PRKE 52

CHAPTER 52…………………………………………..

The raging power was completely different from what I had absorbed from the other clerics.

Until now, the clerics’ power had been calm and quiet, almost as if it barely existed.

It was only when it rained that they “used” that power.

Like flexing muscles through incantations.

That couldn’t really be called being alive.

But this—it was alive. Twisted tightly with hatred, moving seemingly only through hatred, yet still alive.

It could only be expressed that way.

“I hate… I hate so much…”

The child sniffled. It was hard to understand.

The clerics’ power was Marta’s blessing.

Why would a god’s blessing make humans feel hatred…?

“I hate… I hate…”

I wished I could get an answer.

The voice in my head repeated only one thing, as if it knew nothing else: that it hated humans.

My vision blurred. Aris, wriggling like an insect, flashed through my mind.

Would I end up like that too?

If I couldn’t stop the rain, would the kingdom truly be submerged?

Faces of people bowing and greeting with tears and rain streaming down their cheeks passed through my mind. My lips tightened.

“Damn it. I can’t die like this.”

Just as I struggled to stand, my forearm burned. I glanced aside with blurred vision and saw a thick, large hand gripping my arm tightly.

“Get a hold of yourself!”

His voice cut through my deafness as if it had been clogged. I heard it clearly.

All my attention went to him—or more precisely, to the hand holding me.

‘Warm…’

I felt the chill leaving my body.

I looked at him anew.

A man from the desert.

Carrying the heat of the sun.

“Are you alright?”

Thud. I grabbed his hand like a lifeline.

‘We need to move once I’m physically stable.’

I forced my trembling lips to move.

“Let’s get out of this mansion. We have to leave. Quickly.”

Animals tend to go instinctively to what they perceive as the safest place when in danger. Humans are the same. We instinctively avoid danger zones.

My mind was full of the thought that we had to leave here.

The Count’s mansion in Lorenst was where I had grown up, but it had never been a home.

“Where to?”

“Ah, anywhere. Just not here.”

Impatient, I gripped Giovanni’s sleeve tightly.

He didn’t ask any more questions and started moving.

Unlike before, being in his arms didn’t feel embarrassing or awkward. Right now, simply pulling myself together was exhausting enough.

Giovanni climbed up behind me, who had already been lifted onto a horse tied in the stable.

My weakened body kept slipping, so I leaned back against him.

“We’re heading to the palace.”

I closed my eyes.

The chill lurked in me like a monster waiting for an opportunity. If Giovanni disappeared, it would strike at once and overturn me.

I gripped his wrist tightly, wary of the cold hiding inside me.

I opened my half-lidded eyes. Beneath me, the horse shifted.

Soon, I realized Giovanni had wrapped me in his cloak.

Pitter-patter.

I watched the rain falling between the parted folds of the cloak.

‘Has the rain eased a bit?’

I checked my body. It felt more stable than before.

‘Even if just two more clerics go berserk, the kingdom will flood. No one seems to know how dangerous this is. Something’s off. Even the kingdom’s people don’t really understand this power. Why? According to the temple murals, there was a nation that harmed the gods. Yes. That’s when the gods died. Records may have been lost because it was sacrilegious…’

Thud!

My heart swelled and sank.

Immediately, an immense pain hit me.

My back twisted.

“Huh…”

“Igraine?”

I couldn’t even groan. My mouth opened in shock, my heart racing. My face contorted.

‘Why all of a sudden?’

The palace was just a little further.

“W-wait a moment…”

Finally, unable to hold on, I said it aloud. Giovanni turned my head to check my face.

“Can’t hold on?”

I nodded.

“Then we need to find a doctor first.”

Giovanni held me firmly as I sagged. Through his firm shoulders, I recognized familiar scenery.

Pointed roofs that seemed to touch the sky. Pale, white walls.

Large, white, serene—grand enough that even if I hid there, no one would notice.

I was instinctively drawn. That was where we would survive.

“Let’s go there…!”

Giovanni turned his head to the building I indicated, furrowing his brows.

A pointed, white building standing gracefully in the rain.

The central temple sat within the downpour.

The temple was quiet.

“Outside it’s raining heavily, but in here it’s strangely calm.”

It had been a storm that could have flooded rivers.

If water had flowed through the temple underground, it would have already overflowed. Yet inside, it was clean, and no water had risen from the floor.

Rain fell lightly, only seeping into the ground. It was as if the temple alone had escaped this curse.

“Th-there, no one will notice us.”

I pointed toward the prayer room.

In the early dawn rain, the prayer room for non-clerics was completely empty.

A dark room. With nothing in it, intended solely for prayer, it was chilling rather than temple-like.

“I think my illness will get worse here.”

I shook my head, holding onto his arm as he turned.

“You need a doctor.”

“I’m fine.”

“……”

“I really am. This isn’t a sickness.”

I added weakly, looking at him.

“What I need now is time and space.”

Giovanni stared at me.

After a moment, he sighed.

“You render me helpless.”

“Not at all. If it weren’t for you, Your Highness, I would have collapsed long ago.”

If not for his warmth, I wouldn’t have survived in the mansion.

Giovanni, perhaps not fully understanding my words, shook his head briefly in frustration, then lifted me up.

His strong jaw was suddenly close.

“I can walk on my own from now.”

He lightly ignored me, opening the door to the prayer room.

Thud.

The prayer room, seldom visited, had a faint smell of neglected dust.

He placed me on a wide sofa. Bending over, his face was close. Slow, warm breaths brushed against me. I held my breath unconsciously.

His hand on the sofa back unnervingly drew my attention.

He asked softly,

“What should I do for you now?”

“Nothing in particular…”

Was it because my body was so weak?

The chill flared again near my heart.

“Can I have your hand?”

“My hand?”

“It’s cold.”

With every breath, white mist appeared in the dark prayer room.

Even as I spoke, cold air escaped my mouth.

I hadn’t expected him to offer his hand, but when the back of it touched my cheek, I was startled.

I blinked.

The cold slowed my thoughts.

I didn’t mean “touch my face.” If only I could have said something so mischievous.

My stiff lips moved agonizingly slowly.

“It’s warm.”

I buried myself deeper into the sofa, focusing on the heat of his hand as if resting on it.

‘Ah… I feel drowsy.’

I no longer cared that my clothes were wet. The dark prayer room wasn’t exactly picturesque, but overall, I felt calm.

Even the voice of the “power” that occasionally shouted had quieted. My once-thundering heart was calm.

The voice.

The voice of the power.

The power I had once believed to be the god’s blessing was alive.

“Don’t rush. Spirits can only inhabit cursed humans. That was their magic.”

Cursed humans. Why had Leo said that?

Spirits that can only inhabit cursed humans. If what he said was true, the clerics shouldn’t be kingdom citizens, but imperial.

That wasn’t the only puzzle.

The power that felt alive—if it was a spirit like Leo…

‘What happens to the gods then?’

My head ached. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking, as though I had grasped an important clue.

Was the power of water not the god’s blessing, but a spirit’s?

A spirit—what exactly is that?

I thought of Leo. Blue, wolf-shaped Leo.

My mysterious friend, whom only I could see for some reason.

Even withered flowers and drying trees revived when Leo breathed on them.

‘If ancient humans worshiped spirits as gods…’

All thoughts led to one conclusion.

The cursed humans refer to kingdom citizens—specifically, clerics.

Which meant…

‘The people who sacrificed themselves weren’t empire citizens.’

“Don’t fall asleep.”

I opened my eyes wide.

‘Had I dozed off?’

I blinked rapidly. Giovanni cupped my cheek in his palm.

“It seems best to see a doctor now.”

I shook my head slightly.

“Even if I see a doctor, nothing will change.”

“Being like this won’t help either.”

“It helps. Your Highness is warm.”

“……”

“Perhaps Your Highness is blessed by the gods too.”

The sun and fire god. Perhaps that was why he was so warm.

I wanted to hold his other hand too, but resisted.

“Maybe I should just convert too.”

Any kingdom citizen hearing that would have panicked and reported it.

Giovanni chuckled.

“Judging by your joke, you must really be getting better.”

Ha. My embarrassed laugh faded by the end.

Sigh. The cold seeped through instead of laughter.

Giovanni’s face hardened as he touched my neck with his other hand.

“It’s cold.”

“Is it?”

My voice was weak.

“Yes. Cold as a corpse.”

Ah, I see. I thought my body was adjusting, but perhaps it was actually dying.

The pain in my heart hadn’t disappeared—it had just gone numb.

A sudden sense of despair overtook me.

‘Am I going to die like this?’

And on behalf of Aris?

‘This is the worst.’

Suddenly my cheek grew warm. I opened my eyes halfway and saw Giovanni gently touching my face.

“What happened? Why is your body so cold, and your hair…?”

He grabbed my hair with his other hand.

“Why did it change like this?”

My brown hair had turned blue.