MHHC Chapter 106

Weakened Divinity

"Ah. How adorable."

At her desperate question, Mikhail only widened his eyes for a moment before soon bursting into pleased laughter.

"You've been worrying about such a thing all this time?"

"..."

"Since you're curious, it's nothing I can't tell you... Well, it's my long-held principle that there must always be a price in any transaction."

He extended slender fingers to lift Adelheid's chin. Snake-like eyes entangled and captured her gaze.

Adelheid recalled Charlotte's arrogant, cold eyes and forced herself to meet Mikhail's face with composure.

The imitation was plausible, but she couldn't prevent her breathing from trembling slightly.

"I'm holding the information you want, so what exactly can you give me?"

What could she give? She had nothing. Magic and sorcery? Though she'd absorbed the Princess's knowledge reasonably well in her dreams, it couldn't compare to 'Morig,' who claimed godhood.

Wealth? Power? The shell 'Morig' wore in the human world belonged to the Crown Prince.

The realization, late as it was, proved horrific. That she possessed nothing worth offering as a price.

"My time... you're already taking it."

This wordplay was all she had. Adelheid's pale cheeks trembled finely as she barely endured the humiliation.

She carved this wretched feeling into her heart.

She clenched her faintly trembling fist tightly. Right now, this was all she had, but next time would be different. It had to be different.

For Valentin's sake, if not her own.

"You deliberated and what you offer as a price is merely time. Admirable, but..."

Mikhail's lips twisted minutely. It was precisely that instant when the words of Luisa, the Golden Hawk merchant leader, came to mind.

'I told you earlier that your desperation must not be revealed. Please don't dismiss it as a lowly merchant's words but always remember. In the position where you stand, my lady, that will become important.'

Perhaps... this might be the answer. Adelheid calmly steadied her breathing.

Then she faced Mikhail with proper posture and answered.

"Then stop. I don't need that information desperately enough."

Mikhail's eyes, which had narrowed as though gauging something, soon held laughter.

The fingers gripping her chin tightened slightly. Just as she felt his head draw a bit closer, brief laughter scattered across her white cheek like mockery.

"Well, yes... I suppose giving one thing freely wouldn't hurt."

From his laughter, arrogance and haughtiness were felt without concealment. Mikhail opened his mouth somewhat slowly, as though boasting of his achievements.

"You're human, so you'll know. Humans always yearn for an existence more powerful than themselves. If such an existence appears, they readily worship it, admire it, and enjoy decorating with symbols related to that existence."

Symbol. At those words, something came to mind. Morig's symbol made of a circle and a straight line piercing through it. The emblem of the Grand Cathedral.

'Ah, surely not...'

Adelheid clenched her faintly trembling hand once more, seized by rising anxiety. He seemed to have noticed she'd realized the answer. The voice reciting his explanation lowered once more.

"Whatever city, whatever house, whatever time you visit, there's one thing hanging in every home. Few now know what purpose it was originally made for."

"..."

"It's permission 'to enter.' That thing."

Even though she'd anticipated it, the moment she heard it, goosebumps rose sharply on her nape. It was a realization that made one corner of her chest turn cold.

Aside from the North, all of Denburg had always worshipped 'Morig' as their chief deity.

As he said, whether a lord's mansion or a farmer's hut... at least one 'symbol of the Grand Cathedral' always hung on the wall.

'Even Count Reichenau's mansion, thinking back, had one in every room.'

If that proved unfeasible, they at least kept objects blessed by priests.

Even in the North, where faith in Morig wasn't deep, they received regular blessings from priests under the pretext of 'warding off monsters.'

There was no guarantee that the act of 'letting in' priests throughout all those processes wasn't connected to the act of permitting 'Morig,' the master of that power.

'Just how far ahead did he see and plan this?'

Adelheid bit her trembling lips tightly.

'From the beginning, just the act of knocking on doors and seeking permission would make the majority grant it easily...'

"Now, this is the main point, so pay attention."

As though cutting off Adelheid's lengthening thoughts, he opened his mouth somewhat irritably.

"Stop dwelling on boring subjects. I came here today because I have a proposal for you."

"A proposal, you say..."

"I'll be direct. I need your origin."

"My origin? Are you referring to my soul?"

"Why are you surprised?"

Mikhail's eyes narrowed so much the pupils couldn't be seen. Adelheid briefly suspected even this question was his trap.

Unable to withstand his urging gaze, she carefully opened her mouth.

"As far as I know... souls aren't objects of transaction..."

"Ah, poor thing."

Mikhail cut off Adelheid's fumbling confusion with laughter. His voice sank even more softly and sweetly.

"You believed that. I warned you across multiple lives not to trust that creature too much."

"..."

"It's because you've been exposed too long to the illusions shown by that cunning dragon. It's not entirely your fault. To some degree, it's my responsibility too."

Responsibility. A curious word.

Just as Adelheid was busy reconsidering that meaning, momentarily forgetting her guard, he stroked her lips with his thumb.

The Crown Prince's brightly shining green eyes dulled for an instant.

"You... were actually destined to be mine from the beginning."

His words' end trembled and crumbled somewhat disgustingly. Opposite to Adelheid's eyes sinking more coldly as she looked at him.

"Since that day, I've always regretted that moment. That I shouldn't have sent you to the sanctuary that day, no matter what I had to do."

He paused and fell silent. After staring blankly at Adelheid for a while, he suddenly laughed.

"You and I were strangely similar from the start. The frustration of being overshadowed by brilliant siblings, the wretchedness of being born without ability, the sorrow of an existence deserving denial... The moment I saw you being crushed and trampled by life, I felt as though I was seeing another me."

"..."

"Is that why? From the moment I learned you were the soul destined as my companion, I struggled desperately to distance myself from you. I thought if I didn't look, didn't pay attention, even my heart would cool."

"..."

"It was all my delusion."

"..."

"After that, I rather hoped you'd become utterly lowly. So that even if I finally took you in, no one would notice the affection underlying it. So you'd seem so insignificant you couldn't even become my weakness."

He stopped speaking and looked at Adelheid's mottled nape with fierce eyes. His Adam's apple rippled as though unable to suppress the emotions he'd stirred up alone.

"...If I'd known the sin of not immediately seizing you would continue this long, I would never have committed such a mistake even if it killed me."

It was a strange sense of déjà vu. The Mikhail of the past had been terrifyingly furious upon learning of her relationship with Valentin.

He'd been desperate to put her on trial, to drag her reputation into the gutter.

But the current him was taking a clearly different attitude from that time.

Of course, either way was equally capable of inducing nausea in Adelheid.

'He's clearly angry but suppressing and enduring it. Why? Because he fears Valentin?'

That seemed unlikely since he'd already intruded using 'Morig's' power in the first place. He'd clearly somehow hidden this situation from Valentin's eyes.

If Valentin knew about this, he wouldn't have left her alone with Mikhail for this much time.

"Adele."

Adelheid lifted her pale green eyes and gazed at him quietly. Mikhail's expression, which had twisted pitifully for a moment, straightened again the next instant.

"You must realize that I'm being very considerate of you right now."

"Right now, you said... considerate?"

Forgetting her resolution to hide her aversion and simply nod meekly while extracting information, Adelheid let out an incredulous laugh.

"After barging in so unreasonably, I truly don't understand what consideration you've shown."

"I'm sparing that creature for you. Because your heart might ache."

"...That's a rude expression."

"You don't think I could kill that weakened creature and claim his shell even now?"

Weakened? Valentin? Adelheid released Margaret, whom she'd been gripping tightly, and made the sign of the cross as resolutely as one hearing something horrific.

For that moment, she even forgot that it was a benediction offered to Morig.

That's how absurd it sounded. Of course, she shouldn't listen to or take seriously 'Morig's' whispers since they were merely wicked and evil.

She understood all this with her head. But, nevertheless.

'The fact that Valentin doesn't readily use magic, and even the magic he does use feels different from usual... surely not...'

It took less than a few seconds for momentary suspicion to surge.

And that surging suspicion instantly swelled in size and lodged like a solid seed in Adelheid's mind.

'But why suddenly? What on earth... happened while I was unconscious?'

The more color drained from her face, the deeper the smile hanging on Mikhail's lips grew.

"Think about it calmly. Adele. You already know all the answers."