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Chapter 30
Part – 08 Clayce (2)
After leaving the temple, Dee headed to the accommodations prepared by the Empire with Stephanie. Still unsettled by Kyle’s strange reaction, Dee momentarily forgot about it as soon as she stepped inside and shouted,
“S-Stephanie! This place is heaven!”
“Yes! This place is heaven!”
Stephanie’s eyes sparkled as well, having completely forgotten the hellish carriage ride.
All the priests, including Ritader, had gathered at the Catiline Temple to perform funeral rites throughout the night, and Dee and Stephanie were to stay in a small, lovely building located in Kyle’s private garden within the Imperial Palace.
“Wow… this is a building Kyle owns….”
Because the Diana Priestess was coming, the room had been exquisitely decorated with delicately embroidered lace, beautiful enough to seem like something from a dream.
When Dee flopped down onto the lavish bed—something that didn’t even exist in Pethen—Stephanie sat beside her and began removing the ornaments from her hair one by one. Dee muttered,
“Stephanie, I can handle this myself. You should go home now and come back when we return to Pethen.”
“Huh? R-Really?”
“Yeah. I’m planning to let everyone go home while we’re here.”
At the thought of finally being able to visit home, Stephanie spoke excitedly,
“Thank you! But you’ll be bored without me, Priestess… Ah!”
She clapped her hands as if she’d just had a great idea.
“There’s the former estate of Count Estrella at the edge of the capital—the family Diana Priestess lived in. It’s been hundreds of years since she passed away, so the Estrella family is gone, but there’s still one priest guarding the old house. How about visiting there tomorrow?”
“Oh, that’s a great plan. I’ll go after the funeral ends at dawn.”
“Yes! And if you’re still bored, come visit my house too. I’ll cook something delicious!”
Stephanie chattered happily for a while before packing her things and returning home.
That night, Kyle was plagued by nightmares.
He dreamed of the day he was eight years old, when Jason had dragged his subordinates along and beaten him until he was nearly dead. No one could stop Jason, the Emperor’s son. The horrifying taste of hot blood constantly flowing down his throat felt painfully real.
But even worse was the sight of ten-year-old Cyan Clayce, chattering cheerfully with his unnaturally pale, pretty face, standing beside Kyle as he lay wrapped in bandages.
“Thanks to you, Jason beat you up, and you got beaten by the adults instead. I feel great.”
“……”
“You’re too strong for me to hit. I hate both Jason and you, you know….”
At that moment, Kyle woke up. Outside, the sky was already tinged blue—it was dawn.
“Damn it.”
Kyle gasped for breath. Whenever Cyan appeared in his dreams, it was never anything but a nightmare.
He’d been trash from the very start. Back then, Kyle hadn’t been sure—but now…
Kyle rubbed his face with his hand, utterly drained.
The reason he’d reacted so sensitively when he first thought Dee might be one of Bernadok’s planted agents was because of the trauma Cyan had caused him.
As Kyle stepped out of his room, Dee was standing right in front of him. Startled, he muttered without thinking,
“There’s a con artist here too.”
Dee scoffed with an annoyed expression.
“Yeah, sure. Good morning to you too.”
“…I had a nightmare.”
“What kind of nightmare? Did your brother show up or something?”
Dee’s sharp question—remembering Kyle’s abnormal reaction the day before—made him hesitate. Then he nodded.
“When we were kids, Jason showed up once, beaten to hell and back, covered in wounds. I lost it and went to pick a fight with Jason, and ended up getting beaten badly by his men.”
“That bastard Jason….”
“But it turns out Jason never beat Cyan at all. He lied to me. He’d asked a mage to create wounds on his face.”
“What? Why?”
“Well… Cyan hated both me and Jason, so he set things up so we’d beat each other. That was when he was ten. He just kept escalating as he grew up.”
Dee stared blankly for a moment, then belatedly remembered the fruit drink she was holding and handed the glass to Kyle.
“Oh. I came to bring you this.”
Kyle accepted the cold drink and eyed her suspiciously.
“Poison?”
“No! It’s meant to comfort you!”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
As Kyle drank, Dee looked up at him and said,
“At last, I poison you.”
Kyle choked and burst into coughing. When he glared at her with a twisted expression, she grinned.
“You’re the one who asked if it was poison.”
“…That was a joke.”
“So was that, you jerk.”
“You don’t usually do stuff like this.”
“It’s comfort. Comfort, I said. Anyway, I’m just going to attend the funeral briefly, then head to the Estrella estate. Want to come?”
“No. I need to watch Cyan get buried.”
Dee nodded. She vaguely thought that today being Cyan’s burial day was probably why Kyle had that nightmare.
After briefly showing her face at the funeral, Dee slipped out quickly and headed straight for the Estrella estate.
Just as Stephanie had said, a single priest was guarding it. The moment Dee—blonde, with light green eyes—stepped down from the carriage, he burst into tears and ran toward her.
“T-This can’t be! Priestess Diana!”
“May I look around inside? I want to recall memories from my past life.”
“O-Of course! To think I’d live to see the Priestess with my own eyes….”
Sniffling with emotion, the priest pulled out a key.
“Priestess Diana told me never to show her belongings to anyone else—but since it’s you yourself, it should be fine.”
Leaving Dee’s entourage behind, the priest led her to the innermost room of the estate—Diana Estrella’s room. His hands trembled as he unlocked the door.
“I hope you can recover your memories, Priestess! Please take anything you need!”
“Yes. If I recall my past life, it’ll all be thanks to you.”
Dee spoke shamelessly and stepped inside Diana Estrella’s room. Compared to the temple in Pethen, it was quite modest.
Noticing an extremely old playing card on the table, Dee examined it closely. The priest said,
“They say Priestess Diana always won at card games and took people’s money!”
“Really?”
Dee tilted her head and picked up the card.
Then she frowned, flipped it over—and froze in shock. Looking closely, there was a barely noticeable marking on it, clearly meant to be recognizable only to the person who made it.
Dee understood instantly.
The legendary priestess, Diana Estrella, had been a con artist.
For the first time, Dee genuinely wondered if she really had been Diana Priestess in her past life. Though if it were her, she wouldn’t have used such a crude trick.
The priest excitedly pulled out another item.
“This is the chart Priestess Diana used for astrology!”
“Th-This is it…?”
…Diana, you jerk.
She didn’t even know astrology as well as I do now, and she was scamming people?
Realizing that Diana Estrella had been a con artist so great she became a legend, Dee seriously contemplated her past life—then shook her head.
No. That couldn’t be. A con artist reincarnating as another con artist—what kind of cursed fate was that?
While Dee was reeling, the priest pointed to a shelf.
“Oh! Priestess! That glass orb! You always stroked it while performing divinations!”
“D-Don’t tell me the thing you were best at was…”
“Predicting whether someone would have a son or a daughter!”
It’s me! That bastard is absolutely me! I was a legendary con artist in my past life?!
Though her worldview was crumbling, Dee calmly slipped the playing cards into her pocket. At this point, she figured she might as well swindle some money out of Stephanie, the rich girl.
As Dee exited the room, she ran into someone standing in front of her. When she saw who it was, she frowned. It was Jason Depp.
“Jason? Why are you here?”
“I wanted to know more about you. Why are you here?”
“I came to learn more about myself. Why else?”
Jason grinned and wrapped his hand around Dee’s.
“Our Priestess keeps popping up in my mind—I couldn’t sleep. I missed you.”
“You womanizer. Let go, or I’ll curse you.”
“…I’d at least like to know why you hate me so much.”
“I just don’t like you. You smell way too much like a con artist, and I don’t know why.”
“That’s unfair.”
“But shouldn’t you not be here right now?”
“Do you know how long it takes to bury a royal? One shovelful of dirt, priest bows. Another shovelful, prayer. It’s unbearable.”
Grumbling, Jason tugged Dee’s hand.
“You’re heading back to the palace, right? I’ll take you. Let’s talk on the way.”
“My grandma said not to follow strangers. And seriously, why are you so handsy?”
“Because you’re cute. Your face is my type.”
“Don’t lie. I know I’m not your type.”
“Come on. I believed in your divine power—if you’re that wrong, my faith drops.”
When Dee tried to pull away, Jason tightened his grip and pulled her into an embrace, speaking cheerfully.
“You read my mind, but not perfectly, huh?”
“I read it perfectly! Let go! Why are you so rough? You’re not popular in the south either, are you?”
“I’m better than Kyle.”
“Does it make you happy to win by comparing yourself to him?”
“…You’re kind of cruel.”
It was a relief she’d come with an entourage.
Though Dee acted calm, being alone with Jason made her uncomfortable and suffocated.
She finally managed to shake him off and headed toward the estate’s entrance. Only after seeing her group did she ask,
“By the way, Kyle—he must’ve liked the legend of Priestess Diana since he was young, right?”
“Yeah. He was always stoic, so you couldn’t tell, but whenever Diana Priestess came up, he’d pretend not to listen while listening very hard.”
Jason nodded as he reminisced. Dee’s lips curled into a mischievous smile.
“Good. When we get back, I’ll corrupt Kyle’s innocence.”
“Huh?”
Jason jumped in alarm.
“Y-You jerk, what are you planning to do to my cousin?”
“What? I’m just going to tell him the truth—that Priestess Diana couldn’t even do astrology and was actually a con artist.”
“Oh. That kind of innocence… Don’t phrase it so misleadingly.”
“What did I say?”
As Dee shot him a look, Jason unconsciously met her eyes and smiled with them. His appearance was ordinary, but his gaze and smile were strikingly distinctive.
“Jason, you don’t look that much like them, but your vibe is way too similar to Kyle and Jin.”
“Must be strong genes from our fathers.”
“Yeah. I mean, just looking at Kyle’s father, he totally looks like someone with dominant genes—”
She stopped mid-sentence as Kyle’s story about Cyan Clayce suddenly came back to her.
‘He asked a mage to create wounds on his face.’
She looked at Jason. Every time he acted too much like Kyle or Jin, she’d thought he felt like their real brother.
Realizing the absurdity of the thought she’d just had, Dee burst into quiet laughter…
