Chapter 50
But as she was, naturally, ordered to clean here—given supplies and made to wipe things down—she overheard things.
“They say Beakin remnants dared to target His Holiness the Pope.”
“How could they…!”
Beakin people…
In Archion, due to their long, tangled history and emotions, they could only be viewed negatively.
But to Delonas, they were people she was supposed to care for.
From what she heard, it seemed an attack had befallen the party with her and the Pope; all the priests had died, but only the Pope and she had survived.
“So, what about those Beakin bastards?”
She heard talk of bodies being left at the scene and such, but it seemed she wouldn’t know the details unless she pried further.
“Hey, clean the ritual vessels too. His Holiness is here, we can’t be seen like this.”
Then, a priest called out to her.
In the past, she wouldn’t have even imagined being addressed with a “hey,” let alone reacted to it. But now, her head turned of its own accord.
That fact struck her anew, and Delonas bowed her head.
Interpreting her gesture as he pleased, the priest smiled with satisfaction and pointed toward a storage room.
“All the ritual vessels inside there, clean them till they sparkle like new. And is His Holiness planning to retire early tonight?”
How would Delonas know?
“I’m not sure.”
Even honorifics came out now.
She bit the inside of her lip.
But even though she humbled herself to answer, the priest seemed displeased.
“You attend to him, yet you don’t know when your master sleeps?”
How was she supposed to know that?
Schedules don’t always go as planned, and having been on the receiving end of service, Delonas knew this even better.
He was just finding fault.
“We’ll fix that rotten attitude of yours. Come to the third-floor priest’s quarters tonight after His Holiness retires.”
In Delonas’s lowered gaze, she saw the bulge in the front of the priest’s robes.
It was obvious enough what he was thinking.
But she knew that refusing here would lead to a worse future.
Delonas closed her eyes.
But she did not yet know then.
What kind of misunderstanding the ritual vessels she had cleaned would cause.
***
An attendant must rise earlier and sleep later than their master.
That was the basics of service… something she learned after coming here.
Because of it, she couldn’t sleep properly and was exhausted; her body was worn down to the point of collapse.
But strangely, whenever that happened—whether holy water touched her skin or was mixed in her drinking water—she kept coming into contact with it, and her wounds were cleaned perfectly.
“Is holy water normally this precious, even in a temple?”
Looking at other paladins with injuries, it didn’t seem so.
But even so, psychological damage couldn’t be healed by holy water. So, whenever she had a moment, Delonas would barely manage to lean against a wall and close her eyes.
She had to catch just a little sleep before going to that priest who had summoned her at dawn.
“…….”
How long had her eyes been closed?
“……There!”
“Over here!”
Suddenly, the surroundings grew noisy.
What’s going on?
Before Delonas, who opened her eyes, stood paladins and priests with eyes shining sharply.
“What—”
Before she could even ask what was happening, the tips of the paladins’ swords were pressed against her neck.
“How dare you sleep so shamelessly after leaking His Holiness’s schedule to the Beakin remnants!”
What?
Delonas was bewildered.
She had, of course, never done such a thing.
No, she hadn’t even had the time to do such a thing.
“There’s some misunderstanding…”
But the paladins showed no intention of listening.
“We’ll find out when we interrogate her. Drag her to the interrogation room now!”
“Yes!”
It all happened in an instant.
***
The ritual vessel Delonas had cleaned was something that couldn’t be properly cleaned from the start.
Layers of dust had accumulated; no matter how hard she scrubbed, there was a limit.
It might have been different with holy water, but none was given to her.
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