COARV Chapter 14

He looked utterly lost in the face of my flat refusal to acknowledge him. But a faint trace of holy power kept drifting off Kallis. Knowing it was proof of his marriage to Lina—my mood went straight into the gutter, straight to hell.

"Kallis."

The moment I simply said his name, his expression brightened slightly. I stared at him steadily and said,

"I keep sensing another Stern's holy power off of you."

"……!"

"Should I put it more bluntly, in front of Linon?"

"……."

I'd phrased it gently, but Kallis's face said he'd understood instantly. Like a slave trying to hide a brand seared into his own skin. Yes, that was exactly the right comparison. That same posture—pressing a hand firmly against his own chest, face twisted in anguish.

"Seria, I…."

That was when his pupils trembled, faintly. He was so close I could catch even that small a tremor. And before I could even finish wondering what, the voice arrived, faster than thought.

"Kallis! There you are!"

My luck, truly, was garbage.

Lina's voice filled the corridor.

"Your Highness, I'll draft the letter to the Grand Temple accordingly."

The aide, having bowed deeply to Lesche, left the office. Lesche sat at his desk, tapping it idly.

A High Priest, visiting the territory in person.

This wasn't the same category as a mere distinguished guest arriving. As Berke's ruling Duke, who received a Stern's visit every winter without fail, Lesche felt almost no particular awe at the matter.

Lesche thought to himself.

He'd finally finished the work.

And it had already been some time since he'd last been able to get into the main castle proper.

He couldn't afford to delay any longer.

Originally, once he'd finished the winter's last two remaining duties as Berke's head—overseeing the glacier inspection and presiding over a Stern's wedding—he'd meant to head there right away. But then, hadn't everything gone and gotten tangled up instead.

Just as Lesche's brow furrowed—

"Your Highness."

A careful knock sounded, and the main castle's pâtissier entered. What he'd brought was, of all things, a massive cake.

"The cake is finished. I've brought it."

The pâtissier set the cake on the table and carefully lifted the silver lid.

Lesche's brow furrowed as he examined the enormous cake. It wasn't meant to be served to the nobles currently staying at the castle. He wasn't remotely the sort of man who paid close attention to that kind of thing to begin with, and more to the point, this cake was crude, homely—countryside-style through and through.

After a while, Lesche had the cake sent back and left his office.

"Where's Linon?"

The knight on duty dipped his head.

"He went to Lady Seria Stern's annex earlier. It's been some time now, and why he hasn't come back… Should I send someone to fetch him?"

'Why on earth had he gone there.'

Lesche recalled the look on Linon's face while watching Seria. He remembered his eyes practically sparkling.

"I'll go myself."

Lina looked badly, badly hurt.

It wasn't a matter of a minor leg injury. She was being carried entirely on a knight's back. Given the thick bandages wrapped around both her feet, it wasn't hard to guess why.

…Can't she walk?

They'd managed to line up the time and place required for a Stern's wedding, but everything else had almost certainly been cut entirely. However much of a Saint she was, it seemed she wasn't entirely spared the burden. The price of it had clearly landed on Lina in full.

Not that it was any of my concern.

The farce playing out right in front of my bedroom door was absurd, but what could I do. I meant to simply walk past. Whatever the two of them had to say to each other, it had nothing to do with me anymore. That was what I'd thought—right up until Kallis caught my wrist.

"Kallis?"

Lina's eyes went wide. But Kallis didn't so much as glance her way.

"Sorry, Lina. I need to talk to Seria, so I'd appreciate if you gave us a moment."

Lina's eyes rounded further. Tears seemed ready to well up in them any second, but she didn't cry. She only spoke, her voice carrying that unmistakably good-natured warmth of hers.

"Right, I understand. I'll go. I've… gotten in the way, haven't I. But I actually came here because there's something I want to say to Kallis's fiancée, too…."

Lina cast an imploring glance my way. She asked the knight carrying her,

"Excuse me, sir."

"Yes, Your Holiness?"

"Could you bring me a little closer? To Kallis's fiancée—no, to Lady Seria…."

At Lina's request, the knight hurried closer to me. I thought that if the person standing here really were the original Seria, she'd have been in a genuinely foul mood by now. The knight was naturally taller than I was. Which meant I now had to look up, quite naturally, at Lina riding on his back.

"Please don't blame Kallis too much, Seria. It was me—I whined and threw a fit until he agreed to take me to see the glacier. I never once thought a blizzard would come sweeping in like that…."

I said nothing and simply looked at Lina. I was the only speaker capable of answering right now. As my silence stretched on, the knights around us had taken to holding their breath, careful even in how they breathed.

"Lina."

Since she'd used my name first, I simply used hers back. Explaining that using first names without real closeness was rude—my mouth would hurt just saying it.

"Did you not know Kallis was my fiancé?"

"I knew! Of course I knew! But Kallis is such a precious friend to me, and I just—I wanted to make one last beautiful memory together, so I was a little stubborn about it…."

Lina was on the verge of tears now.

"A precious friend, so, one last memory."

There was plenty I wanted to say—all of it sharp, sarcastic, meant to cut. My insides felt like they were on fire.

"Lovely. So you've made that memory now, which means you won't be seeing Kallis again?"

"S—Seria…."

"Swear it to me on the Stern's Star, right here. That you made one last good memory, and so from now on you won't see Kallis anymore."

Lina's eyes went wide. Her lovely eyes brimmed with tears and drooped, mournful. Lina looked over at Kallis with the eyes of someone watching a lover she was being forcibly separated from, then turned back to me with eyes wavering, adrift.

"I… I…."

The knight carrying Lina, unintentionally caught between the two of us, kept his gaze lowered. He couldn't say a word, but his sympathy for Lina was unmistakable.

A villainess tormenting the pure-hearted heroine. Was that what I was, right now?

But I had been holding back all this time. I hadn't shouted. I hadn't lost my temper. That I could stay this composed, even in this situation, was partly, honestly, out of a thread of fear.

Because Seria tormented Lina and got her throat cut by Kallis for it.

Exactly this setup, right here.

Was the reason my hands had been steadily going cold since a while ago actually fear? A beat too late, I realized something I'd forgotten again. Come to think of it, my arm—the wound had torn open.

How many times had I forgotten it now. With one bomb of a person after another going off in front of me, I kept forgetting about the pain entirely.

"Hng, hnngh…."

Lina had started crying now. She showed no sign of stopping. I couldn't just stand here indefinitely. Lina was riding on a knight's back, Kallis had a sturdy, healthy body, but I was standing here on my own two feet. Seria's body might have been reasonably sturdy, but a torn-open wound still needed treating quickly.

I was about to say never mind, I was in pain, I'd just head to the main castle instead—when Lina climbed down off the knight's back. Then, gripping both sides of her skirt with trembling hands, she bowed her head to me. It was the greeting gesture ladies used.

"I'm truly sorry. In the Saint's name, I want to formally apologize—ugh!"

"Lina!"

"Your Holiness!"

Lina crumpled straight to the ground. Before the knight attending her could even reach out in alarm, Kallis caught her first and pulled her back up. He handed Lina off to the knight, then yanked at my wrist.

"Seria…. Can't you please just stop now."

Kallis's expression was pained.

"Someone who can't even walk is begging this much, and you're still cornering her like this. This is between you and me. There's no reason to treat the Saint, who doesn't know anything, so pettily."

"Kallis, that."

I dropped my gaze from Lina and spoke.

"So no matter how this goes, you're saying you still want to keep seeing the Saint."

"That's not what I'm saying at all!"

"Then what?"

"What in the world… why are you like this, Seria. You were never this petty a person!"

If a person's eyes could burst from a blood-pressure spike, I would have lost both of mine today. And me—yes. I was mortified.

That was my honest, genuine feeling. This whole situation was so humiliating, so degrading, that even my hands had gone cold with it. My fiancé had married another woman, and that woman was bowing an apology at me so forcefully she'd collapsed, and the man who'd been my fiancé had lifted her back up and then turned around to snap at me for being petty.

If it had only been the three of us, maybe. But the knights were here, and so was Linon. A few passing nobles had noticed the scene too and stopped some distance away.

I was furious.

I couldn't make sense of it, and I felt wronged—this whole situation where I, the one refusing to accept Lina and Kallis's heartfelt apology, was the only villain in the room. If Seria Stern's temperament had been even slightly less steady, I might have lost my grip on the anger boiling up in me and burst into tears right there.

That Kallis could forget my pain—like it was nothing—and still not let go of my wrist, that was appalling too.

"Let go of my wrist first, before you say another word, Marquess Haneton."

I glared at Kallis and said,

"Starting today, I will never see you again—in place of Her Holiness, the Saint."

"You really won't let up, will you—!"

Kallis's fury flared for a moment, and his grip on my wrist, still held, tightened without his meaning to. Right at the exact spot where my wound had torn open. The pain made me wince. The knights were already saying "Marquess Haneton, please step back," trying to intervene, when—

A low voice came at my ear.

"Let go. I said it once already."

I couldn't make sense of it.

Only that at some point Kallis had lost his grip on me, and the person who caught me before I could stumble from the sudden release—

"Marquess Haneton—has your hearing gone too, now?"

Lesche Berke. It was him.

The murmuring corridor went silent at once. Kallis glared at Lesche, and Lesche met that gaze head-on without so much as flinching. Their standoff, which looked like it might go on forever, ended surprisingly simply. Lesche, holding my arm lightly, frowned and looked down.

"Your wound's torn open, hasn't it, my lady."

"…Ah. Yes. The one on my arm."

"You'll need to see a priest."

Lesche made to take me to the main castle without a second thought. If only Kallis hadn't gritted his teeth right then.

"Your Highness, allow me to escort Lady Stern."

Lesche's eyebrow rose, just slightly. He asked, his voice unmistakably displeased,

"And why would you?"