Chapter 157

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*TL: I want to say it once again, since this novel’s story is very complicated with a complex writing, the  chapters will only get more and more complicated the further we go, I’ll try my best to to make it clear but I won’t promise anything. There are detailed spoilers from novel updates forum, you can read there if you’re confused.

*First POV*

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When Lesche saw my clenched fists, he burst out laughing as if he had given up. He grabbed my wrist and placed it against his chest.

“If you’re going to hit me, hit me here.” (Lesche)

“Do you think I won’t hit you?”(Seria)

I punched Lesche in the chest. My wrist felt a little tingling. I asked, a little concerned.

“Does it hurt?” (Seria)

“What do you think? I think instead of hitting me you just hurt yourself instead.” (Lesche)

“Is your body made out of stone?” (Seria)

“If my body is of stone, then your fist is of cotton.” (Lesche)

Lesche said lamely and pushed his hand into my fist to open it. Then, he brought my wrist to his mouth, licked it with his tongue and bit it gently. My shoulders jolted at the stinging sensation.

“It doesn’t hurt to bite this much.”

“…….”

I tried to follow Lesche and bite his wrist, but gave up. Because somehow that didn’t seem to be the end of it. When I stayed still, Lesche asked.

“Seria.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it scary to go to a place like that alone?”

“It’s not too scary.”

“You were shaking and trembling behind me.”

“All I could think was that something was about to pop out….”

I said that, but eventually I confided in him honestly.

“No, I’m glad that you were there with me. …I really almost fainted today.”

Without saying a word, Lesche looked at me and placed a slow, heavy kiss on my cheek. His pressed lips made me lively.

Soon, Lesche lay down beside me and stayed there for a long time. His fingertips tickled my skin as they passed by.

“How did he take me there?” (Lesche)

“Yes, that’s right. Did Tuban take you? Let’s try experimenting again.”

“If you don’t have to go right away, you shouldn’t go.”

“Oh, I see. You’re tired, aren’t you?”

“It’s not that.”

Lesche smiled faintly.

‘’I don’t want to experience that feeling again when you close your eyes this soon.”

“…….”

I don’t know how Lesche felt while waiting for me here when I was in Tuban’s world. Was the kiss he gave me when I was asleep a sign of impatience? Why does this man not hide his heart from me? Why is he always.….

I felt sick. Lesche, this man.

Does he love me?

“Seria?”

The expression on Lesche’s face as he stared at me instantly became distorted.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“……what?”

“Why are you crying?”

“Me?”

I hurriedly touched my face at Lesche’s words. Indeed, my eyes were a little wet. Why would I want to know how Lesche was feeling and why was I crying…? I smiled awkwardly.

“I guess because I was afraid today.”

“…….”

Lesche’s hand reached for my neck. I was puzzled as he grabbed the circlet on my neck.

“What are you doing? Lesche? Lesche!”

Startled, I seized Lesche’s hand. Because the gold was distorted under his hand. I thought the circlet was going to be ruined. Lesche smiled, keeping his distorted expression intact. It was a smile that was not in the least bit pleasant.

“I’ll go.” (Lesche)

“What?”

“That damn thing wouldn’t scare you so much if I opened his bloody throat.”

I explained to Lesche, in a cold sweat, that it was an illusion and I did not know what it was. Without managing his expression at all, Lesche asked.

“That saintly saint doesn’t even look like a saint.”

“Lina….”

Somehow it sounded like Lesche meant that even Lina would be put away. It was understandable. Because the situation at the time, by all accounts, seemed to be that Lina was scheduled to harm me. It was such a bizarre fantasy….

However, Lina was still a saint, and she was still pregnant with divine power. There was not much left until the day when Lina’s sacred power would be transferred to the sacred tree. Of course, in the meantime, we have to make sure Lina can’t do anything more, but….

“Berge must not have a war with the temple.”

I was a Stern now, but I was not sure whether my child born in the future would be a Stern like me. I could see how hard the next great Duke of Berg would suffer if there was a war between Berg and the temple.

“Please bear with me for the sake of our future child.”

“…….”

“Lesche?”

While I was wondering what I had said wrong, Lesche’s eyebrows drooped, which was unlike him, as his gaze was fixed on me. At the same time, a thin smile crossed his lips.

“What’s wrong?”

“Seria.”

Lesche buried his face in my neck.

“You often confuse people.”

“What…?”

Still with his face buried in my neck, Lesche moved only his hand to sweep my ear, then to my lips and cheeks. It was so tender that it stung my chest.

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*Lina’s POV*

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Lina was smiling for the first time in a long while.

It was because she had received a polite letter from Cassius. He had accidentally lost the invitation on his way home and wanted the Saint’s approval.

The tone was dry, but there was one warm word at the end.

Lina sent a reply and a new party invitation to Cassius. She wondered why she hadn’t heard anything from Nissos, but that was all. It was not easy to capture their hearts and minds, even in the book Lina read.

‘It doesn’t matter. I just have to work a little harder. That’ll do.’

Lina, who was consoling herself in this way, smiled after a while.

Because she was reminded of a dream she had a few days ago.

“The truth is, I turned the time around….”

“If you don’t want to be abandoned, you must succeed this time.”

“Time, time, time, time, time, time, time, time, time ….”

Cruelly, a corpse, clearly Seria, lay before her. Lina clearly recalled that darkness, whose shape was hard to discern, embraced the corpse. The corpse of Seria vanished like dust. The next thing Lina knew, the darkness hugged her (Lina) and whispered… (*Lina had the same dream at the same time Lesche and Seria saw the illusion in Tuban’s world that day)

A strange and bizarre dream. Lina scratched her head. Could it be the darkness that was absorbed into her body in the Tshugan plain?

“Should I ask the High Priest? But…”

She was scared. A Holy Saint and such horrible monsters, isn’t it outrageous?

Even more….

She was terribly scared that she would be abandoned again. Because she heard those words many times before she came to this world. Days that she could barely get over only by hanging on and staying alive….

‘Maybe it’s just a dream.’

While comforting herself, her hands trembled. Unable to bear the deep anxiety, Lina finally got up and went to the bedside of her bed. There lay the black and luminous Stern insignia. It was not real. Instead, this beautiful ornament made of black stone put Lina’s mind at ease.

It was proof that she had properly solidified her position in the social world.

She happened to overhear that Seria had been handed over the Stern insignia. The priests took great care of the Stern insignia. She also learned for the first time that it could be accepted by an individual. Feeling envious, she asked for the Stern insignia for herself, but the High Priest refused. It was unexpected.

“Seria Stern discovered the Holy gold mine, so there is an exception, Saintess.”

What does he mean ‘a mine’?

Lina in the book discovered a huge magic crystal mine with a nearly unlimited amount of purchase with the help of Cassius. With it, she made a huge profit and succeeded in her business.

Instead of that, she decided to donate it to the front and get the Stern insignia.

But, how did Seria discover the Constellation Gold Mine…?

Lina didn’t find any such content in the book… and on second thought, a lot of things were already at odds with what was in the book. But Lina deliberately turned away. Even though she tried to make it easy, the anxiety that was about to explode racked her brain. She felt as if something unknowable was coming after her.

In the end, Lina replied to the invitation she had just received and headed to the Imperial Palace that afternoon. This was the palace of the person who had presented her with the model of the insignia made of the black stone.

“Welcome, Saintess.”

“Greetings, My Queen.”

Queen Ekizel welcomed Lina with a seductive smile.

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*Seria’s first POV*

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“Did Lina meet Queen Ekizel?”

While writing a letter to the temple, I was surprised.

“Why? Did Baron Ison not tell her? She can’t recklessly meet the people of the Imperial Palace, especially Queen Ekizel.”

I don’t think that’s a level Lina can stand. Especially Queen Ekizel. Even in the original story that Lina has read, she didn’t have any particular connection with Queen Ekizel.

“I don’t know that much either. Should we kidnap Baron Ison?”

“No. Only fatigue will prevail, right?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“It’s frustrating, Grand Duchess! I’m a pacifist!”

I pretended I had not heard Linon’s words.

What was certain was that Lina was now openly taking the opposite route from me. No matter how many people were going in and out of the Imperial Palace, no matter how bright the afternoon…

But funny enough, I was relieved by Lina’s move.

Lina was trying to squeeze me out of the social world. It was too obvious.

I meant that I had to deal with this now.

“Sir Abigail sent you a letter.”

I read the letter that Linon gave me and said “as expected…” I knew it.

“Cassius really has no answer.”

The letter Nissos sent the other day contained a brief insult of Cassius, along with a brief explanation of the situation.

I immediately sent Abigail near the Kellyden’s residence just in case, and today.

I was able to hear the news that Cassius had gone to see Lina. The Capital was littered with hidden and elegant cafes, accessible only to the nobility.

On the other hand, it was a bit interesting to see that Nissos’s great disdain for Cassius was directly expressed in the letter.

‘In the past, Nissos himself was distracted for a while by Lina.’

Of course, many things were different now than then. For example, Lina was now married or ….

And that Nissos was hit by the holy power from the circlet and vomited blood.

But…

Seeing Cassius panting like a dog at Lina, I felt it was necessary to make sure. Is Casius the only one? There were two Princes in the palace alone. There were so many slaves of Lina in this world and almost all of them were powerful. They became more and more powerful as time went on….

‘I don’t have to suffer.’

I glanced at the circlet on my neck. The sacred power that had been faintly emitted from it had clearly faded. It was interpreted as a sign that Tuban worked hard to show me Lina and the monster’s recollection.

I was worried that perhaps that monster, which resembled Tuban, had taken the mermaid spring instead of Tuban, but the groundless fear was evident in the change in the type of sacred power flowing from the circlet.

It was clearly the sacred power of Tuban. Very similar to mine.