Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 171

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Side Story, Part 1, Episode 9
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In the weeks following that night, I found myself lost in thought. That night had been difficult, certainly….
‘Though I suffered quite a bit….’
Yet I hadn’t forgotten a single revelation from those moments. When I returned, after the summer festival ended, I would need to speak with him. I wasn’t certain yet, couldn’t even confirm if I was truly prepared…. But now I wanted to see our flower bloom.
“P-Priestess….”
A girl, thin as a withered twig, grasped the hem of my cloak. I felt Marienne’s gasp of alarm from behind, but I paid it no mind and bent at the waist.
“Mm, little one. Are you alright?”
“Y-Yes….”
As I stroked her hair, divine grace flowed into the girl. Life gradually returned to her unfocused black eyes.
“Where is your mother? Your father?”
“Father isn’t here usually…. Mother, I d-don’t know….”
“Shall we go find your mother?”
The girl nodded through her tears. The tidal wave had struck the Southern District, where the poorest of the Coastal Region gathered.
An entire small village had collapsed and been swept away by the waves. I could have drawn upon Raulus’s power immediately and bestowed a perfect blessing to restore everything, but doing so would amount to announcing that Belgot’s Empress and the continent’s only Saint of Raulus was here. So I restrained myself, distributing blessings befitting a high priestess throughout the village as I searched for the girl’s mother.
“Ah….”
Then, suddenly, a faint dizziness washed over me.
“…?”
I stopped walking and blinked. The world spun once before settling back to normal. What was that? Had I not slept enough? But lately sleep came pouring down at all hours—I’d never lost a night’s rest.
“Ah, Mother!”
While I stood frozen, pressing my forehead, the girl had found her mother. The child released my hand and ran toward the small tent where the rescued had gathered.
“Ah… thank goodness we found you.”
A middle-aged woman with her arm wrapped in bandages pulled the girl into her embrace, tears streaming down her face. How long had she searched for her daughter? I felt my own eyes sting inexplicably. My nose seemed to sting as well.
“How foolish of me… huh?”
My nose stung quite sharply. It didn’t seem to be from sentiment….
“…?”
Strangely, the area beneath my nose felt damp. I unconsciously wiped it, then gasped at the bright red blood smeared across the back of my hand.
“What, what, what!”
At my shriek, the priests bustling about the area snapped their attention toward me in an instant.
“Ah… what is this…?”
Even as I stammered in confusion, my head continued to spin. I stood stupidly, alternating my gaze between my bloodied hand and the priests staring at me.
“Her M… No, no!”
One priest, who had unconsciously begun to address me as “Your Majesty,” clapped a hand over his own mouth. And from that moment, urgent cries erupted.
“Are you alright?!”
“Good heavens, the Old Physician. The Old Physician! No, a doctor!”
“Your M… No, Sister. Are you alright!”
With five or six voices shouting at once, my dizziness only worsened. Suddenly my limbs went weak and my body swayed. I was spared from falling only by a priest who quickly caught me, but the vertigo remained.
“Sister!”
“This is… that is to say….”
I opened my mouth blankly. As I tried to respond, my vision blurred with tears.
“It’s fine…”
It doesn’t seem right! What is this…?
* * *
The physician who rushed over was a doctor from the Capital temporarily stationed in the Eastern Region. After checking my pulse briefly and asking various questions, the young doctor turned ashen and bolted back out the door. My complexion drained of color in response.
“Damn. What am I really…”
Did I catch some fatal disease…? I stared blankly at my own hands. They looked no different from usual. My body was the same. The sudden dizziness left me weak, my limbs limp as water-soaked cotton, but…
“Did my words come true…?”
Something welled up inside me. I gazed down in bewilderment at the clear drops falling onto the back of my hand. Foolish murmurs tumbled from my lips.
“What? Am I crying?”
This was the most absurd thing of all. I raised my hand to wipe my eyes, but the tears refused to stop. Why was I feeling this way…? The priests watching me with concern fidgeted nervously, trying to comfort me.
“It’s surely nothing serious, Your Majesty. Please calm yourself first…”
Saying that only made it sound more grave!
“Yerenika!”
My confusion and shock erupted all at once the moment I saw the person bursting through the inn door hard enough to splinter it. I looked at the man, who was just as ashen as I was, and my voice trembled.
“A, Aedi…”
“Are you alright?”
Auredhian’s face turned even paler as he watched me sniffle, if such a thing were possible. The tears I’d thought had finally stopped came flooding back.
“No, I’m not alright…”
“Does it hurt?”
Auredhian didn’t say much. In truth, I wasn’t in a state to listen. Strangely, my strength kept draining away. The sacred power that had been circulating endlessly felt suddenly blocked somewhere deep within my body.
“Sob…”
Fear seized me. Had the Priesthood authority Raulus granted me already dissipated? Had I bestowed blessings too recklessly? Was I reverting to a sunfish…?
“What if… what if I really did catch a fatal disease?”
“No. That can’t be.”
Familiar arms pulled me into a tight embrace.
“It’s alright. Let’s go home.”
* * *
And so, roughly half a day after leaving the Imperial Palace, I found myself back in the Palace Bedroom. The Old Physician who had been examining me for some time suddenly turned sharply toward Auredhian.
“Your Majesty?”
“…”
“You were so worried, I wondered what the matter might be.”
I focused on the Old Physician with such intensity that I seemed to be engraving every wrinkle on his face into my eyes. My body went rigid with tension. Mana incompatibility relapse. A terminal diagnosis. The most dire illnesses I could conceive of swirled through my mind.
Yes, I could prepare myself for something like that. I steeled my gaze and waited for the words to leave his lips. And what emerged was so far removed from my expectations—truly five hundred million light-years away.
“Pardon?”
I asked again in a daze. The Old Physician continued with an extremely solemn expression.
“That is to say, from now on, you must take absolute rest—five times more than now, or rather, ten times more. Do you understand?”
“Um… um…”
Marienne and Roxanne barely restrained themselves from breaking into a celebratory dance, their expressions betraying the effort.
“Congratulations, Your Majesty!”
“Um… um um…”
I myself hadn’t even come to terms with it, yet the atmosphere around me had already shifted into celebration. The Old Physician launched into a meticulous explanation.
“The sensation of your body’s flow being obstructed is likely due to the fetus instinctively drawing in the sanctity of its mother. In an ordinary person, this wouldn’t have such an effect on the body, but Your Majesty appears to have a rather high dependence on sanctity… Are you listening?”
“….”
What had I just heard? I looked up at Auredhian in bewilderment, and his expression was difficult to describe. I stared at him blankly. With a face much like my own, he finally managed to open his mouth after a long moment, turning to the Old Physician.
“Will it… be very harmful to her body?”
“We must observe how things progress. Of course, she must absolutely refrain from any strenuous movements or excessive duties… but in my assessment, if His Majesty continues to remain by Her Majesty’s side as he is now, the risk should decrease significantly. Are you, in fact, listening?”
I remained in a daze, thinking. If my ears weren’t deceiving me….
“Yeni.”
An anxious voice reached me, and warm fingers touched my cheek. Only then did I realize I was crying again.
“Is that… at least, are you alright?”
“Huh…?”
And the moment I began to cry, chaos erupted around me once more.
* * *
I only managed to calm myself after Auredhian finally drove everyone from the room and shut the door with a decisive thud. Regardless of the commotion around me, I numbly turned over the words the Old Physician had just spoken.
Four weeks? A month? If it was a month ago….

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