Chapter 8
“What?”
Elise stared blankly at the empty space where he had disappeared.
“Did he just leave? Without giving me any response at all……?”
A hollow laugh kept escaping between her lips.
She had never been the type to initiate physical affection first.
Even during the nearly two years she had dated Leonhardt, all they had ever done was hold hands.
She had summoned every bit of courage she possessed to do that for Damian, as a gesture of gratitude.
So whether he liked it or disliked it, shouldn’t he have shown some kind of reaction to what she had done?
“No, wait. Did he react? By not reacting at all?”
Suppressing the irritation rising inside her, Elise muttered sarcastically to herself.
“Haa……”
Her shoulders drooped helplessly as she sighed.
Elise dragged her heavy, leaden body into the bedroom.
A large, comfortable bed came into view. Yet this temple, which had always been a place of comfort and peace, could no longer serve as a sanctuary for her.
“All I can do is sigh. Seriously.”
Her situation could not have been more miserable.
Elise simply collapsed onto the bed and pulled the blanket all the way over her head.
She had no intention of leaving the temple for the time being. Without a valid reason, Eshit would never allow it anyway.
A jumble of thoughts tangled endlessly inside her mind.
The three men who had betrayed her for various reasons, and Damian, who had died trying to save her.
Then, suddenly, the moment she had kissed him flashed before her eyes.
Elise let out a silent scream and kicked the blanket away.
“Lady Elise?”
Just then, Bell returned from the Imperial Palace, opened the door, and approached her.
Elise quietly pulled the blanket down as though nothing had happened.
“Are you still not feeling well? Here, I brought you some medicine. It took me a while because I personally boiled it with some good medicinal herbs.”
“……Oh, really?”
Her gaze fell upon the glass bottle Bell had brought. A sparkling golden potion sloshed inside it.
“But, Lady Elise.”
Bell handed her the bottle and subtly raised her voice at the end of her sentence.
“Did you perhaps go to the Imperial Palace?”
Elise barely managed to suppress a hollow laugh.
Just how much of a foolish pushover did Bell think she was? She had lied about being late because she was preparing medicine, only to immediately reveal herself that she had gone to the Imperial Palace.
Elise merely stared at Bell without answering.
Bell, however, confidently continued.
“No, you see, a cart carrying medicinal herbs arrived in front of the physicians’ quarters a little while ago. And I heard people whispering.”
The Elise from before would probably have said, ‘Oh, really?’ and brushed it off without giving the matter much attention.
But knowing that all of them were accomplices who had betrayed her, she could no longer simply let things pass.
“What were they whispering about?”
She smiled lightly, narrowing her eyes.
Bell, still failing to notice Elise’s changed attitude, began speaking thoughtlessly again.
“They said they saw Lady Elise together with Sir Leonhardt. And also…….”
Apparently, it had not occurred to her at all that the woman she was blabbering to was no longer the Elise she had known.
“They said that Damian was there too…….”
Bell’s voice gradually faded.
At the same time, Elise could sense her watching for a reaction.
Elise slowly raised one eyebrow.
She had spoken with Damian deep inside the garden, and Leonhardt had been there as well.
A proud man like Leonhardt would never have gone around telling people that Elise had rejected him.
If so, there was only one answer.
Someone who had eyes and ears throughout the Imperial Palace—and someone who had given Elise this temple as a gift and hired the servants who worked here.
Bell was Eshit’s person.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Did they say anything else? Any other interesting rumors?”
“Rumors? Well…… I don’t think there was anything else.”
Bell tilted her head in confusion before shaking it.
Fortunately, it seemed she had not heard about Elise’s conversation with Damian or the fact that she had broken up with Leonhardt.
If she had known, she would surely have spread malicious rumors immediately to damage both Elise’s and Leonhardt’s reputations.
‘They saw the three of us together, but they don’t know what we were talking about?’
Eshit was an intelligent man. If he spread nothing but lies, eventually someone would realize the truth.
But rumors that cleverly mixed truth with lies were bound to grow like a snowball rolling downhill.
‘Still, he might spread some other rumor. For example, that the three of us are involved in a love triangle.’
It was unpleasant, but if she wanted to avoid Eshit’s attention for the time being, perhaps she would have to take Leonhardt back into her confidence.
‘I’ll have to meet Leonhardt again soon.’
Suppressing the sigh trying to escape her lips, Elise slowly raised her head and met Bell’s eyes.
Dealing with Eshit and Leonhardt could wait.
For now, it was time to replace the people who thought she was an easy mark.
“But Bell.”
She opened the gold-trimmed clock on the bedside table and checked the time.
“Wasn’t the cart carrying the medicinal herbs supposed to arrive an hour from now?”
“……Pardon?”
Bell’s chin trembled in surprise.
Apparently, she had thought Elise did not know when the cart was scheduled to arrive.
“It’s always the same. Food ingredients arrive at ten, and medicinal herbs arrive at one in the afternoon, don’t they?”
Elise precisely listed the arrival times of the carts, pointing out the flaw in Bell’s story.
“Oh, it arrived early today.”
“Arrived early?”
A faint laugh escaped Elise’s lips.
“If that were true, I would have seen it when I came back from the Imperial Palace. But I didn’t see anything.”
“The timing might not have matched…….”
Cold sweat began to bead on Bell’s forehead as she stammered.
Bell tried desperately to come up with an excuse, but her words no longer worked on Elise.
“Bell!”
With a shout that was almost a scream, Elise fixed her with a cold, merciless gaze.
“Stop lying. I know you’re the Emperor’s spy.”
“L-Lady Elise…….”
Bell rapidly inhaled and exhaled before collapsing onto the floor.
“So they told you to test me? To find out why I was with Damian and what I discussed with Leonhardt?”
Elise slowly approached Bell.
“I-I…… Actually…….”
Ignoring Bell’s panicked stammering, Elise walked straight past her and quickly left the room.
Her destination was Bell’s quarters.
“Lady Elise!”
Bell desperately called after her from behind.
But Elise did not stop.
Finally, Elise entered Bell’s quarters.
As the Saintess and head of the temple, Elise had absolutely no reason to visit a mere maid’s quarters, so this was naturally her first time here.
Her narrowed eyes swept over every corner of the room.
The quarters were filled with furniture that looked far too luxurious for an ordinary maid working at the temple.
“It’s a misunderstanding! I’m not His Majesty the Emperor’s spy……!”
Bell eventually chased after her and blocked Elise’s path.
Then Elise’s gaze fell upon the carpet beneath Bell’s feet.
Clenching her teeth, Elise tapped the back of her other hand with one finger.
Then she pushed Bell aside and lifted the carpet.
Beneath it was a secret compartment, perfectly suited for hiding something.
“How sloppy.”
Although, if she were to talk about sloppiness, Elise herself was the worst of all for having failed to suspect this scheme until now.
Blaming herself for her former naivety, Elise began pulling out every document hidden inside the secret compartment.
And the moment she took one of those documents and looked at it, her pupils shook violently, as though an earthquake had struck them.
