The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 207

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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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19. The Way Back

Knock knock―

At the sound of knocking, Crescens spoke without even lifting his head.

“I thought I told you to refuse all visitors.”

“I’m, I’m sorry, Your Eminence Cardinal. But the Sister insisted on barging in…”

“Sister?”

The door burst open.

As soon as Crescens looked up and realized who had thrown open the door to the Cardinal’s Office, he couldn’t help but smile.

“I told the priest that I would probably be an exception, but he wouldn’t believe me. I am an exception, right?”

It was Elisha.

Crescens nodded with a smile at her leaning against the doorway.

“Of course. Come in, Manager. …Mm, I smell something good.”

“I bought a pound cake.”

“Is it a bribe?”

“It’s a gift. A gift for a friend who likes sweets.”

“I’m not sure if I should accept it so readily. The gift is one thing, but Manager’s words sound too sweet.”

“I thought so, so I’m frowning to balance it out.”

Crescens chuckled and guided Elisha to a seat.

He added sugar cubes to his own coffee and sat across from her, offering her coffee.

Though his attitude and joking tone were the same as usual, today she seemed somehow strangely different. It wouldn’t just be because of her expression.

Crescens, trying to gauge the reason, opened his mouth.

“I didn’t expect you to come see me. I thought you’d be busy right now, preparing to attend the upcoming title ceremony.”

“Crescens must have read the extra edition too.”

“It would be harder not to see it. I have no idea how you did it, but Sister Katarina scattered extra editions throughout the entire Empire, so they even reached this deep temple. I could hear the surprised voices of the priests even during my all-night prayers.”

“Do you pray often?”

“That’s the most important part of my holy duties. See this schedule? Rather than ‘often,’ it’s more accurate to say I do it constantly. Hmm, are you asking because I don’t look like it? I may look like this, but I’m a Cardinal.”

Elisha glanced at the schedule and took a sip of coffee.

“No, you do look like one. That’s why I have something to ask that ‘Cardinal.'”

“What, it was a bribe after all. No wonder it tasted so sweet.”

Even while complaining, Crescens listened carefully for Elisha’s next words.

“About those four divine-class relics you told me about before. The ‘Ring of Circulation.’ The First Pope distributed those to various locations, right?”

“That’s right.”

“The First Pope must have been very incorruptible. If he had kept them all, he could have become a god, but seeing how he divided them up properly.”

“Mm, that would be… right? I’m not really sure either.”

It was when Crescens let out a hollow laugh at what seemed like a random comment.

“Or, this might be somewhat blasphemous to say. Maybe he didn’t covet them because he knew that just having the Ring of Circulation wouldn’t be enough to become a god.”

Oh.

Crescens, who had been tilting his head, nodded.

“That could be. Are there other conditions?”

Even the First Pope was ultimately human.

With such a tremendous treasure before his eyes, no one would pass by without a single glance.

A Pope would have been even more tempted. Wouldn’t he have thought about gaining divine power to instill faith in all citizens and expand the church’s influence?

But Elisha’s words that he scattered the four relics here and there because it was impossible anyway were persuasive.

‘So the Ring of Circulation alone has limits in gaining the World Tree’s power.’

As he was pondering this, a question suddenly arose.

‘Why is Manager suddenly talking about this?’

Eivor, who had coveted the divine-class relics, had his head cut off and died. He remembered feeling strangely relieved and reassured by that news.

It wasn’t the mindset a Cardinal who should mourn all deaths should have.

But Elisha was contemplating methods to gain the power of divine-class relics.

“Do you want to become a god, Manager? I don’t mind what you said about the late His Holiness the First Pope, but if you really want to become a god, that would be somewhat blasphemous by my standards.”

He asked half-jokingly, but Elisha’s expression was serious.

“No… that’s not it. I’m not saying there are other conditions either. Eivor said it, didn’t he? That he hated gods.”

“Yes, he did.”

Since he had heard it himself, Crescens remembered clearly.

“But I wondered if someone who hates someone to death would want to become the same kind of existence as that someone.”

“…What?”

“If revenge was the goal, wouldn’t they rather want to destroy them? So I started thinking that maybe divine-class relics aren’t tools for gaining divine authority, but tools that can destroy gods. Seeing how frantically Eivor searched for them.”

“Manager, why are you saying such things…”

It was when Crescens was flustered.

“Eivor came to see me before he died.”

“What?!”

Crescens urgently stood up and examined Elisha.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine as you can see. He didn’t come to harm me, but wanted to have a conversation.”

“What? What did he say?”

Elisha, who had been staring at Crescens whose face had turned pale, took another sip of coffee.

“He appealed that he was a good person, saying all the people he used were bad people. And when I got hurt…”

“What, I thought you said you weren’t hurt?”

“Just a little, just a little. Anyway, Eivor reacted exactly like Crescens is doing now. Then he even gave me advice, saying I was clumsy at using holy power.”

“…”

“Strange, right? He seemed like he didn’t want me to hate him.”

From Crescens’s perspective, it was full of incomprehensible things.

Eivor’s bizarre behavior and his advice about Elisha’s use of holy power.

And even Elisha, who seemed to be strangely withholding judgment about the dead mage.

‘Is it because she’s too kind? Is this some kind of psychology where you sympathize with criminals?’

“Manager, that person was a vicious criminal. You don’t need to pay attention to such a person’s words.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course! All the people he used were bad? It’s absurd for someone like Eivor to judge and punish them. And even if they were criminals, there’s no reason to end their lives being used as tools by others…”

Really no reason?

Had he never once thought that violent criminals who torment the weak or those who don’t hesitate to harm others for their own benefit should taste even greater pain?

“There isn’t. That’s something no one can justify. The World Tree wouldn’t like that either.”

A thought flashed through his mind for a moment, but Crescens forced himself to conclude his words.

It was because he remembered Elisha’s words that the World Tree wouldn’t want him to treat himself as a tool.

Elisha, who had been looking at him for a moment, nodded.

“I think so too. Since Crescens said that… my thoughts are becoming more firm.”

“You startled me, I thought you were being swayed by that person’s words.”

Elisha smiled silently and after exchanging a few more words, stood up saying she should go now.

As she was saying goodbye, she added with an “Ah.”

“I think it’s okay to tell Crescens, so I’m sharing this.”

He didn’t know what story it was, but his pride at Elisha trusting him was short-lived.

“Grandfather woke up.”

“Really? Michele? That’s wonderful! Then now Manager is…”

“But he doesn’t remember me.”

“…Ah.”

Crescens, who had been genuinely happy as if it were his own affair, felt his heart crumble in an instant.

As he hesitated, not knowing what to say, Elisha bit her lip and slowly opened her mouth.

“It’s okay.”

“…Manager.”

“I’m really okay. I was sad at first, but I realized something in reverse.”

Did he have some conversation with Michele, who claimed to have lost his memory?

Crescens, who had been thinking, saw Elisha’s eyes light up.

“What Grandfather tried to protect even while losing all his memories was, in the end, me.”

Elisha was resolute. A certain conviction could be felt from her.

Quite surprisingly, Crescens realized that he liked this side of her.

“Be careful of Sister Katarina.”

Elisha, who had decided to attend the title conferment ceremony hosted by the Princess, had ultimately not heeded his advice.

Nevertheless, Crescens had no intention of stopping her. Elisha would have her reasons.

Just as the World Tree does.

Crescens, who nodded without asking further, instead threw out what sounded like a joke but was sincere.

“I won’t be the partner who can dance with the Manager at today’s ceremony, will I?”

Elisha, who had been looking at him, answered like someone who knew those words were genuine.

“No. There’s someone who came to me first, long ago.”

It seemed like she wasn’t simply referring to just a partner.

Crescens raised his coffee cup to cover his face.

“Ah, Crescens doesn’t drink alcohol, right?”

“I can’t drink. I’m a Cardinal, you know.”

Elisha, who smiled slightly, left.

Left behind, Crescens muttered while putting on his ceremonial purple cassock.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have returned that towel I received on that rainy day.”

“You know that handkerchiefs are usually given with the meaning to think of the giver while keeping them, right?”

Then he could have had at least one item to remember Elisha by.

Crescens smiled bitterly.

*

The place where Katarina was located was the balcony.

She looked down at the Presrife flags draped throughout the banquet hall. These were decorations for the title conferment ceremony that would soon begin.

Right on cue, trumpets announcing the start sounded.

Katarina, who had been indifferently looking down at the people filling their seats, fixed her gaze on one spot.

The person wearing a robe was probably a Cardinal.

Following behind, Elisha walked in wearing a bright yellow dress.

And.

“….”

The Duke of Moro, who had come as her partner.

It was a moment. The Duke of Moro, who had been escorting Elisha, stared behind him. The person behind him was, naturally,

“It’s dangerous to lean against the balcony, Your Highness the Princess.”

Captain of the Royal Knights Ailren.

It was as if the two men had exchanged some kind of conversation.

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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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