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Chapter 34
“Escaped quite flamboyantly.”
Charles muttered as he looked at the room whose entrance was blown wide open, leaving the interior completely exposed.
He had expected it, but the cage that had lost its owner looked even more wretched than before it ever held one.
Charles turned around.
There stood Poin, trembling with his head bowed low and his hands clasped respectfully together.
“She’s gone.”
“……”
“I believe I said she was a child I cherished.”
Poin’s trembling intensified.
Resting his chin on his hand, Charles let out a sigh.
“What am I supposed to do about the barrier now?”
“……”
“Anyway. You worked hard all this time.”
Two gold coins left Charles’s hand and were placed into Poin’s palm.
Meeting the terrified eyes staring back at him, Charles smiled softly.
“She couldn’t have gone far, so when you find her, be sure to let me know.”
“There is something I must report to Your Majesty.”
About two months earlier,
Raul, the priest in charge of the Imperial Chapel, had come to see the Emperor, saying he had a confidential matter to discuss.
The place Raul guided him to was the left side of the chapel’s dais.
It was a hidden space concealed behind a hanging tapestry.
Inside, an Idmanta measuring device stained completely black was operating with a low humming sound.
“The Idmanta measuring device… It hasn’t shut down for over ten days now. As Your Majesty knows, this means—”
Raul looked troubled.
If it were merely a malfunction, they could suspect the machine itself.
But Idmanta was no ordinary mineral.
It was a flawless divine mineral bestowed during the age when Seikan communicated with humans.
It was fundamentally different from the artificial holy stones created by humans.
Thus, claiming that a measuring device made of Idmanta had malfunctioned was tantamount to blasphemy.
Having roughly grasped the situation, Alrend asked Raul,
“Do you have any suspicions?”
“That is… There are traces of the chapel’s secret passage having been used once.”
“The passage behind the knight statue.”
“And also…”
Raul placed his hand on the Idmanta measuring device and infused it with holy power.
White letters appeared across the black surface of the device.
[Unable to measure the quantity of new holy power.]
[Measurement result: – ]
“When we attempt to measure holy power, this message appears.”
“……”
Alrend stared at the displayed text.
The first message was something even he had never seen before, but the second was familiar—something he had seen recently.
The result that appeared when measuring the Saintess’s holy power.
Silence fell.
Neither of them could easily speak.
“Your Majesty, perhaps—”
“Priest.”
Alrend stopped Raul mid-sentence.
It was too hasty to suspect that the Saintess was involved in this matter.
Even the fleeting thought that crossed his own mind—What if the measurement of the Saintess’s holy power was incorrect?—was dangerous.
“At this moment, nothing is certain.”
“This old man nearly misspoke.”
Raul nodded and closed his mouth.
Alrend asked him,
“How many people know about this?”
“Hefferson, who manages the chapel, is aware, but he does not know about the messages appearing.”
“The only son of Baron Duman.”
“He is trustworthy. A man of exceptional faith. If told to remain silent, he will not speak of this to anyone.”
“Good. Priest Raul, regarding this matter—”
“I understand. There must not be more people who know than there already are.”
Recalling that incident, Alrend stood on the deck of a passenger ship, facing the night wind.
Under the softly glowing moonlight, his silver hair shimmered like rippling waves.
His pale blue eyes, lighter in color than usual, reflected the vast, endless ocean before him.
Having used Chobi’s dye, an air of mystery surrounded him.
Though he had removed the Emperor’s attire and dressed as an ordinary noble to conceal his identity, his innate beauty and dignified presence were impossible to hide.
As a result, rumors spread throughout the passenger ship that a noble of hidden pedigree was aboard.
Alrend, the subject of those rumors, paid them no mind.
The calm sea stretched endlessly, the horizon invisible.
If the Saintess had gone down to the Kingdom of Bonia, she would have crossed this sea as well.
“……”
Alrend continued to locate the Saintess through the Guide’s Eye.
The ring that had remained in the same place for two days had begun to move again a few hours earlier.
‘So then.’
Crunch.
Alrend gripped the railing tightly.
‘The Saintess must be alive.’
Determination seeped from his tightly pressed lips.
“Liri, wipe over here too!”
“Yes, coming! I’m going!”
Holding a mop-like brush, I scrubbed the floor and ran across the deck.
Last night.
Blowing the door open and escaping thanks to my one and only cash item (rental) was great.
Finding a civilian house afterward was also great, but—
There was one thing I had forgotten.
‘I’m flat broke.’
Not only could I not afford transportation to Zendal, I didn’t even have money to buy food right now.
If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve sewn an emergency pocket inside my maid uniform.
Sniff. I miss it.
My small and precious 7 silver and 3 copper.
Luckily, the civilian house I found was in Label, a port city and the capital of the Kingdom of Bonia.
After leaving the villa, penniless, I wandered the streets at night with nowhere to stay.
“Hey, kid, get inside and go to sleep already!”
I thought I misheard, but he was talking to me.
The man picking a fight was a rough-looking middle-aged guy who had stepped outside a tavern to get some air after drinking.
“……I’m not a kid, you know?”
“Even so, go home and sleep!”
“I don’t have a home!”
“Huh? You a beggar?”
He told me to eat first and ordered food for me at the tavern.
Then the conversation shifted to my destination.
“Zendal? We’re heading there too.”
“Really?”
Turns out the man was the captain of a ship delivering goods to Zendal, and the others drinking with him were his crew.
“Captain, can you take her with us?”
“She can work off the fare with odd jobs. Liri!”
“Ooh—did we get a new youngest member? Work hard!”
Thanks to the kind-hearted captain and crew, I was able to board the mid-sized sailing ship Daedern headed for Zendal.
The condition was that I’d handle cleaning and various chores, but when you have no money, paying with labor is only natural. Yep.
“In just a few days, His Majesty’s face will be right in front of me…”
“Done yet?”
I was grinning while dumping dirty bucket water into the sea when a deep voice cut in.
I turned my head.
Bronze skin tanned by years under the sun, a solid, muscular body built from life at sea.
Showen—a bright, handsome man brimming with healthy charm—was walking toward me.
Twenty years old this year, the same age as me, he was the captain’s son.
He’d started sailing at five and was now said to be among the top five veterans aboard the ship.
“Showen, put up a sign here on the wooden floor. Something like ‘Caution: Slippery.’”
“Why?”
“Because I cleaned it so perfectly that people might slip.”
“Oh wow. Aren’t you something.”
Showen mocked me, but look at this spotless deck!
Most of my experience in Zendal wasn’t pretending to be a Saintess—it was chapel cleaning.
“Even if I look like this, I was the second best worker at my previous job—”
Grrrrrk.
“……You hungry?”
It sounded like thunder, but it was my stomach.
I quietly nodded at Showen’s question.
Maybe I cleaned too enthusiastically.
Even though I’d eaten dinner, I must’ve burned through the calories quickly.
“Then eat this for now.”
“What is it?”
I untied the bundle Showen handed me.
It was dried fish cut into bite-sized pieces.
Another sailor had given me some earlier in the day—it tasted like dried pollock and was pretty good.
“Ooh. Can I really have this? Aren’t you going to eat it?”
“If you don’t want it, never mind.”
“Thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”
When you’re hungry, you can’t afford to be picky.
Chewing on the dried fish, I looked around the deck.
“It’s quiet. Did everyone finish work and go somewhere?”
“Tomorrow’s departure day. Since it’s the last night on land, they probably went out for drinks.”
“After drinking that much yesterday?”
“If they collapsed from that, they wouldn’t be sailors. I’m going after I finish organizing the sails. Want to come?”
“Ugh. No.”
I’d only ever drunk alcohol once in my life, and it wasn’t a good memory.
A club senior who’d barely passed his retake called us over when we’d just turned twenty.
We were excited to drink for the first time, and the senior was thrilled about getting into college.
None of us knew our limits and just kept pouring it down.
The next day, we cried. The senior who paid for everything cried too.
My mind was fine, but my head felt like it was splitting open, my vision swayed, and every five minutes I was sprinting to the bathroom to hug the toilet.
I swore then and there.
If I ever drank again, I wouldn’t be human.
“What if I get a hangover? Plus seasickness on top of that. I refuse to step into that disaster.”
I firmly shook my head while crossing my arms in an X.
“You don’t have to drink. Just come eat some side dishes. Will that be enough for you?”
Showen glanced at the few remaining pieces of dried fish in my hand.
What do you think my stomach is, anyway? Of course that’s not enough. But—
“……I don’t have money.”
“Everyone knows you’re a beggar. Let’s go. I’ll pay for your share.”
“Showen, sir. You’re a real adult.”
They say you never turn down free food.
Someone willing to buy me a meal despite my dust-only wallet—he even looked like a financially stable adult, awkwardly proud of himself.
We left the dock and headed into town.
At the entrance of an alley lined with brightly lit shops, Showen stopped.
“Ah.”
When I turned around, Showen stood there with his face scrunched up seriously.
“What? Bathroom?”
“No. The captain told me to bring something from the ship, but I forgot.”
“Oh. Want me to come with you?”
“It’ll be faster if I go alone. The tavern’s right there anyway.”
Showen pointed toward the tavern, noisy chatter spilling out into the street.
A bandit-looking man stepped outside, laughing loudly with his group.
“Oh, that’s the captain.”
“Looks like everyone’s there. Go inside and eat. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
I was hungry, and the tavern was right in front of me.
Showen ran back the way we’d come, and I headed toward the tavern.
If not for the voice behind me.
“…Saintess.”
Huh? Me?
I whipped my head around.
Unlike the wide, bustling marketplace, a narrow, dark alley with no visible end stretched to my left—and from it came a faint voice.
“Please… help me.”
