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Chapter : 30
I couldn’t understand why he had appeared here.
But for Arno, that wasn’t the important issue.
“What about a fever reducer?”
Arno walked past Evan without hesitation and asked the innkeeper, who was trembling.
“Do you have something like a sedative here? Where is it?”
The innkeeper shouted as if Arno’s words didn’t reach her.
“Who on earth are you people? How did the Viscount of Rekaten come all the way here in person?!”
Meanwhile, Evan rushed toward Diel.
“Diel, Ekaterina!”
The moment he heard that Diel had left the palace, his vision went dizzy.
He wanted to question her immediately—where on earth she had been planning to go.
No, he even wanted to grab her by the collar.
“Diel, can you hear me?”
Seeing Diel asleep with a pale face left him dazed.
“Diel, wake up!”
Evan held Diel in his arms. Feeling her warmth, his frantically beating heart seemed to settle.
“What on earth happened, Priest?!”
Raising his voice, Evan looked back at Arno.
“…You say you’re a priest?”
The innkeeper, who had wanted to vent her frustration at Arno, froze.
She had only received a guest. What did the Viscount mean? And what was this about a priest?
“What are you stupidly staring at?”
Evan spoke sharply to the innkeeper.
“Tell the Public Works knights at the Bontech entrance to come immediately. Hurry!”
“Y-Yes! Understood!”
Wanting to avoid the situation at all costs, the innkeeper ran off in a panic.
Now, only Arno and Evan remained in the room.
“What were you doing here, Priest?”
“Did Princess Diel Ekaterina have an illness?”
But the two of them couldn’t communicate effectively; the conversation was one-sided.
“I asked first. What were you doing here?”
“Whatever I did here, I don’t think I have an obligation to tell the Viscount.”
This time, Arno’s expression grew cold.
“The Viscount only assists with the Princess’s recuperation; he’s not her real family.”
From the beginning, everything that happened here had to remain a secret.
Some of it wasn’t told for that reason.
Evan, acting as if someone had stolen what was his, snapping at him without explanation, annoyed Arno.
“Priest, this is unlike you.”
The sound of hooves grew louder.
Soon, the Public Works carriage and knights would fill the narrow inn yard.
“Anyway, the Princess is currently under protection in Rekaten.”
Evan, staring intently at Arno, said this.
“Wasn’t it the Royal Palace and the Temple that singled out useless Ekaterinas and made them like this?”
“Viscount… You’re being excessively sharp.”
Arno let out a hollow laugh, astonished.
“Or should I say… excessively meddlesome?”
“Priest Arno.”
“Even family can’t arbitrarily control the private life of a grown lady. They’re neither family nor anything else, right?”
The two of them were only acquaintances who exchanged polite greetings.
To think that they would glare at each other like this in the middle of an inn…
“Viscount, the carriage is ready.”
A Public Works knight who had just arrived informed them.
“This concerns the Temple as well. Priest, you’ll need to explain why you came to Bontech today.”
Saying this, Evan carried Diel and left the room.
The Rekaten family was one of the great donors to the Temple.
“……”
But Arno wasn’t afraid of Evan’s words at all.
Instead, he watched the Public Works carriage carry Diel away for a long time.
‘How presumptuous. People with no right at all.’
He didn’t know why, but it felt even more unpleasant.
“I will escape from here! No matter what it takes!”
“Shut up. If you shout like that again, I’ll send you to the convent!”
“Why do I have to go through this alone, why!”
In the dream, I became Diel.
The “real” Diel.
Everything was different from the times I had observed through Baek Juah’s perspective.
“You will never leave here.”
Words I had heard without thinking.
Lines I assumed were necessary for the original story.
They felt like shackles tightening around my wrists.
So this is what it means to make someone else go through the same ordeal.
“……”
I slowly opened my eyes. The antique chandelier sparkled.
‘How did I end up here?’
Memories, which no longer surprised me, flashed before my eyes.
Ah, yes. I had gone to Bontech last.
There, I met the heroine, Helsen, and also Arno…
“Arno!”
I jumped up from my seat.
‘As soon as I open my eyes, I’m looking for that priest. What kind of relationship is this?’
A familiar voice reached me.
‘Why is that leech here?’
Evan sat leaning on the sofa with crossed legs, reading a newspaper.
“Good skills, Diel. Is it worth your face?”
Now that I noticed, this wasn’t the palace or the inn.
“Wasn’t this Lysis? When did you get close to Arno?”
“Why am I here?”
Because I had seen the place often from headquarters, I recognized it immediately.
It was the estate of the Dukes of Rekaten in the Archipelago.
“I asked first, Diel Ekaterina.”
Before I knew it, Evan had approached closely.
“Was a promise just a joke to you? You conveniently abandoned your promise to return.”
“……”
He looked down at me with sharp eyes.
“You’ve got nerve. Alone in this complicated archipelago, deceiving even the Marchioness, and escaping the palace by yourself? To a place like Bontech, which is basically a slum?”
Evan exhaled sharply, closing and opening his eyes, as if restraining his anger.
“Why did you go to Bontech? Why were you with that grim priest?”
Annoyance surged in me.
“Did you bring me here? Were you in Bontech?”
Thinking of Evan as a leech was my Baek Juah perspective.
An objective observation from a third party.
“Did you follow me? How did you know I went to Bontech?”
But now, I was angry directly at this situation.
“When did I promise to come back with you? That was a unilateral notice from you.”
Before losing consciousness, Diel’s memories had come into my mind.
I thought I understood what that meant.
Perhaps this was also part of becoming Diel.
I wasn’t surprised; I had prepared myself.
I was only a little worried about what would happen when all memories returned.
“Ha, Diel Ekaterina. Why are you angry?”
“Fix your tone first.”
I passed Evan, who asked with a stern expression, and first took a sip of water.
Perhaps from vomiting blood, my throat felt rough.
“No one would be happy hearing nonsense about ‘face value’ or anything like that.”
“……”
Fortunately, my personality as Baek Juah hadn’t disappeared.
Evan and Diel would inevitably clash in these circumstances.
Of course, Evan was cold and sarcastic.
And Diel reacted to everything, sulking on her own.
‘No wonder it was always chaotic with Evan.’
But I wasn’t the reckless Diel of the original story.
“How did you know to come to Bontech?”
Did Evan notice my reaction was different? He brushed back his hair and sat.
“Let’s say it was a coincidence. I didn’t follow you.”
His voice was strangely twisted.
“More importantly, remember that you collapsed after vomiting blood. If you had stayed in that filthy corner any longer, you wouldn’t have survived.”
I had no intention of responding. So-called ignoring.
Evan didn’t care and continued.
“Dr. Salin came by this morning.”
Dr. Salin was the personal physician of the Dukes of Rekaten.
“What did Dr. Salin say?”
“Detailed examination is necessary.”
I subtly inquired, but it didn’t seem the doctor had noticed anything.
“Get a proper check-up.”
“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
Even a detailed check-up would be useless. This reaction was a penalty.
“I only vomited once. No need to make a fuss.”
From now on, whenever the original story twisted, I might cough up blood like this.
Or I could lose consciousness for days.
“…Nothing?”
Evan looked at me, speechless.
“Did something happen to your head or something?”
But more importantly…
[Evan’s ‘Anger’ increased by 13%!]
[Evan’s ‘Resentment’ increased by 25%!]
[Evan’s ‘Frustration’ increased by 11%!]
[Evan’s ‘Patience’ decreased by 19%!]
I caught sight of Evan’s control panel, wildly bouncing.
