from my slightly parted lips were stupid ones.

“But didn’t the high priest of Solarism say that this body didn’t have the vessel for any divine power at all?”

I weeded out this strange point.

This body had no such ability. Because of this lack of ability, she was subsequently abused by the Duke. When I thought of his evil deeds, I regretted it to the point that I wished I had at least hit his chin before leaving.

Lydia clapped her hands at my question and spoke.

“Don’t tell me, that bastard, no… that guy, he’s met a saintess before, yet he said that and kept his mouth shut from us? Oh my… hohohoho.”

The shape of those eyes that were like crescent moons, and that mouth that resembled an arc, were clearly all gentle. However, I felt an unknown fear at the sound of her laughter and the look in her eyes.

“Hohoho, did that senile geezer say that? Ohohoho!”

“…” 

It was obviously me who was in the middle of complaining, but when I saw Lydia like that, my mouth automatically shut by itself. It felt as if I’d be ripped apart calmly if I even said one word out of line.

“Well, he wasn’t wrong.”

Lydia, whose laughter had already subsided, said. 

I tilted my head.

“But isn’t that contradicting to what you just said? To have such a large amount of divine power, enough to cover the whole world, yet have no divine power at all…”

What sort of ‘refreshing fine dust²’ nonsense is this?

“Was it a deception?”

“Since your lunar divine power is infinite, of course there’s no vessel or place for you to hold any solar divine power.”

“What…?”

It felt as if my head had just been hit with something refreshing.

“So that geezer… the high priest of Solarism, was saying that you had no ability as a ‘saintess of Solarism’?”

“Ah…”

Then, was it true that Meliara really had abilities, but the Solar faith simply kept their mouth shut since it wasn’t their ability, but that of the Lunar faith’s? That is, she was eventually harmed in the end, by the political divide between religions?

“Haa.”

A sigh flowed out of my mouth.

Seriously, what sort of unfair life was this?”

“Seriously, isn’t life too harsh?”

She would’ve lived a much better life, if only she had known that she had the divine power of the Moon God. 

She wouldn’t have had to act so tyrannical over the female lead in the original novel for no reason. She would’ve been loved by the people as the Lunarism saintess without having to be obsessed over the original novel’s male lead, the Crown Prince.

However, her abilities as ‘the saintess of the Moon God’ which was able to solve all those problems at once, was buried by the silence of the high priest of the Sun God.

“No matter how bad the relationship is between the Solar and Lunar religions, couldn’t you at least say one sentence, like, ‘rather than us, you might have the power of the Lunar faith instead’?”

It felt as if my heart was boiling and had overflowed. I couldn’t tell whether it was anger or resentment. I didn’t know, but I could only tell that, either way, there were various mixed emotions that were swirling around in my heart.

I grinded my teeth so hard that my jaw hurt. I thought that if I didn’t do at least that, then this feeling would only fester inside of me. 

At that time, a warm heat touched my jawline.

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

“?”

It was a rough feeling, like there were calluses, but the emotions conveyed were so soft that it felt as if the strength put into my chin had naturally disappeared by itself.

As I turned my head in the direction of the hand, I saw Lecht, who had suddenly approached me at some point in time, who was standing right next to me and looking down at me.

“You’ll get hurt.”

“…?”

“You get hurt so easily.”

I had to think for a moment about what he was talking about.

So, right now, are you doing that because you’re worried that my teeth while get hurt? No, I know I’ve been grinding my teeth, but you’re telling me that you’re worried about that…? 

What the hell happened to my image after my motion sickness for you to treat me as if I’m a soap bubble that could burst at even the slightest touch?

“Is the high priest of the Solar religion the problem? Will your anxiety disappear if I dispose of him?”

“Dispose…?”

Why does that word feel sort of scary…? It’s as if he’ll be dragged somewhere and disappear quietly… 

“I’ll get him away from your sight.”

The moment Lecht said that, I suddenly recalled Lecht and Linden’s first meeting.

Someone who was powerful enough to make Linden, who was an archmage, take a step back in retreat. 

Besides, didn’t he say that he was one of the Emperor’s people?

“No!”

If such a person touched the high priest, then it would only mean war.

“Isn’t he someone whose face I won’t have to see anyway?”

I didn’t even know exactly what he looked like.

“Although we had a sort of bad relationship in the past, it’s easier to treat each other as if we have nothing to do with each other now.”

My intuition strongly suggested that I had to stop Lecht.

I grabbed his hand tightly and said firmly.

“It’s fine. Really.”

Lecht looked at me without any reaction, even though I had exaggerated it a little bit. It was as if he knew I was trying to force him to stop.

Just as I was wracking my brains, trying to think of how I was meant to convince this man who was too kind, Lydia spoke up.

“In regards to that part, we were planning on lodging a formal protest against the Solar religion anyway.”

“Really?”

“Those tadpoles seem to have forgotten who it’s thanks to that they themselves are able to be in that position today in the first place. Hohohoho!”

“…?”

The sound of her ‘hohoho’ laughter was so calm and creepy, to the point where I was worried about whether I would have to stop the people on this side from fighting too.

However, there seemed to be no reason for me to stop them from fighting when they were fighting against a religion… no, but is there? If I’m really the saintess, then this problem is related to me too, right?

After thinking deeply for a while, I finally asked.

“But how can you be so sure that I’m the saintess?”

What did she say earlier? Was it the amount of power and purity was in my divine power? Was that what determined who was the saintess?

“There are a variety of reasons. In the future, we plan to go through various verification procedures to accumulate more certainty.”

“So, like what?”

Lydia yanked at the string around her neck. At the end of it, was something that was similar to Lecht’s whistle.

“Do you want to try blowing into it?”

I did what she told me to do.

The bright ‘phwiiiiit—’ sound from earlier sounded out.

Before I could even take the whistle out of my mouth, the hawk that I had seen earlier had already sat on my shoulder.

“Could you please give it back to me?”

At Lydia’s request for the whistle, I returned the whistle and stroked the hawk’s neck.

Lydia took the whistle into her mouth and blew it.

There was a ‘phwaeeek—’ sound that was sort of similar to the sound before, but was somewhat a little different.

Although it was the same instrument, the sound that I had made when I played it sounded like one of a skilled performer, whilst Lydia’s was one of whom that had just started out.

“The sound… seems somewhat different?”

“The purer and cleaner the divine power is, the clearer the sound is once it touches God’s power.”

This was rather hard for me to refute. Since even I had thought that the sound I had made was rather pretty.

“But isn’t it too early to conclude that I’m the saintess, just from that?”

“Well, it’s hard to explain in words, but for those like me, who have been measuring the depth and purity of the divine power of others for a whole lifetime, can’t help but understand it naturally. As the saintess, you will naturally be able to feel it as time passes.”

I was in a stalemate in the end. Since I apparently had a lot of divine power, and it was also clear as well.

“Then, when someone with more divine power, which is even purer than mine, appears, then does that person become the saintess?”

“That’s not the case. A saintess is the only child who is directly ordained by God. There are times when no saintess appears for centuries, but there can never be two children of the same god in the same time period.”

So how do you know that I’m the only one then? 

I needed certainty. Since this way, the moment they find out that I’m not the saintess they revere, they’ll immediately throw me away. 

I hated that. When you need me, I’ll be raised as preciously as gold and jade, but the moment you know that I’m not, the attitude will immediately do a 180. Rather than being disappointed, they would’ve thought that they had been cheated, even if I left.

“If I’m the saintess, then how come you only appeared now? Why is my ability only now being revealed?”

When I spit those words out, my tone was a little harsh. However, Lydia explained gently, as if she understood.

“The ability to channel divine power is not revealed from birth. Of course, a vessel, a bowl to be filled with divine power, is born with you, but it takes time for it to manifest itself as an ability.”

“…”

I nodded, as if indicating that she should continue explaining, as she smiled and added.

“The only odd one here is me, who distinguished myself at four years old, however, the rest of the priests here, all revealed the abilities at around twelve to sixteen years old. Sometimes, people’s abilities even manifest, only at their middle-ages.”

“Oh…”

“The divine power of Lunarism is one that originates from the soul. Since that power comes out with the body as a medium, the moment the soul and the body unite as one, only then is the power manifested.”

Although the explanation was rather long, only one part caught my attention.

“The power comes from your soul?”

“Yes.”

My momentary flinch may have been noticed by them.

‘Then… the owner of this power isn’t this body, but me instead?’

My mind quickly became complicated. I thought that Meliara’s power had been handed over to me the moment I possessed her body, but it wasn’t that, and instead, was a power that had always originally belonged to me from the very beginning?

All kinds of hypotheses and facts were tangled in my head, only adding to the confusion.

As I pressed at my confused temples, Lydia asked.

“Have you perhaps seen any marks on your body recently?”

“Marks?”

“When that power begins to manifest, those signs are often revealed together.

Lydia pointed at her face and said.

“So that’s what it was…”

“Although they don’t appear on everyone who has manifested their abilities, the stronger the power is, the more intense the markings seem to come out. It can be seen as evidence of the body fully embracing the power of the soul.”

“But I don’t have that though.”

Meliara’s body was clean and devoid of markings.

‘There were spots like that in my past life, but this body has no flaws, let alone patterns like th…at, wait.’

I suddenly recalled my body from my previous life. One hand instinctively headed toward my left shoulder blade. Although I couldn’t see anything with my clothes on, I still turned my head to stare at my shoulder.

‘Come to think of it, I had it in my past life. Something like a mark.’

Although it couldn’t be said to be the same as Lydia’s, it was awfully similar to hers. Although it was a marking I had existed ever since I was young, it was oddly pretty, so the aunties that would help to scrub my back at the bathhouse would always ask me where I had gotten my tattoos done.

‘If it’s a power that originates from the soul… does that mean that I also had such a power in my previous life too?’

Then the marking… don’t tell me…!

‘It’s common for them to appear late.’

“J-Just a moment!”

I hurriedly ran into the lodging that wasn’t too far away. Although I could hear Kelber chasing after me, I had no time to pay attention to that and ran straight to my room on the second floor.

As soon as I opened the door and came in, I immediately took off my shirt. I was in such a hurry that I almost ripped my clothes off.

I closed the bathroom door with a loud bang and stood in front of the mirror in only my underwear.

“Heup.”

I turned my back to the mirror to check.

“It’s really there…”

There was the marking on my body which had never once been mentioned in the original novel. The marking that was very similar to the one I had on my body in my previous life, was no engraved on this body in the exact same place.

It was as if my soul had put a stamp on this body, saying, ‘this body is mine now.’

I felt as if I had just been hit really hard on the head.

“This is really… my power?”

In any case… it seemed like I really was the saintess of the Moon God.

[1] 자다가 봉창 두드린다 is a proverb that refers to when someone does something that others cannot understand/to suddenly do or say something out of context. this stems from a legend where a man and a woman knocked on one another’s paper windows to secretly indicate that they wanted to snu snu. however, knocking on one’s own paper window had strange and ridiculous things occurring.

[2] 상쾌한 미세먼지 couldn’t find anything online but i’m assuming it’s referring to something contradictory since fine dust can’t possibly be ‘refreshing’.

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erm lydia is so fine ???? i been simping over her for a damn few minutes alr heLPPPPP

also get u a man who will threaten to kill someone just because ur grinding ur teeth LMAOOO

this chapter took a lot longer bc religion jargon hehehe

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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Why didn’t I think of that?!

There were two religions in this world.

The solar doctrine which worshiped the Sun God, and the lunar doctrine that worshiped the Moon God.

Most of the empire’s nobles were believers of the solar doctrine. It was an unavoidable circumstance that occurred when the Emperor himself pursued the solar doctrine.

However, the Emperor didn’t condemn or ban any other religions.

Even the abandoned temple I was going to visit was not a temple of the Sun God, but one of the Moon God.

“On the contrary, they wouldn’t welcome them, who are hostile to the Temple of the Sun God, right?”

Solarists and Lunarists never got along well in the first place. They fought over every trivial matter, starting from the fact that ‘my god is greater, your god is fake,’ to the fact that the Solarists divine power was only flashy but without substance, to the fact that the Lunarists temple was completely dark and gloomy, making one feel at unease immediately.

Therefore, since the day had come where we were shunned by the Solarists, there was a strong possibility that on the contrary, the Lunarists would like it if we asked for their help, and would think it was a way to fight back against the Solarists.

“Anyhow, even if it that’s the case, the lunar doctrine is still a bit…”

“Hey, don’t think so badly about them. I’m sure they’re good people too, they just simply believe in another god.”

Linden seemed to be averse to them since he was a Solarist. But now wasn’t the time to argue about that! As an atheist, I honestly didn’t care which temple it was.

“But how do we call for them?”

There were many sun temples around us. You’d probably be able to find a solar temple just by riding a horse for a quarter of a day.

On the contrary, the number of lunar temples was extremely small.

“Would asking a guild get the job done?”

Most guilds were in charge of delivering requests for the Sun God’s Temple, so I wondered whether it would be the same case for the Moon God’s Temple. However, the village that we were in was so small that there may not even be a guild or anything like that.

As I was pondering this matter, I heard a word from behind me that ended all my worries.

“That won’t do.”

“Which part? Calling for the priests of the Moon God? Or contacting them through a guild?”

“The Lunar religion doesn’t use the same communication network as the Solar one.”

“Oh…”

So they avoided using guilds since the Solar religion used it. Weren’t they only putting themselves at a disadvantage just because they didn’t want to overlap a little though…?

“Then?”

At my question, Lecht snapped his fingers at Tanma.

Tanma, who had been standing behind him, approached him and placed a small stick in Lecht’s hand.

Lecht handed it to me right away.

“Is this… a whistle?”

It was about the size of my finger and made out of silver. Although it didn’t seem to be made into a structure that could sound out many notes, the engraving on the side of it was still very elegant nonetheless.

“Blow it.”

Seeing that I showed an interest in it, Lecht gave me permission, so I put the whistle in my mouth and blew into it.

Phweeee—

The bright sound filled the night sky. It was a pretty sound that was rather high-pitched, yet didn’t pierce the ears, clear, yet not sharp.

A loud whistle could shock or discomfort even the blower, yet it automatically put a smile on my face.

“How nice…”

A small remark of admiration came from my side.

When I turned my head, it turned out to be Linden.

He looked at both the whistle and I with dazed eyes, as if he were possessed by something.

“Right? Isn’t it nice?”

“It’s unique.”

Lecht muttered in reply to me, who was excited and repeated myself.

“What’s so unique about it?”

“Aren’t you a Solarist?”

With his chin raised high, Lecht asked Linden.

“The sound waves of the Moon God sound unpleasant to those who are filled with the divine power of the Sun God.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is…”

How fascinating. It sounds different depending on which god you’ve been blessed by. Although I didn’t particularly believe in any god, it was still a little fascinating.

“Then why is Linden…?”

Could it be that Linden isn’t actually a Solarist…?

Well, to be fair, he seemed to be an atheist, even from my point of view. Despite the fact that Linden was a prince, didn’t mean that he was obligated to be a Solarist.

“Huh? Then I guess you aren’t a Solarist either, Lecht.”

This whistle showed that it was possible to contact the temple of the Moon God without having to visit there in person first. Then, through this ‘means of contact’, wouldn’t that imply that Lecht was a Lunarist?

“How unique. Most of the Empire’s nobles were Solarists though.”

As he was one of the Emperor’s people, I too naturally thought that he was a Solarist.

“So what happens now?”

I blew the whistle according to his words.

But nothing happened.

The priests of the Moon God didn’t suddenly appear in front of me like magic, nor were there any traces that remained of having successfully contacted them like a communication device. All I had done was blow into a pipe.

Instead of answering my question, Lecht raised his head and looked up at the sky behind me.

“It’s coming from over there.”

With his eyes on the dark horizon as he spoke, I turned my head toward the direction he was looking in.

As soon as I did so, a frightening shadow quickly flitted across the night sky which was full of moonlight. The black object cut across the wind so fiercely it made a schwing sound, and then skyrocketed into the space where Lecht and I were.

“?”

The thing that had ascended into the sky then began to descent at a much more leisurely pace.

Lecht raised his arm toward it. He raised his wrist and elbow to his eye level and made it parallel to the sky.

That was the moment.

Flap!

A cool breeze brushed past me.

“Wow!”

What spread its large wings and glided gracefully toward Lecht was none other than a hawk.

Screech! Squawk—!

The hawk, which a harmonious mixture of gray and yellow, landed gently on Lecht’s arm.

Flap—

It latched onto Lecht’s arm and flapped its wings once, just like it did when it shook off the wind in the sky while it was flying.

Lecht’s hair fluttered arbitrarily in the wind. His silver hair that swayed in the moonlight, those golden eyes of his which were exceptionally bright, as well as the hawk that was with him, brought together a completed sight that would remain forever engraved in my eyes.

***

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

“So the priests will be able to receive it straight away if we send a telegram through this guy?”

I stroked the head of the hawk that was settled on Lecht’s arm.

“That’s right.”

“That’s very convenient.”

It made a squawk squawk sound and scratched its neck and torso against my hand, perhaps because it was in a good mood. A smile flowed out of me naturally, putting me in a better mood once I felt its warmth through my hands. 

“Coming all the way here, it’s been hard on you.”

“Squawk!”

As if replying to my words, the child made a sound before moving its body up and down.

“The messenger bird is so cute, I want to call for it just to meet it.”

To think that I’d be able to see a hawk that I’d normally only be able to see in a zoo or on TV up so close! This couldn’t have been a more pleasant night for me.

“Then I’ll go and bring you a pen and paper for you to write a letter…! Huh?”

As I was about to move towards the lodging, I felt a tug at my clothes.

I looked down to see a child pulling on my clothes.

“Noona¹, what was that just now?”

A smile came to my lips as I took in the sight of the bright-eyed child.

I knelt down on one knee and showed the child the whistle.

“This is a whistle.”

“Oh, I know what this is. You blow on it when you’re in danger.”

“That’s right.”

Although the child seemed to be talking about a self-defense whistle, despite this whistle being one that was used to contact the Moon God’s Temple, the ‘dangerous time’ he referred to could still be used on the current situation too.

It was the moment I was about to reach out my hand to stroke the head of the child who was curiously looking at the whistle.

“Urk…”

The child suddenly grabbed at his chest tightly and fell forward.

I, who was sitting right in front of the child, automatically reached out to catch the child.

“What’s wrong…”

“Cough!”

The child started to cough before I could finish my question. Although he tried to cover his mouth with his hand quickly, he still couldn’t hide the blood that was on it.

“Oh.”

It didn’t take me too long to figure out what it was.

“Miss!”

“Meliara, get away from that child!”

“No one come any closer!”

I heard the voices of Tanma and Linden, one after the other, but I shouted out before they could reach me.

“Get away from me.”

“Woof! Woof!”

The obedient Kelber, who could understand my words, barked anxiously, but didn’t come any closer.

There was nothing I could do.

What I saw in that child was undoubtedly a symptom of the plague. I had let down my guard since that child hadn’t been wearing a bracelet that marked him as someone who was infected.

“Haa… The priests will be here soon anyway, so…”

Although I couldn’t say that I caught it right away since I only just made contact with the child, I still had to be careful not to spread it to anyone else anyway.

“I’ll stay in my room by myself until they come…”

I sighed while grabbing onto the child’s shoulder, but then suddenly felt a warm hand covering my hand which was still holding onto the child’s shoulder.

Shocked, I realized the hand that came into my vision and covered my own one was Lecht’s large one. He was sitting next to me, kneeling on one knee.

“Lecht, just what are you doing right now?!”

Startled, I tried to pull my hand out of his, but Lecht wrapped his hand around my own, which was holding on tightly to the child’s shoulder.

Even though it wasn’t a strong force, I couldn’t pull my hand out, no matter how hard I tried.

“Lecht!!!”

I grabbed him with my other hand and pushed him away urgently.

But he didn’t budge at all.

Instead, he moved to roll up the child’s sleeve.

The symptoms on his skin that weren’t able to be seen under his sleeve were now revealed.

Realizing that it was definitely a symptom of the disease, I became even more urgent.

“Lecht, let go of me! What are you going to do if you get infected, Lecht…!”

“It’s okay.”

“What do you mean, it’s okay…!”

A mixture of frustration and distress suffocated my heart.

My head was filled with my own safety, of course, as well as the wellbeing of the child, and the safety of Lecht as well. Having imagined the terrible situation of Lecht vomiting blood, I grabbed his wrist even tighter and shouted.

“Please let go of me!”

Even if I got it, I’d have it by myself, and even if I got sick, I was better being sick by myself.

“I hate it when it’s Lecht that’s sick…!”

That was the moment.

I felt a burst of gentle wind from my solar plexus and flow out from my fingertips. 

At the same time, a light flashed from my hand which was enveloped in Lecht’s. It was a short and intense light, to the point that I had to squint my eyes.

Surprised by the flash, I looked at the back of Lecht’s hand which was covering my own in a daze.

“What was that just now…?”

While I muttered under my breath with a dazed look on my face, Lecht pulled up the child’s sleeve that he had checked earlier.

“Huh…?”

The spots had disappeared seamlessly. Although the wound itself that had ruptured remained, the skin disease had definitely been healed.

“Huh?”

I wasn’t the only one who was surprised.

The child lifted up his clothes and checked his own body with a puzzled expression.

“Noona, I feel more comfortable breathing now.”

He took a few deep breaths and then spoke, as if he were amazed. Then he raised his head and looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“Noona was the one that healed me, right? Right?”

“Huh? Oh, that’s…”

“Wow! I’m correct, right? That flash back then was you, right?”

I… don’t know either.

I don’t know, but for some reason, I think it was me.

Although it was groundless confidence, the light seemed to have come from my hand just then. Because I had felt an unknown energy burst from my solar plexus.

I looked down at my hand that Lecht had released at some point.

I could vaguely tell. That the power that had burst from my body had healed the child.

“That’s why I said it was okay.”

Although I still couldn’t wrap my head around it, despite it having been me who had done it, on the contrary, Lecht spoke leisurely about it, as if he knew everything already.

“What is this…”

“Woah!”

Gasp!

Crackle!

It was when I was going to ask what was going on.

I heard a loud noise sound out from beside me.

“?”

When I turned my head in surprise, I could see three people in black robes scrambling out of a portal and tripping over each other’s legs.

Although I knew that space travel portal was a special privilege given to high priests, why did they suddenly come over here…

As I was looking at them in confusion, one of the people who was scanning his surroundings while falling over his own feet caught sight of me and shouted.

“That person…! It’s that person! There’s no mistaking it!”

Then, he rushed toward me.

Surprised, I staggered back, but fell instead.

They, who rushed toward me, surround me, who had nowhere to escape to.

“You… no, I mean, you²…!”

“Pardon?”

“Am I correct?”

“What…”

“It’s this person! Can’t you feel this vast energy?”

“…?”

They knelt down in front of me and repeatedly said ‘ohhhhh’, and ‘wowww’, as well as things I couldn’t understand.

“Hey, just what’s going on right now…”

“Everyone, quiet. They’re speaking.”

“To think your voice could be so bright!”

“Hnggg, my eardrums are melting…”

“Wait, no, please calm down…”

“Even if I die, I’ll have no regrets… Hic, to think I could see you in person here before I die…!”

“I hope you get reincarnated in paradise. Meanwhile, I’ll be going to hell for wanting to covet their beauty for a little longer.”

“So, excuse me…”

“Hnggg, if only there was a way to capture such a beautiful voice…!”

“How dare you think of trapping such a noble thing in a single place!”

“Hey!!!”

I finally raised my voice at the appearance of them, who didn’t seem to even have any thoughts of listening to me.

Only then did they shut their mouths and look at me.

I glimpsed the faces underneath the black hoods. All of them were looking at me with surprise in their eyes.

“Huu… So.”

It was when I finally began to talk since I thought I could finally squeeze a word in now.

“I can’t believe even your voice, which is full of anger, could sound so elegant…”

“Just a sigh from this noble one will surely be able to purify the whole world!”

“Are you guys crazy?”

In the end, I still eventually spit out a slew of harsh words.

[1] 누나 is what a younger guy calls an older girl, so we can infer that the kid is a boy.

[2] he uses the normal particle 가, then switches to the more formal particle which is 께서 to show respect

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crying HGLDKSFFDS THE HIGH PRIESTS LMAGOIHSDLJFS why are they like this gghaliijjdfdsf

UMMMM ALSO THAT FINE ASS ARTWORK OF LECHT AND THE HAWK ???? ERRR YESS ?!!!!

also join my discord link for update notifications !!!!

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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“Meliara.”

Someone tried to wake me up.

Still in the throes of sleep, I dismissed the voice, turning over.

“Mmm…”

“Meliara, open your eyes.”

But the voice sounded quite urgent.

“Are you sure it’s not that disease? Did you make a proper diagnosis?!”

An angry voice followed.

“For the princess, a simple motion sickness is correct.”

“Then why isn’t she opening her eyes?!”

I opened my eyes in the commotion.

As I squinted while my vision adjusted to the light, my field of vision slowly opened up, and saw people surrounding my bed.

“Meliara!”

It was none other than Linden, who had been making the loudest commotion since earlier. 

Linden, who had been angry at the middle-aged man in white who was next to him, came closer toward me.

“You’re awake?”

“What’s going on…”

I had been in a deep sleep for a long time… When I woke up, my voice was completely muffled.

“How are you feeling? Is it hard for you to breathe?”

“I’m fine though…”

I looked around at the people surrounding my bed, including Linden.

Linden, the mister who appeared to be a doctor, Kelber, Tanma, and Lecht.

This was a bolt out of the blue. Why was everyone watching me while I was sleeping?

I quickly brushed my fingers through my hair to untangle it and quickly felt around my face to check if there was any dry eye mucus or saliva.

Lecht stared intently at me, who was doing so. It was as if he were checking each and every action I took.

“Ahem. What’s going on?”

There must be a reason why everyone had come into the room of someone still sleeping and woken them up suddenly.

Linden sighed in relief when I cleared my throat and asked again.

“Haa… Don’t be too surprised and listen.”

I was already extremely surprised at my point of view when I woke up, with everyone staring at me, but I nodded without mentioning that part. Wouldn’t anything be less surprising that this situation? 

“There’s an epidemic going on in the village right now.”

“What…?”

I take back what I just said. 

There was something that was even more surprising.

***

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

“Thirty percent of the village has caught it? Isn’t that extremely serious?”

Listening to the story, the situation seemed very serious. 

Apparently the infectious disease that had spread in the village was transmitted through contact, and that the symptoms included age spots that spread across the skin and red spots that resembled hives. Whether it was a result of the skin being scorched internally, the failing of the respiratory tract came with it along with coughing up blood.

Fortunately, the mortality rate wasn’t that high, but even if that was the case, it wasn’t as if the mortality rate was zero. Furthermore, the symptoms were severe, which made the situation very complicated.

“Sorry. Since it’s you, I wanted to at least get you out first…”

Linden sighed, suppressing the furrowing of his brow.

“Huh? No, no.”

I quickly waved my hands.

“You need to keep the restrictions that you make. I don’t want to be the only one who gets a privilege either.”

Linden used his authority as a prince to quarantine the village. In any case, I roughly understood that it was a contagious disease that spread through contact, and that naturally we should try and prevent it from spreading any further.

It has been less than three days since the symptoms of the disease first began to appear, and in a village that was specifically on the outskirts with not much traffic coming in and out of the village. It seemed that we could prevent the disease from spreading to the capital if someone were infected here. 

The problem, however, was that the village was now sealed off, and that even we were now trapped within it.

“If I had known this would be the case, i would have passed through this place and stopped elsewhere.”

“You stopped because I got motion sickness anyway. If you had tried to go through this village, I would have just collapsed in the carriage.”

Linden still seemed to be feeling apologetic, so I smiled and reassured him.

“Besides, thanks to our brief stop here, you now know that there’s an epidemic here and you were able to deal with it, right? Then, it’s a relief instead.”

To be honest, I was also a little flustered, since this was something that had never been mentioned in the original novel. 

Since the original novel was rather inattentive to the parts of the story that weren’t a part of the love story between the two main leads. However, if this happened to be a major event, then it would’ve been treated as an arc, so at the same time, I was relieved that this wasn’t considered a major event.

Just then, Linden’s communicator rang.

“Sorry, I have to pick this up again.”

“Hurry up and go.”

Seeing him make another apologetic expression again, I smiled exaggeratedly and pushed his back.

“I can’t take up every busy person’s time.”

Although this was Linden, who was pretty much unknown to the public, and was the one who waited with bated breath in the struggle for power, he was still a prince anyway. The health and safety of the Empire’s people was at stake, so he was handling this case as the Chief Medical Officer.

After he left, I turned my head again to look at the city square.

The city square, which normally allowed you to witness the people’s daily lives and trivial matters, as well as the intricate patters on its floor, was now full of sick people. 

In order to minimize contact between the sick and the healthy, Linden decided to gather all the sick people together in one place.

Since it was such a small village, the number of hospital rooms in the clinic was limited, so Linden chose a wide open space instead. Thus, the present city square was full of people lying in bed with blankets, people who still seemed to be able to move, as well as people waiting for their family member’s recover just outside the square.

Just as the knights were about to 

Lecht entered my vision just as the knights were about to distribute the blankets they had brought to the people.

“What did the doctors say?”

“As expected, it’s hard for them to cure this with medicine.”

The answer that came from Lecht, who had gone to find out how to cure the disease, was still the same as when I had first heard.

“Did you at least find out the cause?”

“I do have a conjecture, but…”

Lecht looked around the square, his words trailing off.

“I’ll handle that on my own.”

That’s fair. What’s important right now isn’t what caused the disease but rather, how to end it instead.

When I nodded to indicate that I understood, Lecht looked at the blankets piled up in my arms and spoke again.

“Didn’t I tell you to rest? Were you running an errand again?”

“The whole village is suffering, so it’d feel too pretentious of me to sit alone in my room like that.”

“Aren’t you also sick?”

Ahaha… It’s just a little motion sickness… There are so many actual sick people around here.

I only got motion sickness that was a little more severe, so in Lecht’s eyes, I must seem like some weak little woman.

“The only way we can be on our way quickly again is if the situation also calms down quickly.”

The reason I was helping wasn’t because I was someone who possessed particularly good morals. Rather, it was more so that I found myself unable to sleep by myself properly in such a chaotic situation. 

“By the way, it’s a disease that even the doctors can’t cure…”

I switched topics before Lecht’s nagging could continue.

“Shouldn’t we naturally contact the temple then?”

On second thought, it was a little strange.

‘If it was a story about a disease that desperately needs the power of the temple, then it must have been mentioned at least once in the original novel.’

Though of course, I wasn’t familiar with every chapter, so there was a good chance that I missed it if it had been mentioned too lightly.

As I was wondering whether or not it had been mentioned or not, Lecht’s voice continued to sound out.

“Even if you don’t contact the temple…”

His gaze landed on me.

But this time again, the end of his sentence trailed off. He was a man who always said what he wanted to say, simply and clearly, so I was rather surprised that he blurted out his words and trailed off like that.

‘There are times when even he is unsure.’

As i looked at him with curiosity, his eyes that were making contact with mine also seemed to examine my face closely. It was as if he was hesitating whether to say something or not.

“What? Is there a way…”

“Damn it, you bastards!”

Just when I was about to ask if there was a way or not, a piercing voice sounded.

When I turned my head in surprise, I saw Linden, who wasn’t too far away, hurling a dimly lit communication device at the knight next to him and ruffling his hair violently.

I looked at him with round eyes.

Linden always had a gentle smile in front of others since he was a schemer who used his gentle face to his heart’s content. Such an appearance of him using such emotionally harsh words wasn’t a sight that could be seen very often.

“What’s the matter? What’s not working?”

I approached him and asked worriedly. It seemed like the situation was extremely bad for him to be so uncharacteristically angry.

“Oh, Meliara.”

He quickly rearranged his facial expression when he saw me and quickly curled his eyes into crescent moons and smiled. But after seeing him angry once already, I couldn’t just forget it that easily.

“What’s going on? Who you were talking to just now, wasn’t that the Imperial Palace?”

“Haa… It’s the Imperial Mage’s Tower. But those guys said they can’t send any support.”

Linden ruffled his unruly hair even more. There were more hairs that were undone than those tied up.

“Do they understand the severity of the situation?”

“I already explained to them. But they said that they couldn’t put manpower into trivial matters.”

“Trivial matters?” 

I turned my head to see the patients suffering and vomiting blood.

“Wuuu… Older brother, if you’re gone, what should I do…”

“I beg you… I beg you… Lord, please take me…”

People who cried out a mourning prayer for recover for their brothers, sisters, parents, children, lovers and the like. If this was a trivial matter, how severe would things have to get for it to be considered a serious matter?

“To think that they’d still play as politicians even to this very moment.”

The reason why the stance of the Mage’s Tower came out like that was simple. It was because it was Linden who had sent the request.

The Imperial Mage’s Tower, which had been serving the emperor from generation to generation, was naturally a strong pillar of support for the Crown Prince. 

Moreover, Linden was now strong enough to threaten the position of the current Tower Master. To the extent that more than half of the petty assassination attempts stemmed from the schemes of the Mage Tower.

“No matter how much they hate you, this is a matter of safety for the citizens of this empire.”

“It’s not like this is something that could affect the reputation of the Mages Tower or the popularity of my brother.”

“They’re seriously the worst.”

I clicked my tongue.

“Why don’t you contact them?”

“I don’t think they’ll listen. Did you forget that my engagement was broken up in a grand manner, so much so that the whole neighborhood knows?”

“Ah…”

As if he had forgotten after saying something, Linden looked at me.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to poke your sore spot like that…”

It was cute to see the appearance of those big eyes looking at me like that, so I laughed out loud.

“Forget it. Don’t worry about it.”

Whether his constant glancing was watching me, or watching my reaction, was rather ambiguous, but either way, it didn’t matter to me. Since it was a fact that the broken engagement didn’t hurt me at all.

“By the way, if the Mages Tower doesn’t work either…”

Although there was also another way for us, which was to ask the Imperial Palace for help, unfortunately, that was a difficult option for the both of us.

In any case, the Emperor was turning away from Linden in order to appear to support the Crown Prince, so Linden’s pride wouldn’t allow him to bow his head to him to ask for his help. I, too, was afraid to put a request in for the Emperor as the recent events had placed me in the Emperor’s bad books.

“Then there’s only the temple left… Should we go?”

It was the saintess and the priests rather than the Emperor who would be able to solve the situation anyway.

However, both I and Linden had been putting off contacting the temple until the very end.

“I think they’d rather me die from this plague when they hear what we have to say.”

It had been less than a month since I tried to poison their saintess.

“What sort of scary nonsense are you saying.”

“It’s true. From the temple’s point of view, I’m probably at the level of ‘First person they want to stab to death’?”

Linden tried to comfort me, but I just smiled awkwardly and scratched my cheek.

“There may be a few priests who put the safety of the people first, but even they would probably suspect that this is simply a ruse that I devised.”

Linden’s face became complicated at my answer. 

I clicked my tongue once again since it frustrated me that we couldn’t do this or that.

“Well, I’m not in any position to speak since I’ve done something to deserve it…”

A long sigh came out of me naturally.

“I hate how the Imperial Mages Tower and the Temple of the Sun God can act like this since they’ve basically got a monopoly on the hopes of the people…”

Huh…?

As I lamented over the Mage Tower’s power trip and the temple’s monopoly, I suddenly remembered an important fact.

“It’s not like there’s only one temple in the empire…”

“Huh?”

Not hearing my murmuring, Linden repeated his question again. 

I shouted excitedly at Linden.

“There isn’t only one faith in the empire!”

It felt as if a fog that had been muddling my thought process had finally been lifted. 

“What are you talking about…”

The eyes of Linden, who had been frowning, suddenly became as large as saucers.

“Meliara, you can’t possibly mean…!”

“That’s right! The Moon God!”

I had momentarily forgotten.

The fact that there are two gods in this world!

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guess one thing that will never change is govt officials putting their own interests over the health and safety of their citizens :////

YURRRR so some plot and lore we love to see it hGDSLFKFS

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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Except for stopping to eat and sleep, I thought we’d be on the carriage the whole time.

But don’t tell me…

“Bleurgh.”

I…

“Urk.”

“Meliara, are you alright?”

I didn’t think I’d get carriage sickness…! 

The carriage ride was worse than I had imagined. It was like riding a never-ending ride of Disco Pang Pang¹.

Although I didn’t eat much, I still kept feeling nauseous, so we finally ended up stopping the carriage.

We managed to find a lodging nearby where I could lie down on the bed while we passing through a small village.

Still, the motion sickness showed no sign of going away.

“That medicine really doesn’t work on you.”

Although I had already taken the motion sickness medicine that the knights had saved for Linden, it only tasted bitter, and showed no sign of helping me get better.

“We’re trying to find a more effective drug. Just wait a little longer.”

Although I felt sorry for the knights who would suffer from Linden’s words, I was in no position to argue about it right now.

“Whine…”

Kelber also struggled to rest all three of his heads on my bed, perhaps because he was also worried. I stroked his head, saying not to worry, but even that small action made it feel as if the whole world was spinning.

“I’ll take a quick nap.”

“Yes, that would be for the best.”

I lay on the bed and closed my eyes. In this case, it’s best to take a nap.

‘If you keep getting motion sick like this, it’ll probably take more than half a month to get to the temple…’

It was a road that had to be driven on for three days, yet I cried out in surrender after just a day. Although the temple was also a problem, this would further disrupt my plan for asylum. I groaned at the unexpected wedge thrown in my plan.

‘Chrysanthemum tea is the best for motion sickness…’

Even in my previous life, I also frequently got motion sickness. There were many folk remedies for motion sickness, but chrysanthemum tea was the one that worked best for me. So, whenever I rode a roller coaster or a boat, I would always carry some chrysanthemum tea with me in a thermos.

‘But here, I don’t even know where to get it from.’

Now, I couldn’t even go and look for it, since the world would spin even if I tried to walk on flat ground.

All I could do was lie on the bed and moan. I tried to close my eyes, hoping that ‘time would heal me’, but Lecht entered the room after a knock.

He had disappeared as soon as the carriage had stopped, so just as I was about to ask where he had gone, I saw that he had a cult of hot tea in his hand.

“Drink.”

The moment I got up to receive the cup with a bewildered mind and caught a whiff of the orchid’s scent, I immediately knew what it was.

“Chrysanthemum tea…?”

“That’s right.”

“How did you…”

“…”

He closed his mouth which was trying to say something, then said stiffly.

“It was Tanma. He said that chrysanthemum tea was good for motion sickness.”

“Ah.”

Judging from the fact that it was the butler, and not just anyone else, who had said so, it seemed to be a well-known folk remedy in this world.

I took a sip of the tea he gave me. I only took a few sips, but it completely cleansed my stomach. The uncomfortable feeling disappeared in an instant.

“Haa, it seems like I’ll live another day.”

The amount of chrysanthemum tea he had brought was more than enough for five people to share between them.

After I finished drinking a moderate amount, I set the cup aside.

“Thank you.”

“Since it’s already quite late, we’ll stay here for dinner tonight and leave tomorrow.”

Lecht said, as if he knew that I wanted to sleep.

I smiled timidly.

“Yep, that’s fine.”

“I cast some heat insulation magic on the tea.”

He seemed to imply that I’d be able to drink it any time I want throughout the evening.

To be honest, I didn’t need the chrysanthemum tea anymore because most of my nausea was already gone, but I simply laughed without telling him the truth.

“Lecht, you’re very kind.”

His fingertips flinched.

“…I’ll leave Kelber behind with you.”

At his words, Kelber quickly climbed into my bed and settled down there. After confirming that once more, Lecht proceeded to leave the room without saying anything else.

As I watched him leave, Linden, who was watching from the side, tucked me in bed and said.

“I’m in the room right next to you, so just call me if you need me. Understand?”

I noticed his appearance as he tucked the blanket over me tightly for no reason.

‘He seems to be thinking that no matter how much I’m suffering from my broken engagement, that I’ll still be a good chess piece he can use, just by being the Princess of Darchez…’

So for him to take care of me this much is all because it fits into his scheme.

But I’m a doomed stock.

“Linden.”

“Why did you call for me?”

I, who had already read the novel, knew just how much he wanted to bring down his older brother, the Crown Prince.

He was compared to his older brother, the Crown Prince, for his entire life, and was chased endlessly by the powers in the Crown Prince’s faction. His precious connection was killed by the Empress, and all those how approached him favorably were the Crown Prince’s spies, thus, he was always a loner.

It was the female lead, who finally touched his heart, which was falling apart after losing his last blood relative, the head of the Ezzarson Guild. It was only natural for him to fall in love with her.

However, the novel, which had all of its narratives revolve around the male and female lead, was harsh to the second male lead. Even her, who was no different from being his salvation, was taken away.

By his older brother, whom he had been jealous of and hated for his whole life.

‘All the readers thought that Linden would blacken and revolt. And it probably would’ve have happened if it weren’t for the Demon King Invasion cliff hanger ending.’

When the Demon King invaded, the amount of troops that had gathered under Linden’s name was enormous. It was a size that couldn’t have been prepared in a short amount of time.

That meant he must have built up the power to confront the Crown Prince a long time ago.

So, if he was taking this opportunity to force his way through that crack that came about after my broken engagement with the Crown Prince and make me one of the people in his faction, then I was only wasting this person’s precious time.

“Is it true that you have something to do in the East?”

Even I, too, wanted to lighten his life a little bit.

Because no matter how much of a schemer he was, he still wasn’t a bad character. He had simply lived a life of cheating and deceiving in order to survive.

“Yeah, why?”

“What sort of thing?”

“I can’t tell you because it’s confidential…”

He talked without even blinking. As a character who was good at lying by nature, I couldn’t even tell if his words were true or not.

“It’s not because of me…right?”

“Because of you?”

It was something I couldn’t outright ask him, so I was at a loss for words.

As I bit my lips, unable to say anything else, Linden came up to me with a grin.

“Although I’m not sure what you’re worried about, it’s alright, so you can relax.”

“…Really?”

If it was this guy, who could read other people’s expressions and intentions proficiently, he would definitely know what I’m thinking.

“Yes. I really have something to check, so we’re going together.”

That make sense… He’s such a busy kid, where would he even find the time to spare in order to try and capture me like this? To think such a thought would be far too arrogant.

Thinking like that, I was able to let out a breath in relief.

“Then I’ll believe that.”

“It’s because it’s true.”

He reached out and placed his hand slightly against my forehead.

“You seem to have a slight fever too. Enough, get some sleep.”

“…Okay.”

I turned my body to watch Linden, who had meticulously shut my curtains, leave my room.

‘He said it himself that that wasn’t it, so it probably isn’t.’

Even if that wasn’t the case, I didn’t want to make it any more complicated, since I still felt rather sick due to my motion sickness.

At last, I closed my eyes and went to sleep at the sound of the door closing.

Thanks to the chrysanthemum tea, i was able to quickly fall into a deep sleep.

Unfortunately, the good night’s sleep didn’t last very long.

***

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

“Bring the sedan chair from the Grand Duchy.”

Lecht, who had come out of the lodging, said to Tanma.

“Although it’ll definitely make her less motion sick, wouldn’t the real thing still be visible to to her, even if it looks like a carriage to everyone else?”

The ‘sedan chair’ that Lecht referred to was a means of transport which was frequently used in the Demon Realm. Although it was brought to the human world and made to look like a carriage with illusion magic, it was actually an installation that was made by having two slug spirits the size of a brown bear carrying a sedan chair.

“Then it will only bring me closer to certainty.”

Tanma burst into laughter at Lecht’s words.

“Aren’t you certain about it, even now as well?”

“It’s not just a matter of seeing Kelber properly.”

“Aha, so that person who thought that was the same person as the one who ran around chaotically just to find one chrysanthemum flower, right~?”

“…”

Tanma said with a sly smile.

“His Majesty, at least the one that I know, would never act like that. How unusual.”

Just like he said, this wasn’t at all like Lecht.

This was Lecht, who treated everyone in this world as if they were air. He was born noble from the very beginning, and never once thought of others, nor ever had to lower his head at all.

That person then immediately overturned the village upside down, just because he was looking for chrysanthemum tea.

He wouldn’t do that, unless he thought that was her.

“You don’t remember. They’re completely different in appearance.”

Tanma smiled softly at Lecht’s blunt tone.

“But the way they smile is the same. …That’s what you’re thinking too, right?”

Lecht’s fingertips twitched at Tanma’s sharp sense. Tanma, who had been serving him for over 100 years, knew exactly what Lecht was thinking.

“Aren’t both her memories and appearance all exactly to your expectations?”

In Tanma’s eyes, using the facts that he knew as an excuse only seemed to be his way of complaining.

“Are you worried about repeating what happened two years ago?”

“…”

Two years ago, there was a case where a newly appeared saint of the sun god in the empire, insisted on visiting the Arvis Grand Duchy to ‘bless’ it.

The Grand Duchy was a place that was no different from a hotspot that transported those of the demon realm to the mortal one, and was filled with the blessings of the moon god, which was worshiped by the demons.

It was pathetic and troublesome for the saint to give the blessing of the sun god to such a place, but he was persuaded by Tanma, who said that they should get along well, so she entered the Grand Duchy.

However, the woman saw through Kelber correctly.

She said that there were three heads.

Lecht was full of anticipation and placed all of his hopes on her.

However, it turned out that the woman was only a con tractor of a demon, and not the woman he had been waiting for.

“There’s no guarantee that this won’t happen again, even this time.”

Lecht never forgot is disappointment at that time. The feeling of his spirit being robbed and his small ray of hope that had bloomed being trampled all over.

“Doesn’t Your Majesty know better than anyone else that it’s different from last time?”

At Tanma’s point, Lecht’s fingertips flinched again.

He knew.

Lips that would purse when anxious. Eyes that would flit around when noticed. Adoring Kelber so much. Not eating breakfast and going to find chrysanthemum tea when you were motion sick.

There’s no way he wouldn’t know.

She would be the only one in this world who could say that such an arrogant and self-centered person like himself was kind.

Although a hundred years had passed, there was no way he wouldn’t recognise her, no matter how many bottles of liquor he had poured because of the memories that would become clearer and clearer as time passed.

However, Lecht replied sharply to Tanma’s prompting.

“Enough.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Stop spouting nonsense. That’s something we’re able to find out once we visit the temple.”

If she was taken to the temple, he would be able to make sure she was the person he was waiting for.

Lecht had already planned to take Meliara to the temple of the moon god, the very moment he heard that her destination was the village of Chiban. He was willing to make as many excuses as possible just to take her.

So, Lecht was suppressing the emotions that had suddenly surged up until he was certain.

“I’ll call for the sedan chair.”

Tanma was also aware of the fact that Lecht’s determination came from an effort to restrain himself, so the dispute didn’t continue any further.

It was when he was about step forward in order to get his job done.

“Won’t we all die like this?”

He heard two men talking in whispers after a day’s work, looking exhausted.

“Still, won’t it be fine since the fatality rate is less than twenty percent?”

“That’s the case for men like us. Our parents and wife. Besides, don’t you have three children? The mortality rate for children is particularly high.”

“Haa. That’s right. Apparently it’s transmitted through physical contact only, so it’s been tough trying to keep the wife and children from leaving the house.”

It could sound like a lament of a circumstance that could be found anywhere.

However, the next line caused both Lecht and Tanma’s heads to turn in that direction in unison.

“To think there could be an epidemic in our village, of all places.”

Tanma furrowed his brow slightly and walked over to where they were.

“Excuse me. Could you tell us more about this?”

[1] Disco Pang Pang is a popular korean amusement park ride where people sit on a circular machine holding onto the metal bars surrounding it and try not to get thrown off. there are countless viral videos of the host trying to shake passengers off while either making fun of them or trying to matchmake them to other passengers.

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god, i’ve seen what you’ve done for others,,,i’m only asking for a man who will think of me the same way as lecht, MANS WAITED FOR HER FOR OVER 100 YEARS HELGHELKWJFAJ

also are we heading into a romfan covid-19 arc ???? GHSDLKFJF

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

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Only the two of them were left in the restaurant on the first floor after Meliara headed back to her room.

Although the sharp tension that filled the atmosphere was still there, lecht stood up, as if he couldn’t care less about it.

Upon his appearance of leaving without even a word, a knight who was next to him cried out in protest.

“Please show more courtesy toward His Highness, the Prince…!”

“Enough.”

However, Linden raised a hand to silence him.

Instead, he looked warily at Lecht and asked cautiously.

“I didn’t expect to see you in a place like this, Grand Duke.”

Lecht, who had stopped in his tracks because of the knight, turned his head to look at Linden.

His ambiguous attitude didn’t seem to be perfectly respectful, nor was it completely disrespectful either.

Nevertheless, he said something completely irrelevant instead.

“The fact that I’m Grand Duke Arvis.”

Linden flinched reflexively at that sharp gaze that seemed to pierce through his body.

“You’d better not let her know.” 

“…Why?”

“There’s no need for you to know that.”

Having said that, Lecht’s gaze skimmed over the knights standing next to Linden.

“You’d better make sure your knights keep their mouths shut, since there’s no way that fact will leak out from my side.”

Linden’s gaze landed on Tanma, who was standing behind Lecht.

Although the butler was smiling, that smile was just as cold as the light in Lecht’s eyes.

Lecht left the restaurant without any qualms after that.

“How could he be so rude…!”

“Enough. Don’t speak recklessly.”

Linden shut his angry knights up. Instead, he sighed and wiped the sweat at his furrowed brows.

‘I think I know why His Majesty said that.’

When he was very young, he overhead His Majesty the Emperor talking to his older brother, the Crown Prince.

What he had said was so absurd that he could still clearly remember it.

“And, no matter what happens, never oppose the Grand Duke of Arvis.”

“Would I even ever have the chance to meet that person who never even leaves the Grand Duchy?”

“I’m saying this because he doesn’t appear very often. No matter what unreasonable or absurd situation there is, never go against him.”

“Why are you so wary of him?”

“That man is the reason our empire exists today.”

“I know he’s a descendant of the country’s founder, but…”

“It’s not like that! That person…”

There was no mistaking the fact that the emotion that filled the face of the Emperor, who was sighing deeply, was undoubtedly ‘fear’.

He was well aware of Grand Duke Arvis’ capabilities. It was to the point that he felt that sending the Grand Duke’s knights to subdue the barbarians or invade other countries was more reassuring than sending the Imperial Palace’s.

But did the empire’s emperor possess that much tact?

“The reason he leaves us be and allows us to act like the imperial family is simply because he doesn’t like to leave his territory.”

“What do you mean by leave us be? Father, just how could the Grand Duke possibly be so low-profile…”

“Ziken”

He wasn’t even there, yet the emperor was still careful about what he said.

“Unless the empire is in a crisis, just let him live quietly within the Grand Duchy. Because the moment he decides to point his sword toward us, this empire will become a wasteland.”

“What do you mean…”

“If you don’t want to see the empire in such a state, then don’t provoke him.”

Although Ziken may not have noticed, Linden did.

The fact that it was something more than simply the Grand Duke grasping onto one of the Emperor’s weaknesses.

Something that even the Emperor was trying to hide.

Ever since he had met Grand Duke Arvis, he had only been even more confused.

A dismissive attitude that flows out so naturally.

A power that could easily subdue, and was to natural to be called arrogant. Is this the exact feeling of how it felt to be a ruler since birth?

The moment he revealed his overwhelming aura, Linden recalled the one and only portrait of Grand Duke Arvis in the Emperor’s room, and immediately changed his attitude.

Since he was someone whom even the Emperor was wary of provoking, it was wiser to be cautious, instead of seeing a critical situation first.

Linden turned toward the stairs to the second floor.

‘Just what does Meliara have?’

Just what exactly was it that even forced Grand Duke Arvis to make a move?

Although he volunteered to accompany them on their journey in order to find out about it, it somehow seemed as if it would be a troublesome journey now.

“Haa, I need a drink.”

Linden, who felt stifled by the refreshing scent left behind by Lecht, ventilated the surroundings with a little wind magic and went to look for alcohol for the first time in a long time.

*** 

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

It was a fine morning as I washed my body and hummed while descending the stairs excitedly.

When I arrived on the first floor, a kid was already waiting there to greet me first.

“Woof!”

“Kelber! Did you sleep well?”

As I stroked the head of the guy that was wagging his tail, I found yet another familiar face.

“Butler. We meet again.”

I thought that he seemed like someone who had aged really well.

“Yes, it’s an honor to see you again, miss.”

“Please just call me Meliara.”

“Yes, Miss Meliara.”

No, I was asking you to call me my name without the addition of the ‘miss’ in front of it though.

However, it seemed to be more comfortable for the butler to call me ‘miss’, so I just laughed it off.

“And your name is?”

“It’s Tanma.”

“What a cool name! Then Tanma? Butler? Or Butler Tanma?”

“Call me whatever you like.”

I smiled brightly, deciding on a name in order for it not to be awkward later.

The butler also smiled from corner to corner of his face. His smile exuded a dignified aura.

“Breakfast has been prepared already. Would you like some?”

The butler guided me to one side of the restaurant on the first floor.

Lecht and Linden were already there waiting for me.

“Did the both of you sleep well?”

“Yep. Did you have a good sleep too?”

Lecht merely nodded his head concisely while Linden asked me in return gently. He even pulled out a chair for me to sit in.

I, who was experiencing the first time a man had pulled out a chair for me to sit in, sat down with a faint smile in my heart.

As soon as I settled into my seat, Linden immediately pushed a large plate in front of me.

“This is the best-selling breakfast menu item here.”

“What’s all this? Sausage, bacon, and eggs on pancakes. Even a salad…?”

It was an amount so big that I couldn’t even tell if it were a breakfast or a hearty dinner instead.

Although it looked like it had been cooked tastily, I had no choice but to put on a slightly embarrassed expression.

‘I don’t normally eat this much in the morning…’

I normally only eat about a piece of toast and one cup of multigrain shake.

I didn’t have much time to eat since I was always busy with work, and once I had already established the habit once, I would get rather bloated if I ate too much for breakfast.

When I had first taken possession of this body, I tried to eat more for breakfast, wondering if my appetite had changed since my body had also changed, but it seemed as if I couldn’t eat more for breakfast due to the influence of my mind instead of my body.

But I had no choice but to pick up my knife and fork awkwardly once I saw the way Linden looked after he had prepared all of this for me, his eyes sparkling.

“Thanks. I’ll eat well. Haha.”

It was when I stretched my fork out toward the pancake, thinking to myself that I should pretend to eat it, even if I had indigestion later.

The plate gradually moved away from me. Gently, as if my fork and the plate were magnets that repelled each other.

I spotted the hand that moved the plate as my gaze followed the plate in a puzzled state of mind.

“Lecht…?”

It was Lecht.

“Now what are you doing?”

Linden’s protest followed behind quickly, but Lecht ignored him easily and placed a smaller plate in front of me instead of the large plate of breakfast.

Two pieces of toast which were cut into the shape of a triangle were placed on the noticeably smaller plate.

It looked exactly like what I had been eating every morning for the past few years.

“This is…?”

“You’ll feel uncomfortable moving about if you eat too much in the morning.”

“Ah…”

So you were worried about how it’d affect our travel. I thought you had noticed that I felt troubled by the huge breakfast. 

I smiled mockingly at myself, who had expectations for no reason, and lowered my fork to stab some toast.

As soon as I stared at him, he added, as if he had something else to say.

“…It’s strawberry jam.” 

I burst out laughing again.

“How did you know that I like strawberry jam?”

Although he naturally wouldn’t have known, and had just chosen it because it was the most common one, I was still in a good mood for no reason, as I smiled and took a bite of the toast.

The crispy texture of the toast was so delicious that I wouldn’t get tired of eating it even if I had to every morning.

A cup of multigrain shake would be perfect here.

Since there was no way I’d be able to find multigrain powder here, I swallowed my regret and reached out for a glass of water, but the glass suddenly disappeared.

Instead, a light brown drink was placed right in front of me.

It was the drink I had been thinking about a while ago, so my eyes were bound to widen into circles when I saw it. 

Nah, no way.

“What is this?”

“Try it. You’ll like it.”

Instead of answering my question, he suggested me to taste it. 

I slowly tasted the drink with a trembling heart. The sweet yet savory taste soaked my tongue and flowed down my throat. 

‘Is this really multigrain powder…?’

I was confused.

Of course there was no law against the people of the empire eating ground and roasted soybean powder or glutinous rice powder and the like, and mixing it into milk. It’s just that in my mind, multigrain powder was a very ‘Korean’ food, so I didn’t think that I’d see it here at all.

‘Nothing is impossible if you have the right ingredients.’

But just because I had understood it didn’t mean that I could make any sense of it.

When I looked up in confusion, Lecht was staring at me with his chin in his hand, leaning against the table.

Looking at his languid expression and his unwavering eyes, it seemed as if he had been watching me ever since he had given me that toast. When our eyes met, he added, as if he had just been waiting.

“Apparently it tastes better when you add honey instead of sugar.”

My heart started to beat faster at those meaningless words.

“Ah, yes… That’s right, it’d taste better with honey.”

Why was my heart in such a fluster over such an offhanded remark?

Was it perhaps because multigrain powder was just exactly to my liking? Or maybe it was because I noticed that he was watching me eat? Ah, or was it just because Lecht’s face was just that handsome?

Well, to be fair, with a face like that, even if he said, ‘Ma’am, this jade heating mat is a premium high quality product,’ I would still be excited and buy everything.

Yes, this rapid heartbeat is because of that sharp jawline and those dark features of his that were sexy, even this early in the morning.

I tried to calm my heart down by chewing on my toast and drinking all the multigrain shake, rationalizing all my thoughts.

“Thank you for the meal.”

“Will that be enough for you?”

Linden asked, as soon as I put my glass down. The look of concern was obvious on his face.

“I’m fine. I don’t normally eat a lot in the morning anyway.”

“I see…”

“Have you eaten enough? It seemed as if I was the only one eating.”

“Yep. I finished eating already.”

“That’s a relief. Lecht, have you eaten… Huh? Where did he go?”

When I turned my head back again, Lecht was nowhere to be seen. The jingle of the doorbell and the shaking of the door showed that he had already gone outside.

“So fast, I didn’t even hear the sound of him moving…”

“Meliara.”

As I was still blankly awestruck, Linden called out to me again. Turning his head, he asked me with an extremely serious expression on his face.

“How do you know that person?”

“Rather than know each other… did you see that dog there? Kelber. I ran into that kid yesterday and then happened to also meet him for the first time.”

Although Lecht spoke as if we had met in the past, this was the first time I had met him.

“It was my second time meeting him last night when I was with you.”

“But why…”

He trailed off at the end of his sentence. 

But I seemed to know what he was trying to say.

It was why he was so openly hostile to Linden, but not to me? He was definitely treating me differently from Linden, so much so that it was even obvious to me.

“Perhaps he’s one of His Highness, the Crown Prince’s people? He might not know that our engagement has already been broken.”

That was the best guess I could make.

“That’s not it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“The thing is…”

He seemed to be extremely cautious with his words. The place where he sneakily glanced towards was where Butler Tanma was waiting for Linden and I with a friendly smile.

“Since he’s someone who’s a close acquaintance of His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Ohhh.”

The Prince of Misfortune who was rejected by the Emperor. A direct power who had a close relationship with the Emperor. It was understandable for Linden to act low-key in front of him.

‘Wait no, you’re one of the Emperor’s people, yet you don’t know that I’m the Princess of Darchez?’

What a mysterious man.

“Would you feel more at ease if I swore on the Lake of Moonlight that I’d protect you?”

But I didn’t hate it for some reason.

“Try it. You’ll like it.”

He may have done such things without putting much thought into it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it and smiling over it again and again. 

What could I do if it was something good? It wasn’t a crime for my heart to flutter, right? 

After experiencing the natural unspeakable magic that occurred no matter what a handsome man said, I began to have high hopes for my journey in the future.

*** 

The carriage that greeted me the day I came out with all my luggage was extremely nice. 

Unlike the dazzling carriages I had seen in the Darchez Duchy, it carried a dignified aura, and was made of dark varnished wood. At the same time, the decorations which weren’t too excessive only added to the carriage’s luxurious feeling.

“Get on.”

“It’s okay! I can just go there via the public carriage.”

“Is there a need for us to travel on the same road with different carriages?”

“Ah…”

That’s true. It would be strange for me to pay to rent a public carriage when there was one already readily available.

“Then I won’t refuse you! Thank you.”

“It’s only natural for this to happen.”

Oh my. Look, even his answer is perfect.

“It seems like I’ve found a really good companion.”

Aside from the cost it saved from renting a carriage, sharing the same one was a wonderful choice, as it would even take into account his responsibility for my safety too.

I smiled happily and entered through the door Lecht had opened for me.

The inside was just as nice as the outside. Contrary to its dignified feeling, it was still cozy. It also seemed to have a subtle scent of peony.

“Even the seats are spacious.”

Is this what it feels like to ride an expensive limousine?

I burst into laughter for no reason upon experiencing this sort of luxury for the first time.

‘But what are you all doing instead of getting on?’

I seemed to have seen enough of its interior, yet still heard nothing from Linden or Lecht, so I poked my face out of the open door.

Sure enough, the two men were glaring at each other with the cold wind blowing in the background.

“Of course, isn’t it a given for everyone to ride in the same carriage together?”

“I’m not sure why you would think that was a given.”

“Wow, you’re so cold-hearted. Can’t we share one of them?”

“What’s wrong must be your attitude of claiming a favor as a right.”

“I’m not claiming it as a right, but it’s common sense in this situation…!”

From what I heard from the contents of their argument, what I seemed to get from it was that Linden was roughly saying that, “Doesn’t it make more sense for us all to get in the same carriage since we’re all going together?”, and Lecht was, “It’s my carriage, so why should you get on it?”

“Haa…”

I suddenly heard the sound of Linden calling out to me just as I had sighed, at a loss on who to convince.

“Meliara, can’t I get on the carriage too?”

“Huh…? This carriage isn’t mine, so…”

At my words, Linden’s face reflexively looked as if it were close to tears.

“Then am I supposed to follow you guys on a horse by myself…?”

“N-No, it’s not that, but…”

Since you’re someone with a lot of money, shouldn’t you rent your own carriage…?

No, but as Linden said, we’re all going the same way, so wouldn’t it be strange for us to go separately? It was reasonable for Linden to get on the same carriage as us using the reason I was using to ride in Lecht’s carriage.

“Meliara. Take me too… okay?”

Linden, who had suddenly closed the distance between us before I knew it, gave me a pitiful look. Even if it wasn’t the case, I still felt as if I were bullying him, since his expression was so pitiful, like a child’s, and was a mixture of both a puppy and a rabbit’s.

“O-Okay.”

I, who didn’t want to feel like I was a gangster bullying a child, answered impulsively, causing Linden’s face to brighten like a blooming flower.

“Thanks!”

And then quickly climbed into the carriage.

Ah… I received yet another critical hit from his beauty.

It was then that I catch sight of Lecht behind him.

“I’m sorry. It’s not my carriage, yet I…”

“It doesn’t matter.”

He answered immediately before I could even finish my sentence.

“If you’re comfortable with it, then do it.”

He was someone who had been acting extremely firm, saying that he’d never allow Linden to ride with us, but when Linden did get on the carriage with us, he acted as if it only an insignificant matter.

‘Are you just trying to meddle with Linden’s every move?’

As a person of the Emperor, do you not like Linden, who is ‘the stain on the Imperial Palace’? Or did the Emperor send you to ‘test’ Linden?

Although my head was filled with all sorts of thoughts, it didn’t seem to have anything to do with me, so I simply let it all go. I was just happy to be able to see these two handsome men at a glance.

So I shouted out energetically.

“Then shall we not stop until we get to Chiban Village?”

…I didn’t know at that time. 

That our journey to the temple would be so difficult…

---

tsundere lecht hehehehe

also, if anyone has the raws for the very last chapter of this series, pls pm me on discord !!

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

The man who had just entered the restaurant, scanned his surroundings and stopped when his eyes met mine.

I couldn’t move either, too captivated by the man’s deep gaze.

‘I didn’t know we’d meet again.’

Thump thump thump thump.

My heart suddenly started to beat foolishly.

“Woof!”

The puppy’s cry, which expressed his joy to see me, was a bonus instead.

Breaking the brief silence, Kelber ran up to me and leapt up, placing his front paws on my thighs.

As he tried to lick my face, I burst into laughter and rubbed his face.

“It’s nice to see you again too!” 

The man, who came to break up the excited greeting, pulled on Kelber’s leash. When he pulled the leash of the middle one, all the heads were also pulled back at the same time.

“Get down, Kelber.”

With just a few words, Kelber calmly got down to the floor.

I let out a small exclamation of admiration at how well trained he was. He was both charismatic, and even made training his dogs seem charismatic.

His voice was both strong and lovely at the same time.

“So we meet again.”

I gave him a pretty smile, since I was happy to see him again.

But instead of greeting me, he just stared at me and proceeded to say something rather ridiculous.

“Your hairstyle has changed.”

“Ah.”

I brushed back the baby hairs that had fallen past my ear.

“I tied it up since it felt uncomfortable.”

When I had met him during the day, my hair, which had been let loose, was now tied up.

“Does it look weird?”

I asked stealthily. Is it so bad that you’d comment on it as soon as we meet again?

“I like it. It’s refreshing.”

“Really? That’s a relief then.”

I tucked my hair behind my ears and smiled bashfully. Receiving compliments has always been an enjoyable thing.

“Are you also staying here today?”

“For now…”

He muffled the end of his words as he alternated his gaze between me and Kelber.

“That seems to be the case.”

“I heard that there are a lot of pretty decent single rooms still on the top floor that are available. Oh, and the wild boar meat here is also really good.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

As I was chatting to him, Linden tugged my sleeve lightly.

“Meliara. This person is…?”

He had a look of a young child who was extremely wary of strangers as he asked.

“Oh, I ran into him by chance during the day. He’s the owner of Kelber over here.”

Come to think of it, since he was a noble, would he recognise Linden?

I remembered that he had been dragged away by a butler who seemed to have raised him as well. Although the commoners wouldn’t recognise Linden by his face, the high-ranking aristocrats would.

Then, a thread of suspicion suddenly came to my mind.

‘Then in that sense, I’m also the daughter of one of the three major dukes.’

Though of course, now disowned.

Although it wouldn’t have been known to everyone yet, this man still didn’t call me ‘Princess’ either. Besides, it would come out rather naturally too.

‘Do you not know my face?’

It came to mind that he may not be a high-ranking aristocrat.

Then wouldn’t you be surprised to hear that Linden is a prince?

“Nice to meet you. I’m Linden Ezzarson von Bakarta.”

“Heok.”

Linden’s self-introduction made me feel a prick in my conscience for no reason.

‘Everyone in the restaurant will be shocked if you’re that loud…!’

Upon looking around anxiously, I discovered something even more shocking.

Our surroundings were severely quiet, and everyone was even looking this way. However, it was a different sort of tension from being shocked by the appearance of the prince.

‘Don’t tell me… the people I had simply thought were all mercenaries and travelers were actually all Linden’s own escort knights?’

I thought he had simply been walking around freely since commoners didn’t recognise his face, but to think that the knights must have been watching him from where they were hidden all this time!

‘Well, to be fair… he’s a prince who never knows how many poisoned arrows might come down at any moment, so there’s no way he’d just be roaming around by himself.’ 

I quickly looked at the owner of Kelber. 

How shocked must he have been. Just as I was thinking of going to comfort him by telling him not to worry, the man however, simply nodded his head indifferently and took a seat next to me.

The forehead of Linden, who had been ignored, wrinkled slightly.

But he soon regained his composure and smiled.

“Isn’t it basic courtesy for one to return a greeting after receiving one?”

His laugh seemed to sarcastically be saying, ‘why are you like this, you rude bastard’.

However, Kelber’s owner, who was far from being embarrassed or offended, spoke casually.

“Why should I?”

“What…?”

“Although you may think it’s nice to meet me, it’s not for me. So I don’t think there’s a need for me to return your greeting.”

I could feel the sincerity in his voice when he said that, so this time, not only Linden, but also my eyes widened in shock.

Wow, this is the first time I, who had lived in modern times, had seen a My Way¹.

I could feel the knights surrounding us flinch, perhaps because they had thought that his rudeness had gone too far.

Linden lifted his finger slightly to restrain them.

He spoke while still smiling.

“You seem to be close with my older brother. If that’s the case, then that might be why you aren’t happy to see me.”

No matter how much they opposed each other, I didn’t think they’d shed all pretense of courtesy this fast, but…

“Even if that’s the case, shouldn’t you at least tell me your name?”

In any case, Linden seemed to be trying to deescalate the situation somehow.

However, the man didn’t seem to have the slightest intention in helping him with his efforts.

“Why should I?”

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

He said the exact same thing as before.

This time, Linden’s smile faltered noticeably. The raised corners of his lips trembled slightly.

Not only that, but his knights all started to rise from their seats. It was the moment when their swords were unsheathed from their scabbard.

“Grrrr…”

This time, Kelber’s fur bristled as he bared his teeth. Perhaps because he had three heads, but his growl seemed to be three times more menacing as normal dogs.

Linden’s gaze slowly moved from Kelber, to his knights, and then finally, to the man.

“What do you think will come out of this?”

Although he was still smiling, it was definitely a threat.

I wasn’t the only one who felt this sort of tension, but the expression of the man who owned Kelber didn’t even change a single bit.

‘Should I come forward and stop them…?’

Although I wondered what sort of help my words could possibly be to them, I still opened my mouth to stir up the atmosphere.

However, before I could even say anything, an enormous pressure started to overwhelm and envelop the room.

“That’s what I was going to say.”

“Urk.”

“Heok.”

At the owner of Kelber’s low remarks, several knights behind him fell to their knees. They clutched their chest and trembled.

Although I also felt as if my stomach was being squeezed, as if something was on top of it, it was clear just by looking that the pressure felt by the knights was different to the feeling of awkwardness I felt.

‘What’s going on…’

I couldn’t figure it out if I didn’t know the cause. 

The black energy that had burst out in an instant from the man who was sitting next to me was seeping into the bodies of the knights. I avoided it skillfully. 

‘Black energy? Aura? What is this?’

Although I didn’t know what it was, one thing was certain: the fact that this man was an incredibly formidable person.

Even Linden, who was set up with the foundations as an excellent mage in the original novel as the second male lead, seemed to be clenching his fists due to the bothersome energy.

“You…”

Linden’s voice trembled slightly.

“No way…”

However, the man turned his head to me, ignoring Linden.

Although it was an act that could be said to be disrespectful toward the prince, Linden, who had already witnessed his capability, didn’t bother to make a point of it.

The reason why they couldn’t make a big fight here and cause Linden to seem like the victim was probably because he would a lose more than he would gain.

“Lecht.”

He looked at me straight in the eyes and spoke.

“It’s Lecht. My name.”

“Oh. My name is Meliara.”

I responded in bewilderment to the self-introduction that didn’t seem to match the atmosphere around us.

The gaze he looked at me with was subtle as he muttered quietly.

“…Ara?”

My shoulders shuddered in that moment.

‘Right. If you look at it, you could get Ara out of Meliara.’

I was surprised the moment I heard my name from my previous life.

“If you want to call me that, then you can. Haha.”

I tried to laugh it off, but then he suddenly said something out of the blue.

“Don’t you recognise me?”

“Pardon?”

He didn’t seem to be talking about when we met in the afternoon.

How would I know who you were?

When I looked confused, as if I really didn’t know, he added cautiously.

“Have you… never met me before…?”

His voice had softened to the fullest, and the eyes he used to observe me had become completely gentle, the sharpness from before nowhere to be seen.

I wondered if this was the same person who seemed as if he was about to devour all the knights until just now.

I felt as if I had glimpsed the affectionate side he had been hiding, a warm breeze blowing through my heart.

“Well, I don’t know.”

I smiled, pretending to be calm, and said.

“I think today is my first time.”

If it was me, I knew I wouldn’t have forgotten such a handsome face.

‘Did he perhaps ever meet the original owner of this body?’

If that was the case, then I’m sorry, but it wasn’t in my memories. So, of course, the only thing I could was pretend to be clueless.

“…or maybe not.”

His eyes darkened as he muttered softly.

I felt sorry for no reason for not remembering…

“Although I don’t remember meeting you before, won’t it be fine if we get to know each other more from now on?”

I smiled as brightly as I could as I spoke.

Although I didn’t know what kind of meeting he had with Meliara in the past, there was no law against building a new relationship with me.

Relationships with handsome men have always been welcome.

“…”

However, he didn’t respond to my suggestion.

Hey… it’s a bit embarrassing, so can you at least say yes or no…?

I, who always felt awkward when it was silent, let out a haha before adding.

“Although I did say that, I won’t have much time since I’ll be busy with something from now on. Haha.”

Although I did say that I’d get to know him, the truth was that I had to find the spirit and to go and seek asylum somewhere.

The handsome man was enjoyable, but avoiding the collapse of the empire was more important.

“Something?”

“Yes. I’m planning on going to the eastern village of Chiban.”

The village of Chiban was right before the Arvis Grand Duchy, and was the closest village to the abandoned temple of the Moon God.

“So, next time I see you…”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“…Huh?”

I felt flustered for a moment since his reply had come back even before I had finished my question. 

This wasn’t the conversation I had been expecting though?

The conversation I had been expecting was that I would say, ‘So, next time I see you, let’s have a cup of tea together’, and then he’d answer ‘let’s do so’ in reply.

Although it was a pity for me to leave a handsome man, I couldn’t just give up on my survival just to see more of him.

But what do you mean by us going together…? Didn’t we only meet for the first time today…?

Upon seeing my perplexed expression, he said.

“I was also scheduled to head to the east.”

“Ah, is that so…?”

“Furthermore, the security outside of the capital isn’t too great, so it’ll be safer for you to move around with me.”

That’s… true, I guess?

There was no guarantee that I, who didn’t even know any self-defense, would be safe on my way to the abandoned temple of the Moon God.

‘If I look at it from that angle, then it would be safer for me to go with Lecht…’

I mean, his skills seemed to be great, just judging from the black energy that had blown in the wind earlier.

However, I couldn’t just shout, ‘alright!’ without any hesitation.

In any case, he was also someone who I had only met for the first time today.

Though I did say that there were no bad people amongst animal lovers. Though he was handsome enough to melt away all my vigilance and alertness!

‘But accompanying him for a few days was a different story, right…?

He said, as if he could see the concern showing on my face.

“Would you feel more at ease if I swore on the Lake of Moonlight that I’d protect you?”

“Pardon…?”

He suddenly pulled out a dagger before I could even respond properly.

“No matter where you’re going, I swear that I’ll take full responsibility for you safety until your arrive.”

At the same time, upon seeing him reach out to cut the tip of his finger without any hesitation, I hurriedly stretched out my hand to stop him.

“Wait!”

I grabbed his hand which was gripping onto the dagger with both hands.

“There’s no need for you to go so far!”

Swearing on the ‘Lake of Moonlight’ was the most supreme oath one could make for those who believed in the Moon God.

It was said that if this oath was violated, that the Moon God would then curse the souls of those who took that oath and sentence them to ten thousand years of suffering.

But to think that you would do that! And so willingly as well!

Any of my remaining anxiety was immediately washed away.

“Let’s go together!”

It takes about a week to reach the abandoned temple of the Moon God.

Although I didn’t know where this man’s ‘schedule in the east’ was, there was no way it would be at the temple, so I was sure that we’d split ways in the middle.

To think he’d make a vow to the Lake of Moonlight just to accompany me for a few days. That could’ve been a disaster.

Still, even if that was the case, I was still grateful at his willingness to do so. My heart fluttered for no reason.

“I was also at a loss at the thought of going by myself, but now that Lecht is going with me, I feel reassured.”

When I spoke with a bright smile, he put away the dagger he had taken out and nodded slightly.

“Yeah.”

The combination of his reply in a deep voice and those golden eyes of his that were slightly downcast made my heart flutter very easily.

Looking at that handsome face, I smiled happily at my daydream of a week-long feast for my eyes, until Linden suddenly tugged at my sleeve.

“I’ll go as well!”

“Why you as well…?”

“I, I also have something to do in the east.”

Really? I think you just stuttered though?

“Take me with you too, okay?”

The way he looked at me pitifully was cute, like a whining rabbit. How could I say no to a face like this?

“Just do as you like.”

In fact, it wasn’t as if I could do anything to stop him from coming.

No matter how much he’s called the ‘Prince of Misfortune’, he was still a prince anyway. Who could possibly stop him…

Oh.

I turned my eyes to Lecht. If it was Lecht, I felt as if he would even be able to block the way of a prince.

“That’s fine, right?”

“I’m just accompanying you on your way.”

Fortunately, Lecht didn’t try to make it difficult for anyone this time.

“Then, let’s set off tomorrow morning.”

I said while alternating my gaze between the two of them.

Lecht on my right. Linden on my left.

Gosh. There are flowers in both hands.

Although they weren’t my flowers, it was still a pleasant night nonetheless.

[1] 마이웨이 (My Way) refers to those who do not care about other people’s opinions and tend to act according to their own thoughts without listening or caring about others, only going ‘their way’.

author’s note:
i’m also confident that i can hold onto flowers properly too…

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AHHHHH GOD I’VE SEEN WHAT YOU’VE DONE FOR OTHERS, WHEN WILL IT BE MY TURN ༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽

anyways, it’s literally chapter 4 and there’s already a showdown between the ml and second ml HNGSDFLKJFDJFDSJ i’m rooting for lecht but soft boy linden also has a soft spot in my heart tho HGLDKSFJFDS

tbh i’d be meliara in this situation, i’m weak to good looks COME HERE I’LL RAISE YOU

this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!

---

Having successfully exchanged my jewelry for money, I changed my outfit first. 

That was because, even though I had worn the simplest clothes from the Duchy, they were still too flashy and made me stand out too much. The long flowy skirts were also too uncomfortable.

I used to wear pants since I had felt uncomfortable with even formal skirts, not to mention the clothes that a noble young miss had to wear.

After that, I bought a map and found an inn that was the closest to the city walls. This was the best place for me to start moving from tomorrow.

I roughly unpacked my luggage in the single room and found a restaurant on the first floor.

“Here’s your garlic wild boar meat stir-fry and creamy beer~”

I ordered one of the things I had always wanted to try while reading <A Divine Retribution>, and now it was really right in front of me.

“Thank you for the food~!”

To think it’s wild boar…! Isn’t this a dish that can’t easily be tasted in Korea?

“Oh, it’s really good though?!”

Although it was my first time trying wild boar meat, it actually wasn’t that bad?! It’s pork, but should I say it was more delicious than pork?

Since this was so delicious, I wanted to try all the other food that was here. Perhaps the grilled brown bear tongue that I had seen earlier.

I was so hungry that I finished the food without any hesitation. It wasn’t until I had washed my mouth down with a mouthful of creamy beer that I finally opened the map that I had bought. It was a detailed map of the Bakarta Empire, as well as the areas surrounding it.

“Then, where should I plan to go?”

My notebook, which lay open next to the map, contained what my future plans were.

1. Asylum (Where should I go? – As far away from the Empire as possible!)

2. Obtain the spirit¹!!! (The one that’s in the abandoned temple of the moon god!)

The ultimate goal after seeking asylum, was none other than finding the spirit.

Although going into hiding was one thing, I still needed a way to protect myself in case something unexpected happened. So what I had thought of was the spirit.

The spirit, which was mentioned in passing in the novel, was sleeping in the abandoned temple of the moon god and was said to be a defense spirit.

Although it wasn’t strong enough to stop someone from deliberately trying to kill me, I would still at least be able to avoid being shot by stray arrows.

It was unknow whether the Demon King would only destroy the Empire or completely wipe out the entire continent instead.

So, if the world were to suddenly turn into a war zone, it was clear that having the spirit would have a great impact on my survival rate. The problem was… 

‘Why is the abandoned temple there?!”

The abandoned temple of the moon god, where the spirit was sleeping, was right next to the the territory of Grand Duke Arvis!

Grand Duke Arvis, who boasts the second largest territory after the capital, was a place that was extremely hard to enter.

In particular, Grand Duke Arvis, who ruled the area, didn’t leave the Grand Duchy very often, so no one but the Emperor knew what he looked like.

Since he didn’t show his face very often, there were rumors that said that he was an ugly-looking man, and there were also doubts on whether he was a real person or not.

However, I knew the reason why the mysterious and incomprehensible figure didn’t leave the Grand Duchy.

‘Because he’s the one who destroys the Empire!’

Grand Duke Arvis was the Demon King, who had hidden his identity!

After staying quiet for close to a hundred years, what sort of bullshit could have caused him to suddenly call for his entire demon army and completely obliterate the empire?

‘Could the emperor have offended him…? No, he couldn’t have.’

The Demon King was a founding contributor who had helped the founding emperor to establish the empire.

Since no one else had lived for a hundred years, although the other nobles and ordinary citizens merely thought that the present Grand Duke Arvis was only a descendant of the founding contributor, only the Emperor knew that he was that very person himself.

‘I mean, he knows he’s the Demon King, so would he have been crazy enough to provoke him?’

So what the hell was the reason?

When he founded the empire, he raised a human up into the emperor’s position, but did his desire to conquer finally boil over?

Or what, did he wonder, ‘shall I devour the Empire today’ simply because he was bored?

Why was someone who should be ruling the Demon world live as the Grand Duke in the mortal world in the first place?

“Huu, let’s calm down.”

Thinking of this, I calmed my worked up self with a few deep breaths.

‘It’s alright. There are still three months left until the invasion.’

Right, what’s important right now isn’t why he lives as a Grand Duke in the mortal world, but how I’m meant to get to the abandoned temple next to his estate.

‘I’m going to be as inconspicuous as possible, steal the spirit and bounce.’

There wouldn’t be a chance for me to encounter him anyway, since it’s said that he’s always stuck to the confines of the Grand Duchy.

I’ll come and go quietly. Quietly.

‘Please don’t let anything strange suddenly happen, just because I’m in the body of a villainess…’

I grabbed my map and notebook with the hope that everything would go well.

While I was thinking that it’d be better for me to go to bed early since I’d have to ride in a carriage first thing in the morning tomorrow, someone approached my table whilst I was in the midst of preparing to leave.

pls do not share this anywhere or the transmigration gods will transport u into boku no pico !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

“Meliara?”

As I raised my head up, I saw a man approach me, taking off his hood.

“It really is you!”

He approached me with a bright smile that seemed as if he were happy to see me, and naturally sat down at my table.

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you wearing pants. I thought I saw wrong for a moment.”

Seeing him talk to me in such a friendly manner, I couldn’t even manage a stutter in reply.

Who are you…? 

Dark pink hair tied up into a single bunch. Eyes as blue as the summer sky. Skin that was like white jade.

‘What kind of characters are all so pretty and good-looking?’

The man I had met in the afternoon had been so handsome, it seemed as if he’d be able to conquer the world just with his beauty alone, but this man in front of me was quite formidable too. It was clear that he’d be in ‘the top 5 most good-looking people I’ve ever seen in my life’.

So… who are you?

‘We seem to know each other since he had greeted me before… but did I ever have such a friend who had greeted me so warmly like this?

It was hard for me to think, ‘Oh, it’s you!’, just by looking at his face.

“Y-Yeah, how have you been?”

I tried to greet him without being awkward to the best of my ability.

However, his eyes widened, as if surprised by my greeting.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s just because you’re speaking casually to me.”

Heok. Did we usually not do so? I only did it because you were also speaking casually to me…!

“Ahaha, it’s been so long since we met so I forgot…”

“I mean, it’s good! You can continue.”

He used his hand to prop up his chin and smiled brightly while looking at me.

“You wouldn’t do so, even if I asked you in the past. That’s why I always felt hurt, since it felt like you were trying to keep a wall between us all the time.”

When he gave a faint child-like smile, coupled with the vibe of a pure idol, I felt as if I had a maternal love that didn’t even exist.

“Then, since you’ve already changed your way of speaking with me, can you change the way you address me as well?”

“Address?”

“Yeah. After all, ‘Your Highness’ is too stiff.”

Your Highness…?

I inhaled sharply.

‘Your Highness’?!

“Call me Linden.”

“Ahem!”

I tried to stop the choking sound from coming out of my mouth.

I knew he couldn’t have been an extra with a face like that!

A combo of pink hair and blue eyes.

‘You’re the Empire’s second prince!’

He, who was giving me a pretty smile right now, was the second prince of the Bakarta Empire, who possessed the long name of Linden Ezzarson von Bakarta, and was the second male lead in the original novel.

Unlike the Crown Prince, who had the Empress for a mother, and was from the main line of descent, he was the son of a concubine. As the only daughter of the head of the billionaire Ezzarson Guild, his mother, who had come to the imperial palace to help her father, had caught the eyes of the Emperor and eventually became a concubine.

She, whose influence was weak despite her wealth, couldn’t win over the Empress, who enjoyed the support of the aristocratic faction, and eventually died a mysterious death when Linden was seven years old.

His grandfather, the head of the Ezzarson Guild, raised the child outside of the imperial palace in order to prevent Linden from getting caught up in the struggle for succession.

‘Although I heard that his face wasn’t widely known, unlike the Crown Prince’s, I didn’t know it would be this bad.’

He, the prince, was sitting in an inn on the outskirts of the capital, yet no one around us paid any attention to him.

‘But it’s not like I don’t know, just because those around me don’t know!’

In addition to that, he was often referred to as a ‘schemer’! I had to be careful not to provoke him.

“Ohoho, but how could I say the name of His Highness, who is the light of the Empire, so thoughtlessly?”

I diligently tried to make something up. However, his face stiffened slightly as he mumbled reflexively.

“The light is my older brother.”

Shit. I pressed the wrong switch.

‘I forgot that he had an inferiority complex to his older brother, the Crown Prince.’

He hated the fact that everyone would say that the Crown Prince was the future and light of the Empire, while simultaneously calling him the stain and the shadow of the Imperial Palace.

“You are the light to me. Hoho.”

Nothing good would come out of pretending in front of a schemer, so I wagged my tail slightly in order to make him feel better.

However, Linden looked at me suspiciously and said.

“…Did you decide to change routes and go for me after breaking your engagement with my older brother?”

“No way. I don’t have anymore lingering attachment to the imperial palace.”

Seriously. I have no interest in that anymore.

My only concern right now was ‘how to steal the spirit quietly and flee to a distant continent’.

“You said it was your only hope at one point.”

“Gosh. How could that be my only hope when the world is so vast?”

The imperial palace was a doomed stock. Grand Duke Arvis… when the Demon King starts to run rampant, the entirety of the Imperial Palace would return to dust.

“…Your thought process seems to have changed after your broken engagement.”

“…”

Could you please stop saying things like ‘you’ve changed’ since it prickles at my conscience…?

Although there was no way he’d ever notice that this body’s soul had changed, I was only speaking dispel any useless doubts.

“I just had a change of heart after my engagement got broken off. You don’t need to worry about it too much.”

“How could I do that?”

Linden tilted his face toward me.

“It’s your business, not anyone else’s, so of course I have to care.”

In addition to that, he began to look at me closely with a slow gaze.

Although it was burdensome for me to have such a pretty face right in front of me, I didn’t know where to put my eyes since he kept looking at me with those blue eyes of his. I sneakily avoided his gaze and wiped off some cold sweat.

“Hahaha, how nice of you.”

A laugh that seemed awkward, even to me, suddenly burst out.

While I was wondering how to fix this, he whispered to me, as if he hadn’t felt anything strange.

“I’m not being nice. I’m only like this because it’s you.”

His expression was so pitiful that it made my heart ache for no reason. 

The reason Linden was so dangerous was because contrary to his insidious mind that was constantly plotting to bring down the Crown Prince and snatch away the female lead, Olivia, he had a very naive-looking appearance.

And he knew how to use his appearance to his advantage. 

So I knew this was all just acting. I knew he was a trickster, yet…!

“You know, just like how I’m your only friend, you’re my only friend as well.”

Haaa… I’m melting, I’m melting.

I ended up screaming in surrender to his face and said, “Thank you for caring about me, it’s really comforting to know.”

I knew that he hadn’t said this to console me, but rather, to ‘supervise’ me, since it would be a waste for him to throw away ‘the Empire’s only princess’ card so early.

“If Your Highness ever needs comfort someday, please come and find me. Although I can’t say anything particularly cool, I can still lend a listening ear to you.”

If I had remembered correctly, it was about now that his grandfather finally died.

Finding out that he had lost the last person who would always be on his side unconditionally must have been extremely difficult for Linden.

Anyway, there was no room for me, since the original female lead would comfort you instead.

‘But giving someone who is in need of comfort a shoulder to cry on is simply one’s duty as a human being, right?’

However, he made another bizarre request at my suggestion.

“Then call me Linden.”

“Well, naturally that’s a bit…”

No matter how much you want to, you’re an imperial prince and I’m a princess… Oh, I’m about to be exiled soon, so I’m actually a commoner.

“Then at least speak casually with me then.”

“Haa…”

How persistent. It was clear that there’d be no end if we continued to argue like this.

“Alright, Linden.”

In the end, it was a battle that I, who was particularly weak to handsome men, had no choice but to lose to Linden, who used his looks to his full advantage for the most part.

It would’ve been strange for me to call him ‘Your Highness’ while speaking casually to him, so I just gave up on it all.

Then Linden, who had been disappointed, looked a little surprised before his whole face brightened up.

“As expected, there’s no one like you, Meliara.”

“…Right.” 

His smile was dangerously pretty. Look how fast my heart is beating already…

While I was in the midst of thinking that meeting a handsome guy wouldn’t be as hard as expected, someone came into the restaurant at the sound of the bell at the top of the door.

I unconsciously turned my gaze to the sound of the door opening, and inhaled sharply upon looking at who had entered.

[1] although 기연 means ‘fate’ normally, in webnovels (especially martial arts ones), they often refer to when a character receives an opportunity to level up spontaneously (e.g. being chased by a villain, falling off a cliff, then finding [something/somebody] in the cave under the cliff and getting stronger through that). this can also refer to objects depending on the situation (e.g. secret martial arts almanac, elixir, master, etc.)

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it’s alright meliara, i too, also have a weakness for handsome men ( ´ཀ` )