Chapter20
“Please don’t tell anyone that I have divine power and make me lady Asil maidservant.”
“……Pik?”
Asil reacted a beat late to the unexpected statement. Everyone present felt the same.
A priest who could use divine power, and one born on the day of the god’s incarnation at that, was extremely rare and a talent who could become a saintess in the future.
For such a being to not only ask to keep the divine power a secret but to volunteer as someone’s maidservant?
“W-wouldn’t it be better to become an official priest rather than a maidservant?”
The attending physician stammered.
However, Selena firmly shook her head.
Half-knowledge is worse than ignorance.
“No, I prefer to be lady Asil maidservant.”
She decided to change her plans since she seemed to have to stay here for the time being.
Everyone would look at her suspiciously, but there was no helping it.
‘One shouldn’t underestimate the restraining force of the original work.’
The original story was about saving Elcai and then falling in love with the male lead in a ha ha ho ho manner.
If she just left this situation alone, she’d become the saintess like in the original and end up stuck to the male lead at every turn.
For Selena, who had resolved to get off the original story, none of it was welcome.
If she had money, she’d buy a false identity and run away, but Selena didn’t have a single penny to her name.
‘In this world, there aren’t many things a young girl can do.’
That’s how the idea of becoming a maid in the ducal household came to her.
However, just in case she became Edinber or Elcai’s maidservant, it might flow according to the original, so she specifically named Asil.
Unaware of these circumstances, Asil blinked with a bewildered expression.
‘Mom said the heroine is a human to be careful of.’
That’s why she told him right away upon meeting that she was the boss, and even said she was fierce.
‘Why does she want to become Asil’s maidservant?’
Edinber voiced the suspicion on Asil’s behalf.
“Why a maidservant of all things? There must be far better positions than that.”
“That’s…… because lady Asil recognized my worth.”
It was time to show off the acting skills that any possessor should basically have.
Placing one hand on her chest, Selena made an expression that evoked pity from those watching.
“I’m from the slums. After losing my parents, I was lucky enough to enter the temple, but no one paid me any attention. They mocked me for being an orphan and pointed fingers at me constantly.”
“Eum.”
“But lady Asil was different. With that brilliant mind of yours, lady Asilrecognized that I had divine power and gave me a precious opportunity.”
At that, everyone’s gazes turned to Asil.
They were eyes curious about how she had known that Selena, an apprentice priest, had divine power.
Clasping her hands tightly, Selena made a pitiable expression.
“If lady Asil hadn’t given me the opportunity, my divine power would have just been used to fatten up someone in the temple. To repay this grace even a little, I want to serve Asil-nim. Please accept me,lady Asil?”
“Pii…….”
Asil, with a dazed face, blinked. Her mind was completely blank from the storm-like proposal.
Edinber, wearing a similarly flustered expression, sorted out the situation.
“This doesn’t seem like something to decide right now, so it would be best to rest first. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Understood.”
Selena, politely bending her knees, inwardly let out a sigh of relief.
She hadn’t even expected to be accepted right away. As long as she wasn’t chased out, it was fine.
‘Before the temple notices, I need to somehow earn money and bolt to a foreign country.’
Thinking that, Selena followed the maid who had come to fetch her and left.
Only after Selena left did the room finally quiet down.
The remaining people, feeling as if a storm had passed through, all let out sighs at once.
Among them, Edinber, who regained his composure first, turned to Asil.
Then, without warning, he knelt on one knee.
“Pik?!”
“I don’t know how you found the priest, but what does that matter. Since you didn’t tell me first, there must be circumstances you can’t speak of.”
Edinber bowed his head deeply.
“I won’t ask anything. Thank you, thanks to you, we could save Lord Elcai.”
Dylan and the attending physician followed his lead.
“You must have had a hard time going to a far place until late at night.”
“Thanks to lafy Asil, it seems she can recover without major aftereffects.”
“Piya…….”
Asil, his her completely stolen by the successive barrage of praise, froze stiff in the pose with his mouth slightly open. Her cheeks automatically flushed red from embarrassment as a bonus.
Elcai, who had been watching that sight fondly, suddenly thought of someone absent from this place and hardened his expression rigidly.
“Viante?”
A heavy silence fell.
Everyone’s gazes turned to Elcai and then dropped to the floor.
Elcai cleared his throat a few times and asked once more.
“Where is Viante.”
But they only exchanged glances with each other, and no one answered.
Feeling an ominous premonition, Elkai raised his voice.
“Surely that guy drank the poison too!”
“No, he’s fine.”
Edinber answered.
The attending physician, who had been gauging the mood, followed up in a voice that crawled in.
“Master Viante…… has gone out hunting.”
“What?”
What the heck? Hunting?
To calm Elcai’s agitation, the attending physician hurriedly added the rest.
“To catch excellent game to pray for Lord Elcai’s speedy recovery-”
“Is that the action of someone praying for recovery? Moreover, breaking the confinement order I gave him?!”
However, it only stoked the anger further.
Elcai, properly enraged, raised his voice.
“No sane person would do that! He offered the liquor first and then what? Hunting? Don’t tell me the poison in the liquor I drank wasn’t put by that guy?”
Dillon and the attending physician, flustered by the talk of filial impiety, shut their mouths.
Only Edinber received it dryly with an expressionless face.
“We’re investigating with all possibilities open.”
He hadn’t said it for fear Elcai would get more excited, but Edinber thought the culprit of this incident was Viante.
From planning the meal to strongly urging the liquor and then not drinking any himself.
Finally, the most likely suspect who put poison in the liquor was the wife of the vassal managing the bear sacred beast enclosure.
She had vanished after the last sighting near the barn on the outskirts of the castle.
‘She shouldn’t have died yet.’
If it were the uncle he knew, he’d try to secretly dispose of the vassal’s wife to avoid having his tail stepped on.
However, since they had attached people to monitor Viante after Elcai collapsed, Edinber speculated that he probably hadn’t killed her yet.
‘He plans to handle her while the surveillance is dispersed during the hunt.’
So, they had to find her somehow before he returned from the hunt.
Now that he was cornered enough to commit even filial impiety, he’d come charging without regard for front or back.
In fact, Edinber had gone to the barn where she was last sighted.
However, that place, long abandoned as ruins, had become a haunt for wild animals, making it not easy to find traces.
Unable to find the suspect, his frustration only grew.
To the point where even such absurd thoughts came to mind.
‘If only I could communicate with animals, I would have asked if they’d seen that person.’
He had to say something that made sense; communicating with animals, indeed.
Even sacred beasts couldn’t communicate with animals of different species. The reason was that their language systems were different.
“Bring that Viante bastard here right now! I’ll let him off just like that!”
“Please calm down. If you get excited, the poison will spread more.”
Amid Edinber lost in his own thoughts, the sounds of Dylan and the attending physician soothing the enraged Elkai could be heard.
He let out a deep sigh inwardly.
* * *
Having succeeded in saving Grandfather, now it was time to find the human who tormented Grandfather and scold them.
Asil recalled what he had sneakily heard from Dillon.
“The suspected culprit is currently missing. She disappeared after being briefly seen at the barn on the outskirts of the castle.”
With even the manpower searching for the priest all deployed, he was confident they’d find her soon.
How could Asil be left out of something like this.
‘Asil will search for the culprit too!’
She planned to find them and scold them. That way, the humans would be scared and not touch Grandfather.
With two strawberries for lunch packed on her back, Asil clenched his front paws tightly and set off proudly.
It was a bonus that she held the baby rabbit’s front paw tightly because it was scary to go alone.
“Piya!” (Let’s go, bunny!)
“Qyu!”
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By Anna 💓
