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Chapter – 03
Dee’s life had been 99% reading the room. She suddenly felt a chill and looked toward the door.
Someone was coming.
Her heart began pounding violently with fear. Rita, knowing nothing, asked:
“Priestess, why do you look so startled?”
Dee couldn’t answer right away and watched the direction of the approaching presence like a small, wary animal.
Then someone very tall entered through the door. From her seated position, she felt he must be over 190 cm.
One of his arms was armored with something that looked heavy.
As soon as she saw his face, Rita threw himself flat on the floor in terror.
“Your Majesty!”
Rita… I thought he was rather timid, but maybe he’s got more guts than I assumed. He can still move in front of that man?
Dee couldn’t move at all.
The smell of dried blood clinging between the gaps of the armor, the feral glare in the man’s eyes—they made him look like a beast fresh from tearing out someone’s throat.
His jet-black, short hair and tightly sealed, iron-like lips radiated intimidation that froze her completely.
He met Dee’s gaze.
What Dee found hardest to adjust to in this world was her eye color.
One of the main gods of the continent’s most widely practiced faith—The Catiline Church—was Roxande, who was said to have light-green eyes. And no one on the continent supposedly had light-green eyes.
Except for the legendary priestess Diana Estrella, who was also described as having them. So people naturally became convinced Dee was the priestess Diana.
“I heard the Amilla Priestess had black hair and red eyes.”
The king spoke calmly, making no threatening movement, yet Dee still could not budge. When she didn’t respond, he spoke again.
“Just as you said, thanks to marching south, not a single soldier was injured. How did you know the enemy was lying in ambush in the north?”
His voice was like the edge of a blade—cold and pressing, making her feel as if a knife was touching her throat.
Still, something in his words reassured her so much that tears welled up. Maybe that damned god of astrology helped her out just once.
Since Rita had called him “Your Majesty,” this man must be Cayle Clayes, the King of Peten.
The very same man who had threatened to execute all the clerics and sent them trembling in fear.
Dee had already heard plenty of descriptions of him. None did him justice.
Behind the murderous aura, his sharply defined features were breathtakingly beautiful. His eyes were a deep navy, like the night sea. His lightly tanned skin, strong jawline, and broad shoulders—all embodied overwhelming masculinity.
She was still marveling at how someone could look like that when Cayle’s sword actually touched her neck.
“Answer.”
Startled, Rita shouted:
“Your Majesty! If you harm the priestess, Lord Roxande will be angered—!”
Rita couldn’t finish because Cayle raised his sword to strike him down.
Dee reacted faster.
“I heard it from the god.”
She had heard from the clerics that the priestess’s status rivaled even the emperor of the empire. So this little newborn kingdom’s king should have shown her proper respect.
Since Cayle had acted rudely first, she figured she could be rude too. Dee’s stern voice made Cayle pause.
Rita, meanwhile, cried in terror. Dee felt like her insides were twisting with fear, but if she backed down now, that child might die—so she couldn’t move away.
Cayle asked with a mocking tone:
“From Lord Roxande?”
“Yes. So if you harm that child now, the god will be enraged.”
“Ridiculous.”
Everyone believed in the priestess who had suddenly appeared. Dee thought that was only natural. She had appeared in a flash of light with the exact hair and eye colors found only in books. How could they not be shocked?
Even the broom that had traveled with her was now enshrined in the temple like a sacred relic. With jewels, no less.
So when someone finally didn’t believe her, Dee felt chills run through her. For the first time in this world, she met someone who doubted her existence.
Cayle slowly leaned down. His shadow swallowed her.
Dee felt she might faint and dug her nails into her thigh to stay conscious. His gaze was suffocating, but she bit her lip and endured. Cayle tilted his head slightly and spoke.
“Then tell me about me, Priestess.”
“……”
“What kind of man am I?”
With his face so close, Dee stopped biting her lip.
She had to get a grip, or both her head and Rita’s might roll. Resolute, she looked directly into Cayle’s eyes and answered, in the same tone she used when evaluating fortunes.
“You have strong sexual stamina.”
“…What?”
Dee didn’t think lines like ‘outwardly cheerful but harboring sadness within’ would work on this man. He didn’t look cheerful externally, and if anyone brought him grief, he’d probably have killed them already.
So she decided to throw something out there.
She continued, feigning calm:
“You don’t know it? It means you’re vigorous at night. But you lack romantic blessing.”
“Romantic blessing?”
“Even with strong stamina, women won’t be drawn to you.”
Though Dee had never even had her first kiss, her profession required her to speak bluntly. Confidence was key if you wanted others to believe what you said.
As she debated pretending to faint, Cayle’s brows knit.
“…How did you know?”
…Ah. He’s insane. Absolutely unhinged. I almost fell for the looks.
Dee wanted to ask which part she got right, but she doubted he would answer.
Cayle slowly straightened up.
“I thought priestesses were pure. Like the clerics.”
Well, technically, I am, you jerk.
“You’re bolder than I expected.”
He gave a faint laugh—like someone amused by an entertaining clown. A cold, belittling laugh.
Whatever he was thinking, Cayle spoke in an unusually relaxed tone to Rita:
“The priestess saved my men, so today I’ll listen to her.”
“R-really, Your Majesty?”
“Never stand in my way again, cleric.”
With that, Cayle turned and strode out. Even after he left, Rita and Dee remained silent. The lingering smell of blood stunned them.
After a long while, Dee came back to her senses.
“That was terrifying…”
“Priestess!”
Rita crawled over and threw himself at her feet.
“Thank you for saving me!”
“Huh? No, well…”
“To say something so embarrassing…! You even said that word just to save me! How can I ever repay this kindness!”
“It’s fine. Really.”
This country prayed to Roxande while eating, sleeping, and even waking up, yet Cayle called the clerics “a bunch of nobodies.” He felt like a foreigner—some kind of atheist.
Or maybe he really isn’t from this land? Can someone not from here even become king?
As she pondered the kingdom’s most dangerous man, Rita interrupted with awe.
“Wow… To think His Majesty had strong stamina but no popularity! I never imagined!”
“Um… should a cleric be saying the word stamina like that…?”
“Come to think of it, with his physical strength, it would be strange if he were weak in that area!”
Please stop saying stamina. Kids repeat everything they hear. I should be setting a better example… the word is way too stimulating.
Dee firmly placed Cayle Clayes as the No.1 person she must avoid.
Rita, now calmer, said earnestly:
“His Majesty doesn’t believe in Lord Roxande. He thinks the clerics are lying. Since His Majesty doesn’t even believe you really appeared with divine light, he probably thinks all of us are conspiring to trick him.”
“He only believes what he sees?”
“Um… rather than that…”
Rita hesitated. Fully trusting the woman who saved his life twice already, he whispered low enough that only Dee could hear:
“He doesn’t trust High Priest Bernadoc.”
The moment he said that, Dee remembered the old man who glared at her on the day she arrived in Peten.
“That highest-ranking old man?”
“Yes. Him. His Majesty is always itching to kill the High Priest. He wouldn’t have executed him immediately even without you here… but people like us, who have no backing—our necks might’ve been cut as an example…”
Rita’s eyes glistened. He really was terrified. Earlier too, Cayle nearly cut off Rita’s head on the spot. If a king was willing to kill them at the slightest annoyance, how anxious must this sixteen-year-old boy have been? Rita continued:
“So please, Priestess… change His Majesty’s mind. Make him understand we clerics aren’t tax thieves.”
“He looked way too scary for that…”
“R-right. Even I’ve been in Peten Temple for a year and still freeze up when I see him… b-but I’m sure you can do it!”
This kid is a bit selfish, isn’t he?
But Dee couldn’t resist Rita’s clear, earnest eyes, shining with pure trust in her. So she answered:
“Fine. I’ll try.”
After all, if she failed to convince the king, her own neck might be at risk too…
Part – 02.
Amilla, the Priestess
Dii decided she should avoid Kyle Kleis at all costs from now on. But it wasn’t easy to avoid running into him when he had just returned to the castle after the war.
To begin with, the royal castle was small—so small it hardly differed in size from the combined quarters of the king, his retainers, and the temple.
Apparently, the entire place had originally been a temple, but when Kyle ascended the throne, he simply split it in half and took a portion for himself. He was unbelievably stingy.
Spotting Kyle from afar during her walk, Dii hurriedly ducked behind a tree. But Kyle, having seen her, walked straight toward it.
The trunk was big enough to hide her body, but her newly lengthened hair kept fluttering wildly in the wind, giving her away.
In a panic, Dii swept her hair over one shoulder and clutched it tightly with both hands.
Kyle approached and bent down toward the trembling Dii, who was pressed against the back of the tree.
“What are you doing here?”
“Ta… taking a walk?”
“Did I ever say you were allowed to wander around on your own?”
Fortunately—or unfortunately—because she’d been caught so instantly, Kyle didn’t even realize she’d been trying to hide.
Now that he was close, unlike the first time they met, he smelled surprisingly pleasant.
Not that he was any less terrifying.
Still, Dii had been through everything since the moment she was born, so she was fairly tough. Planting her fists on her hips, she looked up at Kyle and asked as casually as she could:
“Do I need your permission just to walk around?”
“Of course you do. Who do you think you are, that I’d just let you roam freely?”
‘Everyone else falls for it—why are you the only one who doesn’t…? Well, I guess it’s fortunate for this country’s future that the least gullible one ended up being king.’
Dii grumbled.
“Still, I’m a priestess. Shouldn’t that at least give me the right to walk wherever I want?”
“You and the rest of the temple lot are nothing but tax thieves. There’s no such thing as gods.”
“There are. There really are. I met one.”
Kyle’s brow furrowed at the word met.
“You met one?”
“Yeah.”
She really had met one—and even stepped on him. Considering she’d stepped on the god of astrology, maybe it made sense she’d been thrown in front of such a dangerous man. And since the god had told her about the necessity of marching south, maybe he wasn’t so small-minded after all.
