Chapter 82: Chapter 82

“What about the grand duke?”

“When he got the report from the search team that just took over, he immediately went back to the residence. He said he would come again tomorrow.”

“Did he leave the deputy chamberlain behind at the temple?”

“Yes. By the way, he was really stubborn. He had three ribs injured, but he kept asking about the updates from the search team every hour. As I hear from the servants, he didn’t eat properly.”

“I understand he must be suffering from lots of pain. One’s compassion is hard to resist even by divine power.”

Helena clasped her hands in a spacious sleeve. There was a wind in the pine trees nearby with a gentle scent of incense.

“Your Eminence!”

Priest Hilde approached them, fluttering her long robes. The fragrant wind gently entangled the girl’s black hair.

“I am done writing letters of repentance!”

Her small hands hung on Helena’s arms. Helena stroked her hair silently.

But her eyes were still looking further away.

The gentle pulsating winds from the early summer fields blew over strongly.

“Hilde. I told you many times you should not run or make a loud noise before the cardinal. You wrote a letter of repentance on it again today. I think it’s time you really learned the lesson as I have scolded you so many times.”

“It’s because I was excited for a moment.”

“Whether you did it a second too long, you did wrong.”

“Why don’t you change your job? Not as a priest, but as the deputy captain of the Nagging Knights?”

“What the heck?”

Arsenio made a straight face. Hilde pouted her tongue, frowning at her. As Hilde recommended her job change the deputy, not the leader, Arsenio regarded her remarks as intended ridicule. Hilde’s ridicule also reminded her that she always won second place in the exams for priests.

But hitting the nail on the head with a naive face was one of Hilde’s specialties.

“I’ve got to do something about this naughty girl…”

“Your Eminence, Cardinal!”

At that moment, a priest came running short of breath from the west entrance of the temple. Looking at her with a bright expression, Hilde grabbed Arsenio’s sleeve.

“Uh, even Siel made a loud noise as she came running to the cardinal! Why don’t you tell her to write ten letters of repentance? Oh, she should write 20 as she is much older than me, isn’t she?”

“What is that nonsense?”

“Uh, Arsenio, you talk too loud! You have to write a letter of repentance, too. Since you didn’t keep your word, you should write 100 letters, right?”

“Hilde! How dare…”

As Arsenio stepped forward to grab Hilde’s neck, Helena, who was watching the two quietly, reached out. Arsenio stopped.

“Your Eminence, they’ve arrived! The emperor and Lady Marianne just arrived here through the western gate of the temple…”

Taking her short breath, Siel pointed to it with her fingertips. At the end of the horizon where the sun was setting over the mountaintop, two long, or when looked more closely, three long shadows were getting closer.

Helena went straight down the stairs and crossed the front yard. Siel was quick to help. Arsenio and Hilde, who were ready to fight in a short time, hurriedly followed.

Soon two shadows stood in the middle of the front yard.

“May the grace of Airius, the Lord of light and heaven be bestowed on you! Helenal, Roshan’s 70th Cardinal is honored to see Your Majesty, the great master of Aslan!”

Helena politely knelt and offered greetings. Behind them the edges of the priests’ garments were spread out on the floor. The Renato pattern on Helena’s forehead sparkled in the setting sun.

“May you be under the eternal protection of the nine gods! Please stand up, Cardinal.”

Eckhart answered calmly. He was on Curtis’ back.

Helena adjusted her posture and politely greeted her. While Marianne replied, her golden eyes looked at those who returned.

While the emperor’s knight and Marianne were in shabby dresses, the emperor looked the most miserable among them. His blue eyes were sparkling, but very pale. His face and neck stained with cold sweat showed how exhausted he was. Every time he breathed in, she noticed he had a fever. Obviously he was wounded so severely that he could not get off his back and stand on his own.

“I’m sorry to receive your greetings like this.”

“Please don’t say that, Your Majesty. I am very happy that you have returned safely.”

“Well, thank you anyway.”

As soon as Eckart was done talking, Hilde laughed. Arseno pulled her collar and gave her a reminder. Hilde closed her small lips tightly.

“I’d like to talk with you more, but you’re not in good condition. Please come inside and get treatment first.”

“Thank you for your consideration. Please have some healing priests take care of Lady Marianne and the knight immediately.”

“Of course. Arsene, Siel!”

At Helena’s gesture, Arsenio quickly ran towards the Priest Hall. Siel stood by Marianne and supported her.

“Let’s go, Your Majesty.”

Helena began to walk slightly ahead. Curtis and Eckart followed, followed by Marianne and Siel.

Folding her arms, she scurried from the rear of them. She couldn’t hide smile from her chubby cheeks with baby fat. Her golden eyes were fixed on one spot for a while.

‘What a mysterious star.’

Her eyes sparkled, though she shut her mouth tightly.

It was Marianne, not Eckhart, that she fixed her gaze on.

* * *

The annex of the temple was calm and comfortable. After the news about the return of the missing emperor and Marianne spread widely, the priests struggled to avoid making a big fuss out of it.

They quietly gathered the healing priests, quietly boiled water to fill the bathtub, and quietly prepared meals and medicine. The largest room in the annex was reserved for the emperor, and Marianne used the opposite room. Curtis and Kloud, who were on standby at the temple, decided to serve the emperor in person. Marianne was assigned two female priests of her age, Siel who supported her and another girl named Hess that Siel called.

The two girls put her in a bathtub which was small but full of warm water, and carefully washed her. Even though she hadn’t bathed in two days, she felt like she hadn’t done it in two months. Her body stung all over with her bruised arms and legs.

“Oops…”

Marianne frowned unconsciously. In particular, she felt pain in her heel.

“Does it hurt a lot? Do you want me to lower the water temperature a little bit? ”

Siel gently asked and massaged her calves gently. Marianne shook her head slightly.

The stinging wounds had some meaning in some respects. It was none other than Marianne herself who chose a faster but the steeper road instead a longer but relatively flat road.

Eckart had asked Marianne to choose the longer but flat road in consideration of her, but she ignored and insisted on her opinion, as always.

“I can walk. That’s why I borrowed your boots. You know I’m stronger than you think, right? You saw me yesterday. There is a reason why I used to hang out with that naughty girl Evelyn.”

Thus, the three men continually took the short cut from the bottom of the tributary to the top of the mountain.

Not to mention a carriage, they couldn’t even ride a horse. It wasn’t a trodden path from the beginning, but Eckart’s condition was more of a problem.

Even though he was on Curtis’ back, he suffered terrible pain every step Curtis moved. Not only did it hurt when he had to correct his posture, but even while Curtis was walking on a flat road, he often suffered from short breath. To lessen his pain, Curtis tried to reduce the vibrations of his steps as much as possible, but to no avail. Even the slightest tremble gave him excruciating pain. Concerned about his worsening condition, Marianne found anesthesia grass on the way and put it into his mouth. That was all she could do.

They walked on for four hours. As time went by, they stopped speaking, and only their harsh breathing was heard.

Marianne had never walked this far. At first her feet hurt and her muscles were strained, but later her senses were numb, her legs were wobbly. By the time the temple was around the corner, she felt like forgetting about her dignity and crawling or rolling over and over there.

“How fortunate you are! The nine gods must love you. I think you and the emperor are the first to have survived after falling from the Benoit Falls,” Siel whispered. The smell of grass came out of the bath water mixed with the mineral spring of Santium that had the painkiller effects.

At that moment Marianne thought momentarily, ”If I live with the gods’ grace twice, I think I can come back alive from hell.’

But she was quickly surprised by her disrespect of the gods and blinked her eyes.

‘Oh my god, what did I just think?’

“Oh, you are pretty.” Hess, who wiped her body silently, opened her mouth slowly.

“Your eyes look like jewels! ” Her freckled cheeks blushed.

Blinking her eyes, Marianne twisted her body slightly.

Hess’s one eye was white and was blurry as if she had lost her vision. She couldn’t keep her eye straight and she bit her lip as if she was shy.