The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 53

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

53.

“Your Majesty.”

Just as I was about to say something, Casian pressed his lips to the inside of my palm.

“I can wait for whatever you want to tell me.”

“Uh…”

“I’m more worried about Rose’s throat getting worse.”

Casian slowly released my hand and gently pulled the blanket over me.

“So sleep a little more.”

“The Shrine…”

“You said you trusted me.”

Please don’t fight with Wesley?

When I looked at him with such eyes, a faint smile finally appeared on Casian’s face again.

“I won’t do anything you’d dislike, so rest easy and sleep.”

Though it wasn’t a spell with magic, I truly fell asleep to Casian’s voice as if it were.

*

‘Would that make you happy?’

It seems like a childhood special episode…

How long had I been asleep? This time I saw Casian from his childhood.

It was around the time when he had overcome his serious injuries well with his monster-like recovery power.

His face, which had been covered in wounds, had grown new pale skin and become clean, and even the bruises on his arms and legs were turning yellow and gradually healing.

It must have been around the time when young Casian asked me what he could do in return.

I definitely didn’t want my simple life plan to be disrupted by getting involved with the Male Lead, so I clearly said,

‘Yes, that would be nice. I want to live happily like now with my parents.’

That’s how I answered.

At that time, I thought it was something I could achieve on my own without Casian’s help.

When I had dreamed up to that point, I suddenly thought.

The Snowy Mountains, the Shrine, and the Saint.

One of the seven crises where Rozelita nearly died, which happened in the main story, not a side story.

Even though the content was completely different from the original like during the Ilium incident, it had become this serious just because the setting and gathered people were the same.

Though this side effect was something I brought upon myself.

‘In the original, the Shrine commissioned by the Empress tried to deliberately isolate Casian…’

At that moment I realized.

The fact that until I shouted, the Saint’s party was heading in a different direction from where we were.

Also that their joining point was delayed more than we had predicted.

‘Really despicable, this original story.’

Are you determined to make the scheduled events happen no matter what?

Whether my body was heavy and hot, or I was just getting feverish from irritation.

I couldn’t tell, but even while dreaming in a daze, I stubbornly insisted.

‘No matter what you do, I won’t stop destroying the original story.’

An original story where even innocent people got involved, lost their lives and became devastated – I planned to ignore it from now on too.

Continuously.

I intended to ignore it.

*

When I opened my eyes again, a full three days had passed.

Indeed, the barrier set up by Wesley, who was corrected to be a Saint – no, a Holy Man – would easily last a year as it was.

While I slept and suffered, Casian had smoothly finished all negotiations with the Shrine.

And during that process, Wesley had strongly insisted that the Shrine correct his status from Saint to Holy Man.

‘Since everyone now knows I’m not a woman anyway, how long are you going to try to silence people? Is that what the Shrine should be doing?’

Wesley made assertions as strong as his body had become thick, unlike in the original.

The Priests who came as a follow-up group said they needed to consult with the High Priest and didn’t answer properly, requesting that he cover his face even now.

‘There’s no such precedent, is there? Because of all the fuss about precedent, precedent, I searched through all the scriptures and history books while stuck in the Shrine! If you want to refute me, bring proper documentary evidence!’

Casian told me Wesley’s words while looking at me, saying he knew very well who taught him that.

‘Thinking about it again, I taught him too well!’

I felt proud of my childhood actions as I heard about the war of words Wesley had with the Shrine side.

Otherwise, he would have just been manipulated by the Shrine.

Wesley Morel undoubtedly possessed all the conditions the Shrine required for a Saint.

An enormous amount of holy power with no end in sight, the divine stigmata carved on his back.

Except for one thing – being male.

The Shrine seemed quite flustered by this unprecedented situation in history.

The Pope made a decision about what to do with a male Saint.

To hide his gender and raise him as a Saint.

I wondered why Wesley Morel was so frustratingly stuffy in the original story…

‘She was a Saint with Pope-level holy power, but she was bound by the precepts traditionally imposed on Saints.

Having grown up in the Shrine knowing no other world, she considered it her calling and complied. She believed causing confusion was tantamount to betraying God.’

It was because the Shrine was worse than I had imagined.

So Wesley, who would have originally lived killing himself while obeying the Shrine like in the original, had grown up to be a splendidly rebellious Holy Man.

‘I really did well to teach him various things when he was young. People who are just loud or deceive with plausible words have no substance.’

And most importantly, what you want to do comes first.

Of course, I thought Wesley was female at that time…

‘Regardless of gender, it couldn’t have been his choice to grow up with a body so dried up from the Shrine’s gaslighting that he couldn’t even grow properly.’

It would have been difficult to realize that hiding his gender wasn’t for his own sake.

However, my confidence that Wesley would come on this expedition wasn’t only because of our childhood together.

*

“Rozelita!”

Due to Casian’s strict surveillance, I could only meet Wesley the day after I got up.

“If it weren’t for the magic side effects, I would have healed you with holy power.”

He looked very regretful.

Since magic power and holy power were conflicting forces, there was a possibility that wrongly touching the side effects could make things more uncontrollable.

He who had been lamenting that aspect soon smiled brightly and spoke in a gentle tone.

“You don’t need to worry about using magic tools, I told them to shut up because they were being noisy!”

Wesley grumbled that they had no conscience, having poor sense of direction and slow feet, making the Imperial Army handle everything.

I looked at Wesley quietly.

He wasn’t wearing the aesthetically-focused Saint’s clothes he had worn when first climbing the mountain, but the uniform of the Holy Knight Order.

There must have been tremendous conflict before he could wear those clothes.

“Thank you, Your Holiness. Thanks to you-“

“Your Holiness?!”

As I opened my mouth to express gratitude, Wesley jumped up and spoke.

“Why are you speaking so formally? Are you upset because I came too late?”

Unlike Casian, dark clouds gathered over his beautiful face.

Though he had definitely become more robust than in childhood, and even showed signs of trying to restrain himself due to the education he received at the Shrine.

‘The expression he showed when parting from me in childhood still remains…’

The slight awkwardness of meeting after a long time and the distance due to our changed positions seemed to melt away.

“That’s not it. Wesley is different from before too.”

“Ah, this is because it became a habit from staying at the Shrine. Everyone there speaks like this, and they especially forced me to use a gentle tone…”

Speaking with a face full of complaints, he leaned toward my bed with his arm propped up as if remembering something.

“Listen, Rozelita!”

Wesley added that his speech pattern had already completely solidified and was hard to fix, asking for understanding, then began his story.

“A dragon appeared for the first time in hundreds of years, not just any magical beast but a dragon!”

“That’s right, it’s still roaring now.”

Wesley’s barrier was very sturdy, giving the army time to reorganize without any worry, but since the barrier didn’t block sound, the dragon’s roar had become a familiar sound effect.

“Really, the Temple is completely rotten! And yet all they do is spout nonsense about how I don’t need to go, how the Imperial Army will handle everything on their own!”

For reference, even in the original story, when Prince Charley set out to subdue the magical beasts in the Snowy Mountains to earn merit, the Temple only moved after receiving the Empress’s request.

Even then, they confirmed safety two and three times over before saying they would send the Saint for the Empire’s well-being.

Then, when the expedition seemed like it would drag on due to Prince Charley’s lack of leadership skills, the Empress pressured the Emperor to send Casian as well, and near the end of the subjugation war, she deliberately requested the Temple to cause a landslide.

Through the Empress’s scheme, Casian, who had gone out for a final expedition inspection, nearly became isolated, and Rozelita ended up in danger from magical beasts caused by an avalanche while trying to save him.

The Saint noticed too late and came to rescue them with the Holy Knight Order, asking how they could sacrifice people like that, and through the cooperation of the three, they were able to escape the crisis.

‘As a result, the Saint ended up confined in the Temple for a while.’

Neither the Empress nor the Temple needed someone who would cause such incidents.

That’s why Wesley’s current attitude was so reassuring to me.

“How could they try to steal such a honey-sweet opportunity from me? Why do you think I gave up my orphanage life where I could meet Rozelita often to follow the Temple!”

Wesley’s voice grew a bit louder.

“I have to go to the Temple to see the scales! Fangs! Claws of historically subjugated dragons!!”

He clenched his fists and shouted.

“I endured and went there because I could see such things! And now they’re trying to steal the opportunity to meet a dragon from me!!”

This true dragon fanatic, who looked ready to turn the entire Temple upside down right now, seemed to have zero possibility of moving according to their wishes.

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