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Chapter – 52
I said I didn’t trust him, but—
‘…I didn’t think it’d be this bad.’
I stared up at Manette with a dumbfounded look.
“Huh. I’m pretty sure it was here…?”
He tilted his head with an air headed expression and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“Well, you see, I haven’t been here very long. Haha. Ha.”
Even so, how could he not know the way?
“And for some reason, the other priests don’t really talk to me either. They won’t tell me anything even when I ask. Maybe everyone’s just shy.”
…Ah. Now that’s just pitiful.
“Thanks to you, Young Lady, it feels like I’m finally having a conversation with someone again!”
“Mm. Hang in there, Manette.”
“Huh? Why?”
He asked back with a completely innocent face in response to my sincere encouragement.
At this point, I was almost grateful that Manette’s sense of awareness was buried under his feet.
He didn’t seem to realize he was being ostracized at all.
In that case, there was no need to tell him the truth and hurt him.
“Just… hang in there and live well.”
“Haha! Thank you, Young Lady.”
Yeah.
As long as things were good, that was good enough.
After wandering around for who knows how long—
“Ah! That building over there should be where the apprentice priests live!”
Manette pointed at a small, pale-colored building.
Thankfully, it seemed we’d found the right place this time.
“What’s today’s snack?”
“Dried fruit pie, isn’t it?”
“Ugh. I hate that…!”
From afar, we could already hear the lively chatter unique to children.
I stopped walking for a moment.
‘Hoo. I’m nervous.’
I’d be able to meet him soon.
Really, very soon.
That day, watching Calyx walk away with a basket almost as big as his body had been painful.
I felt sorry. Guilty.
It was obvious he wasn’t treated well there, yet I still had to send my benefactor to such a place.
‘Before the regression, Calyx… did everything he could to let me escape.’
I don’t think he set fire to the <Snake’s Den> for my sake alone.
But when I saw him tell me to run—then stand there alone, unwavering—
I knew.
‘That person is prepared to die.’
Even while ready to die, he still let me go.
That was why I tried so hard to live on.
In the end, I still died meaninglessly.
‘No matter what, this time it’s my turn to help.’
Gulp.
I swallowed solemnly and walked toward the sound.
But then—
“This is Lady Pantheive’s Young Lady.”
Huh?
“Lady Pantheive?”
“Wow, she’s really cute.”
“Idiot, that’s rude to a noble!”
“Huh? It is…?”
Among the gathered apprentice priests, Rick’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
‘Why isn’t he here…?’
At the news of Lady Pantheive’s visit, all the apprentice priests who’d been in the dorm rushed out.
“All,” though, didn’t amount to many.
Six in total.
All had youthful faces, around the same age as Calyx.
“Um, so…”
“Yes, Young Lady…!”
“Are these all the apprentice priests here?”
“The apprentice priests…?”
The child who was asked glanced around rapidly.
As if counting heads.
“Um, yes. Everyone here is all of them.”
“…I see.”
Everyone here was all of them.
I looked over their faces again.
But no matter how many times I checked—
“Then why isn’t Rick here…?”
The moment those words slipped out of my mouth, the atmosphere shifted strangely.
Hng. Hah. Uh.
Sighs erupted from several directions at once.
‘What…?’
What was with those reactions?
I narrowed my eyes and carefully scanned them again.
Every time my gaze landed on someone, they hurriedly looked away.
Like people hiding something.
‘There’s definitely something going on…’
My instincts said so.
“Seriously, this is really all of you?”
I asked again, forcing my sternest expression.
The apprentice priests who avoided my gaze hunched their shoulders slightly.
After hesitating for a moment, they nodded.
Once one nodded, the rest followed.
“Alright then. You—over there.”
“…Y-Yes?”
I stretched out my hand and pointed at one of the younger priests.
It was a girl with freckles across the bridge of her nose.
“Guide me around the temple.”
“M-Me? Me?”
“Yeah. You.”
“Um… isn’t the priest beside you already guiding you…?”
The girl glanced toward Manette.
Manette blinked and silently mouthed, Me?
“He’s no good.”
I glanced at him once and shook my head.
“He’s directionally challenged.”
Thanks to my overwhelming persuasiveness, the child eventually came with me.
“What’s your name? I’m Menloni.”
“P-Phoebe.”
“Phoebe? Oooh. How old are you?”
“I’m seven this year.”
“Ooh. Seven means you’re the same age as Rick.”
Flinch.
Phoebe visibly trembled.
Her already pale face turned deathly white.
‘Just as I thought. Big reaction.’
That was why I chose Phoebe as the guide.
She was the easiest to read when shaken—
And she’d been the slowest to nod when I asked:
“Seriously, is this really everyone?”
‘Calyx is definitely in this temple.’
For some reason, he was being treated as if he didn’t exist.
My chest tightened with unease.
His situation might be worse than I’d imagined.
“Oh, this is my first time here. Thanks to you, Priest Phoebe, I get to see a new place.”
Clueless Manette stopped and spoke.
“Manette, this is your first time everywhere….”
“Haha. Like I said earlier, no one really talks to me.”
He answered while looking around, then suddenly turned his head.
“By the way, what’s that building, Phoebe?”
“A building? Where?”
“Over there. Between the trees—there’s a really old-looking building.”
An old building?
I stood on tiptoe and craned my neck.
Hmm. I couldn’t see it.
“Phoebe, is there a building over there too?”
“There really is one, right? Isn’t that so, Priest Phoebe?”
Both Manette’s and my gazes fixed on Phoebe.
But then—
‘…Hm?’
Her reaction was off.
Her small body shook like a leaf. Her face was white as a sheet, and her eyes were reddening as if she were about to cry.
…That reaction could only mean—
“Phoebe.”
“…….”
“Rick is there, isn’t he?”
“I-I’m sorry! I was wrong!”
Looks like I hit the bullseye.
“We had no choice. The senior priests told us to act like that child doesn’t exist. I was scared I’d be punished if I disobeyed….”
Phoebe broke down crying and confessed everything.
“Okay, that’s enough. You can go now. I won’t say anything.”
I sighed and sent the sobbing child away.
With her nose red and tears streaming, she ran off.
“Are you alright?” Manette asked.
“About what.”
“They lied to you. All the apprentice priests.”
“It’s fine. I’m okay.”
Honestly, it irritated me.
Not because they lied to me—but because they’d kept quiet about Calyx.
But—
“They were scared. I get it.”
Most apprentice priests were children with nowhere else to go.
To children with nothing, the words of those in power were absolute.
Before my regression—
The orphanage director had seemed endlessly huge and terrifying to me as a child.
‘Yeah. What fault does a kid have?’
The real problem was—
“…The adults who locked a child up in a place like this.”
I clenched my fist and glared at the old, rundown building before me.
