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Chapter 4
“Thank you so much! You’ll be blessed for this!”
I bowed deeply, again and again, to the High Priest who had granted me permission to enter the Grand Temple.
He tilted his head slightly, looking puzzled, as though my reaction didn’t quite match the “Airel Blandice” he remembered.
“You seem… different, Lady Blandice. Something about your aura.”
“Ah, yes, well…”
I forced an awkward laugh, my heart skipping a beat. I must’ve let my real self show a little too much.
I mean, after begging for permission, who wouldn’t be overjoyed?
Oh—how did I get permission, you ask?
“I’m terribly sorry, High Priest!”
Yes, I groveled. Thoroughly. Like my life depended on it.
It’s unfair, but surviving comes first.
“Erm, as you may have guessed, I’ve had a bit of a… change of heart. One morning, I just woke up and thought—‘I can’t keep living like this!’ Haha…”
“A wonderful change indeed.”
He smiled, gentle and genuine, and for a moment I couldn’t believe my luck.
The High Priest even placed a hand over his chest and bowed reverently.
“Then I shall pray that the grace of the divine guides your new path, my lady.”
“…Thank you, truly.”
The kindness in his words made my nose sting. Aside from Janice, no one in this world had shown me such warmth before.
“May the blessings of the divine be with you, High Priest!”
I smiled so earnestly that he actually chuckled before turning to leave.
“Then I look forward to the day we meet again, Lady Blandice.”
As his white robes disappeared into the temple hall, I felt strangely elated.
Now it was time to move.
My destination—the lake behind the Grand Temple.
Because that’s where I planned to kidnap the male lead.
“Rishid fell into the lake before getting into Seria’s carriage…”
I checked the time.
“Thirty minutes left.”
I’d been able to plan this little operation thanks to a useful bit of intel from my dear older brother, Edwin Blandice.
All I had to do was casually praise the new saintess, and my self-righteous brother had spilled everything in one breath—her schedule, her route, even the carriage’s time of passage.
Ah, sibling hatred truly was the most reliable narrative device.
“Then let’s get going.”
I looked around, made sure no one was watching, took a deep breath—
and sprinted.
Well… tried to sprint.
“Wait—why can’t I run?!”
I’d forgotten one crucial fact.
Lady Airel Blandice, the empire’s only ducal daughter, had the muscle tone of a cooked noodle.
Back on Earth, I’d run every morning to catch the bus, but here?
My body rebelled before I’d even covered a hundred meters.
By the time I reached the lake, gasping and drenched in sweat, thirty minutes had just passed.
I wiped my forehead and scanned the area.
Trees. Water. Bushes.
Then—rustle.
I turned toward the sound.
“There you are!”
A tuft of black hair poked out from the bushes—short, shiny, unmistakably his.
But before I could move, Seria’s carriage appeared in the distance, rolling straight toward us.
“No—!”
Panic shot through me. I lunged forward without thinking.
“I’m so sorry, Your Grace!”
And just like that, I scooped the shrunken duke into my pocket.
Granted, I also tripped, tumbled, and rolled across the ground like a rag doll, but the mission was technically a success.
“Airel Blandice.”
The voice came low and cold, slicing through the air.
Shrrk.
That was definitely the sound of a blade being drawn.
“Have you grown tired of living, to commit a crime against the royal bloodline?”
I swallowed hard and forced my shaking legs to hold me up.
This was it. I had actually done it. I had kidnapped the male lead.
“The point of no return.”
“I-I’m sorry!”
For shoving you into my bag before you could meet your destined heroine, that is.
“But I swear I’m only trying to help you, Your Grace!”
…And maybe keep myself from dying in the process.
When I finally dared to look down—
“Wait… he’s adorable?”
I froze.
Inside the bag, a pair of gleaming crimson eyes blinked up at me—round, bright, beautiful.
Sure, the novel had described him as cute after being cursed,
but this was criminally adorable.
And handsome. Oh, so handsome.
“He looks like a doll. A very expensive, very punchable doll.”
His inky black hair glimmered like silk, his sculpted features as fine as porcelain.
I had to physically stop myself from poking his soft-looking cheeks.
“Lady Blandice,” he said coolly, “you intend to help me?”
The tiny sword he brandished—more like a toothpick at that size—glinted dangerously.
His dark hair swayed as he tilted his head, his crimson eyes narrowing.
But honestly?
“He’s too cute to be scary.”
That was the truth.
“Y-Yes! I thought if people saw you like this, it would be bad, so I decided to hide you first!”
I turned away from the approaching carriage and tried to sound calm, whispering my prepared line.
“Did you know, Your Grace? The one escorting that carriage is my brother, Edwin Blandice.”
“…Edwin. The Marquis’s son?”
“Yes.”
The name alone carried weight.
The Blandice family was known as the Sword of the Empire, sworn protectors of the royal house.
Except—the current emperor hated his nephew Rishid, the Duke of Epentherion, fearing he might steal the throne.
Which meant: Blandice and Epentherion? Mortal enemies.
Rishid and Edwin had attended the same academy and were infamous rivals.
In the original story, Rishid had even jumped from the carriage the moment he saw Edwin’s face.
So I lowered my voice and said earnestly,
“No one saw you except me, so don’t worry. Whatever happened to you, I’ll help you find the one responsible.”
Silence.
I glanced down at him again. His crimson eyes had narrowed into sharp slits.
“Your plan?”
“…Excuse me?”
“How, exactly, do you intend to ‘help’ me, Lady Blandice?”
His tone was glacial.
I darted a look toward Seria’s carriage—it was right beside us now. Just a few more seconds.
“W-Well… first, I’ll take you to my estate. You’ll be safe there, I promise! Away from prying eyes.”
That part, at least, was true.
He was soaked from head to toe, and so was my poor bag.
“I should’ve brought a handkerchief…”
The thought of him catching a cold in that tiny body made my stomach twist.
His next words, however, hit like a dagger.
“The Blandice estate,” he repeated icily.
“You mean to bring me—like this—into enemy territory?”
“That’s not—”
“You just named Edwin Blandice yourself. If you walk into that den of vipers carrying me, what’s to stop you from betraying me? From handing me over?”
“I—What?”
His suspicion came relentless, cutting through my excuses before I could even form them.
He gave a cold, humorless laugh.
“If the Lady of Blandice hadn’t so recklessly seized me, I would have been in that carriage by now, requesting purification from the High Priest. Instead—”
He looked up, expression sharp as glass.
“You’ve graciously ruined my plan.”
The mockery in his voice made me flinch.
And for the first time, I truly felt it—
I may have just kidnapped the most dangerous man in the empire.
