Chapter 26: CH 26

“You’re leaving.”

I spoke to him calmly, trying not to shake my voice.

“I was just thinking of buying a village.”

I improvised and told him.

“I’ve had enough rest here, but I still need a place to rest personally.”

A moment of heavy silence passed between us.

Will he believe it?

My heart was pounding in the intense tension.

“A villa…”

After a while, his lips twitched and he let out a low voice.

His golden eyes gazing at me were shining brightly.

“Alright. Sometimes it’s not bad to spend time alone.”

I nodded reflexively.

And after a while I realized something was wrong with what he was saying.

“Yes?”

As I opened my eyes wide and looked at him asking, he smiled softly.

He was so beautiful that I was speechless when a smile crossed his handsome face, but his smile just made me get a chill on my back.

“I won’t interfere with your hobbies, as it will be frustrating to be alone in the temple.”

He immediately licked his lips and said.

“But always be careful when you go out. I’ll put more soldiers on Dwayne.”

“You don’t need to…!”

“Your body is precious.” He interrupted me.

I don’t know what kind of emotion there was inside the dark gold eyes that met my eyes, but the harsh yet profound feeling I felt in those gazes made me goosebump.

Knowing that I’m a fake saintess better than anyone, how could he say such a thing?

“I can’t tolerate even a single scratch.”

Suddenly I remembered the time when I received the blessing of Odyssey.

Since then, Reihausd’s reaction was different from before.

“I don’t think… it’s to that extent, though…”

I added a silly laugh to the end of my words and shook my head.

The words of this man who worried about my body more than me were awkward and strange.

“Be careful. Ariel.”

After a moment of silence, he said with a small smile again.

“Then take a rest. I’m leaving.”

After he left, I put my hand on my chest and calmed it down for a while.

Reihausd is weird.

‘It’s definitely weird. He wasn’t that kind of character.’

Now, he had become a man overflowing with a very decadent and dangerous feeling in every word.

At that moment, a flashing chat window appeared in front of me.

[The God of Knowledge, Hessed, speaks to the Odyssey.]

[The God of Love, Odyssey, complains that the validity of the blessing has already expired, and that it’s not his fault.]

[The God of Art, Mond, recommends collecting Reihausd aesthetically.]

I exhaled as I felt so overwhelmed.

[The God of Knowledge, Hessed, declares that he will buy a stake in Cass Lloyd.]

I put my hand on my forehead for a moment in the thoughtless conversation.

“Excuse me. I have no intention of dating, you know.”

My goal from the beginning was to escape and become a self-made person.

I had no intention of filming a romance with the three men by becoming the female lead or taking her place.

Of course, all three of them are incredibly handsome men, but because I knew they weren’t mine.

If I rode the bad route as in the original story, I’d die, but I’m so picky that I didn’t want to die twice.

As death was such a deep trauma that I can still vividly feel the feeling of a knife in my stomach.

However, the Gods didn’t seem to hear me anymore.

[The God of Love, Odyssey, shakes Kyle’s stake in his hand.]

[The God of Destruction, Ciel, shyly supports Odyssey.]

I brushed my hair again. Gods. Are you already buying the male lead stocks?

***

The day went by quickly, and from the afternoon the temple became lively.

This is inevitable because tomorrow is the start of the Elium Rose Festival.

During the week-long Rose Festival, the flower garden that Elium boasts is open to the public and a night market is held every night.

People from the provinces line up to visit the Temple of Elium, and of course, the schedule of the Saintess, the owner of the temple, is full.

But am I not a fake saintess!

Reihausd excluded me as if it wasn’t mandatory. He used the excuse that the Saintess’ body is weak.

So I was making plans to go out for a while.

I’ve been continuing to live shaky days ever since I possessed this body, but shouldn’t there be a time to rest?

“Bless me. Ciel.”

[The God of Destruction, Ciel, shyly blesses you.]

One of the common clichés in romance-fantasy novels is that the female lead goes out to a festive night market and she gets humiliated.

As the male lead saves the female lead who has been in trouble, love sprouts and whatever.

But I had no intention of showing any gaps.

Ciel’s blessing will last about three hours, within which I will return to the temple. Perhaps if someone thinks I’m easy, it’s them who’re going to suffer.

Of course, I didn’t intend to become the King of Destruction who destroyed everything I touched.

Because I’ve been accustomed to the blessing and learned how to control the blessing of destruction so that I didn’t break anything with my hand.

In other words, I can only destroy what I really want to destroy.

“Daisy, are you ready?”

“If the High Priest knew, wouldn’t you need to pay respects?”

Daisy was a little anxious, yet she couldn’t erase the curiosity from her eyes.

Perhaps there are no priestesses who don’t want to go to the night market during the festival.

“He’s probably busy with guests.”

I had been told that we would have guests coming from the Imperial Family and key figures from abroad.

Maybe they don’t have time to care about the Saintess, who is alone in her room.

[The God of Love, Odyssey, asserts that one’s true love is to be found even without opening one’s eyes.]

I turned around once in front of the mirror, ignoring the window that suddenly appeared.

I borrowed Daisy’s clothes, and since she’s smaller than me, it felt a little tight, but not bad. Here I braided my hair roughly and I looked like an ordinary commoner.

“It’s just plain clothes, but you’re still so beautiful.”

Daisy made a fuss and said. I also thought so the moment I looked in the mirror.

Anyway, the fun outing began.

***

It was the eve of the festival’s opening, but the night market was already as crowded as any other downtown.

More than a hundred tents and small stores were open in what would have been just a square, and several lanterns were hung along the tent.

The sounds of joyful musical instruments and songs were heard, and the fragrant smell of food was carried in the wind, tickling the tip of my nose.

Yes, it was the real life I wanted to enjoy.

“Saintess, they’re selling glazed sweets over there. Whoa.”

The place I was led to by Daisy’s hand was piled up with transparent candies. The candies were as clear as real glass, which surprised me.

“How much is a bag?”

“It’s 1 franc.”

I bought two bags of glass cookies, opened one, and gave it as a gift to Daisy.

Daisy received the bag of cookies and her eyes twinkled in excitement.

“Sainteessss.”

“Eat it. It’s really sweet.”

Unlike the crude snacks eaten at the temple, it was a sweet candy with a high sugar content. It melts when you eat half of it, but it’s highly addictive, so I keep getting my hands on it.

We wandered around the night market, taking turns eating candies.

Of course, as the times were different from the present, there were no disputes at all.

One of them was due to the legend of young people that if they met a mate during the Rose Festival in Elium, they would even get married.

“Daisy, you’re still following me, aren’t you?”

At my words, Daisy nodded nervously and hurried her steps. There were about three groups of people talking to me as they wanted me to play with them.

Two of the groups went cool with my refusal, one didn’t. So that fat, short guy and the skinny, bald guy are following us all the time.

“What should we do, Saintess?”

Daisy’s complexion didn’t look good when she saw the men persistently following us after a few laps already.

“First, let’s lure them to a secluded place.”

Daisy responded with a look of surprise at my words.

“Then what if they try to do something bad!”

“Don’t worry about that.”

I spoke confidently, and Daisy, although still suspicious, followed me.

After a while, as we walked to the dim vacant lot where the furniture was piled up to prepare for the festival, the guys who were following us followed even closely.

I stopped in the vacant lot and turned around, and I heard the voices of people laughing.

“Are you ready to play a little now? Pretty ones?”

The Pole-like Man shrugged with a muffled voice as if the glass cookie he ate earlier was about to rise.

Daisy said as she stopped in front of me with a pale face.

“To whom do you dare act insolently?”

At Daisy’s words, the Fatty made a soft, windy sound. If you put on commoners’ clothes and say something like this, of course, it wouldn’t work.

“Daisy, wait a minute.”

I lowered Daisy’s arm and walked closer to the Pole-like Man.

If nice words don’t work, in the end, violence will be the only answer.

‘Ciel, have mercy on me.’

I reached out and slightly adjusted the power of the blessing weakly, then gently pushed his chest.

He was, of course, not afraid of a woman’s non-threatening gestures. And…

“…!”

Naturally, the man fell to the floor.

I’ve experimented with wood several times, so he’s probably still breathing.

He might have peed a little, though.

“Hey! Are you okay? What! Hey! Open your eyes!”

When the Fragile Man collapsed, the Fatty was startled and slapped the Fragile Man on the cheek, eager to wake him up.

But the Fragile Man rolled his eyes, passed out, and couldn’t get up.

“Gasp. What happened! Did the Saintess do it? You are so amazing!” Daisy’s voice came from behind me.

I raised my hand again to make the Fatty faint.

But at that moment. I heard a voice I had heard somewhere.

“You’re using great techniques. Saintess.”

…Oh. Oh God.

As I turned around, I saw Cass Lloyd, who shone with his dark blue eyes, watching me with his arms crossed.