PRKE 27

CHAPTER 27………………………………………………….

A sense of alienness I had never once felt in a kingdom where the existence of priests was taken for granted.

The kingdom depended on priests.

From religious rites to farming and animal husbandry, there was no part of daily life that didn’t require their help.

“But what if there were no priests?”

There was no need to think long.

“It would be a disaster.”

But—

“There’s no chance of that. Even here in this hall, there’s a priest present,” I said.

Giovanni’s eyebrows twitched.

Something about the look in his eyes—as if to say that won’t be enough—made me feel strange.

A man who didn’t know about “priests,” something everyone in the kingdom knew.

A foreigner from a different culture.

That sense of difference suddenly hit me hard.

Just then, the king barked,

“Is the priest still not here?!”

“We’ve contacted the temple, so someone should arrive shortly.”

“Tsk, tsk. Do you know how long it takes to get here from there? Where is the palace priest?”

“Well, that is—he went to the temple to offer prayers.”

“Has he lost his mind?! Wait, didn’t you say there was also a priest among the guests?”

“Yes, among the members of House Lorenst.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Call her at once!”

“She says she cannot yet control a fire of this scale.”

“What kind of weak excuse is that! Tell her to at least try!”

At the chief attendant’s urgent gesture, a young attendant ran toward Aris. Her large eyes widened. She clearly didn’t like this.

A hollow laugh escaped me.

She probably doesn’t want to step forward in a place like this.

I knew Aris’s abilities well. She was an excellent priest, but extinguishing a fire that large was beyond her limits.

But how could she refuse the king’s command?

Dragged out against her will, Aris wore a displeased expression.

The king pressed her.

“Hurry and bring down the rain.”

“…Yesss.”

“If you extinguish the fire, I will grant you a great reward.”

Expectation flickered in her annoyed eyes. Her expression changed as Aris carefully gathered the hem of her plain dress and bowed her head.

“I’m not confident I can do it well, but I’ll do my best.”

As Aris stepped forward, the murmuring crowd fell silent.

It was a reaction born of unwavering faith in a priest’s power.

In the kingdom, being born with the power of water was itself a kind of status. Having been granted divine authority, one theoretically stood on equal footing with royalty.

Feeling the gazes directed at her, Aris straightened her back.

“Then I’ll begin.”

From the way things were going, it looked like Aris was indeed trying to suppress the fire, but—

Is the priest from the rumors really Aris?

I tilted my head.

If that were true, Aris wouldn’t have stayed so quiet.

If she had extinguished such a massive fire, rumors like “Aris Dorensia, the blessed priest of House Lorenst, saved the royal palace from crisis” would have spread everywhere.

Both Aris and the Lorenst family loved nothing more than spreading flattering stories.

We’ll see soon enough.

Aris raised both hands toward the sky.

As if receiving the energy of the heavens.

As though on cue, people looked up at the sky.

Her small lips parted.

It was a parable—
a mystical incantation only priests who summoned rain could recite.

Each priest had different incantations they could use. They said the words simply appeared in their minds—not something they created themselves, but like a revelation that came to them one day.

Each incantation carried different power, so many priests devoted themselves daily to prayer, hoping for a stronger one to appear.

That was the strongest incantation Aris could use.

Hearing words familiar even to me, I lifted my head.

Slowly.

Dark clouds began to gather in the vividly blue sky.

Drip.
Drop.

And as if by a lie, rain began to fall.

“Ohhh!”

Like everyone else, I stared blankly up at the sky.

No matter how many times I saw it, it was always a wondrous sight.

Ever since I was young, I’d wondered.

How could a mere human make rain fall?

How did a priest’s prayer reach the god?

Was the god always watching us from above?

Then why didn’t the god punish priests who abused their power?

Why grant divine authority to someone like Aris?

The endless questions burrowed into my chest as a sense of inferiority.

Remembering my past self, secretly repeating Aris’s incantation over and over after hearing it for the first time, dampened my mood.

Without a word, I stared at Darius Palace as the rain fell.

As time passed, the rain weakened, but the fire at Darius Palace showed no sign of going out.

“She’s already exhausted,” Giovanni muttered in a deflated voice.

“That’s all she can do?”

That’s all?

I snapped my head around.

“With that much, it’d be hard to even quench the thirst of the Empire’s people.”

I swallowed hard.

The existence of priests surprised him—but only to that extent.

Even if I gained the abilities of a priest, would I ever satisfy him?

Anxiety crept in, but I quickly steeled myself.

For now, the problem was extinguishing the fire.

When I turned my gaze back to Darius Palace, the flames were surging through Aris’s rain.

It didn’t look like they’d last until help arrived from the temple.

That was when—

“Tch.”

Giovanni clicked his tongue.

“Now the wind’s picking up.”

He was right.

My cheek felt cold. A wind began blowing in from the west.

An ominous sign.

Sure enough, the flames—momentarily weakened—flared up again. Instead of dying down, they grew larger, and the king, who had seemed momentarily relaxed, grew anxious.

Aris’s face turned pale.

Sensing the situation worsening, the nobles began to murmur.

“Shouldn’t we leave instead of staying here?”

“If Darius Palace collapses, this place will be dangerous too!”

They looked ready to move at any moment. But if this many nobles moved at once, chaos would erupt.

Then someone stepped forward beside Aris.

My eyes widened.

The veiled maid?

It was the maid who had been acting suspicious earlier.

What is she trying to do?

As she raised both hands to the sky like Aris, people’s attention turned to her.

A clear, ringing voice.

An incantation.

“Huh?”

Without realizing it, I reached my hand forward.

Splatter!

Raindrops quickly pooled in my palm.

The drops are bigger.

The drizzle, once barely visible, grew noticeably heavier.

It’s not that the original rain changed.

I looked up at the sky, squinting against the falling rain.

A new rainfall.

Gasps erupted among the crowd.

“A priest!”

The murmuring spread.

“But she’s a maid! A priest, a maid?”

“That can’t be right! Why is she dressed like that?”

Ah—so she’s the priest who extinguished the fire.

Not Aris.

Compared to Aris, the veiled maid didn’t look strained at all, yet she brought down heavier rain.

In terms of raw ability, the veiled maid won decisively.

Before long, a fresh, clean scent of rain filled the air.

“Was there such a priest in the kingdom?”

“If she can call down rain like this, she must be well-known—but I can’t see her face because of the veil.”

As attention shifted to the newly appeared priest, Aris bit her lip.

She raised her hands higher. Even her rain, once weakened, grew thicker.

The rain from the two of them filled the area. The flames, which had swollen as if to devour everything, quickly died down.

As the fire was brought under control, people fell silent one by one.

Shaaah—

Only the sound of rain remained.

Even in a kingdom where water was abundant, watching priests use their power was always awe-inspiring.

Power not of humans, but of gods.

Seeing a mere human command nature could never feel ordinary.

Was it really because of advanced civilization that the relatively weak kingdom of Riorza looked down on the great nation of Doveracan as barbarians?

Pride in possessing divine power must have played a part too.

It was something everyone in the kingdom knew.

Priests were chosen ones, beloved by the god.

Amazing. I know what kind of person Aris is, yet that power alone feels mystical.

My mouth tasted bitter.

I stared quietly at the veiled maid.

Like Aris, someone loved by the god. A chosen one.

Me, using divine power like those two?

I looked down at my hands—
overly ordinary hands, hardened with calluses and scars from hardship.

Me?

Leo had said so, but not a shred of confidence surfaced.

Leo. That thing you said—that I have potential—does it still hold true?

Of course, no answer came back.

Leo was gone.

I clenched my fist.

Then—

The sleeve slipped down from the veiled maid’s raised arm, revealing her elbow.

Within the dense mist formed by the rain, her elbow glowed faintly blue.

What is that?

Looking closer, it was shaped like a droplet.

A tattoo?

The tattoo was a familiar yet unfamiliar shade of blue—perhaps best described as a bewitching blue.

It was so radiant that my chest ached. No gemstone I had ever seen shone more brilliantly than that.

“Your Highness, what does that look like to you?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

I pointed at the veiled maid.

“The blue thing on her elbow. It looks like a water droplet, right?”

“I don’t see anything.”

“…What?”

Following my gaze, he repeated,

“There’s nothing there.”

I looked back at the maid.

The droplet-shaped tattoo was still shining clearly.

He can’t see it?

“Looks like magic,” he murmured.

Startled, I snapped back to attention.

Did he notice my thoughts?

No.

He was simply staring absentmindedly at the rainy scene.

Seeing a man who usually seemed unfazed by anything look amazed felt oddly strange.

What is he thinking?

Giovanni was a ruler.

As someone who had been ruled all my life, his thoughts were an incomprehensible realm to me.

Someone shouted,

“The fire’s out!”

I turned my head.

As the rain weakened, the nobles lowered their umbrellas and looked toward the palace.

The clouds hovering above dispersed, and gray smoke rose into the sky.

With the flames gone, the charred remains of Darius Palace were revealed.

“Thankfully, the fire went out without spreading,” someone said.

People let out sighs of relief.

Unlike them, I couldn’t take my eyes off Darius Palace.

Each time the wind blew, the roof—scorched by the flames—wobbled.

Isn’t that dangerous?

Just as the thought crossed my mind, the roof tilted sharply. At the same time, cracks formed in the pillars supporting it.