Chapter 23
Of course, it wasn’t because she thought those experiments were wrong.
“Then you should use it on me first!”
“It’s not safe yet. Do you think I’d let my precious daughter be the first test subject for an unproven experiment?”
“Then when will it be proven? When can you use it on me?”
“In about… three…”
“Three, two, one. Time’s up. Right now?”
“Three months… or maybe longer…”
“What kind of answer is that?!”
Sephina shouted angrily.
Pretending to be troubled, the Pope replied,
“We do have several talented researchers. Some of them are strange, but they’re brilliant scientists. They might solve it in less than three months.”
“I need holy power right now!”
Sephina was truly upset.
‘It was almost going to be mine.’
Ever since she first saw Edward at a noble gathering when she was ten years old, he had become the biggest goal of her life.
‘Everything special should belong to me.’
Because the Pope wanted to keep his secret, he had arranged for her mother to remarry a noble.
As a result, Sephina grew up spoiled.
Although she was only the daughter of a baron, everyone at home treated her like a princess.
Everything good always belonged to her.
The only thing she couldn’t accept was her title.
‘Why am I only a baron’s daughter?’
She was never satisfied.
She deserved a much higher position.
‘My real father is the Pope. Even if it’s a secret, I’m the child of someone far greater.’
Then she saw the only dragon incarnation on the continent.
The golden-haired boy was different from everyone else.
The moment she saw him, she thought,
‘Nothing in this world could be more special than him.’
Edward had everything.
Wealth, title, looks… he was perfect.
Unlike other boys, he didn’t fall for her just because she smiled at him.
‘Expensive things don’t come easily.’
That made him even more attractive.
He seemed worthy of her.
And because she couldn’t easily have him, she wanted him even more.
So Sephina made a sacrifice.
She entered the boring temple and became the saintess.
As Saintess, she could meet the Dragon Incarnation under the excuse of purification.
The Pope, who also needed a way to control Edward, gladly accepted her and made her the saintess.
For Sephina, it was difficult.
She enjoyed receiving far more attention than when she had been a baron’s daughter.
She also loved being the one and only Saintess.
But pretending to be kind to everyone made her smile so much that her face hurt every day.
She especially hated wearing cheaper jewelry because a saintess was supposed to live modestly.
‘Do they know how much I’ve sacrificed?’
She believed no one wanted or loved Edward more than she did.
That was why she hated that Edward didn’t appreciate her sacrifices.
Still, she had one advantage.
No matter how perfect Edward was, he still needed regular purification from a human partner.
Otherwise, he would eventually become unstable enough to return to the Demon Realm.
‘And purification requires physical contact.’
‘The perfect situation has already been prepared.’
Her father always told her,
“If two people keep touching each other, feelings will naturally grow. That’s how your mother and I fell in love.”
Of course, instead of leaving the priesthood and marrying her mother, he had simply married her off to another noble while secretly continuing the relationship.
Sephina understood it in her own way.
‘Honestly… Mother wasn’t someone important enough for Father to give everything up for.’
She loved her mother because she was her mother.
But even she thought her mother wasn’t the type of woman worth sacrificing power for.
Instead of demanding more from Father, she had been satisfied with marrying a mere baron.
‘If Mother had demanded marriage to a duke… or even the Emperor… then I…’
‘Well, objectively speaking, Mother was never as valuable as Edward anyway.’
All she needed now was Edward.
Yet…
“That’s enough.”
“What? But Duke…”
“Unlike you, Lady Sephina, I have many responsibilities.”
Edward always pushed her away coldly.
He even acted as though he disliked holding her hand.
‘I’m his only purifier.’
The entire empire already believed the two of them would eventually marry.
But they remained in an awkward relationship.
Close enough to seem like they belonged together, yet not actually together.
It was driving Sephina mad.
She felt that if she could just have him once, nothing else would matter.
If Edward later died fighting monsters, she could simply marry another outstanding man.
Or perhaps…
Since she was the beloved Saintess, maybe she wouldn’t have to marry at all.
She could simply keep several handsome men around her.
And if the holy power transplant succeeded…
‘Then I’d become a real Saintess.’
She could become an even greater figure than her father, the pope.
‘But I can’t even get started!’
She had to marry Edward first before anything else could happen.
Once again, she complained.
“When are you going to get the Dragon Mark? You said you’d send him a marriage proposal!”
“Hmm.”
“With the Dragon Mark, he won’t be able to refuse me. This time we’ll definitely get married…”
“Speaking of marriage, Sephina.”
The pope smiled gently as if trying to comfort her.
In truth, he already had another plan.
In fact, Edward’s recent actions had made it easier to carry out.
“I just received an express messenger bird.”
Unlike ordinary messenger birds, an express messenger bird used expensive magic and could deliver a letter anywhere in the Empire within a single day.
The Pope pulled out a letter and waved it.
The sender’s name glittered on the envelope.
Count Moro.
Since Sephina didn’t recognize the name, he was obviously just some provincial noble.
“So what if it’s some countryside noble?”
She answered irritably.
“This noble heard something interesting.”
“…”
“If we use that information well, we may be able to arrange the marriage without the Dragon Mark.”
“What? How…?”
The pope leaned close and whispered into her ear.
As she listened, Sephina’s eyes widened.
A slow smile spread across her beautiful lips.
Golden wings beat through the air.
Edward’s shining wings scattered sunlight in every direction.
Tepe and Gorgo were following on the ground, ready to use their remaining teleportation scrolls when Edward reached his destination.
“…Wow.”
This was her second flight now.
Instead of fear, Lucy felt mostly curiosity.
She hugged Edward tightly and bravely looked down.
She couldn’t help admiring the view.
‘This is amazing.’
Below them stretched the vast Tesseron Duchy.
Huge city walls stood everywhere.
Large cities, busy markets, and an enormous harbor filled with ships and merchants.
It wasn’t the cold, empty northern land she had imagined.
Bits of information from the novel came back to her.
‘The only harbor in the north that never freezes belongs to Tesseron.’
The duchy was always wealthy because of its many mines, including magic stone mines, and because of that harbor.
Since the harbor never froze during winter, trade continued all year.
Ships didn’t need to pass through the Empire’s other ports, allowing free trade.
They traded not only with other territories but also with the northern kingdoms.
‘It’s much livelier than I imagined.’
The Tesseron Duchy was full of life.
If not for the enormous walls built to keep monsters out, she might have mistaken it for the capital itself.
‘Then again, I never actually saw the capital while I was imprisoned underground.’
She remembered that this was one reason the emperor was always anxious.
Edward didn’t need to rely much on either the capital or the Emperor.
As the Dragon Incarnation, he had almost no weaknesses.
That was why the Emperor constantly tried to find ways to control him.
‘Well… that’s their problem.’
Politics had nothing to do with Lucy.
Watching people freely walking through the streets made her happy.
Even in the last memories of her previous life, she had never seen such peaceful scenes.
As she was absorbed in watching the city below, she suddenly heard Edward chuckle.
“You’ve got quite an easy life.”
