A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 86

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 86】

Ezekiel smiled gently and asked in return.

“Didn’t you hear it today?”

“That vermin would cross over from the contaminated region to this place, that God truly spoke to us.”

“If not for that, how could I, a mere human, have foreseen future events?”

Having no way to refute this, Noaren fell into irritated silence.

A week ago, the day after an unidentified blizzard swept through the mountain range, the Daesingwan who appeared before the search party established himself as an advisor under the banner of God’s word.

However, the fact that he had newly awakened to sanctity was known only to the Prince and Noaren among the search party.

The knights standing behind them were mistaken in thinking that the reason they stood here now was truly ‘to find the Countess.’

“Young Duke. You suspect me.”

Ezekiel whispered, lowering the corners of his eyes.

Of course, Noaren had seen his golden sanctity with his own eyes. He wasn’t doubting that the sanctity was false.

However, the timing of his awakening was suspiciously convenient.

“Because I cannot understand your purpose.”

There was no way to know God’s will in suddenly changing representatives, and he couldn’t even read why the Daesingwan was inciting the Prince to break the ceasefire.

Moreover, Ezekiel had practically issued revelations.

To wait for a while until the right day came, to move accordingly today as vermin would soon appear in the border region. This was God’s will, and following these words, they would be able to meet a living Irene.

“My purpose is the same as God’s will. God desires the Princess’s safe return.”

“Is that so? I didn’t think you were such a devout person.”

“What hurtful words you speak.”

Noaren wrinkled his face as if appalled by the benevolent cleric’s expression. Soon Ezekiel asked with a smile.

“Then why are you standing here, Young Duke?”

“…”

Instead of answering, he fell into reminiscence.

He thought about his younger sister who had pushed him away here months ago, wearing a completely unfamiliar expression.

He had never once considered her a sister, and in fact had regarded her as a painful thorn in his side for a very long time—he also thought about that child’s final moments.

Today, even while overlooking all the suspicious actions of the new saint, there was something he had to confirm.

So, if Irene was really alive.

If she had made that choice that day because staying in the Empire was worse than death. If she had chosen Belmayer of her own will.

He could gladly abandon God’s will and help that child’s will instead. He had resolved to spend the rest of his life doing everything according to that child’s wishes.

If only she was alive.

“…There’s just something I need to confirm.”

Saying this, Noaren turned his gaze away from the Daesingwan.

It seemed like his head had been broken somewhere during the past years. The displeasure that had surged since his realization hadn’t left him.

If his mind had been controlled all this time, by what?

Magic? However, brainwashing done through magic doesn’t so much manipulate emotions and thoughts as it merely causes confusion at the cognitive level.

It’s only effective on immature children. It’s impossible for the effect to last for a long time, and there’s no way he wouldn’t have noticed such magic in the first place.

In other words, a force of a higher concept had been at work.

“…Let me ask. How does God’s voice sound? Is it different from a human’s?”

He asked while staring straight ahead.

Was it because of the shock of the world’s axis being shaken? Since that ‘brainwashing’ phenomenon had broken, things he hadn’t found strange began to feel strange.

Ezekiel blinked his eyes as if surprised.

“Why are you suddenly curious about such things?”

“You always answer questions with questions. Never mind. It’s my fault for asking you.”

It was a belated suspicion.

As a child, he had once heard some sound at his mother’s grave when he visited on her death anniversary.

[Noah, you didn’t prepare a birthday present for that child, did you? That’s a lie, right? Have you forgotten how I died?]

[That can’t happen, it really can’t… Think again. You surely won’t be able to forgive. You too.]

He couldn’t tell where or from whom the voice had come. The wind blew particularly bleakly.

Just as he was wondering if he had heard an auditory hallucination, Irene appeared. With colorful bouquets and black clothes like mourning attire that she had taken to wearing on birthdays at some point.

Seeing that sight, he became furious without any proper reason and spat out harsh words.

Naturally, he couldn’t give her the present he had prepared. In fact, he had even forgotten what it was.

He didn’t recognize that series of events as awkward. Only the sound of the bitter wind lingered in his head like laughter going ‘haha!’

“…”

Noaren unconsciously tensed his jaw.

He seemed to have heard such strange sounds occasionally after that as well, but he wasn’t certain.

It might be meaningless to reflect on the past and point out strange phenomena now. However, he couldn’t stop thinking about that ‘sound.’

He couldn’t ignore the somewhat far-fetched intuition that the sound he heard then might have some connection to God.

In the first place, what exactly was God’s will…

“Young Duke, once you start suspecting something, there’s no end to it. Is that a Baltres hereditary trait? Or a characteristic of mage bloodline?”

Suddenly Ezekiel spoke with some admiration.

Perhaps reflecting the listener’s psychology, it sounded sarcastic. Though he was asking, he didn’t seem to particularly want an answer.

Noaren frowned and looked down at him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Hmm… God just said that unbelievers are not needed. Unfortunately.”

Ezekiel clasped his hands together as if praying and muttered incomprehensible words. A small golden light flickered within his hands.

“He says He will withdraw the blessing bestowed upon you, Young Duke.”

“…!”

The next moment, Noaren felt pain as if his heart had suddenly stopped. The attack magic he had reflexively calculated due to an ominous premonition failed to manifest and disappeared.

He staggered, clutching his left chest. His reason became clouded by the sensation of his body stiffening from the extremities and pain that he couldn’t tell whether it was from being cut or burned.

As the caster wavered, the soundproofing magic he had been maintaining also broke. Noise flowed in from all directions, but it didn’t properly reach his ears.

“You, just now, what did you…”

Ezekiel, who had finally erased his smile, let out an exclamation.

“Oh my. To think you’d suddenly be tainted by magi. You must have made some mistake when dealing with the vermin earlier.”

“That’s… ridiculous.”

There’s no way he would make such a novice mistake. Especially against lower-level vermin that posed no threat.

Tainted by magi he had never even contacted?

The cause and effect were unclear. The only thing he could grasp was that the Daesingwan’s prayer just before had somehow affected him.

Noaren tried to draw out his magic power out of habit, then gritted his teeth and stopped. If he was being tainted by magi, using magic power would only be poison.

There was only one way to escape this phenomenon.

“It seems you’ll need purification.”

Purification using sanctity.

However, ‘sanctity’ now felt more repulsive than ever.

He surveyed his surroundings with blurred eyes.

“Daesingwan! Are you going to say even this is God’s will!?”

The Prince shouted with a menacingly sharp voice.

His patience had long since become a short-burned wick after waiting for days without any promise.

The reason he had followed the Daesingwan’s words until now was because the revelations borrowing God’s name had been persuasive.

However, this demonization had not been foretold. The Prince, who keenly realized that the Daesingwan was at the center of this anomaly, felt anger before bewilderment.

“Where on earth did the magi come from…!”

“Ah, isn’t it because we entered the Land of Demons!”

However, the hostility of the knights, flustered by the sudden situation, naturally turned outward rather than inward. Since the Belmayer leadership happened to be cursing irritably and entering battle stance, the Prince responded neurotically.

The sharp tension seemed ready to snap at any moment.

Noaren swallowed the pain and growled as if chewing his words.

“There are… many watching eyes. What… purpose…”

“I already told you. My purpose is the same as God’s will…”

Ezekiel approached him as he knelt on one knee. It was then that the Daesingwan’s graceful hand reached over his black hair.

“Move!”

A woman with her face hidden by a robe appeared from somewhere, charging through the search party’s camp.

Even without seeing the concealed face, even through his blurred vision, Noaren recognized who it was at a glance.

He had to.

“I-Irene…?”

There’s no older brother who wouldn’t recognize the younger sister he’d watched his entire life. If he could still be called that.

“You… should consider yourself lucky.”

The light that bloomed from Irene’s fingertips covered his vision in pure white. In that instant, several realizations flashed through his mind before any other emotion.

Where the storm that swept through the mountain range had come from. Who had caused it.

And quite unexpectedly.

He even remembered what birthday gift he had prepared for his younger sister in their childhood.

…What a truly foolish thing.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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