I Will Buy Divine Power With Money! - Chapter 221

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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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The Emperor and Empress provided a separate palace where only distinguished guests could stay, telling me to rest comfortably and recover from the injuries I sustained in this battle.

Though the Duke’s mansion would be more comfortable, I accepted their consideration since there were many matters to settle in the Imperial Capital.

“….”

“….”

“….”

The reception room of the separate palace.

As soon as we sat down, a subtle silence began to linger.

I alternately looked at Joo Hyun-jin, who had naturally taken the seat next to me, and Rute, who sat across from us.

“Did you two fight while I was gone?”

Why do both of your faces look so sullen?

“Shouldn’t you talk to me first? Why did you bring that guy in?”

Joo Hyun-jin clicked her tongue sharply.

Her eyes, scanning Rute from top to bottom, were full of dissatisfaction.

You said you got along well enough in the previous life, so why do you dislike him so much now?

“Are you the only one who gets to talk? I have things to say too.”

Rute shot back without backing down.

Sparks flew between the two.

When two people with the worst tempers meet, they immediately start fighting.

Compared to these two, Monica and Jeremy’s bickering is child’s play.

“Alright, both of you stop.”

At my words, both of them shut their mouths simultaneously.

At least they listen to me well, which is fortunate.

“I have something I’m curious about.”

I nodded at Rute’s question.

“What is it?”

“That person, is she by any chance the ‘Ortel Kiris’ I saw in my dream?”

“…?”

What? How did he figure that out?

No matter how perceptive he is, isn’t guessing this correctly going a bit too far?

“I guess I’m right.”

Seeing me at a loss for words, Rute nodded in understanding.

I let out a hollow laugh.

“How did you know?”

“Her speech patterns and expressions are exactly the same as that person in my dream.”

At his words, Joo Hyun-jin raised her eyebrows sharply.

“What, don’t tell me you remember things from the past? That’s impossible. Those are memories you’re not allowed to have.”

“Past? Memories?”

This time Rute frowned.

He still didn’t know that the dream was actually something that had really happened in the past.

I first cast a protective barrier to prevent our conversation from leaking out.

“Rute, there’s one thing I haven’t told you yet.”

The truth I had hidden because I was afraid it would be painful for him.

I told him the fact that this world had gone through one regression.

Since Joo Hyun-jin had appeared and Rute had even noticed that she was the same person as the ‘Ortel Kiris’ he saw in his dream, I could no longer hide it.

“…So that dream was something I actually experienced.”

“Yes, I’m sorry for hiding it. I thought it wouldn’t do any good for you to know.”

“I wondered why. Even though it was just a dream, I wondered why I felt so angry as if I had experienced it directly.”

After biting his lips and glaring at empty space for a while, Rute looked at me and Joo Hyun-jin again.

“Then who were you? From what I can see, you two seem to have known each other even before your bodies switched. Was that person’s body originally yours?”

Ah, Rute thinks that my soul and Joo Hyun-jin’s soul switched with each other.

I immediately shook my head.

“The original me is already dead. And to revive me, she put my soul into Ortel Kiris’s body, which is her own body. With the help of the Sun God and the Annihilation God.”

When I added the explanation that this was how I became the true Holy Maiden of the Sun God, Rute’s eyes widened.

“Your original body is, dead?”

“Well, there was a bit of an accident.”

Seeing his shocked expression, I awkwardly shrugged my shoulders.

“Anyway, thanks to that, I’m living well now. I even got to meet my friend whom I thought I’d never see again.”

Rute looked confused.

After a long silence, he looked at Joo Hyun-jin.

“Then what should I call you?”

“Call me Jin. Ordel is now my friend, not me.”

The name Joo Hyun-jin would be too unfamiliar in this world after all.

“Does that mean you have no intention of taking Ordel’s body back?”

“Of course. Why would I have given it to my friend if I was going to take it back?”

Joo Hyun-jin frowned as if she had heard something absurd.

“The name and that body already belong to my friend. I prefer things as they are now.”

Joo Hyun-jin looked straight at me, not at Rute, as she spoke.

The last words were meant for me.

She was telling me not to feel guilty since she preferred the name Joo Hyun-jin that we shared on Earth and her current body.

She really knows me too well.

Very occasionally, I did miss my original body full of strong muscles.

But now it seemed I wouldn’t miss it anymore.

“…Then that’s settled. That’s all I was curious about.”

Having finished speaking, Rute stood up from his seat.

I looked at him with surprised eyes.

“You’re leaving already?”

I thought he would naturally be curious about how Joo Hyun-jin came to have her current body, or what kind of person I originally was.

But Rute seemed completely uninterested.

“She’s a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. You must have a lot to talk about, and I’m not tactless enough to interfere with that.”

“…Thank you.”

“Of course, I’ll also be staying in this separate palace, so come find me anytime if you have something to say.”

At his declaration that he wouldn’t return to the Duke’s mansion, I burst into laughter.

Right, Rute isn’t someone who would just go back.

The Emperor and Empress might not like it, but let’s pretend not to know about that.

I feel more at ease with Rute around.

* * *

After exchanging brief greetings with Ordel, Rute left the reception room.

‘Ordel was, dead.’

He had heard many different stories, but only that one remained in his mind.

The fact that the scene he had seen in his dream was something he had actually experienced in the reversed time was also surprising.

But in front of this one fact, it became nothing significant.

Rute, who had stopped walking without realizing it, rubbed his face.

How many times had he seen Ordel in mortal danger?

But hearing that she had actually died once already made him feel like crying.

How much pain must she have felt?

How much suffering must she have endured?

And yet she was here again, fighting with her life on the line.

Her mental strength was truly remarkable.

“Hey.”

At the voice that reached him then, Rute’s shoulders trembled.

Quickly composing his expression, he turned around and Jin came into view.

“Why aren’t you by Ordel’s side?”

“I have something to ask.”

Cold eyes, emotionless gaze, stubborn face.

It was exactly ‘Ortel Kiris’ as he had seen in the dream.

No wonder he recognized her immediately.

Especially since the words she had left behind back then remained deeply embedded in him.

“You, what’s your relationship with Ordel?”

But he didn’t expect her to ask this.

Lute, who had been staring into space for a moment, smiled brightly and raised his left hand.

“This kind of relationship?”

“No relationship at all. Or you’re just having a one-sided crush.”

However, even after seeing the ring, Jin only snorted.

“What, how did you figure it out so quickly?”

“That ring isn’t Ordel’s taste. Besides, she’s not wearing any ring. If they were matching couple rings, there’s no way she would take hers off.”

As expected, you can’t fool an old friend.

Lute grumbled and lowered his hand again.

“Come to think of it, I should thank you.”

At Lute’s words, Jin frowned.

“…Me?”

“The dream, no, in the past you said to me.”

‘Who knows? Maybe in the next life, a savior will appear to save us worms.’

“Just as you said, the current Ordel saved me. If you hadn’t brought her back to life, I would have had to live the same past life all over again. Thank you so much.”

He was sincere.

Thanks to that, not only him but also his parents and Jun Ludmin all lived.

“…If you’re grateful, then stay away from Ordel. It’s annoying having someone like you clinging to my friend.”

At Jin’s grumbling, Lute smiled brightly and refused.

“I can’t do that. Ordel gave me permission to stay by her side.”

Jin muttered a small curse.

She wasn’t someone whose personality would kill people like this, but Ordel must be truly precious to her too.

“And one more thing. Thank you for saving me in my previous life too. I couldn’t properly greet you back then.”

“Forget it. I saved you for my own benefit.”

Jin said curtly.

As she was turning around, she looked at him again as if something had occurred to her.

“Come to think of it, what happened after I died? Normally you shouldn’t be able to remember past events, so how do you remember all of that?”

“I didn’t know either. I only saw it through a dream a few days ago. It seems Ordel’s divine power had an influence.”

“Ordel’s?”

“Yes. And unfortunately, I can’t remember what happened after your death. I’m sure I saw everything, but only that part won’t come to mind.”

At Lute’s words, Jin looked at him suspiciously.

Her gaze suggested she wondered if he was hiding something, but Lute truly couldn’t remember.

“…Well, whatever. Just the fact that the Three Patron Deities made the world regress means ‘Evil’ got properly screwed over.”

“Screwed, what?”

“Then I’m going.”

Jin, leaving behind incomprehensible words, slipped back into the reception room.

She was unchanged from what he had seen in the dream.

But still, memories of the past.

‘Something seems like it’s about to surface.’

As if someone had erased it with an eraser, no memories of what happened after ‘Ortel Kiris’s’ death would surface at all.

However, from the moment he heard from Ordel that this world had regressed.

As if someone was sketching, something began to appear little by little.

The picture wasn’t complete yet so he couldn’t make out anything, but one thing was clearly visible.

‘I was smiling.’

Only the image of him standing at the center of a collapsing world, smiling with a body broken beyond repair, was clearly visible.

He was so curious about what kind of smile that was.

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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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