Chapter 05
“Who on earth was that huge man earlier? A build like that is pretty rare in the capital, isn’t it?”
“He must be a military noble. Do you think he actually paid for it before leaving?”
“What noble would have nothing better to do than come all the way here just to play around like that?”
“But covering himself completely in black wasn’t exactly normal either.”
After the bazaar ended, the man of enormous stature who had suddenly appeared earlier became the main topic of conversation during the gathering afterward.
“But why would he need to hide his identity?”
Nora was curious as well.
As I walked toward the outside of the hall, I answered indifferently.
“Well, perhaps he didn’t want to attend this event in the first place.”
“Then could he have been a guard knight?”
“You really are something. Why are you digging into something so unimportant?”
“I’m grateful, aren’t I? Honestly, I was hoping Duke Cassini wouldn’t win those earrings. Why would he donate them only to buy them back? What a waste of money.”
For a maid of the temple, that was quite an aggressive way of putting it.
I was momentarily speechless, and Nora suddenly covered her mouth in shock.
“Ah! I’m sorry. I was talking about the Saintess’s brother…”
“It’s fine. We don’t even consider each other siblings anyway.”
“What?”
“Duke Cassini has never considered me his younger sister…”
That was when we turned around the pillar.
Suddenly, my foot caught on something, and my body stumbled forward.
Nora reached out her hand, but I fell faster than she could catch me.
—Crash!
A sharp pain shot through my hands and knees as I hit the ground.
And then—
“Saintess!”
A familiar voice rang in my ears.
“Are you all right?”
Ah.
Lumiella.
You again.
I tried to get up by pushing myself off the ground, but immediately stumbled forward again.
My wrist throbbed.
I must have sprained it.
“Saintess, are you all right?”
Nora hurriedly supported me and helped me stand.
Lumiella joined her.
Her innocent, tearful eyes looked down at me.
‘She had eyes like that back then too.’
I clearly remembered seeing those eyes smiling at me just before she threw herself down the stairs.
“You suddenly appeared, so I was startled. Are you all right? Shall I call a physician?”
“No, I’m fine. Though I didn’t expect to find you here, Lady Cassini.”
“I came outside for some fresh air.”
“Ah, I see. Well, there was a lot going on today.”
At those words, the corner of Lumiella’s lips twitched.
That ‘a lot going on’ included the incident where she had been mistaken for a petty person who had tried to donate something in front of everyone and then changed her mind.
I gently clasped Lumiella’s hand and comforted her.
“I’m fine, so please don’t worry about it. About everything that happened today.”
With that, I immediately left.
Nora followed beside me, hesitated for a moment, then spoke.
“Saintess, about what happened just now…”
“Hm?”
“…Nothing.”
Instead of saying anything more, Nora firmly closed her mouth.
I had a feeling I knew what she wanted to say.
She was probably holding back because she was worried I wouldn’t like it.
Even so, I didn’t bring it up first.
According to the memories I had inherited, Nora was quite a loyal maid.
But I still couldn’t completely trust her.
My fiancé, my mentor, and my brother had all abandoned me.
I couldn’t just trust anyone.
As we walked in silence, Nora cautiously spoke again.
“More importantly, did Lady Cassini really entrust those earrings to the Saintess earlier?”
Oh, she’s perceptive.
I gave an ambiguous smile instead of answering.
Just then, Nora looked at me strangely.
“Gasp! Saintess, you’re bleeding!”
I lowered my head at her words.
Sure enough, the knee area of my white dress was becoming stained red.
“Shouldn’t you stop by the infirmary?”
“What for? It’s only this much. I’ll just apply some medicine at the temple.”
“Your divine power must feel rather useless to you sometimes, Saintess. It’s an ability that can only save other people, after all.”
As Nora said, the healing ability of divine power could only be used on others.
Even the Pope was no exception.
I comforted the upset Nora as we returned to the carriage.
“……”
In front of the carriage, Cassandro looked at me with a deep frown.
I felt even more self-conscious because I had confidently told him earlier that nothing would happen.
Worried that the Archbishop might hear about this and make things troublesome, I gave him a simple explanation.
“I accidentally fell.”
I couldn’t completely trust Cassandro either.
Lumiella’s reputation was still quite good, and I didn’t know exactly what kind of relationship he had with the Archbishop.
Until I could be certain that he was truly on my side, there was no harm in being cautious.
I had already been abandoned once and died because of it.
“I’m not badly hurt, so don’t look so upset. I’ll explain everything to the Archbishop myself.”
“It’s not because of the Archbishop.”
Cassandro somehow looked even more displeased after saying that.
Had I made it too obvious?
“Did you really fall by yourself?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Whenever you go somewhere Lady Cassini is present, you always seem to come back injured.”
What he said next was rather surprising.
“I apologize for saying this, but I don’t think Lady Cassini is a very good person.”
I had said it repeatedly, but Lumiella’s reputation was quite good right now.
She had been the ‘real one’ from the beginning, and she was kind and gentle.
She also had the image of a pitiful woman being constantly harassed by Yustitia.
“I apologize for saying this, but I don’t think Lady Cassini is a very good person.”
The subject of that statement should have been Lumiella.
Instead, it fit Yustitia far better.
After all, Yustitia’s previously spotless reputation had recently begun to come under suspicion.
“You’re saying the opposite of everyone else. These days, more people think I’m not a very good person.”
Cassandro frowned and asked,
“Who dares say such a thing?”
“They say I’m jealous of Lady Cassini. As you know, the real one was originally Lady Cassini.”
But the Yustitia I knew had never been jealous of Lumiella.
From the very beginning, she naturally considered herself the ‘fake.’
“So what you’re saying sounds a little strange.”
“Is that because the Saintess thinks well of Lady Cassini, or…”
Cassandro asked sharply in a quiet voice.
“Because I’m the first person to say something like this?”
“The latter.”
I answered cautiously.
“It’s strange. His Majesty the King, the Archbishop, and Duke Cassini all think highly of Lady Cassini, yet you’re the only one saying she doesn’t seem like a good person.”
“I don’t think an opinion has to be correct simply because it agrees with everyone else’s.”
“…Do you have evidence that makes you think that?”
I found myself questioning him without realizing it.
When Yustitia had insisted that something was wrong with Lumiella, everyone had told her she was blinded by jealousy.
Hearing someone else express the same opinion as Yustitia made this situation difficult to believe.
I even wondered whether Cassandro might be testing me.
“I’m simply answering according to what I feel.”
His answer was so straightforward that it left me speechless for a moment.
Suddenly, I felt as though I had become just like the people who had distrusted Yustitia.
Perhaps Cassandro was genuinely warning me.
“…I see. Thank you.”
For now, I would watch him.
He was the first person to say something like this to me.
Just as I was about to wrap things up casually—
“The real Saintess is the person standing before me.”
Cassandro unexpectedly drew my attention with those words.
He continued calmly, his expression still impassive.
“I came all the way here from the Holy Kingdom to protect the Saintess. Therefore, if I don’t care about the Saintess’s safety, I have no reason to remain here.”
“…I really did fall by myself today.”
“Understood.”
Cassandro didn’t seem to fully believe me, but perhaps because I kept insisting, he appeared willing to let it go.
Feeling strangely embarrassed, I tried to avoid him by getting into the carriage.
“Excuse me.”
His low whisper brushed past my ear, and suddenly my waist was lifted into the air.
Startled by the sudden sensation of my body floating, I turned my head.
Cassandro was calmly lifting me into the carriage.
“Wait, um…”
I had suddenly been treated like a baby, leaving me too flustered to speak properly.
“It’s just a little scrape on my knee. My leg isn’t actually injured.”
“That is precisely the point.”
“You’re not planning to do that when I get out too, are you?”
Instead of answering, Cassandro simply closed the carriage door.
Hey!
At least answer me before closing the door!
“You’re overprotecting me—ow!”
At that moment, a sharp pain shot through my wrist.
Nora had pressed down on it.
“How can you say that when you’re in this condition?”
“…Sorry.”
I think it would be better if I just kept my mouth shut.
